Power Ranking WWE's 10 Top Performers For September 2016

Here's an entry that could have quite easily gone the other way, and were it not for what was probably the best singles match of his WWE career at Backlash, likely would have. Dean Ambrose is a guy who has been "on the cusp" for a couple of years now, and every time it seems like he's hit a breakthrough something knocks him back down a peg or two.

Steve Austin personally challenged "The Lunatic Fringe" not to ease off the gas when he interviewed the WWE World champ during his Network podcast, and for a while there it felt like Dean ignored his advice and did exactly that. It even became a talking point during a recent John Cena promo where he called Ambrose out on it. As one of the faces of SmackDown, Dean had a lot hoisted onto his shoulders and he managed to handle it admirably.

His brief feud against Dolph Ziggler ended definitively in the former champ's favor, with Ambrose showing a bit of the intense heel we all know he has the potential to be. Ultimately he conquered Dolph - something everyone seems to do these days - and was thrust immediately into a program with AJ Styles that delivered one of the best matches we've seen since the brand split, as well as going a long way toward silencing Dean's increasingly vocal critics.

Pound-for-pound Ambrose is still one of the most talented guys on the entire roster, and since I doubt many people expect him to regain the championship at No Mercy, it'll be interesting to see where he goes once he's out of the world title picture. He's going to have to fight to hold onto his position in these rankings, but as long as the people love him he has an advantage that most don't.

It doesn't hurt that he just scored a clean pinfall over John Cena and, in addition to No Mercy, will have not one, but two opportunities to regain the title he lost to Styles when he faces him on next week's SmackDown.