WWE Superstar Power Rankings for Week of Feb. 9

Coming off a quick turnaround between Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber, this week's edition of the WWE power rankings is SmackDown-heavy. As posturing for WrestleMania season continues, certain WWE Superstars are rising, while others have somewhat faltered. 

Sami Zayn and Dolph Ziggler are each seeing career turnarounds on Raw and SmackDown, respectively, while Braun Strowman has gone back to devouring jobbers as he awaits a potential matchup against Roman Reigns at WWE Fastlane. 

With John Cena facing a two-week reign as a WWE champion headed into an Elimination Chamber match where he can hardly be considered the favorite, will the history-making world champion be able to claim the top spot for one more week? 

10. Sami Zayn

Despite reports from Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Raj Giri of Wrestling Inc) of Sami Zayn having backstage heat, The Underdog from the Underground has been active over the past couple of weeks.

Zayn led the charge to eliminate his rival, Braun Strowman, in the Royal Rumble match, scored an impressive victory over Chris Jericho and was screwed out of potentially winning the United States Championship this past week on Raw. 

Zayn is peaking at the right time, although the WrestleMania card is beginning to fill up with no mention of his name. Given his recent surge, however, if Zayn is indeed in hot water behind the scenes, I'd hate to see how much WWE gets behind him when he gets on its good side. 

9. Bray Wyatt

Bray Wyatt breaks into the top 10 on the strength of growing hype that he may leave Elimination Chamber as WWE champion, per Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Raj Giri of Wrestling Inc). Outside of a strong showing in the Royal Rumble match, WWE has done little to make Wyatt look like the Elimination Chamber favorite he appears to be. 

Wyatt was a secondary character on SmackDown this week, as he appeared in Randy Orton's corner and continued his uninspiring feud with Luke Harper. If this is Wyatt's final week as a WWE Superstar who has never won a world championship, it was quite an uneventful one. 

8. Dolph Ziggler

Dolph Ziggler is getting a lot of focus on SmackDown Live as a sore loser. He is a throwback as a whiny heel who doesn't take kindly to losing, and while the Seattle crowd cheered him as he went ballistic on two lethargic babyfaces, Ziggler has made the proper adjustments to refresh his character after spending years as a fledgling workhorse. 

Ziggler is in the same category as Sami Zayn as somebody who is doing good work but may likely end up mired in a group match at WrestleMania. Either way, it's good to see him move past that "stealing the show" gimmick that he has long since grown out of. 

7. Neville

205 Live has had its problems, mainly being scheduled in a vaunted post-SmackDown time slot in front of a largely sluggish crowd that sometimes seems like it's being held there against its will.

The cruiserweights have also unsurprisingly had their problems connecting with WWE's mainstream audience following their critically acclaimed wrestling showcase during last summer's Cruiserweight Classic. But Neville has stood out as one of the better characters on the entire WWE roster, as the reigning cruiserweight champion has reinvented himself with his king character. 

As NXT champion, Neville had a glaring weakness on the mic, but he has shown marked improvements as arguably the best talker on the entire active cruiserweight roster. Go back and watch his 205 Live interview where he ran down his five potential opponents for Fastlane. Somebody needs to crown that monologue as the king of all promos. 

If WWE wants the cruiserweights to have a chance, it needs to continue to build around its king. 

6. Braun Strowman

WWE went back to basics with Braun Strowman this past Monday with a squash match against multiple opponents, and his stock continues to rise through his current feud against Roman Reigns. There's a good chance Reigns-Strowman ends up being some form of a no-contest to protect both Superstars. 

WWE figures to have big things in store for Strowman at WrestleMania. If nothing else, Strowman could be a reasonable choice to win the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. With a crowded Universal Championship picture on Raw, Strowman figures to a be a lock as the first person to receive a world title shot post-WrestleMania. 

5. Baron Corbin

Baron Corbin gained a career-making pinfall over AJ Styles this past week on SmackDown, and John "Bradshaw" Layfield continues to tout the young star as a future world champion. None of this was by mistake.

Corbin is like Roman Reigns if he was allowed to be more brutally honest with all those people who pay money to boo him. 

If the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal winner isn't Braun Strowman, Corbin makes for an interesting choice as the Battle Royal's first-ever back-to-back winner. 

4. Randy Orton

The RKO resurgence tour continued with a Royal Rumble victory, but it ran into a roadblock following a loss to John Cena in an underwhelming SmackDown main event between the familiar foes.

Orton has his ticket punched to WrestleMania, and he may coast into a potential matchup against Bray Wyatt, but hopefully their anticipated split is well-paced and strategically builds to a crescendo come April. 

3. Samoa Joe

Samoa Joe came in hot, as WWE basically used the Finn Balor template of having a popular former independent wrestling star and NXT champion come in and beat Roman Reigns. Unlike Balor's win, Joe did not go over cleanly, but as a heel, he should't have.

With Seth Rollins currently injured, a previously inevitable Joe-Rollins matchup may not be happening anytime soon, which makes things tricky for The Samoan Submission Machine.  

As long as Joe is aligned with Triple H in the thick of WrestleMania season, he figures to churn out high rankings week in and week out. WWE will need to be smart about having him eventually break away from The Game in a way that allows him to retain his momentum. 

2. Goldberg

Goldberg continues to be the best babyface on the entire Raw roster, and he is poised to become a WWE universal champion headed into WrestleMania. From his bold challenge of Kevin Owens to putting his own name on Chris Jericho's list, Goldberg can do no wrong outside of his mistake-riddled promo on the go-home show before Royal Rumble. 

Goldberg feels like the world champion on the Raw roster, and it only makes sense to raise the stakes as Brock Lesnar continues to obsess over exorcising his Goldberg demons.  

1. John Cena

The 16-time world champion continued his impressive start to 2017 by defeating Randy Orton in the main event of SmackDown Live, but after feuding with one another one too many times over the past decade, the chances of a Cena-Orton WrestleMania match are slim to none. 

The possibility of Cena losing his WWE Championship after just two weeks is real. It also makes sense, as one cannot win 16 world titles in 13 years without a few brief reigns.

Alfred Konuwa is a Featured Columnist and on-air host for Bleacher Report and Forbes. Like him on Facebook.