The DOI 250 is our way here on the DOI to show respect and appreciation for 250 wrestlers who busted their ass for us and entertained us in the past year. These rankings aren't the end all rankings of indy wrestling, it is just our way of noticing 250 wrestlers who wrestled in the northeast area.

Here is how we ranked the wrestlers, in order of importance:

- Work in the northeast region- The DOI is a northeast based site, although we have been expanding our coverage. However, we ranked what we saw only. Wrestlers from the mid-west, the SoCal area and other regions weren't considered for this list, unless they wrestled in the northeast. Also considered was the amount of time a wrestler spent in the northeast, although if a wrestler had strong matches in limited northeast appearances, they were considered for higher spots on this list. (Example: American Dragon.)

- Quality of Matches and Quality of Promos- This is pretty self-explanatory. If we thought a wrestler was excellent in the ring, they were ranked high. If a wrestler cut great promos, they were also considered for spots, although workrate outranked promo skills in the end.

- Championships Won- Some might not think winning championships are important, but we here at the DOI value championship wins and reigns. A wrestler who is a champion has a promoters faith and trust. By being a champion, you represent a company as someone valuable. For that, we find championships important. Championships were also used to decide tie-breakers.

- Crowd Reaction- You can be the best wrestler in the world, but if the crowd doesn't respond to you, it doesn't mean anything. A wrestler had to be over with the crowd and wrestle for the crowd, and not themselves, to be considered for this list.

- Win/Loss Record- This was used only to decide tie-breakers.

In addition, promotions wrestled for was considered. Wrestlers who wrestled for highly attended and strong promotions such as ROH, JAPW, UXW, etc were considered over guys who wrestled for smaller promotions with smaller crowds such as NYWC, ECPW, AWA, etc.

Quality of opposition was also considered. Guys who wrestled against the top of the litter were ranked higher than guys who wrestled against wrestlers who aren't at the top of their game yet.

When reading the following list, please remember this is north-east based. This list is our opinion here at the DOI and no one elses. The wrestlers ranked on this list are based on what they did from June 2004-July 2005. By being ranked higher than someone else, it doesn't mean that Wrestler X is better than Wrestler Y, it just means that Wrestler X had a better year in our opinion.

The list was compiled by myself. The opinions of Mike Zevon, Johnny 5, LC Queenz, Ma Viper, Low Life Louie, Ref Hanson and others were considered also.

The list has been broken up into two sections. The first section is just the list 1-250. The second section is our profiles/reasoning section. Wrestlers ranked from 1-20 received a full bio. Wrestlers ranked 21-250 received a short blurb touting their achievements. Some comments talked about wrestlers achievements in other areas, even if those achievements weren't a factor in these rankings. (Example: AJ Styles and Raven winning the NWA World Title)

Like we do every year, we are also selling our DOI 250 in a newsletter format. The newsletter costs only $2.00 this year, so if anyone is interesting in purchasing this newsletter/list in newsletter/magazine format, please contact us by emailing DECLARATION_of_INDEPENDENTS@hotmail.com or at BULLSMC@aol.com. The newsletter edition also includes bonus features that you won't find on the DOI site.

With all that said and done, I present to you the 3rd Annual DOI 250. All feedback can be left at BULLSMC@aol.com or on our message board. Enjoy:

THE DOI TOP 250- LIST VERSION

THE DOI TOP 250- PROFILE VERSION

THE DOI TOP 250- CRITERIA

PREVIOUS DOI 250's:

THE SECOND ANNUAL DOI 250

THE FIRST ANNUAL DOI 250