Smark Out Moment

Welcome to another edition of Power Rankings from Smark Out Moment! Each week, we will break down the current roster and examine who has gone up the WWE hierarchy and who has taken a step down the ladder. Factoring in wins and losses, injuries, making a name for one's self, being humiliated, and more, who is at the top of the food chain and who needs to make up some ground next week?

Remember to join The Mega Maniacs Facebook group if you want to vote in the Power Poll, which helps create these Power Rankings every week.


Alicia Fox is back as Paige's new 'Best Friend', and gets onto these rankings because of the residue good will I have for her after her good run earlier in the year as Paige's opponent heading into Payback. She showed she's much improved in-ring, and her post-match meltdowns, while still upholding the 'bitch/crazy/evil' archetype that none of the Divas can seem to escape from, were actually pretty funny, and I wouldn't mind seeing more of that. If she's just back to job to AJ a couple of times, then I'll shrug apathetically.


The Usos had a very quiet week, only popping up on SmackDown in a match that was more about The Bunny than the former Tag Team Champions. It seems like WWE are cooling off the tag division for a bit, since they won't want to burn The Usos' rematch against the Dusts before at least one or two other teams can be presented as legitimate contenders after The Usos. The likeliest looking scenario is Bunny and Rose facing the Dusts next, while Jimmy and Jey twiddle their thumbs.


Henry is in the 'Rusev aftercare program' with Bo Dallas, who is fresh from the exact same storyline with Jack Swagger. Swagger is now irrelevant after getting a crazy reaction at SummerSlam, so fingers crossed Henry doesn't suffer the same fate, because he could do good work, and get over again, with a frustrated character who can't find his groove. But if the feud goes the same way as with Swagger i.e back and forth wins with no rhyme or reason before ending suddenly, Henry's on his way back to mid-card purgatory.


I'm going to get a lot of crap for putting The Bunny on this list (for the second straight week no less), but at least he's something almost completely original, and the guy underneath the costume (Justin Gabriel) is legitimately talented, so it's good to see him get featured on the main show, even if it is an anonymous role. I'm almost certain WWE will drive any fun this gimmick has into the ground very soon, but for now, I'm unashamedly enjoying Slator Gator flopping around the ring for a wabbit.


As I said above, Slator Gator are doing great work as jobber-ific fools, but Titus is perhaps standing out a bit more since he has had to transition from a more serious character and really enhance his goofier aside, which he has done with aplomb. He has an odd charisma in the way he carries himself, which he also showed this week on NXT where he watched the main event from the crowd, and if WWE wants to do anything more with him higher up the card, O'Neil could probably deliver.


Cena did nothing to stand out this week, so after his great match with Lesnar at Night of Champions last week, he plummets down the Power Rankings, and in truth is only even still in the top 25 because he gets plenty of screentime, so it's difficult for him to not do something that I can at least appreciate. I enjoyed his interrupted interview with Dean Ambrose, and the two of them have a good rapport. That could be an excellent feud in a couple of years, but for now Cena is stuck with half-arsed anger at Seth Rollins, and is getting in the way of a true Rollins/Ambrose war, which is what people actually want to see.


The first Power Poll voted performer on this week's rankings is Triple H, who is still acting as the 'MC' of RAW, and Seth Rollins' personal cheerleader. He's doing a very good job of putting over Rollins in his new role as #2 heel, and his interaction with Paul Heyman at the start of the show were also interesting. It still feels odd that Triple H has such a large role on the show yet does nothing of great note in it, but this was one of his better weeks.


Rollins Cheerleader #2 also had a better week, taunting the crowd by throwing the 'CM Punk' chants back in their faces and telling them that they were supporting 'quitters'. It's always better when performers acknowledge crowd reactions, face or heel, and Stephanie has gotten really good at using the crowd to her advantage to get heat, whether it be trying to start 'YES' chants (and usually succeeding) or the 'quitter' rebuttal.


Swagger fell in the forest and didn't make a sound this week, by wrestling perhaps the match of the week with Cesaro on Main Event. It really sucks that nothing came from Cesaro's turn on Swagger at WrestleMania 30, which the crowd were red hot for, because the two of them could have had a terrific feud in the following months. Instead, Cesaro awkwardly became a heel again, and Swagger became semi-relevant with Rusev before falling out of the spotlight again. This match proved that both are still working hard, but Swagger especially is just not getting any proper opportunities to show off right now.


Bray Wyatt is still alive, and got to feature in an awesome vignette hyping Luke Harper, showing off his promo skills for the first time in weeks (or months?) with some voiceover. I'm a sucker for those 'from the swamp' videos that the Wyatt Family get, because they are so unique and get across their characters so well; it's definitely the area they've thrived in most, with some help from excellent WWE production. Hopefully we'll see Wyatt in the ring soon and back to his best after this break.


The Miz once again had a solid if unspectacular week of in-ring action with Dolph Ziggler, and is still being outshined by his stunt double. He's keeping himself deservedly relevant, but isn't standing out. #15 is the right place for Miz.


There were a few Bo-lievers on the Power Poll this week; maybe they'll earn a place in the 'Hall of Bo-lievers'. Dallas continues to do well with his smarmy heel character; the role which he was born to play, and I hope this Henry feud has more direction than the similar Swagger feud before.


Randy 'no votes' Orton continues to go unrecognised in the Power Poll, but I'm still drinking the Orton kool-aid for now. He's helping put over Rollins by playing second fiddle to him, in a way that this week also teased a potential Orton face turn. He's gone about as far as he ever will with The Authority, especially now that Rollins is in his role from earlier in the year, so a face turn could produce a very exciting feud with Rollins, or even Triple H. A motivated face Orton was great to watch on SmackDown in 2012, and it could work again in 2014/15.


The Dust brothers only got one pre-tape promo this week, but I very much enjoyed it. Cody Rhodes is clearly having a whale of a time playing the crazy Stardust, who is somewhat similar to his previous 'unDashing' character. Goldust meanwhile is helping his brother keep his character interesting, because they play off of each other so well in these promos. Sometimes I wish Cody was still Cody, but at other times, such as this week, I'm happy the Cosmic Twins are a thing.


Rusev didn't get any in-ring action this week, but he did get to beat up Big Show with a flag, and after Show's awful promo on RAW and his even worse insincere apology for defacing the Russian flag (what is it with WWE and flags?) on SmackDwn, he kind of had it coming. I'm still a Rusev mark and I love the big hoss battles he's had since arriving on the main roster. He still has an 'aura' that very few WWE performers have, and until he loses that aura, I think I'm going to continue enjoying him. I also thing Big Show will be a good opponent for him, once the lame jokes stop and the war starts. 


Paige got to wear JBL's hat on RAW, and squash Naomi on SmackDown this week. I'm a sucker for Paige's Smackdown squashes, because they make her look utterly badass and her PTO submission looks grizzly. It's just a shame it has to be offset by her RAW silliness, even if she does look great in that cowboy hat (just sayin'). Also, I've almost forgiven her for 'OH SHIT IT'S SLIPPERY. ONE. TWO. THREE' from Night of Champions... Almost...


Tyson Kidd was on RAW! And he was truly awesome at being a disinterested bastard, just like the rest of us, during the Total Divas match. He also got to incorporate his douchey Beats, which he debuted at NXT Takeover, into the act, just to make it even more funny. I wouldn't mind Kidd just doing that for every non-title Divas match for the rest of his time in WWE, but I'd prefer him actually getting to have matches as well. Hopefully his featuring this week is the start of a more extensive push for Kidd.


Lana is offsetting Big Show's terrible promos with her own heat-garnering ones. I'm sounding like a broken record here, but a huge reason for why Rusev has such an aura around him is Lana creating nuclear heat for her through her promos. They may be a bit crude, but sometimes you have to be crude to get Average Joe to boo your guy. 


Mizdow, and it is officially Mizdow now, keeps climbing the Power Rankings every week as his stunt double act gets more and more attention. He is reveling in the role right now and it shows in his awesome work. I don't want Mizdow to be a long term gimmick, but for as long as creative have nothing for Sandow, this is the best possible role for Damien right now.


Ziggler got to feature in the ring this week in a triple threat Intercontinental Championship match, where he looked much better than in the past couple of weeks of being bogged down in silliness and bad promos. Going forward, Ziggler should stick to wrestling, because the current feud with Miz is not bringing the best out of his mic skills.


Cesaro continues to be WWE's best in-ring asset, as he showed off his skills again this week on RAW in a triple threat and on Main Event vs Jack Swagger. Even at 80% Cesaro is awesome in the ring, and I'll continue to lobby on his behalf for a push toward the main event.


Paul Heyman was only around for a few minutes on RAW, but he cut a very interesting promo on The Authority, hinting that Lesnar could be going against them in the future. A Lesnar face turn could be pretty awesome, although now is certainly not the time to pull the trigger on that. It's just something to consider though, and that consideration is enough to rank Heyman very highly this week.


Peek-a-boo. You're doomed. I think a lot of people are very excited for a Luke Harper singles run, now that he has been 'set free' by Bray Wyatt. Harper is the best wrestler of the Wyatt Family, and actually probably has more main event potential than Bray himself. His facial expressions are top notch and his offense is amazing for a man his size. A Harper push is an exciting prospect.


Ambrose only falls one rank this week, thanks to some corny 'comedy' lines on RAW, but his hijacking the show and throwing T-shirts around was still fun to watch due to his 'unstable' attitude. RAW IS Ambrose right now, and he's getting louder crowd reactions than anybody else, so even on a relatively off-week, Ambrose is still #2.


Seth Rollins takes top spot this week due to how well he has taken to being the de-facto top heel while Brock Lesnar is away. It's a difficult role to be thrust into suddenly, but Rollins has thrived, getting good heat and providing great foil to the swashbuckling Ambrose. He's also doing the business in the main event matches on RAW and Smackdown, a style of wrestling that is difficult to master, but he looks like he belongs with Orton, Cena et al, which shows just how useful The Shield act was to WWE. They now have 3 ready-made main eventers in Ambrose, Reigns and Rollins, and that's very exciting.