JvK's Six-Factor Model for GWE rankings [BIGLAV]

[JerryvonKramer]

Refining the Ability to work different styles and roles category.

 

- As with all other categories, this is a rating out of 10.

- Workers get a +1 score for each different style or role they can perform capping out at 10

 

Some examples of different roles:

 

+ 1 ability to work face / heel (where worker is typically the other one) [Note: you can't get +2 for working face AND heel, it is expected that every guy would work one or the other, the +1 is recognition of the ability to work both)

+ 1/2/3 ability to get over in multiple markets [Note: 3 = MANY markets, 2 = a few markets, 1 = 2 markets -- for example, Hansen would get a 2 here (WWF, GCW, Japan, PR), whereas Funk would get a 3 (Amarillo, South West, JCP, WWF, WCW, Florida, PR, Japan -- and yes, this gives a natural advantage to NWA champions, my counter to that is: they were NWA champions)

+ 1 ability to work brawls / technical matches (where worker is typically technically grounded in one style or the other)

+ 1 ability to work gimmick matches

+ 1 ability to be an effective tagteam / singles wrestler (where worker is typically associated with the other)

+ 1 ability to be ace / champion / carry a promotion [this is a little gimmie to recognise the importance of aces / champions in wrestling, this is where a Bret Hart can pull back against a Bobby Eaton]

+ 1 ability to carry lesser opponents

+ 1 ability to adapt to opponent's style

 

I am about to start the somewhat ridiculous task of going back through every guy and listing these out. I think that should boost some of the ratings here for different guys. We'll see more 7s and 8s I think.

 

Refining the Variety category.

 

I think here, we need something more concrete. And again this involves painstaking "working out". Elliott's concerns about arbitrariness are real and I share them. I want to try to eliminate any sense of that by showing the workings for EVERY number.

 

With "Variety", the real question is "how many matches / feuds need to count for a 10?" and, more importantly, "where do we set the bar?"

 

I think everyone would agree Flair is a perfect 10 in this category, let me go on Flair and see where we stop:

 

1. Steamboat, 2. Race, 3. Lawler, 4. Kerry von Erich, 5. Jumbo, 6. Martel, 7. DiBiase, 8. Dusty, 9. Windham, 10. Wahoo, 11. Bockwinkel, 12. Magnum TA, 13. Garvin, 14. Morton, 15. Taylor, 16. Luger, 17. Funk, 18. Sting, 19. Savage, 20. Tenryu [... 21. Hogan, 22. Vader, 23. Eaton, 24. Pillman, 25. Arn, 26. Mr. Perfect, 27. Foley, 28. Shawn etc. etc. etc. WOOOOOO! I love you Ric! #mark4life lol]

 

Okay, we reached 20 different guys who had very good to great matches and / or memorable feuds with him. And without really stretching. So let's say 20 is the mark for a perfect 10?

 

Let's see how Jumbo goes ...

 

1. Dory Funk Jr, 2. Brisco, 3. Terry Funk, 4. Race, 5. Baba, 6. Kimura, 7. Billy Robinson, 8. Bockwinkel, 9. Slater, 10. Flair, 11. Kerry von Erich, 12. Martel, 13. Choshu / Yatsu, 14. Hansen / DiBiase, 15. Hamaguchi, 16. Williams / Gordy, 17. Tenryu, 18. Kawada, 19. Misawa (+ Kobashi / Kikuchi).

 

Okay, I'm capping out at 19 and after that feels like a stretch.

 

So based on that, is Jumbo a perfect 10 or a 9? Feels like he should be a 9 actually, on the basis that with Flair we might have kept going even further?

 

Let's try Funk:

 

1. Jack / Jerry Brisco, 2. Race, 3. Jumbo, 4. Giant Baba, 5. The Sheik, 6. Abdullah the Butcher, 7. Bockwinkel, 8. Lawler, 9. Hansen, 10. Brody, 11. Colon, 12. Hogan, 13. JYD, 14. Martel, 15. Steamboat, 16. Flair, 17. Eddie Gilbert, 18. Cactus Jack, 19. Sabu, 20. Onita

 

Less of a canter than Flair but he got there.

 

Okay, 20 is the perfect 10 barrier.

 

So let's go like this:

 

20+ opponents = 10

18-19 opponents = 9

16-7 opponents = 8

14-5 opponents = 7

12-3 opponents = 6

10-11 opponents = 5

8-9 opponents = 4

6-7 opponents = 3

3-5 opponents = 2

1-2 opponents = 1

 

I think that is a fair curve. The key idea he is "how are are we stretching?" You can see with the above that with Flair is was totally relaxed and easy, we could keep going. With Jumbo much beyond that 19 mark is a stretch, the most questionable inclusion is the Hamaguchi match from 1986, which I enjoyed and which jdw has pimped for years, but which didn't make the AJPW 80s set (for example). With Funk, we were stretching a bit less, but much beyond 20 and we might be reaching a little bit.

 

Okay, I will begin going through every guy in this way. What the hell have I got myself in for!

[Childs]

 

With Jumbo much beyond that 19 mark is a stretch, the most questionable inclusion is the Hamaguchi match from 1986, which I enjoyed and which jdw has pimped for years, but which didn't make the AJPW 80s set (for example).

 

Match did make the set and finished 100th in the voting.

[andrew79]

Let's see how Jumbo goes ...

 

1. Dory Funk Jr, 2. Brisco, 3. Terry Funk, 4. Race, 5. Baba, 6. Kimura, 7. Billy Robinson, 8. Bockwinkel, 9. Slater, 10. Flair, 11. Kerry von Erich, 12. Martel, 13. Choshu / Yatsu, 14. Hansen / DiBiase, 15. Hamaguchi, 16. Williams / Gordy, 17. Tenryu, 18. Kawada, 19. Misawa (+ Kobashi / Kikuchi).

 

Okay, I'm capping out at 19 and after that feels like a stretch.

Dick Murdoch, Mil Mascaras, and Dos Caras.

[JerryvonKramer]

 

 

With Jumbo much beyond that 19 mark is a stretch, the most questionable inclusion is the Hamaguchi match from 1986, which I enjoyed and which jdw has pimped for years, but which didn't make the AJPW 80s set (for example).

 

Match did make the set and finished 100th in the voting.

 

 

I was running a search on my ratings for "Animal" and it's listed as Higo Hamaguch, lol

 

Okay it was on the set.

 

I gave it a **1/2, but think it is "memorable". Could be replaced with ....

 

 

 

Let's see how Jumbo goes ...

 

1. Dory Funk Jr, 2. Brisco, 3. Terry Funk, 4. Race, 5. Baba, 6. Kimura, 7. Billy Robinson, 8. Bockwinkel, 9. Slater, 10. Flair, 11. Kerry von Erich, 12. Martel, 13. Choshu / Yatsu, 14. Hansen / DiBiase, 15. Hamaguchi, 16. Williams / Gordy, 17. Tenryu, 18. Kawada, 19. Misawa (+ Kobashi / Kikuchi).

 

Okay, I'm capping out at 19 and after that feels like a stretch.

 

Dick Murdoch, Mil Mascaras, and Dos Caras.

 

Mil / Dos would go together.

 

Murdoch matches personally put me to sleep, but if it can get him to 20 maybe?

[andrew79]

Murdoch matches personally put me to sleep, but if it can get him to 20 maybe?

No, use your preferences for your list.

[JerryvonKramer]

Well this is really the question. Hamaguchi, Murdoch and Mil / Dos are stretch cases on the border. And my thought is probably to cut it at 18 and give Jumbo 9/10. However, consistency is pretty key here. I will likely give Kawada the bone of the Gary Allbright match, despite the fact I didn't see what the fuss was about and thought it was average at best. But it's still "memorable".

 

Kawada vs. Allbright is about as low as I'm prepared to set that bar. In that same bucket I'd have stuff like DiBiase vs. Virgil (very memorable, very over, not great matches), and so on. I'm kinda thinking Hamaguchi, Murdoch and Mil / Dos matches are below that for Jumbo.

 

Tenryu's match with Mil would likely make the cut.

 

Hope that makes sense. These are difficult margin calls.

[Matt D]

Variety: It's tricky to me. During the same period, someone might have the same match for 6 months with the same opponent in WWF and someone else might be going from territory to territory -facing dozens of opponents.

 

Also, I think Psychology should be weighted more than Offense or Selling.

[JerryvonKramer]

Matt, psychology is weighted more than offense and selling because Great Matches is a metric and you can't really have lots of great matches with no psychology (whereas you can without the other two), so it is de facto factored in more.

[Matt D]

Matt, psychology is weighted more than offense and selling because Great Matches is a metric and you can't really have lots of great matches with no psychology (whereas you can without the other two), so it is de facto factored in more.

 

De facto weighing seems to get away from the purpose behind this a little, no? Unless of course you find a way to be transparent about it.

[JerryvonKramer]

Well I'm not sure how to be more transparent than this. The great matches ratings come from reviews I've done all over the place and in audio form, and I take a "great match" to be ****1/2+

 

And almost every match I have given ****3/4 or more (see top 100 list) will almost certainly have great psychology.

[ohtani's jacket]

The length of peak category seems a mess to me. I think you'd be better off redefining it as the number of years they were a good or great worker, because there's no way that some of these guys were "best in the world" for as long as you state (if at all) unless you have a broad definition of best in the world. How do you define best in the world? Top 10? Top 20? The way you've set it up dozens upon dozens of guys can be classified as best in the world at any one time.

 

One other thing, if you put Breaks through this, there's no way he can finish in your top 10. Are you going to make exceptions or will this affect your actual rankings?

[JerryvonKramer]

It's nominally top 30 in the world OJ.

 

And Breaks should do well based on his base rating, intangibles, peak and variety, although he might finish lower than a free form list.

 

I am struggling to get Jumbo up with Funk and Flair though, and this could be an issue.

[ohtani's jacket]

If it's top 30, then I don't see how you can realistically have Arn as top 30 in the world from 1986-96, for example. Arn's peak was pretty clearly 1991-92 and in those years he'd have a realistic chance of being top 30 in the world. I know you don't like the Manny/Rude team, but it seems inconsistent to me that you shorten Rude's peak (and, tbh, Arn's '93 is no better than Rude's) while giving Arn a full 10 years. Then there's guys like Ole Anderson, who I kind of doubt was ever a top 30 guy. Guys like Eddie and Benoit's peak seem to start latter than general consensus while other guys are hindered by footage issues, but Baba from '69-79 seemed odd to me because we have footage of him from earlier than 1969. The '69 thing in itself seems little more than probable to me unless you watch as much footage as you can from '69.

[JerryvonKramer]

I don't see any circumstances in which Arn is not in my top 30 in the world from 86-96.

 

On some of the others, I really don't think Rude is good before 89.

 

Baba starts 69 because of footage issues, ditto Dory. For some of those guys it is "I can point to footage of them in this year being demonstrably world class wrestlers". I've seen the Bruno match from 67 and it bored me to tears.

 

Eddie and Benoit I started in WCW and need to think about that more. Honestly I'm not sure I'd pick either for a top 30 earlier than that. But I'd be happy to hear cases. In my mind they are "tremendously promising" before the dates I picked.

 

Point taken on Ole too, I went back and forth on that and may have made the wrong call. His score is low anyway, but removing that would put him at 13 and rank bottom. Maybe that is right.

 

I'm willing to listen to arguments for lengthening or shortening particular peaks. I was happy to give Misawa till 03. I'm not happy to shorten Arn's because I do believe he was an elite world class worker in every single one of those years.

[ohtani's jacket]

If you look at the rspw awards, Benoit was voted the best non-American worker in the world for 1994 and 1995. For the Observer awards, he finished third in the Most Outstanding Wrestler category in 1994 and first in the Best Technical Wrestler category. In 1995, he finished fourth in the MOW category and was again voted the Best Technical Wrestler.

 

Eddie was actually 5th in the Wrestler of the Year voting for the 1995 WON awards, second in the Most Outstanding Wrestler category, and third in the Best Technical Wrestler category. In 1994, Los Gringos Locos were big winners in both the rspw and WON awards. Objectively speaking, regardless of personal taste, both guys were considered top 30 in the world in the '94-95 period.

[JerryvonKramer]

Happy to move those two guys back to 94. Honestly, I was thinking more of Eddie in 89 (Funk match) and Benoit vs. 2 Cold in 93.

 

I have not much explored their earlier careers outside of a handful of matches.

[jdw]

Someone might want to dig up the 1990 WON Yearbook Worker poll. Suspect Benoit / Wild Pegasus was on it. He certainly was by 1992 when the Torch took the Poll over with pretty much the same voters.

 

People liked Chris a good deal before 1994, and you'd seem him very comfortably in a Top 30 in the World listing. Granted, Lucha didn't do well in those polls, and certainly not in a way modern (i.e. This Board and other Lucha Re/New Watchers) would rank lucha workers in 1990-95.

[elliott]

Happy to move those two guys back to 94. Honestly, I was thinking more of Eddie in 89 (Funk match) and Benoit vs. 2 Cold in 93.

 

I have not much explored their earlier careers outside of a handful of matches.

 

I love Eddy but he wouldn't even be a top 100 worker in the world in 1989. 1994 feels like the earliest for Eddy as a top 30 guy.

[andrew79]

The Benoit-Liger series from 90-92 confirms he was a top level worker back then. 8/19/90, 11/1/90, 7/4/91, 10/18/91, 2/10/92, 8/12/92 are all worth a watch.

[jdw]

The Benoit-Liger series from 90-92 confirms he was a top level worker back then. 8/19/90, 11/1/90, 7/4/91, 10/18/91, 2/10/92, 8/12/92 are all worth a watch.

 

He was thought of as a top worker at the time in that time frame. But whether his work in that period would still be thought of highly by some in this post-juniors-revisist era where a chunk of juniors stuff isn't rated as highly, and also post-murderer era where a lot of people (myself included) have a tough time watching his stuff... who knows.

 

Looking at Loss' Monthly and Top 100 lists for 1990-1993, here's what pops up for the period:

 

Jushin Liger vs Pegasus Kid (NJPW 08/19/90) ***1/2 (#94)

Jushin Liger vs Wild Pegasus (NJPW 11/01/90) ***1/4

 

Pegasus Kid vs Norio Honaga (NJPW 04/30/91) (less then ***)

Jushin Liger vs Pegasus Kid (NJPW 07/04/91) ***

Chris Benoit vs Dave Finlay (CWA Vienna 08/18/91) ***1/2

 

Pegasus Kid & Negro Casas vs El Hijo del Santo & Villano III (UWA 01/19/92) ***1/4

Pegasus Kid vs Villano III (UWA 01/26/92) ***1/2

Jushin Liger vs Pegasus Kid (NJPW 02/10/92) ****1/2 (#26)

Wild Pegasus vs 2 Cold Scorpio (NJPW 04/16/92) ***3/4 (#95)

Jushin Liger vs Wild Pegasus (NJPW 08/12/92) ****1/2 (Loss appears to have missed in the year end ranking)

Chris Benoit vs 2 Cold Scorpio (WCW SuperBrawl III 02/21/93) **** (#69)

Jushin Liger vs Chris Benoit (AWF 03/04/93) ***3/4

Chris Benoit & Bobby Eaton vs Marcus Bagwell & 2 Cold Scorpio (WCW Slamboree 05/23/93) ***

Wild Pegasus vs El Samurai (NJPW Top of the Super Juniors Final 06/14/93) ****1/4 (#49)

 

That's pretty far from blow away ratings/rankings. The 1990 stuff, for example, he thought were good in writing them up, but wasn't blow away by them.

 

I don't think how Loss sees them in inconsistent with how a number of others would these days. In contrast, one could roll out the Meltzer snowflakes for these, which would be "overall" higher. Dave's ratings would be pretty consistent with what the consensus on Chris was at the time.

[JerryvonKramer]

I probably won't go back before 94 for Benoit.

[jdw]

I understand.

 

My comment is that a fair number of people would go back to 90, while a fair number would go later. The consensus on Benoit was clear at a time, and has gotten fuzzy since due to (i) Juniors Revisit and (ii) Dude's a fucking murderer.

 

* * * * *

 

Edited comment: I'd add that there is rarely a black/white with any of these guys.

 

People have Flair's "prime" going to 1994, and starting in 1974. On the back end, I wouldn't go past 1991 and would probably have to fight my "I'd just as soon never watch one of his matches again" feelings to include 1991. On the front end, none of us have seen enough 1974 stuff to firmly state that May 1974 to Dec 1974 Flair was already "prime" Ric Flair as he was cutting his teeth in Mid Atlantic. It's frankly hard to believe that he was "prime Flair" by that point. 1975? 1976? 1977? Probably in that period, and probably closer to 1976 than 1977.

 

I like Jumbo's match with Brisco in 1974, and like what he's shown up to that point a good deal. But I would call 1973-74 Jumbo "prime". It's promising for a young wrestler. I'm not sure he's in his prime in 1975, though he's perfectly good. On the other hand, there's enough stuff to point to in 1976 with some variety to say the kid is pretty damn good by that point. He's good enough in 1976-78 that by the time one comes across a mediocre match like the 1978 one with Flair that it jumps out at you as, "Holy shit... this is a pretty substandard match involving Jumbo... and it sure as hell isn't Jumbo making this mediocre." Just to be clear: that doesn't mean that Flair is a bad worker, but instead is poor in that match against that opponent in that setting.

 

So some might see prime Jumbo as 1973-92 or 1974-92 or 1974-92. I'm more a 1976 starting point, with 1991 being clearly still terrific and 1992 bearing closer scrutiny on any fading due to the health. That last that I looked at some stuff in 1992, he was still working good in most of it.

 

Some might see Flair as 1974-94. I don't see past 1991, and find 1974 stretching things. That's not to say he was awful in 1992. Someone can be past their prime and still be good or useful. Tim Duncan has been past him prime for years, but he's still a very good player.

[JerryvonKramer]

First foray into drilling down into the "Ability to work different styles and roles" and Variety ratings. The demand to do this for all 100 people on the list creates decent metrics I think.

Again, these metrics are absolutely demanding a certain amount of engagement and knowledge of each guy. If I can't provide it, I haven't seen enough and he can't make the list. Those I can't provide ratings for become the priorities as we get towards the deadline.

[original Ability to work different ... And Variety ratings included as a comparison point. First ratings were qbrought about by estimation, second by "working it through"]

Flair
Basic (offense, selling, psychology) 2/3 3/3 2/3 +1 (for stamina) = 8
Intangibles 10
Great Matches 10
Length of Peak 8 (78-94)
Ability to work different styles / roles 9
Variety 10

+1 ability to work babyface
+1 ability to carry a promotion / work as ace
+1 ability to work as travelling champion
+1 ability to brawl
+1 ability to work gimmick matches
+1 ability to work tags
+3 ability to get over in multiple markets (every territory, WWF, WCW, Japan)

Ability to work different styles / roles = 9

1. Steamboat, 2. Race, 3. Lawler, 4. Kerry von Erich, 5. Jumbo, 6. Martel, 7. DiBiase, 8. Dusty, 9. Windham, 10. Wahoo, 11. Bockwinkel, 12. Magnum TA, 13. Garvin, 14. Morton, 15. Taylor, 16. Luger, 17. Funk, 18. Sting, 19. Savage, 20. Tenryu

Variety = 20+ opponents = 10

55

Misawa
Basic (offense, selling, psychology) 3/3 3/3 3/3 +1 (for innovation) = 10
Intangibles 6
Great matches 10
Length of Peak 8 (90-04)
Ability to work different styles / roles 4
Variety 6

+1 ability to work as junior
+1 ability to work a different gimmick (Tiger Mask II)
+1 ability to carry a promotion / work as ace
+1 ability to work tags

Ability to work different styles / roles rating = 4

1. Jumbo, 2. Kawada, 3. Kobashi, 4. Taue, 5. Hansen, 6. Gordy, 7. Akiyama, 8. Fuchi, 9. Steve Williams, 10. Johnny Ace, 11. Takayama, 12. Morishima

Variety = 12 opponents = 6

44

Bret Hart
Basic (offense, selling, psychology) 3/3 2/3 3/3 +1 (for execution) = 9
Intangibles 4
Great matches 7
Length of Peak 5 (91-97)
Ability to work different styles / roles 5
Variety 4

+1 ability to work heel
+1 ability to work tags
+1 ability to carry promotion / work as ace
+1 ability to get over in multiple markets (Calgary, WWF, WCW)
+1 ability to work gimmick matches

Ability to work different styles / roles rating = 5

1. Fujinami, Tiger Mask 2. British Bulldogs, 3. Demolition, 4. Brainbusters, 5. Ted DiBiase, 6. Mr. Perfect, 7. Roddy Piper, 8. Jerry Lawler, 9. Owen Hart, 10. Shawn Michaels, 11. Steve Austin, 12. Benoit, 13. Islanders

Variety = 13 opponents = 6

31

Arn Anderson
Basic (offense, selling, psychology) 2/3 2/3 3/3 = 8
Intangibles 7
Great matches 5
Length of Peak 6 (86-96)
Ability to work different styles / roles 3
Variety 7

+1 ability to work babyface
+1 ability to work singles matches
+1 ability to work gimmick matches

Ability to work different styles / roles = 3

1. Rock n Rolls, 2. Road Warriors, 3. Hart Foundation, 4. Windham, 5. Eaton, 6. Steamboat, 7. Dustin Rhodes, 8. Regal, 9. Hogan, 10. Flair, 11. Pillman, 12. Rockers

Variety = 12 opponents = 6

35

Ted DiBiase
Basic (offense, selling, psychology) 2/3 3/3 2/3 = 8
Intangibles 6
Great matches 6
Length of Peak 6 (79-88)
Ability to work different styles / roles 6
Variety 5

+1 ability to work babyface
+1 ability to work a different gimmick (Million Dollar Man)
+1 ability to work brawls
+1 ability to work gimmick matches
+2 ability to get over in multiple markets (Amarillo, WWF, GCW, Mid-South, Japan)

Ability to work different styles / roles rating = 6

1. JYD, 2. Freebirds, 3. Magnum TA, 4. Brad Armstrong, 5. Duggan, 6. Flair, 7. Murdoch, 8. Tenryu, 9. Jumbo, 10. Choshu / Yatsu, 11. Hogan, 12. Savage, 13. Virgil, 14. Jake, 15. Dusty / Dustin Rhodes, 16. Steiners, 17. Harley Race

Variety = 17 opponents = 8

35

Bobby Eaton
Basic (offense, selling, psychology) 3/3 3/3 3/3 +1 (for innovation) = 10
Intangibles 2
Great matches 5
Length of Peak 6 (83-92)
Ability to work different styles / roles 3
Variety 4

+1 ability to work singles
+1 ability to work babyface
+1 ability to get over in multiple markets (Memphis, Mid-South, WCW)
+1 ability to work gimmick matches

Ability to work different styles / roles = 4

1. Mantell / Cobra, 2. Rock n Rolls, 3. Wrestling 2 / Magnum TA, 4. Watts / JYD, 5. Fantastics, 6. Samoan Swat Team, 7. Original Midnight Express, 8. Flair, 9. Arn

Variety = 9 opponents = 4

31

Dory Funk Jr.
Basic (offense, selling, psychology) 2/3 1/3 3/3 +1 (for counter wrestling) = 7
Intangibles 0
Great matches 7
Length of Peak 6 (69-79)
Ability to work different styles / roles 1
Variety 7

+1 ability to work babyface
+1 ability to work as travelling champion
+1 ability to carry promotion / work as company ace
+1 ability to work brawls
+3 ability to get over in multiple markets (every territory, Puerto Rico, WWF, Japan)

Ability to work different styles / roles rating = 6

1. Jack Brisco, 2. Jerry Brisco, 3. Jumbo, 4. Horst Hoffman, 5. Baba, 6. Sheik, 7. Abdullah the Butcher, 8. Inoki, 9. Bruiser Brody, 10. Mike Graham, 11. Lawler, 12. Hansen / Gordy, 13. Bockwinkel / Lanza, 14. Martel / Zenk, 15. Billy Robinson, 16. Hogan / JYD, 17. Sakaguchi

Variety = 17 opponents = 8

35

Terry Funk
Basic (offense, selling, psychology) 2/3 3/3 3/3 = 8
Intangibles 9
Great matches 8
Length of Peak 8 (74-89)
Ability to work different styles / roles 10
Variety 10

+1 ability to work babyface
+1 ability to work as travelling champion
+1 ability to carry promotion / work as company ace
+1 ability to work technical matches
+1 ability to work gimmick matches
+1 ability to work the hardcore style
+1 ability to work a different gimmick (Chainsaw Charlie)
+3 ability to get over in multiple markets (every territory, Puerto Rico, Japan, WWF, ECW)

Ability to work different styles / roles rating = 10

1. Jack / Jerry Brisco, 2. Race, 3. Jumbo, 4. Giant Baba, 5. The Sheik, 6. Abdullah the Butcher, 7. Bockwinkel, 8. Lawler, 9. Hansen, 10. Brody, 11. Colon, 12. Hogan, 13. JYD, 14. Martel, 15. Steamboat, 16. Flair, 17. Eddie Gilbert, 18. Cactus Jack, 19. Sabu, 20. Onita

Variety = 20+ opponents = 10

53

--------

First thought there is that working things out has helped Dory a ton. This was always my point about him, which is that even if you allow for his lack of charisma (I've given him a zero) and even if you find him boring a lot, if you look at everything he did over his career and allow any of those things to count for something beyond your own personal bias, his case is pretty strong.

He's currently above Bret, Eaton, and Ted using this system, which I wouldn't have thought before implementing it. The other big beneficiary was Misawa who gained a lot of points, perception (my original rating) vs reality (working it all through) is interesting. 44 is looking good enough for top ten.

But let's see where we are after the next batch.

[conker8]

Do you know Misawa work Mexico (as a rookie) and ROH in 2007 ?

Also, he faces a different crew in NOAH.

[JerryvonKramer]

Did he GET OVER in Mexico?