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: Natalya
Natalya came out strong this week as the veteran mountain to climb against the new comer Carmella. This is a great role for her, now hopefully at some point Carmella can start acting less like a heel herself.
9: Bray Wyatt
Wyatt stepped up this week against Dolph Ziggler and while he was unsuccessful at taking away his number one contendership he threw his name into the hat for potential challengers down the road. What’s more, he showed that he works just as well as a character on his own as with his usual heavies backing him up, if arguably not better.
8: Samoa Joe
The NXT champion was having none of Mojo Rawley’s attempts to get himself over by going up against he champ. Instead he got knocked down and choked out on the stage, further showing what kind of a physical threat Samoa Joe can be going into his title match with Nakamura.
7: Dash & Dawson
The NXT tag champs are slowly but surely becoming a much better and watchable team, especially with the teams of TM61 and Ciampa & Gargano to bounce off of. Of course they might not be champions after their inevitable match with Gargano & Ciampa, but either way they now have a good place in the promotion and are getting ready to move up, although when that happens is another matter.
6: Seth Rollins
I am split on how they are treating the Balor-Rollins feud in terms of holding off on them getting in the ring together properly before Summerslam. On the one hand it is cool how they are stretching things out so that the first time is special and it will mean more when they are in the ring together at Summerslam. On the other, I am impatient and it seems like not enough is happening between the two, ah the dilemma of the modern fan: things are always too rushed, until they aren’t and then they are too slow The promos were kind of cool this week, but I think I need a little bit more.
5: AJ Styles
While I have some slight complaints over the setup for Balor-Rollins, I can’t say the same for Styles and Cena. Now sure Styles gave another version of the same speech that Cena’s opponents have given him over the past decade, and Cena gave the same response he always gives. But first of all just because it has been a decade doesn’t mean it isn’t all still true, second AJ gave it with a passion that hasn’t really been delivered before, and finally he then called Cena on his tired old responses. I’m almost certain that Cena will pick up the win at Summerslam, if for no other reason than to even the score, but could AJ finally be the man that actually wins a match against Cena after his first successful encounter?
4: Matt Hardy
The broken bollocks talker took things a step further this week by actually attacking and biting a “fan”. I’m not really sure what the point of stuff like that is since it didn’t serve the match at all. I think the Hardys are just of the mindset that any publicity is good publicity but when you end up leaving a legacy that is based mostly on weird and questionable behaviour, I would argue that it is a tarnished one. Then again after Victory Road I suppose Jeff Hardy’s reputation will always be tarnished and Matt’s was already all over the place so what do they have to lose I guess!
3: Mike Bennett & Maria
The TNA power couple continues to move more towards a Miracle driven relationship with Maria as the background player, and Moose coming along at random intervals. Bennett missed out on the opportunity to main event the big event by losing to EC3, but he was made to look like a top contender so who knows how soon he could be in the title hunt again. TNA is almost in freefall at the moment, where there is no structure beyond a vague appeal to Bound for Glory and so there are no fixed storylines or payoffs. Whatever happens though, as long as the company doesn’t close down all together, it looks like Bennett will have a place near or around the top of the card for the foreseeable future.
2: Rusev & Lana
The United States champion had to defend his title for some reason against Cesaro this week on Raw and I am still not sure why it happened. The misuse of Cesaro aside, Rusev retained and while Lana might have covered herself in cake, which I’m sure some people with certain fetishes found amazing, it was overall a good week for the international couple what with their wedding and all that. Reigns is mildly acceptable against someone like Rusev since it doesn’t feel like he is short changing someone with more talent (although arguably that is what happened with Cesaro this week), but at the same time he is pretty annoying with his self-satisfied smirk. He is not on our side, we do not relate to him.
1: Owens & Jericho
What did you expect? Bobby Roode and Austin Aries? (Maybe in a few months if life is good) Of course it was going to be these guys! There is now only the problem of what to call the team. I was thinking of dubbing them ‘Team Effort’ due to Kevin Owens’ comments after Jericho won his match against Enzo. Or maybe something more flippant like ‘The Canadian Bastards’, or ‘Y2KO’, but for now I am just sticking with the simple ‘Owens & Jericho’, although I imagine Y2J would rather it be ‘Jericho & Owens’, beat Owens on the Rolling Chart and then we can talk!
I hope this team goes on for a while, despite what it could possibly mean for Owens’ title aspirations in the near future. Not only are they great together but it means that on the Rolling Chart they have to split points, so other heels will get a chance to catch up on the their massive lead. What’s more there is always the chance, albeit a slim one, that we could at some point see the dream heel tag match of Owens & Jericho vs. Roode & Aries, that would be insane.
Rolling Chart – Week Thirty
1st Place: Kevin Owens (214) (-)
2nd Place: Chris Jericho (138) (-)
3rd Place: Charlotte (98) (-)
4th Place: Maria & Co. (95) (+2)
5th Place: Matt Hardy (94) (-)
6th Place: The Miz & Maryse (94) (-2)
7th Place: The Club (70) (-)
8th Place: Seth Rollins (68) (-)
9th Place: Bobby Lashley (54) (-)
10th Place: The New Day (49) (-)
That’s all for this week, I want to give a special mention to several heels who didn’t make the chart this week, one being Bobby Roode, who tried his best to turn the NXT crowd against him and finally got them after like the fifth attempt. Then there was Asuka, who is walking a fine line while showing some arrogance towards her challenger Bailey. Eva Marie, who does very little apart from stand around and look pretty, but in all honesty I think that is the best thing for her so I would be happy if her gimmick was to get out of matches for the next year. And finally there is TNA’s Allie, who did an amazing job of being both parts annoying and useless (in character), so much so that she even patted herself on the back for her efforts, it was great. That is all.
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.
