Tournaments in wrestling are something that usually gets fans excited. More often than not, it means we are about to get a barrage of entertaining matches and they all have something on the line. These tournaments can be to crown a king, a new champion, to earn a title shot, or simply for bragging rights.
Some tournaments are a safe bet to be great whenever they come around. But others aren't nearly as fun. We're here to list the best and worst tournaments in wrestling. This won't be based on one particular year. Instead, we're ranking them based on their consistent quality and prestige.
10 Worst: Survival Of The Fittest
We begin with something exclusive to Ring of Honor. A lot of folks may not be aware, but Survival of the Fittest is one of the longest-running tournaments in all of wrestling. The first iteration came way back in 2004 and the company has only missed one year since then.
The list of winners is great. Daniel Bryan, Roderick Strong, Adam Cole, and Seth Rollins rank among them. But the Survival of the Fittest itself usually doesn't deliver. It is a series of singles matches where all of the winners compete in an elimination match to determine the overall winner. Most of these shows are forgettable and disappointing despite the talent involved.
9 Best: Super Strong Style 16
PROGRESS Wrestling has been known for some innovative ideas. Their original top title was a giant staff and they introduced the Atlas division for wrestlers over 205 pounds. But their annual Super Strong Style 16 is a pretty straightforward concept. 16 wrestlers compete in a traditional tournament with the winner earning a PROGRESS Title shot.
What makes this one of the better entries on the list is the high quality of matches as well as the up-and-coming talent involved. For example, 2017's finals saw Tyler Bate and Travis Banks compete in one of the best matches of that year. Other past competitors include Darby Allin, Kyle O'Reilly, Zack Sabre Jr., and Matt Riddle. Also, be sure to check out the creative ways they figure out the brackets, which is usually uploaded to YouTube.
8 Worst: King of the Ring
It is the most famous tournament in all of wrestling. WWE's King of the Ring had its own pay-per-view for a decade and it boasts legendary winners like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, Bret Hart, and Kurt Angle. Unfortunately, it was also won by Billy Gunn, Mabel, and Wade Barrett, all of whom made much less of an impact.
Even with the history of up and down winners, there's a bigger problem the King of the Ring runs into. Most years feature questionable booking and lackluster matches. 1993, 1994, 1996, 2002, 2006, and 2019 were really the only ones to feature a standout match or two.
7 Best: Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic
After the heartbreaking passing of Dusty Rhodes in 2015, NXT started running this tag team tournament in his honor. Since then, each edition of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic has managed to bring us some of the most exciting wrestling anywhere. It is a perfect blend of good wrestling and quality story development.
It was in this tournament that Bobby Roode start his feud with Tye Dillinger and a big part of the lengthy Finn Balor/Samoa Joe rivalry came when they won this tournament. It also gave us great matches like the Authors of Pain vs. TM61 or #DIY vs. The Undisputed Era. Plus, the list of winners is incredible — Aleister Black and Ricochet, Balor and Joe, Undisputed Era, and AOP.
6 Worst: World Tag League
For the most part, New Japan Pro Wrestling does a good job with their tournaments. The New Japan Cup and Best of the Super Juniors are usually enjoyable and filled with tremendous matches. But their biggest misstep each year is easily the World Tag League. It's the opposite of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic in terms of enjoyment.
NJPW's tag division is their weakest point, so building a tourney around it is a bad move. The World Tag League is a round-robin tournament, meaning it spans an entire month or so. That's far too much for the quality that we get. It also comes at the end of the year. That's when interest in NJPW is at its lowest and everyone is just gearing up for Wrestle Kingdom.
5 Best: Battle of Los Angeles
This is the ultimate independent wrestling tournament. Beginning in 2005, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla started holding the Battle of Los Angeles. It brought wrestlers from all around the world and you're almost always guaranteed to see dream matches that blow your mind.
Past winners include Ricochet, Adam Cole, and Kenny Omega. However, the list of competitors goes even deeper. AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, Alex Shelley, Shingo Takagi, Johnny Gargano, Pete Dunne, Drew McIntyre, and more have all taken part. Pick any year and discover some insane pairings.
4 Worst: Fight For The Right
Oh, TNA. The company had some fantastic ideas — Ultimate X comes to mind —but it seemed to make them try things that had no business being on television. The Fight for the Right Tournament is a prime example. All you really to know about it is the fact that it began with a reverse battle royal.
That's right. To advance, you had to fight outside of the ring and attempt to get inside. Then it became a traditional battle royal and the final two participants competed in a singles match. All of that is just to set up the seeding for a tournament to get a title shot. A convoluted mess.
3 Best: Mae Young Classic
There have only been two iterations so fa,r but the Mae Young Classic has been a blast each time. This WWE tournament brings together some of the top female athletes from around the world for an epic series of matches. Taped in front of a raucous crowd at Full Sail University and aired on the WWE Network, it has been a highlight of the past few years.
This tournament has helped launch the careers of Shayna Baszler, Dakota Kai, Tegan Nox, Bianca Belair, Rhea Ripley, Mia Yim, Xia Brookside, and Io Shirai. It also brought in returns like Serena Deeb and Kaitlyn, as well as top stars like Meiko Satomura and Mercedes Martinez. And you can't help but praise the two winners, Kairi Sane and Toni Storm, who have found plenty of success since their victories.
2 Worst: Brawl For All
This is easily near the top of any list about WWE's biggest blunders. The idea behind the Brawl for All was to put wrestlers in shootfighting contests. These weren't scripted and the winner would be determined by knockouts or points. Participants included Bradshaw, Bob Holly, Droz, 2 Cold Scorpio, and others.
Fans often chanted "boring" during these contests and the bouts were met with criticism. Wrestling fans want to see wrestling, not boxing or any other kind of fighting. Plus, this was a huge bust because everyone thought Jim Ross' boy Steve Williams would win and get pushed to a feud with Stone Cold. Instead, Bart Gunn knocked him out and everyone else en route to winning the whole thing.
1 Best: G1 Climax
Remember how we said New Japan does tournaments well? Their best is the annual G1 Climax. This is a round-robin tournament that features around 20 of the company's top wrestlers, split across two blocks. It runs throughout the summer and the winner gets an IWGP Heavyweight Title shot at Wrestle Kingdom.
Each year, fans look forward to "G1 season." There is an abundance of stellar matches and stories develop throughout this month-long affair. Winners include Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito, and Hiroshi Tanahashi. Any list counting the best matches of any given year is bound to include several from this prestigious event.