The criteria for these categories are as follows:
Striking: Striking is anytime the performer uses any part of their body to impact their opponent. Such things would include punches, kicks, poking the eyes, slaps, chops, shoves, kicks, drop kicks, headbutts, low blows, clotheslines, knee and elbow strikes etc.
I do not count missed strikes. If both competitors strike each other at the same time; they are both awarded a point for striking. If a punch or kick is countered/reversed or effectively blocked, I will not count it as a strike. In the case where a striking maneuver was blocked simply by the opponent covering up, I will count that as a strike, because it was landed.
Locks: locks are any lock, hold, or submission. Basically a lock is the art of applying constant pressure on an opponent’s body part, reducing circulation of blood, or stretching muscle, or bending a limb against the joint’s natural flow. Such things would include wrist lock, headlock, head scissors, Boston crab, crippler crossface, bearhug, choking, sleeper hold, abdominal stretch. Basically any move with the words lock, stretch, hold, will be considered a Lock. A reversed lock will count as a lock by the initiator of the move, and then also count by the opponent reversing the move, and I will continue to award a point to each competitor for each time they reverse the hold of their opponent. If both competitors have a lock placed onto their opponent, than I will award both of them a point. If, however, both competitors have a lock placed on the other, but only one of them is doing any kind of damage, I will award the one that has the clear and definite upper hand, but will not credit the desperate and innovative lock of his opponent.
Tosses: A toss is a move that moves the opponent so that the pain they feel comes from their collision with a still object (such as a ring post or the mat.). Swinging or throwing a weapon at someone is not a toss; it is a strike. The reason is because the weapon is in motion, not the person getting hit. An example is you running face first into a brick wall; you hit the wall - the wall did not hit you. Moves that are considered tosses are: any suplex, any throwing of the opponent, body slams, Irish whips, shoulder breaker, DDT, piledriver, powerbomb, drop toe hold, slamming their face into the turn buckle, or shoving their body into any still object. I do not count tosses that are blocked or reversed. I will count a successful reversal as a point for the person that pulled it off, but not for the person who was attempting, but failed, to properly execute the toss.
Kickouts: This is when the person kicks out of a pin, reverses a pin, or escapes a pin by placing a foot on the rope. I do not count pinfalls that were broken by a partner’s interference, or by the person that was doing the pin, purposely breaking the cover to torment them more. If an inside cradle or sunsetflip pin by competitor A, is reversed by Competitor B, the kickout point is awarded to Competitor B. If Competitor A then reverses that, he will gain a point as well, and I will continue to award a kickout out point each time a pinfall is reversed.
Aerials: These are any moves that start by the perpetrator using an elevation point to execute an impact move. That is to say, it is a striking move that began at an elevated point. The word “elevated” in this example means that the perpetrator is standing at a higher point than his victim when using an impact, or striking move. Examples of this are the frog/body splashes off of the top, second, or bottom rope. Hurricanrannas off of the top, second, or bottom rope. Elbow drop from an elevated point etc.
Perhaps it would help if I included some things that are not aerials. If your opponent is lying on the mat, and you run across the ring, jump, and body splash them; this is not an aerial. The reason is because even though you jumped to gain height, your feet took off of the same level his feet/body were at. And thus a running jumping, body splash, is considered a Striking move. If however, the running, jumping, body splash/elbow drop/leg drop were done off of the apron, to an opponent lying below, outside, on the floor, that would be an aerial.
In the case of Someone like Jeff Hardy, who often uses his brother’s back as a stepping stool to leap through the air onto a standing opponent; that would be considered an aerial, because his brother (or partner) is crouched down, with his back elevated above the mat. Sabu running across the ring, leaping onto a chair in the middle of the ring, and then splashing/flipping onto his opponent, is an aerial because the chair became the point of elevation, as did Matt Hardy’s back when Jeff goes for the Poetry In Motion.
The one that was very difficult to classify was slinging your body over the ropes and onto your opponent. A Slingshot Legdrop, as typically is performed by standing on the outside apron, using the top rope to catapult your body above the top rope, and then land onto a laying opponent, is an aerial because the top rope became a “holding” point for the leverage (height) of the move, and thus the top rope became the elevation point.
Even more difficult to classify, was in the case of the Spirit Squad, Jumping on a trampoline from the outside floor, to clothesline someone who is on the outside apron. Because the perpetrator’s feet began at a lower point than his opponent’s –as opposed to being above- it shouldn’t technically be called an aerial. However, because the trampoline accelerated his height beyond what mere jumping could accomplish; I am going to label this as an aerial. The same applies for a latter match where one person might jump off of a ladder, standing at the same height, or lower, than his opponent standing on his ladder; this is considered an aerial because the ladders’ elevation from the point of impact (the floor or mat) is causing the victim and or the perpetrator to fall to a point below their starting elevation.
This should also count for a superplex off of the top rope. However, I consider this to be a toss because it begins with a grapple, and the pain, or impact, is not caused by elevated or airborne body slamming into the opponent. Plus the feet of the opponent is equal to the perpetrator’s at the time of the move. This also includes throwing someone out of the ring, knocking them off of the top rope or apron, throwing them off of the stage etc.
One more note about my calculation of aerials; I count missed aerial attacks as aerials, but I do not consider missed striking moves as strikes. If someone does a moonsault off of the top rope, and their opponent moves out of the way, it is inconsequential to the performing of the move.
My final score system
I thought a fun thing to do would be to add up all the points each wrestler scored, and proclaim that to be their overall performance value. Due to the fact that wrestling is fake, no point system can accurately portray the worth of a performance, and thus my point system in and of itself says nothing about the value of the performance, nor was it ever intended to do so. A problem I faced was that “striking” was the most common move in a match, and yet the least spectacular. So I decided to create a system of value for each category.First we have striking; it is the least difficult and most frequent move in a match; thus it gets a value of 1. Meaning I will take the total amount of strikes and multiply it by 1.
Second we have Tosses. Tosses are what make professional wrestling what it is. Often it is a toss of sorts that is the second most spectacular move witnessed in a professional wrestling match. However, in a woman's wrestling match most moves that get labeled as a "Toss" are hair pulling stunts or just really weak moves. Tosses, such as pile drivers, Power-bombs, German suplexes, and the like require more talent than performing holds, or throwing fake punches. But seeing as how those actual moves are almost never seen in a woman's match, I find Tosses to be the third most spectacular moves in a match, earning them a value of 2.
Meaning I will multiply the total score for tosses by 2.
Third we have Locks. Locks require a bit of ingenuity, and are the heart of true wrestling. And even though they are the heart of wrestling, they are the third least likely move to occur in a match. Typically I'd view Tosses, such as suplexes and such, to be more spectacular than holds. But unfortunately when it comes to women's matches most of the tosses we see are hair pulling moves. Things such as grabbing the hair and whipping them across the ring. Things such as grabbing the hair and bashing their face into the mat. Also considering that Locks are almost as rare in a woman's match as are aerials. And so I've decided in the case of women's wrestling that the amount of locks seen is very suggestive of the amount of practical old school wrestling was going on. I value Locks/Holds as being the second most valued move in a match (with Aerials being number one), and thus its value is 3.
Meaning I will take the number of locks and multiply it by 3.
Aerials are obviously the most spectacular moves you’ll see in a match. They normally carry the highest risk of injury, and botching. This is one of the reasons they were termed “high risk maneuver”. So I have given aerials the highest value of category, and thus they score a 4. Meaning I take the total aerials and multiply them by 4.
Then I add up all the numbers, and that is the total score for the performer.
I do not count Kickouts as being point worthy. Does a person kick out of a pin a dozen times in a match because they are resilient, or because their opponent made a lot of pin attempts after a less than spectacular move? And thus I do not incorporate kickouts as point worthy.
So an example of the total score system would look like this:
Wrestler
Striking: 10 x1=10
Tosses: 10 x2=20
Locks: 10 x3=30
Aerials: 10 x4=40
Kickouts: 10 x0=0
Total score: 100
At some point in time I may include botches as deductible points. But as of now, I don’t calculate them at all.
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