411’s Wrestler of the Week Supplemental Column 6.10.08
Posted by Ari Berenstein on 06.10.2008
How and why the 411 writers vote for the WotW…
As regular readers of 411's Wrestler of the Week feature know, there has been much controversy and discussion in the recent weeks and months about how the staffers of this website vote each week for their top five lists.
Amidst all the controversy, discussion and name calling, there is a point. Up until this point, 411 has not provided much of an adequate explanation for how we make our decisions for this feature, i.e. a rubric for our votes. The absence of explanation had been done previously because every staffer had their own individual ways of judging the wrestler of the week. Some of us vote in a kayfabe sense in terms of wins and losses, some (like Ryan Byers) vote based on who has advanced their career the most. BUT! Each individual staffer who voted has not included such information. This FAQ is the place where we will tell you exactly what and why we vote the way we do each and every week for 411 Wrestler of the Week. Each staffer will give you their frequently watched shows (in order of preferences) and then three factors that they use to derive their votes.
We hope that if anyone has any questions about how a 411 writer voted and why that he or she will look to this list to understand this information.
Ultimately Wrestler of the Week is supposed to be a fun and frivolous feature within 411. Here's hoping both the staffers and the commentors can keep that in mind.
WotW Voters (listed by alphabetical order)
Mike Bauer
Watches:: 1. RoH 2. ECW (by default) 3. Raw 4. Smackdown 5. All Other Indies + Japan 6. TNA
Judges based on: It is so hard to order it. It really depends. For me, one week a title could be work more than an advancement, pending on both to factor in. Generally, it is like this.
* Career Advancement
* Titles
* Great matches
* Markout Moment
Ari Berenstein
-Watches:: 1. Ring of Honor 2. WWE Raw 3. WWE ECW on SciFi 4. SHIMMER 5. CHIKARA Pro 6. Pro Wrestling Guerrilla 7. Pro Wrestling NOAH
-Judges based on:
* Impressive showings in matches / promos
* Wins and Title Victories / Retentions
* Workrate and excitement
Samuel Berman
-Watches::
1. Ring of Honor 2. Dragon Gate 3. Pro Wrestling Guerrilla 4. CHIKARA 5. Full Impact Pro 6. Pro Wrestling NOAH 7. IWA Mid-South 8. World Wrestling Entertainment - RAW 9. New Japan Pro Wrestling
-Judges based on:
* Non-kayfabe career advancement
* Title wins and retentions
* Priority is always given to Independent and International talent in an effort to spotlight them
Ryan Byers
-Watches:: 1. WWE Raw 2. SHIMMER 3. CHIKARA 4. WWE Smackdown 5. Ring of Honor 6. WWE ECW 7. PWG 8. Foreign stuff 9. Misc. US Indies
-Judges based on:
* Non-kayfabe career advancement (as opposed to kayfabe career advancement . . . there's a difference)
* Match/Promo Quality
* Kayfabe importance of accomplishments
* Personal bias towards my favorite wrestlers (at least I'm honest)
Andy Clark
Watches:: 1. WWE, 2. TNA, 3. ROH
Follows:: NOAH, All Japan, New Japan, Dragon Gate, PWG, NWA (major titles), AAA, CMLL (reserves the right to consider results from major shows of lesser promotions i.e. Chikara, UWF, DDT, AWA, IWA-MS)
-Judges based on:
* World Title Victories and/or Major Retentions (3 WWE titles, TNA, 3 major Japanese titles are only belts considered "World Titles")
* Kayfabe Accomplishment (Singles accomplishments count more than tag team accomplishments and heavyweight accomplishments will almost always count more then lightweight accomplishments)
* Most Entertaining Moment/Match/Promo/Etc. of the Week
Andy Critchell
Watches:: 1. Raw 2. ECW 3. SD 4. Various indy promotions (ROH, Chikara, etc) 5. Impact
Judges based on:
* Who has made the most "noise" in the wrestling world whether by winning, losing, retiring, banging cheerleaders, whatever.
* Who has entertained ME the most
* Who has advanced his/her career the most through accomplishments that I choose to find relevant
* Mike Adamle
Larry Csonka
Watches and Follows:: (In No Particular Order as I watch and follow just about everything regularly through some means) Impact, Raw/SD/ECW, Japan, Mexico, ROH, SHIMMER, Other US Independents
Judges based on:
* Title Victories and Importance to the Person's Career (both Kayfabe and Non-Kayfabe)
* Match Quality
* Prestige of Title
* Overall Entertainment/Personal Enjoyment
Bayani Domingo
-Watches:: 1. Pro Wrestling Guerrilla 2. WWE Raw 3. TNA 4. Ring of Honor 5. Dragon Gate 6. WWE ECW 7. WWE Smackdown 8. Various Indy's 9. Other Puro / Lucha 10. NWWL
-Judges based on:
* Magnitude and Impact of Win/Title Victory to Wrestler's career Kayfabe/Non-Kayfabe
* Prestige of title won or opponent beaten
* Workrate and Match quality
* Match outcome in relation to length/importance of current feud/storyline involved
* Impressions left by seeing an event live or first hand as opposed to reading the results
Stuart James
-Watches:: 1. WWE Raw 2. WWE SmackDown! 3. ECW on Sci-Fi 4. TNA iMPACT 5. Ring of Honor 6. Shimmer
-Judges based on:
* Career advancement
* Wins and Title Victories / Retentions
* Workrate and excitement
I'll read everything I can to get results from other feds.
-Judges based on:
* Title wins
* Outstanding matches
* Non-kayfabe career advancement
* Personal markout moments
Shawn S. Lealos
-Watches:: 1. WWE Raw 2. TNA Impact 3. WWE Smackdown 4. ECW on Sci-Fi 5. Ring of Honor
-Judges based on:
* Match/Promo Quality
* Importance of wrestler's storyline progress
* Importance of actual wrestler's achievement
Robert S. Leighty Jr
-Watches:: 1. RAW 2. ECW on Sci-Fi 3. TNA Impact 4. SmackDown
-Judges based on:
* Title Wins/Defenses, Wins/Losses
* Great Matches/Promos
* Overall Entertainment/Personal Enjoyment
Sat
-Watches:: 1. SmackDown 2. RAW 3. Impact 4. ECW 5. Ring of Honor
-Judges based on:
* World Title Victories
* Impressive Wins/Secondary Title Wins
* Workrate/Promos
Mathew Sforcina
-Watches:: 1. Australian Wrestling 2. WWE 3. ROH 4. TNA 5. American Indy
-Judges based on:
* Storytelling, be it angle, match or promo
* Accomplishments, big wins, title victories, achievements.
* Whether they are Victoria or not.
Matt Short
-Watches:: 1. WWE Raw 2. Major Japanese Promotions 3. Impact 4. Smackdown 5. Ring of Honor 6. ECW 7. Minor Japanese promotions (Dragon Gate, DDT) 8. Major US Promotions
-Judges based on:
*Title wins, successful defenses, tournament wins, winning feuds, specialty matches
*Importance of title to the entire body of wrestling
*Match quality and entertainment value
*Preference to getting more international names out in the field
Jeff Small
-Watches:: 1. WWE Raw 2. WWE ECW on SciFi 3. WWE Smackdown 4. TNA Impact
-Judges based on:
* PPV Wins and Title Victories
* Impressive showings in matches / Title Retentions
* If Khali wins a match... I mean, workrate
Jeremy Thomas
Watches:: 1. WWE Raw 2. ECW on Sci-Fi 3. WWE SmackDown! 4. TNA Impact 5. Ring of Honor
Follows:: 1. SHIMMER 2. NJPW
-Judges based on:
* Wins and Title Victories or Retentions
* Outstanding work in matches and promos
* Career advancement
JT
-Watches:: 1. WWE RAW 2. WWECW 3. WWE SmackDown! 4. TNA iMPACT
-Follows:: All secondary and/or independent promotions courtesy of the fine 411 staff.
-Judges based on: (depending on circumstances, this could vary)
* Wins / Losses and Title Victories / Retentions / Losings
* Workrate / Impressiveness and Excitement / Entertainment
* Expectations vs. Results
EPIC Fail.. this dude wrote the impact review for a year.
Posted By: Bread Hart (Guest) on June 10, 2008 at 08:05 AM
EPIC FAIL
u watch Roh over WWE. No wonder you are writing here.. Iidots Smarks
Posted By: Bread Hart (Guest) on June 10, 2008 at 08:33 AM
Thanks I guess, but it's a shame readers have made things so difficult that this needed to be written. For once, let people have their own opinions. Diversity is fine, and in the end the "best" will rise to the top one way or another. Two, we really can't try to make this into something bigger or more important than it is. It's a bunch of people's opinions about who's the best at professional wrestling. There's no money, fame, or worldwide prestige to be had by winning. It's all in fun. Let's keep it that way.
Posted By: Guest#2321 (Guest) on June 10, 2008 at 09:44 AM
I think the most important part is "a fun and frivolous feature".
People need to relax themselves and have fun with it.
Posted By: Justin (Guest) on June 10, 2008 at 10:11 AM
Sigh...and still the idiot comments fly on here straight away..having another opinion on a column is no problem but repeated bashing..it really isn't cool..if everything is an "epic fail" or why the same people keep coming on here bashing the columns..well really its obvious they enjoy the column if they cannot stop reading it!
it is a shame that readers made it so difficult that this had to be posted..I really enjoy the wrestler of the week column..its interesting to see the writers different opinions, regardless of what wrestling feds they'r into..
so a big thumbs up to the 411 column writers..a bunch of great writers, enjoy all of the columns here.
Posted By: Ewen m (Guest) on June 10, 2008 at 11:25 AM
This is a great article, but it sucks that you had to go through the trouble of writing it in the first place. I guess we all can't be as open-minded as Bread Hart.
Posted By: Adam (Guest) on June 10, 2008 at 11:29 AM
Great article indeed. But yeah, sucks it had to come to this for writing it, but I respect that. This is really an awesome site filled with great writers and columnists.
Of course, people are still probably going to bitch, because obviously, we can't stop them no matter how hard you guys try.
Although I did laugh because Byers doesn't have TNA on his "Watch" list. Then again, if I had to recap iMPACT for about a year and a half, I'd go crazy too.
Posted By: Kevin F. (Guest) on June 10, 2008 at 12:14 PM
You dont owe anyone an explaination. This article just feeds the trolls. You should not do another one of these.
Posted By: Guest#9729 (Guest) on June 10, 2008 at 12:52 PM
What drives me nuts is that Berman picks wrestler of the week based off of results he reads from indys. Ok...but why can't he just read the results of everything and place it into his hat that he obviously draws a random name out of every week?
The guy didn't pick Joe winning the top title of a national wrestling company as Wrestler of the Week...
His system is incredibly flawed.
If he wants to write his own personal wrestler of the week column...go nuts...but ignoring things that happen on TV in order to put over an agenda is pretty counter-productive to the overall wrestler of the week concept.
Posted By: Guest#0024 (Guest) on June 10, 2008 at 01:24 PM
Who cares who watches which wrestling? Pick who you want. Just don't be so sensitive about it.
Posted By: Angry Bear (Guest) on June 10, 2008 at 01:28 PM
I've always enjoyed the WotW and I'm sick of the complaining and whining. Constructive criticism is great but the bashing and crying is ridiculous. These are opinion pieces and the goal is to see who managed to impress, for WHATEVER reason, the largest number of writers focused on wrestling.
If your favorite wrestler or federation got overlooked, get a writing post at 411 and tell people about it. Suggest someone check them out but for the love of God, stop bitching.
Posted By: Pete (Guest) on June 10, 2008 at 02:09 PM
"Andy Critchell
* Mike Adamle"
"Bayani Domingo
10. NWWL"
"Jeff Small
* If Khali wins a match... I mean, workrate"
Hahaha, all EPIC WIN and Major LOLage!
Posted By: Kawadafan83 (Guest) on June 10, 2008 at 02:24 PM
what was the point of this? seriously.
Posted By: guy (Guest) on June 10, 2008 at 02:52 PM
Well done in the spirit of being open.
Maybe now people will understand that, essentially, it's completely the writer's opinion. Byers said he didn't want to watch Impact anymore. That's why he quit. You all need to... um... not be so crazy.
Crazy is bad, people. Crazy is bad.
Posted By: 2J Slackalishous (Guest) on June 10, 2008 at 03:02 PM
Successful trolls are successful
Posted By: natedoggcata (Guest) on June 10, 2008 at 03:35 PM
Well, at least Westerfield hasn't made a knob of himself this week. That's one victory.... SO FAR....
Posted By: ButchReedMark (Guest) on June 10, 2008 at 07:50 PM
I enjoy reading this article. Why not just turn off the comments for "Wrestler of the Week" feature, and let people argue about it somewhere else? Keep up the good work 411!
Posted By: Regrets (Guest) on June 11, 2008 at 12:13 AM
Wow...after reading the first eight WOTWs this year, I did think this piece was necessary, but I didn't think you cared enough about the constant BS and bashing to actually write it. Kudos to all involved, and thx for keeping up the only thing interesting enough that I (regularly) read on this site.
Also, I was surprised that only one person specifically stated that "quality of opponent" matters in the voting. If that doesn't matter for the majority, then you would think that promotions without a lot of big names would show up more often (JAPW, HUSTLE, IWS, the now indy OVW and such)...though admittedly, these have no big titles either, so maybe you just don't have the means or time to check them out and "display" them here.
Posted By: BWG (Guest) (Guest) on August 13, 2008 at 05:55 PM
Umaga > Slo-moa Joe
Posted By: Dillrock (Guest) on September 15, 2008 at 09:52 PM
