Cageside Community Star Ratings results for Payback 2017

Last week the community at Cageside Seats was asked to assign star ratings for all 8 matches that took place at Payback 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 Payback 2017.

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:

Analysis

The main characteristic that stands out is the parity in AVG among the top 6 matches, which featured a small range between 3.62 stars (Reigns vs. Strowman) and 3.93 stars (Owens vs. Jericho). Dave Meltzer echoed this parity between the top 6 matches on the card, with his star ratings ranging from 3.00 to 3.50 stars for all of those matches. So his overall ratings for these matches were lower than the community, but he agreed that all 6 were of similar quality.

Out of these 6 matches, Rollins versus Joe (13.53%) and Reigns versus Strowman (11.77%) were the only two with greater than 10% of its votes in the 5-star category, but these two matches ended up with the 5th and 6th highest AVG, respectively.

The main reason Strowman’s match fell to the lowest AVG among these 6 matches is because 13.87% of the votes were for 2 stars or less. None of the top 5 matches even reached 5% of their votes in that range.

Rollins and Joe fell down to the 5th highest AVG among the top 6 matches because only 47.74% of its votes were for 4 stars or more. The other 5 matches scored between 53% and 63% in this area. 48.12% of the votes for Rollins and Joe fell into the range of 2.25 stars to 3.75 stars, which was the highest in this category out of any match on the card.

Jericho’s match ended up with the highest AVG because it had the third best showing of the night in the 5-star voting (9.09%), the highest voting percentage for 4 stars or more (62.03%), and the second lowest percentage for 2 stars or less (2.14%).

Cesaro (3.87), Neville (3.84), and Bayley (3.82) all finished within 0.05 stars of each other based on the community AVG. Cesaro’s match benefited greatly from zero votes for 0 stars, which rarely happens, and only 1.14% of its votes at 2 stars or less. This allowed it to just edge its AVG by Neville versus Aries, which actually beat out Cesaro’s match in voting for 4-stars or more (58.26% vs. 54.95%), but trailed slightly in every other category.

Bayley’s match had twice as high a percentage in the 5-star range than these two matches (8.81% vs. 4.40% vs. 4.35%), but Bayley’s match fell just short of the other two in the voting for 4-stars or more, as well as 2-stars or less. Neville and Cesaro actually had the poorest results in the 5-star category out of all 8 matches on the card, as every other match surpassed 5% in this category.

Bayley’s match also saw way more total votes (488) than either Cesaro (182) or Neville (115).

The worst two matches of the night were House of Horrors and the pre-show tag match featuring Enzo & Cass.

Enzo’s match had an AVG of 2.63 stars, with only 24.29% of the votes for 4 stars or more, and 35.71% of the votes for 2 stars or less. Dave Meltzer agreed that this was the 2nd worst match of the night, giving it 2 stars. The community showed very little interest in this match, with just 70 total votes and no comments.

House of Horrors had an AVG of 2.17 stars, with only 16.39% of its votes for 4 stars or more, and 52.01% of the votes for 2-stars or less. Dave Meltzer hated this match and gave it 0.5 stars.

Wyatt’s match with Orton actually did achieve 8.03% of its votes at the 5-star level, beating out Cesaro, Neville, and Enzo in this category. The main thing that sunk this match was the voting for 0-stars, scoring a 14.55% in this category. No other match on the card even reached 3% in that category.

Community Feedback

Finally, here are some thoughts on these matches from various Cagesiders:

Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho

Comment from: phlash74

I'll say 3.25 stars

Nothing earth shaking, but it told a good story, I loved the callback to WM with the finger on the ropes (and then Jericho slamming the finger with the steps to prevent Owens escaping that way again), and his win was a feel good surprise that popped the crowd.

Hardy Boyz vs. Cesaro & Sheamus

Comment from: roversteve

4

I loved this match, and I think these teams gel together really well.

2nd rope White Noise was beautiful, and there’s never going to be a time i wont pop for that Corkscrew Uppercut. The only reason I’ve marked it down is I didn’t like the finish, not because I’m a bigger fan of Cesaro than I am of the Hardys, but because I feel like that blind tag Swanton is a Hardy finish that I’ve seen a thousand times before.

Neville vs. Austin Aries

Comment from: TheFuzzyOne

4.25

Absolutely fantastic match, and while the ending booking damaged Neville’s presence as a dominant force heel, it at least told a story with it of him encountering someone who can go at his level.

There’s just a degree of effort and will to prove themselves in this match that is both in story and in reality. You can see those two guys trying their damnedest to steal the show every time. Those suicide dives from Aries are something else!

Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss

Comment from: Richie DiMaso

Rounded up to 3.5

Alexa’s best match. Solid action with a good clean finish which didn’t overly hurt Bayley.

Seth Rollins vs. Samoa Joe

Comment from: Kyle Decker

3.25

For all intents and purposes it was a good match but it just didn’t do it for me. Felt slow and I could never get into it. Maybe it was because it was coming off the House of Horrors so it had a dead crowd. I don’t know. But it felt slightly above average. Also, Cain A Knight sucks.

Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman

Comment from: Kaoru Ichinose

3.5

And that’s not taking anything away from the match at all. It achieved its goal flawlessly, told a story, and was executed fine in the ring. It was just scripted to be a shorter match without a ton of actual wrestling that served the function of advancing the story between these two as much as it was meant to entertain as an actual wrestling match.

The match itself was probably a 2.5 just in terms of the quality of wrestling, but the story it told was 4.5, easy. I split the difference and go with a very complimentary 3.5.

Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt

Comment from: glacier-v-subzero

1 star

Hurry up and make Matt broken so we can get good material taped offsite.

Those are the results for the Cageside Community Star Ratings for Payback 2017. Thanks to everyone who participated!

Which number stands out to you the most?