The Heel Report – Road to Wrestle mania – Week 2

[Lynas]

By James Wright • January 19, 2011 for WrestlingTruth.com

Welcome to this week’s heel report, and already TNA have crossed the line and began to annoy me with their crappy NWO, heels-always-win, attitude. Of course I like it when heels win but it’s no fun if they just get the upper hand all the time, it’s just not good entertainment. A heel should win after a long drawn out feud to show that they truly deserved it, not just be handed wins and titles because “controversy creates cash”. An obvious point here is that when it is your M.O. to have heels dominate your company every week while the faces get pounded into the dust then it’s not controversial, it’s business as usual and it’s boring. That being said TNA decided to host a PPV where all titles but the TNA World title were won by members of NWO-V2, or whatever they are called, so the results of this week’s chart will be a little eschewed to say the least. This just goes to show that you can’t let riff-raff on the chart because all they do is come in, make a lot of noise, mess things up, and then bugger off again like they no doubt will be doing next week. But enough of this, it just means that I am more convinced that after Wrestlemania it will be back to business as usual, for now let’s get on with the report…

Weekly Top Ten:

1st Place: C.M. Punk (10/10)

Despite TNA’s best attempts to be controversial and heel orientated, they are outshined this week by one man on a mission to be the most sadistic straight-edge saviour the world has ever seen. Coming up with masochistic initiation rituals for all of Nexus to go through and then doing nothing himself is a hypocrisy far removed from simply shaving your followers and having hair yourself. It puts Punk on a whole new level and at the top of the chart.

2nd Place: Alberto Del Rio (9/10)

Another man outshining the TNA heels with his body of work, and without being handed a single title no less, is Alberto Del Rio. The Excellence of Execution pulled triple duty this week, a good thing for everyone involved, perhaps the reverse of the current Michael Cole situation. Having said that though I do think Del Rio should possibly move over to Raw seeing as how Smackdown still has an abundance of good quality heels and few faces.

3rd Place: Dolph Ziggler (8/10)

The number one contender for the World Heavyweight championship comes in third this week after mouthing off on both NXT and in the main event of Smackdown. While Ziggler conducted no actual in-ring action I think we can excuse him after his efforts last week where he wrestled four televised matches, some back to back. Also his comments on NXT were priceless and the way he sent Edge into those steel steps at the end of Smackdown was brutal. Ziggler certainly seems to be raising his game in preparation for the main event.

4th Place: Robert Roode (7/10)

The first of the TNA title brigade and surprisingly it is Robert Roode, one half of Beer Money Inc. the new tag team champions. Roode is actually a good wrestler and a decent heel and I think would do quite well in the WWE. Unfortunately winning these titles serves to cheapen the best-out-of-five series that Beer Money and the former champions had to settle who was the best tag team and more deserving of the tag team titles. Pointless.

5th Place: Madison Rayne (6/10)

One TNA heel who did perhaps truly earn her spot on the chart was the retaining TNA Women’s champion; Madison Rayne. Rayne is annoying at the best of times but unlike LayCool her character is not overdone and plastered everywhere, or at least it doesn’t feel that way. It’s good to see a diva being given a shot in the limelight and actually embracing it and running with it rather than doing everything half-hearted and shoddy like some others.

6th Place: Kazarian (5/10)

The next new TNA champion on the list is Frankie Kazarian, a man who has a lot of talent in the ring, but was also just given a title shot and win for a title that used to be well respected and is now passed around from person to person, much like the titles in the WWE were a couple of years ago. TNA now isn’t just a mirror image of the old WCW, it’s some kind of monstrous hybrid of old WCW and the WWE of the recent past combined, the horror.

7th Place: Jeff Jarrett (4/10)

The King of the Mountain is back on the chart, and once again perhaps deserves his place. The screwing of Kurt Angle, along with the screwing of his wife, makes Jarrett one big hate figure for the TNA populous. Still he is treading the same thin line as everyone else of possibly becoming too dominant and therefore going against the natural storytelling structure of good versus evil, which the foundations of wrestling feuds are built.

8th Place: James Storm (3/10)

The other half, and perhaps punching bag, of Beer Money comes in eighth and like the rest of his Immortal brethren is holding a title that mean a lot less than it did before. If there is one thing that will diminishes a company it is the cheapening of its titles. The WWE can afford to cheapen its titles because despite them being worthless, which is becoming debateable due to the last few months where some feuds, matches and champions have been somewhat deserving, they are the top company and so their titles will always be the most desired and therefore still be a draw. TNA is a different story andthey tread dangerous ground with this move, especially since it was just to set up the swerve at the end.

9th Place: Matt Hardy (2/10)

I, like many, do not like Matt Hardy. He is a smug and annoying mid-card talent who acts like he’s always deserved to be in the main event. Unfortunately now that he’s gone to a company where his burn-out brother is on top he is likely to get close. Letting less talented superstars from a bigger company dominate your main event while you let other more talented wrestlers twist in the wind because they are less well known is short sighted and again is something the WWE did with it’s former WCW stars who damaged the company by taking away spots from more deserving up-and-comers only to then bugger off a few months later, leaving only less talented superstars to take their place and hog up the main event for the next few years. Aren’t we supposed to learn from history, not repeat it?

10th Place: Abyss

The final member of the TNA shame parade is the Monster Abyss, who won the Legends, I mean Global, oh sorry I mean TNA Television title. What a stupid carry on, if the X-Division title has been cheapened by its switching hands too often and too cheaply as of late then the TV title was nothing to begin with, changing name and holder constantly. Sometimes these changes haven’t even been televised, which makes no sense in context. Funny thing is it wasn’t even supposed to be Abyss who won the title as A.J. Styles was injured and could not compete for the title. You could argue that he is actually lucky on this occasion not to acquire the title under such pathetic circumstances, at least from a career point of view.

Overall Top Ten Of The Year So Far:

1st Place: C.M. Punk

2nd Place: Dolph Ziggler

3rd Place: Alberto Del Rio

4th Place: Jeff Jarrett

5th Place: The Miz

6th Place: Robert Roode

7th Place: Madison Rayne

8th Place: Wade Barrett

9th Place: Kazarian

10th Place: Eric Bischoff