When Brody King was named April’s Southern California Wrestler of the Month, which was his third straight month with the honor, I went to check through the rankings history to see when the last time that had been done. After going back 16 years I found the last time that feat had happened, with B-Boy doing it in March through May 2002. When you think that there have been 192 Wrestler’s of the Month named in that time, and likely thousands of wrestlers to come through the area, it is somewhat of an amazing feat.
That got me thinking about different records that would likely never be equaled or broken. Pro-wrestling by its nature doesn’t have a lot of meaningful records when compared to non-predetermined sports such as baseball or football. Barry Bonds hitting 73 home runs in a season may never be broken but for most wrestling records all that is needed is a decision by whoever the booker is to create “history.”
However there are some things that are out of a wrestler or promotion’s control, and that is what we are going to look at here. I’ve come up with a list of seven records or feats in Southern California pro-wrestling that are unlikely to be equaled or broken. For this list I have limited it to feats that are actually possible to be met, no matter how unlikely. So there is no record for most times selling out the Grand Olympic or anything like that.
-
Los Angeles Wrestling Attendance Record of 25,847
The record for attendance for a pro-wrestling event in Los Angeles has stood since 1971 and no one has come close. WWF tried to break the record with Wrestlemania VII, but it was moved to the Sports Arena due to low ticket sales (with WWF claiming it was due to security concerns due to the Gulf War). No one has tried to top the mark since. That being said, this record would likely be broken if WWE holds a Wrestlemania or Royal Rumble at stadium venue in the area. None are currently scheduled however, and there is no other chance at anyone drawing this type of crowd.
-
Super Dragon’s Four Straight Match of the Year Awards
It is hard to explain now how good Super Dragon was in his prime and what he meant to the area. He was truly ahead of his time, and from 2001 to 2004 he had an incredible run, winning Wrestler of the Year three times and Match of the Year four times. The level of talent in the area, and across all independent wrestling is so much better now than it was then too, making it that much harder to win multiple Match of the Year awards. The Young Bucks have come the closest, winning the award three times in a row.
-
Santino Brothers Wrestling Academy’s Rookie of the Year Streak
The Santino Brothers Wrestling Academy is in the middle of an incredible streak of producing Southern California Rookies if the Year. The last three winners have all come from the school, and five out of the last six. Only one other time has a school even produced back to back winners.
-
Super Dragon and Kevin Steen’s Three Wrestler of the Year Awards
Times have changed. Now if a wrestler is really good, they are going to get signed or at the very least start getting bookings all over the world, limiting their bookings in Southern California. B-Boy could actually join this group with another Wrestler of the Year win, but to break the record he would need to win it twice. The level of talent in the area now days make that a really hard task.
-
Joey Ryan’s 86 Wins in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
Joey Ryan was in PWG from the beginning up to a few years ago. PWG also had a time period where they ran two shows a month as well. Add the fact that wrestlers in PWG have been getting signed to contracts with other companies like crazy and getting that many wins in PWG let alone matches would be nearly impossible. El Generico is the next closest with 67 wins. The Young Bucks are a little over 20 wins away, but their appearances in PWG have become far less frequent too.
-
Ultimate Pro Wrestling Signing 43 Wrestlers to WWE
This is another feat that likely wouldn’t happen today due to changing times. UPW went after people they thought met a type that WWE was looking for and a lot of what they did was designed solely to get people signed to WWE. They became a developmental territory for WWE as well, getting wrestlers a look they normally wouldn’t have gotten at another school. EWF’s school has been around over 20 years and has lead to less than a dozen wrestlers getting signed to WWE. No one else is even close.
-
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s 14 Southern California Promotion of the Year Awards
This record is likely to be extended even further, as PWG is still head and shoulders above anyone else. To beat this not only would a promotion need to be really good, hope that no one else gets as good, they’d need to sustain that for at least 14 years. Even if we went backwards in time and somehow extended the award through history, I don’t know if any promoter would have been number one 14 times. Certainly no one else in the last 40 years.
