Top 10 WWE Heels of 2014

Professional wrestling after all that candy coating of entertainment is basically a story about bad guys and good guys. The fans cheer on the good guys (unless its John Cena) while they find it easy to hate the bad guys.Throw in some smiles into the crowd and shake hands with some fans, and you could easily be a babyface (Batista is an exception) but being a heel requires something more. Getting heat from the WWE Universe is much more difficult than getting praise.An array of talented and successful heels stepped foot into the WWE programming this year as usual and here is a look at who all were the best from the lot.

#11 Honorable mention: Batista

Batista made his return to WWE after a four year hiatus as a babyface, I repeat , a babyface. But unfortunately for him, the WWE Universe was not in a mood to accept that.

Constant jeers and some legitimate hate from the fans forced the company to turn Batista heel and when he did, the amount of heat just escalated to the roof. He went on to main event WrestleMania with that heat and then went on to have a feud with the Shield.

Each and every time he walked through that ramp, the fans were making fun of Batista and booing him. And after all, that’s what a heel wants right?

#10 Luke Harper

WWE got a lot of single gems when they decided to break up the factions. Luke Harper was one of them. Harper’s run alongside the Wyatt Family was always a stage for him to showcase his heel brilliance but when he was finally let go from the group, the stage grew bigger.

Earlier in the year, Harper had some great tag team matches against the lights of Usos and Shield while his singles run mostly consisted of outings against Dolph Ziggler. And yes, he did win a championship before Bray Wyatt did.

Harper would’ve been much higher in the list if he split up a bit earlier but since his singles run is just a couple of months old, the Intercontinental Champion has to settle for the tenth spot.

#9 Kane

Kane is a mess, period. But one cannot argue about his contributions to the WWE product throughout the year. The Big red monster started off the year in a suit and slowly transformed into the mask before choosing suit again.

It was his run in mask that stood out pretty as he feuded with Daniel Bryan. The duo had some entertaining matches and Kane was getting a lot of heat for going against the flying goat.

Later, Kane embraced the suit again and made it impossible to love him. His deeds with the Authority built up a bad reputation for the veteran and despite all those botched bookings; he has been a crucial element.

#8 Dust Brothers

Goldust and Cody Rhodes were responsible for making the tag team division relevant again last year and a majority of the fans expected the duo to run out of steam this year. Those expectations were met with disappointment when the brothers turned heel and Cody embraced his new Stardust character.

It was during a crisis period in the tag team division that WWE executed this heel turn and the breath of fresh air suddenly turned out to be a hit with the fans.

The brothers then went on to have another tag team title reign under their resume with the perfect blend of creepiness and heel tactics. They are now feuding with the New Day which is another great angle where the Dust Brothers could stamp their heel run.

#7 The Miz

Miz returned to the WWE roster with his Hollywood gimmick and though it was met with cold response initially, he soon started garnering heat from the crowd. It wasn’t a typical heel character that only wanted heat, but instead Miz leaned a bit towards the humor side as well.

However, it was the alignment with Mizdow that changed everything. Once the stunt double joined hands with the Awesome ones, the fans started seeing Mizdow as a full-fledged face while no one wanted the egoistic Miz.

It’s this ego that helped Miz to grow his character and be over as a heel. Exceeding expectations, he also went on to have a championship run alongside his stunt double which looks set to reach all the way to WrestleMania.

#6 Tyson Kidd

Those who followed NXT would understand how good Tyson Kidd was throughout this year. In the time he spent at NXT, he was one of those old school heels that were easy to hate when his matches were top notch at the same time.

His run in NXT earned Kidd a spot in the main roster and despite WWE’s reluctance to push him properly; Kidd is causing a lot of positive buzz among the fan community.

Kidd, as an egoistic husband who has a better achieved wife, still has a lot of potential to reach out and he will if the company drops all those people in the backstage and hire some real writers from somewhere else.

#5 Rusev

Rusev didn’t have anything new about him. His gimmick was something we’ve seen a million times over the course of history, but something somewhere made Rusev click. It could’ve been Lana charm or the athletic ability that Rusev had but the bottom line is: he got over as a monster heel.

The Bulgarian Brute was protected big time from the moment he stepped into the main roster and ran over some former World Champions in the process.

The Anti – American promos that Rusev and Lana delivered always hit the right chord with the fans and if WWE manage to keep up the flow, Rusev might go on to become the most successful monster heel in the company’s history.

#4 Bray Wyatt

Bray isn’t the typical heel that you’ll see in a wrestling promotion. Bray had that special aura that made him stand out from the pack. His promos always made a lot of sense and instead of being a heel who worked for the win, he wanted to send a message to everyone.

If it was only about these traits, the eater of the worlds would’ve topped the list on any day. However, what WWE failed to do was let Bray be himself.

He was booked against Daniel Bryan first. The feud blew the roof to be frank but Bray took a big step down when he locked horns with John Cena next. Run with Chris Jericho didn’t do any good as well but he did pick up things thanks to the current angle against Dean Ambrose.

#3 Brock Lesnar

Every year when the WrestleMania period comes around, the creative team looks to have a grand build up to the Undertaker’s match. That wasn’t the case this year. The match between Brock Lesnar and Undertaker saw one of the most horrible buildups ever.

But when the referee counted three at WrestleMania, the time stood still. Lesnar was all of a sudden the biggest heel in professional wrestling as he just ended the two decade long streak of the legendary Undertaker.

On top of that, Lesnar went to SummerSlam and literally destroyed John Cena. The WWE Champion only had a handful of matches this year but he managed to attract heat in all of them. Unfortunately for the fans, WWE went easy on Lesnar and didn’t bother to book him more often despite all those heel momentum.

#2 Triple H and Stephanie McMahon

They might’ve died back at the Survivor Series, but this year somewhat belonged to the Authority. Their hobby of throwing in obstacles in front of all the baby faces made them ‘the’ most hated faction in the company.

The biggest achievement for the Authority came at WrestleMania where they did everything they could to stop Daniel Bryan and it was a classic example of good versus bad story telling.

There were a lot of perks from Hunter and his wife after WrestleMania as well and it all built up pretty well towards Survivor Series where their reign came to an end thanks to Dolph Ziggler, who was always on the receiving side when Authority released their wrath.

#1 Seth Rollins

The problem with Authority was that, they were the only credible main event heels in the company. Brock Lesnar was the other but since he didn’t have the habit of showing up, they needed someone else on a regular basis.

Seth Rollins was the answer. Everyone expected the Shield to break up, but no one saw Rollins being the catalyst and when he did he was all of a sudden the most hated person. His association with Hunter and Stephanie further gave Rollins a lot of heat while the feud with Dean Ambrose escalated things.

Some great promos, solid matches and vicious curb stomps have made Rollins the top heel of the year and 2015 might also belong to him since the Authority went out of business.