Low Turnout Be Damned...2011 WKO 100 COUNTDOWN!!!!

The tabulations have been completed. I'm gonna go tuck into a delicious rotisserie chicken I picked up earlier, but once that's taken care of, the countdown will get underway.

Still upset I couldn't uncover any 2011 Hack Myers

Great, now I'm hungry again. Thanks SLL.

So we actually have the majority of the board represented here? OK, I guess it's not so bad after all. It's a slim majority, I grant you, but a majority nonetheless. Said majority is represented by the following:

Top 100s were received from four (4) voters: Dylan, Jetlag, Phil Schneider, and myself

Tim Evans also sent in a top 100, but due to a clerical error that went uncorrected, I ended up having to count it as our one (1) top 99

One (1) top 75 was received from KillSteve, and one (1) top 50 was received from Wrestling_KO Mike, rounding out our cast

So...yeah, 7 ballots this year, down from 12 last year, 16 the year before that, and 13 from the inaugural list in 2008. I think the last R.S.P-W. Awards had a larger turnout than that. And, of course, the drop in turnout means a drop in wrestlers represented. There were 201 wrestlers who received votes for the 2010 list, 329 in 2009, and 278 in 2008. For the 2011 list, only 181 wrestlers got votes. And if you go back and look at my 2010 countdown, I bitched about low turnout that year, but goddamn, I didn't know times could get this tough.

And that's weird to me, because as I mentioned in an earlier thread, I think of the three years I've been involved in some capacity with this list - either as a voter or as the guy running the show - I thought 2011 was easily the best year for quality wrestling. Granted, I also said that the quality wrestling was a lot more spread out, and the lack of any real "scenes" that we were all super invested in means that while pointing to great performances from last year was very easy, pointing to great performers was more of a challenge. The choices weren't obvious, and that's something that this list and the individual ballots that contributed to it probably reflects. You're not going to see any 2010 Black Terrys, but I think you will see 2010 Black Terry's weight in 2010 Demus 3:16's.

And you know, maybe this low turnout isn't the end of the world, because the more I think about it, the more I think of something TomK said about last year's list:

Even in a year where unanimous opinions, even amongst people like us who share similar wrestling aesthetics, were really hard to come by, this still feels like a pretty accurate snapshot of what people on this board felt about wrestling in 2011. Well, mostly. I'm gonna give you all fair warning right now, if you didn't like Tim having Maryse on his ballot in 2009 or Wade Barrett on his ballot in 2010, you are going to shit bricks when you find out what happens when he's only opposed by six ballots instead of 11, 12, or 15. But for the most part, this is still a list backed by our point of view, even if that point of view isn't backed by the numbers it once was.

The rules are what they always have been. For each appearance on a ballot, a wrestler would earn points inversely proportional to it's place on the ballot, i.e. the #1 wrestler on a ballot of 100 would get 100 points, their #2 99 points, on down to 1 point for their #100. On the 75 men ballots, the #1 would get 75 points, and we'd work our way down to #75, who would get 1 point. You get the idea. The overall point totals determined the ranking of the WKO 100 itself, with ties being broken first by who received the most votes, second by who received the highest ranking on an individual ballot, and third by me throwing my hands in the air and giving up.

Lastly, to the voters: while I have checked and rechecked my math and these totals against the ballots themselves, it's all too possible that errors have been made along the way. Let me know if something's off in the calculations (attributing the wrong number of points, wrong workers, omitting votes) and I'll make it right.

And with that....

IT'S THE 2011 WKO 100 COUNTDOWN!!!!!!!!!!

The turnout bothers me less when I know the voters generally watched everything that was out there

Recently a few more enthusiastic, knowledgeable fans joined the forum and a couple guys have returned, so hopefully the 2012 turnout is a lot better.

My brother may join. He's just started posting as Exposer over at PWO an has been watching pretty much everything as his MOTY list over their shows

He's the Welterweight Champion of the World. He's the indy lucha Burt Ward. Can these two men share last place without driving each other crazy?



180. [Tie] Floyd Mayweather Jr. (1 point)

2010 WKO100 Ranking: N/A
High Voter: Jetlag (#100, 1 point)
No Other Votes

"Hm, perhaps putting Mayweather as joke #100 wasn't such a good idea considering the low turnout. Still he get the best out of Larry Merchant in that performance"

Recommended Matches:
I don't think he had any. Phil nominated him as a gag after the Larry Merchant stuff. Still, I should've been more on the ball and given the man a heads up to make sure that he didn't just goof up, so my bad on this one. Besides, I don't really want to get bent out of shape over a guy's #100 pick, so I'm going to assume Jetlag voted for him after seeing him wrestle Mini Batista at a FUTEN house show.



180. [Tie] Robin Maravilla (1 point)

2010 WKO100 Ranking: N/A
High Voter: SLL (#100, 1 point)
No Other Votes

"A while back on the DVDVR, I was talking about the scenes we were into in 2011 compared to 2010, and said that 2011 was more about CMLL than IWRG. But looking over the past year, I kinda forgot about the role that AULL and UWE played in delivering the quality lucha. To that end, we got more of a feel for some of their regulars that don't show up too much elsewhere. Maravilla isn't the best of them, but he's a fine one worthy of consideration. A great plucky underdog babyface, sells really well, and looks pretty sharp trading holds when he gets the chance. He's also really good at getting outclassed by his opponent, which sounds like me pulling a compliment out of my ass, but I swear I'm not. Kind of a low-end candidate for a spot on my ballot, but he's on the high end of the low end."

Recommended Matches:
w/ Rocky Santana & Sadico vs. Black Terry & Los Traumas (UWE, 1/19)
w/ Black Terry & Ray Mendoza Jr. vs. Blue Panther, Solar I, & Rocky Santana (UWE, 3/26)
w/ Rocky Santana, Sadico, Yakuza, Herejia, Terry 2000, & Rambo vs. Los Terribles Cerebros, Romano Garcia, Oficial AK-47, Oficial Fierro, & Comando Negro (UWE, 5/15)
w/ Black Terry & Dr. Cerebro vs. Dinastia Navarro (AULL, 10/29)

Yeah, I was atrocious at keeping up with everything last year. I mean, shit, I haven't even watched Punk/Cena from MITB yet.

This year I'm building my ballot as I go, rather than leaving it to the end. That way, if I slack off again, I'll have an up-to-date ballot to the point where I stopped watching to fall back on.

Coming soon to an 80's Set near you....



179. Doug Somers (2 points)

2010 WKO100 Ranking: N/A
High Voter: Dylan (#99, 2 points)
No Other Votes

"Only two matches of his matches have made tape this year but he was the stand out in both. The first is a Cage match where he bleeds, has some fun punch exchanges and then takes a fucking lunatic bump off the top of the cage during the finishing run. The second is a brilliant Southern tag that I nominated and features a masterful performance form Somers given his age and physical limitations. With a couple of more appearances I could see him in my top 40 though I'm not sure we are going to get them. Either way cool shit to find. "

Recommended Matches:
w/ Bull Buchanan vs. Rob Adonis & Murder One (UIW, 3/12)
w/ Stupid W. Tweety vs. Kyle Matthews & Frankie Valentine (UIW, 7/1)

I don't know if anyone besides me and Big Rob watched the July match and he didn't particularly like it. I thought Somers was pretty awesome in it, but man everyone should watch the cage match. It's not even that good a match, but Somers taking that lunatic bump at his age was one of my favorite things of the whole year.

Whither FUTEN?



178. Mitsuya Nagai (3 points)

2010 WKO100 Ranking: #65 (311 points)
High Voter: Jetlag (#98, 3 points)
No Other Votes

"Another low-end guy but I really did enjoy him in his singles match with Suruga as he put on a great performance, both selling the leg and looking for nifty counters. His pro style work isn't much but I liked him taking apart STII in their singles match."

Recommended Matches:
vs. Manabu Suruga (FUTEN, 1/30)
vs. Super Tiger II (RJPW, 7/21)

Gentlemen, with what we have seen so far tonight, I think I can say, without hyperbole, that this is the greatest CMLL undercard rudo in the history of our sport



177. Nitro (4 points)

2010 WKO100 Ranking: N/A
High Voter: Tim Evans (#96, 4 points)
No Other Votes

"Insert comment from Tim here."

Recommended Matches:
w/ Arkangel de la Muerte & Skandalo vs. Angel de Plata, Rey Cometa, & Pegasso (CMLL, 4/8)
w/ Arkangel de la Muerte & Skandalo vs. Dragon Lee, Rey Cometa, & Stuka Jr. (CMLL, 11/29)

Something something Mick Jagger



176. Jack Swagger (4 points)

2010 WKO100 Ranking: #71 (246 points)
High Voter: KillSteve (#72, 4 points)
No Other Votes

"Insert comment from KillSteve here."

Recommended Matches:
vs. Jerry Lawler (WWE, 4/4)
vs. Jerry Lawler (WWE, 4/11)
vs. Chris Masters (WWE, 5/11)
vs. John Cena (WWE, 5/16)
w/ The Miz vs. Rey Mysterio & Alex Riley (WWE, 6/27)
vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Alex Riley vs. Evan Bourne vs. The Miz vs. Alberto del Rio vs. R-Truth (WWE, 7/17)
w/ Alberto del Rio, Dolph Ziggler, Christian, Cody Rhodes, & David Otunga vs. John Cena, C.M. Punk, Mason Ryan, Sheamus, & Air Boom (WWE, 10/3)
w/ Dolph Ziggler vs. Air Boom (WWE, 10/23)
w/ Dolph Ziggler vs. Zack Ryder & Sheamus (WWE, 11/25)

Did I ever mention that this guy taught at the high school my cousins went to? 'Cause he totally did. His firing may have been the only time Meltzer was beaten to breaking a story by my uncle.



175. Matt Striker (2 votes, 4 points)

2010 WKO100 Ranking: N/A
High Voter: Tim Evans (#97, 3 points)
Other Votes: Dylan (#100, 1 point)
Lowest ranked multiple vote recipient

"Insert comment from Tim here."

Recommended Matches:
w/ Titus O'Neil vs. Darren Young & Derrick Bateman (WWE, 8/2)
vs. Darren Young (WWE, 8/16)

The most intimidating thing to come out of Guyana since Jonestown



174. Ezekiel Jackson (5 points)

2010 WKO100 Ranking: #110 (110 points)
High Voter: Jetlag (#96, 5 points)
No Other Votes

"fun power wrestler with vicious looking offense. Might've put on the best squash matches in all of 2011, for whatever that is worth"

Recommended Matches:
vs. Wade Barrett (WWE, 6/19)
vs. Christian (WWE, 7/19)
vs. Cody Rhodes (WWE, 8/9)
vs. Cody Rhodes (WWE, 8/16)
vs. The Great Khali (WWE, 8/23)
vs. Tyson Kidd (WWE, 11/24)

Finally, a place for horses to hang out at the beach



173. Colt Cabana (5 points)

2010 WKO100 Ranking: #128 (67 points)
High Voter: KillSteve (#71, 5 points)
No Other Votes

"Thought he was pretty great in the Chikara WoS tag and looked completely comfortable working with Saint and Quack. He's been pretty rock solid in the ROH I've seen him in, and he even had a watchable mid-card match against Richards on one of the iPPVs."

Recommended Matches:
vs. Davey Richards (ROH, 2/26)
vs. Marty Scurll (wXw, 3/12)
w/ Johnny Kidd vs. Mike Quackenbush & Johnny Saint (CHIKARA, 7/31)
w/ The Great Outdoors vs. Zane Riley, Jimmy Jack Funk Jr. & Mr. Elite (PWX, 12/10)
vs. Jerry Lawler (PWX, 12/10)

I believe it was Moliere who once said, "YO BABY YO BABY YO!"



172. Cannonball Grizzly (6 points)

2010 WKO100 Ranking: N/A
High Voter: Jetlag (#95, 6 points)
No Other Votes

"Has turned into a really solid veteran with some crazy signature spots such as a nutty spill over the top rope and a sucide dive of all things. Didn't get to check out all of his matches like I was planning to earlier in the year but I hugely enjoyed him in his matches with Danny Collins and Big van Walter, he's a guy who will always give 100%"

Recommended Matches:
vs. Dan Collins (EWP, 10/7)
vs. Big Van Walter (EWP, 10/8)

Not sure if should make joke about Mexicans...or about The Maxx



171. Mexx (7 points)

2010 WKO100 Ranking: N/A
High Voter: Jetlag (#94, 7 points)
No Other Votes

"Mexx - good babyface wrestler with some crazy bumps, especially on his postings, nice offense and some cool Goldberg spots"

Recommended Matches:
vs. Chris Colen (EWA, 9/10)
vs. Dragon Okic (EWA, 11/19)
vs. Blaze (EWA, 11/??)

If he ever works against Faz del Norte, we're gonna be fucked



170. Antifaz del Norte (7 points)

2010 WKO100 Ranking: N/A
High Voter: Tim Evans (#93, 7 points)
No Other Votes

"A Monterrey legend that didn't have many TV matches this year. He's turned into a steroid riddled masked guy with bad tats and mostly comedy. Hator and him make a good tag team. One match featured both guys causing two females in the crowd to fight over them. Probably will be in the 90s some where. Don't know if I'll add Hator to my list or not."

Recommended Matches:
w/ Hator vs. Humberto Garza Jr. & Mascara Purpura (LyC, 8/21)

I don't really have any good material for this guy, so let's just put him on the countdown and move on



169. Ikuto Hidaka (9 points)

2010 WKO100 Ranking: #39 (542 points)
High Voter: Jetlag (#92, 9 points)
No Other Votes

"Just rewatched his singles match with Takafumi Ito today, and while he wasn't the main selling point in it he still did great. Without the Futen it might be a Top 5 Puro match for me. Hidaka usually brings a lot of crisp offense and some devastating blows, and you get the sense he has some brains, i.e. his taking down of Ito in said match taking him apart with slaps and shots to the body. He also looked great in that BattlARTS juniors tag."

Recommended Matches:
vs. Takafumi Ito (Z1-MAX, 3/6)
w/ Minoru Tanaka vs. Katsumi Usuda & Yujiro Yamamoto (BattlArts, 11/5)

Catch me, I'm falling....



168. Skandalo (11 points)

2010 WKO100 Ranking: N/A
High Voter: Phil Schneider (#90, 11 points)
No Other Votes

"Insert comment from Phil here."

Recommended Matches:
w/ Nitro & Arkangel de la Muerte vs. Angel de Plata, Rey Cometa, & Pegasso (CMLL, 4/8)
w/ Arkangel de la Muerte vs. Fuego & Stuka Jr. (CMLL, 10/9)
w/ Nitro & Arkangel de la Muerte vs. Dragon Lee, Rey Cometa, & Stuka Jr. (CMLL, 11/29)

It was Antifaz/Hator vs Humberto Garza Jr and Mascara Purpura 8/21/11

A well-respected family practitioner, so thoroughly committed to helping the most helpless within his community that he actually put his own physical well-being on the line to protect an institution dedicated to the prevention of child abuse....What an asshole.



167. Dr. Brian McCarver (3 votes, 11 points)

2010 WKO100 Ranking: N/A
High Voter: Dylan (#93, 8 points)
Other Votes: Jetlag (#99, 2 points), Tim Evans (#99, 1 point)
Lowest ranked three vote recipient

"He'll make my ballot for sure. Best non-trained guy performance since Mayweather. He really was the best part of the most charming match of the year and that has to count for something."

Recommended Matches:
w/ Bill Dundee vs. Jerry Lawler & Dr. Tim Linder (Fundraiser for Prevention of Child Abuse Center, 3/4)

Phil, how the hell could you leave off Dr. McCarver?

Honestly 93 felt low