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TORCH RAW POLL ANALYSIS: MVP voting during WrestleMania season - Best Legend, Best Diva, Edge vs. Christian, Bottom-rung MVP recipient Apr 29, 2009 - 4:16:25 PM
After looking at the MVP of Raw during "WrestleMania" season, I'm going to look at some other miscellaneous categories from the January 26 - April 20 editions of Raw. A spreadsheet in Excel can yield plenty of ways to look at how Torch readers voted in the weekly polls.
Top Legend category
"WrestleMania season" was all about Ricky Steamboat, who made four appearances on Raw during WM season and he received an average of 24 percent of MVP votes from Torch readers. It helped that he picked up 59 percent of votes the night after WrestleMania and 26 percent of the vote for his promo exchange against Chris Jericho on the February 23 edition.
During "WrestleMania season," there was plenty of cross-over between brands. ECW and Smackdown wrestlers were regularly featured on Raw to help promote WM matches and participate in the brand split.
Former ECW champion Jack Swagger would be the top vote-getter based on him grabbing 51 percent of the votes for his one appearance on Raw during the April 13 Draft.
Looking at non-Raw brand wrestlers with a minimum of four appearances on Raw, Christian took the higher percentage of MVP votes with 3.8 percent than Edge, who was slightly below him at 3.7 percent.
Analyzing the results for top diva during "WrestleMania season" is a tough task because I often do not include every single diva who appears on Raw during the weekly polls. There are only 20 slots available in our Poll system, so if I included every diva in an eight-diva tag match, some of the more-deserving males would be squeezed out. (As you'll see in the next category, perhaps Big Show would qualify).
Looking at each diva no matter how many times she appeared on Raw, Maryse would win the Top Diva category with a 5.0 percent average for her two appearances in the Raw poll. Looking at "regularly scheduled divas" with a minimum of four appearances, Mickie James would take the Top Diva category with 1.8 percent.
Ah, yes, the final category. Headlining the "worst of the MVP vote recipients" are Randy Orton's running mates, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase.
Torch readers showed them no love for their weekly supporting role to the WrestleMania season MVP, Orton. Some weeks, I included them together as one poll option. Some weeks, I kept them separate. Regardless, they both ended up with 0.4 percent of the voting.
The male models were followed by Big Show, who was essentially penciled in for a "friends and family" vote on a weekly basis. Big Show's scorecard for his eight appearances on Raw to promote the Edge vs. Cena vs. Show match at WrestleMania looked like a very low-scoring baseball game. Five solo home runs, three innings with goose-eggs, perhaps an error by the first baseman mixed in, and he didn't need to bat in the bottom of the ninth to secure the victory.
After Male Models and Big Show, the least-of-Raw were mid-carders not given much love on WWE TV and not given much love from Torch readers. Cryme Tyme, William Regal, Kane, Mike Knox, Rey Mysterio, C.M. Punk, and Kofi Kingston rounded out the rest of the field, with Rey being the obvious surprise.
Bottom 10 MVP Weekly Averages: Jan. 26 - Apr. 20
(1t) Cody Rhodes - 0.4 percent (9 appearances)
(1t) Ted DiBiase, Jr. - 0.4 percent (7 apps)
(3) Big Show - 0.6 percent (8 apps)
(4) Cryme Tyme - 0.8 percent (5 apps)
(5) William Regal - 1.0 percent (5 apps)
(6) Kane - 1.1 percent (8 apps)
(7t) Mike Knox - 1.4 percent (5 apps)
(7t) Rey Mysterio - 1.4 percent (11 apps)
(9) C.M. Punk - 1.8 percent (10 apps)
(10) Kofi Kingston - 2.0 percent (5 apps)
Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.
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AND NEW FOR 2009! Monthly "Vintage Audio Torch Talks." We are releasing for the first time ever audio versions of our text Torch Talk updates, the historical first series of insider interviews ever. Wade Keller's newsmaking in-depth interviews with wrestling's biggest names are now being made available exclusively to VIP members. But you must be a member each month, as these are not archived, so they are replaced with a new one each month! This debuted in January 2009 with a 68 minute interview with the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Who's next? Hulk Hogan? Eric Bischoff? The Rock? Goldberg? Jeff Hardy?
