Indy Power Rankings for the Week of October 28th, 2013
for the Week of October 28th, 2013:
1. Michael Elgin-After a so-so tour of Europe, Elgin put on his Superman cape and went nuts! “Unbreakable” is putting it lightly this week. First he won the Champions vs All Stars 8 man tag at Glory By Honor by eliminating all 4 of his opponents (including former #1’s Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly), which in itself was ridiculous enough. He then went to Beyond Wrestling in St. Louis and beat former #2 Jonathan Gresham in a singles match. He EARNED his #1 this week.
2. The Global Green Gangsters (Kellie Skater & Tomoka Nakagawa)- The SHIMMER Tag Team Champions did what they had to do and thus, they move up to the highest spot for any female tag team, or female, PERIOD, in the history of the Indy Power Rankings. Their title defense vs. Allysin Kay & Ivelisse Velez at SHINE 14 cements their place as the top tag team in Women’s wrestling.
3. Shane Hollister-The AAW Heavyweight Champion gets his highest ranking to date! While he didn’t beat Eddie Kingston on 10/25 (a double DQ), he did continue his success with a victory at SCW on 10/26 as he and Matt Cage defeated Johnny Wisdom and Brian Bronson. “The Shug” is finding ways to keep on rolling!
4. Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson)-What a week for the PWG & DGUSA Tag champs! They took the Superkick Party to New Japan where they proceeded to go 3-0 with a DOMINANT debut there! Look out for the former #1’s in the Indy Power Rankings to continue to rise up the rankings.
5. Tony Nese-How does an indy star like Tony Nese build on his already stellar reputation? By traveling to Dragon Gate in Japan and going 3-0 in his debut there! Not an easy task for any Gaijin. Impressive indeed!
6. Drake Younger-What more could the Ultraviolent Golden Boy do than have a flawless weekend? He gets ranked on the strength of 3 wins at PWB, APW, and a wrestling charity show. Drake continues to show the world how hard he has worked to get to this spot.
7. The Hooligans (Devin & Mason Cutter)-The Bearded Bullies get their highest ranking to date as they pick up 2 wins at Beyond Wrestling in St. Louis over Davey Vega & Jonathan Gresham and Alexander Rudolph & Jake Parnell. That’s 2 straight weekends ranked for this Midwest tag team!
8. Jamin Olivencia-The OVW Heavyweight Champion returns to the Indy Power Rankings with a victory over OVW TV Champ Shiloh Jonze at the TV taping on 10/23. He continues his historic title reign there.
9. Jay Bradley-3 wins in one night at OVW on 10/23 vs. Eddie Diamond, Jay Best, and Stephon J. Baxter III! Amazing weekend for the potential TNA superstar.
10. The Daywalkers-Another week and yet another victory for the team of Matt Cage & Alex Castle. Both men are active in singles, but this week it was their victory vs. Reed Bentley & Trik Davis at Beyond Wrestling that gets them in as a team.
Major Names Ineligible this week due to inactivity:
Isys Ephex, Jay Briscoe, Team CK
Just missing out/Others receiving votes:
Benjamin Kimera
Adam Cole
Jonathan Gresham
Johnny Gargano
Matt Cage (in singles)
Alex Castle (in singles)
Jeff Cobb
Aaron Biggs
Eddie Kingston
Madison Eagles
Big Dusty & Matt Atreya
Kahagas
Silas Young
Nikki Storm
Irish Airborne
Zero Gravity
Tony Sly
Terror Khan & Anthony Lee
Matt Morgan
Ricky Love
Since January of 2013, we have been ranking the very best independent wrestlers on a weekly basis. The concept spawned from former ESPN.com writer, Jon Robinson, who ranked the best WWE wrestlers from 1 to 10 on ESPN.com every week. ESPN.com still does the NFL Power Rankings, while Jon Robinson is no longer there, but has given us the blessing to carry on with our project. In fact, he was one of our very first followers. Our goal is to not only to educate everyone on who some of the best independent wrestlers are in the bigger promotions, but to also expose some of the less heralded wrestlers in smaller promotions.
This is a KAYFABE list, meaning it is not centered around our opinion of who the best worker is on a weekly basis, but rather, more sports-oriented in the thought process of wins being the most important factor in getting ranked. Many various independent wrestling writers spend their time debating who the “best in the world” is while we simply seek to prove it via wins and losses.
In order to be ranked and to avoid personal biases, we have a group of voters from around the country who have 3 main criteria for voting (in a similar manner to ESPN.com’s NFL Power Rankings):
1. Win-loss record for the week & overall
2. Strength of opponents for the week
3. Overall public perception of the wrestler in question (i.e. Davey Richards has a stronger following than a regional independent wrestler who most people have never heard of)
Only wrestlers who did not wrestle for the WWE or TNA during the voting period are qualified. This means that OVW wrestlers who are contracted to TNA are eligible, providing that they did not wrestle for TNA during the voting period. NXT wrestlers are not eligible for this list. Any wrestler who does NOT wrestle during the week are not eligible for that week’s list. This is a list of wrestlers who primarily compete in the U.S. or they can qualify by going on an extended tour of the U.S. (i.e. if Jushin ‘Thunder Liger goes 3-0 on American soil).
With all that being said, please sit back and enjoy this week’s rankings and if you have any questions/comments, please feel free to tweet us @IndyPowerRankin, visit our Facebook page at Facebook.com/IndyPowerRankings, or email us at IndyPowerRankings@Gmail.com. Thanks!