Last week the community at Cageside Seats was asked to assign star ratings for all 8 matches that took place at Backlash 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 Backlash 2017.
Star Ratings: Backlash 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 |
Owens vs Styles | 273 | 4.05 | 3.75 | 4 | 4.5 | 3.75 | 0.3 | 4 | 14.65% | 67.03% | 30.77% | 2.20% | 1.10% |
Usos vs Breezango | 396 | 3.78 | 3.5 | 4 | 4.5 | 2.5 | 1.28 | 2.5 | 18.94% | 61.62% | 27.27% | 11.11% | 2.78% |
Nakamura vs Ziggler | 591 | 3.45 | 3 | 3.5 | 4 | 2.75 | 0.7 | 3.5 | 8.12% | 32.15% | 60.41% | 7.45% | 1.18% |
Zayn vs Corbin | 95 | 3.18 | 2.75 | 3.5 | 4 | 2.5 | 0.68 | 2.25 | 1.05% | 25.26% | 58.95% | 15.79% | 2.11% |
Orton vs Mahal | 641 | 3.1 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 4 | 2.75 | 0.35 | 1.75 | 11.23% | 30.11% | 47.89% | 22.00% | 5.62% |
Dillinger vs English | 109 | 2.9 | 2.25 | 3 | 3.5 | 2 | 0.9 | 1.5 | 12.84% | 22.02% | 53.21% | 24.77% | 0.92% |
Harper vs Rowan | 129 | 2.79 | 2 | 2.75 | 3.5 | 2 | 0.79 | 1.25 | 9.30% | 20.93% | 45.74% | 33.33% | 2.33% |
6-woman tag | 112 | 2.37 | 1.5 | 2.5 | 3 | 2 | 0.37 | 2.5 | 5.36% | 12.50% | 41.96% | 45.54% | 8.04% |
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
KO’s match scored the highest community AVG for the second PPV in a row (4.05 stars) and was the only match to eclipse 4.00 stars at Backlash.
Breezango’s match had the next highest AVG (3.78 stars) and had an unusually high level of support for 5 stars (18.94%). These two matches both witnessed between 60% to 70% of its votes for 4-stars or higher, whereas no other match on the card even reached 33% in that category. One chief difference between the voting results for KO and Breezango is that only 2.20% of the votes for KO came in at 2 stars or less, whereas 11.11% of the votes for Breezango fell into that range.
Nakamura’s debut match had the 3rd highest AVG (3.45 stars), with 60.41% of its votes landing between 2.25 to 3.75 stars. That’s the highest percentage in that category out of all 8 matches at Backlash. This match did not receive an abundance of support at either extreme, with only 8.12% of its votes for 5 stars (3rd lowest in that category out of all 8 matches) and 1.18% of its votes for 0 stars.
Zayn (3.18 stars) and Mahal (3.10 stars) had the next two highest AVG values, though they got there in very different ways. Zayn’s match saw a dearth of support at the 5-star level, with just 1 out of 95 voters (1.05%) choosing that score. In contrast, Mahal’s match accumulated 11.23% of its votes at that upper extreme. Zayn did receive 58.95% of its votes between 2.25 to 3.75 stars, ranking only behind Nakamura’s match in that range. Mahal’s match had 47.89% of its votes in that range.
At the lower end of the spectrum, 22% of the votes for Mahal’s match came in at 2 stars or worse, compared to 15.79% for Zayn. Mahal’s match had 5.62% of its votes for 0 stars; only 2 out of 8 matches scored higher than 3% at that lowest extreme. Finally, Mahal’s match had more total votes (641) than any other match on the card, whereas Zayn’s match had the lowest voting total (95) out of any match on the card.
Dilinger (2.90 stars) and Harper (2.79 stars) had pretty similar AVG values to each other. The primary difference that helped Dillinger’s AVG edge out Harper was that Dillinger’s match scored about 7.5 percentage points higher in the range between 2.25 to 3.75 stars, whereas Harper’s match scored about 8.5 percentage points more in the range of 2 stars or worse.
The women’s match clearly had the lowest AVG (2.37 stars) of the night. 8.04% of the votes came in at 0 stars, with 45.54% of its votes falling at 2 stars or worse. Only 12.50% of their votes reached 4 stars or more. No other match on the card performed worse in those specific categories.
Dave Meltzer agreed with the community that KO’s match was the best fight of the night. Meltzer also agreed that the three worst matches of the night were Dillinger, Harper, and Charlotte, however Meltzer gave all of those matches exactly 2 stars, whereas the community graded Dillinger and Harper much closer to 3 stars.
The biggest Meltz Gap of the night went to the Usos match with Breezango, with Meltzer’s star rating (2.50) falling 1.28 stars behind the community AVG of 3.78 stars. This was the only match where Meltzer and the community disagreed by more than 1 star. There were no Meltz Gap values of less than 0.30 stars; Meltzer’s star ratings for all 8 matches were lower than the community AVG by at least 0.30 stars.
Community Feedback
Finally, here are some thoughts on these matches from various Cagesiders:
Comment from: jpizzack
4.25
Creative finish, increasingly violent fairly stiff match between 2 of the top performers in the industry. It was just good, old fashioned story telling in the ring, and it was super effective.
Comment from: The Swiss Lasskicker
Easily a 4 at least for me, and I'll go with 4.25.
Matches like this one remind me why I ever loved wrestling in the first place-because I thought it was fun and quirky. This match was hilarious, with the mop, Janitor Breeze, Grandma Breeze and whatnot, while the Newsos did quality heeling. As the match went on, the comedy dissipated, things got serious, and the match wound up being well-rounded. Hilarious, fun, quirky, with some great moves being showcased as the match went on, and great heeling by the Newsos.
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Dolph Ziggler
Comment from: Richie DiMaso
3 - Told the right story at the wrong time
Decent enough action between the two, and as a standalone match it was fine. The main issue is that if I was watching Nakamura for the first time, I’d probably be thinking, what’s all the fuss about?
Comment from: CortezSobelberg
3.5
I’d of ranked it higher had we not already seen a babyface in peril match earlier on the card. But I like that this was done to make you think Sami has a chance at the MITB which he will of course fall short of winning in the end.
Comment from: MizParticipationAward
2 stars
It was an average tv level match. The actual wrestling was bad but they made up for it with Orton going nuts and throwing around the Singh brothers
If I saw it on an episode of SDL I’d be happy with it. For the main event of a PPV it was disappointing.
Tye Dillinger vs. Aiden English
Comment from: CortezSobelberg
Umm..
10?
Comment from: phlash74
1.5 stars
Short enough and the right guy won. But essentially as forgettable as that time Titus O’Neil wrestled Darren Young on a PPV.
Naomi, Charlotte, Becky vs. Natalya, Tamina, Carmella
Comment from: Flashfire
2.00
It was just not good. Maybe Becky losing sets up more of a heel turn, but taken as an individual match alone, this had little to nothing going for it.
Those are the results for the Cageside Community Star Ratings for Backlash 2017. Thanks to everyone who participated!
Which number stands out to you the most?