Hey WWE, It's Time for Some Heel Turns

The recent loss of Edge has underscored a long-running problem in the WWE, a lack of upper-card heels for their top faces to feud with. Don't believe me? Let's start with Raw.

As of now, Raw's only legitimate main event caliber heel (at least with the average fan) is Randy Orton. One guy. That's it.

Despite his size, The Big Show is a second-tier heel. He's been pinned in far too many feuds and title matches to be viewed as a realistic lead bad guy.

Checking out SmackDown, things don't get much better. CM Punk is doing an excellent job with his turn, and Chris Jericho still ranks as one of the best in the business, but beyond those two there isn't a title contender among them.

Like The Big Show, Kane has done too many jobs to work a championship program. Even Matt Hardy, a fringe top-flight heel in the right feud, looks to be flipping.

To make matters worse, all signs are pointing to Edge returning as a face for a potential WrestleMania 26 matchup with Jericho.

Yes, it should be a great match, but without Edge the WWE has three, count 'em three, championship level heels on a roster that has north of 60 wrestlers.

Amazingly, the second tier is every bit as sketchy. Raw has Jack Swagger (and Legacy if you're feeling exceedingly generous) and SmackDown has maybe Dolph Ziggler, who should gain some heat when he inevitably kicks Maria to the curb. Of that group, only Swagger has a realistic shot to be elevated between now and WM26.

Luckily, I'm not the kind of guy to simply point out problems and offer no solutions. Quite the contrary. Here are five guys the WWE should consider flipping and/or elevating:

1)    Christian - Alright, he went to TNA, get over it already. Captain Charisma plays a great heel and can easily be established as a No. 1 contender to someone like Jeff Hardy or even John Cena. The WWE is wasting him on their "C" show.

2)    MVP - As of right now he's what? The No. 5 face on the brand at best behind Cena, HHH, Batista and HBK when he returns. In fact, you could arguably slot Kofi Kingston and Mark Henry ahead of MVP.

As a heel, he'd trail only Orton. He's great on the stick and his whole T.O. persona plays better as a bad guy. His is a gimmick people love to hate.

3)    R-Truth - Another TNA alum, the former Ron Killings has been completely stalled at mid-card status for months now. As such, Truth hasn't worked programs with any of the top face talent.

WWE has no problem using African American stereotypes for guys like MVP (the flashy showman), Cryme Tyme (street hustlers) and even Kingston (the happy go lucky Islander), so why not let Truth play a 2-Pac like "thug" role?

Think a more violent version of Cena when he was breaking in as the doctor of thuganomics.

4)    Jack Swagger - He's probably the closest thing in the company to a potential breakout star right now.

His lisp holds him back a little, but he's actually quite good on the mic and the All-American American gimmick is money.

Put him over a second-tier face (Kingston) at SummerSlam and move him right on up the card.

5)    Shawn Michaels - I know, I know, it'll probably never happen, but bear with me. We all know he's coming back to team with Triple-H at SummerSlam. Well, what if he does so grudgingly (the seeds were sown for that with the phone call on Raw last week) and out of an obligation, making him bitter that Triple-H "used their friendship to pull him back in."

Long-time fans know what a phenomenal heel HBK is, and it would be fresh because he hasn't really been in that role since he returned from his back injury outside of playing a semi-heel in his past two WM feuds.

The WWE needs a legitimately surprising turn, and they need another main event caliber performer working as a heel. Flipping Shawn Michaels would accomplish both of those things. Plus, it's not like the fans won't accept his inevitable face turn.

Of course, given that outside the box thinking in the WWE has disappeared, I'm sure we'll instead be treated to a paint-by-numbers program with D-X and Legacy while Vladimir Kozlov jumps to Raw to feud with Cena.

At which point we'll be expected to forget how many jobs he's already done on SmackDown.