It seems like every sports entity has to have their form of a power ranking. SmackDown Live has now thrown their hat into that mix. General Manager Daniel Bryan announced the SmackDown Live Top 10 a week ago and we now have our first list!
OK…now what?
The unveiling of the inaugural SmackDown Live Top 10 list took place this past Tuesday to mixed reactions to say the least. The list reads as follows…
1 – AJ Styles
2 – Charlotte Flair
3 – Shinsuke Nakamura
4 – Naomi
5 – Bobby Roode
6 – The New Day
7 – The Usos
8 – Becky Lynch
9 – Randy Orton
10 – Tye Dillinger
After the announcement of the first list, the natural expectation would be to have a segment or two based on the announcement with disgruntled superstars. The list is supposed to be generated by the superstars themselves, it makes perfect sense for one superstar to go after another based on their ranking.
Didn’t happen.
Other than some tweets from some of the stars on the list and a quick Corey Graves rant we had no real mention of the list. Shortly after, you could have an interview with Dillinger expressing is gratitude for being on the list (especially since he hasn’t really had anything to do lately). During the interview, in comes someone like Rusev or Baron Corbin, or Dolph Ziggler who take out their aggression for not making the list on Dillinger.
Right there you have a setup for a solid pay-per-view match.
The main concept of the list is to give Bryan and SmackDown Live Commissioner Shane McMahon an idea of who deserves opportunities. However, the opportunity for a WWE Championship match 
doesn’t seem available at this time as the next two pay-per-views have their title matches announced with Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens challenging Styles in a triple threat match at Fastlane and Nakamura taking on the winner at WrestleMania 34.
That in itself is a bit of a contradiction. The Fastlane triple threat main event was announced AFTER the list was announced. Styles defends against Owens and Zayn. You know who you don’t see on the list? Owens OR Zayn. Neither is on the “List of Opportunity” but they get the first opportunity…hhmmm.
The fact that champions are even on the list is a little confusing as well. Again, the list is centered on “opportunity.” Champions don’t exactly need opportunity. It makes even less sense when The New Day finds themselves ranked higher that the current champions, The Usos, are ranked.
There is a chance to get some sort of storyline out of the list though. For the last few weeks, Randy Orton has brought his “RKO Outta Nowhere” gimmick to the front of the stage randomly hitting 
RKO’s on unsuspecting superstars – most recently Rusev, Aiden English and US Champion Bobby Roode this past week.
This could turn into Orton being upset that he is a future Hall of Famer and only #9 on the list. If booked correctly, this could build to what would be a solid US Championship match between Orton and Roode at WrestleMania.
Probably wishful thinking though. At this point the SmackDown Live Top 10 List leaves a lot to be desired. But it is just a week old though. Hopefully we will start to see the list become more and more relevant as weeks go on.
Or things stay like they do now with the list and it becomes as memorable as Friar Ferguson.
Who?
Exactly!
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