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In sports, stats mean everything. In sports entertainment, they don’t mean quite as much.
If a sports team goes an entire year undefeated and wins the title at the end of the season, they go down in history as one of the greatest teams of all time. If a WWE Superstar goes an entire year undefeated, it might be forgotten about a few months later.
The only numbers that truly matter in WWE surround championship reigns and undefeated streaks. How many World titles has John Cena held? Sixteen. How many matches did The Undertaker win at WrestleMania before he was defeated? Twenty-one. And so on and so on.
In this article, we've put aside the obvious stats and endeavoured to find five of the very best from modern-day WWE that you probably didn’t know.
#1 Heath Slater has a better PPV record than Braun Strowman
If you were to find out that Heath Slater has won more pay-per-view matches throughout his career than Braun Strowman, you probably wouldn’t be too surprised. After all, Heath has been in WWE for five more years than "The Monster Among Men".
However, if you were to find out that he has picked up more victories on PPV than Braun since the 2016 brand split, you might be a little shocked.
Slater, recently reduced to being shown on TV a couple of times a month eating crackers backstage with Rhyno, has won three PPV matches over the last 16 months, and you could even argue that he’s won five if you include the Tag Team Turmoil victories at Elimination Chamber 2017.
In the same amount of time, Strowman has won only two of his 10 PPV matches. Both victories came against Roman Reigns – first in the main event of Payback and then in an Ambulance Match at Great Balls of Fire.
#2 Kane's unbelievable run without a win
If you step inside the squared circle with Kane, there’s a good chance you’re going to end up on the losing side. Throughout his 20-year career, “The Big Red Machine” has dismantled some of the best Superstars WWE has to offer – from The Undertaker and Triple H during the Attitude Era to modern-day favourites like Finn Balor.
That makes it all the more surprising to find out that The Devil’s Favourite Demon once went a staggering four years and five months, from April 2012 to September 2016, without picking up a PPV win in a singles match.
It’s not like he was in a tag team the entire time either, although he did spend almost one year as one half of Team Hell No with Daniel Bryan.
The run began when he defeated Randy Orton at WrestleMania XXVIII and finally ended when he was victorious against Bray Wyatt at Backlash 2016.
#3 Eva Marie won more PPV matches than Emma
When Emma took on Asuka at TLC 2017, that was only her fifth appearance on a WWE PPV, which is surprising given that her first PPV match was way back in 2014 at WrestleMania XXX.
Even more surprising, though, is that former Superstar Eva Marie – an often-mocked character who would regularly have “you can’t wrestle” chanted at her – actually won more matches than the recently released Aussie at PPV events.
Emma was on the winning women’s team at Survivor Series 2014, but that’s one less PPV victory in her career than All Red Everything, who was victorious in multi-person matches at Survivor Series 2013 and WrestleMania 32 in 2016.
#4 Bray has a better PPV win ratio than Reigns
There’s a general feeling among WWE fans that Bray Wyatt’s believability as a heel character has been severely damaged due to a string of PPV losses over the last three years.
Meanwhile, the 'LOL Cena wins' phenomenon that stuck with John Cena throughout his career has now carried over to Roman Reigns, who many believe wins far too many of his high-profile feuds.
So then, you might be surprised to find out that Bray actually has a better PPV win ratio than Reigns. While The Eater of Worlds has won 21 of his 39 matches (53.85 percent), the Shield member has only won 28 of his 54 matches (50.91 percent).
#5 Only one man kicked out of Ryback’s finisher
When you think of dominant finishers throughout WWE history that next-to-nobody has ever kicked out of, you probably think of the Tombstone Piledriver, the Pedigree or, more recently, the F5.
One finisher that won’t spring to mind right away is the Shell Shock, last used in WWE by former Intercontinental champion Ryback.
The man from Sin City has questioned on his ‘Conversation With The Big Guy’ podcast why fellow Superstars allow opponents to kick out of their finishers so frequently.
He says that only one man kicked out of his Shell Shock manoeuvre during his WWE career, despite his best efforts to convince the producer of the match otherwise, and that was Big Show.
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