WWE Power Rankings: Counting Down the Company's Top 15 Superstars (May 28)

Today is Memorial day, so a huge thanks goes out to all the men and women who have lost their lives protecting our country and to the ones who continue to do so today.

We wouldn't be able to do 99 percent of the things we can do if it wasn't for them.

And one of those things we can do is watch the WWE, which is exactly what we should all be doing on tonight's episode of Monday Night Raw.

Before you do that, though, you might want to know who's moving up in the company and who's going down.

Let's take a look, with the May 28th edition of the WWE Power Rankings.

Note: As always, this week's rankings take into account last week's Raw and SmackDown episodes.

15. Darren Young and Titus O'Neil (Last Week: Unranked)

Darren Young and Titus O'Neil are trying to take over as the WWE's No. 1 heel tag team, and they might actually be doing that.

Though they suffered their first loss on SmackDown a few weeks back, they picked up another big victory on last week's SmackDown and appear to have aligned themselves with John Laurinaitis on Raw (kinda sorta, that is).

Now that the Primetime Players have picked up a handful of tag team victories and showed their support for the Raw GM, you have to think that they're closing in on a WWE Tag Team Championship match down the road.

With Kofi Kingston and R-Truth looking for new challengers, another victory or two might give Young and O'Neil their first-ever tag team title match.

14. Santino Marella (Last Week: 14)

Santino Marella is still the United States Champion?

I"ll be honest—I kinda forgot that he was still holding that belt. But oh well, it's nothing more than a prop these days anyway.

Santino hasn't made the belt much of a priority lately, but he continues to pick up wins.

After getting into it with Ricardo Rodriguez on last week's Raw, he beat Alberto Del Rio's personal ring announcer on SmackDown.

It looks like we're getting a feud between the two, and I wouldn't be shocked to see Santino keep up his winning ways because he seems to get more wins than just about any other midcarder.

13. Kofi Kingston and R-Truth (Last Week: 11)

Kofi Kingston and R-Truth must have been on Superstars last week because I surely didn't see them do anything of note on Raw or SmackDown.

Raw focused heavily on the feud involving John Laurinaitis, The Big Show and John Cena, so I guess there just wasn't enough room for the WWE Tag Team Champions.

Kinda bull if you ask me, but certainly not surprising.

Kingston and Truth didn't get a singles or tag match on either WWE show, and it's really hard to jump up in these rankings without wrestling a match or even cutting a promo.

Sorry, guys. But you take a slide this week.

12. Layla (Last Week: 10)

Speaking of Layla, exactly what has she done since returning at Extreme Rules? Not much, huh?

I was glad to see her come back because the Divas division was in desperate need of more depth, but other than her successful title defense at Over the Limit, her run as Divas Champion has been pretty forgettable.

Layla hasn't given us any real reason to care that she's a baby face, and the crowd reactions to both her entrance and her matches has been lukewarm to say the least.

Last week, all she did was watch Beth Phoenix's match against Kelly Kelly on Raw from backstage.

That's a great way to plummet into irrelevancy, even if you are holding a title.

11. Brodus Clay (Last Week: 8)

You may have noticed that something big was missing from both Raw and SmackDown this week: "The Funkasaurus."

Brodus Clay generally gets a squash match on Raw and/or SmackDown just about every week, but he was nowhere to be found on either show last week.

Hmm. That's interesting.

I'm one of those people who's already sick of seeing Clay do the same thing night after night, but it remains to be seen if the creative team is souring on him, too.

Either way, though, it's not necessarily a good thing when you can't get so much as a minute of TV time on either Raw or SmackDown.

10. Christian (Last Week: 13)

Christian's run as the baby face Intercontinental Champion has gotten off to a really good start.

After beating Cody Rhodes to win the belt at Over the Limit, Captain Charisma easily defeated Jinder Mahal on Raw and Hunico on SmackDown.

The WWE fans already seem to be adjusting well to Christian as a face, and he's seemlessly transitioned into his new role as a good guy as well.

No one seems to know for sure where Christian's IC title run is headed, but at least for now, it appears to be going in the right direction. 

9. John Cena (Last Week: 12)

It was a roller-coaster ride of a Raw for John Cena.

He started things on a high note when he beat David Otunga in about two minutes in the first match on the show and won the main event two-on-three handicap match by DQ.

But the show ended with him getting laid out by a knockout punch from The Big Show.

Obviously, that's not the lasting image that Cena wants everyone to have of him, and he certainly has his hands full with both The Big Show and John Laurinaitis.

But two wins in one show is enough to catapult Cena up the rankings, especially after a number of guys who were previously ranked ahead of him didn't do much of note last week.

8. Ryback (Last Week: 7)

This whole Ryback undefeated streak isn't really impressing me, and it doesn't seem to be impressing other fans very much, either.

It's the same boring nonsense for Ryback every week: Walk to the ring, scream "feed me" and "finish him" (or them), beat a random jobber or two with a few moves and then walk back out.

Why do so many fans hate John Cena? Because he almost always wins and supposedly (let me stress that part) only has five moves.

Well, if you criticize Cena, then you have to criticize Ryback, too.

He's—as you can tell by the chants of the fans—a 2012 version of Goldberg, and even though his power is impressive, beating jobbers and having no real storyline isn't.

Ryback is going to have to do something else soon, or the fans will turn on him.

7. Alberto Del Rio (Last Week: 9)

Things didn't start off so well for Alberto Del Rio on last week's Raw when he lost his match against Randy Orton via DQ.

But things quickly got better for ADR when he snuck in at the end of the Triple Threat main event on SmackDown, kicked Orton, and once again, became the No. 1 contender for the World Heavyweight Championship. 

Del Rio got screwed when his title match against Sheamus at Over the Limit was changed to a Fatal 4-Way, but now, he's earned the right to face the Celtic Warrior one-on-one at No Way Out.

Being in position to win your third World Title is certainly not a bad spot to be in, and Del Rio is now just three seconds away from becoming the World Heavyweight Champion for the first time.

6. Chris Jericho (Last Week: 4)

On last Monday's Raw, Chris Jericho interfered in Randy Orton's match and then planted him in the center of the ring with not one, not two, but three Codebreakers.

After that, it looked like Y2J was on track for a great week.

Then, the WWE headed to Brazil, Jericho broke the local law by desecrating the Brazilian flag, and he was legitimately (we think) suspended for 30 days.

Now, Jericho will be off TV, his likely feud with Orton will be on hold and the WWE just lost one of its top heels.

This obviously isn't great for the WWE but is perhaps even worse for Y2J, who looked to be building up some momentum after his Over the Limit loss.

5. Daniel Bryan (Last Week: 5)

It was an interesting week for Daniel Bryan.

He won his match against Kane on Raw, but that victory came by DQ, and he was viciously attacked with a chair by Kane afterward. Then on SmackDown, Bryan didn't compete at all.

On one hand, he got a victory, but on the other hand, Kane got the best of him as he interjected himself into his WWE title feud with CM Punk.

Call it a wash.

4. Randy Orton (Last Week: 3)

Randy Orton would probably prefer to forget about everything that happened last week.

Although he got a DQ victory over Alberto Del Rio on Raw, he ended up getting beat down post-match by Chris Jericho, who planted him with three Codebreakers in the center of the ring.

Then on SmackDown, Orton had himself perfectly positioned to become the new No. 1 contender for the World Heavyweight title after hitting Kane with an RKO, but ADR snuck in and got the pin for himself.

On both WWE shows, Orton was looking really good, only to eventually fall flat on his face.

Not a great week for "The Viper," who should have revenge on his mind on tonight's Raw.

3. The Big Show (Last Week: 6)

It's funny how things change so quickly.

Two weeks ago, The Big Show was a boring baby face who was begging for John Laurinaitis to save his job and career.

The next week, Show was a monster heel who cost John Cena his match at Over the Limit and then knocked him out with the WMD at the end of last week's Raw.

Guess which Big Show I like more?

Come on, it's the heel one, of course. He's much better in that role.

2. CM Punk (Last Week: 2)

It's a rarity to see CM Punk completely out of action all week long, but that's exactly what happened last week.

Punk didn't have a match on either Raw or SmackDown, and his lone major appearance on Raw was to slyly cause Daniel Bryan to get beat down by Kane after flipping the script on Bryan by tossing him a chair during his match against the Big Red Monster.

While Punk didn't wrestle a match, he did manage to get to Bryan by using Kane as a pawn in his little game of chess.

Speaking of being used as a pawn, anyone get the feeling that that's what AJ is doing with Punk?

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

1. Sheamus (Last Week: 1)

No one's hotter right now than The Great White.

After getting a big victory at Over the Limit, he followed that up with a DQ win in the main event of Raw and a nice win over Jack Swagger on SmackDown.

While many of the WWE's other top stars lost and/or didn't have great weeks, Sheamus racked up two big wins and then laid out Alberto Del Rio at the conclusion of SmackDown.

Though things were looking a little shaky for Sheamus before Over the Limit, he now appears to be firmly entrenched as the World Heavyweight Champion and one of the WWE's top stars.

That's assuming that John Laurinaitis doesn't screw him over, though.

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.