SK WWE Power Rankings: April 1st, 2017
WrestleMania 33 is only three short days away and this past week’s Raw and SmackDown LIVE have made the WWE Universe ready for WWE’s biggest event of the year.
With very little actual wrestling action taking place this week (only 7 official matches took place this week on Raw and SD), the power rankings for the week didn’t change very much.
However, there are a few new additions and a couple Superstars that fell out of the Top 10, but first, let’s take a look at some of the Superstars that barely missed making the power rankings this week.
Honourable Mentions:
Luke Harper – This past Tuesday night on SmackDown LIVE, Luke Harper showed up looking a bit different than his Wyatt Family days. Donning a black tank top and dark jeans and being in the best shape of his career, he and Bray Wyatt put on a heck of a match on SmackDown.
Harper ended up eating a “Sister Abigail” from Wyatt and took the loss but the new look and new attitude could do wonders for Harper’s character moving forward after WrestleMania 33.
Baron Corbin – Inching closer and closer to Corbin’s first ever one-on-one title shot, “The Lone Wolf” wasn’t active this week on SmackDown. However, he and IC Champ, Dean Ambrose, were special guests on Talking Smack and gave us some back-and-forth banter that has us looking forward to their match on Sunday.
Sami Zayn – Zayn picked up a huge victory on Monday night, defeating Kevin Owens to earn a spot in The Andre The Giant Battle Royal this Sunday in Orlando. While not expected to win the match, expect Zayn to be a stand-out performer in the battle royal.
Samoa Joe – After debuting on the initial Power Rankings a week ago, Samoa Joe drops out of the Top 10 this week because of his short, impactless role on Raw this past Monday. But if there’s one thing we know about Joe, it’s that it doesn’t take much for him to make an impact, so expect a big impact from “The Destroyer” at WrestleMania 33.
The Usos – The Usos also debuted on the initial Power Rankings last week, but dropped out because of the exceptional performances from other Superstars that were right outside the Top 10 last week.
The fact that they won’t be defending their newly-won SmackDown Tag Team Titles and instead will be in the Andre The Giant Battle Royal at WrestleMania also hurt their stock.
***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 The Miz and Maryse (Not Ranked)
No Superstar on the entire WWE roster is clicking outside of the squared circle like The Miz is doing right now. Always able to get heat quickly with a mic in his hand, The Miz has become the top heel in WWE since the brand split, and it’s not even close.
His recent feud with John Cena has brought out the best in “The A-Lister” and his wife, Maryse, who for the past two weeks have done skits making fun of the portrayal of Nikki Bella and Cena’s relationship on Total Bellas.
This past week, they even mocked SmackDown LIVE General Manager Daniel Bryan and his wife and Nikki’s sister, Brie Bella.
At the end of the skits this week, Miz stopped the jokes and cut one of the best promos his career on Cena, declaring this Sunday that everyone would find out what they already know about Cena and Nikki.
When this intergender tag team match was booked a month ago or so, I was not too thrilled at the prospect of this match. However, the four Superstars involved have done a great job at making this match a must-see event at WrestleMania 33.