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Introducing Wrestler Cards
- Arul Kannan
- 1 hour ago
- 7 min read
Our brilliant contributor from the lovely (and wrestling-obsessed) subcontinent of India, Arul Kannan recently brought to our site a brand-new concept that is now ready to launch: an app that allows our readers to select a wrestler's name and automatically generate a "Wrestler Card" – an algorithmically generated scouting report based on stats on match quality, card position, attendance, and wins & losses scraped from CAGEMATCH.
Go here for a step-by-step how-to with pictures
And here is the page with links to each promotion's Wrestling Card Generator
And now, here is the man himself with a detailed explanation of the numbers and terms behind all of the stats generated in each Wrestler Card:
Pro Wrestling Musings has been one of the only platforms that have attempted to integrate data-based reporting into wrestling analysis in a context that's been dominated by subjective individual opinions, and occasional discussion about tv ratings and drawing money. Continuing with the tradition, we are introducing wrestler cards that use the data from CAGEMATCH to provide a holistic picture of a wrestler’s career. We believe this will be helpful both for fun comparisons and can act as a reference for anyone who wants to do a deeper dive on a wrestler’s career. We are introducing a wrestler card generator for 6 different promotions: AEW, WWE (1997-Now), ROH(till 2022), stardom, NJPW(2007-Now), AJPW (1987-2000). We encourage people to use it however they see fit.
Note that most of the AJPW matches were not rated by the community, so this might induce noise in the match quality and the drawing numbers in general are to be taken with a grain of salt.Â
All the data are updated as of 27.05.2026, the plan is to update the cards once every year with fresh data.
3 Peak Ranges
We have separated peaks of a wrestler into three distinct categories:
Wrestling Peak
The highest 12-month rolling vote-weighted average match rating, shown as a value out of 10.
Every rated match in each calendar month is considered. A rolling window sums the weighted ratings across the preceding 12 months.
Weights are Bayesian: each match's vote count is compressed by votes / (votes + 20), so a 5-vote rating counts for a fraction of what a 500-vote rating does.
Shrinkage: each window is pulled toward the wrestler's own career mean with a weight of 3 pseudo-observations, preventing a thin 2-match hot streak from outscoring a sustained run.
Minimum sample: a window must contain at least 5 rated matches to qualify, so the peak can't be set by one or two appearances.
Booking Peak
The highest 12-month rolling average card-position score, prestige-weighted by show type.
Each match's slot on the card is normalised linearly: opener = 0.1, main event = 1.0.
Prestige weights up-rate marquee shows (Wrestle Kingdom / PPV / World Climax = 1.6×; tournament finals / Specials = 1.3×; regular cards = 1.0×). Headlining a WrestleMania counts more than topping a house show.
Same 12-month rolling window, minimum 6 appearances, and Bayesian shrinkage applies toward the wrestler's own mean card position, so a tiny stretch of main events can't fake a 1.0 peak.
Drawing Peak
The highest 12-month rolling average of attendance ratio during months when the wrestler headlined.
Only main-event appearances with recorded attendance feed this metric.
Each show's attendance is divided by the same-year, same-show-type baseline (e.g. a PPV headliner is measured against that year's PPV median, not the promotion's overall median) so headlining big venues doesn't automatically inflate the score; only drawing above the show-type norm counts.
The rolling mean is shrunk toward 1.0× (the baseline), so a single sold-out night needs a sustained pattern to post a high peak.
Minimum 4 main-event draws required. Reported as a multiple (e.g. "1.7× baseline").
Attendance data is sparser and noisier than ratings so take this stat with a grain of salt.
The Scouting Report
A plain-language rules engine that converts the computed metrics into a narrative. It runs automatically on every card.
Archetype: a one-word verdict placed at the top (Megastar, Complete Package, Workhorse Ace, Ace Draw, Box-Office Attraction, Locker-Room Carry, High-Ceiling Gambler, Big-Stage Performer, Reliable Hand, Mouthpiece, Tag-Division Anchor, TV Workhorse, Protected/Developing, Solid Roster Piece). Determined by a priority hierarchy of flags set by the rules below.
Card-position line: always shown when data is sufficient: compares average match rating when booked higher (main event / upper card) vs. lower (mid-card / opener). Verdict is "Delivers when pushed up the card" (+0.3), "Exposed in a bigger spot" (−0.3), or "Spot-agnostic."
Strengths / Weaknesses: up to 6 strengths and 5 weaknesses, ranked by confidence weight. Each maps to a specific rule:
Rule | What it measures | Threshold |
Elite / Above-average / Below-roster match quality | Career-average percentile vs roster AND peak percentile vs roster. Reports both (career avg → Nth pct; peak value (YYYY) → Mth pct). Tiers off the stronger of the two, so legends aren't undersold by early career drag | ≥85th pct = Elite; ≥65th = Above-average; ≤25th / ≤30th (both) = Below-roster |
Consistency / Boom-or-bust | Population standard deviation of all match ratings (σ) | σ ≤ 0.8 = Consistent; σ ≥ 1.3 = Volatile |
Very high floor / Low floor | Average of the bottom 25% of rated matches | ≥6.5 = High floor; ≤4.5 = Low floor |
Match-of-the-year ceiling | Average of the top 10% of rated matches | ≥8.5 |
Rises to the occasion / Shrinks on the big stage | Difference between big-match average (matches with ≥100 votes) and overall average, judged relative to the promotion roster (percentile-ranked). Absolute raw lifts are inflated on smaller/older promotions, so only flagged if the wrestler's lift beats ~80% of their peers | ≥80th pct of peers with a positive lift; ≤−0.2 for the weakness |
Elevates opponents / Tends to be carried | Carrying score: for each opponent faced multiple times, compare their avg rating with this wrestler vs. against everyone else. The score is the match-count-weighted mean gap across all qualifying opponents (≥2 shared rated matches, ≥5 non-shared for the baseline) | Score ≥+0.4 = elevator; −0.2 to +0.15 = carried |
Steps up for gold / Flat with the belt up | Average rating in title matches vs. non-title matches | ±0.3 gap |
Money-match performer / Regular-card workhorse | Marquee shows vs. regular cards, using the promotion's own prestige weighting (so Wrestle Kingdom, World Climax, PPV count as marquee; Korakuen regulars as standard). Generalised for all six promotions | Marquee − regular ≥+0.4; ≤−0.3 |
Ascending / Cooling off | Most recent era average vs career average, if ≥10 rated matches in that era | ≥+0.25 or ≤−0.3 |
Booked strong / Low win rate | Win percentage in decisive (non-draw) matches | ≥68% = Pushed; ≤38% = Low win rate |
Adds value above replacement / Below replacement | MQAR (see below) per rated match | Per-match MQAR ≥+0.4 or ≤−0.3 |
Elite on the mic / Strong promo / Limited on the mic | Average rated promo score (community /10) | ≥7.5 = Elite; ≥6.5 = Strong; ≤4.5 = Limited |
A genuine draw | Drawing peak ratio | ≥1.3× show-type baseline |
Tag-division specialist | More tag than singles work, both ≥5 matches in each, tag avg ≥6.5 | — |
Versatility | Number of distinct match types with ≥5 matches and avg ≥6.0 | ≥4 types |
Long-tenured / Two-decade career | Career span in years on promotion cards | ≥15 / ≥20 years |
Relentless workload | Matches per year over the career span | ≥120/year |
A low-confidence notice is shown when fewer than 12 rated matches exist.
3 Rolling Line Charts
Rolling Form — Crowd vs Critic
A line chart with two overlapping series:
Community rating (promotion-accent colour): 12-month rolling vote-weighted average, the same series used to compute the Wrestling Peak.
Wrestling Observer (dark ink): Dave Meltzer's star ratings multiplied by 2 to convert the ★–★★★★★ scale onto the same /10 axis, shown as a 12-month rolling mean.
Card Position Over Time
A rolling line chart of the card-position score (0 = opener, 1 = main event), prestige-weighted by show type. Rising means the promotion booked the wrestler higher on increasingly prestigious shows. A flat line in the upper half means sustained main-event status; dips reveal burial periods or injury returns to undercard slots.
Attendance During Main-Event Runs
Rolling line of the attendance ratio described in the Drawing Peak above, for months when the wrestler headlined. Values above 1.0 mean the shows they topped drew above the era's show-type baseline; values below 1.0 mean the headline didn't move seats.
Ceiling, Floor & Consistency
Ceiling: mean of the top 10% of rated matches — what they're capable of on a great night.
Floor: mean of the bottom 25% of rated matches — a bad night.
Big-match average: mean of matches with ≥100 community votes (high-profile matches), with the raw difference vs. their overall average ("rises to the occasion" or not).
σ (standard deviation): population standard deviation of all rated matches, labelled as low variance (reliable), moderate, or high (boom-or-bust).
Carrying ScoreÂ
For each opponent faced at least twice in rated matches, compute their average rating in shared matches with this wrestler and compare it to their average against everyone else (excluding those shared matches). The difference is that opponent's "elevation delta." The carrying score is the match-count-weighted mean delta across all qualifying opponents (minimum 2 shared rated matches and 5 non-shared matches for a valid baseline).
A positive score means opponents perform above their usual standard with this wrestler — they pull better matches out of people. A negative score means the reverse.
The card shows the overall score, a verdict (major elevator / net elevator / neutral / carried), plus the six most and least elevated opponents individually.
Year-by-Year Table
One row per calendar year with:
Column | Meaning |
Matches | Total appearances |
Match Avg | Average community rating that year (rated matches only) |
vs Era | Percentile of that year's average against all rated matches in the promotion that year, removes era-wide rating inflation/deflation |
MQAR | Match Quality Above Replacement is the sum of (each rated match's rating minus the baseline for that position tier and month). Positive = delivered above what a generic slot-filler would have; negative = underdelivered |
Promo Avg | Average rated promo score |
Title Matches | Count of championship matches |
Main Events | Count of main-event slots |
Avg Attendance | Mean attendance for shows that year |
Strong years (avg ≥ +0.25 above career norm) are tinted green; dip years (≤ −0.25 below) are tinted red.
A Note on the Data:
All ratings and votes are community-submitted on cagematch.net. The card is generated entirely from locally-held data, nothing is sent to a server. Attendance data is patchier than ratings, particularly for older Japanese promotions and TV tapings, so the drawing-peak section should be read as directional rather than precise.