WWE RAW Power Rankings: The New Era Begins

April 11, 2014 Patrick Hickey Jr. Professional Wrestling 0

With Wrestlemania XXX over and done with, the WWE began the Yes reign with an energetic show with plenty of cool happenings. Between the in-ring debut of Alexander Rusev, the returns of Wade Barrett and Rob Van Dam and a new Divas Champion in Paige, RAW got it done.

Check out this week’s RAW Power Rankings to see who’s ahead of the curve on the first traffic sign towards Wrestlemania XXXI.

Honorable Mention: Rob Van Dam: The returning RVD made quick work of Damien Sandow on RAW this week. But what’s next for the former ECW and WWE Champion? Is he going to be relegated to a Christian type role where he has solid matches with nothing really at stake? Or will he challenge for a title?

5: Alexander Rusev: Zack Ryder found out the hard way that Rusev, despite his lack of super human size, is a remarkable athlete. Using all high-impact offense, Rusev destroyed the former United States Champion to earn his first win on RAW.

4: Wade Barrett: In his first match on RAW in months, Barrett had the eager and raucous crowd eating out of his hands. Wins against Rey Mysterio aren’t commonplace, as well as dominating ones. That’s exactly what Barrett did this week.

3: The Wyatt Family: This was easily their best match on RAW yet. Continuing the build up from a solid match at Wrestlemania, Bray Wyatt was on his A-game with a pinball victory over Big E. Langston in a six-man tag to start this week’s RAW. While Wyatt was super solid, Erik Rowan and Luke Harper continue to prove they are two of the most underrated workers in the company. While The Shield continue to get a ton of the attention, The Wyatt Family may have more potential as a group.

2: Paul Heyman: This is a tricky one. While Brock Lesnar naturally belongs on this list with his win over Taker at Wrestlemania and Cesaro is another easy choice after his win in the Andre the Giant Battle Royal, Heyman was easily the star in terms of promo on this week’s RAW. With more momentum than they could ever ask for, what’s next for Lesnar, Cesaro and Heyman? Could it be a run at the WWE World Heavyweight Title?

1: Daniel Bryan: It’s fair to say that Bryan is the most “over” star during the past five years, outshining even John Cena and CM Punk during their highest points. His match with Triple H this week on RAW brought him some new allies in The Shield, making his journey one that is still developing.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14316 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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