I’ve been interested in expanding a project that I started on Isolating the Best Singles Wrestlers using the latest Dave Meltzer’s Star Ratings for WCW PPVs and Clash of the Champions Events.

One reason I think this is important is because just looking at average star ratings per wrestler can be quite deceiving.

Wrestlers with 5+ Singles/Tag Matches

Your top fifteen WCW Singles wrestlers (based on highest average singles match star ratings) would include: Jushin Thunder Liger, Ultimo Dragon, Ricky Steamboat, Rey Mysterio Jr, Eddie Guerrero, Vader, Chris Benoit, Ric Flair, Too Cold Scorpio, Terry Funk, Juventud Guerrera, Dean Malenko, Syxx, Psychosis and Chris Jericho. All are fine performers but they each worked with different opponents that each have different strengths and weaknesses. What I’m trying to determine is how these wrestlers impact their opponent; which wrestlers seem to be make singles matches better?

To illustrate the methodology, let’s look at someone with a middle-of-the-pack singles average: Lance Storm. While his star rating average (1.55) is hardly exceptional, an alternative view will show that his score is largely due to his PPV opponents.

Lance Storm Singles: 1.55 average

NEW BLOOD RISING Storm vs. Awesome DUD

FALL BRAWL 2000 Storm vs. Gen Rection **1/4

MAYHEM 2000 Storm vs. Gen Rection *3/4

STARRCADE 2000 Storm vs. Miller *3/4

SUPERBRAWL 2001 Storm vs. Miller **

So, Lance had one match against Mike Awesome and two each against Hugh “General E. Rection” Morrus and Ernest “the Cat” Miller. Let’s look at each of those men:

Mike Awesome

Mike Awesome Singles: 1.50 average

SPRING STAMPEDE 2000 Awesome vs. Miller **1/4

SPRING STAMPEDE 2000 Scott Steiner vs. Awesome *

SLAMBOREE 2000 Awesome vs. Kanyon ***1/4

GAB 2000 Awesome vs. DDP **1/4

BATB 2000 Scott Steiner vs. Awesome ***1/4

FALL BRAWL 2000 Jarrett vs. Awesome ***

HH 2000 Awesome vs. Vampiro -**1/2

STARRCADE 2000 Awesome vs. Bigelow *

NEW BLOOD RISING Storm vs. Awesome DUD

Mike Awesome Singles w/o Lance Storm: 1.6875 average

Difference: (0.1875) [ 1 match ]

Hugh Morrus

Hugh Morrus Singles: 1.25 average

SOULED OUT 1997 Morrus vs. Big Bubba 1/2*

GAB 1997 Konnan vs. Morrus 1/2*

SLAMBOREE 2000 Scott Steiner vs. Gen. Rection **1/4

FALL BRAWL 2000 Storm vs. Gen Rection **1/4

MAYHEM 2000 Storm vs. Rection *3/4

STARRCADE 2000 Douglas vs. Rection 3/4*

SIN Gen Rection vs. Douglas *1/2

SUPERBRAWL 2001 Morrus vs. Wall 1/2*

Hugh Morrus Singles w/o Lance Storm: +1.00 average

Difference: +0.25 average [2 matches]

Ernest Miller

Ernest Miller Singles: 0.769 average

FALL BRAWL 1998 Smiley vs. Miller -*

STARRCADE 1998 Miller vs. Saturn DUD

GAB 1999 Miller vs. Horace -*

BATB 1999 Miller vs. Disco 1/2*

ROAD WILD 1999 Miller vs. Bagwell DUD

SS 2000 Awesome vs. Miller **1/4

NEW BLOOD RISING Muta vs. Miller *

HH 2000 Sanders vs. Miller -1/2*

MAYHEM 2000 Douglas vs. Miller *1/4

STARRCADE 2000 Storm vs. Miller *3/4

SIN Miller vs.Sanders **

SUPERBRAWL 2001 Storm vs. Miller **

GREED Kanyon vs. Miller *3/4

Ernest Miller Singles w/o Lance Storm: +0.568 average

Difference: +0.201 average [2 matches]

Lance Storm Effect:

Mike Awesome (-1.875) x 1 match + Hugh Morrus (+0.250) x 2 matches + Ernest Miller (+0.201) x 2 matches = +0.1429 average effect on singles matches

We’re comparing how a wrestler does in all of their singles matches besides a specific opponent and comparing to their improvement when they interact with a specific wrestler.

WCW Singles Wrestlers with Largest Improvements (3 or more singles matches)

Reno: +0.71 improvement over 3 matches Akira Hokuto: +0.49 improvement over 3 matches Scott Norton: +0.39 improvement over 5 matches Ricky Morton: +0.38 improvement over 6 matches Chris Benoit: +0.30 improvement over 30 matches Shane Helms: +0.30 improvement over 3 matches Ric Flair: +0.28 improvement over 61 matches Dustin Rhodes: +0.26 improvement over 17 matches Vader: +0.25 improvement over 22 matches Mick Foley: +0.24 improvement over 10 matches Juventud Guerrera: +0.22 improvement over 10 matches Terry Funk: +0.22 improvement over 10 matches Hak: +0.20 improvement over 3 matches Ricky Steamboat: +0.17 improvement over 16 matches Billy Kidman: +0.17 improvement over 17 matches The Great Muta: +0.17 improvement over 12 matches Brian Pillman: +0.17 improvement over 24 matches Steve Austin: +0.15 improvement over 16 matches Lance Storm: +0.14 improvement over 5 matches Rey Mysterio Jr: +0.14 improvement over 21 matches Ultimo Dragon: +0.12 improvement over 13 matches Glacier: +0.12 improvement over 4 matches Diamond Dallas Page: +0.11 improvement over 44 matches Barry Windham: +0.11 improvement over 15 matches Jeff Jarrett: +0.08 improvement over 25 matches Chris Kanyon: +0.08 improvement over 9 matches Ice Train: +0.08 improvement over 3 matches Bam Bam Bigelow: +0.08 improvement over 12 matches Lex Luger: +0.07 improvement over 52 matches Ray Traylor: +0.07 improvement over 12 matches

I admit to being surprised by some of these results. (After all, it isn’t every day where you produce a list touting the greatness of Ice Train, Sandman and Lex Luger as singles wrestlers!)However, you can see how quickly we’re talking about very minor changes (such as adding less than a tenth of a star when the smallest increment is a quarter)

Likewise, we can also look at the singles wrestlers who seemed to consistently make matches worse:

WCW Singles Wrestlers with Largest Impairments (3 or more singles matches)

Butch Reed: -0.52 impairment over 6 matches Scotty Riggs: -0.44 impairment over 5 matches Dave Sullivan: -0.37 impairment over 4 matches The Renegade: -0.35 impairment over 4 matches Stevie Ray: -0.28 impairment over 6 matches Dusty Rhodes: -0.28 impairment over 4 matches Steve McMichael: -0.28 impairment over 9 matches Big Josh: -0.25 impairment over 3 matches Jim Duggan: -0.23 impairment over 11 matches Larry Zbyszko: -0.17 impairment over 5 matches Vampiro: -0.16 impairment over 13 matches Ernest Miller: -0.16 impairment over 12 matches Van Hammer: -0.16 impairment over 7 matches The Demon: -0.14 impairment over 3 matches Ranger Ross: -0.14 impairment over 5 matches Maxx Payne: -0.14 impairment over 4 matches Bryan Clarke: -0.12 impairment over 5 matches Masahiro Chono: -0.12 impairment over 5 matches Road Warrior Hawk: -0.11 impairment over 3 matches The Wall: -0.11 impairment over 8 matches Konnan: -0.11 impairment over 18 matches Disco Inferno: -0.11 impairment over 13 matches Sid Vicious: -0.10 impairment over 18 matches Mike Sanders: -0.10 impairment over 3 matches Crowbar: -0.10 impairment over 4 matches Rick Rude: -0.10 impairment over 13 matches Prince Iaukea: -0.09 impairment over 8 matches Paul Orndorff: -0.09 impairment over 9 matches John Tenta: -0.09 impairment over 5 matches The Iron Sheik: -0.09 impairment over 3 matches Hulk Hogan: -0.09 impairment over 30 matches

With these numbers, you can almost calculate a “difficulty of schedule” metric for wrestlers – who had the most lummoxes they had to carry?

You can also tell that there is some bias towards wrestlers that only have a few appearances on the list versus those that wrestled many, many, many different people. The most improvement people would probably be Benoit, Flair, Vader and Rey who proved they could assist a lot of different people. If I was only taking the top ten improvements for these wrestlers, their average effect would be higher.

Singles Match Improvement Scores (minimum 5 matches; use the top ten results)

Chris Benoit: +0.70 improvement in 10 matches Ric Flair: +0.67 improvement in 10 matches Lex Luger: +0.52 improvement in 10 matches Dustin Rhodes: +0.48 improvement in 10 matches Vader: +0.44 improvement in 10 matches Scott Norton: +0.39 improvement in 5 matches Brian Pillman: +0.39 improvement in 10 matches Ricky Morton: +0.38 improvement in 6 matches Billy Kidman: +0.31 improvement in 10 matches Diamond Dallas Page: +0.30 improvement in 10 matches Sting: +0.28 improvement in 10 matches Johnny B Badd: +0.26 improvement in 10 matches Ricky Steamboat: +0.26 improvement in 10 matches Mick Foley: +0.24 improvement in 10 matches The Great Muta: +0.23 improvement in 10 matches Steve Austin: +0.23 improvement in 10 matches Rey Mysterio Jr: +0.23 improvement in 10 matches Juventud Guerrera: +0.22 improvement in 10 matches Terry Funk: +0.22 improvement in 10 matches Jeff Jarrett: +0.21 improvement in 10 matches Barry Windham: +0.19 improvement in 10 matches Ultimo Dragon: +0.15 improvement in 10 matches Booker T: +0.15 improvement in 10 matches Lance Storm: +0.14 improvement in 5 matches Bam Bam Bigelow: +0.14 improvement in 10 matches Eddie Guerrero: +0.13 improvement in 10 matches Mike Rotunda: +0.12 improvement in 10 matches Chris Jericho: +0.12 improvement in 10 matches Dean Malenko: +0.10 improvement in 10 matches Ray Traylor: +0.10 improvement in 10 matches

This is generally a list of highly regarded wrestlers with several hall of famer workers (Benoit, Flair, Vader, Steamboat, Foley, Muta, Austin, Rey, Funk, Ultimo, Guerrero, Jericho). Certainly, I am surprised to see Luger, Norton, Mero (Badd) fare so well while on the other hand no one should be surprised to Benoit, Flair, Vader and Pillman. Keep in mind that when you’re only cherry-picking the top scores, you’re going to portray a rosier-than-reality picture. With Dustin Rhodes recent career renaissance in the Rhodes Scholars tag team in WWE, perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that his WCW work appeared to have the quality where his presence in a match made everything better! Still, I would refer people to the final table in this article and look at both a wrestler’s average and median scores. Some people, such as Butch Reed, have abysmal average singles match impact scores (-0.52) while their median singles match impact score (-0.01) is perfectly normal.

Lastly, age obviously is going to play a role in this. Some wrestlers came to WCW in the twilight of their career. Others were young & budding talent. Some have matches in this dataset spanning more than a decade (Terry Funk, Ric Flair) and that will heavily impact results as well. This analysis is pretending that each wrestler had the same potential regardless of their age or gimmick or title position they were in at that time.

I am working on my first book, #Wrestlenomics—a collection of pro-wrestling analytics and statistics. If you’re interested in purchasing a pre-order copy reach me at [email protected]

Also, check out more of my work at indeedwrestling.com and indeedwrestling.blogspot.com