Wrestlezone Presents: The Depth Chart – February Edition
Hosted by Mike Killam – @MikeKillam
Wrestlezone readers, welcome to the new and improved version of “The Depth Chart”! We’ve listened to your opinions, taken your pleas into account, and after hours of painstaking work in our secret laboratories we have come up with a new system that will take this editorial, and Wrestlezone.com to new limits. While we already laid claim to the title of “best, most interactive rankings in professional wrestling” with our December and January editions, we have further solidified the product and come up with something truly unique.
Note: This month you may see a lot of radical shifts on the list. With the new system in place we basically hit the “refresh” button on the Depth Chart, and will no longer be using the old lists. Instead I’ve personally gone back and recalculated the positions of each and every wrestler in WWE and TNA since Survivor Series (when we held the first ever issue of the Depth Chart). That data will be used going forward, so think of this as just another Issue #1.
Wrestlezone Fan Vote
This is where the “interactive” part of the Depth Chart comes into play. Every month leading up to WWE’s big Pay-Per-View event we poll our Wrestlezone readers and ask you to submit your Top 5 lists. From there we put together an official ranking based on the choices of our wonderful fans. This month we accepted 214 lists, totaling approximately 1,070 individual wrestler votes. Here is what you came up with:
Thoughts on this month’s Fan Vote: Why does the internet still have a fascination with Zack Ryder? I called it months ago: WWE is going to milk his popularity for all that it’s worth before discarding him and/or throwing him to the wolves. What did Ryder do since the Royal Rumble that earns him a spot on this list!? The Dolph Ziggler love is a bit more understood, but I can’t say it’s any more deserving…
Who’s Not on the Chart?
Dolph Ziggler: “The Showoff” came close this month – really close. At the close of 2011 Ziggler was prime for a main event push, eventually culminating with a WWE Championship match at the Royal Rumble against CM Punk. Since then Ziggler has continued putting on clinics inside the ropes, but he’s also lost most of his matches. With no discernible focus and a losing effort at the Elimination Chamber it was hard to justify his place among the “immortals” this time around. But trust me whe I say it was REALLY CLOSE.
The Miz & Kofi Kingston: Neither really shocks me with their placement this month – they both came close, but ultimately failed to make the cut. The Miz is a former WWE Champion struggling to find his place in a rapidly moving upper-midcard and main event picture. Kofi Kingston is the “over-looked” high flyer with proven ability both in the ring and on the mic. What’s more? Both men nailed it this month and earned access into the Elimination Chamber – if things keep up for them going into WrestleMania 28, the chart could look VERY different next time around…
Chris Jericho: And here is where I’m going to get the most crap out of any other part of this month’s Depth Chart. Chris Jericho is one of my all-time favorites, often rotating with Shawn Michaels and Triple H for the #1 spot in my head (and my heart…). But what has he done since returning? He’s “trolled” an audience, made lofty claims and followed through on exactly NONE of them. What that amounts to is a loss at the Royal Rumble and a semi-loss at the Elimination Chamber. Good as that ONE promo was, it’s not good enough to justify putting him over others who have spent every single week running the ropes and working the mic.
And now… on with the real show!
