By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

Who was the MVP of Raw during "WrestleMania season" - Chris Jericho or Randy Orton?

The "WrestleMania season" for our intents and purposes is January 26 - April 20 just before the Backlash PPV on April 26. We're calling it Season One of our Raw MVP poll tracking.

-- First, I looked at the number of times Jericho and Orton won the weekly MVP poll. That didn't provide the answer, as each man took three (3) MVPs during Mania season.

I then looked at the number of Top Five finishes in each week's Raw MVP poll. That didn't give me an answer, either, as each man took ten (10) Top Five finishes in the weekly MVP polls.

-- Without the Jericho vs. Orton question answered by the first two categories, I took each wrestler's percentage of votes for each of the 12 weeks of TV during "WrestleMania season." Both Orton and Jericho were on each week of TV during the season, which made this an apples to apples comparison.

The result was Randy Orton 17.2 percent and Chris Jericho 16.4 percent, giving Orton the MVP of Raw victory during WrestleMania season.

In a head-to-head comparison on a week-to-week basis, each took six weeks. However, Orton won by a wider margin in his six victories. Jericho picked up a few small-margin victories, such as 6 percent to 4 percent on March 16 and 5 percent to 4 percent on April 13.

The third wheel throughout this discussion has been Shawn Michaels, who scored two MVP victories during "WrestleMania season" and six Top Five finishes. He came in third place calculating out the percentages with 10.7 percent.

To clarify the rankings, I was looking at full-time wrestlers with a minimum of five TV appearances during the 12-week period. Otherwise, Ricky Steamboat would have trumped everyone with a 24.0 percent average with four weeks of TV to his name.

The next race I was focused on was John Cena vs. Santino Marella in the MVP voting. Cena appeared on all 12 of the 12 applicable weeks of TV in the tabulation, whereas Santino appeared on ten weeks of TV.

Neither Cena nor Santino scored an MVP victory, but they each had four Top Five finishes during WrestleMania season. The final result was 4.5 percent for Cena and 4.4 percent for Santino.

The average showed Cena, but in a head-to-head comparison, Santino had the highest one-week percentage of 13 percent for the April 6 Raw following WrestleMania. Cena's highest one-week percentage was 10 percent for the March 2 Raw.

Top 10 MVP Weekly Averages: Jan. 26 - Apr. 20
(1) Randy Orton - 17.2 percent (12 appearances)
(2) Chris Jericho - 16.4 percent (12 apps)
(3) Shawn Michaels - 10.7 percent (9 apps)
(4) Ric Flair - 10.2 percent (5 apps)
(5) Triple H - 8.0 percent (9 apps)
(6) John Cena - 4.5 percent (12 apps)
(7) Santino Marella - 4.4 percent (10 apps)
(8) Shane McMahon - 3.9 percent (7 apps)
(9) Edge - 3.7 percent (9 apps)
(10) JBL - 2.4 percent (8 apps)

Next up, I'll break down the MVP voting by Divas, by Legends, and by off-brand appearances, such as Smackdown and ECW wrestlers making special appearances.

READ MORE: Full break down of Total MVPs and Top Five finishes

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