Listen to the crowd. The Miz is over enough as it is. His character thrives off of having no friends, no followers and, despite all that, proving them all wrong.
I don't know where the current trend of belief that stables are the only way for new heels to get over comes from but just take a look at the most recent stables for sure fire examples of how this isn't a working formula.
First we had Legacy, which had a very popular heel Orton at the helm taking on two rookies with a gimmick of being 3rd generation superstars. It went nowhere. Rhodes and DiBiase became for the most part became Randy's run in guys and generally found themselves used as fodder for faces who were feuding with Orton at the time. The most embarrassing part of this role was that they essentially became as weak as referees, taking a few punches that laid them out for the rest of the segment/match. Rhodes and DiBiase together held the tag titles twice... neither time as part of The Legacy. After the faction disbanded, the two have been repackaged and gained very little ground. I find it hard to imagine either of them breaking into the main event scene within the next two years. Failure.
The next example will be the Straight Edge Society. I love it simply because it makes Punk look brilliant. A cult leader with a twisted view of the world really works for him... but a cult has to have followers and those followers are... not really that impressive.
Luke Gallows, a man formally known as Festus (which in itself was a gimmick that was stale 1 minute after it debuted) has the look and booking of a man machine. A man who is difficult to beat and certainly a force that can make the SES a viable threat to Smackdown's locker room. Except he hardly ever wrestles. He has been very ineffectual in Punk's matches and he gets absolutely no crowd reaction. Anyone know what his finishing move is? No? Surely he should be doing what The Nexus have been doing and just beating on fallen opponents after the bell with his finisher, just to add insult to injury and seem stronger and actually get noticed. But no.
Serena isn't much better. She has shown impressive ability on the mic and in the ring but has hardly used either talent. We know nothing about her character. Is she Punk's girlfriend? Is she Luke's? What, other than a miserable party girl, did she actually do in her life before Punk?
And now onto Joseph Mercury. A great talent. Known at one time as the better guy from MNM... except he got fired and everyone forgot about him because Morrison hasn't done too badly since the team disbanded. I am a big fan of Mercury and I was pretty happy with his inclusion into the team as the masked man, doing what stablemates should do in matches... interfere and make your guy win. What Gallows and Serena weren't doing. This happened about twice. There was no explaination. He was then absent for a week or two before making another appearance, hornswaggle style from under the ring. Nobody seemed to mention it on TV and then one week, without any explaination... he just began coming down to ringside with the rest of the team. Why was he masked? What did it really benefit to keep his face hidden. It's Joey Mercury for christ sake. When he was unmasked, it wasn't like the SES had pulled off a major coup. It was Joey Mercury. Some kids in the Universe don't even know who he is.
And where are the SES? Mid Card hell. Fighting against Comedy Big Show. Not many people care for the feud. I'm only interested in seeing Punk, simply because he's a genius. I want this to go Main Event. I want to see someone drafted into the group that will really make a difference. I'd really have loved Mysterio to have joined a few months back and make a heel turn. Get someone like Christian on board. Hawkins and Ryder to give them a bit of validity in the empty Tag Division. I'd personally love MVP to join them... a complete change of character that he so desperately needs but still a big enough name to actually wow people.
Right now though, they have nothing. Mercury will never be more than a mid carder. Gallows will be lucky to be in Santino tag partner territory. Punk can turn it on at anytime. I firmly believe he could step into the ME scene at any time and it'd be overwhelmingly accepted and successful.
SES, in regards to its members future, not the actual greatness it does for Punk's character - Fail!
The future of Miz, McIntyre, Ziggler, Swagger, Rhodes, DiBiase and Kingston is up to how they fare on their own. They have to do it without a crutch. It's a bland, often unsuccessful formula. Sure, the occasional alliance won't hurt, like McIntyre and Rhodes are doing right now. But that won't last.
