And now the links with, as I mentioned, video of each match (when applicable)It’s finally here! The beginning of Voices of Wrestling’s “2013 Match of the Year” list. You’ll notice in the title that this is numbers 50 through 26, wait, what? I thought you guys were only doing a top 10 like you did last year?
Well, we did too, that was until we had an overwhelming diversity in the number of matches voted for in 2013. This was deliberate, as my colleague Joe Lanza wrote in this introductory piece (definitely read before getting into the list). Last year, we had four voters and while it was still cool to put that list together, we were four like minded people. The lists were essentially the same 13 or so matches just put into different order.
This year, however, Joe and I decided to broaden the range of voter and the voter base expanded to 25 and more than the pure quantity, we tried to find voters from all walks of life from lucha experts, Dragon Gate reviewers, to our live show correspondents. The goal was exactly what you’re seeing here, to have the widest scope of matches from all across the world possible.
We were going to do just a top 10 or 15 but what fun is that? We complied all this data and all of our voters put in the hard work, so why not give some credit to those matches on the outside looking in. The overall goal of this entire project is simply to bring great matches from the year 2013 to you. Matches you may not have seen, may not of heard about, wrestlers you’ve never watched and so on. If just one person watches a lucha match and gets hooked or had no idea professional wrestling existed outside WWE and TNA, well, we’ve done our job.
Before we begin, I’d like to bring attention to how the poll works and what the “points” section below each match means. This section was copied from Joe’s introductory piece, which, again, you should read first, it details how the project began as well as a detailed list of our awesome voters.
How The Poll Works
Each voter was sent a ballot and asked to vote for their ten best matches of the year, ranking them from 1-10. We used the same weighted balloting system used by Major League Baseball for their Most Valuable Player voting, with a first place vote worth 14 points, and a descending 9-8-7… scale from there.
The points for each match are then added, with any ties broken in the following order:
- Most total votes
- Match which received the highest singular vote on any ballot
As an example, two matches tied in points, but with one match appearing on more total ballots, would not require the second step tie breaker. The match on more total ballots would rank higher.
If two matches were tied in points, and remain tied by appearing on the same number of ballots, with one match having a second place vote as its highestvote with the other having a high vote of third, the match with the second place vote would win the tie breaker.
Each voter was also encouraged to add short blurbs explaining why they voted for each match. These blurbs are what will give our articles flavor as we release the results.
Any worked match on earth during the Observer calendar (December 1 2012 – November 30 2013) was eligible. We chose to use the Observer calendar because we knew many potential voters work very hard all year compiling lists of their favorite matches based on that time frame.
Lastly, I’d like to thank all those who participated in this year’s Match of the Year vote. Each and everyone of you did the hard work, we’re just hear to display it. Thank you again. Now without further adieu, here are matches 50-26 in the Voices of Wrestling “2013 Match of the Year” voting.
#1: Honorable Mention and Voter Information
#2: #50 to 26
#3: #26 to 15
#4: #15 to 1
