For those who are unaware, Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s annual Top 500 list for 2015 has been released and per usual, fans are going to have their opinions on who should have been ranked higher and lower. Sadly, I’m one of those guys as well, and after going through this list, I couldn’t help but notice a few things that stood out to me.
First off, let me say that for the most part, a lot of the decisions are moot. Does it really matter all that much if someone is #498 or #499 in the grand scheme of things? Also, I have to plead ignorance when it comes to a good portion of these names, as it’s just impossible to fully follow the careers of everyone involved. My apologies go out to The Hobo and Space Monkey—I can only hope those gimmicks aren’t a reflection of yourselves in the spirit of The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Also, before anyone jumps down my throat, I also want to say that I fully agree with PWI’s choice of the #1 ranking. Seth Rollins has been at the forefront of WWE for over a year now and has been consistently putting on some of the best matches of every show he’s participated in. At Night of Champions, not only will he be pulling double duty, he’ll be doing it against two of the biggest legends in wrestling history as the champion in both matches. It’s hard to argue against that.
Despite my support for this, there are some other choices that were made that I feel aren’t anywhere near as justified. Let’s take a look at some of them.
#6. Randy Orton
Number 6? Orton had a good year from 2013-2014, but 2014-2015 was not anywhere near as impressive.
After failing to win the WWE Championship at Money in the Bank, he lost to Roman Reigns at SummerSlam, defeated Chris Jericho at Night of Champions (does anyone remember that?), and then started his turn against The Authority, which took a few stops along the way. It was months later in 2015 when Orton would finally turn against them for good, stretching out a feud with Seth Rollins for as long as possible to wait until WrestleMania. Granted, he won that match, but did anyone care after Rollins cashed in and won the title later on that night?
Since then, Orton went back to losing and then feuding with Sheamus. Yay. Is that really worthy of such a high spot? I wouldn’t have suggested Orton be something like #100, but I can’t even really consider him a top 10 guy in comparison to some of the great work others have done.
#14. Daniel Bryan
The period in which this list is judged is July 1, 2014 until June 30, 2015. Daniel Bryan was out with an injury from May of 2014 until the tail end of January 2015. After coming back, he failed to win the Royal Rumble, failed to defeat Roman Reigns at Fastlane, and then won the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania before falling victim to another injury shortly after and going back onto the injured reserve list.
How, then, does Daniel Bryan rank so far above people like Ethan Carter III at #30, who has been one of the only saving graces of an entire company? His participation in the Royal Rumble was a huge failure and his other two big matches aren’t Match of the Year candidates, so it can’t even be justified to say he made up for his lack of time by packing such a huge punch with what little he did.
I’m a fan of Daniel Bryan, but let’s not allow our love for his previous talent and what he stands for to get in the way of properly judging things based on a set of criteria that he can’t match up to.
#33. Darren Young
Darren Young spent the better part of 2014 out of the ring with an injury, reuniting with Titus O’Neil to reform The Prime Time Players in February of 2015. Already, we can write off half of the judgment period with a score of a 0. For several months after reforming this tag team, PTP weren’t at the top of the hierarchy in the division. Only at Money in the Bank on June 14, 2015 did they win the titles.
Basically, Darren Young was given the #33 spot for winning a tag team title 15 days before the cutoff, which is even more ludicrous if you think of what happened afterward with them dropping the belts back to The New Day at SummerSlam in August after having a lame title reign.
Can you really justify putting him above former tag team champions and workhorses such as Cesaro (#41), Jimmy Uso (#49), Kofi Kingston (#52), Tyson Kidd (#53) and Jey Uso (#72…ouch, look at that drop from Jimmy to Jey)? He was missing from the majority of the time and when he was actively wrestling, he wasn’t putting on spectacular matches, nor did he accomplish anything until the very end of the evaluation period. If he was given such a big boost just for the media attention he’s received since coming out, then that’s a shame, as that should have no bearing on judging talent.
If you’re curious as to why it seems crazy that he’s #33, let’s compare him to his tag team partner, Titus O’Neil, who accomplished the same championship win and was wrestling on a frequent basis for all of the months that Darren Young was injured. He’s ranked at #171. How can someone who wrestled more matches, won the same amount of accolades, and was booked as the more powerful star of the team be 138 spots lower than their partner?
#105. Trent Barreta / #106. Kenny King
TNA may be in as terrible shape as they it could possibly be, but Kenny King is just as talented if not more than Trent Barreta and definitely accomplished more by being a big player in a more widely known company. I wouldn’t rank Kenny King in my top 10 by any means, but when seeing him behind someone like Barreta, I’m curious as to why.
#477. Zack Ryder
There’s no argument in favor of 2014-2015 Zack Ryder over his run in 2011, but this seems like a purposeful jab to put him so low behind people like Michael Tarver (#403) and so, so many others. If my eyes don’t deceive me, I think the next lowest ranked WWE performer is Tye Dillinger at #328, and I can’t understand why Ryder would be over 100 spots lower than him.
Those are just a few things that caught my attention when going through the list, but I want to know what you guys think. Do you agree with the bulk of PWI’s rankings or would your list looks drastically different? What do you think about the examples I pointed out? Sound off in the comments below!
