How we keep the book
Wrestling Dirt Sheet does not break news and does not pretend to. We collect what other outlets publish, point at the original, and keep a public record of how often those outlets have been right, wrong, or foggy.
The site is the ledger. The shows are the commentary.
What a “story” is
We only book items that can be checked later.
A usable report names a thing that will either happen or not: a signing, a release, a title change, a date, a taping, a TV move, a contract status. If nothing in the sentence can be proven or disproven, it does not belong in the hit column.
We do not book:
- Official company press releases and TV graphics recycled as “scoops”
- Recaps, rankings, and “who should…” lists
- Clearly labeled opinion (“I think,” “it feels like,” “if I had to guess”)
- Copy-paste of another outlet’s story (the original gets the mark; the copies get a line under the link)
If the same news hits three desks in five minutes with the same facts, the first firm version is the original. Extra detail from a second outlet can be a separate mark if it is new and checkable. Typing faster is not eight hits.
Hit, miss, vague
Hit — The claim happened in the way that can be checked. Timing can be sloppy. The fact has to stand.
Miss — The claim did not happen, or the checkable part was wrong.
Vague — The outlet left itself an exit. “Chances have gone up.” “Talks are happening.” “Something could be announced soon.” If it lands they will say they called it. If it dies they will say they never said it. That is vague even when the wrestler later wins the match.
Vague is listed as its own percentage. Launch letter grades use hits vs misses only. Vague sits next to the letter so you can see who lives in the fog. We may fold vague into the letter later, once we are scoring live stories ourselves instead of an inherited sample.
The Dirt Curve
Wrestling rumor is not a spelling test. Nobody bats 1.000 without lying or hiding. The A range is wide on purpose. Coin-flip work is an F.
Letter grades (hits ÷ hits+misses):
- A+ 93% and up
- A 88–92%
- A- 83–87%
- B+ 77–82%
- B 72–76%
- B- 67–71%
- C+ 63–66%
- C 60–62%
- C- 58–59%
- D+ 55–57%
- D 53–54%
- D- 51–52%
- F 50% and below
If those cutoffs move after we have our own book, we will say so on this page and date the change.
Where the first numbers came from
Launch grades are built from Cageside Seats rumor tallies (Decker’s weekly lookbacks) plus our own pass over that window. That is someone else’s homework with our labels on it. We are using it so the site does not launch with empty cards.
Once we have enough of our own marks, the book becomes WDS data. Old Cageside weeks stay in the sample until that handoff is honest. We will not pretend we invented the first pile.
How often grades move
Monthly. Not weekly. A week of silence or one monster story should not redraw the card.
When the month flips, new letters go on new stories. We do not walk the archive and rewrite September as October.
Tiers
Primary — Outlets that regularly originate checkable dirt. These get full cards.
Press — Real sites that mostly recap, interview, and pass along what Primary already had. Editorial work can be good. It is still not a scoop desk.
Slop — Headline does a crime the article will not stand behind. Fake urgency, listicles dressed as news, quotes yanked into a different sentence.
Pending — Not enough items in the window to print a letter without looking reckless.
We do not grade random social accounts. If there is no site (or no paid desk with a public record), it is not in the book. Rebrands do not wipe the previous name when it is the same desk.
What we will add later
- Half-point credit for a real retraction
- A fan trust mark (up/down on the story, not a sermon)
- A separate watch on outlets that turn another reporter’s podcast shrug into a “story”
- Our own live book, story by story, with notes when a mark changes
None of that is in the first letters. If it is not on the card, we have not counted it.
What this site is not
We are not a dirt sheet that wants a press pass more than a spine. We are not undefeated. We will be wrong about process and we will write the correction here, dated.
If you think a mark is wrong, say which story and why. “You hate this guy” is not a mark.
Wrestling Dirt Sheet
We Clean The Sheets