The 2012 TWB 100: Announcement and Call for Ballots

Last year's #1, CM Punk
Photo Credit WWE.com

Welcome to the 2012 TWB 100, a crowd-sourced, fan-voted list that looks to rank wrestlers from the last calendar year on their merits in the ring. This is the fourth year of the list's existence. The first three years, it was called the A1W 100, but for reasons I wish not to talk about, my affiliation with that site has ended for the time being. However, branding issues aside, participation in this year's proceedings will be open to anyone who wants to join in the fun. How does one participate in generating the final list? I'm glad you asked:

1. The TWB 100 is based solely on a wrestler's performance between the bells in any wrestling contest. This includes move variety, execution, workrate, selling, bumping, trash-talking and anything else that happens within the course of a wrestling match. Anything that happens in promos or segments outside the confines of a wrestling match should NOT be considered for ballot entries. It is also advised against using match booking in deciding placement on the ballot (i.e. don't use "well he/she wins too much" as rationale against their placement), but I also understand that it's hard to divorce the concept of wins and losses from match ability sometimes.
   -
2. Content to be considered for ballots must have taken place between 1/1/12 at 12:00:00 AM to 12/31/12 at 11:59:59 PM inclusive, i.e. within the calendar year of 2012. Consideration should also be limited to matches held in the United States and Canada, or by promotions that were based in United States and Canada only. For the sake of those who watch wrestling from Puerto Rico, yes, that island should be considered as part of the United States for this exercise.
   -
3. Ballots shall have a minimum of 25 wrestlers named in order and a maximum of 100 wrestlers named in order. Ballots between those two numbers inclusive will be accepted with no questions, as long as they are ranked in order. Ballots with 24 or fewer and unordered ballots will be thrown out. Ballots with 101 or more will be pared down to 100.
   -
4. There is no demarcation between male or female wrestlers. For the purposes of this ballot, anyone who wrestled in an eligible promotion for the time period given shall be considered eligible regardless of race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, size, weight class, or even species (I see you, ISW).
   -
5. If you want to list a tag team,you must list the individual members and NOT the unit. So, if you want to include the Briscoes, then list Mark and Jay as separate entries on your list, not "The Briscoes" as one entry. All entries for a stable or tag team will be ignored on said ballot (or at the very least, I will e-mail you for clarification).
   -
6. There is no eligibility for submission of a ballot. As long as the submitter likes and has watched wrestling in 2012, they're allowed to submit.
   -
7. Ballots can be sent to me, TH, via any means necessary, either through e-mail (tom DOT holzerman AT gmail DOT com), Facebook messages, written letter (for those who know my address), Twitter DM (although that would be quite the waste of bandwidth!) or any other ways of private contact.
   -
8. The due date for ballots shall be Wednesday, March 27th at 11:59:59 PM local time.
   -
9. The final list will be disseminated via slow release on TWB with blurbs written by ballot submitters. If you are interested in writing for the release, please let me know with your ballot. Your blurbs should be at least one paragraph explaining why you voted for that particular wrestler.
   -
10. All ballots are subject to scrutiny by me, TH.

Those are the specifics. Remember, there are no right or wrong answers. If you think Randy Orton was the best overall wrestler north of the Rio Grande in 2012, vote him #1 on your ballot. If you only watched WWE, then send a ballot with all WWE guys. The same is true if you only watched Chikara, ACW, TNA, ROH, or any other promotion. If you watched a variety of promotions, represent! This list is meant to capture a snapshot of our corner of the Internet, as well as prod for discussion and shed light on wrestlers that may not be as well-known in the community. Also, don't be afraid to volunteer for writing for the slow-release list. Your blurbs provide insight into what you think, and maybe you can shed light on why certain wrestlers are so popular or what you think makes a match good.

Please get in your ballots as soon as you can. I want to get a good variety this year as well as at least a 33% increase in ballots. Vote!