Friday, October 7, 2011

The North American Wrestling Rankings is, as far as I know, the ONLY rankings based entirely on a point system. Opinion does not factor into the rankings at all. For example, I personally think that Daniel Bryan is a much better wrestler than the Great Khali [no offense, big guy!], but if Khali has more points than Bryan he will be ranked higher. The rankings started for the men on 11/15/2006 and the other categories followed soon after.Currently the NAWR does not rank minis, trios/ 6 man tags, or mixed tags.The points are based on a rolling scale. If you defeat the Heavyweight champion you earn 35 points, if you lose to the champ you only lose 1 pt. If you defeat the #10 ranked wrestler you earn 21 points, if you lose that match you  lose 10 pts.However, if you defeat to the wrestler ranked 100 you only earn 3 points, but if you lose that match you lose 28 points. A disqualification win earns 1 point, a dq loss costs 1 point. I won't bore you with the entire point scale, but you get the idea. When a wrestler or team win a world title they earn an additional 20 pts, if they win a secondary title they get 10 extra points.Champions receive a "Championship Bonus" at the end of each calendar month if they retained their title the entire month: 20 pts for a World title, 10 for a secondary title.
RECORD:
These records are for TELEVISED [including ppv] matches ONLY. The only time a non-televised match counts is if it's a title change.
Wrestlers' records are displayed as Wins-Losses-No Decisions-Points-Promotion. [W-L-ND-PTS].
      WIN: simple, a win is a win.
      LOSS/NO DECISION: a loss only counts in a 1:1 [or 1 team vs 1 team] match. For example, in a triple threat or battle royal the winner gets a win, all others get a No Decision. Also, a double countout, draw, or double dq count as No Decisions. No points are awarded or taken away for a ND [except for a time limit draw].
     POINTS: simple, the points a wrestler or team has accumulated. Some wrestlers will have a number in parenthesis after their points. These are temporary bonus points. Let's say Joe Broni is ranked #100 with -50 pts and he upsets Manny Venter who is ranked #1 with 1000 pts. Manny Venter will lose 28 pts bringing his total to 972 pts. Joe Broni will get 30 pts bringing his total to -470 pts, which is still lower than Venter's total. Since Broni beat Venter he has to be ranked higher, so he is given 1,442 bonus points. His point total will appear as 972[1442]. He'll mainain these bonus points as long as he stays active and continues to win. If he loses [other than by dq] or does not wrestle for a month he'll lose the bonus points. Some wrestlers will have an * after their points. This means they have not wrestled [on tv] for 1 calendar month. If they remain inactive for 2 months they are removed from the rankings and placed on the Inactive List.    
     PROMOTION: the promotion a wrestler or team has worked for since these rankings started. The wrestler's current promotion is listed last.    

While I am a huge fan of the independents, The NAWR is for major promotions only. For the purposes of these rankings a major promotion is defined as a promotion having a regular weekly tv show on a national network and the ppv's of that promotion. Currently the promotions considered are WWE[Raw & Smackdown, but not NXT or Superstars], TNA [Impact not Xplosion], Lucha Libre USA, CMLL, and ROH [CMLL & ROH were just added recently]. Promotions/brands that have been listed in the past but no longer are ECW [WWE version], NXT, WWE Superstars, Wrestling Society X, and WFX out of Canada.
     That's about it!