The heels of WWE

Rumours are that Owens is going back to Raw at some point and there is talk of that leaving SD Live in a hole with no good (singles) heels on roster. What do you guys think? If Owens leaves will there be a trade deal? Who would you have as the top heels on Smackdown and Raw?

My first thought when I read this was, wait a minute... Bobby Roode is a top heel Mr. Article writer, don't be fooled into thinking SD would be screwed right off the bat. He is clearly being booked as a face so he can turn because heel turns generate more heat than new heels arriving.

But beyond that who is there? It would probably need a trade to help out SD.

Would Samoa Joe be a good fit for Smackdown? He is a good fit for Raw because of the bigger guys they are using, but he can also work the other way creating magic with smaller guys. Personally I'd rather see a continuation of Joe at the top end of Raw because the stuff they did with him was genuinely fantastic and created a huge buzz. But there's AJ and the potential chip on the shoulder it would give them that could inspire them to lead the SD locker room to great things.

Neville is the only other interesting option, I feel. He's earned a chance to be that heel on a bigger stage. Simple as that. Enzo is clearly an epic heel on 205 live now, so they can move Neville away from that, surely. I really thought they'd let Neville get the you're fired moment on Raw instead of the weird anti climax that was Kalisto. If they had fired Neville for another beat down he could rock up on SD Live. But that went by opportunity missed.

The Miz is doing great as the Roman antagonist, so I wouldn't split them up any time soon.

And how do we see KO on Raw working out? With no world title to go for, would there be anything great to get stuck in to? In an ideal world Jinder wouldn't exist and KO would be antagonizing Nakamura and AJ as the champion over the coming months on SD, but that isn't an option unfortunately. But moving him to Raw feels like it would take away from his momentum and what he has built on Smackdown. Could they restart HHH's new evolution with KO and Joe and a third member to rival the Shield?

Who do you see as the best heels at the moment and where and how would you use them?

Is Smackdown safe or will it become the true B show with Mahal, Corbin and English as the main antagonists?

I no Vince wants to do another superstar shake up by the end of the year and owens is the best heel wwe have imo. But that leaves a big hole like you said I have read that now Neville has been ban from the title in the cruiser division that they plan on taking him to SD to be one of the top heels as Vince thinks he has shown he can do it as he carried the division. Vince wants him to beat jinder later on and turn heel on Nakamura or AJ, now I like the sound of that a match with either one would be great.

Roode would be my first choice but I do think have to get rid of his music now to solidify his real top heel level and be a great way to get at the crowd saying hes getting rid of the horrible music so no body can sing along to his entrance.

With miz also being rumoured to be removed from the Shield match and replaced with Braun and drop the title to Jordan at TLC I don't think there will be anything for him to do on raw as no title to challenge for as lesnar away maybe a move would be good for him and have a lengthy run with the wwe championship before he leaves to spend time with his baby.

I also think the move to raw will be to continue his feud with the McMahon's cos I think he will be taking out Shane for a while and HHH will return to feud with him and makes sense with Steph on raw.

Problem with the heels in WWE is that aside from Miz, none of them actively go out of their way to be booed. KO's moveset screams that he's a face, he's a funny witty guy, who's fighting for his family - stuff we can all buy into. No-one in WWE is just a prick for the sake of being a prick, no-one. Even the Usos are entertaining as hell when they promo, it's tough to boo them.

I'd make Orton the top heel on SD. He can do nasty as hell, do it believably and going by the E&C podcast, wants to turn. Make him a dominating world champ, RKO-ing the shit out of the roster, and then concentrate on building up someone as a face to go against him.

For Raw, the problem is that all the guys who act like heels are being cheered. Even Miz is now getting cheered, Strowman, Lesnar, Joe all get cheered because anyone who faces Roman Reigns gets cheered.

WWE just needs to book someone to act like an absolute bastard. Get DQ'ed cheaply, attack people backstage, cost someone popular matches. Problem is, WWE also doesn't have a beloved face like Daniel Bryan anymore for a heel to work alongside. Sami Zayn could be the guy, but WWE just doesn't want to see it.

If they gave Rusev something with more bite he can do wonders as a proper heel. His build in matches is always to completely dominate them until they admit defeat or their body gives out because he likes to hear their screams of pain. Team that with the high value of his own self to the product which they nearly did when he held out of contracts until he got a worthy title match would be good. It's easy to hate a guy who refuses to compete on the grounds that he feels he is too important to fight nobodies, especially if the nobodies are Zayn, AJ, Roode etc.

In these days where most characters are athletes with real human names I think There is less importance on the classic toned down no frills styling of a heel. As long as it's done in a way where it is clear the offence is being performed because it will effectively hurt an opponent and is not to showboat. If more work is put in off screen to make guys seem like legit dicks it would help. IF I was a heel in modern WWE I would take the old school approach of not letting people in on the real me, but going out of my way to appear like the character I play, but in real situations. And with social media it's possibly an easy way to do that. Someone needs to go to Vince and just flat say keep me away from charity events, family stuff, signings, anything real that the company does that can be recorded, all for the sake of character. And in an era of documentary style stuff like they have coming up for KO with him all buddy buddy with the Rock backstage in the promo photo for it, come on, do a documentary on guys you want to be over as a face, and have heels caught up in them being total dicks backstage or film the real documentary stuff for your heels and archive it for when they turn or are out injured or even retired.

Miz does all the superstar promo stuff, but smartly he turns that into part of why people hate him (I warmed to him as a part if the show and a wrestler when he returned on the show that Rock came back on, and he just nailed his character coming back from Hollywood, That point I saw that he just got it and really understood the business) . The problem now for him as a heel is he is one of the only guys showing real passion for the business on screen now. And people love that stuff. Also people realised that actually he is a great worker with a string of great matches with all kinds of guys. But he still got good heat vs Roman, I felt Roman got more good reactions then too, so much so I was thinking is this canned pops for him or some live editing. I think they'd have a shot at a really great rivalry, but it might get a bit lost if it's about building the 3 shield guys before a showdown to see who is the best and the real star of the Shield.

Following on from my middle paragraph there are two guys who could pull off old school heel. Randy Orton and Dean Ambrose.

Randy is a private guy so you don't see him being nice everywhere, he is a known hot head and one of the best at slowing things down in the ring. His finish is great and move set is over, but he does things because it knocks people the fuck out with little effort and can win him big matches quickly. He can also go the route of the punt. In the era of concusssions, that is the ultimate dick move. Have him punt Zayn (for no good reason) the best guy at selling being completely knocked out and waking up clueless to what's going on with severe motor skills failures.

And Ambrose a private guy, who any time he does real interviews is so laid back it's like he doesn't give a shit, even though he is a pure old school wrestler that loves the match craft, the storytelling and the bit he gives no shit about is the bells and whistles, the fancy set, the presentation. He can work anyone, so he could be a legitimate main event heel if people think he puts in no effort despite his full schedule, and even though he does the babyface in ring work better than most. If they highlight the things people don't like about him and he keeps doing it anyway he could build something great. I'm pretty sure he could have a back catalogue of dirty tricks rivalling Brian Kendrick too. If he one day decided he was sick of Rollins face and that meant he was going to try and disfigure him or shave his head or whatever, it would a start. Or give him something with Cena so he can upset that section of the audience.

Turn him or actually push him as the babyface, because he has been and could again be your top guy for crowd reactions. If they do neither after the Shield he'll end up getting lazy mixed reactions or getting stale again.

Controversially, I don't agree with heels wearing the pink anti cancer stuff. It humanises them. If KO refused to wear pink and it was alluded to on commentary, all he'd need to say is he's here to make money for himself and no one else, that would be heat straight away.

The other guy would be Cesaro. If he could do stuff to really piss off the crowd, he'd break through pretty dammed quick.

I'm totally with you. It's tv and these are characters, fake controversy of a guy not towing the company line on charity is the one thing I don't get why they don't try. If 60 people and a company are supporting these causes, one character would not hurt the company because people aren't dumb enough to think it's the companies own stance. Single out one guy, legit single them out with a fake suspension and he'd get all the heat in mainstream media, while you role out your top babyface's on the same mainstream outlet to argue the company stance. And then you have a worked shoot outside of your own bubble. 30 days later that heel returns to WWE tv and cuts a promo saying he doesn't care and a suspension won't change his beliefs, then you wok it back into a wrestling angle, people hate the guy, then the hate gets built on with regular WWE stuff and people just return to normal, but viewers have this thing in the back of their mind that this guy is a terrible human. Next charity thing comes up, you have WWE accept they can't force it on this one bad egg, and he just has this "I beat the system" smugness about them, and your next big deal fan favourite can make him pay the only way left, taking his spot as the best wrestler.

That's way longer than I first intended it's just shooting ideas out my brain in motion. But the essence of it is we need a mega heel, but maybe one that is also talented, can dominate at the top through skill, but be so reprehensible that you really hate that he has this gift and that he is in that spot. Then when someone with values, on top of equal talent manages to straight up beat him for it all, they are propelled into the realms of a saviour. And you get an epic series of matches with both entertaining stuff and genuine emotional responses.

(actually just found an interesting list on bleacher report for most hated athletes too. Some are real scum, some just jerks - From a quick skim read Charles Barkley spat on a little girl haha. This is the stuff WWE writers need to be reading) funny thing is, it's making me think this is something that Kenny Omega gets. He had a match with an 8 year old and hit her with an enziguri. That annoyed all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons in and out of kayfabe, imagine that type of controversy on a WWE stage in a different way.

Your first paragraph just screams 'Cesaro!' to me. He's technically amazing, can be booked to beat guys and look strong (think Triple H in the early 2000s strong) and can do smug happily. His stuff with the beach ball at Summerslam was proper old-school heeling, he's s big dude so it would all look believable. He's the guy I'd pick - Austin is a huge fan of his, get Austin in for a one-night deal on Raw, get Cesaro to cut him off halfway down the ramp and just kick the hell out of him.

Some of the best heel work I've ever seen in WWE is Ted Dibiase senior - the time he offered the kid $50 to bounce a ball 100 times and then booted it away on the 99th bounce - perfect. The exact kind of thing they need to be doing, just get one guy being an utter cock to kids in the crowd, and everyone will be begging for him to get a kicking.

A bit late to the conversation...

If Kevin Owens is going back to Raw then I'd go with Rusev as the No1 heel for SD Live!, but id put him back with Lana. I'd make Rusev go on a winning streak, only for the referees to reverse the decision when he wont let go of the Accolade (sp). After a few weeks, Rusev wins a match and again refuses to break the hold after the win, only this time for Lana to come out, not say a word, just look into Rusevs eyes. He'll break the hold. This happens for a few weeks.

After a while, Lana comes out and addresses the situation. She says that she is done with the Tamina and the womens division. She and Rusev are back together. Rusevs domination in matches continues. winning then refusing to break the hold - until Lana tells him too. After one match Lana take the mic and demands that Daniel Bryan give Rusev a title match, or the destruction continues - and if they don't get a title match, Rusev will destroy the Roster and she wont tell him to release the Accolade. She goes on to tell everyone that she is the only one who Rusev will listen to. Daniel Bryan should listen to her too, for the sake of smackdown live.

If a guy is coming over from Raw then Cesaro is a great shout, for the reasons you's have said above. Sheamus would be ok too. The fans aren't that into him anyway. Make him do something to proper set them against him.

Never really thought of Cesaro, but now you've said it I like the idea.

I mentioned a week or two ago how they still looked like they were trying too much to get over, even as heels, but they must read this forum (hahahahaha) because last week they cut out the silly posing thing and kept it simple. (Too good to last. The silly leaning pose is back, it's just too much)

Cesaro in that role, not trying to be cool in any way, but just being an asshole to anyone. And there are seeds planted a long time ago that he's not there to do anything but be the best wrestler. It would have to be all out living the character though. I also like the fact that he could offend people in 5 languages. Especially on Twitter where people overreact to shit.


The problem now with Rusev is they already cancelled making him that top heel. Holding Shane to ransom was genuinely a great development, but he's slipped back to light entertainment heel. And if he's that they should at least let him say what he wants because he is funny as fuck at times. They could actually have him be entertaining until he's a fan favourite, which might be the best way to go now. Make a bit of money off him, instead of having him fill in the mid card

Rusev would work as the main heel on SD, but he would need a lot of rebuilding, he's almost becoming the new Bray Wyatt for losing matches. Plus, he's a cool, funny guy, some of the stuff he comes out with is great. The whole Handsome Rusev thing, he's funny on Twitter - part of me thinks we'd be missing out on someone who could work better as a face.

After him, you need to swap the rosters about a bit. SD, as before, is almost the wrestling show, there aren't many big guys on there who could physically dominate people. Baron Corbin, perhaps?