way better ? I don't think so...
Again, I compare to his previous situation, accumulating an impressive losing streak or sometimes not even appearing on the shows (unless occasionally on Superstars).
It's not perfect right now, but Orton is helping him - through this feud and their preparation of matches - to get more spotlight and prove what he's worth.
And though I love Wade, I admit that his character is still in the '
construction' process. If he was winning everything straight to the top, people wouldn't believe it. He's not a superhero à la Cena (there's Orton for that type of character on SmackDown
). His character must meet bumps on the road to keep a credible ascent.
Let's move from the "Wade fan" seat to the "neutral" seat for a minute.Wade - and I mean the
HEEL CHARACTER here - is seen as:
- a manipulative cheater with a big mouth, but who'll retreat at the first sign that the situation will not be at his advantages.
- a politician-type of character: Someone extremely smart and with great eloquence who obviously loves to hear the sound of his own voice, and who always jumps on any occasion to glorify himself, even if he has to change a few
details in his story.
- Someone who can hit hard, but who'll often roll away, cringing in pain at the first blow he takes.
- Someone who's not animated by a cause (like revenge, honor, loyalty, etc...), but whose sole motivations are power & money.
- Someone who has perhaps been champion once, but only because he got help from his friends.
- a professional backstabber whose strong alliances and peace-treaty will last until he doesn't have any use of it.
In brief, a perfect Heel used to
build and
push Faces into the spotlight... A hypocrite egoistical mercenary type of heel that people will
LOVE to hate... The type of personality our society is taught to reject as soon as we meet one. And the WWE "PG-Show" messages certainly won't give the idea to the (young) public that being such a person will help you have a great life.
So, as long as Wade's character is built upon these principles - and WWE remains "PG/Family show", there will always be something that will stop him before he reaches his goal. Or if/when he becomes WHC champion with this type of character,
1st: he'll probably win it with some external help, reducing the eventual glory the public would acknowledge him to void; and
2nd: chances are that he won't last long... Just the time for the defeated Face to gather his strength and destroy the "evil coward" (PG-friendly message).
(personally, if Wade becomes WHC champion soon, even if - for some reason - he lasts 45 seconds like the Big Show, he'll be the 1st Historical British champ at the WWE, and THAT will be his biggest victory, because he'll enter the legend, and his name will last forever! )Let's examine his character personality a year ago in the CORRE debut:- he reckons that he made mistakes in the past --> Apology
- he (sadly) tells he feels that John Cena will never like him, but hopes to earn his respect one day, just as himself respects Cena.
- he doesn't pull the cover all for himself, but shares the spotlight with his friends.
- he's not belt-thirsty for his own glory but rather wants his group to make an impact. Anything (victory, champ belt) that one member earns, benefits for the rest of the group.
- he still keeps his bad guy attitude by attacking the Faces, and some "coward" traces as they always attack in a group, but he doesn't hesitate to throw himself in the battle to help a fallen comrade. He has a paternal attitude with them.
- he is still very rough in his attitude, he is loyal to his team members, and he mostly attacks the people he respects (because of their strength or status). Yes, you got it right: he's animated with a dark version of
"Hustle, Loyalty and Respect".
That Heel was defending a
Cause. That Heel was
loved and
respected by his kind. That Heel was more
PG-friendly.
Would The Corre have lasted until now, Wade would probably be WHC by now, after a credible and memorable feud. Then after, he could have the belt going up his head
(like it's happening with Daniel Bryan) and claimed he was better than the rest of his group, having the Corre kick him out ultimately (a variant of the IC belt scenario).
But noooo, the WWE had to start destroying the group less than 3 months after its creation. Again, the WWE Creative (and especially Vince McMahon who takes all the final decisions & sometimes imposes his own) can't see at long-term, whether with Wade, or even Cena (his so long awaited Heel-turn who looks now like in a rush at less than a month from the road of WrestleMania -__- )
Conclusion:After all this, I can say (but it's my opinion of course, and you surely have yours
) that
Wade is - as solo guy - as his TOP right now. He got a LONG fight with Randy Orton, a fight we all knew (storyline pushing behind) that he would lose. BUT,
he proved his value & skills in this fight. No external help, and BookerT kept praising his performances, speaking of him as a
Future Hall Of Famer, and
Future WHC.
So, all we can hope is that after this peak for him, the WWE won't do what they are best: dropping the ball and passing the torch to someone else because
"OMG... the Barrett Barrage lasted for too (!) long... Let's find something new! Oh, we have Daniel Bryan making his Heel-turn and manipulating his girlfriend against the Big Show who is close to retirement age. Let's go for it and put him against Orton too!".Still having doubts?And if there are still people amongst you who strongly believe that what Wade got recently isn't a good thing... wanna compare to
Heath and his impressive losing streak?
He got a long and really interesting fight on NXT, showing that he has a huge number of moves with lot of variety of styles, and is a credible (and funny) Heel
... and in SmackDown and Raw, he's just a punching ball for.... Funkasaurus Brodus Clay -___- WHEN his match is not cut!
Of course, we could all think that WWE decided to be nice with him and prevent ppl from seeing that dishonor
(just like when he was ridden like a horse by HHH last year, heh?). But most people KNOW that he lost against Brodus Clay, again... So what will most ppl think of that "censorship"? That Natalya farting was better than Heath fighting!
And because of that (& the fact that there are way more ppl watching Raw & SmackDown than NXT), people keep seeing him as a worthless jobber, while he is - IMHO -
one of the best young talents the WWE actually has!
(Jeez! I'm mad now! ^^;;; )