The Heel Report – Week Twenty-Eight (Bobby Lashley, Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens, Rusev)

Columns, Top Story

Welcome to the Heel Report, a weekly breakdown of the best heels in professional wrestling right now. Each week the heels will be ranked out of ten and then those numbers will go on to form the rolling chart that continues each week. This is a place to evaluate and praise the ‘baddies’ of wrestling in their efforts to make us boo them mercilessly so let’s show them some love and get on with the report!

 

Weekly Top Ten:

 

10: The Authors of Pain

Authors of Pain

Not sure I liked how American Alpha were sent packing from NXT but at least it helped get these guys over.

 

9: Natalya

Natalya - Lips

Successfully made Becky Lynch tap out at Battleground and will hopefully have a good spot on Smackdown. If this feud goes on then I hope Becky gets the overall win, but this was a good start.

 

8: The Miz & Maryse

mizmaryse

The Miz beat Darren Young to retain his IC title and keep it on Smackdown, but just barely. I’m not sure who the ‘it’ couple will move onto feuding with and I’m kind of disappointed not to see more interactions between Backlund and Maryse, but this was a pretty good example of what could have been.

 

7: The Wyatt Family

wyattsleagueofnations

This was the last hurrah for the Wyatts and they were successful, despite it not really doing much for them or securing them the tag team titles in any way. This being the case I probably would have had Woods actually come out with the win due to his heroic rally, but the WWE specialises in let downs in that department, just ask Zack Ryder.

 

6: Matt Hardy

Matt Hardy - Hair

Sure, he’s broken, but he’s also closer to the TNA title now and has an obsolete mule in his back-pocket, which is always useful. I’m still firmly on the side of ‘this is stupid’, but any abuse of Jeff Hardy is okay by me, especially if it involves making him suffer through his own ‘daredevil’ (or in other words stupid) nature.

 

5: Kevin Owens

kevinowensjblhat

Owens continues to prove why wins and losses mean a lot less when you are great at what you do in wrestling. He had great performances this week on Raw and at Battleground against his arch rival Sami Zayn. I am still surprised he was picked so late in the draft, sure it might give him some kind of story, but it is really something he doesn’t need and does a disservice to his worth, even more so than for Cesaro.

 

4: Bobby Lashley

Lashley

The TNA champion is now the X-Division champion as well, I’m not sure how I feel about that. The problem is that at some point he has to lose the title, otherwise he will only further serve to bury the division, and TNA is already doing a great job in that department on their own. It is scary to see just how much that title has become a prop, and not one even used for the men who would normally benefit from it. What exactly does TNA think it is doing right now?!

 

3: Rusev & Lana

rusevlana

Rusev managed to see off the challenge from a game Zack Ryder and then had a weird and arguably pointless interaction with Mojo Rawley considering the two men never came to blows. I’m still not sold on Rusev as a top heel, maybe it is because the anti-USA gimmick has never resonated with me and now he doesn’t even seem to have that. Instead his gimmick seems to be ‘guy who yells a lot and somehow wins all the time’, which I suppose is the norm in WWE these days. I did love the ‘lunatic with a fringe’ line though when describing Dean Ambrose on the Draft show.

 

2: Chris Jericho

Chris Jericho

He might have taken an RKO on PPV but he managed to beat Cesaro on Smackdown and gave a good performance in the Fatal-4-Way on Raw. Jericho is proof that a veteran can add something to a show, even when given what should have been a dead spot in having to do an interview on PPV. Admittedly, Orton was a big part of the segment’s success since he was more charismatic and engaging than he has been in years, but Jericho definitely had a role to play, and he played it to perfection.

 

1: Seth Rollins

sethrollinsordustindiamond

He was the first overall pick in the draft and he didn’t even have to eat the pin in his triple threat match for the title. Sure, he didn’t win the gold at Battleground, but he might just become the first ever Universal champion at Summerslam. It would be cool to see Balor get the belt but I think that might be too big a push for the WWE to give out, at least to a man of his size (as messed up as that is). If Rollins does win the belt that will mean that he will have been the first NXT and Universal champions, which speaks to just how much the company believes in him. Part of me thinks that yet another tournament is slightly unnecessary and maybe he should have just been handed the title ala HHH and the world heavyweight title over a decade ago. I don’t think anyone thought that Seth Rollins would be the new HHH when he first came to the WWE but it seems like that is the case now, I mean he has the nose for it after all.

 

Rolling Chart – Week Twenty-Eight

1st Place:              Kevin Owens                     (207) (-)

2nd Place:             Chris Jericho                       (123) (-)

3rd Place:              Charlotte                             (94) (-)

4th Place:              The Miz & Maryse           (94) (-)

5th Place:              Matt Hardy                         (86) (+1)

6th Place:              Maria & Co.                        (83) (-1)

7th Place:              The Club                              (70) (-)

8th Place:              Seth Rollins                         (55) (+1)

9th Place:              The New Day                     (49) (-1)

10th Place:            The Wyatt Family             (43) (-)

 

That’s all for this week, the draft was interesting and I still am not sure about some of the more dubious picks, especially from NXT (No Bailey?! No Shinsuke?!) but you have to believe that they are just being saved for a bigger spotlight. I’m really hoping that the two shows will be pretty different, although Raw is already a little questionable considering that they did nothing to promote their promised cruiserweight division. Maybe it would have been better if they would have said they are giving more emphasis to women and cruiserweights, not necessarily implying that cruiserweights would have their own division, but that they would be given more opportunities, which would have fit in with Balor’s win at the end of the night.

Agree with the rankings? Disagree? Who was your favourite heel of the week? Whatever the case, leave comment down below and come back next week for another dose of heel-ly goodness and for now this is James Wright signing off.