Ray's 'Rasslin' Rankings - As of June 21st 2011

The following article was originally published at 1Wrestling.com. You can view the original piece 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 wrestlers ranked in this special Post-Capitol Punishment edition of the rankings...

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 21st 2011:

Welcome to a special post-Capitol Punishment edition of RAY’S ‘RASSLIN’ RANKINGS. Two title changes at the Pay-Per View and some big wins on Monday Night Raw – let’s see how it affects the rankings!

I was more than pleased to see CM Punk rise to the number 1 Contendership spot in the RAW rankings this week. He had a fantastic, old fashioned “Rasslin” match with Cena on Raw last week and if you remember I stated I hoped that this was a foreshadowing of things to come between these two. Well, I didn’t have to wait long - a great win over Rey Mysterio at the Pay-Per View was followed up with a three-way victory on RAW. Whilst three-ways are such a tired and over –done concept these days, I felt this was a truly excellent TV match. Following John Cena’s largely forgettable program with R-Truth, CM Punk is the shot in the arm the stale WWE main event scene needs right now.

Another guy on the rise is Ezekiel Jackson. Big Zeke has an impressive 3-1 win record so far this month and knocks off Wade Barrett for the Intercontinental strap at Capitol Punishment. Whilst the IC Title no longer means your number 1 Contender in waiting like the old days, it does still have plenty of prestige and certainly a sign that Jackson is nearing Everest.

In just a matter of weeks Alex Riley has gone from lackey to leader in the RAW locker room. A win over the Miz, arguably the biggest of his career, earns him his debut in the top 10 rankings. Riley looked comfortable alongside Orton and Cena in the main event, could we be on the cusp of seeing WWE’s latest breakout star? Time will tell.

Well folks, that’s all for now. Not much movement elsewhere given the short period since my last update, but be sure to join me next Monday for the next instalment of Ray’s Rasslin Rankings exclusively here on 1Wrestling.com!

As always, if you have any comments or questions pertaining to the rankings, feel free to drop me a line at raymullan@gmail.com or tweet me via @raymullan. Thanks for reading, see you next week!