Wrestler Wrankings™: 2012-2013 Season, Week 25

Welcome once again to Wrestler Wrankings™; the humble scorekeeper for the world's premiere form of competitive sport.

Recently, questions have abounded about Wrestler Wrankings™ and the purpose it serves to the wrestling community. I thought I'd use this platform to address these queries by restating the purpose of this column for the benefit of those that might not have been with us from the start.

We already know that professional wrestling is the purest form of sport and that's why we love it. There is no better measure of a man (or diva) than how he fares in single combat against a worthy foe in a public arena. But in these modern times, wrestling has become more than that. There is an entire industry built upon the foundation of sport that often augments the in-ring action, and sometimes overshadows it. Wrestlers are judged on how entertaining their ring entrance is, how cool their outfits are, how much merchandise they move, how engaging they are in interviews, and many other non-sporting factors.

Furthermore, beyond tracking the current champions, wrestling has always resisted formalized systems of ranking the athletes. The reasons for this are likely vast. Most obvious among them is the flexibility afforded to promoters of a given wrestling event to make matches that may make sense from a political or financial point of view, but less from a pure sporting standpoint. This phenomenon is not unique to WWE. Major team sports offer a contrived schedule of contests that their teams play as an excuse for mismatches, while Ultimate Fighting Championship's matchups are often at the whims of company executives. Take this weekend's Jon Jones title defense against Vitor Belfort. In a pure rankings standpoint, Vitor would be lucky to be regarded as a top 50 competitor in the Light Heavyweight division. Without anyone keeping score, we get matches like this.

It's human nature to take extraneous factors into account when evaluating wrestlers, since we often have trouble determining what is important when many factors are in play. The purpose of Wrestler Wrankings™ is to strip away all the fluff and get directly down to the sporting spirit of wrestling. Our sport has a long and sordid history but the one thing that has remained constant is the objective of victory and the pursuit of championships. It's no coincidence that those are the only two ways to score points in the Wrankings. I argue that as long as those two elements are in place, then everything else will follow. Both for the business and the great athletes that we so enjoy watching each week.

The other raison d'être for Wrestler Wrankings™ is to inspire spirited discussion. Visit our comments section here and elsewhere on Cageside Seats to participate. Also, I'd love to address reader questions on a regular basis. So please follow the brand new @wrankings on Twitter and let me know what topics you'd like me to address in the future. You just might find your question or comment here on the front page.

This week's scores and your Wrankings Top 10, after the formula...

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OFFICIAL WRESTLER WRANKINGS^TM FORMULA:

• ANY WIN = 2 POINTS
• US OR INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE BOUT = 1 POINT
• WWE OR WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE BOUT = 3 POINTS
• NON "BIG 4" PPV = x1.5 BONUS
• SUMMERSLAM, SURVIVOR SERIES, ROYAL RUMBLE = x2 BONUS
• WRESTLEMANIA = x3 BONUS

The wrestler with the highest score when the season culminates at WrestleMania 29 wins the coveted Wrankings Championship!

Now, without further delay, let's get to this week's scores:

Night of Champions PPV, (1.5x bonus already calculated into scores) 9/16/2012:

• John Cena -- 4.5 points (WWE title bout, draw)
• CM Punk -- 4.5 points (WWE title bout, draw)
• Sheamus -- 7.5 points (WHC bout, win)
• Alberto Del Rio -- 4.5 points (WHC bout, no win)
• Antonio Cesaro -- 4.5 points (US title bout, win)
• Zack Ryder -- 4.5 points (battle royale win, US title bout, no win)
• The Miz -- 4.5 points (IC title bout, win)
• Rey Mysterio -- 1.5 points (IC title bout, no win)
• Sin Cara -- 1.5 points (IC title bout, no win)
• Cody Rhodes -- 1.5 points (IC title bout, no win)
• Randy Orton -- 3 points (win)

Raw, 9/17/2012:

• Randy Orton -- 2 points (win)
• Brodus Clay -- 2 points (win)
• Dolph Ziggler -- 2 points (win)
• Damien Sandow -- 2 points (win)
• Wade Barrett -- 2 points (win)

SmackDown 9/21/2012:

• Brodus Clay -- 2 points (win)
• Santino -- 2 points (win)
• Damien Sandow -- 2 points (win)
• Cody Rhodes -- 2 points (win)

WEEK 25 WRANKINGS TOP TEN:

1. SHEAMUS -- 96.5
2. CM Punk -- 69.5
3. Ryback -- 61
4. Alberto Del Rio -- 60.5
5. John Cena -- 42.5
6. Daniel Bryan -- 37
7. Randy Orton -- 34.5
8. Brodus Clay -- 30
9. Dolph Ziggler -- 27.5
10. Santino -- 27.5

Thanks for reading Cageside Wrankers, we'll see you next week!