Much of the discussion in this wonderful space of ours is dedicated to any WWE performer's place in the company's creative hierarchy; whether or not he or she is being "pushed" or "buried." This is the cause of much hand-wringing for many, who see their favorite superstars lose matches or end up without a program. A case can be made for a lot of this being fairly arbitrary. Vince has his select few that he pushes, and the rest of the wrestlers are an interchangeable cast of characters meant to make the top guys look good. I don't entirely agree with this view, but I sympathize with it.

I've decided to make an attempt at organizing WWE's booking hierarchy, to put wrestlers where the bookers see them and try to explain their placement on the card and treatment within WWE television. This is not a reflection of how popular a particular wrestler is, but of where they stand in the view of the bookers, as a way of explaining the way they are booked and a way of tracking movement up and down the card. A couple caveats before we begin:



· I made the decision to separate faces from heels, for reasons that will become clear. They operate against one another, and so they cannot be considered part of the same hierarchy. In addition, the organization of heels is a bit more complex, since in today's WWE they tend to lose more often than the faces.

· The Divas are not included in this. You can apply these categories to the Divas division, but since they do not compete against the men, it is impossible to place them within the same structure.



FACES



The top category for faces is the Main Event. These are the men who carry the company. A Main Event face will never lose cleanly on free television and only rarely lose cleanly on pay-per-view, something the very top face will never do. They are protected by the booking and elicit a reaction, positive or negative, no matter what they do. WWE's current Main Event faces, in order of their prominence:



Brock Lesnar

John Cena

Randy Orton

Daniel Bryan

Roman Reigns



Lesnar is the guy. He won’t even compete on free television, much less lose, and he won’t lose on pay-per-view, either. It is impossible to see Cena, Orton, or Bryan losing cleanly on free television, and all are involved in title programs. Reigns is an interesting case—he’s protected like a Main Event guy, but he’s also adrift without a solid program and could be on his way down to the next level.



That is the Upper Midcard face. This guy performs on free television every week, wins about as much as he loses, and serves as valuable enhancement talent for the Main Event heels as well as a way to fill out the card and give the title holders contenders. They can also hold the midcard belts. They are, as of today:



Ryback

Dolph Ziggler

Dean Ambrose



Ryback is a perfect example of an Upper Midcard face. He’s over, he beats heels routinely, but on Monday night’s Raw, he was clearly the guy eating the pin in the main event triple threat match. Ziggler and Ambrose’s cases are well-documented, but they fit this type of star as well.



The next level down is the Midcard. From here on down, the placement is much more fluid, and things tend to change on a week-by-week basis. The Midcard faces in WWE right now seem to be:



The Usos

Damien Mizdow

Mark Henry

Neville

Lucha Dragons



The Usos are at the top of the babyface side of the tag division, but they’d never be considered as a threat to even the Upper Midcard heels. Damien Mizdow has risen to this level recently, having challenged Big Show in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, but he’s not quite a serious competitor. Mark Henry is glorified enhancement talent, but he can still give a nice rub. Neville and Lucha Dragons are new additions to this as of Monday; Neville is made after that match with Seth Rollins, and the Dragons seem to be on their way to No. 1 contender status in the tag division.



Next down is the Lower Midcard. These guys appear more than just to job, but aren’t really meant to be in any sustainable programs. Right now the Lower Midcard consists of:



Prime Time Players

Goldust

Erick Rowan



PTP could be on their way up to Midcard, but they have to wrestle first. It’s a crime to see Goldust down here, but this is the reality of his career. Rowan was in the Midcard or even Upper Midcard for a while, but his push is long past.



Finally, we have the Jobbers. These guys show up on Main Event or Superstars, only appearing on Raw or Smackdown to put over a Midcard guy. You’ll almost never see them on a non-WrestleMania PPV. They are:



Los Matadores

Jack Swagger

R-Truth

Zack Ryder



HEELS



The heel main event scene is trickier to grade than that of the faces. Here’s where the cardinal rule of this booking paradigm comes into play: A face can always, without exception, be reasonably expected to beat a heel in the same category on free TV. Pay-per-views are a different story, as they tend to actively advance the narrative and move people up and down the ladder, but a heel isn’t being pushed if he’s losing to a face in the same category, and a face isn’t being pushed if he’s beating a heel in the same category. Those guys are stagnant.



The main event for heels is different, because of the level of protection afforded to the Main Event faces. The highest level of heel is Main Event I. There’s typically only one of these guys. You know who it is:



Seth Rollins



It was Brock Lesnar until his turn, but since being elevated to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, Rollins has taken this spot. This heel will not lose cleanly on free television, and once he is beaten at all, he falls out of this category. He is either a dominant monster (like Lesnar) or an unbeatable chickenshit (like Rollins), but either way, he is as protected as a Main Event face.



Main Event II heels go against the Main Event faces, but they can lose to those guys. They won’t lose to Upper Midcard faces, but could on pay-per-view in order to elevate one of those wrestlers. They are booked very strongly and appear equal to Main Event faces on free TV, but routinely lose on pay-per-view. They are:



Sheamus

Rusev

Bray Wyatt



Sheamus is now the number 2 heel in the WWE. He has been booked like a monster since his return, and he’s hugely over as a heel with the fans. He, not Bad News Barrett, represents the real challenge to Daniel Bryan in the Intercontinental Championship hunt. Using our model, you can safely predict Bryan to go over Barrett and Sheamus to go over Ziggler at Extreme Rules. Rusev was never a Main Event I heel because he never beat anyone on the Main Event level. Cena could push him down to Upper Midcard. Wyatt is an interesting case; the company still treats him like a legitimate threat, but he’s bordering on falling into the next category. The program with Reigns he appears to be teasing will be fascinating, as both guys are in serious limbo at the moment.



You all know the next category, and you hate it. It is the Main Event Jobber. This guy never wins, but is put over by commentary incessantly in order to push him as a credible threat to the babyfaces. They are, to no one’s surprise:



Big Show

Kane



They get wins once in a while to keep them legitimate, like Show’s in the Andre, but they lose far more often than they win.



The rest of the categories are the same. Upper Midcard heels serve the same function as Upper Midcard faces. They are:



Bad News Barrett

Luke Harper

Stardust



Stardust is a borderline Midcard guy, but he benefited greatly from facing Cena in a long match on Monday night and the company seems reasonably behind him. These guys are there to lose to the Upper Midcard faces and occasionally, as in Barrett’s case, provide a minor challenge to a Main Event face in order to fill a B-PPV card.



Again, like with the faces, the categories get a bit more fluid as we go down. Current Midcard heels:



Cesaro & Kidd

The Miz



Lower Midcard:



The New Day

Bo Dallas

The Ascension



Jobbers:

Fandango

Adam Rose

Heath Slater

Curtis Axel



This model can be used to track the placement of Superstars, provide an explanation for why certain performers lose to others, and, most usefully, as a predictor for pay-per-views. If a Main Event II heel loses to an Upper Midcard face, for instance, that’s an upset and that face is being pushed.



I hope this, if nothing else, generates some discussion on the way WWE books its talent and why the product seems to range so wildly in quality. The Main Event Jobber category is extremely frustrating, and it seems obvious that WWE is suffering a lack of credible heels. Any quibbles with placement or the categories themselves, Cagesiders?