The 2014 TWB 100 Announcement and Call for Ballots

Bryan finished #1 for 2013. Who will finish there for last year? Photo Credit: WWE.com

Ladies and gentlemen, that time of the year has arrived again. The voting process for the 2014 TWB 100 has officially started. For those new to the process this year, the TWB 100 is a crowd-sourced, fan-voted, open-participation list that looks to rank wrestlers from the last calendar year (in this case, 2014) in terms of their performances in the ring as wrestlers/workers. Participation is open to anyone who would like to submit a ballot and follow a simple list of rules for submitting a ballot. The following is the list of participation criteria:

1. The TWB 100 is based solely on a wrestler's performance between the bells in any wrestling contest. This includes move variety, execution, workrate, selling, bumping, timing, pacing, protecting the opponent, trash-talking and anything else that happens within the course of a wrestling match. Anything that happens in promos or segments outside the confines of a wrestling match should NOT be considered for ballot entries. It is also advised against using match booking in deciding placement on the ballot (i.e. don't use "well he/she wins too much" as rationale against their placement), but I also understand that it's hard to divorce the concept of wins and losses from match ability sometimes.
   -
2. Content to be considered for ballots must have taken place between 1/1/14 at 12:00:00 AM to 12/31/14 at 11:59:59 PM inclusive, i.e. within the calendar year of 2014. Consideration should also be limited to matches held in the United States and Canada, or by promotions that were based in United States and Canada only. For the sake of those who watch wrestling from Puerto Rico, yes, that island should be considered as part of the United States for this exercise.
   -
3. Ballots shall have a minimum of 25 wrestlers named in order and a maximum of 100 wrestlers named in order. Ballots between those two numbers inclusive will be accepted with no questions, as long as they are ranked in order. Ballots with 24 or fewer and unordered ballots will be thrown out. Ballots with 101 or more will be pared down to 100.
   -
4. No demarcation shall exist between male or female wrestlers. For the purposes of this ballot, anyone who wrestled in an eligible promotion for the time period given shall be considered eligible regardless of race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, size, weight class, or even species (I see you, ISW).
   -
5. If you want to list a tag team,you must list the individual members and NOT the unit. So, if you want to include the Lucha Dragons, then list Kalisto and Sin Cara as separate entries on your list, not "Lucha Dragons" as one entry. All entries for a stable or tag team will be ignored on said ballot (or at the very least, I will e-mail you for clarification).
   -
6. No eligibility requirements for submission of a ballot are in place. As long as the submitter likes and has watched wrestling in 2014, they're allowed to submit.
   -
7. Ballots can be sent to me, TH, via any means necessary, either through e-mail (tom DOT holzerman AT gmail DOT com), Facebook messages, written letter (for those who know my address), Twitter DM (although that would be quite the waste of bandwidth!) or any other ways of private contact.
   -
8. The due date for ballots shall be Wednesday, March 11 at 11:59:59 PM local time.
   -
9. The final list will be disseminated via slow release on TWB with blurbs written by ballot submitters. If you are interested in writing for the release, please let me know with your ballot. Your blurbs should be at least one paragraph explaining why you voted for that particular wrestler.
   -
10. All ballots are subject to scrutiny by me, TH.

Simple enough, right? Well, it will be simple enough as long as you read the rules. I couldn't tell you the number of times over the last five years where people would list wrestlers who weren't active until the year after the period in question or who would vote for wrestlers and give year-after or even year-before examples of why they cast those votes, or those who voted for people who weren't active at all in North America north of the Mexican border. Read the criteria. Read the criteria.

READ THE CRITERIA.

Of course, anything outside of that list is open for interpretation. You don't have to have watched a quota amount of wrestling to qualify, nor do you have to have watched a stock diversity of promotions. If all you watched was WWE or TNA or Inspire Pro or ECCW or any singular promotion, then by all means, you are welcome to vote as long as you can think of a 25 wrestlers to put on your ballot. If you've watched EVERY AMERICAN/CANADIAN PROMOTION, then yes, I definitely want your vote. I want your vote if you're a man or a woman, any race, any gender configuration or sexual orientation. I WANT YOUR POINT OF VIEW ON IN-RING WRESTLING REPRESENTED. This list is an egalitarian venture, and not only do I want your votes, I want you to write about why you voted as well.

Anyway, get those ballots in ASAP. Get the ball rolling onw