The 25 wrestlers whose presence most raises what a match gets rated.
A ridge regression across the 18,571 matches carrying a reported star rating, holding era, promotion, match form, card position and stakes fixed. What is left over is the wrestler.
Quality is the largest component of the All-Time score at 30%, and it is the only one built on outside opinion. It reads reported star ratings, 18,571 of them, 4.7% of the corpus, none before 1982, and asks a regression which wrestlers are associated with matches rating higher than their circumstances predict.
The circumstances are the whole trick. Era, promotion, match form, card position, pay-per-view, championship and title change all get their own fitted effects, so a five-star main event on a big show does not credit the wrestlers for being on a big show. What is left after all of that is theta: stars added per match, above what the situation was already worth.
It is also the component that decides most of the arguments on this site. Hulk Hogan scores 42.9 here and sits above the 97th percentile on all five other components; that gap is the entire distance between his all-time rank of #347 and the top fifty. Kane scores 33.9. Bray Wyatt scores 40.4. If you think the KWAR 100 is wrong about someone, this is almost always the number you are arguing with, and the honest thing to say about it is that it measures what a newsletter thought, on the 4.7% of matches somebody bothered to rate.
+1.36 stars, off 168 rated matches, 21.8% of a documented career of 770. The regression has already removed the era, the promotion, the card position and the belt, so what is left is the WrestleMania X ladder match with Scott Hall, the 4.5 star no-holds-barred win over Kevin Nash in April 1996 that lifts quality by 3.34, the casket match with The Undertaker at the 1998 Royal Rumble. Quality ranks #1 and Titles #73, fifty-one places the other way. The corpus has matches in 24 of the 34 calendar years between the first and the last.
Two hundred and sixty rated matches, 20.0% of the record, and the record itself splits across four companies: 380 in WCW, 356 in WWE, 313 in New Japan, 205 in the WWF. That spread is what the promotion effects exist to remove, and +1.32 is what survives them. The lifts come from a falls-count-anywhere win over Kevin Sullivan in 1996 at +2.85, the 2001 ladder match with Chris Jericho at +2.44, a 5.0 star Super J Cup meeting with The Great Sasuke. Quality ranks #2, twenty-two up on an overall rank of #24, while Titles ranks #72.
34.4% of this career is rated, 306 matches out of 890, and the fit reads +1.21. At the top of it sit a 6.5 star win over Daniel Bryan at Dynasty in 2024 worth +2.63 and a 6.0 star G1 defeat by Tetsuya Naito worth +2.51, and the loss counts the same as the win, because the model is fitting the match rather than the result. Quality ranks #3, twenty-nine up on an overall rank of #32. Big match ranks #85 and Titles #137, both a long way under it.
Fifty-two rated matches out of 1,776, which is 2.9% of the career, and they carry a coefficient of +1.17. The ridge penalty shrinks a competitor as though four average matches had been added before the fit starts, and this figure survives that. What feeds it: a 4.0 star win over Chavo Guerrero at Spring Stampede 1998 worth +2.58, the 1997 Slamboree television title loss to William Regal at +2.36, a 4.75 star win over Shinjiro Otani in the 1996 G1. Quality ranks #4 against an overall rank of #229, and big match #1,336.
The biggest lifts on this ledger are not the title wins. The 1995 Royal Rumble against Kevin Nash is worth +3.15, the In Your House 3 win over PCO +2.72, the WrestleMania 13 submission match with Steve Austin +2.63 at 5.0 stars, the WrestleMania X opener against Owen Hart +2.62. 108 of 706 matches carry a star rating, 15.3%. Quality ranks #5, twenty-six up on an overall rank of #31, and the coefficient itself is +1.14.
Two hundred and fifty-five documented matches in total, 66 of them rated, and 53% of the record falls before 1990 where the corpus thins out badly. Quality ranks #6 while the overall rank is #248 among the qualified, a gap of two hundred and forty-two places. The matches doing it are the Flair series: a 6.0 star meeting in Landover in March 1989 worth +2.37, and the NWA World Heavyweight Title change at Chi-Town Rumble a month before that at 5.0 stars. Earlier there is WrestleMania III and the Intercontinental Title off Randy Savage. Big match ranks #1,622.
The biggest single lift here comes from a 3.75 star match: Toru Yano in the 2019 G1, +2.51, which is the model saying the circumstances predicted a good deal less than that. Higher in rating but lower in lift are two 5.5 star G1 matches, Kenny Omega in 2018 and Shingo Takagi in 2019, each worth +1.82. 358 rated matches out of 2,236, 16.0%, and 2,035 of the career belongs to New Japan. Quality ranks #9 against an overall rank of #154. The record is 1143-1067-26 and Dominance ranks #727.
Only forty matches in 1,440 carry a star rating, 2.8%, and the coefficient still comes out at +1.08. Nearly all of it is All Japan: the Triple Crown reigns from 2016 onward, and a pair of Champion Carnival matches with Jake Lee that lift quality by 2.29 and 2.10, one won and one lost. The best-rated pair are two 5.25 star defeats by Katsuhiko Nakajima in 2023, one in NOAH and one with the Triple Crown on it. Quality ranks #8 and the overall figure is #103, ninety-five places apart, on a career record of 714-684-41.
Five hundred and six places separate Quality at #9 from an overall rank of #515 among the qualified. The lifts come from cruiserweight matches nobody was meant to remember: a 4.25 star win over Blitzkrieg at Spring Stampede 1999 worth +2.56; Konnan at Fall Brawl 1996, 3.75 stars and +2.39; the 5.0 star two-out-of-three-falls loss to Rey Mysterio in ECW in 1996. 82 of 639 documented matches are rated. Big match ranks #1,967 and the 2010s ledger reads -16.9. The WCW Cruiserweight Championship came off Ultimo Dragon in January 1998.
The two largest lifts in this record are defeats: the 2014 Royal Rumble match with Bray Wyatt at +2.50, and the 6.5 star Dynasty match with Will Ospreay at +2.49. Under them sits the sixty-minute Ironman against Maxwell Jacob Friedman at Revolution 2023, 5.75 stars and +2.07. 205 of 1,602 documented matches are rated, 12.8%, and the coefficient is +1.06. The Quality component itself is #2 in the corpus while the overall rank is #5, so this is one of the few rows here where the fit and the career agree.
A 3.75 star match with Toru Yano in the 2018 G1 produces the largest lift on this ledger, +2.49, ahead of the 5.5 star G1 final against Jay White at +2.31 and the 5.75 star final against Hiroshi Tanahashi at +2.30. That ordering is the whole point of the model: the Yano match rated far above what its circumstances predicted, and the finals rated about what they should. 184 of 769 documented matches carry a rating, 23.9%. Quality is #11 against an overall #115, on a record of 389-371-9.
The 7.0 star two-out-of-three-falls IWGP Heavyweight Championship match with Kazuchika Okada at Dominion in June 2018 lifts quality by 3.12. Their 6.25 star meeting a year earlier is worth +2.45, and so is the 5.75 star G1 final against Tetsuya Naito. Sixty-seven documented matches with Okada in total, 27 of them won. 207 of 714 matches carry a rating, 29.0%, and the coefficient is +1.00. Quality ranks #12 and the overall #51.
The mask-versus-title match with Rey Mysterio at Halloween Havoc 1997 is a loss and the biggest lift in the record, 4.75 stars and +2.47. Second is a Saturday Night television match with the Big Boss Man in 1995, 3.5 stars and +2.19, which is the model finding quality in a card position that predicts none. 161 of 812 are rated. Seventy-three meetings with Chris Benoit, sixty-nine with Dean Malenko. Quality is #13 and the overall #81, and the belts run from the ECW World Television Title in 1995 to the WWF European Title in 2000.
A career K-WAR of -12.9, #1,621, and Quality at #14. Forty-three documented years across five decades, 1965 to 2014, of which 45% falls before 1990 where the corpus runs thin. 55 matches are rated out of 501. The lifts arrive from unlikely places: a 3.25 star defeat by Junkyard Dog in Fresno in 1985 worth +2.27, the three-way dance at Barely Legal in 1997 at +2.25. The NWA World Heavyweight Title ran fourteen months from December 1975, and the ECW World Heavyweight Title came twice. Network ranks #2,179.
Both of the biggest lifts here are TNA pay-per-views, years after the WWE run that built the rest of the row: Mr. Anderson at Lockdown 2010, 4.5 stars and +2.57, and Matt Morgan at Bound for Glory 2009, 4.0 stars and +2.51. 223 of 1,127 are rated, 19.8%. Quality is #15 while the overall rank is #8, one of the few rows here where the component sits below the career. The 2000s ledger of 90.6 ranks #1 for that decade, and all 105 title-match wins are for a top-decile belt.
The two best-rated matches on this ledger are both All Japan tag losses from the late 1980s, each at 5.0 stars: the Real World Tag League against Stan Hansen and Terry Gordy in 1988, and a six-man in January 1989. The biggest lifts come later, a 4.75 star defeat by Hansen in 1993 worth +2.16, then a G1 loss to Kazuyuki Fujita in 2005 at 4.0 stars and +2.04. Twenty-eight documented years, every one carrying matches, 127 of 827 rated. Quality is #16 against an overall #157, and Titles ranks #343 off two Triple Crown reigns.
One thousand one hundred and fifty-eight places between Quality at #17 and an overall rank of #1,174 among the qualified, on a career K-WAR of -33.1 and a 33.1% win rate, 142-271-16. The lifts are Rey Mysterio and William Regal: Bash At The Beach 1996 at 4.75 stars and +2.77, a Nitro match with Regal at 3.75 stars and +2.44, and the ECW and AAA meetings with Mysterio in 1995. 66 of 429 documented matches carry a rating. The Mexican National Welterweight Title is recorded as running ten years from February 1995.
Seventy-one rated matches out of 1,972, 3.6%, and the fit still returns +0.96. They are junior heavyweight matches, mostly New Japan's: a 5.0 star Best of the Super Juniors defeat by El Samurai in 1997 worth +1.92, a J-Crown match with Jushin Thunder Liger at 4.75 stars, and from a WCW pay-per-view a 3.75 star win over Alex Wright at StarrCade 1995 that lifts quality by 2.56. Career K-WAR is -8.7, #1,183, against Quality at #18. 40 title-match wins, none of them top-decile.
The one row on this board whose overall rank is #1, and Quality comes in at #19, eighteen places under it. That is not a complaint about the fit; it is what 289 rated matches spread over 27 years look like when every other component sits at or near the top. The evidence is a 2005 TNA block: Unbreakable and the 5.0 star triple-threat with Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe worth +2.09, the Six Sides of Steel with Abyss at +2.37, the Turning Point defeat by Joe at +2.22. Big match ranks #1 and career K-WAR #1.
The other side of two matches already on this board: the Bash At The Beach meeting with Psicosis in 1996 is worth +2.75 here, and the Halloween Havoc mask-versus-title match with Eddie Guerrero +2.43. The model credits both sides of the same match, which is how it is built. 308 of 1,467 carry a rating, 21.0%, across 34 documented years and four decades. Quality is #20 and the overall rank #11. 110 of 121 title-match wins came with a top-decile belt on them.
Seventy-two rated matches out of 777. The two biggest lifts are recent: the WrestleMania 41 triple-threat for the WWE Women's World Title at 5.0 stars and +1.85, and a 4.25 star Summerslam defeat by Liv Morgan at +1.80. Behind those are the Stardom years, a World of Stardom Title reign from April 2013 and another running eighteen months from December 2015, with the High Speed, Artist and Goddesses belts around them. The Quality rank is #21 against an overall #54. Seventy-three documented meetings with Bianca BelAir, fifteen won.
A losing record, 452-489-19 over 960 documented matches, and Quality at #22 against an overall #89, sixty-seven places apart. The lifts are early and they are TNA's: a fatal four-way for the X-Division and WWA cruiserweight belts in May 2003, 4.25 stars and +2.22, then a 4.25 star defeat by Samoa Joe at No Surrender 2005 worth +2.14. The X-Division Title reign that began on that 2003 night runs to April 2006 in the record. 122 of 960 are rated, and 54 of the 110 title-match wins carry a top-decile belt.
Fifty-one calendar years lie between the first documented match and the last, and the corpus has matches in 41 of them. The 6.0 star defeat by Ricky Steamboat in Landover in March 1989 appears on this board twice, once from each side; here it is worth +2.19. Above it sit the retirement cage match with Hulk Hogan at Halloween Havoc 1994, 4.25 stars and +2.75, and a 5.0 star NWA World Heavyweight Title defence against Butch Reed in Miami Beach in 1982 at +2.67. 211 of 931 matches are rated. Quality comes in at #23, the overall rank at #16.
Thirteen documented years, 1989 to 2001, every one of them carrying matches, and 89 of 624 rated. Quality at #24 sits one hundred and ten places above an overall #134. The two biggest lifts are television and undercard matches: a 4.0 star WWF Light Heavyweight Title defence against Scotty 2 Hotty at Backlash 2000 worth +2.55, and a 3.25 star Nitro match with Brad Armstrong in 1996 at +2.14. 49 of 50 title-match wins are for a top-decile belt, from two ECW World Television Title reigns to the WCW cruiserweight belt.
The board ends on 2,712 documented matches, of which 218 carry a rating, 8.0%. Both best-rated entries are defeats by Will Ospreay: the 6.0 star IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match at Wrestling Dontaku 2021 worth +1.67, and a 5.75 star Best of the Super Juniors meeting in 2019 at +1.81. The largest lift is a 5.25 star win over Toa Henare in 2023, +2.01. Quality is #25 and the overall #43, on a 61.3% return and a career K-WAR of 87.2, #37.