In case you were dozing off last Monday night on RAW during Big Show's ho-hum hotel skits, I should bring to your attention the fact that Mark Henry is indeed back on the roster (watch his return here).
That's a good thing.
Prior to his disappearance last year, "The World's Strongest Man," for my money, was doing the best work of his career, embodying the role of monster heel. There's the heel, then there's the MONSTER heel. The former is Dolph Ziggler, the latter is Brock Lesnar.
The best is Mark Henry.
The difference in heels is like the difference in superhero villains. Loki is a jealous little brat who wants to take over the world because Daddy lied to him blah, blah, blah, while the Joker "just wants to watch the world burn." Monster heels don't need a motive, they just come out and destroy things because, as Henry so eloquently put it, "THIS IS WHAT I DO!"
Good enough for me.
But I was left scratching my head as to why he was murdering Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara during last night's broadcast. Daniel Bryan I can understand, because of their history, but the only person smaller than the Mexican high fliers is Hornswaggle.
Still, it was kinda cute. They looked like little masked cherubs buzzing around his head.
Point being, Henry isn't going to work a program with them, or come out and squash tiny tag teams like some sort of anti-Ryback. Is it because there was no one else for him to squash? No available babyface for him to come out and hoss-toss?
I guess not.
That concerns me, because we have some great heels right now, yet it's very easy to kill their momentum if they have nothing to do, or no face that can mirror them. I'm beginning to wonder if Alberto Del Rio and The Miz were turned just to keep the see from sawing.
Top heels (in no particular order):
CM Punk
Big Show
Brock Lesnar
Dolph Ziggler
Big. E. Langston
Antonio Cesaro
The Shield
Wade Barrett
Jack Swagger
Mark Henry
Tensai
Damien Sandow
Cody Rhodes
Top faces (in no particular order):
The Rock
John Cena
Sheamus
Alberto Del Rio
Randy Orton
Ryback
Chris Jericho
Kofi Kingston
The Miz
Brodus Clay
Santino Marella
Great Khali
Christian
I didn't include tag teams because they should be fighting other tag teams. While The Shield is technically a team, they don't mix it up in the tag division (yet) and have already locked up three major players at Elimination Chamber. Rock is a mega-face, but he and Lesnar cancel each other out because of their expiration dates and limited schedules.
Then there's a possible heel turn for Randy Orton.
John Cena is still in the title picture, that's never going to change, but Sheamus is not -- and with another face holding the strap -- the "Celtic Warrior" (along with Ryback) will have nothing to do until after WrestleMania, depending on whether or not Triple H and The Undertaker come back in the next few weeks.
Let's hope so.
Jericho, who gave the "Universe" a much-needed shot in the arm, could be on borrowed time and it's my personal opinion that the current crop of heels has more heat, gets more reactions and extracts more juice out of every angle than the complementing faces.
Oh, and the heels have AJ's THIGHS.
Is that why champs like Cesaro and Barrett continue to lose clean to their mirrors? Is creative overcompensating to even the score? Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, but I look at the heel roster and only four of the 13 names will initiate a pee break.
The faces make me wonder if I have irritable bowel syndrome.
I'd like to get some feedback from the Cageside crew (yes, dear reader, that's you) regarding the current balance of power. Anyone think the scales are tipped too far in one direction? Or does the Teddy-Long-insert-random-mixed-tag-match style of booking keep things from skewing too far in either direction?
Thoughts?