The Push-Me Poll

[Guest DeputyHawk]

Hi guys,

 

This is a monthly column hopefully going up on the main site as of next month. It's not a traditional rankings listing, but based on who is getting pushed in and/or dominating the north american scene over the previous 30-days, based on titles held, shows main-evented, PPV, TV & supercard appearances, etc. It incorporates WWE, NWA:TNA, ROH, CZW, XPW, WWA and FWA, as well as some of the larger indies like Wildside, OVW, 3PW, USAPro, ECWA, ICW & IWA Mid-South. I'm still hammering out the way the rankings work, but hopefully the column can grow into a pretty accurate monthly documentation of who is dominating the scene at any given time.

 

Any questions or comments very welcome, so I can make any improvements necessary in the format for the official debut January edition in a few weeks time. Should there be more match details, less opinion? vice versa? Cheers in advance for any feedback.

 

DECEMBER 2002 PUSH-ME POLL TOP 50

 

1—TRIPLE-H (WWE Raw, LP:4)

Thank the lord Mr Hunter Hearst Helmsley is back in his rightful position as pretend World champion after a stressful month apart from his belt. Squished RVD again on the 12/2 Raw to become no.1 contender, then limped through an underwhelming ‘three stages of hell’ match at Armageddon to regain the gold. The verbal fellatio bestowed upon him throughout December by both Ric Flair & the spurious HHH Appreciation Night at times verged on nauseating, and not in a good way. Feud with Scott Steiner now looms, but is there really any doubt who will come out of that run looking superior?

 

2—KURT ANGLE (WWE Smackdown, LP:24)

Finally thrust back into the main event title mix where he belongs after spending much of the year inexplicably pissing about in the midcard. Became no.1 contender to the Smackdown title after winning a sweet four-way over Benoit, Eddie & Edge on 12/5. Curious and not altogether coherent shenanigans then unfolded in which Angle asked Lesnar to be his cornerman against Show at Armageddon, went on to beat the big lummox for the belt, then promptly announced an alliance with Paul Heyman and a contractual clause forbidding Brock from a title-shot. It had been a set-up all along, see! Lesnar proceeded to destroy the new champ’s knee, allowing him some time off for minor surgery. With Benoit now scheduled as a stop-gap opponent on the way to the inevitable Lesnar showdown, let’s hope there’s enough time between now & the Royal Rumble for that knee to heal up good.

 

3—THE BIG SHOW (WWE Smackdown, LP:1)

Paul Wight began the month an undeserving World champion and ended it looking like a complete dufus, pleasingly. The stage set for him to defend against Angle at Armageddon, Show & new buddy Albert beat Kurt & Edge in the main event of the 12/5 Smackdown, only to lose to our Olympic Hero at the PPV itself due to Lesnar and subsequently discover his manager Paul Heyman had been in with Angle all along. D’oh! Eschewing the obvious face turn at this juncture, Show simply acknowledged that he was the poorer choice to be Heyman’s no.1 boy. Next show, Benoit kicked him in the nuts too!

 

4—SHAWN MICHAELS (WWE Raw, LP:3)

The Raw World champion grudgingly raised the hand of his sworn nemesis & job exchange partner to face him at Armageddon after reffing the predicatble HHH-RVD match on 12/2. After enduring a laughable speech from Ric Flair about passing the torch, Shawn then attacked Trips from a ladder in the parking lot on 12/9 thus all but ensuring he would drop the fake gold belt in the ‘three stages of hell’ match at the PPV. Which he did. The following night on Raw, the beginnings of a run with Chris Jericho were formed when Y2J called HBK a tired old has-been, which is exactly what Shawn admitted to last month.

 

5—CHRIS BENOIT (WWE Smackdown, LP:24)

As was his erstwhile tag partner Angle, Benoit was extricated from the doubles ranks and shot back into singular action in December. A solid win over Eddie Guerrero at Armageddon nicely re-established him as a solo threat and the following Smackdown on 12/19 saw our boy receive the first title-shot against new World champ Kurt, ruined only by a big fat show attack. The next week, Benoit & Show squared off in the main event to determine the no.1 contender for next month’s Royal Rumble. The Canadian Crippler won. Depending on the state of Angle’s knee, Kurt vs. Chris on PPV for the World title could well be one for the ages. Here’s hoping.

 

6—JEFF JARRETT (NWA:TNA, WWA, LP:9)

The NWA:TNA World champion began December pitted against Vince Russo & his newfound cronies B.G. James & The Harrises, Russo all the time trying to draw Jarrett into the fold. He scooted off to the UK to defend against Nathan Jones on the WWA Retribution PPV taping, returned to TNA to beat Curt Hennig on the 12/11 show, jetted to Japan to appear on the Zero One PPV alongside Steve Corino, then came back to TNA again to state once and for all that in no way would he ally himself with Russo & his naffly-titled SEX faction. The battle lines have been drawn, with Jarrett at the head of the NWA traditionalists. Jarrett’s globetrotting went some way towards establishing the TNA belt as a much more genuine World championship.

 

7—EDGE (WWE Smackdown, LP:18)

The golden ‘Smackdown Six’ period ended for Edge at the start of the month when Rey Mysterio took some time off for more knee surgery. Initially, Matt Hardy was to be the one to do the injury honors, but was switched to Albert of all people at the last moment. The resulting Edge-Albert match at Armageddon was as substandard as you would expect, our boy beating the bald behemoth by DQ at the PPV then cleanly on 12/19. A fixture now of TV & house show main events, a top spot is there for the taking if he can take his game up that final notch.

 

8—BROCK LESNAR (WWE Smackdown, LP:2)

Despite his cracked rib & storyline suspension, Brock continued to do battle with Smackdown World champion The Big Show on the house show circuit. Received an Armageddon cornerman request from Angle in return for a garunteed title-shot and getting the suspension lifted, so helped his amateur rival win the big one, only to be screwed over by the Angle-Heyman double-cross. Smashed the hell out of Kurt’s knee after the 12/19 show to set up some time off for Angle, but with a no-title shot clause hanging over him, it’s already obvious he’s being set up to go over for the big one at WrestleMania XIX.

 

9—A.J. STYLES (NWA:TNA, ROH, FWA, LP:11)

Styles continued to be brilliant everywhere you could shake a stick at on the indy circuit. In his most notable appearances, he took part in a fantastic TNA X-division four way against E.Z Money, Kid Kash & Joel Maximo on 12/4, took on ROH champion Xavier in a solid match at Night Of The Butcher on 12/7, fell to The Amazing Red in another steller X-division outing on 12/11 and pulled double duty in the UK at FWA Seasons Beatings on 12/15, beating Jody Fleish in singles action then competing in a good three way dance topliner with Jerry Lynn and Doug Williams. A main event TNA program with Jeff Jarrett now seems to be on the cards. What an amazing year this has been for Styles, one can only imagine the pleasures 2003 will bring.

 

10-LANCE STORM & WILLIAM REGAL (WWE Raw, LP:NEW)

Quite the push for the former UnAmericans in December. Rolled over Jeff Hardy & Tommy Dreamer on 12/2, soon-to-be champions Booker T & Goldust on 12/9 and The Dudley Boyz on 12/16. Sustained their ‘first’ loss as a tandem at the hands of legendary dream team Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler on 12/23, but we now know that they were rewarded with the Raw Tag titles shortly afterwards as compensation for that little incident. How long they will hold onto the gold is another matter entirely.

 

11-THE DUDLEY BOYZ (WWE Raw, LP:NEW)

Reformed tag legends teamed with Trish Stratus to down Jericho, Christian & Victoria in the main event of the 12/9 Raw. They came up short in the tag title four-way at Armageddon on 12/15, then surprisingly fell to Lance Storm & William Regal the next night on Raw. Gained revenge of sorts by helping JR & King beat Lance & Regal on the festive 12/23 show, and now logic would point to them beating The Commonwealth Connection for their sixth (I believe?) doubles run sometime soon.

 

12-CHRIS JERICO & CHRISTIAN (WWE Raw, LP:47)

The Raw Tag Team champions continued to look foolish despite a TV main event against the Dudley Boyz in the 12/9 six-person Table Match. Trish Stratus told Jericho he had a tiny peepee while Christian gladly accepted a tub of ass cream for his Christmas present. Ho ho ho! Lost the doubles gold to Booker T & Goldust at Armageddon, and lost clean again in a rematch on the 12/23 show. The team is now all but done & the seeds have been sewn for a Jericho singles run against Shawn Michaels.

 

13-ALBERT (WWE Smackdown, LP:NEW)

You can call him A-Train if you want, but he’s still friggin’ Albert and he belongs nowhere near the main event! Controversially took Matt Hardy’s spot at the last minute to put Rey Mysterio out of action and start a singles program with Rey’s partner Edge on the 12/5 Smackdown. Teamed with World champion The Big Show to beat Edge & Kurt Angle in the headliner of the 12/12 show, but then lost to Edge by DQ in their showdown at Armageddon and lost clean in the 12/19 TV rematch. Unexpected push was as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit, by both locker room and fanbase.

 

14-EDDIE GUERRERO (WWE Smackdown, LP:12)

Maintained the Smackdown Tag Team titles alongside Chavo, but with the dissolution of their two main rival tandems, spent much of the month competing in singles action. Was part of the great no.1 contenders four-way on 12/5 alongside Angle, Benoit & Edge, then lost to Chris Benoit in another good match at the Armageddon PPV on 12/15. A doubles feud against the awful team of John Cena & Bull Buchanan appears to be looming for Los Guerreros as 2003 begins.

 

15-XAVIER (ROH, LP:14)

The Ring Of Honor champion, still regarded by some as unworthy of carrying that promotion’s top belt at this stage of his career, decisively answered his critics in December by entering two very strong performances, defending the title against A.J. Styles at Night Of The Butcher on 12/7, and against Paul London on 12/28.

 

16-LOW KI (NWA:TNA, ROH, LP:30)

Yes! The perfect one completed his Zero-One Epicentre tour in Japan then returned to the U.S. with a vengeance, shockingly coming back to TNA with Chris Daniels & Elix Skipper as part of Vince Russo’s .. ugh .. SEX faction and beating regular TNA cruisers The SATs in a fantastic six-man head-liner. Followed that up by going to a phenomenal 45-minute draw against American Dragon, Steve Corino & Samoa Joe in the 4-way main event of Ring Of Honor’s 12/28 show. Welcome back Mr Ki!

 

17-THE MESSIAH (CZW, LP:40)

Standing tall as CZW champion as the fed ends its 12-month tenure at Philly’s Viking Hall, Messiah beat Justice Pain to lift that promotion’s top strap in the main event of the fantastic Cage Of Death 4 show on 12/14, then retained against Justice and Nick Gage in the three way dance on 12/28 to boot.

 

18-JUSTICE PAIN (CZW, LP:37)

After having stood atop the CZW sandpile for most of 2002, Pain dropped the heavyweight title to returning hero The Messiah at Cage Of Death 4, and came up short again in the three way dance topliner at the promotion’s final Viking Hall event against Messiah and Nick Gage on 12/28.

 

19-SABU (WWA, 3PW, LP:15)

Main-Evented the WWA’s Retribution PPV, recorded in Scotland on 12/6, by beating Perry Saturn and Simon Diamond in a somewhat bungled No-DQ Triple Threat Hardcore Match. His other notable shot was headlining the final 3PW show (for the time being) on 12/28 at Viking Hall and dropping their heavyweight title to Pitbull Gary Wolfe, though at this point 3PW’s future is sketchy to say the least.

 

20-ROB VAN DAM (WWE Raw, LP:5)

From co-headlining Survivor Series last month (and perhaps not coincidentally injuring the boss’ daughter’s love-bunny in that particular match), RVD spent December jobbing to Triple-H once-a-friggin’-gain in their no.1 contenders match on 12/2, not even having a match on the Armageddon PPV, forming a comedy tandem with Kane against Three-Minute Warning, then buying his scarred new friend Hungry Hungry Hippos for Christmas to brighten up his life. It’s just not gonna happen.

 

21-BOOKER T & GOLDUST (WWE Raw, LP:NEW)

After pursuing the Tag Team titles on-and-off for most of the year, Booker & Goldust put Raw TV losses against Jericho & Christian and Storm & Regal behind them and came out of the Armageddon PPV four-way against those teams and The Dudley Boyz with their hand held high and championship gold held aloft. They defended against Y2J & Christian in a good match on the 12/23 show, but we now know that their reign atop the doubles division would last no more than three weeks. Oh well.

 

22-BATISTA (WWE Raw, LP:NEW)

Spent the early part of the month solidifying his alliance with Ric Flair on Raw and getting attacked by Kane after his matches. Took a big win over Kane at the Armageddon PPV with help from an interfering Flair. The following Raw, Flair had him walk out of a match pitting Batista & Three-Minute Warning against Kane & RVD. Rumours of a Flair-managed Four Horseman reformation persist, featuring HHH, Regal, Storm & Batista. So will Dave be the Sid Vicious or the Paul Roma?

 

23-KANE (WWE Raw, LP:8)

Kane continues his free-fall back into the midcard after his run with Triple-H. Now why does that sound so familiar? Lost to new boy Batista at Armageddon on 12/15, then became even more of a parody of himself by doing pelvic thrusts at Chief Morley and forming a comedy alliance with Rob Van Dam against Three-Minute Warning. The future is not looking tremendous for the Kane character.

 

24-STING (WWA, LP:NEW)

Wooo! He was back, testing the waters for a potential return on the WWA’s tour of the UK. Headlining house shows in various tag matches then facing old rival Lex Luger for the vacant WWA title at the Retribution PPV recording on 12/6, the Stinger was ultimately foiled when attacked by NWA champ Jeff Jarrett & his guitar. Randomly, just one week later Sting went over Luger and Malice in a three way dance on a house show in Switzerland and now reigns as WWA heavyweight champ.

 

25-LEX LUGER (WWA, LP:NEW)

Like Sting, Luger returned to the squared circle for the WWA tour, promptly picked up an injury a couple shows in, returned in time for the Retribution PPV on 12/6 and won their vacant heavyweight title by beating Sting with help from Jarrett. He then mysteriously dropped the strap the next week on a Swiss house show. I’m not 100% sure of the reasoning, but a general lack of talent and commitment to the promotion seem likely causes.

 

26-THE AMAZING RED (NWA:TNA, ROH, LP:45)

Like A.J. & LowKi, Red continued to split his time between TNA & ROH. Teamed with Jay Briscoe against his buddies the Maximos at ROH Night Of The Butcher on 12/7, then beat A.J. Styles in a fantastic match on the 12/11 TNA show in revenge for Styles attacking him the previous week. Pulled double duty on the 12/18 instalment, competing in the 10-man X-gauntlet then teaming with the Maximos against Russo’s evil cruisers LowKi, Daniels & Skipper in the main. A solid bout against the UK’s top flyer Jody Fleisch on 2002’s final ROH show capped off another great month for the lad.

 

27-THE SPANISH ANNOUNCE TEAM (NWA:TNA, ROH, LP:46)

Top tag team on the indy circuit, Jose & Joel Maximo continued to do battle with familiar foes throughout December. Fell to Divine Storm on the 12/4 TNA show, beat Red & Jay Briscoe on the 12/7 ROH, teamed with Red against Ki, Chris & Elix on TNA’s 12/18, then fell to ROH Tag champs Daniels & Donovan Morgan on the 12/28 ROH. Solid & dependable, but still need to vary their act a bit more.

 

28-JERRY LYNN (NWA:TNA, FWA, XPW, LP:13)

Odd month for Mr J-L. Sonny Siaki upset him for the TNA X-Division title on 12/11 when the lady formerly known as Kim Neilson randomly attacked him. Travelled to the UK for FWA Season’s Beatings on 12/15 where he took injured Johnny Storm’s spot in the main event, winning a controversial three-way over Doug Williams and A.J. Styles. Returned to TNA on 12/18 and fell to Siaki and E.Z Money when that girl attacked him again and then finally, in a very questionable move, debuted for XPW at Merry F’n Christmas & teamed with Johnny Storm to go over Joey Matthews & Zebra Kid. What this jump means for Lynn’s future I don’t know, but instinctively I don’t like one bit.

 

29-JASON CROSS (NWA:TNA, NWA Wildisde, LP:NEW)

Great month for Cross! Went to a no-contest with Wildside champ Iceberg at the 12/7 TV taping when attacked by John Phoenix. Returned to the TNA Asylum and impressively won the 10-man X-gauntlet no.1 contenders match on 12/18, then went back to Wildside and played his part in the fantastic angle on 12/21 to set up the 12/28 Christmas Chaos main event against Phoenix in which both Cross & injured Rick Michaels careers were on the line. Jason won that showdown to send the Wildside fans home happy.

 

30-DOUG WILLIAMS (FWA, LP:29)

Had an unbelievable night at the FWA Seasons Beatings Round Robin tournament on 12/15. Fell to Johnny Storm in his first match, beat Jody Fleisch in a fantastic second encounter, then went to a controversial double-finish against A.J. Styles and Jerry Lynn (subbing for the injured Storm) to apparently tie the tourney at 40-points each with the Lynn/Storm combo. Fatal Four-way between the three & the FWA champion Christopher Daniels doesn’t sound like a bad option to sort it all out at all.

 

31-PAUL LONDON (ROH, LP:NEW)

Really established himself near the top of the ROH class by beating E.Z Money & American Dragon en route to claim the no.1 contenders trophy at Night Of The Butcher. Followed that up with a good bout against ROH champion Xavier on 12/28 to put the lid on a fabulous breakout year for himself.

 

32-AMERICAN DRAGON (ROH, LP:25)

Beat Chad Collyer in a tremendous wrestling clinic at Night of the Butcher on 12/7, but then fell to Paul London in the no.1 contenders trophy final. Redeemed himself by participating in the absolutely fantastic four-way main event at Final Battle on 12/28 against LowKi, Steve Corino & Samoa Joe.

 

33-CURT HENNIG (NWA:TNA, LP:NEW)

The former Mr Perfect’s hyped main-event title-shot against NWA World champion Jeff Jarrett on 12/11 came to naught when Russo nailed him with Jarrett’s guitar in an attempt to woo Jeff to his cause. Hennig returned the following week to actually help Jarrett & the NWA guys against Russo’s goons. The veteran contiues to have a role to play.

 

34-THE HARRIS BROTHERS (NWA: TNA, LP:NEW)

Big Ron & Heavy D became Vince Russo’s TNA personal security & beat World champion Jeff Jarrett in a handicap match in the main of the 12/4 show. Gunned to win the Tag titles for Russo and came close in matches against The New Church on 12/11 and vs. The Church & America’s Most Wanted on 12/18.

 

35-CHRISTOPHER DANIELS (NWA:TNA, ROH, LP:NEW)

Returned from one of his many forays to Japan to accompany Low Ki & Elix Skipper as part of Vince Russo’s new SEX regime in TNA and beat Red & The Maximos in the main event of the 12/18 show. Also defended the ROH Tag Team titles alongside his Prophecy protege Donovan Morgan vs. The SATs again in a best-of-three-falls match at ROH Final Battle on 12/28.

 

36-STEVE CORINO (ROH, LP:NEW)

Spent much of the month out in Japan with LowKi on the Zero-One Epicentre tour, but returned to Ring Of Honor action at Final Battle to dump Luscious as his girlfriend and declare war against Christopher Daniels and The Prophecy. Was chased off by his nemesis Homicide and the fork of death, but had his revenge later by jumping Homicide and taking his place in the brilliant four-way no.1 contenders main against Ki, Dragon & Samoa Joe which went to a blistering 45-minute draw.

 

37-ICEBERG (NWA Wildside, LP:NEW)

The enormous Wildside heavyweight champ maintained his grip on the gold, just, in matches against Jason Cross and Onyx at the 12/7 and 12/21 TV tapings and then saw back the challenge of Stone Mountain at the 12/28 Christmas Chaos event thanks the ever present interference of Jeff G. Bailey

 

38-NICK GAGE (CZW, LP:42)

Competed in the three way dance main event of CZW’s final Viking Hall show on 12/28 against CZW champion Messiah and former champ Justice Pain, but lost when his H8 Club partner and fellow CZW Tag Team champion Nate Hatred ran in attacking everyone, nailing his buddy Gage by mistake as well.

 

39-ABDULLAH THE BUTCHER (ROH, 3PW, LP:NEW)

Quite the nostalgic run for old Abby of late. Kicked off with a nuts Bunkhouse Match with Homicide against The Carnage Crew in the main event of ROH’s sentimental Night Of The Butcher show, and followed up by beating Bam Bam Bigelow at 3PW’s final 12/28 show after his scheduled opponent, fellow old-timer Dusty Rhodes, no-showed.

 

40-ZANDIG (CZW, LP:39)

Here purely for his efforts vs. Lobo at CZW Cage Of Death 4 on 12/14. Definitively took the contract for sole ownership of his company back in the brutal titular opening Cage Match. All I can say is ‘ouch!’ Now faced with the task of keeping CZW strong in Philly after being kicked out of Viking Hall.

 

41-LOBO (CZW, LP:NEW)

See above. Taking some time off, Lobo went out in style against Zandig at COD4, by far the best CZW show of the year, taking Zandig’s bomb off the scaffold through tables, chairs & a plate of friggin’ glass en route to ‘retirement’. Rest up well, big guy, you deserve the break.

 

42-SHANE DOUGLAS (XPW, LP:35)

XPW heavyweight champion beat Vic Grimes in the Merry F’N Christmas main on 12/28. Pretty much nothing else to add as I’m very pissed over the renaming of Viking Hall as the XPW Arena and the exclusivity clause that comes along with that. XPW can go to hell as far as I’m concerned.

 

43-VIC GRIMES (XPW, LP:36)

See above. Lost to XPW champ Shane Douglas in the Merry F’N Christmas topliner. The only positive I can bring to this is that Grimes’ new valet Lucy (the former Daffney) is absolutely gorgeous.

 

44-PERRY SATURN (WWA, LP:NEW)

Toured the UK with WWA as part of a deal worked out with WWE over WWA champion Scott Steiner’s release. Made a big splash at the Retribution PPV recorded on 12/6, Commissioner Mike Sanders putting him into the three-way main event against Sabu & Simon Diamond. Has since signed on full-time with New Japan though, so his WWA run looks set to be just the one-shot deal. Oh well.

 

45-SIMON DIAMOND (WWA, LP:NEW)

Again, see above. Wrestled the WWA Retribution PPV main event against Sabu & Saturn, and was lucky to avoid serious injury when Sabu decided to put him through an actual non-gimmicked table after three previous props had embarrassingly splintered into nothingness. Pinned by Sabu in the end.

 

46-ELIX SKIPPER (NWA:TNA, LP:NEW)

Part of Vince’s Russo’s SEX cruiser faction in TNA alongside Low Ki & Christopher Daniels which debuted on the 12/18 show. The three beat Amazing Red & The Maximos in that show’s headliner.

 

47-SAMOA JOE (ROH, LP:NEW)

Gets a spot on the December poll due to his solid performance in the 45-minute four-way draw at Ring Of Honor’s 12/28 show against Low Ki, American Dragon and Steve Corino. He held his own against some pretty sterling opposition and there will hopefully be more to come from Joe in 2003.

 

48-HOMICIDE (ROH, LP:48)

Teamed with Abdullah The Butcher to defeat The Carnage Crew in a wild main event of ROH’s 12/7 show. Was scheduled to wrestle the 12/28 four-way headliner as well, but found himself attacked and taken out by Steve Corino pre-match and ended up taking no further part in proceedings that night.

 

49-THE CARNAGE CREW (ROH, LP:NEW)

Loc & Devito had the unenviable task of headlining against Homicide & Abdullah at Night Of The Butcher on 12/7. They lost, but got back to their dominant, hub-cap swinging ways at ROH Final Battle against the new Christopher Street Connection, getting themselves DQ’d for excessive violence.

 

50-PITBULL GARY WOLFE (3PW, LP:NEW)

Won the 3PW heavyweight title from Sabu in the final Viking Hall show from that promotion. As the Blue Meanie’s fed as of right now has no alternative accommodation, the future of 3PW is somewhat vague.

[Guest MillenniumMan831]

Interesting concept and good job,

 

While one side of me thinks 50 guys is too much, the other side knows that since it's a monthly column, 50 is a good number. I particulary like that you have indy guys, if for no other reason, I've never seen many of them and it's nice to see some current background on them.

 

Good job!

[Guest DeputyHawk]

thank you. 50 is a lot, yeah. if you think it's a slog to read, imagine compiling & writing it! i do want to include a lot of the indy guys who are getting a push in the smaller ponds though, and if it was a top 25 or top 30 it would probably be mainly limited to wwe with the amount of exposure those guys get, so i'll probably stick with 50, at least to begin with. glad you appreciated the effort though! when it goes up on the main site from next month, hopefully it will widen some readers eyes to who else is out there.

cheers again,

dh