Wrestler Rankings: The Story Behind the Book We Wanted

Every kid who ever tore open a fresh copy of a pro wrestling magazine and flipped straight to the wrestler rankings page knows the feeling. Who moved up. Who dropped. Who deserved better. For decades, that feeling lived only in stacks of yellowing publications, scattered across attics and long since thrown away. I could never find a book that brought all of it back together in one place. So I spent years building the one that would.

The Wrestler Rankings Book That Was Missing From Every Wrestling Fan’s Shelf

If you had told the eight-year-old version of me that one day I’d write a 250-page book documenting over fifty years of professional wrestling rankings, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.

Then again, if you had told that same kid he’d one day film a show like Wrestling With Joeylicious, with the very wrestling legends who sparked his passion for professional wrestling, he wouldn’t have believed that either.

Life has a funny way of rewarding the passions that never leave you.

Wrestler Rankings: A Complete Year-by-Year History (1975-2025) wasn’t written because someone asked me to write it. It wasn’t commissioned by a publisher, and it certainly wasn’t created to cash in on nostalgia.

I wrote it because it’s the book I’ve wanted to own for most of my life.

The problem was…

It didn’t exist.

The Night Jimmy Snuka Changed Everything

Like so many wrestling fans, I can trace my obsession back to one unforgettable moment.

For me, it happened during one Saturday morning in Brooklyn, New York, watching WWF television.

Don Muraco was being interviewed by Buddy Rogers on Rogers’ Corner when Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka suddenly walked to the ring. Muraco took the interruption as the ultimate sign of disrespect. Without hesitation, he spit right at Snuka.

What happened next felt like complete chaos.

All chaos broke loose.

Snuka exploded with a fury I’d never seen before, attacking Muraco and literally tearing his clothes off piece by piece as Muraco desperately tried to escape. The crowd was going absolutely crazy, and I was completely mesmerized.

Muraco was everything a great villain should be: confident, arrogant, dangerous, and the kind of wrestler you couldn’t wait to see get what was coming to him.

And Snuka…

Snuka wasn’t just a wrestler.

He was a superhero.

Watching him unleash that raw emotion, hearing the crowd erupt, and feeling every second of that unforgettable confrontation completely captivated me.

That wasn’t just the moment I became a wrestling fan.

It was the moment I became a wrestling fan for life.

More than forty years later, I can still picture that scene as if it happened yesterday. It wasn’t just another wrestling angle. It was the moment that sparked a passion that has stayed with me ever since.

The Weekly Ritual

Long before the internet…

Long before YouTube…

Long before podcasts and social media…

There were wrestling magazines.

Every month felt like Christmas.

I’d race to the store hoping the newest issue had arrived.

Pro Wrestling Illustrated. The Wrestler. Inside Wrestling. Wrestling Superstars.

Those magazines weren’t simply something to read.

They were treasures.

I’d study every photograph, read every interview, memorize championship histories, compare rankings, and debate with friends about who deserved to move up or down.

When a new Pro Wrestling Illustrated arrived featuring the latest rankings, I’d spend hours examining every position.

Who moved up?

Who dropped?

Who deserved better?

Who was overrated?

Those rankings made wrestling feel bigger than just one promotion.

It brought all of the wrestling territories together in one place.

They made it feel like an entire universe.

Looking back, I realize those pages taught me something much bigger than wrestling.

They taught me that history matters.

Statistics matter.

Context matters.

Stories matter.

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The Rankings That Started It All

For wrestling fans of my generation, one person deserves enormous credit for making rankings feel important: Legendary wrestling journalist Bill Apter.

Bill helped create the ranking system that appeared throughout the “Apter magazines” and eventually became part of wrestling culture itself.

Those monthly rankings sparked conversations long before social media existed.

Fans debated them endlessly.

Who deserved Number One?

Who had the better year?

Who was climbing?

Who was falling?

Those rankings became part of how we experienced wrestling.

When I eventually shared this project with Bill, his support meant the world to me. He immediately understood what I was trying to accomplish because, in many ways, this book builds upon a tradition he helped establish decades ago.

“As someone who helped create wrestling’s original magazine rankings, it’s exciting to see Joey preserve this history in such a comprehensive way. This book is a wonderful tribute to generations of wrestling fans. Yo Joey, I love this book,” Bill Apter said.

The Book I Couldn’t Find

For years I’d find myself asking the same questions.

Where was Ric Flair ranked in 1987?

How high was Bret Hart before he became WWE Champion?

What did Steve Austin’s climb through the rankings actually look like before Austin 3:16?

What did the wrestling landscape really look like in 1998?

I’d search online.

I’d dig through old magazines.

I’d compare websites.

Nothing existed that documented every year’s rankings in one complete volume.

Pieces of history existed.

A complete history didn’t.

Eventually I stopped searching…

…and started writing.

What began as simple curiosity turned into years of research.

Thousands of magazine pages.

Countless hours cross-checking rankings.

Organizing decades of wrestling history.

Making sure every entry was accurate.

What I thought would take a few months became a multi-year project.

But I couldn’t stop.

Every forgotten ranking I uncovered made me feel like that kid sitting on the floor surrounded by wrestling magazines all over again.

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More Than Numbers

Some people might think this book is simply a collection of rankings.

It isn’t.

Every ranking tells a story.

You can literally watch careers unfold.

Future Hall of Famers slowly rise through the rankings.

Legends reach their peak.

Forgotten stars enjoy incredible runs.

Entire eras evolve before your eyes.

The territorial era.

Hulkamania.

The New Generation.

The Monday Night Wars.

Ruthless Aggression.

The modern era.

It’s professional wrestling history told through rankings.

That’s what fascinated me.

Chris Jericho, who appears throughout the book’s Wrestler of the Year rankings, offered his own take after seeing the finished project.

“Joey, this project is incredible. I especially loved seeing that I was the only wrestler to be named Wrestler of the Year ten years apart, in 2009 and 2019. That’s a really cool piece of wrestling history,” Jericho said on Talk Is Jericho.

Wrestling With Joeylicious

Much like Wrestler Rankings, Wrestling With Joeylicious was born from a simple idea.

It was the show I always wanted to watch.

So I created it.

Wrestling With Joeylicious isn’t your typical wrestling interview show. It’s an over-the-top comedy series unlike anything else in professional wrestling.

The premise is simple.

Joeylicious has spent his entire life dreaming of becoming a professional wrestler.

There’s just one problem…

He never made it.

Now, whenever life throws another obstacle in his way, the wrestling legends he idolized as a kid mysteriously appear to offer their “expert” advice. What starts as a pep talk quickly spirals into complete chaos, usually ending with Joeylicious getting embarrassed, humiliated, or beaten to an absolute pulp by his own heroes.

It’s outrageous.

It’s unpredictable.

And it’s a love letter to the larger-than-life personalities that made me fall in love with professional wrestling.

Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of filming with some of the biggest names in wrestling history, including Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, Tito Santana, Mick Foley, The Iron Sheik, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, and many others.

In one of the most meaningful moments of the series, the Immortal Hulk Hogan had officially signed on to appear throughout the full series just before his passing, making his involvement something I’ll always cherish.

The incredible part is that these aren’t just wrestling legends to me.

They’re the very people whose posters hung on my bedroom walls, whose matches I watched over and over again, and whose larger-than-life characters inspired my imagination as a kid.

Just like Wrestler Rankings, I didn’t create Wrestling With Joeylicious because I thought it would make me famous or make me rich.

I created it because it simply didn’t exist.

I wanted a wrestling comedy that celebrated the personalities, the absurdity, and the joy of professional wrestling while never making fun of the business itself.

Sometimes the best creative projects begin with one simple question:

“Why hasn’t someone made this yet?”

That question led to Wrestling With Joeylicious.

It’s also the exact same question that led me to write Wrestler Rankings.

Why Wrestling Still Matters

People often ask why I’ve remained such a passionate wrestling fan after all these years.

The answer is simple.

Wrestling has always been about storytelling.

Heroes.

Villains.

Triumph.

Failure.

Redemption.

Dreams.

It’s theater.

It’s athletics.

It’s emotion.

It’s everything I’ve always loved rolled into one.

Whether I was touring the world as a drummer, performing on Broadway, writing books, or producing television, professional wrestling has remained one of the constants in my life.

A Book for Every Wrestling Fan

This isn’t just a reference guide.

It’s a time machine.

Open to any year and you’ll instantly remember where you were.

Who you were cheering.

Who you couldn’t stand.

Which championship reign you loved.

Which wrestler you thought deserved more recognition.

It reminds us that every generation believes their era was the greatest.

Now you can actually compare them.

Whether you’re a collector…

A wrestling historian…

A lifelong fan…

Or someone who simply misses flipping through wrestling magazines…

I think you’ll find yourself losing hours inside these pages.

I know I did while creating them.

Dave LaGreca of Busted Open Radio put it well after reading through it himself.

This is the kind of book wrestling fans will keep on their coffee table and return to again and again. It’s a fantastic historical reference and a celebration of the business we all love,” LaGreca said.

Where to Get the Book, “Wrestler Rankings: A Complete Year-by-Year History 1975-2025”

Wrestler Rankings: A Complete Year-by-Year History (1975-2025) is available now on Amazon.

Simply search “Wrestler Rankings Joey Cassata” on Amazon to order your copy and take a journey through more than five decades of professional wrestling history. You can also watch the official book trailer here:

Full Circle

When I think back to that kid watching Jimmy Snuka battle Don Muraco…

The kid carefully opening a brand-new issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated…

The kid studying Bill Apter’s rankings month after month…

I realize this book was probably being written in my mind long before I ever typed the first word.

Every magazine I collected.

Every match I watched.

Every debate I had with friends.

Every interview I’ve conducted.

Every conversation with wrestling legends.

It all led here.

I didn’t write this book because I thought the wrestling world needed another wrestling book.

I wrote it because I wanted one on my own bookshelf.

The fact that so many other wrestling fans wanted the exact same thing has been the greatest surprise of all.

If this book helps one fan relive old memories…

Settle an old debate…

Or discover a forgotten piece of wrestling history…

Then every late night, every stack of magazines, and every hour of research was worth it.

Because professional wrestling has always been about preserving moments that make us feel something.

This book is my way of preserving fifty years of them.

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