WWE Raw Power Rankings: Burn It Up
By Warren Hayes
We’re ranking the WWE Raw roster superstars as of February 19, 2018. It was an eventful night. How does everyone stack up?
Gentle reader, welcome to my very first edition of the WWE Raw Power Rankings. As many of you know, I already provide similar Power Rankings for NXT, and now I will provide the same type of vague insights with wrestlers from WWE’s flagship show in the form of a commented top ten list.
For now, I will be focusing exclusively on singles competitors from the men’s and women’s divisions. I may start a separate list for tag teams eventually if WWE gives the RAW tag team division some real love.
What a journey we are about to embark upon, friends. Won’t you join me?
RAW SINGLES DIVISION POWER RANKINGS (positions 10 and 9)
WWE Universal Champion: Brock Lesnar
WWE RAW Women’s Champion: Alexa Bliss
Credit: WWE.com
#10 Mickie James
Mickie is such a consistent and solid worker, I always get excited when she gets added into storylines. So the fact that the women’s Elimination Chamber match subplot she has with Alexa Bliss took shape at the end of the 6-women tag team match was very cool indeed. Mickie stood side-by-side with Alexa as they delivered a double DDT on Sonya Deville, cementing their partnership as they go into the PPV.
Of course, Alexa is more than likely going to betray Mickie if it means holding onto her Raw Women’s Title, but adding this extra layer of intrigue will certainly keep us guessing as to how the match will turn out.
Credit: WWE.com
#9 Roman Reigns
It brings me no joy to rank Roman Reigns so low on the first edition of my Raw rankings. Especially knowing how, um, polarizing Roman is in the community, but let’s take a second to be objective here.
Roman started the gauntlet match with Seth. He tried to get some offensive off, but he and the Architect were too evenly matched. He was eventually eliminated from the match via roll-up that he never saw coming. That was it for Roman Reigns.
But, I also understand from a booking perspective it makes sense for Roman to not go too far in the gauntlet match if he’s indeed supposed to win the Elimination Chamber and then beat Lesnar at WrestleMania, lest the audience riots. The fact that he’s having trouble securing wins recently makes for a better story, too.
So yeah, losing the gauntlet match may not be a good look short term, but it may be a good decision down the line.