HBK : Raw’s perpetual face flirted with a heel turn while feuding with Hogan last Summer, but today remains firmly ensconced in the face locker room.

Michaels is one of those rare performers who can work equally well on both sides of the fence. He was an excellent heel for many years, and is now an equally strong face. He may be the best in ring "face worker" in the wrestling world right now. His outside the ring work could use some adjustments - claiming to be on god’s side in a wrestling feud comes across as borderline ridiculous. I personally find Michaels’ "Prayer Warrior" character to be far more annoying than his DX persona ever was. However, from bell to bell, there’s no one like Shawn Michaels in the ring period. Love him or hate him (I lean toward hate myself) you can’t argue with his abundant talent. It’s painfully obvious that the vast majority of the WWE fans absolutely love this man (except for the Canadians of course).

RVD : In the midst of one of the biggest pushes the WWE has ever given him. Don’t worry RVD fans, he’ll back in the mid card as soon as the next ECW PPV has past. In the meantime, enjoy his run near the top of the Raw card. RVD is another unique entity, in and out of the ring. He is (as his song suggests) one of a kind. Face or heel, wrestling fans can’t get enough of this guy. He is the most under used star on any roster right now. Anyone else who consistently got the reaction that he has for the past ten years, would be pushed to the top of the card immediately. However WWE management has made it clear that they just don’t like this guy. They consider him an uncooperative, and dangerous "spot monkey". The fans don’t care. They continue to cheer, Van Dam continues to turn in excellent matches, and WWE management continues to wonder why they don’t have any big stars that the fans care about. Go figure.

John Cena : "The Cena Effect" is one of the most interesting dynamics that I have ever witnessed in the wrestling world. I applaud the WWE for not giving into the pressure to turn John full fledged "heel" or "face" (a move that wouldn’t have worked anyway). Instead they choose to leave John as is, and allow the fans to react however they choose. A strange (and unprecedented) move from the WWE indeed. Dr. Thuggy is presented as the top babyface on Raw, and clearly a segment of their audience is in love with him. Meanwhile the vocal majority boo him out of every building he shows his face in. It’s about time the "E" allowed it’s fans to cheer and boo who they choose, instead of forcing them to react the way the writers want, but I am certain that it will not last long. So cheer Johnny or boo him, but enjoy this unique situation while you can. As soon as they can figure out how to "fix" it, be certain that they will.

To sum up - A strange collection of faces on Raw these days. One guy who the fans love, but management seem to hate, getting a reluctant push that will probably go nowhere. Another guy who they continue to push as a babyface champion even though a large majority of the fans clearly hate him. Yet another guy who may be the most popular wrestler in this country, who is forced to work heel in Canada because fans there would like to see him strung up by his….. well you know. I’ve never seen a group of faces who had so many haters. Truly bizarre.

Current rating - 7 (out of ten)

Rey Mysterio - Rey Rey is a career long perpetual and successful face. Yet there has been a surprising backlash against him since he won the World Title at Wrestlemania. I can’t remember Rey ever being booed before, yet since he began the whole "doing it for Eddie" gimmick, you can clearly hear a percentage of the WWE audience turning on him. I have always liked Rey, he’s one of the few WWE wrestlers who continues to be innovative even as he forces himself into the cookie cutter "WWE style". However I find myself agreeing with the fans that are tired of him riding on the memory of his late friend. The writers need to let Rey be Rey, and leave the Eddie storyline behind. Rey’s diminutive stature him allows him to play the "face in peril" role perfectly. He could be an awesome underdog champion, but as things stand right now, I’m not sure that the Smackdown fans buy into him as a champion at all.

Kurt Angle - Angle seems to switch from face to heel and back again at the drop of a hat. A modern day Lex Lugar "if you will". There is no question that the WWE fans respect and admire Kurt for his ability and for all that he has accomplished in his career, but virtually everyone knows that he’s most effective as a heel. His best work has always been in the "unbeatable heel bully" genre. He also plays the comical heel buffoon to perfection. As a face, his only real option is to play the "American Hero". Which is a character that the fans haven’t gotten behind since the late 80s. Angle has proven time and again that he can do just about anything, including getting over as a face, but Smackdown fans are happiest when they can chant "you suck" at this guy and see that it bothers him.

UT - A gimmick that is custom built for a heel. Huge walking dead monster who no sells everything. Hard to imagine how to make that work as a face. However UT has mixed up his style enough over the years that he pulls it off reasonably well. At this point in his career, it’s clear that the fans are going to cheer for him regardless of what he does. Modern day Dead Man is really a face by default, because it’s the only role that works with his semi-retired schedule.

Unfortunately the only interesting thing the "E" seems to have for him is an endless parade of gigantic monsters to try and overcome. It’s a story that has been done to death (pun intended). Hogan was doing it in the 80s, UT himself was doing it in the 90s and now, in the new millennium, UT is still doing it. I will always like and respect the Taker, but the time has come to either let him retire, or find something new for him to do.

To sum up - I’ve said it four times in previous articles. The Smackdown roster is just plain piss poor. Yes Angle, Rey, and UT are major league face stars who the fans will pay to see, but what do they have for them to do? With Orton gone, Rey and Angle are forced into feuding with each other. UT is currently programmed with yet another in a long line of big stiffs who make him look like Lou Thez in the ring. Smackdown has got some great faces no doubt, but nothing interesting for them to do. They need some new blood badly. As things stand now this show just makes me want to take a long nap.

Current rating - 5 (out of ten)

Sting - Who would have thought that Sting would be headlining any wrestling shows in 2006? I never liked Sting much, but I’ll be the first to admit that he is arguably the most effective face in wrestling history. He’s one of a very small number of wrestlers who has remained in the same locker room for (virtually) his entire career. Unfortunately he is over 40 years old now , and it shows. He can still cut promos as well as he ever could (which was never that great, if you remember) but when he gets into the ring, the age and years of ring rust become very apparent. TNA desperately needs to realize that guys like Sting (Jarrett, Steiner, The James Gang) are wrestling’s past. If they want to move to that much talked about "next level", they need to start looking toward the future. Speaking of......

AJ Styles - The future is now. AJ is, in two words, simply phenomenal. A modern day Shawn Michaels. The fans love this guy. The younger fans buy into his wholesome face image. The older fans, who might normally want to boo him, are won over when he gets in the ring and does what only he can do. I think AJ comes across as sanctimonious a lot of the time, but you just can’t argue with what this man can accomplish in a wrestling ring. AJ is the man, plain and simple. TNA seems to know it at times, but every time it looks like they are going to build around him, they pull the rug out at the last second and go back to Jarrett. It’s time to look to the future boys. It’s time for AJ to permanently move to the top of the card where he belongs. Let him run with the ball, and you may have the next Shawn Michaels on your hands.

Christian Cage - An interesting character to be sure. The jury is still out on Christian as NWA World Heavyweight Champion, and even more so on him as a face.

Right now, TNA has no choice but to push Christian as a face. When you have guys like Jarrett and Steiner running around, Cage is obviously a face. He’s too fresh and charismatic to be a heel that stands next to stiff and outdated guys like Jarrett and Steiner. However in the long run I think Cage makes a better (more natural) heel. His Captain Charisma cockiness suits him better as a heel. As a face, he seems desperate to be seen as "cool", and there’s nothing less cool than desperation. The direction of TNA in general will dictate where this character goes. If they do start looking ahead, instead of back on the past, than eventually Christian (and Chris Daniels for that matter) will be returned to his natural heel state, where he can feud with true faces like AJ Styles, Sting, Chris Sabin and others.

To sum up - TNA does a better job with their faces than with their heels. However they need to stop grouping up gangs of guys with nothing in common on both sides of the fence. Let these guys develop their own personalities instead of asking us to accept that they all hang out together because they happen to be "faces" or "heels". TNA is stuck on the old school definition of these words, they need to wake up and see that the wrestling landscape has changed. Non-traditional face/heel characters like John Cena, Samoa Joe, and even Trips are the most interesting characters in the wrestling world right now. TNA need to look toward the future and leave the past behind once and for all.

Current rating - 7 (of ten)

Samoa Joe - TNA’s big monster heel is the biggest face in RoH history. I think Joe makes for a more interesting heel, but RoH is aware that their loyalist fans are going to cheer for this guy no matter how he is presented. I say so what?

The RoH fans cheer Homicide too, and he’s one of RoH’s most enduring and successful heels. I think Joe’s time as THE central RoH babyface has come to an end. They have other guys who can fill that role, and Joe needs to find something new to freshen up his character. I said it last column and I’ll say it again - I would like to see Joe as the newest member of the Rottweilers. It would save the floundering Rottweilers gang, and re-energize the Joe character. It would give Joe new people to feud with, and it takes care of that whole weird face here/heel in Orlando problem. Joe (like AJ) is the man, face or heel. He has proven that he can play either side with equal effectiveness. It’s time for RoH to return him to his unbeatable bad ass roots.

GenNext - The GenNext boys made their name a few years back as a gang of young and hungry heels who had no respect for anyone or anything. They were driven, innovative, and dominate, and it was a beautiful thing to witness. They were over huge immediately. The original combination of Shelly, Aries, Evans, and Strong was the second coming of The Prophecy - an awesome team that the RoH fans loved to hate. When Aries, Strong, and Evans threw Alex Shelly out of the group, RoH bookers thought Shelly would become the babyface, but they were dead wrong. RoH fans were just waiting for a chance to get behind the GenNext gang, and get behind them they did. Now Shelly is still heeling it up with Nana and the Embassy, while the GenNext guys have become the most popular group in RoH today.

Danielson : The American Dragon Brian Danielson is my very favorite kind of face - a heelish one. I hesitate to put him in this category at all because, technically speaking, Danielson falls into that classic wrestling character known as a "tweener". The RoH fans recognize him as the best wrestler in the world. They chant "Let’s go Dragon", and throw their streamers for him every match he is in, even as he bad mouths them, and says that they are unworthy of watching him wrestle. In any other setting, there is no doubt that Danielson would be a heel. But as I have pointed out before, in RoH it’s your wrestling ability that dictates how the fans react to you, and Danielson is arguably the best pure wrestler alive. For this reason, no matter how many times he flips the fans off, or tells them to go to hell, the RoH fans will always stand up and cheer proudly for their babyface champion.

To Sum Up - RoH has worked over the past few years to create more compelling face/heel characters and it is paying off now. They are smart enough to know to allow their fans to dictate who they want to cheer and boo, which has helped them stand out in the current pro wrestling landscape. RoH shows are truly an interactive environment where you feel like you are an key part of the show. The RoH faces are faces not because of what they say, or how they act, but because the fans CHOOSE to cheer for them. A refreshing change of pace that helps give Ring of Honor their unique feel, and allows them to continue to produce the most compelling wrestling product in the states.

Current rating - 8 (of ten)

Result of Round Five : Advantage to Ring of Honor

• : Re-cap :

• Round One : World Champions - Advantage to Ring of Honor

• Round Two : Secondary Champions - Advantage to Total Nonstop Action

• Round Three : Tag Champions - Advantage to Total Nonstop Action

• Round Four : Major Heels - Advantage to Ring of Honor

• Round Five : Face Duty - Advantage to Ring of Honor

I’ll be back with another look at these four promotions soon.

Until then, thanks for reading As always, this is only my opinion. Send your opinion along with questions, comments, threats, or bribes to - abarnowski@comcast.net - or visit the Insanity Message Boards and voice your opinion there.