WWE Power Rankings: Counting Down the Company's Top 15 Superstars (May 14)

We're just six days away from the WWE's next pay-per-view, Over the Limit, so things have really been picking up on both Raw and Smackdown.

The World Heavyweight Championship feud involving Sheamus, Chris Jericho, Randy Orton and Alberto Del Rio has quickly escalated over the last week, while the same can be said for the WWE Championship feud between Daniel Bryan and CM Punk.

Plenty of superstars are looking to build up momentum as we head to the PPV, and as a result, we've seen some very interesting occurrences on WWE TV.

Some stars are rising up the WWE ranks rather easily, while others continue to plummet.

Let's take a look at who's doing what with the May 14 edition of the WWE Power Rankings.

Note: As always, these rankings take into account last week's episodes of Raw and Smackdown.

15. Kofi Kingston and R-Truth (Last Week: 15)

No movement for the WWE Tag Team Champions this week.

Why? Because they traded wins with their new No. 1 contenders.

Kofi Kingston lost to Dolph Ziggler on Raw, and R-Truth got a little revenge by beating Jack Swagger on Smackdown.

Somehow, this resulted in Swagger and Ziggler getting a title shot at Over the Limit, which seems like a lot of BS to me.

But for Kingston and Truth, a week that saw them lose one match and win another means they stay exactly where they were last week.

14. The Primetime Players: Darren Young and Titus O'Neil (Last Week: Unranked)

The Primetime Players are beginning to establish themselves as the top tag team on Smackdown and perhaps even the No. 1 heel duo in the WWE.

Darren Young and Titus O'Neil entered last week's Smackdown undefeated since joining the blue brand and kept that streak alive by getting a victory over Santino Marella and Zack Ryder.

Oh yeah, they actually did what tag teams almost never do these days and showed a little personality after the match, too.

While at least in theory, Young and O'Neil are behind Swagger/Ziggler and Epico/Primo in the tag team title chase, you have to think that their recent win streak is an indication they could be in line for a title shot soon and perhaps will even be added to the WWE Tag Team Championship match at Over the Limit.

13. Lord Tensai (Last Week: Unranked)

Lord Tensai definitely seems to be setting into his role as John Laurinaitis' henchman.

He's made a habit out of doing the dirty work for the Raw and Smackdown GM recently, and that was clear once again on last week's Raw, when he and Daniel Bryan faced CM Punk in a two-on-one handicap match.

I know that Lord Tensai had to work together with Bryan to get the victory, but that's not as important as the fact that Punk is the second major star that Tensai has beaten in the main event of Raw since his return.

Tensai beat Cena several weeks back in an Extreme Rules match, and he's now beaten Punk.

Creative obviously has a lot of faith in Lord Tensai, who is one of the few stars around (if not the only one) who can say that he's recently beaten both Punk and Cena in Raw's main event.

12. Layla (Last Week: 12)

The Divas division is really struggling right now with the absences of Beth Phoenix and Kharma, as well as the recent departures of the Bella Twins.

The only saving graces of women's wrestling in the WWE are Layla (because she's the Divas Champion) and AJ (because she has the best character out of all the Divas on TV).

Yet all that Layla got on this week's Raw was an extremely short tag team victory in which two of the competitors in the match didn't even tag in.

It looks like not much is going to change for the Divas, which, in turn, means that not much is going to change for Layla, either.

11. John Cena (Last Week: 9)

It wasn't an overly eventful week for John Cena.

Although it's a very rare occurrence for Cena to miss Raw, that's exactly what happened last Monday, as he was off the show to sell the beating he suffered at the hands of John Laurinaitis, Lord Tensai and Sakamato on the prior Raw.

All we got from Cena was a "live via satellite" promo (I'm sure The Rock loved this) that actually seemed to be pre-recorded and was the same old Cena spiel in which he talked about how he will overcome the odds again.

I feel for Cena because he's got a lot of stuff going on in his personal life right now, but cutting another generic baby face promo isn't going to make him rise up this rankings.

He's going to continue to go down them if he can't wrestle or appear in the arena in person.

10. Brock Lesnar (Last Week: 6)

I'm debating removing Brock Lesnar from these rankings altogether because it looks like he's going to be off of TV for a while.

While Lesnar obviously tends to make a huge impact whenever he is on Raw, he did not appear on the show last week and instead sent his representative, a returning Paul Heyman, to address the WWE fans for him.

Heyman revealed that Lesnar has quit the WWE, and though we all know that isn't true, it's going to be hard for Lesnar to make much noise while he's off of TV.

He'll get video packages galore, and Heyman will probably be around to do his talking for him, sure.

But as long as Lesnar isn't appearing on Raw every week, his immediate impact on the WWE will be minimal.

9. Brodus Clay (Last Week: 11)

Stop me if you've heard this before: Brodus Clay picked up two wins in two short matches last week.

Who am I kidding? Of course you have.

That's been the norm for "The Funkasaurus," who continues to pick up a ton of wins but has still yet to have a real feud since returning several months ago.

All Clay did last week was beat The Miz on Raw (though it was nice to see Clay in a match that wasn't a total squash for a change) and then squash Hunico on Smackdown.

Is anyone as tired of seeing this as I am?

While Clay's looking strong, he's also starting to bore the hell out of me.

8. Alberto Del Rio (Last Week: 7)

It was a very weird and busy week for Alberto Del Rio.

It started off well when he and Chris Jericho teamed up to beat Chris Jericho in tag team action on Raw, but it all went downhill from there when it was revealed that his World Heavyweight Championship Match against Sheamus at Over the Limit would now be a Fatal 4-Way.

To make matters even worse, ADR's tag team rematch on Smackdown was ruled a no contest, and he lost his singles match against Orton after being disqualified.

So, Del Rio basically went from winning a match and having a singles bout for the World title to having his odds to win at Over the Limit drastically decrease and winning neither of his matches on Smackdown.

That's not very good, but hey, at least he's still got an upcoming shot at the World Heavyweight Championship.

7. Ryback (Last Week: 10)

Let the Goldberg comparisons continue.

Since debuting just after WrestleMania, literally all that Ryback has done is squash jobbers, whether they're guys from the indies or actual WWE superstars.

This week, it was much of the same, as Ryback easily destroyed Heath Slater on Smackdown.

The WWE continues to make these squashes a big deal and is portraying Ryback as an unstoppable beast, but like with Brodus Clay, we need to see Ryback in an actual match sometime soon.

Still, it doesn't look like he's going to lose in the immediate future, and he'll keep rising up these rankings as a result.

6. The Big Show (Last Week: 5)

The Big Show was booked incredibly strongly (are you really surprised?) on last week's Raw when Cody Rhodes walked away from their Intercontinental Championship match, resulting in a DQ finish.

That strong booking continued when John Laurinaitis pulled a "Screwjob" finish on Big Show in his match against Daniel Bryan on Smackdown, causing Show to lose even though he clearly didn't tap.

The unclean finishes of both of Show's matches were meant to make him look good, but at the end of the day, all they gave him were a loss and a failed attempt to regain the Intercontinental title.

That's why he takes a slight tumble down the rankings. Oh yeah, that and the fact that he now seems to be feuding with John Laurinaitis.

You never want to be on the boss's bad side, and Big Show definitely is right now, although some have speculated that this will lead to a much needed heel turn for the big guy.

5. Daniel Bryan (Last Week: 8)

Creative was very kind to Daniel Bryan last week.

On Raw, Bryan teamed up with Lord Tensai to beat CM Punk in the main event, and he then put Punk in the Yes Lock after the match.

Then, on Smackdown, he cut a great promo on AJ and beat Big Show with a "Srewjob" finish.

Bryan came across as the ultimate heel this week, using dirty tactics in just about everything that he did and coming out on top as a result.

It'll be interesting to see if this continues on tonight's Raw.

4. CM Punk (Last Week: 2)

CM Punk started off Raw with a very good promo (no surprise there), but that was about as good as it would get for the WWE Champions last week.

He was forced to face Daniel Bryan and Lord Tensai in a two-on-one handicap match in the main event, lost the bout and then was put in the Yes Lock by Bryan to end the show.

Not exactly an ideal finish for Punk, obviously.

He essentially had to battle Bryan, Tensai and John Laurinaitis on the same show, and the odds simply proved to be too much to overcome.

If Laurinaitis continues to put Punk in these types of situations, then Punk's lengthy WWE title reign may come to an end in the not-so-distant future.

3. Sheamus (Last Week: 1)

Sheamus would probably like to forget everything that happened last week.

He was pinned by Chris Jericho in tag team action on Raw, nailed with a post-match RKO and then found out that he'll now have to defend his World Heavyweight Championship in a Fatal 4-Way at Over the Limit.

Then on Smackdown, Sheamus' first match ended in a no contest, and he lost his second match by DQ after Alberto Del Rio interfered and attacked Jericho.

Yeah, as you can see, this was a pretty bad five-day span for the Great White.

He rarely loses, yet he lost two matches last week, and the odds are now against him to retain his title at Over the Limit.

2. Randy Orton (Last Week: 3)

Randy Orton had a bit of a bizarre week.

He lost in tag team action on Raw after his partner, Sheamus, was pinned by Chris Jericho, but for the first time in a while, he showed that anti-hero/tweener personality that made him so popular by planting Sheamus with a post-match RKO, which resulted in him being added to the World Heavyweight title match at Over the Limit.

Orton followed that up by participating in a tag team rematch on Smackdown that ended in a no contest, winning by DQ in a singles bout against Del Rio and then planting ADR with an RKO at the end of the show.

The best way to describe Orton's week? A roller coaster, because it was so up and down.

At the end of the week, though, Orton was standing tall as one of the new No. 1 contenders for the World Heavyweight Championship.

That's gotta mean something.

1. Chris Jericho (Last Week: 4)

Chris Jericho has lost a lot since his return in January, which is why last week was undoubtedly his best week since he came back.

Jericho pinned Sheamus in tag team action, became the new No. 1 contender for the World Heavyweight Championship and then beat Sheamus via DQ in the main event on Smackdown.

Sounds pretty damn good, right?

Y2J is a great heel in that he doesn't need to win to stay over, but after losing so much upon his return, it's nice to see him finally winning and getting a chance to be arguably the top heel on both Raw and Smackdown.

He built up a boatload of momentum last week, and after racking up two victories, it'll be interesting to see if anyone can stop him or he'll become the new World Heavyweight Champion at Over the Limit.

Drake Oz is the WWE Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter and ask him any wrestling-related questions (to be answered in the B/R Mailbag) on Formspring.