Hey everyone, welcome to McRankings, which is a monthly feature in the DOI newsletters. To spice up the DOI website, every week (Or as much free time as I can get) I will rank, in my opinion, the top 10 indy wrestlers that I have seen for the week. The monthly rankings will remain in the newsletter, which is available monthly. I will also rank the top 5 tag teams, top 5 women wrestlers and top 5 “Intangibles”. There will also be one “McMatch of the Weekend.” Rankings will be on what I’ve seen only, and I usually make all the top shows. NWA-TNA wrestlers will only be ranked if they wrestle in the northeast area, but I will not rank wrestlers on what they have done in NWA-TNA, but I will comment on it. This is what I look for in a ranking. The criteria is listed in order.

1- Workrate- how good was the match from a wrestling standpoint. A lot of rest holds? Non stop action? Ring psychology, footwork and selling moves will also factor into this.

2- Character/Crowd Reaction- How the wrestler did with the crowd. Was the crowd chanting boring or were they popping the whole match? Likewise, was the crowd sitting there or booing and cursing the hell out of the heels?

3- Finally win/loss records. This won’t really factor into it too much, but if 2 guys are tied, then I will give the nod to the guy with the better win/loss record.

What up everyone in DOI land and welcome to another McRankings. Sorry for the tardiness of this report, but what the fuck can you do? This week I checked out AWA, PIW and ROH. Let’s get into it.

TOP 10 SINGLES WRESTLERS

10. Pinkie Sanchez- Had the match of his career against Danny Maff in AWA. Pinkie has seemingly become the first ever AWA student to receive a Doghouse/JAPW break-in, to the wrestling business.

9. Monsta Mack- Defeated Deranged in PIW, in what was a good match.

8. B-Boy – With Homicide, defeated AMIL in PIW. Had the best match of the ROH Do or Die III show against Josh Daniels.

7. Azraiel– Strong weekend for Azriael. Had a great match with Jay Lethal in PIW. Faced Dan Barry in a stellar contest in AWA. Lost to Tony Kozina in ROH, in what was one of the better matches of the show.

6. Jay Lethal- Another weekend down and another successful weekend for Jay Lethal. Lethal picked up the PIW Heavyweight Title by defeating Azraiel, but dropped his AWA L.H. title to Damian Dragon. Wrestled in a brutal 4 way match, losing to Doug Williams in ROH.

5. Samoa Joe- The longest ever reigning ROH Heavyweight Champion didn’t defend his title this week, but defended his pride. Was part of one of the stiffest 6 man tag team matches of all time.

4. Homicide- As the leader of the Rottweilers, he had a good match in ROH. Threw a fireball at Jay Briscoe. Also, defeated AMIL w/B-Boy in PIW.

3. Alex Shelley- Lost in the finals of the Pure Wrestling Title tournament. 2004 has been Shelley’s break out year.

2. Doug Williams- Won the ROH Pure Wrestling title with victories against Jay Lethal and Alex Shelley. Williams is a complete wrestling machine.

1. Dan Maff- Incredible weekend for the artist formerly known as Mafia. Danny Maff did something for the wrestling business last Friday by giving Pinkie a match that Pinkie won’t soon forget. Maff later went onto ROH and wrestled in a crazy falls count anywhere match, which almost saw Maff fall 40 feet into a sea of people. His willingness to do almost anything for the wrestling business is appreciated.

TOP 5 TAG TEAM WRESTLERS

5. Dirty Rotten Scoundrelz- Lost to Hot N Sexy in a bid to win the AWA Tag belts. Also were part of one of the biggest feel-good moments in AWA by losing to Danny Maff/Pinkie in an impromptu match.

4. OutCast Killahz – Should Oman dump Diablo? Seemingly not, as OCK had a good match with the CSC in PIW, and defeated two Texans in ROH.

3. Christopher Street Connection- The hardest hitting fags on the indies had a solid weekend. They defeated OCK in PIW. They also lost to Colt Cabana in a handicapped match. CSC have longeavity and are still majorly over wherever they go.

2. Havana Pitbulls – One of the best tag teams today. They were part of the huge ROH 6 man tag. Both looked good as they went against the best in the indy world.

1. Briscoe Brothers- Part of the victorious side of Saturday nights ROH main event. These guys can be doing so much more if they wanted to. They are exclusive to ROH, and despite that, I still think they are one of the top 3 tag teams in the United States today.

TOP 5 WOMEN WRESTLERS
Note: On weeks where there weren’t enough women wrestlers, managers/valets will be placed in spots. Women wrestlers will always be ranked ahead of managers/valets.

5. Ariel- managed the CSC at ROH. Has seemingly become the talk of the town as well!.

4. Tara Charisma- made her AWA debut, by getting defeated by her SSCW arch-nemesis, Alicia.

3. Alicia- defeated Tara Charisma in AWA, in a decent womens match.

2. Allison Danger- lost to Daisy Haze at Do or Die III.

1. Daisy Haze- Defeated Allison Danger in ROH. I think it’s safe to say that more people want to see her in this area more often.

TOP 5 INTANGIBLES
The intangibles will be used for the top 5 people/angles/interesting developments that occurred during the week.

5. ROH/H2 Story- There’s even more to this, that I’ll have up on this site soon. The fans will lose in the end.

4. ROH draws 800 fans at their Elizabeth, NJ show- a big drop off, considering what they’ve done there before, but after the show and the surprises that went down, I don’t think ROH will dip below the 1000 mark ever again at the Rexplex.

3. CZW TOD III is this weekend- This show promises to be fucking brutal as hell. Check out our Press Release page for all the info on it.

2. Dana Dameson gets jumped- One of the wildest stories of the year. Anything can happen at AWA, ha!

1. Low Ki returns to ROH- Did Low Ki go back on what he said? You make the call. I think by going back, it will make more fans realize that RF is finally truly done with ROH. Now does ROH use Low Ki as an attraction or as a champion?

MATCH OF THE WEEK
AWA
Pinkie Sanchez vs Danny Maff
It may have not been the best match of the weekend, but it definitely was the most impactful. Pinkie has been given the ball, and if he runs with it far, like most think he will, then everyone will look back at this match, as the match that put Pinkie on the map. Credit goes to the JAPW staff, and of course Maff, for giving AWA this type of match. Both guys went at it hard here, and in the end, both were respected even more.

Well that’s it for this week. Keep it here on the DOI site for all the good shit!

Let us know on the DOI message board or send us an email and tell us what you think about the rankings!

Sean “The MiC” McCaffrey

BULLSMC@aol.com