On Tuesday night’s episode of WWE SmackDown Live , the first-ever edition of the top 10 superstar rankings was revealed for fans to check out. The new concept featured on the blue brand will rank the talent based on fellow superstars’ voting. In the first list, every champion was represented on the list as well as some of their biggest challengers. There were also a few notable omissions from the list. With that in mind, there are probably a few disagreements to be made over the list as fans saw in just the first installment.
The latest episode of the Tuesday night show took place in Kansas City, Missouri, with ProWrestling providing the results . The top 10 list was unveiled before the second hour of SmackDown Live with General Manager Daniel Bryan handling the honors. Bryan revealed each superstar, or superstars, one by one, from the 10th spot all the way up to the No. 1 spot. It was no surprise that the WWE Champion AJ Styles and WWE SmackDown Live women’s champion Charlotte Flair were ranked at the very top of the list. However, at least one of the champions on the brand’s roster may have a bit of a bone to pick with where they ranked as they came in below some former champions.
Below is the first edition of the SmackDown Live superstar rankings poll.
- AJ Styles
- Charlotte Flair
- Shinsuke Nakamura
- Naomi
- Bobby Roode
- The New Day
- The Usos
- Becky Lynch
- Randy Orton
- Tye Dillinger
As commentator Corey Graves was quick to point out, the current SmackDown Live tag team champions The Usos rank below The New Day. His colleague Byron Saxton mentioned that it could be because of all the talking they do to possibly cause some backstage issues. That would lead to fewer superstars wanting to vote for them in the rankings poll.
The #1 spot on the #SDLiveTop10 is where the #WWEChampion should be. Week in, week out I’m happy to represent #SDLive and fight for my place at the top…no matter how many competitors are thrown my way.
— AJ Styles (@AJStylesOrg) February 7, 2018
Graves also brought up the fact that Rusev was missing from the list. He may have another good point there, as Rusev was booked to face the United States Champion Bobby Roode on SmackDown Live while Tye Dillinger appearing at the No. 10 spot seems to merely be in line with his gimmick. He tweeted about the honor of being included but mentioned he wants to move higher up on future editions of the list. Becky Lynch also tweeted out that her number on the list showed just how underrated she is.
Perhaps the biggest omissions from the list are Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. This is probably due to their lack of popularity with the rest of the superstars on the show. It’s certainly going to give them something to talk about. If one of the two heels appears on the next list, it will also give them some possible tension. The two recent friends were scheduled to take each other on in the ring on the latest show.
The Superstars of #SDLive have voted, and @WWEDanielBryan is ready to reveal the official #SmackDownTop10 list! pic.twitter.com/wEjbSzLH8K
— WWE (@WWE) February 7, 2018
Clearly, these lists will just provide some fun talking points each week, and probably also help with storylines. Superstars who feel slighted by their position on the rankings (or not being part of the list at all) will have reason to cut scathing promos about popularity contests. Either that or it will give the superstars who aren’t making the cut incentive to work harder towards becoming one of the top stars on the brand.
