Cewsh Reviews - The 2012 CRL 100 (Part 2)



Heyyyyy, boys and girls out there in internet land. This is your main man Cewsh, and I'll be spinning the ones and twos all night long to serve your every heavily researched and meticulously organized list reading desires.

We Assume You're All Librarians With A Fetish For Ordered Numbers.

We've got a real good part to the list here tonight, with promotions represented for the first time and some fairly big upsets in the ranking battles. We have the world's craziest mom, the world's palest luchador, and not one but TWO men who have been wrestling industry pariahs in recent years. Where will they, and the other 22 men and women stack up as we close the book on the bottom half of this year's countdown? There's only one way to find out. Unless you you just ask someone. Then that, I guess, would count as another way as well. But since you're sitting right here you might as well let me do it.

Now behold! The tally of greatness!


So okay, before we get into this, allow me to repost the FAQ from yesterday for those who may have missed it the first time around. Knowledge is power.


Q: What are you judging based on?
A: Individual in ring performance, with the emphasis on individual.

Q: How did you research for this?
A: Tirelessly, for one thing. I made a point to watch every major show by every significant promotion over the course of the past year and supplement it as much as possible with other shows as well. I left no stone unturned in trying to find talent wherever there might be some.

Q: Why 100?
A: Because 500 forces you to include people who aren't really worthy of consideration, and 276 wasn't symmetrical enough.

Q: So where are you going to rank the Undertaker/Brock Lesnar/The Rock/Triple H etc?
A: I'm not going to. In order to make things as fair as possible across the board, I required that in order to be eligible for this list, you have to have wrestled at least 5 matches in the past calender year. Any less than that and there just isn't a fair sample size to base an educated opinion on. And Taker (1 match), Brock (2 matches), Rock (2 matches), and Triple H (3 matches) do not make the cut. Adjust your expectations accordingly.

Q: John Cena's not on here, is he?
A: Oh yeah, he totally is.

Q: Why are you combining the men and women on one list? That's not fair to the women, is it?
A: Judging by some of the women you'll find on this list, it might not be fair to the men.

Q: This is just the first 25, when will you be releasing the rest?
A: The will be 25 posted each day, ending before Raw on Monday Night. So that's 100-76 tonight, 75-51 tomorrow, 50-26 on Sunday and the coup de grace on Monday.

Q: But why did *insert my favorite wrestler* rank below *insert wrestler I don't like*?
A: Because I said so.

Q: But you can't possibly actually think...
A: Yep.

Q: But that's ridic...
A: Nope.

Q: ...
A: That's right. Never argue with science.

Alright, that's enough with the questions already. Let's get down to the meat of the thing. Here are numbers 75-51 on the CRL 100 list of the best wrestlers of 2012!


75. El Generico (ROH)
74. Suwama (AJPW)
73. Michael Elgin (ROH)
72. Christopher Daniels (TNA)
71. Tommaso Ciampa (ROH)
70. Hiroyoshi Tenzan (NJPW)
69. Primo (WWE)
68. Portia Perez (SHIMMER) 
67. LuFisto (NC:FF)
66. Davey Richards (ROH)
65. Samoa Joe (TNA)
64. Adam Cole (ROH)
63. Richie Steamboat (FCW)
62. Santino Marella (WWE)
61. MVP (NJPW)
60. Johnny Gargano (DGUSA)
59. Cody Rhodes (WWE)
58. Saraya Knight (SHIMMER)
57. Mike Quackenbush (CHIKARA)
56. Jeff Hardy (TNA)
55. Masakatsu Funaki (Freelance)
54. Kevin Steen (ROH)
53. Akira Tozawa (DG)
52. Takeshi Morishima (NOAH)
51. Ryusuke Taguchi (NJPW)


Alright then, there you have it. The 75th through the 51st best wrestlers on the planet Earth over the course of the last calender year.We've now narrowed the list down to only 50 people remaining. If your favorite hasn't been named yet, you;d better hope that they're a badass, because it would be easier to get into an orgy at the White House than it is to get into the top half of this list. The people going forward are the very best that there is, and I'll be giving you a picture and a little description of each of them, so that even if you're not familiar with the best that the wrestling industry had this year, you'll damn sure know where to start looking when we're done.

But okay, that'll do it for us tonight. Remember to check back tomorrow for Part 3 of the CRL 100 documenting numbers 50 - 26. Until then, remember to keep reading and be good to one another.




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