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Last week the community at Cageside Seats was asked to assign star ratings for all 10 matches that took place at Fastlane 2017.
The votes have all been tabulated, and for every match I will include these summary statistics:
- Votes: Total number of votes cast for a given match.
- AVG: The weighted average of every vote.
- Q1: First quartile, which is the value that roughly 25% of the votes fall at or below.
- Q2: Second quartile (aka median), which is the value that roughly 50% of the votes fall at or below.
- Q3: Third quartile, which is the value that roughly 75% of the votes fall at or below.
- Meltzer: Dave Meltzer’s star rating for a given match.
- Meltz Gap: The magnitude of the difference between Meltzer and AVG.
- Cain: My own personal star rating for the match.
- 5-stars: The percentage of votes for 5 stars.
- 4-stars or more: The percentage of votes for at least 4 stars.
- 2.25 to 3.75 stars: The percentage of votes for more than 2 stars but less than 4 stars.
- 2-stars or less: The percentage of votes that did not surpass 2 stars.
- 0-stars: The percentage of votes for 0 stars.
The following sortable table includes all the results of the Cageside Community Star Ratings for Fastlane 2017.
Star Ratings: Fastlane 2017
| Match | Votes | AVG | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Meltzer | Meltz Gap | Cain | 5-stars | 4-stars or more | 2.25 to 3.75 stars | 2-stars or less | 0-stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match | Votes | AVG | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Meltzer | Meltz Gap | Cain | 5-stars | 4-stars or more | 2.25 to 3.75 stars | 2-stars or less | 0-stars |
| Neville vs. Gallagher | 426 | 4.18 | 4 | 4.25 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 0.68 | 3.5 | 9.86% | 84.74% | 13.62% | 1.64% | 0.70% |
| Reigns vs. Strowman | 876 | 3.48 | 3 | 4 | 4.5 | 4 | 0.52 | 1.75 | 18.15% | 51.71% | 29.34% | 18.95% | 3.65% |
| Zayn vs. Joe | 181 | 3.4 | 3 | 3.5 | 4 | 2.5 | 0.9 | 3 | 3.87% | 25.97% | 66.85% | 7.18% | 1.66% |
| Tozawa & Swann vs. Kendrick & Dar | 47 | 3.24 | 2.5 | 3.25 | 4 | 2.5 | 0.74 | 2.75 | 8.51% | 29.79% | 57.45% | 12.77% | 2.13% |
| Sasha vs. Nia | 212 | 2.83 | 2 | 3 | 3.75 | 2.25 | 0.58 | 1.75 | 8.49% | 24.06% | 45.28% | 30.66% | 4.72% |
| Bayley vs. Charlotte | 206 | 2.76 | 2.25 | 3 | 3.5 | 3 | 0.24 | 3.75 | 2.43% | 11.65% | 64.56% | 23.79% | 4.37% |
| Gallows & Anderson vs. Enzo & Cass | 101 | 2.74 | 2 | 3 | 3.5 | 2.25 | 0.49 | 1.75 | 6.93% | 20.79% | 47.52% | 31.68% | 6.93% |
| Big Show vs. Rusev | 123 | 2.73 | 2 | 3 | 3.5 | 2 | 0.73 | 1.5 | 6.50% | 15.45% | 56.91% | 27.64% | 5.69% |
| Cesaro vs. Jinder | 173 | 2.72 | 2 | 2.75 | 3.75 | 1.5 | 1.22 | 2 | 10.40% | 23.70% | 42.20% | 34.10% | 4.62% |
| Owens vs. Goldberg | 1227 | 1.06 | 0 | 0.25 | 1.5 | 0 | 1.06 | 0 | 6.93% | 10.92% | 7.99% | 81.09% | 43.68% |
Here is a graphical summary of some of the numbers from the table. For any given match, the bottom of the blue rectangle is Q1 and the top of the blue rectangle is Q3. In most cases the blue rectangle includes the values where roughly the middle 50% of the votes were cast for that match. The thin line above the blue rectangle shows where roughly the highest 25% of the votes were cast, and the thin blue line below the rectangle shows where roughly the lowest 25% of the votes were cast. The matches are displayed left to right, sorted by AVG in descending order:
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Analysis
5 of the 10 matches on this card had a community AVG ranging from 2.72 to 2.83 stars. Cesaro and Sasha had a higher Q3 value than the others in that group (this can be seen via the slightly higher tops of their respective blue boxes compared to Big Show, Gallows, and Bayley). Cesaro and Sasha had a higher percentage of 5-star votes than those other matches, with Cesaro and Sasha hovering around the 8.5% to 10.5% range in that category while the others ranged from 2.43% to 6.93%. This kind of difference matters when it comes to determining their rankings among such a narrow range of AVG values.
Within that group of 5 matches, Bayley’s match had the lowest percentage of votes (23.79%) for 2 stars or less, and that’s why the bottom of her blue box isn’t as low as the others. The other 4 matches in this group ranged between 27.64% to 34.10% in that category. Bayley’s match also had the lowest percentage (11.65%) of votes for 4 stars or more among this group of 5 matches, with the other matches ranging between 15.45% to 24.06% in that category. Not surprisingly, these two facts taken together means that Bayley’s match had the highest percentage (64.56%) of votes between 2.25 to 3.75 stars among these 5 matches.
Owens and Goldberg bombed with the voters, with 43.68% of the votes coming in at 0 stars and only 18.91% of the votes higher than 2 stars. The Q3 value for this match was lower than the Q1 values for the other 9 matches at Fastlane. The overall result was a pathetic AVG of 1.06 stars.
Goldberg’s squash match at Survivor Series 2016 was much better received than this one, with 48.25% of those votes coming in at 4 stars or more, just 12.36% of votes for 0 stars, and an AVG of 3.09 stars.
Neville’s match with Jack Gallagher greatly impressed the community with an AVG of 4.18 stars. This result puts it within range of last month’s Elimination Chamber match, which scored an AVG of 4.25 stars.
One thing that greatly helped Neville’s AVG was the extreme lack of votes on the bottom end of the scale. Only 1.64% of votes landed at 2 stars or worse, and no other match on the card came close to such a low percentage in this category. Neville also trounced the field in the percentage of votes (84.74%) for 4 stars or more.
The only other match that surpassed 50% in that latter category was Strowman’s match with Reigns (51.71%). There was widespread disagreement within the community on this match, with a whopping 18.15% of votes coming in at 5 stars, and 18.95% of votes for 2 stars or less. The results might require more scrutiny on both sides of the spectrum. There was a very large voter turnout for this match (876 votes) and so perhaps voters were going back and forth on the extremes trying to offset each other. There wasn’t much middle ground here, with just 29.34% of votes between 2.25 to 3.75 stars. The overall result was an AVG of 3.48 stars, ranking this match just slightly higher than Zayn and Joe for the second highest AVG of the night.
Tozawa’s match only had 47 total votes. A pre-show match scoring the 4th highest AVG out of 10 matches probably isn’t a great result for the overall critical response to Fastlane, but it’s also probably best not to put too much meaning into just 47 votes.
Dave Meltzer and the community had more disagreement than normal here. The Meltz Gap value for Bayley’s match was 0.24, and so that’s the closest the community came to seeing things right in line with Meltzer. 6 of the 10 matches had Meltz Gap values between 0.50 to 1.00. The Meltz Gap reached as high as 1.22 for Cesaro’s match. Meltzer graded Roman’s match as the best of the night at 4 stars, with Neville’s match a couple notches lower, scoring 3.50 stars.
Community Feedback
Finally, here are some thoughts on these matches from various Cagesiders:
Comment from: MizParticipationAward
Match of the night and it isn't even close. I gave it 4.25 stars. I love how strong Jack looks coming out of it as well. Neville had to go through his entire "heel moveset" and couldn’t put Jack away so he had to break out the red arrow. And any match with a red arrow and those vicious headbutts was going to be a guaranteed 4 stars anyways. As far as I’m concerned Neville can hold this title for a year or more he’s amazing. Best CW match in a long time
Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns
Comment from: tactless86
A straight 4. Good performance by both. They managed to give reasonable impressions of an immovable object and an unstoppable force.
Comment from: CapitalTTruth
3 Mission accomplished on what they were trying to do. Sharp work. They added a little more competition than I think they are getting credit for. I thought it was a really good little match, one of the few things I liked about the card on the whole.
Tozawa & Swann vs. Kendrick & Dar
Comment from: Kilam N
3 Was a fun preshow match and the crowd was surprisingly very into it. It had a good amount of flippy shit, Alicia Fox being entertaining on the outside and it held off on any prolonged Kendrick/Tozawa physical interaction so that kept their feud going. It did what it was supposed to do and I enjoyed it.
Comment from: phlash74
2 stars I get what they were going for and it wasn’t horrible by any means, but it just didn’t seem very fluid when they were transitioning from Nia’s dominant offense to Sasha’s counters. I did like the postmatch reactions though.
Comment from: Chitown78
2.25 Fan of both women, but that match disappointed. Sometimes some sloppiness be good, because it makes a match look like more of a fight than a performance. Other times a botch can really take you out of a match and makes it abundantly clear that it’s fake. Bayley’s misadventure in the corner was definitely in the second group. The Sasha nonsense for the finish was awful.
Gallows & Anderson vs. Enzo & Cass
Comment from: muellermilch245
The match reminded me of Revival vs. Enzo & Cass from Roadblock last year, which is of course a good thing.
Comment from: Bronck Lensnar
The way I see it, a competitive match with a rejuvenated Big Show was certainly a welcome step up from all the dross he’s been given recently.
Comment from: Nick_Fraser98
Two fellas, one of which has been heatless since coming back, pulled a serviceable match out of nowhere, likely thanks to Cesaro. They also both have great chemistry. 3 stars.
Comment from: glacier-v-subzero
.25 for the match itself. Everyone (or at least fans who read spoilers and rumors) knew what was coming and they still managed to make it dull.
Those are the results for the Cageside Community Star Ratings for Fastlane 2017. Thanks to everyone who participated!
Which number stands out to you the most?