Welcome back to another edition of this week’s WWE Superstar Rankings. Just a quick reminder: In this post we’ll be recapping the last week of all WWE action and ranking who came out on top for the time being and which Superstars are trending downward for the foreseeable future. So let’s get to it!
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The “All-American American” Five
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1. R-Truth
Another great week on Raw from “The Truth”. Not to be left out of the World Title discussion, Truth was almost able to interject himself into a number one contenders match. Despite being left out the match, Truth made another great impact with his promo skills and the “losing his mind” body language. He’s currently being given a lot of TV time, even receiving his own backstage interview segment later on Raw. He’s been handed a lot of trust lately from the creative team and he has run wild with it, in a good way. He’s emerged as a top heel in a company that is already loaded with plenty. On top of all of that, he has been planted into a rivalry with Rey Mysterio, which should only gain him more heat with the fans and even more momentum in his career. I doubt the WWE had any idea what would happen if they turned Truth over to the dark side, but everyone has turned out a winner so far with the sudden change, and that includes the WWE Universe.
2. The Miz
I know this is probably going to seem a little biased, since the Miz is my current favorite “Superstar” in the company, but to that I say… Yeah I don’t really have a response to that… I can’t help it, sorry. Miz himself has told the world about his “Awesomeness”, and for the past year he has proven it. Not only has he continued to be included in the main event picture on Raw, but he has also earned himself another shot at the WWE title at Over the Limit(which he is sure to lose, but that’s beside the point). Recent chatter on the interweb is that Vince McMahon has been telling shareholders that Miz will remain a giant part of WWE moving forward, and when you hear that kind of guarantee from the boss, you belong in everybody’s top rankings. Like him or hate him, Miz won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
3. Sin Cara
One of the bigger additions to the Smackdown roster has also been one of the most successful. If I could go back in time just a little, you could probably make the case that Cara deserved to be one of the top 5 for the last month. Dating back to even before his debut, he’s been marketed better than anyone to date that I’ve ever seen. Most people say HHH is behind all of those successful vignettes and it that’s true Cara owes all of his current fame to that man. Before he even stepped into the ring, all of those vignettes had us believing that Cara was the next big thing, and it’s worked wonders for him. With all that said, I think that he’s done a fantastic job being worth the hype. There’s a certain aura around him during his matches, and his moves have been breathtaking at times. I have to say that I’ve really enjoyed watching him wrestle and am very much looking forward to seeing his upcoming feud with Chavo Guerrero. Considering how great of a worker Chavo is, we can continue to expect great things from Cara. Now if only he can get rid of that awful in-ring lighting during his matches…
4. Zack Ryder
Woo Woo Woo. Let’s run down the man’s recent success. First, he has become a YouTube phenomenon for his Z! True Long Island story. He has currently produced, written and starred in 13 episodes and according to his Twitter it has already received a collective 1 million views! Second, because of his recent YouTube success, he has garnered a huge amount of fans. So many fans, that despite the WWE’s efforts to literally take away Zack Ryder signs from televised show, they keep showing up. Third, and most importantly, Ryder got a fist pump from THE John Cena on Raw this week. Life doesn’t get much better than that.
5. Ezekiel Jackson
Personally Zeke is making this list purely because he has officially distanced himself from being a member of the Corre (more on them later). Also he’s managed to land himself an Intercontinental title shot at the Over the limit PPV, which is almost as important. But seriously, he needed to get out of the Corre. Had to happen. The Corre is terrible. Ok, I’m jumping the gun again. Just know how much I despise the Corre. They’re just absolutely terrible. Alright I’m done.
Honorable mentions: Ricardo Rodriguez, Cody Rhodes, Jinder Mahal.
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The “Go To Sleep” Five
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1. The Corre
I told you I’d get to them. Let me run down the recent run of the Corre, dating back to Wrestlemania:
- Wrestlemania 4/3/11: The Corre loses an 8 man tag match in under 2 minutes to the slapped together team of Kane, Big Show, Santino, and Kofi Kingston.
- Raw 4/4/11: For some reason the Corre shows up on Raw, just to be that nights personal whipping boys for The Rock and John Cena.
- Smackdown 4/8/11: The Corre loses another 8-man tag match to the same exact Wrestlemania team and then receives a beatdown from aforementioned team. Just a reminder, The Corre is a stable that was holding the Intercontinental and Tag Team Championships, at the same time!
- Raw 4/11/11: Again, the Corre shows up on Raw to hold a public “I’m better than you” whine-fest between its members. Then they somehow escape Raw with victory over the thrown together “Apple” (get it?!) Stable.
- Smackdown 4/15/11: All four Corre members were eliminated from the 20-man battle royal and they continued to argue some more
- Smackdown 4/22/11: Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel lose their Tag Team Championships in a match that went less than 3 minutes.
- Raw 4/25/11: Wade Barrett and Ezekiel Jackson are both eliminated from the brand vs brand battle royal and Barrett even finds a way to lose another match later in the night to Rey Mysterio.
I’ll save you a little time by telling you that things have only gotten worse since then. Since I’ve already dragged on about this group, I’ll end it by saying this. A stable is supposed to be a strong united front that can only be defeated by some of the best superstars. It’s not supposed to be 4 guys that are easily defeated by the entire rosters of Raw and Smackdown! I’m excited to see that they are slowly dissolving this team and only hope that it will give Barrett the future push that he needs while everyone else fades into the mid-card or lower.
2. CM Punk
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge CM Punk fan. He’s a phenomenal worker, a fantastic athlete, and one the best heel currently in the WWE, but he’s being absolutely wasted on a week to week basis. Despite a 3 month long feud with Randy Orton, a feud that should have been so much more than it was, Punk was never able to escape with a PPV singles win against Orton. That, my dear friends, is poor booking. It can’t be a feud if your babyface just comes out on top week after week. Orton even systematically destroyed the stable that Punk was leading, with hardly any pushback. Finally with one week before Wrestlemania, Punk was able to gain the upper hand for once in the form of a wrench to Orton’s knee, but not once did we actually believe that Punk was capable of beating Orton. He’s got so much potential and in my humble opinion has earned the right to be a top man in the company. I hope he gets that new contract signed soon, and WWE uses him the way he deserves and the way that all of the WWE Universe wants to see. Until then, it looks like he’s stuck managing…
3. Mason Ryan
I should have known it the first time I saw Mason Ryan. While I just see another muscle-headed moron, what I should have noticed was that Ryan had all the physical looks it takes to have Vince McMahon drooling over potential dollar signs and World Title Reigns. And don’t get me wrong, sometimes that works out just fine, but it doesn’t work with everyone and I’m making an early prediction that it’s absolutely not going to work with Ryan (or Batistwo as he’s been dubbed). The man just looks slow and is too green for me. I haven’t been impressed with anything he’s been involved with to date, except for his opponents ability to sell for him. He has very little personality and his facial cues are comical at best. He doesn’t deserve a push right now and to reiterate what I said before: He has a better chance of becoming the next Vladimir Kozlov than he does of becoming the next Batista.
4. Jack Swagger
This is part 2 of my Michael Cole rant from a week ago. I couldn’t agree less with the way Swagger has been used the last few months. This man was holding the World Heavyweight Championship a year ago and is now stuck carrying Cole’s jock strap around week after week. The only way it could get worse is if you were to, I don’t know, have a 61 year old beat him on a weekly basis. Oh, wait that’s right. I know it’s not my place to say “How I would book it” (check out Tony Kegger’s fantastic articles if you want to hear more booking ideas), but I think that right now would be the perfect time to bring back the “All-American American” gimmick, fresh off of Osama Bin Laden’s death. Turn the guy face by having him whoop on Cole at the next pay-per-view and then turn into a metaphorical version of the American flag, week after week, destroying his opponents. I don’t have any idea about how to get this done (any ideas Tony?), but I know a major change needs to take place for Swagger to be taken seriously again.
5. Sheamus
I don’t think I’m the only one who expected Sheamus to receive a big push after heading over to Smackdown, possibly even being plugged into a program for the World Heavyweight Championship with former champion Christian. I may be a little premature in my ranking of him, but since losing the U.S. Title to Kofi Kingston at Extreme Rules two weeks ago, Sheamus has done very little to stand out. Maybe the tide will turn for him following Over the Limit, but right now I see little fresh talent for him to feud with on Smackdown, and because of that, he might stuck in the mid-card a little while longer.
Dis-honorable Mentions: Alex Riley, Alberto Del Rio, Ted DiBiase.
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Like my list? Hate my list? Have different ideas about your top 5 or bottom 5? Let’s talk about it in the comments below, that’s part of the fun! Also tune in next week to see who’s hot and who’s Mae Young.
Follow me on Twitter: @AceHart1
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