WWE Power Rankings: Week of August 9th 2020
Last week in the WWE, we saw a lot of build up for feuds and not a lot of great in-ring action. NXT by far had the best matches of the week, but there were some entertaining things. There were a lot of new things that were happening and some things that were renewed. RAW Underground debuted and my opinion of it is that it will have to grow on me. I feel like they can utilize their underutilized talent just as much in regular matches, but this is new, so i’ll give it a shot. Here are my rankings for the week. Not a very eventful week, so it was difficult to rank.
10: Keith Lee
The NXT Champ secured a victory against Cameron Grimes this week, but is rated low, because the match wasn’t as good as it could’ve been. He doesn’t officially have a match at NXT TakeOver XXX, but it appears that he will be facing Karrion Kross. It should be interesting to see what happens, because taking the title off of Lee this early would be a questionable choice considering he is the first double singles champ in NXT history.
9: The Hurt Business
I didn’t really know where to include these guys, but they look really strong at the close of RAW. They were featured in RAW Underground and they put a beat down on everybody in the underground. This group has the potential to be something special and it is good to see these guys careers getting rejuvenated.
8: Dominik Mysterio
Dominik didn’t have a match obviously yet, but he did attack Rollins on RAW last week and it is enough to earn him a spot in the Top 10. At the moment, he will have his first WWE match at SummerSlam against Seth Rollins. I don’t think I’m alone in saying that I’m interested to see how good of a performer he is.
7: Apollo Crews
Crews successfully defended the United States Championship and even took home the new belt. Although MVP took the loss, he will get another shot at the belt at SummerSlam.
6: Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan
The two former Riott Squad members reunited and took down The IIconics. The match was solid and it is good seeing these two pick up a win on TV, even if it is against my favorite women’s tag team. It kinda looks like this may be less of a reunion and more of weekly occurrence, but I guess we’ll see.
5: Retribution
Retribution is an unknown group that is causing destruction on RAW and SmackDown. We obviously don’t have a clue who these performer are, but it was the most interesting the about SmackDown this week
4: Pat McAfee
McAfee showed up to NXT and created quite a moment. He literally punted Adam Cole and it looks like we will see the former Indianapolis Colts punter in a wrestling match. I will be watching eagerly to see how this match ends up.
3: Damian Priest
Priest picked up a nice win this week in a Triple Threat to qualify for the North American Championship ladder match at the next TakeOver event. Priest could be the next NA Champ, and this is another match that will be interesting.
2: Dakota Kai
Kai won the best match of the night against Rhea Ripley and she will be facing Io Shirai at NXT TakeOver XXX for the Women’s belt. A clean win would’ve been a total shock, but I’m glad that they didn’t go that route. This sets up a potential feud between Ripley and Mercedes Martinez, which will be an interesting match between to powerhouses in the women’s division.
1: Drew McIntyre/Randy Orton
I thought the McIntyre/Orton segment was the best thing on WWE programming last week. It was a strong, shoot-style promo and it felt like the tension was real. Orton has been mastering the shoot-style promo for a while now and the fact that McIntyre has the ability to throw it right back is a good sign for him moving forward. It should be a fun watch at SummerSlam.
Yacs