What's up guys,

This is a new idea I've had a thought about. In today's modern era of wrestling, where paying fans are more a part of the show than reacting organically to stars (or not reacting at all if you're watching Monday Night Raw), it's increasingly difficult to judge exactly who is making an impression on watching audiences. So I thought I'd start this, a ranking of wrestlers according to their worldwide Google Trends data. I'll update this once a week and the data is for the last 7 days which is a relatively short time frame, to make it more interesting. It'll be fun to see how much the internet in general is in line with us and in line with live crowds. Each week I'll post the top 20 wrestlers, and the top 10 from WWE and AEW. For now, I don't want to separate women and men, but if people want that I'll do a separate list for the women. Tag teams are eligible, but only one made it. Managers are not eligible. John Cena and Bill Goldberg are not eligible. Sting is.

Updated through March 2022


Worldwide

1. Roman Reigns
2. Brock Lesnar
3. Ronda Rousey
4. Rey Mysterio (+1)
5. Randy Orton (-1)
6. Alexa Bliss (+1)
7. Toni Storm (NEW)
8. Becky Lynch
9. Seth Rollins
10. Jeff Hardy (NEW)
11. Sasha Banks (-5)
12. Paul Wight (NEW)
13. CM Punk (-3)
14. Edge (-1)
15. Charlotte Flair (-4)
16. Chris Jericho (+3)
17. The Miz (-5)
18. Rhea Ripley (NEW)
19. Carmella (-3)
20. Liv Morgan (-3)


WWE

1. Roman Reigns
2. Brock Lesnar
3. Ronda Rousey
4. Rey Mysterio (-1)
5. Randy Orton (-1)
6. Alexa Bliss (+1)
7. Becky Lynch (+1)
8. Seth Rollins (+1)
9. Sasha Banks (-3)
10. Edge (NEW)


AEW

1. Toni Storm (NEW)
2. Jeff Hardy (NEW)
3. Paul Wight (NEW)
4. CM Punk (-3)
5. Chris Jericho (-2)
6. Jon Moxley (-4)
7. Sting
8. MJF (-4)
9. Bryan Danielson (-2)
10. Tay Conti (NEW)


NJPW

1. Hiroshi Tanahashi (+1)
2. Kazuchika Okada (+1)
3. Tetsuya Naito (+2)
4. KENTA
5. Taichi (+2)
6. El Desperado
7. Jay White (-6)
8. Will Ospreay (+2)
9. Minoru Suzuki (-1)
10. Tiger Mask (-1)


Shows

1. Raw
2. SmackDown
3. NXT
4. Dynamite
5. Rampage

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So let's have everyone's thoughts. Any surprises? Any theories as to why some guys are struggling with this metric and others are thriving? Feel free to request comparisons if you want, as well as data for longer stretches of time. I'll update this next Monday and we'll see what wrestlers are making moves.

Because outside AEW no one cares about Adam Page.

Drew I don't know maybe too many loses or comes across to corny. He also isn't doing anything at the moment.

Lashley without MVP is boring to most people.

Drew and Lashley were close but just outside. Page was miles away, which shocked me. He was below Cody, Darby, the Bucks and FTR. His storyline may be interesting, but he isn’t compelling viewers yet.

Is Adam Page even tall enough to Google?

I thought he was still relegated to the kids table; i.e., Bing.

Nov 9, 2021 12:33:06 GMT 🤯 said:

Is Adam Page even tall enough to Google?

I thought he was still relegated to the kids table; i.e., Bing.

LOL, look at me mixing up Page and Cole. No wonder Vince prefers only single name names. Got confused by the Adams! Just make them a tag team already then, damnit.

For Emperor, NJPW:

1. Hiroshi Tanahashi
2. Kazuchika Okada
3. KENTA
4. Tetsuya Naito
5. Kota Ibushi
6. Minoru Suzuki
7. Shingo Takagi
8. Will Ospreay
9. El Desperado
10. Jay White


And major events (last 12 months):

1. WrestleMania
2. Royal Rumble
3. SummerSlam
4. Money in the Bank
5. Survivor Series
6. Extreme Rules
7. Fastlane
8. All Out
9. Hell in a Cell
10. WrestleMania: Backlash
11. Revolution
12. Elimination Chamber
13. Double or Nothing
14. Crown Jewel
15. Bound for Glory
16. Full Gear
17. Slammiversary
18. Wrestle Kingdom
19. Dominion
20. King of Pro-Wrestling

All Out being at #8 really shows you how much the WWE still pumps the competition on a worldwide stage. One of the craziest endings to a PPV in the new millennium, possibly ever, and it's still only the #8 highest trending topic this year.

One other nugget is Raw was generally in front of SmackDown. Not by very much, and not every week, but over a long period, Raw still has higher interest levels than SmackDown.

Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble, Summerslam, Money in the Bank, Survivor Series are all well established brand names that basically have their own identity. Wrestlemania is the wrestling event and has been for decades. Everyone knows about the Royal Rumble match. It's a big deal. As dumb as the concept is, Money in the Bank has been a big deal since it was introduced.

It's going to take a long time for AEW to establish that kind of event branding. Frankly, I think All Out being so high is very impressive. Higher than two of the more established WWE gimmick PPVs in Hell in a Cell and Elimination Chamber.

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If you'd have asked me to rank NJPW wrestlers in terms of Google trends, I have no idea what I'd rank, but I certainly wouldn't put Tanahashi at #1. I guess I underestimate his star power, even the past-his-prime old lion has still got it.

KENTA at #3 is another shocker, but clearly he's doing something right. Could be just a surge on the back of him calling out CM Punk.

Naito at #4 also surprises me considering he's been completely off screen couple of months, unless there's some news I missed.

Very impressive for El Desperado to place in the Top 10, the only junior on the list.

I expect Ospreay and White to shoot up to the Top 5 when they get back into the swing of things. They are working for NJPW Strong but that is still a pretty cold promotion with god awful production.

Been taking a look at how interest has been for the three major promotions in 2021 compared with other years. We all know WWE is chasms bigger than AEW is chasms bigger than NJPW. But what direction are they going in?

WWE is relatively struggling. Interest in the company in 2021 is lower than in any year since 2004 (when trends started to be recorded) and we can presume by extension since at least 1995. While the pandemic bounce back has boosted ticket sales, it has not boosted online interest.

AEW is relatively thriving, although with a caveat. The level of interest at the moment is still higher than any long period of time in the company’s history, although it is coming down since Punk’s debut and is still coming down. It’ll be interesting to see where it bottoms out, and whether it could bounce back in the new year when wrestling traditionally does well.

NJPW is extremely solid. It’s current level of interest is about as high as the much famed Omega era, although the peaks have been lower in the past few years. Very stable, even during the pandemic which is impressive.

Nov 9, 2021 20:35:08 GMT RT said:

All Out being at #8 really shows you how much the WWE still pumps the competition on a worldwide stage. One of the craziest endings to a PPV in the new millennium, possibly ever, and it's still only the #8 highest trending topic this year.

Exactly, a lot of people don’t see the bigger picture of the international audience invested in WWE. In the before times, WWE had toured seemingly the entire globe and established a huge fanbase.

AEW has fans outside North America but hasn’t achieved that huge international reach yet.

Week two has been updated. Adam Page has catapulted from nothing to #9 overall and #2 AEW. Omega had a similar bump, and perhaps surprisingly, Jay Lethal beat a lot of big WWE stars. It was good week for women as Alexa Bliss, Tay Conti and Liv Morgan got onto the board. Among the biggest fallers were Moxley, understandably, the Miz, and Danielson. CM Punk took top spot for AEW. Roman Reigns and Becky Lynch were unmoved as the top male and female performers respectively. No tag teams made it, down from one last week. The WWE top ten was remarkably similar and AEW was more frenetic, though that may have something to do with Full Gear. There were some big name casualties, including Edge, Jericho, Big E, and Britt Baker.

Week three has been updated. It was a predictably strong week for WWE as they hosted a major event on Sunday. Becky Lynch ascending to number 3, the highest position for a woman so far, and Charlotte Flair had a big bump of 5 places also. Seth Rollins had a big jump of ten places after he got attacked by a fan on Raw. There continues to be evidence that any association with Roman Reigns is positive even in defeat as Big E jumped into the top ten. Jake Hager got on the board after Jon Jones called him out for an MMA fight. Natalya and Carmella were among the more surprising entries although Natalya has been close a couple of times. The Usos rounded out the top 20 to be the best (and only) tag team.

In AEW, they felt the hit of going against Survivor Series. CM Punk dropped out of the top 10, and he, Omega and Moxley were the only AEW entrants. In the AEW list there was a shocking drop for Adam Page from 2 to 9. Billy Gunn got on the board at 6 after his big match against Darby Allin on Rampage. Andrade has now been on two of three weeks and is more of a star than I gave him credit for.

Raw beat SmackDown this week.

How's NJPW looking this week?

I got to think Billy Gunn is so high is because new AEW viewers didn't know he was in the company.

Tony likes his stats so he should invest a little more in his women since people don't seem very interested in them minus Britt sometimes. And Britt hasn't done anything lately.

Nov 23, 2021 15:01:46 GMT Emperor said:

How's NJPW looking this week?

Week 2 (last week):


1. Kazuchika Okada (+1)
2. KENTA (+1)
3. Tetsuya Naito (+1)
4. Hiroshi Tanahashi (-3)
5. Jay White (+5)
6. Minoru Suzuki
7. Kota Ibushi (-2)
8. Will Ospreay
9. Taichi (NEW)
10. Tomohiro Ishii (NEW)


Week 3 (this week):


1. Hiroshi Tanahashi (+3)
2. Tomohiro Ishii (+8)
3. Kazuchika Okada (-2)
4. Tetsuya Naito (-1)
5. Minoru Suzuki (+1)
6. Kota Ibushi (+1)
7. Taichi (+2)
8. KENTA (-6)
9. El Desperado (NEW)
10. Will Ospreay (-2)

Very interesting. Some surprises and some not so much.

- Expected Ishii to pop up given his appearance in AEW, but going up so far as #2 is more than I expected.
- Tanahashi regaining the #1 spot is another surprise. I have no explanation. Dude is just a big star I guess.
- Jay White and Ospreay appeared as I anticipated, but White dropped out as quickly as he came. That makes me sad.
- Taichi is the most baffling of all. He's currently teaming with Zack Sabre Jr. in World Tag League which I haven't been following. Is he doing something absolutely amazing there?
- Impressive for Naito to immediately get Top 5 on his return to the ring and stay there.
- Also impressive for Ibushi to be hanging around despite being out of action indefinitely.

Even weirder is Zack Sabre Jr was nowhere and would struggle to make the top 20.

Just wanted to chime in to say I'm loving this project, Todd!

Nov 24, 2021 13:18:47 GMT 🤯 said:

Just wanted to chime in to say I'm loving this project, Todd !

Yes - me too - not much time to post these days but I read and this is fascinating.

Week four has been updated. There were some big movers this week as Seth Rollins took 2nd from Lesnar after his fan attack last week on Raw. CM Punk had a big jump after his classic promo exchange with MJF, who himself shot up to AEW #2. Other big jumpers were Alexa Bliss, Miz, Edge and Big E. On the AEW side, Britt Baker returned to the top 10 which is great to see. There were also debut appearances for Matt Hardy and Cody Rhodes. KENTA shot up the NJPW ranks, and Tiger Mask debuted, as Tomohiro Ishii dropped out of the top 10 which really shows the US is the wrestling capital of the world.

It's already becoming obvious that pushing people does not seem to have that much impact on their relevance. Adam Page continues to struggle, as does Big E, although he charted this week. SmackDown beat Raw, so we're 2-2 in that battle.

This week has been updated. It was an excellent week for WWE women as six charted and four landed a place in the top ten. Charlotte Flair had a big jump to #3 overall, and Liv Morgan and Sasha Banks also had good jumps. Cody Rhodes charted after setting himself on fire, and NXT had its first entrant, champion Mandy Rose. MJF largely held his boost from the Punk feud, dropping only 2 places. Seth Rollins had a controversy last week and has come back down to the pack.

In AEW, Andrade had a good bump and Jon Moxley continues to impressively hold his position. I wonder if they are feeling his loss in the ratings. In NJPW, three juniors charted which is unusual to see, but aside from that, they remained remarkably similar to last week. SmackDown beat Raw.

Best of the Super Juniors is happening now, we're getting into the late rounds so would explain the increased interest in the juniors. Although Tiger Mask isn't even in the tournament so what's that about?

Taichi's high placement continues to baffle me. I don't know how your trend analysis works, but Tai Chi is also a martial art: would those searches be included?

Dec 6, 2021 16:57:41 GMT Emperor said:

Best of the Super Juniors is happening now, we're getting into the late rounds so would explain the increased interest in the juniors. Although Tiger Mask isn't even in the tournament so what's that about?

Taichi's high placement continues to baffle me. I don't know how your trend analysis works, but Tai Chi is also a martial art: would those searches be included?

No, Google uses an algorithm to determine topics. So Roman Reigns is ranked by all Roman Reigns related searches, not just people searching ‘Roman Reigns’. But the algorithm might be wrong - it’s possible that there is an error in this particular example. I don’t know enough about NJPW to tell really.

Rankings have been updated. Rey Mysterio had a big jump to #3 overall, and Chris Jericho jumped 13 places after his health scare. Lesnar was very close to taking #1 this week, but fell short. Sasha Banks went to the top of the women after appearing at the Spiderman premiere. Charlotte had a big drop, and a few new guys got onto the end of the top 20. In AEW, Matt Hardy had a big jump after his brother's controversy, and Adam Cole had a rare appearance in the top 10. In New Japan, I've taken Taichi out because I don't trust that it's right. Tiger Mask, Okada, White and Ospreay all had solid jumps. SmackDown beat Raw.

I'm getting the impression that NJPW ratings are fairly stable in general and are not that heavily influenced by current events. Best of Super Juniors and World Tag League are pretty low key tournaments anyway so not a big surprise.

We are approaching Wrestle Kingdom, so I'm expecting more interesting movement in the coming weeks as matches are finalised.

It is kind of sad when you are a world champion and can't break the top 10. Big E and Adam Page seem like background characters in their feuds and I think those stats show it.

Dec 15, 2021 23:19:48 GMT X-zero said:

It is kind of sad when you are a world champion and can't break the top 10. Big E and Adam Page seem like background characters in their feuds and I think those stats show it.

The stats show everything

Just wait until Brock reclaims his throne

As #1

Dec 15, 2021 23:19:48 GMT X-zero said:

It is kind of sad when you are a world champion and can't break the top 10. Big E and Adam Page seem like background characters in their feuds and I think those stats show it.

Big E is always hovering around the group just below #20, and he has had a jump since becoming champion. It's tough to make that jump to someone that people really care about, belt or not. Bianca has had the same problem.

Adam Page on the other hand is odd. He's not close to the top ten most weeks. I think it's an interesting study into how to push people. Page's star power was sacrificed in order to tell a more interesting story with a more rewarding payoff. But now that it's done, it's done. And the champion is a guy that drinks when he feels sorry for himself and hangs out with guys in gimp masks. I'm not trying to be disparaging, but should we surprised that people are not flocking to see this guy? And I say that as a big fan of Page.

Bryan Danielson did some press to hype the match this week and compared Page to Steve Austin. It's funny because aside from the vest jacket and the fact that he likes booze, to me he could not be more diametrically opposed to Steve Austin if he tried.

I was browsing NJPW's YouTube channel today and I may have found a possible cause of Taichi's high rating, assuming it isn't just people looking up the martial art. This video released on November 15.



Essentially it's a Taichi interview where he buries a new NJPW video game that's under development. I don't know what the intention is - I assume it's a promotional video, but advertising a game by having a wrestler shit all over it? Maybe it's some Japanese humour I don't get.

Game does look kinda cool as it uses real life footage, but it's not clear how that translates in terms of gameplay.