Ray's 'Rasslin' Rankings - As of June 12th 2011

The following article was originally published at 1Wrestling.com. You can view the original article by clicking here.

Each week 1Wrestling.com’s resident rankings expert, Ray Mullan, will be scouting the major North American wrestling promotions in order to bring you an in-depth rankings report for the top championships in Pro Wrestling. Find out where your favourite wrestler's ranked this week...

The Top 10 and Tag-Team rankings are based on television and Pay-Per View win-loss records over the course of the month, quality of opposition, and inherent skill of each wrestler or team. All other rankings are based on the official current positions of challengers to the Top Title in each category (I.E. Should a wrestler win a number 1 contenders match, he will automatically be afforded that ranking regardless of current win-loss record).

The number in parentheses indicates a wrestler’s position in that category in the previous rankings report; (-) indicates that the wrestler was not rated in that category in the last report. (C) indicates the wrestler was champion in that category last report.

Ray’s ‘Rasslin’ Rankings – Period Ending June 12th 2011:

The beginning of the month is always a tumultuous time for the rankings. The Win/Loss records are reset and an upset victory can change entire balance of power. This was evident this week with a pin fall over World Champion Sting catapulting young upstart Gunner into the TNA Top 10 Rankings for the first time. Similarly in WWE, R-Truths victory in Tag-Team action up against John Cena and Alex Riley, albeit a tainted one, saw R-Truth rise to the Number 1 contenders spot.

This was certainly not a good week for the champion, with Randy Orton’s defeat to Sheamus on Smackdown and the aforementioned Sting and John Cena both seeing losses in Tag-Team action this week.

Speaking of tag-team action, I mentioned last week that with Beer Money’s impending hiatus due to Bobby Roode’s injury, the number 1 spot was wide open for a hungry tag-team to snatch. With Beer Money’s temporary replacements “Gun Money” on the end of a defeat to Mexican America on IMPACT Wrestling, the aptly named “World’s Best Tag-Team” have now consolidated the top spot. Speaking of Mexican America, they jump an impressive five places this week. Love them or hate them, they are a cohesive unit who will surely be in the TNA / IMPACT Wrestling Tag-Title mix in the very near future.

Christian now holds the number one contenders spot on Smackdown, if only as a result of his impending title shot. Make no mistake Sheamus (who defeated Smackdown’s Champion, Randy Orton on Friday.) is the real number one contender on merit.

No such controversy at IMPACT Wrestling. Mr. Anderson is catapulted to the top of the rankings with his World title victory over “The Icon” Sting at Slammiversary. The loss, the second in a row this week for the Stinger (although admittedly both under dubious circumstances…) sees him drop to third in the IMPACT Wrestling rankings. The Olympic Gold Medallist Kurt Angle now moves into the Number 1 contenders spot with his superb and long overdue victory over Jeff Jarrett at Slammiversary earning him the Number 1 contendership to the World Heavyweight Title. If his upcoming bout with Mr. Anderson is anything like their feud in 2010, wrestling fans are in for a treat!

Sting should also be wary of losing his number 2 contender ranking as the Crimson juggernaut continues to roll. Another victory at Sunday’s Slammiversary event, this time over former young phenom Samoa Joe sees the Crimson undefeated streak extended and Crimson finally break into the overall Top 10, pushing NWA Heavyweight Champion The Sheik off the ladder. A few more veterens on the receiving end of the “Red Sky” and surely Crimson will be granted a title shot?

Also watch out for WWE’s masked superstars, Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara who’s impressive showing this week continue a good run of form and sees both climb the rankings ladder on their respective brands.

Before I go, I want to thank you dear readers, for the tremendous response to last week’s inaugural edition of this column. I’ve had many requests for inclusion of more promotions in the rankings list, and you will notice I’ve duly delivered with the additions of Ring of Honor and the National Wrestling Alliance. Time permitting, I would like to expand the rankings further and this is where you come in. WWE, TNA/IMPACT Wrestling, ROH and the NWA are widely seen as the major North American promotions, thereafter it gets a little blurry. This is where you come in, is there any other promotion out there that deserves major promotion status and thus be ranked in “Ray’s ‘Rasslin’ Rankings” each week? Feel free to comment and e-mail me thoughts.

Well folks, that’s all for now. If you have any comments or questions pertaining to the rankings, feel free to drop me a line at raymullan@gmail.com. Thanks for reading, see you next week!