WCW Wrestlers who made singles matches better/worse

I've been interested in expanding a project that I started on Isolating the Best Singles Wrestlers using the latest Dave Meltzer's Star Ratings for WCW PPVs and Clash of the Champions Events.

One reason I think this is important is because just looking at average star ratings per wrestler can be quite deceiving.

Wrestlers with 5+ Singles/Tag Matches

Your top fifteen WCW Singles wrestlers (based on highest average singles match star ratings) would include: Jushin Thunder Liger, Ultimo Dragon, Ricky Steamboat, Rey Mysterio Jr, Eddie Guerrero, Vader, Chris Benoit, Ric Flair, Too Cold Scorpio, Terry Funk, Juventud Guerrera, Dean Malenko, Syxx, Psychosis and Chris Jericho.  All fine performers but they each worked with different opponents with different strengths and weaknesses. What I'm trying to get at is how these wrestlers impact their opponent -- do they raise their average rating or hurt them?  In other words, which wrestlers seem to be making singles matches better?

Here's the methodology that I used, and illustrate the process, let's look at someone with a middle-of-the-pack singles average: Lance Storm.  While his star rating average (1.55) is hardly impressive, an alternative view will show that his score is largely due to his opponents.

Lance Storm Singles: 1.55 average

• NEW BLOOD RISING Storm vs. Awesome        DUD
• FALL BRAWL 2000 Storm vs. Gen Rection **1/4
• MAYHEM 2000 Storm vs. Gen Rection     *3/4
• STARRCADE 2000 Storm vs. Miller        *3/4
• SUPERBRAWL 2001 Storm vs. Miller        **

So, Lance had one match against Mike Awesome and two each against Hugh "General E. Rection" Morrus and Ernest "the Cat" Miller.  Let's look at each of those men:

Mike Awesome
Mike Awesome Singles: 1.50 average

• SPRING STAMPEDE 2000 Awesome vs. Miller **1/4
• SPRING STAMPEDE 2000 Scott Steiner vs. Awesome *
• SLAMBOREE 2000 Awesome vs. Kanyon ***1/4
• GAB 2000                               Awesome vs. DDP **1/4
• BATB 2000                          Scott Steiner vs. Awesome ***1/4
• FALL BRAWL 2000 Jarrett vs. Awesome ***
• HH 2000                                 Awesome vs. Vampiro -**1/2
• STARRCADE 2000                 Awesome vs. Bigelow *
• NEW BLOOD RISING         Storm vs. Awesome DUD

Mike Awesome Singles w/o Lance Storm: 1.6875 average

Difference: (0.1875) [ 1 match ]

Hugh Morrus

Hugh Morrus Singles: 1.25 average

• SOULED OUT 1997 Morrus vs. Big Bubba 1/2*
• GAB 1997                 Konnan vs. Morrus 1/2*
• SLAMBOREE 2000 Scott Steiner vs. Gen. Rection **1/4
• FALL BRAWL 2000 Storm vs. Gen Rection **1/4
• MAYHEM 2000         Storm vs. Rection *3/4
• STARRCADE 2000         Douglas vs. Rection 3/4*
• SIN                                 Gen Rection vs. Douglas *1/2
• SUPERBRAWL 2001     Morrus vs. Wall 1/2*

Hugh Morrus Singles w/o Lance Storm: +1.00 average
Difference: +0.25 average [2 matches]

Ernest Miller
Ernest Miller Singles: 0.769 average

• FALL BRAWL 1998 Smiley vs. Miller -*
• STARRCADE 1998         Miller vs. Saturn DUD
• GAB 1999                 Miller vs. Horace -*
• BATB 1999                 Miller vs. Disco  1/2*
• ROAD WILD 1999         Miller vs. Bagwell DUD
• SS 2000                         Awesome vs. Miller **1/4
• NEW BLOOD RISING Muta vs. Miller *
• HH 2000                         Sanders vs. Miller -1/2*
• MAYHEM 2000         Douglas vs. Miller *1/4
• STARRCADE 2000         Storm vs. Miller *3/4
• SIN                                 Miller vs.Sanders **
• SUPERBRAWL 2001      Storm vs. Miller **
• GREED                          Kanyon vs. Miller *3/4

Ernest Miller Singles w/o Lance Storm: +0.568 average
Difference: +0.201 average [2 matches]

Lance Storm Effect:

• Mike Awesome (-1.875) x 1 match + Hugh Morrus  (+0.250) x 2 matches + Ernest Miller (+0.201) x 2 matches = +0.1429 average effect on singles matches

Basically, we're going to compare how a wrestler does in all of their singles matches besides a specific opponent and see if we can isolate who is involved most often with matches that raise the average star rating for that opponent.

WCW Singles Wrestlers with Largest Improvements (3 or more singles matches)

1. Reno: +0.71 improvement over 3 matches
2. Akira Hokuto: +0.49 improvement over 3 matches
3. Scott Norton: +0.39 improvement over 5 matches
4. Ricky Morton: +0.38 improvement over 6 matches
5. Chris Benoit: +0.30 improvement over 30 matches
6. Shane Helms: +0.30 improvement over 3 matches
7. Ric Flair: +0.28 improvement over 61 matches
8. Dustin Rhodes: +0.26 improvement over 17 matches
9. Vader: +0.25 improvement over 22 matches
10. Mick Foley: +0.24 improvement over 10 matches
11. Juventud Guerrera: +0.22 improvement over 10 matches
12. Terry Funk: +0.22 improvement over 10 matches
13. Hak: +0.20 improvement over 3 matches
14. Ricky Steamboat: +0.17 improvement over 16 matches
15. Billy Kidman: +0.17 improvement over 17 matches
16. The Great Muta: +0.17 improvement over 12 matches
17. Brian Pillman: +0.17 improvement over 24 matches
18. Steve Austin: +0.15 improvement over 16 matches
19. Lance Storm: +0.14 improvement over 5 matches
20. Rey Mysterio Jr: +0.14 improvement over 21 matches
21. Ultimo Dragon: +0.12 improvement over 13 matches
22. Glacier: +0.12 improvement over 4 matches
23. Diamond Dallas Page: +0.11 improvement over 44 matches
24. Barry Windham: +0.11 improvement over 15 matches
25. Jeff Jarrett: +0.08 improvement over 25 matches
26. Chris Kanyon: +0.08 improvement over 9 matches
27. Ice Train: +0.08 improvement over 3 matches
28. Bam Bam Bigelow: +0.08 improvement over 12 matches
29. Lex Luger: +0.07 improvement over 52 matches
30. Ray Traylor: +0.07 improvement over 12 matches

I admit to being surprised by some of these results.  (After all, it isn't every day where you produce a list touting the greatness of Ice Train, Sandman and Lex Luger as singles wrestlers!) However, you can see how quickly we're talking about very minor changes (such as adding less than a tenth of a star when the smallest increment is a quarter)  

Likewise, we can also look at the singles wrestlers who seemed to consistently make matches worse:

WCW Singles Wrestlers with Largest Impairments (3 or more singles matches)

1. Butch Reed: -0.52 impairment over 6 matches
2. Scotty Riggs: -0.44 impairment over 5 matches
3. Dave Sullivan: -0.37 impairment over 4 matches
4. The Renegade: -0.35 impairment over 4 matches
5. Stevie Ray: -0.28 impairment over 6 matches
6. Dusty Rhodes: -0.28 impairment over 4 matches
7. Steve McMichael: -0.28 impairment over 9 matches
8. Big Josh: -0.25 impairment over 3 matches
9. Jim Duggan: -0.23 impairment over 11 matches
10. Larry Zbyszko: -0.17 impairment over 5 matches
11. Vampiro: -0.16 impairment over 13 matches
12. Ernest Miller: -0.16 impairment over 12 matches
13. Van Hammer: -0.16 impairment over 7 matches
14. The Demon: -0.14 impairment over 3 matches
15. Ranger Ross: -0.14 impairment over 5 matches
16. Maxx Payne: -0.14 impairment over 4 matches
17. Bryan Clarke: -0.12 impairment over 5 matches
18. Masahiro Chono: -0.12 impairment over 5 matches
19. Road Warrior Hawk: -0.11 impairment over 3 matches
20. The Wall: -0.11 impairment over 8 matches
21. Konnan: -0.11 impairment over 18 matches
22. Disco Inferno: -0.11 impairment over 13 matches
23. Sid Vicious: -0.10 impairment over 18 matches
24. Mike Sanders: -0.10 impairment over 3 matches
25. Crowbar: -0.10 impairment over 4 matches
26. Rick Rude: -0.10 impairment over 13 matches
27. Prince Iaukea: -0.09 impairment over 8 matches
28. Paul Orndorff: -0.09 impairment over 9 matches
29. John Tenta: -0.09 impairment over 5 matches
30. The Iron Sheik: -0.09 impairment over 3 matches
31. Hulk Hogan: -0.09 impairment over 30 matches

With these numbers, you can almost calculate a "difficulty of schedule" metric for wrestlers - who had the most lummoxes they had to carry?

You can also tell that there is some bias towards wrestlers that only have a few appearances on the list versus those that wrestled many, many, many different people.  The most improvement people would probably be Benoit, Flair, Vader and Rey who proved they could assist a lot of different people.  If I was only taking the top ten improvements for these wrestlers, their average effect would be higher.

Singles Match Improvement Scores (minimum 5 matches; use the top ten results)

1. Chris Benoit: +0.70 improvement in 10 matches
2. Ric Flair: +0.67 improvement in 10 matches
3. Lex Luger: +0.52 improvement in 10 matches
4. Dustin Rhodes: +0.48 improvement in 10 matches
5. Vader: +0.44 improvement in 10 matches
6. Scott Norton: +0.39 improvement in 5 matches
7. Brian Pillman: +0.39 improvement in 10 matches
8. Ricky Morton: +0.38 improvement in 6 matches
9. Billy Kidman: +0.31 improvement in 10 matches
10. Diamond Dallas Page: +0.30 improvement in 10 matches
11. Sting: +0.28 improvement in 10 matches
12. Johnny B Badd: +0.26 improvement in 10 matches
13. Ricky Steamboat: +0.26 improvement in 10 matches
14. Mick Foley: +0.24 improvement in 10 matches
15. The Great Muta: +0.23 improvement in 10 matches
16. Steve Austin: +0.23 improvement in 10 matches
17. Rey Mysterio Jr: +0.23 improvement in 10 matches
18. Juventud Guerrera: +0.22 improvement in 10 matches
19. Terry Funk: +0.22 improvement in 10 matches
20. Jeff Jarrett: +0.21 improvement in 10 matches
21. Barry Windham: +0.19 improvement in 10 matches
22. Ultimo Dragon: +0.15 improvement in 10 matches
23. Booker T: +0.15 improvement in 10 matches
24. Lance Storm: +0.14 improvement in 5 matches
25. Bam Bam Bigelow: +0.14 improvement in 10 matches
26. Eddie Guerrero: +0.13 improvement in 10 matches
27. Mike Rotunda: +0.12 improvement in 10 matches
28. Chris Jericho: +0.12 improvement in 10 matches
29. Dean Malenko: +0.10 improvement in 10 matches
30. Ray Traylor: +0.10 improvement in 10 matches

This is generally a list of highly regarded wrestlers with several hall of famer workers (Benoit, Flair, Vader, Steamboat, Foley, Muta, Austin, Rey, Funk, Ultimo, Guerrero, Jericho).  Certainly, I am surprised to see Luger, Norton, Mero (Badd) fare so well while on the other hand no one should be surprised to Benoit, Flair, Vader and Pillman. Keep in mind that when you're only cherry-picking the top scores, you're going to portray a rosier-than-reality picture.  With Dustin Rhodes recent career renaissance in the Rhodes Scholars tag team in WWE, perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that his WCW work appeared to have the quality where his presence in a match made everything better! Still, I would refer people to the final table in this article and look at both a wrestler's average and median scores.  Some people, such as Butch Reed, have abysmal average singles match impact scores (-0.52) while their median singles match impact score (-0.01) is perfectly normal.  

Lastly, age obviously is going to play a role in this.  Some wrestlers came to WCW in the twilight of their career.  Others were young & budding talent.  Some have matches in this dataset spanning more than a decade (Terry Funk, Ric Flair) and that will heavily impact results as well.  This analysis is pretending that each wrestler had the same potential regardless of their age or gimmick or title position they were in at that time.

- Chris Harrington @mookieghana