5 WWE Superstars to Keep You Should Keep Your Eye on in 2012

Kofi Kingston is a superstar who was on his rise to the top, but had it cut short. Randy Orton worked a feud with Kingston and was vocal about Kingston not being ready for the top. Ever since then Kofi has floated around the midcard division for a while. Personally I felt Kofi was ready back when he was in his feud with Randy, but I'm not going to contradict what Orton thought. Kofi is now in a tag team with Evan Bourne, which I am a very big fan of. The problem is there aren't any real tag teams worthy of a rivalry that would keep my attention. I love the pairing of Air Boom, but they are only as good as the team they are facing and right now WWE is lacking in that department.

Regardless of what the tag team division is or isn't doing, Kofi Kingston is ready to move out. He has floated in the midcard division for a while now, and it's time for him to move on up. WWE will need new main event wrestlers in the new year, and Kingston should be one of them. Kingston has a good look, a very unique in ring style, which is a mat wrestling mixed with the high flyer style and agility, and lastly he has pretty decent mic skills when he actually gets a chance to talk.

Zack Ryder is a pretty self explanatory choice. Zack Ryder has had a very big year in 2011, he went from being probably on the company's chopping block, to United States Champion. Talk about an underdog, if someone had said this time last year that Zack Ryder would be a fan favorite and United States Champion, most people would have laughed at you. But here we are in the new year and he is just that, an internet sensation and WWE United States Champski. Ryder has certainly proved he belongs in the WWE spotlight. It will be fun to watch his rise to the top. I love the broski gimmick but as sad as it is to say it, he might need to tone it down a bit if he wants to go into a main event picture. Not to say he needs to drop it entirely, but a tone down would be helpful to his long term career. That said Ryder has a big future in the WWE and 2012 will be a big year for Ryder.

Now Sheamus isn't exactly a "break out" superstar, but he has certainly fallen from his form WWE Championship days. That said, he took a dip to the midcard area, he has started rising back to the upper midcard again, and I think it's safe to say with the right push and rivalry he could easily make it back into the main event, and fit there comfortably. To be completely fair I never liked Sheamus when he debuted and became WWE champion. I thought he was a bit green to really enjoy. Now, however, he has really come into his own and he has really grown on me. I find myself popping for him when he comes out. Sheamus has really spent his time and is paying his dues, and he has really grown as a performer in the ring. I remember when he first came to the WWE I would watch his matches and think "Come on man! Sell a move already!" He has come a long way since then. Even his out of ring charisma has grown leaps and bounds. I'd say if Sheamus had a run as World Heavyweight Champion, or even WWE Champion I'd be behind it.

Ok I will try and keep this short, which will be difficult because I can't say enough about Dolph Ziggler. He IS the future of the WWE. I look at this guy and I think to myself, this guy has it all, there isn't anything to add. Dolph has incredibly in-ring abilities to the point where I get excited to watch him wrestle. That very rarely happens these days for me. I think to myself, with most matches, "ok let's get this over with so we can find out what will happen next." With Dolph Zigger I will stop fast forwarding my DVR to watch him wrestle. I hope EVERY fan appreciates the AMAZING pairing of CM Punk and Dolph Zigger in these more recent weeks on Raw, and their match at the Royal Rumble is going to be off the charts. I will always buy the Royal Rumble because it's the Royal Rumble, but I would buy it just for that match.

With all of that said about his wrestling skills, the exact same can be said about his mic skills. He is simply one of the best talkers in the business. WWE has just barely tapped the surface of that potential lately too. If you ever want to see how good he can be check out some of the videos he does on Z! True Long Island Story. He is an amazing talker. Flat out he should teach classes.

Dolph is so ready to be a World Champion, the WWE actually tried to tweek his gimmick a few months back. The shaved down his trademark long blonde, Kurt Hennig like, hair and dyed it brown. It stayed like that for I think a grand total of a week, two tops. They immediately died it bleach blonde again and let it grow out. There really isn't anything else you can do for this kid other than give him a good rivalry and let him go, he will do the rest, believe me. If 2012 isn't the year the Ziggler doesn't win a world title I will be blown away.

Cody Rhodes...I can't believe how incredible this guy has gotten. Talk about going from 0-60 in the blink of an eye. I remember, not long ago mind you, when this guy bored the awake out of me. I mean his wrestling was technical and smooth, but unimpressive and boring. His mic skills were there, but he just wasn't doing anything entertaining at all. I remember thinking to myself how can this kid be the son of The American Dream and brother of Goldust and be so damn boring?! I am happy to say Rhodes has shut me up and shut me up good. He has turned everything around.

His wrestling skills are still sharp and crisp, but now he knows how to work a crowd during the match and really build the momentum up. He really has always had that skill, now that he's been put in the right direction it shines through. That was something that really could only be built over time, with experience.

His mic skills on the other hand are what really blows me away. Again I knew they were there, I remember when Dusty Rhodes was being inducted into the Hall of Fame, Cody was working in WWE Developmental at the time and no one really knew who he was, I didn't even know he had any kind of contract with the WWE, and he started talking to introduce his dad. I was sitting with my father and just looked over at him and said, "Someone get this man a damn WWE contract." That is how impressed I was by him. Then he came to the WWE and I just thought blah he is more vanilla than I remember. Well he started doing his "dashing" gimmick and it was better, but not a whole lot. It was a step in the right direction lets say that. Then they did the broken face/paper bag gimmick and it was a definite improvement. Slowly he started turning that into the demented gimmick. Man can he rock that demented gimmick like a champ. It is just bloody brilliant. Cody has really done a phenomenal job with his character. He has come leaps and bounds and is really going to skyrocket in 2012.