The 25 highest peak ratings once the strength of the opposition is taken out.
A Glicko rating read at its most conservative point over the documented results in the current corpus. Not a win percentage: who you beat decides how far the win moves you.
This is the board where win percentage stops being useful. Seth Rollins has won 49.1% of his documented matches and holds a top-fifty peak rating. Cody Rhodes is at 53.2% and tenth. Meanwhile the highest raw win rates in the qualified pool belong to wrestlers nobody has heard of, beating opponents the model has never seen do anything.
A Glicko rating only moves as far as the opponent justifies. Beat someone the system rates at 2,400 and it moves a long way; beat someone at 1,500 and it barely notices. Run that over 398,021 matches in chronological order, take each competitor's rating at its most conservative point, the rating minus twice the uncertainty so nobody peaks on a small sample, and what comes out is a measure of how hard they were to beat given who was trying.
The result is the most era-mixed list on the site: Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan sit among Roman Reigns, Sheamus and Cody Rhodes. It is also the clearest illustration of what a rating system can and cannot see. Bill Goldberg is fourth on 306 documented matches and an 82.7% win rate; the Ultimate Warrior is thirteenth on 189 matches and 88.4%. Both of those are real measurements of a real booking pattern, and neither is a claim about how good the wrestling was.
2467.455 is the highest conservative rating in the corpus, and it was earned against the people the model rates highest. Forty-nine documented matches with Ryback at a mean pre-match rating of 2240.2, won 47. Sixteen with Brock Lesnar at 2215.6, won 7. One hundred and forty-five with Seth Rollins, won 135. The career record is 1186-308-59, 76.3%, and both Titles and championship value rank #1 as well. Dominance is the measure on which an overall #2 becomes a #1.
Three hundred and eleven documented matches across 22 years, and a peak rating of 2458.448. It comes off a 68.5% record against opposition the model rates very high: 29 against The Undertaker at 2171.6, split 14-14, and three with Goldberg at 2533.7. The overall rank is #88, eighty-six under the Dominance rank, because Quality sits at #293 and only 86 matches are rated. 58 of 61 title-match wins carry a top-decile belt, and the corpus has years in 22 of the 27 the span covers.
All 103 title-match wins are for a top-decile belt, and the peak rating is 2450.715. Eighty-three documented matches with Kane, won 61; sixty-six with Triple H, won 44. The hardest column is The Ultimate Warrior at 2418.6 over seven meetings, none of them won. A 72.1% career, 857-253-77, across 33 documented years and 1,189 matches, 198 of them rated. Quality ranks #599 against a Dominance rank of #3, and the overall rank is #58.
An 82.7% career, 253-35-18 over 306 documented matches, and a peak rating of 2400.198. The overall rank is #548 among the qualified. Career K-WAR is 5.5, #440, and Quality ranks #1,768, so almost nothing else on the row agrees with the Dominance figure. Every one of the 34 title-match wins is for a top-decile belt. Eighteen meetings with Kevin Nash went 6-9 and seventeen with Bam Bam Bigelow went 15-0, and the corpus has matches in only 15 of the 29 calendar years between the first and the last.
Fifth at 2399.034, and the row behind it is unusually consistent: #7 overall, #5 on Dominance, #8 on Titles. Fifty-six documented matches with John Cena at a mean pre-match rating of 2408.5, of which eight were won; ten with Brock Lesnar at 2442.8, won six. Bray Wyatt appears 137 times at 122-10. A 69.0% record over 1,172 matches, and 173 of the 179 title-match wins carried a top-decile belt.
Quality ranks #1 in the corpus and Dominance #6, which is a pairing this board almost never produces. The peak rating of 2392.395 is built on nineteen matches against The Undertaker at 2389.7 and eighteen against Bret Hart at 2301.9, won five and four. That is the point of a Glicko rating read this way: losing to those two costs very little. A 68.6% career across 770 documented matches, 168 of them rated, in 24 of the 34 calendar years the span covers.
A 56.1% career, 895-655-45, and the seventh-highest peak rating anywhere at 2379.055. The reason is the opposition column: 111 documented matches with Roman Reigns at a mean pre-match rating of 2184.8, thirty against John Cena at 2230.5, eight with CM Punk at 2299.5 of which five were won. Losing 61 of those Reigns matches barely moves the number. Titles ranks #7 on a championship value of 211.9, and the overall rank is #15.
Seven documented meetings with Goldberg at a mean pre-match rating of 2481.4, all seven won, which is the single most valuable block of results on this row. Against it, 27 meetings with The Undertaker, rated 2411.5, went 9-17 and cost almost nothing. The peak rating is 2346.344 and the overall rank #31. Quality ranks #5 and Dominance #8, both well clear of that. A 69.0% career, 487-179-40, and 124 title-match wins, all of them for a top-decile belt.
Forty-eight documented matches with Ric Flair at 2115.9, won 31, and twenty-eight with Hulk Hogan at 2246.0, won 9. That is the whole engine of a 2344.795 peak. The record itself is 274-145-27, 61.3%, over 447 documented matches; the archive covers 19 of the 28 years in that span, so a good deal is missing. Quality ranks #365 against Dominance at #9 and an overall rank of #45. All 48 title-match wins are for a top-decile belt.
Nine documented matches with The Undertaker at 2343.9, none of them won, and 33 with John Cena at 2273.8 won six. The Glicko reading barely notices those losses, and 2336.248 is what comes out. Tenth here against #4 overall, which is the rare case of Dominance sitting below the career rank. A 53.2% record, 916-772-33, across 1,721 documented matches in 21 years, all of them documented. 225 of 270 title-match wins are for a top-decile belt.
Sixty-five documented matches with The Undertaker at a mean pre-match rating of 2309.6, won 39, and ten with Shawn Michaels at 2429.6, won five. The peak reading is 2327.456. Quality ranks #36, two places off an overall #34, which makes this one of the flatter rows here. The corpus has matches in 16 of the 33 calendar years between the first and the last, so 580 matches is what a much longer career left behind. 94 title-match wins, none of them outside the top decile.
Twenty-one documented matches with Roman Reigns at 2458.6, won two; sixteen with Cody Rhodes at 2450.2, won none. Losing to the two highest-rated opponents available is what a conservative rating is designed to forgive, and 2307.011 is the result. Twelfth here while career K-WAR ranks #1 and the overall rank is #1 as well. 968 wins across 1,700 documented matches over 27 years, with 289 rated. Titles ranks #6 on 228 title-match wins.
An 88.4% career: 167-19-2 across just 189 documented matches, in 11 of the 24 calendar years the span covers. The peak reading is 2301.649 and the overall rank #462 among the qualified, four hundred and forty-nine places under the Dominance rank, with Quality at #2,080. Ten meetings with Rick Rude went 9-1, nine with the Honky Tonk Man 6-3, four with Vader 4-0 at a mean pre-match rating of 2271.2. 38 of 39 title-match wins carry a top-decile belt.
Twenty-six meetings with The Undertaker, rated 2343.1, one won; eight with Sheamus at 2472.8, five won; sixty-five with John Cena at 2255.8, thirteen won. The peak reading is 2299.617, and Dominance at #14 sits two places under an overall #12, which is about as close as this board gets. A 60.3% career, 748-439-51, across 1,240 documented matches. Titles ranks #9 on 217 title-match wins and a championship value of 200.1.
Thirty-nine documented meetings with John Cena, rated 2495.3, of which four were won, and 25 with CM Punk at 2345.4 going 4-19. Neither block costs much, and 2296.573 is what survives. Fifteenth here against #10 overall, so Dominance is five places under the career. A 63.6% record, 994-527-43, across 1,565 matches in 21 documented years. Titles ranks #3 on a championship value of 253.0, and 280 matches are rated.
Sixty-nine documented matches against Ric Flair, rated 2135.6, won 48; thirty against Antonio Inoki at 2132.7, won 7. The peak reading is 2287.849 against an overall rank of #343 among the qualified, with Quality at #1,952. Five meetings with The Ultimate Warrior at 2528.4 went 2-3. A 66.4% career, 370-147-37, over 557 documented matches across 32 years, and 121 top-decile belts among 122 title-match wins.
Thirty-three documented years across five decades, 735 matches, and 233 of them rated, which is 31.7% and unusually dense for a career this old. The peak reading is 2279.817. Sixty matches against Ric Flair, rated 2043.8, went 38-18; five against Goldberg at 2466.6 went 0-4 and barely register. A 68.6% record, 504-181-50. Dominance ranks #17 while the overall rank is #336 among the qualified, and Quality sits at #768.
Forty-nine documented matches against John Cena at a mean pre-match rating of 2539.2, one of them won, and 43 against CM Punk at 2256.8 going 34-8. Those two columns are the whole reading: 2274.308, #18, against an overall rank of #504 among the qualified. Quality ranks #1,829 off only 39 rated matches in 898. A 62.5% career, 561-320-17, over 14 documented years, and 55 top-decile belts among 59 title-match wins.
One hundred and nineteen documented matches against John Cena, rated 2352.7, won 34, and eight against Goldberg at 2490.9. The peak reading is 2272.487, #19, which is ten places under an overall #9 and the second measure on this row to sit below the career after Quality at #192. A 56.4% record, 906-634-67, across 1,607 documented matches in 27 years. 145 of the 146 title-match wins were for a top-decile belt.
Thirty-four documented matches against Scott Norton went 27-3 and 29 against Booker T. went 13-11. Seven against Goldberg, rated 2449.0, went 1-6, and four against Yokozuna at 2288.9 went 4-0. The peak reading is 2261.285 and the overall rank #221. A 68.7% career, 489-177-46, from 712 documented matches and 30 years, with 119 rated. Titles ranks #148 on 83 title-match wins, 53 of them top-decile, and Quality ranks #300.
Thirty-three documented years, every one carrying matches, 1,552 of them, and a peak reading of 2240.938. The opposition column is tag wrestling: 105 matches against Bubba Ray Dudley at 1899.7, 88 against Edge at 1976.8 going 37-44. Four against Steve Austin at 2311.7. Titles ranks #16 off 185 title-match wins and a championship value of 159.5, and the overall rank is #23. A 57.7% record, 895-605-52.
Fifty-six documented matches against Steve Austin, rated 2329.3, going 12-39, and 38 against The Undertaker at 2311.7 going 18-13. Ninety-three against Triple H at 2123.0. That is a schedule made almost entirely of the people at the top of the rating column, which is how a 55.7% record reaches 2239.497. The corpus records 14 of the 29 years in that span. 52 title-match wins, and the top decile covers all of them. The overall rank is #53.
Twenty-third here, #5 overall, which makes Dominance the lowest of the six on a row where nothing else drops below #24. The reading is 2239.164, off 119 documented matches against Seth Rollins at 1867.2 won 97, and 96 against Roman Reigns at 1908.1 won 75. The heaviest column is CM Punk, 51 matches at 2246.9 going 13-36. A 60.7% career, 973-573-56, and 157 top-decile belts among 185 title-match wins.
A 62.2% career across only 481 documented matches in 13 years, and a peak reading of 2237.543 that ranks #24 against an overall #332 among the qualified. Quality sits at #938. Forty-nine matches against Edge at a mean pre-match rating of 2146.9 went 22-24; eleven against The Undertaker, rated 2306.9, went 2-6; three against Goldberg at 2462.2 went 1-2. 50 title-match wins, 48 of them top-decile, and the corpus has years in 13 of the 20 the span covers.
The board closes on 109 documented matches against John Cena, rated 2322.0, of which nine were won, 63 against Sheamus at 2380.0 going 17-44, and 13 against Goldberg at 2400.1 with none won. Losing that often to that opposition still leaves 2234.857. Quality ranks #2,097 and the overall rank is #447 among the qualified, four hundred and twenty-two under the Dominance rank. A 54.9% career, 1024-747-93, over 1,864 documented matches and 29 years, with 172 title-match wins, 171 of them top-decile.