This list was the hardest list to put together because of how much the indy wrestling climate has been changed from last year to this year. Last year, TNA wasn't as much of a force, ROH wasn't signing guys to contracts and ECW wasn't a WWE TV show.

It is really amazing how much a difference one year makes. You can make a case to say that wrestling is better and more popular than it was one year ago, because you have so many new companies signing guys to contracts and trying to make big moves. Alot of the top indy stars who made their name in the northeast are contracted to national wrestling companies. However, that is a good thing for alot of the new blood. Guys like Eddie Kingston, Necro Butcher, etc jumped very high on the list this year because they were able to dominate and step up.

With that being said, the DOI 250 had a new criteria to worry about when making this list. Wrestlers in the new ECW weren't considered eligible for this list because ECW is part of the WWE umbrella. Guys who have been on this list before, like CM Punk, Balls Mahoney, Matt Striker, Sabu, etc are not on the list this year, as they are/or were off to bigger & better things.

On the ROH/TNA issue, the DOI 250 is/was always about giving exposure to indy wrestlers, but some ROH/TNA wrestlers wrestle on the indies as well. This made the list even more difficult to compile, as some of the wrestlers on this list are on national TV & PPV already, but still do indies. By adding these wrestlers to the list, they take spots away from indy wrestlers who were on the bubble and ultimately didn't make the cut.

For an ROH/TNA wrestler to be eligible to make this list, they had to wrestle in an indy promotion in the northeast at least 3 times, which was the requirement for everyone else on this list. TNA exclusive wrestlers did not make this list. That is why you'll see a Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe or a Christian Cage, who have each wrestled on the indy scene on this list than a Sting, Basham Brothers, Jeff Jarrett who haven't been on the northeast indy scene.

Admittedly, we did break our own rules 3 times on this list by ranking 3 ROH wrestlers who did not participate in any northeast indy. The reason for doing so is that we feel it would be ignorant to slight someone like a Takeshi Morishima, who is the ROH World Champion and has competed in the northeast region, just for ROH. ROH exclusive wrestlers were added to this list, but did not get high profile spots as a result, as this list is about recoginizing northeast indy work. At this point in time, the DOI does not recoginize ROH as an indy for two reasons. Those reasons are one, ROH is signing guys to contracts and two ROH is now on PPV, even if the shows are taped.

Wrestlers who competed on the MTV WSX show were not considered for this list unless they met the requirements.

This list has always been about two things, exposing hard-working indy wrestlers to a very large audience and rewarding the wrestlers themselves by giving them recoginition. We've prided ourselves in helping people find out about who's who on the indy scene, and this list really give's you a who's who on the northeast indy scene.

To be ranked on this list, a wrestler had to wrestle at least three times in the northeast region. The list is made up of 250 wrestlers who have wrestled from June 2006-June 2007 in the northeast region. You would think that it would be tough to come up with 250 indy wrestlers, but you would be surprised that there were easily 400+ indy names ommited from this list.

In the third annual DOI 250 two years ago, I came up with 640+ wrestlers who wrestled in the northeast area from May 2004-June 2005. That means that 390 wrestlers were left off of that list, and for the first time in the history of this list, more wrestlers were left off that list than were actually on that list! For us, that is a sign that the northeast is the place to be at, as alot of wrestlers who made this list aren't from the northeast area. The northeast area is easily the hottest area for indy wrestling, and it's easily the most competitive, and that's why you see every company from TNA to ECW, wanting to run in this area.

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. It is way too difficult to put out this list every year and think it is perfect. Our main goal is to make sure that the people who've worked the hardest get mentioned on this list.

Here is how we rank the wrestlers on the DOI 250, in order of importance:

- Work in the northeast region- The DOI is a northeast based site, although we have been expanding our coverage to other regions. However, we ranked what we saw only. Wrestlers from the mid-west, the SoCal area and other regions weren't considered highly for this list, unless they wrestled in the northeast. For example PWG wrestlers wouldn't be ranked on this list, unless they've had matches 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.) Wrestlers who wrestled frequently in the northeast were given higher spots on this list. A wrestler who might've had 50 so-so matches would be ranked higher than a wrestler who had 2-3 above average matches

- 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 quality of wrestling 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 JAPW, ECWA, PWU, CZW (no jokes please), etc were considered over guys who wrestled for smaller promotions with smaller crowds such as AWA, ABC, ACPW, DWF, 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.

Women Wrestlers are also factored into this list. Obviously it is tough to place where the women belong on this list, as they deserve their own ranking system. The way we added women to this list was by taking all the women who've competed in mixed tag team matches on the indy scene. Several women hold victories and are more talented than several male wrestlers. If a woman wrestler was able to make enough of an impact, we added her to the list.

The list this year was decided by Sean "The MiC" McCaffrey and all profiles were written by him. In the past, the DOI 250 was a group effort, but due to everyone's schedules and the harder than ever criteria, it was just easier & faster to do this list solo.

Here is a quick history of the list, without spoiling this year's version:
Christopher Daniels, Homicide and Chris Candido are the only people in the history of the DOI 250 to be ranked at the number 1 spot. April Hunter, Simply Luscious and Ariel are the only women to have ever made this list. JC The Damager and Fujinami hold the exclusive honor of being ranked in the 250 spot, with JC The Damager being ranked twice at 250.

Many international and ex-WWE stars have made this list, such as The Great Muta, Bam Bam Bigelow, Ultimo Dragon, Shocker, Ultimo Guerrero, Raven and others.

In only its fifth year, the DOI 250 has become the most talked about indy ranking system in all of indy wrestling! With more wrestlers than ever, this year will surely spark some debate, like all types of lists of these kind do.

One thing to keep in mind is that this list is NORTHEAST based only. Northeast constitutes the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. We here at the DOI consider Massachusetts and Connecticut as New England states, since they even have the New England blue laws!

Please make sure to read everything above before continuing, or else there is a good chance this list won't make sense to you. There's a good chance it won't make sense anyway because there is no right way to rank 250 indy wrestlers. This is just our way of giving 250 wrestlers recoginition for their hard work over the year.

With all that said and done, I present to you the Fifth Annual DOI 250!

Note: To check out the profiles and explanation for our rankings, check out the profiles. Due to the amount of text, the profiles have been split up in intervals of 50. You can also check out the list version to see where your favorite wrestler has been ranked.

The Fifth Annual DOI 250: Profiles 1-50

The Fifth Annual DOI 250: Profiles 51-100

The Fifth Annual DOI 250: Profiles 101-150

The Fifth Annual DOI 250: Profiles 151-200

The Fifth Annual DOI 250: Profiles 201-250

THE FOURTH ANNUAL DOI TOP 250- LIST VERSION

THE FOURTH ANNUAL DOI TOP 250- PROFILES 1-50

THE FOURTH ANNUAL DOI TOP 250- PROFILES 51-100

THE FOURTH ANNUAL DOI TOP 250- PROFILES 101-150

THE FOURTH ANNUAL DOI TOP 250- PROFILES 151-200

THE FOURTH ANNUAL DOI TOP 250- PROFILES 201-250

THE THIRD ANNUAL DOI TOP 250- PROFILE VERSION

THE SECOND ANNUAL DOI 250

THE FIRST ANNUAL DOI 250

Thank you for reading the "Fifth Annual DOI 250"!

Email me at:
Sean "The MiC" McCaffrey
BULLSMC@aol.com