After another exciting week of WWE programming, our Power Rankings took on a different look, even if the names stayed the same. Several huge matchups at Payback, Raw, and SmackDown Live from this past week have given some Superstars new life, including an explosion of women’s talent in and right outside of our Rankings.
So right now, let’s take a look at the Superstars or tag teams that just missed out on making the top 10 this week and others that fell out of our Power Rankings.
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Honourable Mentions:
Naomi – Naomi has been in and out of our Rankings since winning the Smackdown Women’s Title back at Wrestlemania 33 a few weeks ago. This week she’s on the outside looking in after being pinned in a tag team match by Carmella this week on Smackdown Live.
With a six-woman tag team match on the horizon at Backlash, Naomi (and the entire SD Women’s division) may stay right outside the top 10 for the next few weeks.
Welcoming Committee – Never in my wildest dreams did I think Carmella, Tamina, or Natalya would come close to cracking our Power Rankings, yet after the past few weeks “The Welcoming Committee” have put together, these three women are becoming hard to ignore.
The trio feels they’ve been overlooked in SmackDown Live’s revamped Women’s division and especially disrespected by SD management for giving Charlotte “special treatment”. This past week, Carmella and Natalya defeated Naomi and Charlotte in a tag match on SDL and seem to be heading for a six-woman tag match at SmackDown Live’s next exclusive PPV, Backlash.
Charlotte – ”The Queen” has made quite the impact on SmackDown Live after moving over to the blue brand from Raw a few weeks ago in the Superstar Shake-up. Charlotte was immediately placed in what we thought was a feud with Naomi for the SD Women’s Title.
However, that has been put on hold while Charlotte, Naomi, and Becky Lynch deal with “The Welcoming Committee". Now, with a six-woman tag match possibly planned for Backlash, it seems that Creative’s main goal for Charlotte on the blue brand may be to turn the long-time heel into a babyface.
Time will surely tell, and if “The Queen” aligns herself with Naomi and Lynch just to take out “The Welcoming Committee" and then turns her back on the two babyfaces, it will be the perfect way to start her SmackDown Live career.
Bray Wyatt – When we first started our Rankings, Bray Wyatt was by far the #1 Superstar in all of WWE. Nowadays, “The Eater of Worlds” struggles to find a spot in our top 10. In fact, he has been in somewhat of a limbo with Creative ever since he lost his WWE Title to Randy Orton at Wrestlemania 33.
Finishing up his feud with Orton on SD and moving on to new feuds on Raw have kept Wyatt from making the kind of impact he was making a few months ago. Hopefully, now that he’s completely done with SmackDown Live, Wyatt can find his groove on Monday nights and become the big-time player he was just a few short weeks ago.
The Miz – It would be extremely difficult to find a WWE Superstar that has benefited more from the brand split than The Miz. From his fantastic reign as Intercontinental Champion on SmackDown Live to his feud with John Cena, Miz now looks to take back what has brought him back to relevance over the past year, the Intercontinental Championship.
With a matchup against Dean Ambrose coming up, The Miz will surely look to climb up our Rankings in the weeks to come.
***This week and for weeks in the future, the change in ranking from last week to this week will be in parentheses next to the Superstar’s name.
#10 Seth Rollins (No Change)
Seth Rollins has been on quite a tear since defeating Triple H at Wrestlemania 33, and his hot streak didn’t end at Payback. After a very brutal back-and-forth contest between Rollins and Samoa Joe, the Kingslayer picked up the win after he countered the “Coquina Clutch” into a roll-up for the 1, 2, 3.
The next night on Raw, Rollins made it clear, along with Finn Bálor and The Miz, that he wanted a shot at Brock Lesnar and the WWE Universal Title. However, instead of a shot at “The Beast Incarnate”, the three men were put into a #1 contender’s match for Dean Ambrose’s Intercontinental Title.
After an intense battle between the three, Rollins began to fire on all cylinders, showing off some very impressive acrobatic offence and looked like he was well on his way to becoming the #1 contender. As Rollins attempted to put the finishing touches on The Miz, Samoa Joe appeared out of nowhere and took out The Kingslayer.
The Miz eventually picked up the win to become the #1 contender and it seems that the feud between Joe and Rollins is far from over.
#9 Dean Ambrose (Intercontinental Champion) (-2 Spots)
After coming over to Raw from SmackDown during the Superstar Shake-up, Dean Ambrose has been a mainstay on Monday nights but hasn’t wrestled many matches. Therefore, “The Lunatic Fringe” continues to dip in our Rankings, this week coming in at #9.
Ambrose did not have a match at Payback, which is strange considering he is the Intercontinental Champion. However, with several feuds involving Smackdown Superstars culminating at Payback, it makes sense to keep Ambrose off the PPV.
With Miz becoming the #1 contender to the IC Title this past Monday night, Ambrose’s new feud (even if it’s an old one) is set and he will continue his feud with “The A-Lister”, most likely leading to a title match at Raw’s next brand-exclusive PPV, Extreme Rules.
#8 Hardy Boyz (Raw Tag Team Champions) (-2 Spots)
The rivalry between Sheamus and Cesaro and The Hardyz has officially escalated out of control. The two teams had shown what we thought was mutual respect for each other in the weeks on Raw leading up to Payback.
The two teams battled in separate one-on-one contests, with Jeff Hardy taking on Cesaro one week and Matt taking on Sheamus the next week, and both contests ended in the Hardys picking up the win but both teams shaking hands and showing a level of respect for each other.
However, all that changed at Payback. The Hardyz and Cesaro and Sheamus had a heck of a match last Sunday that saw the brothers squeeze out a win over their newfound rivals, but it was after the match that things started to escalate.
Again, Sheasaro seemed despondent after the match, but he extended his hand as they looked to continue to show their respect for the legends. The Hardyz accepted and everything seemed fine until Sheamus and Cesaro returned to the ring and took out Matt and Jeff in a very physical beatdown of both men that left Jeff motionless at ringside and Matt out cold in the middle of the ring.
On Raw, the now heel team of Sheamus and Cesaro took to the ring to explain their actions but were quickly run off by the Hardy Boyz (who displayed some “Broken” tendencies). It looks like this feud will continue and possibly conclude with an Extreme Rules match (or Ladder Match) at the Extreme Rules PPV next month.
#7 Alexa Bliss (Raw Women’s Champion) (Not Ranked)
Alexa Bliss has arguably become the top woman on any brand in WWE since the brand split. Bliss went from being one of the last “throw away” draft picks for SmackDown to, becoming the first woman to ever win the Raw and Smackdown Women’s Titles in a very short time.
She did so by defeating the former Raw Women’s Champion, Bayley, in her hometown of San Jose, CA at Payback in a match that understandably left a little to be desired. Bayley will surely be asking for her Title rematch sooner rather than later, so the two women needed to leave a little out there for the fans to want when they hook back up.
Although Bliss won the title at Payback on Sunday night, it wasn’t until the next night on Raw that Little Miss Bliss was coronated as the top woman on Raw. In one of the best promos by a woman in WWE history, Alexa Bliss showed why the company has so much faith in her moving forward.
She ran down the entire women’s division, except for Nia Jax and especially Bayley. Finally, Bayley had had enough of Bliss and her antics and attacked the new Raw Women’s champ.
That lead to an eight-woman tag match to kick off Raw, that ended with Alexa Bliss getting the best of Bayley once again, raking Bayley’s eyes and hitting her with a DDT to pick up the win.
#6 Jinder Mahal (+2 Spots)
“The Maharaja” has made quite the name for himself over the past few weeks since winning a match to become the #1 contender to Randy Orton and his WWE Title. His recent tear, and the help of The Singh Brothers, has landed Jinder Mahal at spot #6 in our Rankings.Brothers, has landed Jinder Mahal at spot #6 in our Rankings.
This past Sunday at Payback, Mahal cost Randy Orton his “House of Horrors” match against Bray Wyatt by first sending his new allies, The Singh brothers, to attack Orton during the match.
When that didn’t get the job done, Mahal took matters into his own hands and nailed Orton with the WWE Title that Mahal had stolen from “The Viper” on Smackdown Live the week before.
Two nights later on Smackdown Live, however, Shane McMahon took the stolen title away from Mahal and returned it to its owner and informed Jinder that he’d square off later that night against Sami Zayn. The match itself started slow but saw Sami get into his patented offence and had Mahal reeling.offence and had Mahal reeling.
Right on time, The Singh brothers made their impact felt by distracting Zayn long enough to allow Jinder Mahal to sneak up on him, hit him with his finisher, and pick up the win. Mahal has done well with his recent push into the main event scene, however, we do not expect him to become the new WWE Champion at Backlash.
#5 AJ Styles (-1 Spot)
In terms of ring work, there is nobody in WWE better right now than AJ Styles. “The Phenomenal One” has taken over as the face of Smackdown Live and has been getting insane crowd reactions over the past few weeks.
This week on Smackdown, Styles came out to interrupt Chris Jericho, who was out with Shane McMahon to welcome Y2J to the blue brand. Styles, as the new #1 contender to the United States Title, stated that the title would be his after Backlash, regardless of whether he had to defeat Jericho or Kevin Owens at the PPV.
As Styles was finishing, Kevin Owens’ music hit and out came the “Face of America”. Styles, however, did not wait for Owens to make his way to the ring, as he exited and met Owens half-way up the ramp where two went at it.
Because of those events, Styles was later banned from ringside in the rematch between Jericho and Owens for the United States title. KO went on to win the match and afterwards laid a beat down on Jericho that will surely keep him out of action for weeks, at least.afterwards laid a beat down on Jericho that will surely keep him out of action for weeks, at least.
So now, we all get the dream match we wanted at Backlash, AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens. It’s a shame that these two won’t be feuding over the WWE Title, but I’m sure that will happen soon enough.
#4 Kevin Owens (United States Champion) (-1 Spot)
As I touched on in the previous slide, Kevin Owens had one heck of a week last week.
After being defeated by Chris Jericho at Payback for his United States title, an irate Kevin Owens demanded a title rematch on Smackdown Live. Claiming that he would take back his US Title and his title as “Face of America”, Owens displayed some ruthless aggression that has been lacking from his character for months now.
He defeated Jericho in an unbelievable back-and-forth contest that saw Owens locked in the Walls of Jericho several times and just escaping defeat by making his way to the ropes. Toward the end of the match, Jericho was knocked loopy by a DDT on the entrance ramp and finished off by a Pop-Up Powerbomb in the ring, making Owens US Champ once again.
However, KO wasn’t done with his former best friend.
Owens continued the attack with another Pop-Up Powerbomb. When he went for a third, Jericho fell to the mat lifeless and almost certainly concussed. Owens left the ring, but eventually made his way back to ringside to inflict more damage.
He grabbed a steel chair, wrapped it around Jericho’s head and throat, and slammed him into the steel post, almost certainly putting Y2J out of action for an extended period of time. KO now must direct his attention to AJ Styles, the new #1 contender to his title, in a feud that is sure to be a contender for “Feud of the Year” and “Match of the Year”.
#3 Braun Strowman (+2 Spots)
A few slides ago, I spoke about AJ Styles being the best in-ring performer WWE has right now. However, there isn’t a man that has been booked as well or made more humongous strides than Braun Strowman has in his short WWE career.
Over the past few weeks, “The Monster Among Men” has taken his levels of destruction to new heights, including his all-out attack on Roman Reigns a few weeks ago that saw Strowman flip an ambulance or running a dumpster with Kalisto inside of it off the stage on Raw two weeks ago.
This lead us to Payback, where Strowman and Reigns would finally meet in a one-on-one matchup to attempt to settle their feud. In a match that was the best of the PPV, was even more brutal than their match at Fastlane, and saw both men look great throughout the match, Braun Strowman picked up the biggest win of his short career by defeating Roman Reigns after several Powerslams.
After the match, however, Strowman wasn’t done with his attack. He would attack Reigns with the steel steps from ringside, driving them straight into the mid-section of Reigns, causing internal bleeding and more damage to Roman’s already injured ribs.
Then, Strowman attacked Reigns backstage yet again while he was about to be put into an ambulance. However, Roman avoided the monster and eventually smashed his arm with the door of the ambulance.
That resulted in both men being left off the show the next night on Raw, Roman because of injuries that were complicated at the PPV and Strowman because of a torn rotator cuff from the damage done by the ambulance door. The next step in Strowman’s progression is for “The Monster Among Men” to get his shot at the WWE Universal Title.
#2 Brock Lesnar (WWE Universal Champion) (NC)
Brock Lesnar became the WWE Universal Champion at WrestleMania 33 by defeating Goldberg after a quick, but entertaining match. However, since the next night on Raw, we haven’t seen Lesnar, Paul Heyman, or the WWE Universal Title on Raw again.
With reports that Lesnar will not defend his title at Extreme Rules either, the next PPV we have a chance of seeing the Universal Title defended at is the Great Balls of Fire PPV in July.
With the way things have gone down on Raw over the past week, the most viable contender to Lesnar’s throne has to be Braun Strowman. It will be very interesting to see if WWE pulls the trigger on a Strowman-Lesnar matchup this Summer that could lead to a huge match at Summerslam between the two Goliaths.
#1 Randy Orton (WWE Champion) (NC)
Since winning the WWE Title from Bray Wyatt at Wrestlemania 33, Randy Orton has still had to deal with “The Eater of Worlds”. While Bray was no longer coming after Orton’s title, Wyatt continued to torment Orton on a weekly basis.
Bray finally offered a challenge to him about a month back to a “House of Horrors” match. Orton would agree to the match while admitting that he wasn’t really sure what all would be involved in the match.
As it turns out, nobody knew what to expect from Bray’s “House of Horrors” interference this past Sunday night was far from horrifying. As a matter of fact, the match was a complete dud. Fans in the arena and on social media trashed the concept and match itself.
Bray Wyatt would go on to win thanks to interference from The Singh Brothers and Jinder Mahal, giving Bray a win he so desperately needed (albeit in a match that nobody took seriously) and fueling the feud between Orton and Mahal.
Surprisingly, Orton was kept off of Smackdown Live two nights later. However, with Backlash rapidly approaching, one would have to assume that this week will be much different and the feud between Orton and Mahal will really begin to take off.
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