I'm kind of ashamed that I had to go to the WWE website to remember everyone on the roster.
Raw
1)
CM Punk - This one is definitely easy, for me. Look: It's chic to say that Punk is great and it seems obvious that someone on the Internet will pick him as their favorite, but that's because he is just that good. His promos are just that good, his wrestling is almost always just that good, and he is overall the best performer that WWE has, right now.
2)
Triple H - I'm such an old curmudgeon sometimes when it comes to guys who were big when my kid was born...Triple H is, and always will be, one of the best. I know why people say he's overrated, and I think they're just too young to remember how good he's been for the last fifteen years. As demonstrated by Wrestlemania 27, Triple H can still head a show and steal a show. I'm honestly happy that he and Punk are feuding, because I think it will be great, but I wish that they had saved it for 28.
3)
The Miz - I've come around a lot to Miz in the last month or two, and I don't really know why. I still think he's a Jericho wannabe, but I guess I've just needed a long time to warm up to him. I think it's that I want to see him as a face. I've come to believe that it would work pretty well, because I want to like him. This thing he's doing with Truth is alright, because they have a dynamic together that I like, but I'm excited to see where he goes from there.
4)
John Cena - I'm going to admit that I've come around to Cena, as well. He's good, and you can't really deny it. Punk brought out the best in him, in my eyes. His jokes are still lame, he's still a corporate symbol and a human marketing ploy, but he's gotten to where he is because he's deserved it. I don't care a lot for his character, but if there's anything I've learned about him from this thing with Del Rio is that he's way better than Del Rio, and he can hang with the best of them. I still kind of roll my eyes when he wins every match and dead people know he'll probably beat ADR, but at least this time I'll be able to agree it's because he's just good.
5)
Dolph Ziggler - (I think I've almost officially given up on John Morrison.) Dolph is a great wrestler and I think he's one of the three to five best wrestlers that the WWE has. Also, I think he's starting to come into his own, personality wise. He's got a ways to go, but I think he's just one big feud with Cena away from breaking through the glass ceiling. If they put the strap on Dolph, I could buy it. Can he carry a show? Not at all, I don't believe, but with Vickie getting him all sorts of cheap heat (that could be ending soon), he could certainly be a big heel on Raw. I mean, he's just as good or better than ADR, and I think he'd do much better in a feud with someone like Cena than ADR has. Dolph isn't a one trick pony, or at least he doesn't seem to be, and I like him. I hope for good things to come his way.
Smackdown
1)
Sheamus - I honestly can't believe I'm saying this, because I used to hate the guy, but I seriously believe that this face turn has worked out beautifully for Sheamus. Somehow, someway, he's a sympathetic baby face; you want to see him win. That match with Mark Henry was also, in some impossible way, a great match and it's hilarious to me that a guy Sheamus' size can play the little guy so well. I think they should let him work with Khali and Jinder Mahal. He could probably help to get Mahal over, or at least give him a rub, and Khali is so much bigger than Sheamus that he could continue to play the little man in that feud. Again, and I seriously can't believe I'm saying this, I'm really digging Sheamus, right now.
2)
Mark Henry - I hate that he's getting this push, but I like what he's doing with it. If he beats Orton, then I'll understand it. It seems like out of all the times they've tried to make Mark Henry, this time feels like it could stick. If they continue to just let him run over people for a few more months, I truly believe that he could become a top heel on Smackdown. On Raw, he would have too much competition. But, he fills a big need on Smackdown, he fills it well, and I think he does a lot to keep that show entertaining.
3)
Daniel Bryan - He's my anti-Mark Henry; I love the performer, but I hate what they're doing with him. If he's going to be champion on Smackdown or at least get a Wrestlemania match, then they need to start pushing him, now. It's not encouraging for fans to see their sympathetic hero character win a guaranteed title match still lose all of the time. I'm really worried that they'll put him in the match just so he can lose, and that will feel so cheap when they do; it really seems like they would just be trying to piss off the IWC as much as they possibly could, if they tease us like that. I'm putting DBD here by default, but I hope they start letting him mow over dudes, soon.
4)
Heath Slater - I'm going to take the road less traveled, one that most likely will run me right through a storm of ridicule, and say that I'm a Heath Slater fan. The guy is tough to look at, no doubt about that. He's stale on the mic, and there's also no doubting that. But, you can't take away one key aspect away from the guy: he's a good worker. He bumps his ass off when he wrestles, he does well to make his opponent look good, and I love that. As far as jobbers go, he's invaluable to Smackdown; you can't put a price tag on a wrestler who makes his opponent look good. If Heath were to get a single's feud with someone like Wade Barret, he wouldn't ever actually have to beat Barret, but he could definitely make Wade look good and maybe even establish himself out to be an underdog fan favorite. I would certainly root for the guy to get a well deserved rub, if he got the chance. I know whoever reads this will think I'm crazy, but I just hope to see him do well. I almost put Justin Gabriel over him, but it's predictable and I think it'll be really good for the two whenever they finally get separated.
5)
Natalya - Can I put a Diva here? Is that allowed?
I didn't know who to put here, from the Smackdown roster. I would have put Cody, but I was just honestly never that big on him. If Ted turns face and finally gets off the ground, then I'll put him in this spot because he's just so damn talented not to have gotten over, by now. I would have put Christian all the way up at #1 at the start of the year, but WWE has done the impossible with him: they've over-saturated him so much that I'm sick of him. Also, I hate Christian's heel turn; people wanted to cheer for him, and you just threw it back at them because Heaven forbid we let Orton go without the belt. I genuinely think that's a testament to how entertaining Orton really is; Orton has to have the belt or else you'll forget he's there. You took a massively sympathetic baby face, finally (
FINALLY) gave him the belt and the time to shine, took it off him days later so you could give it all back to the same-old-stuff we've seen for months, and turned him into the most annoying, played out heel in the company. Now look at Christian; where can he go from here? They've released all the steam that he had, and now he's just going to be a deflated, uninteresting heel. What's he going to do, finally feud with Edge? Edge is retired and it seems like he won't ever come back, so I suppose we should just thank the E for completely blowing the opportunity they had with Christian. I would have rather seen him run with a one month charity title than what they've done with him, so far. At least, that way, he had somewhere to go.
Sorry to go on about Christian, like that. *Stepping down from his soap box* What I like about Natalya is her whole new heel gimmick. She's a not a, "bimbo," as they call Kelly; she's a wrestler and a pretty good one, at that, and she's sick of all these no talent, candied-up tarts making her look bad. That's a great idea for a female wrestler to symbolize, and I appreciate the effort. The execution looks like it's going to be pitiful, as everything with the Divas is, because she's like, "I'm not a bimbo," but she and Beth Phoenix are coming out covered in make-up and wearing tiny dresses; it completely contradicts the point. Also, judging from the house show results, it looks like she's dropping matches to Alicia Fox. That's a joke if I've ever heard one. What would you think if Bret Hart started dropping matches to Tatanka after he had given a promo about how wrestlers today are too gimmick oriented and he's sick of them making him look like a cartoon character and a phony? Oh, and by the way, he starts giving out more pairs of sunglasses and amps up his use of catchphrases. It's like, I really like what Natalya is doing, in theory, but the execution makes me believe that no one associated with that division knows how to tell a story. With the message that Natty and Beth Phoenix wanted to present, they should have been, for all intensive purposes, the faces in that feud. But, the execution has just been awful, they've taken what should have been a positive message for all the young girls that watch wrestling and warped it into just another lame Diva's storyline where they try to make one of the least talented performers they have employed (Kelly) look like a legitimate performer, and what I believe could have been a pivotal and important storyline for establishing the Diva's division has been made completely insignificant by a lack of desire to tell a motivating and influential story. *Apparently having to step back down from his soap box* I'm sorry to get so high up on this, but as a father who watches wrestling every week with his son and daughter, I feel like both could have benefited from hearing that story; the story where the more talented and better girl is sick of being ignored because she's not as pretty as the girl getting all the attention, and therefore makes her best effort to let people know how bullshit that is.
...so that's my top 5 for both shows. Lol. I didn't have to work today and I guess I've just had too much time on my hands to sit and think about this. ...I think I'm just going to go see if my boy wants to play XBox.
I have heard he played a great personality and was a good mic man in his indie scene, but in WWE, he hasn't shown me anything in that area. 