Throughout the weekend ahead of our live Great American Bash coverage on Sunday night, we’re posting our half-year awards, looking at the best and the worst of WWE in the first half of 2008.

So far on we’ve posted our awards for the following (click links to view our picks and reasons for them):

- Worst in-ring performer in the WWE
- Least improved wrestler of the year so far
- Worst WWE PPV of the year so far
- Worst announcer in the WWE (aka The Adamle Award)
- Worst feud/storyline in the WWE in 2008 so far
- Worst match in the WWE
- Worst on-screen character in the WWE
- Most improved wrestler of the year so far
- Best WWE PPV of the year so far
- Best WWE TV show
- Best announcer in the WWE
- Best feud/storyline in the WWE
- Best match in the WWE so far

Our next award is for the Best on-screen character in the WWE so far this year, plus later on today ahead of our live PPV coverage, we’ve got our final award, that being for the Best in-ring performer in the WWE in 2008.

Best on-screen character in the WWE

Phil Lowe: This is such a tough one, as there are a number of names who have made their segments on TV “must see”. Chris Jericho’s stuff since the end of the awful JBL program has been fantastic, Vickie Guerrero’s heel heat has been nothing less than a joy to watch given how awful she was when she first appeared on TV and Santino’s midcard comedy stuff has been awesome.

But for me, Edge wins this. He’s the best heel in the business, and he’s one of the few top level bad guys who the crowd really hate rather than cheer because they think they look cool.

Mark Bright: Edge, who just about takes this ahead of Vickie Guerrero and Shawn Michaels.

Vickie’s “Excuse me! Excuse me! I have something to say!” is the catchphrase of the year and the heat she gets is really a sight to behold. And Shawn has been fantastic in cutting the best promos of his whole career this year.

But Edge is just magnificent. He can get himself over in long 20-minute promos without losing my interest as a viewer, and he can equally get himself over with a minor facial expression or change of attitude and body language in a split second. His reactions on the Raw draft show saw great examples of this.

Batista moving to Raw saw him as the cocky arrogant heel mocking his rival for losing his chance to beat him, and then when HHH was drafted to Smackdown, Edge was only caught on camera for such a short time that if you blinked you’d have missed it. But he looked crushed and scared at the same time, which is exactly how he should be reacting at that moment.

Michael Campbell: Chris Jericho. Wow. Who would have thought this six months ago? Jericho is completely rejuvenated in his current role, and is one of Raw’s main highlights. This is the reason that Y2J became popular in the first place, and the guy has finally been able to slip back into the role that first brought him to the dance. He’s suitable for this title because of his innate ability to get across the intricacies of his character, and is utterly compelling.

Oh yeah, I rate Santino an incredibly close second.

Martin Smith: Edge. By far the most entertaining character in WWE right now. The most believable character and the highlight of Smackdown, he’s become one of the main reasons why I watch WWE. Certainly gets my vote.

Steve McLaren: William Regal. As the King of the WWE, Regal ruled so damn much. The going crazy over the fans not giving him any respect was so great and Regal played the role so well. The heat he drew was immense. Just his facial expressions alone summed up his whole heel aura.

James Mustoe: Chris Jericho. After essentially bombing as a top-line babyface on his November return last year, Jericho has rejuvenated himself to come back as a heel that’s easily as over as anything that he’s ever done. The jaded, cynical character that he plays is different to his earlier more comical bad-guy work, and totally worthy of a main event spot. True, he’s only been an outright heel for a couple of weeks as of writing this piece, but this character has drawn my attention like no other in the relatively stale 2008 WWE.

RESULTS:

Edge (3)
Chris Jericho (2)
William Regal (1)