5 most important male Superstars in WWE today

The WWE roster is always in a perpetual shift, as pushes can start and stop out of nowhere, injuries can get in the way of major storylines and a new act can swoop in and steal your momentum.

Every show is different, and nearly every match needs a winner and a loser, so it's tough to make it to the top, let alone to stay at that upper echelon for long enough to make a big enough impact.

With the recent shift between Roman Reigns and John Cena, more emphasis than ever has been placed on just who the most important people in the company today are, so now is as good of a time as any for us to take a look at the current roster and determine just who are the top five among the rest.

In the first part of this three-part series, we'll be focusing on the men on Raw and SmackDown, with part two dedicated to the women and part three revolving around the NXT roster.

So which Superstars have an edge over everybody else? Let's take a look.

#1 Roman Reigns

Nothing even has to be said about why Roman Reigns is on this list because it's the biggest topic that has been discussed about WWE for the past several years.

Reigns is absolutely, positively the company's biggest priority and it shows, constantly.

He's been breaking records left and right and is always booked strong, even so much so that he's been given the nicknames of The Big Dog and The Guy with people like John Cena flat out calling him the most important person in the company.

Whether you like it or not, Reigns is numero uno and on a completely different level from everybody else.

#2 John Cena

Make no mistake about it—despite losing to Roman Reigns at No Mercy and not being as active as he used to be, John Cena is still The Franchise Player and the absolute top dog in WWE.

Even before making things official at WrestleMania 21 with his defeat over JBL to win his first world title, Cena was being built up as one of those top guys leading up to that point.

Following that victory, Cena has amassed 16 total world titles among all his other championships and accolades while remaining the face of the company despite constant ridicule and criticism.

He's winding down his career more and more these days and stepping aside while others like Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and more take on his responsibilities, but Cena doesn't stop being one of the absolute most influential people on the roster even when he's away for long stints.

At any point in time, Cena could step into any feud, win any championship, or really do anything and the fans would accept it as being well within the realm of possibility, because he's in that upper echelon that can't be touched—or seen, apparently.

#3 Brock Lesnar

If you draft up a checklist of the qualifications to be considered one of the most important stars, Brock Lesnar has them all covered.

He's a constant main eventer and the current universal champion, he is given the ability to break the rules all the time, he has significant time off, makes more money than most of the talent, has more control over his character and the direction of what he does next, is seemingly exempt from the Wellness Policy testing, very rarely ever loses and when he does, it isn't really in a clean fashion, and he's always referred to as being basically a god among mortals.

What more can you ask for? There's nothing working in contrary to Lesnar being on this list as he might as well change his nickname from The Beast Incarnate to The Most Important Superstar in WWE and have Paul Heyman add that to the typical promo material.

#4 AJ Styles

SmackDown isn't dubbed "the house that AJ Styles built" for no reason.

Despite not being in the company for a decade or anything, The Phenomenal One immediately made an impact and took his spot at the table of the biggest stars in the company.

Right off the bat, Styles was proving he hadn't lost a step in WWE compared to his previous work elsewhere, and for those who weren't familiar with him beforehand, he won them over.

Now, Styles is not only a veteran and a reliable talent entrusted to work with essentially anybody thrown his way, but he's the top babyface on SmackDown Live and the biggest selling point of that entire show, even if he's currently holding the midcard title, which seems like a mix-up between him and Jinder Mahal that should have gone the opposite direction.

More than anybody on SmackDown, including Mahal, Styles is depended on to get people to tune in on Tuesday nights and helps keep the blue brand afloat.

#5 Braun Strowman

There's plenty of other people that could have made the cut for this list but just missed out.

Finn Balor, The Miz, The New Day, Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, Randy Orton, Shinsuke Nakamura and Kevin Owens could have easily turned this into a top 10 list with some leftovers who still need to be mentioned.

However, with the current momentum factored in here, even someone like Owens with his upcoming Hell in a Cell match with Shane McMahon doesn't stand up to the force of Braun Strowman.

Strowman has been on fire in 2017, progressively getting more and more popular with the crowd to the point where there were more than just rumblings about how he should dethrone Brock Lesnar—he actually seemed like the fan favourite and the crowd was upset to see that he lost.

With Mark Henry out of the mix, The Undertaker and Kane retired, and Big Show on his way into the same situation, Strowman is the next generation of WWE's "big man" and unless the company screws it up, he could be one of their biggest attractions for years to come and a true megastar in WWE history.

While everyone else on this list has had their time to shine at the top of the division, Strowman is the representative of what's to come and the future of the business.

Those are my picks, but who do you feel are the top five men in WWE right now? Tell us your list in the comments below!

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