Austin Aries - Aries is someone that's steadily and consistently shown that he's a potential main event level star since arriving in TNA nearly a year ago. Personally, I'd like to hear a good long promo from him, which I don't believe I've really heard him give, but I think he'd do just fine if given the chance. He's got the ability inside the ring. As of right now, however, I just see Aries firmly entrenched within the mid-card scene. Without him, the X Division has nothing & nobody else. The X Division hasn't been great as it takes more than one guy to do it, but Aries' presence alone has made the X Division above what it has been for many years now. As Aries has also shown during the past two TNA ppvs, he's someone that can be depended on to pull out quality matches with anyone of just about any size. He's a valuable commodity for TNA to have right now. TNA doesn't have anyone in the X Division anywhere close to being on Aries' level right now, so I'd say he'll be in the mid-card picture for at least the rest of this year.
Cody Rhodes - Cody Rhodes is someone that WWE has taken their time with over the past couple of years. They haven't rushed into pushing Rhodes to the moon and have given him time to develop himself as a character. His first run as IC champ is arguably the best IC title run of this past decade. He held the title for a long time, definitely raised its stock, had some high profile feuds that resulted in a couple of wins over main event talent like Randy Orton. Basically, Cody Rhodes is at a stage in his career in which a lot of people were predicting Ted DiBiase would be. I can see Cody stepping up to go after the WHC at some point, but not right now. It wouldn't bother me if he did but Cody Rhodes is still so very young. His youth is one reason why WWE has taken their time with him, at least I think so, because they haven't wanted to have him peak so soon. After all, look at Randy Orton. He's only 32 years old and he's a 9 time World Champion. I think Rhodes is only 27, 28 at the very most, so he potentially has a lot of years ahead of him. Taking their time with Rhodes has paid off for WWE thus far, so I don't see them messing with the formula. I expect him to stay within the mid-card scene for a while longer. I look for him to regain the IC title at some point and I've read some reports indicating that there's strong support among WWE officials to merge the IC & US titles sometime down the line, so I can see Cody being the one to merge the two titles, have another long mid-card run with the title before ultimately dropping it and then maybe moving onto the World Championship scene. Maybe by this time next year.
Bully Ray - I'm not really seeing Bully Ray as a World Champion in TNA anytime soon, if ever. Bully Ray is a lot of fun to listen to on the mic but, he's much better on the mic than inside the ring in my view. He's got the personality and his in-ring ability isn't bad. However, for a while, Ray hasn't been booked to be all that strong inside the ring. Over the past few months especially, Ray has been booked as someone with a big mouth but hasn't been able to back it up. It seems that whenever he challenges someone, he comes out on the short end of the stick. He challenged Devon for the TNA Television Championship not that long ago and Devon beat him clean in the center of the ring. He gets into a feud with Austin Aries, which culminates at a ppv, and, again, Ray is soundly beaten. Now, he's been feuding with a "lawyer" named Joseph Park and lost to him due to interference in an anything goes match this past Sunday. I don't know how long they're going to continue the Joseph Park character but, at some point, I look for Ray to begin feuding with Abyss once more, where he'll also probably lose as well. I think Ray has the least chance of being the next of these listed to be World Champion.
Dolph Ziggler - Dolph Ziggler is someone that WWE has seemed on the verge of pulling the trigger on for a while now. Over the past couple of years, Ziggler is someone that's also come a very long way. He can go in the ring, no question about that, and he's done a good job of developing himself on the mic & as a character for quite a while now. With some of the top main eventers out of action for a while or busy with other stuff: Mysterio probably won't be back until the 1,000th episode of Raw, Orton is suspended for 60 days & his overall future with the WWE is kind of in question at this point, Del Rio is out with a concussion & who knows how long he'll be out, Cena is feuding with Big Show right now & almost always goes for the WWE Championship, Jericho is out for a while, The Miz is off filming a movie & his stock has been the lowest its been in years anyhow. So, now might be the time when WWE has to pull the trigger on Ziggler simply because of a lack of main event depth right now. I don't expect Ziggler to win his match against Sheamus at No Way Out, but this could possibly start him down the road to being a solid upper mid-card/main event fixture and World Champion. I'm going with him as my choice because, as I said, the playing field isn't quite so full right now and WWE needs high quality talent in the World Championship scene right now.
