Standard caveats: -The timeframe covers December to November. -Some of the overall awards are available to both wrestling and MMA organizations. (Sometimes this makes sense, sometimes this doesn't.) -I didn't vote. Maybe someone else here did. -If there's no WWE in the top three, I'll list their top finisher. LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD (WRESTLER OF THE YEAR) 1. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA 2. A.J. Styles 3. Hiroshi Tanahashi 5. Daniel Bryan MIXED MARTIAL ARTS MOST VALUABLE 1. RONDA ROUSEY 2. Chris Weidman 3. Jon Jones MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER 1. A.J. STYLES 2. Tomohiro Ishii 3. Shinsuke Nakamura 7. Sami Zayn 10. Seth Rollins MOST OUTSTANDING FIGHTER OF THE YEAR 1. RONDA ROUSEY 2. Chris Weidman 3. Demetrious Johnson BEST BOX OFFICE DRAW 1. RONDA ROUSEY 2. John Cena 3. Hiroshi Tanahashi FEUD OF THE YEAR 1. JON JONES VS. DANIEL CORMIER 2. Daniel Bryan vs. The Authority 3. Rush vs. Negro Casas TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR 1. YOUNG BUCKS 2. Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly 3. T-Hawk & Eita 4. Usos MOST IMPROVED 1. RUSEV 2. Charlotte 3. Sasha BEST ON INTERVIEWS 1. PAUL HEYMAN 2. Conor McGregor 3. Jay Briscoe MOST CHARISMATIC 1. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA 2. Hiroshi Tanahashi 3. Conor McGregor 4. Daniel Bryan BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER 1. ZACK SABRE JR. 2. Kyle O’Reilly 3. A.J. Styles 5. Daniel BRUISER BRODY MEMORIAL AWARD (BEST BRAWLER) 1. TOMOHIRO ISHII 2. Katsuyori Shibata 3. Dean Ambrose BEST FLYING WRESTLER 1. RICOCHET 2. Kota Ibushi 3. Flamita 4. Adrian Neville No non-NXT wrestler made top ten or honorable mention. MOST OVERRATED 1. KANE 2. Roman Reigns 3. Randy MOST UNDERRATED 1. CESARO 2. Tomoaki Honma 3. Tyson Kidd PROMOTION OF THE YEAR 1. NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING 2. Ring of Honor 3. Dragon Gate 6. World Wrestling Entertainment BEST WEEKLY TV SHOW 1. WWE NXT 2. Ring of Honor 3. Lucha Underground 6. WWE Raw PRO WRESTLING MATCH OF THE YEAR 1. A.J. STYLES VS. MINORU SUZUKI 8/1 TOKYO 2. Kazuchika Okada vs. Shinsuke Nakamura 8/10 Tokorozawa 3. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata 9/21 Kobe 6. The Shield vs. The Wyatts 2/23 Minneapolis MMA MATCH OF THE YEAR 1. ROBBIE LAWLER VS. JOHNY HENDRICKS 3/15 DALLAS 2. Matt Brown vs. Erick Silva 5/10 Cincinnati 3. Mark Hunt vs. Antonio Silva 12/8/13 Sydney ROOKIE OF THE YEAR 1. DRAGON LEE 2. Moose 3. Yuga Hayashi 4. Alexa Bliss BEST NON-WRESTLER 1. PAUL HEYMAN 2. Stephanie McMahon 3. Lana BEST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER 1. WILLIAM REGAL 2. Shimpei Nogami 3. Joe Rogan John Layfield finished 15th, the top non-NXT WWE talent. WORST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER 1. JOHN LAYFIELD 2. Jerry Lawler 3. Michael Cole Heh. BEST MAJOR WRESTLING SHOW 1. NEW JAPAN G-1 8/1 TOKYO 2. New Japan G-1 8/3 Osaka 3. WWE WrestleMania 4/6 New Orleans WORST MAJOR WRESTLING SHOW 1. WWE BATTLEGROUND 7/20 TAMPA 2. TNA Lockdown 3/9 Miami 3. WWE Royal Rumble 1/26 Pittsburgh BEST WRESTLING MANEUVER 1. YOUNG BUCKS MELTZER DRIVER 2. Kazuchika Okada Rainmaker 3. Adrian Neville Red Arrow 5. Sami Zayn tope into DDT 7. Seth Rollins curb stomp: 18 That’s actually the name of the move. MOST DISGUSTING PROMOTIONAL TACTIC 1. WWE INSULTING FANS WHO PURCHASED PPVS 2. Dixie Carter tweeting a Storm is coming to Japan during a typhoon 3. TNA building TV for months around Dixie Carter table spot WORST TELEVISION SHOW 1. WWE RAW 2. TNA Impact 3. WWE Smackdown WORST MATCH OF THE YEAR 1. JOHN CENA VS. BRAY WYATT 5/4 EXTREME RULES EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ 2. Sakuraba & Nagata vs. Gracies 1/4 Tokyo 3. Naomi vs. Cameron 9/15 Lafayette I didn’t see a lot of finishers, but I saw #1 and #2 at James’. There had to have been worst matches. WORST FEUD OF THE YEAR 1. NIKKI BELLA VS. BRIE BELLA 2. Minoru Suzuki vs. Toru Yano 3. John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt: 42 Kane’s top feud was vs. Daniel Bryan for #5. WORST PROMOTION OF THE YEAR 1. TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION 2. World Wrestling Entertainment 3 CHIKARA Pro BEST BOOKER 1. GEDO & JADO 2. Genki Horiguchi 3. Paul Levesque/Ryan Ward (i.e. NXT) PROMOTER OF THE YEAR 1. TAKAAKI KIDANI 2. Dana White 3. Scott Coker 4. Vince McMahon BEST GIMMICK 1. RUSEV & LANA 2. The Bullet Club 3. Yosuke Santa Maria WORST GIMMICK 1. ADAM ROSE 2. Samuel Shaw 3. The Bunny BEST PRO WRESTLING BOOK 1. DEATH OF WCW BY BRYAN ALVAREZ & R.D. REYNOLDS (two-time winner) 2. The Best in the World At What I have No Idea/Chris Jericho 3. Bluegrass Brawlers: The Story of Professional Wrestling in Louisville/John Cosper BEST PRO WRESTLING DVD 1. LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, MY NAME IS PAUL HEYMAN 2. Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story 3. Wrestling Road Diaries II
(edited by hansen9j on 21.1.15 1925) CALLER: He's charging at us. He's at our door, bedroom door. DISPATCH: One moment, okay? CAT: RAAAAAARRRRRRR!
Go Pack Go! Owner of one (1) share. (12-4, Guhhhhhh) Let's Go Riders! Owner of one (1) share. (10-8, Wait Til Next Year)
1. LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD - This is open to pro wrestlers, for a combination of everything, being both important and influential this year in a positive manner from a business perspective, combining both box office impact as well as strong match quality in worked matches.
3. MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER:This is based on working ability in the ring only. Simply, the best workers in the world on a consistent basis over the past year. Drawing power, charisma and push shouldn't be considered.
Some would say charisma would have something to do with working ability.
Yo, mad love for Okada and all (who has, legit, the best top rope elbowdrop I've ever seen), but the rainmaker at #2? Jake Roberts was using the short clothesline as a mid-match move in 1986 to better effect.
1. LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD - This is open to pro wrestlers, for a combination of everything, being both important and influential this year in a positive manner from a business perspective, combining both box office impact as well as strong match quality in worked matches.
3. MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER:This is based on working ability in the ring only. Simply, the best workers in the world on a consistent basis over the past year. Drawing power, charisma and push shouldn't be considered.
Some would say charisma would have something to do with working ability.
The weirdest thing about having two categories is that Flair got both Wrestler of the Year and the first Most Outstanding Wrestler award in 1986, and gets both again in 1989. ('87 has Choshu as Wrestler of the Year and Flair as Most Outstanding, he gets shut out in '88) So it's not even clear what saw the need for a second category initially, unless the runners-up from 1980-1986 give a clue. I mean, I get it, it's a way to recognize workrate even if it wouldn't have called that yet, but it does seem a little more like the Golden Globes doing Best Drama and Best Comedy to please as many people as possible.
Anyway, I like Nakamura as Wrestler of the Year. I don't see enough non-WWE/NXT (and to a lesser extent, TNA/Lucha Underground) stuff to really comment on much of it, but nobody has done more to sell me on wanting to watch New Japan. The "It Factor" concept gets thrown around too easily sometimes, often to bury people, but if anybody has whatever "It" is, Nakamura does right now. I didn't realize at the time, but the way Nakamura carries himself and brings that into his matches is pretty much exactly what I was hoping for and feeling from Ambrose right before he left to film his movie and Vince got his hands on him.
For pure body of work, though, Rollins > Bryan in 2014 if just because Bryan missed half the year, while Rollins was basically asked to carry the company in matches and angles and did much better with the latter than I think anybody could have expected given how poorly things were handled around him.
Annual caveat that I haven't voted in the awards in a long time.
Most outstanding is "best worker"/best haver of matches. Thesz/Flair wrestler of the year is basically an amorphous MVP award that combines working on top with great matches. For example, if the awards were exclusive to Hulkamania-era WWF, they could go something like...
Wrestler of the Year: Randy Savage Best Box Office Draw: Hulk Hogan Most Outstanding: Mr. Perfect (or Shawn Michaels, or whomever)
The American wrestling business has actually evolved far more than the award has, because now nearly everyone on top in WWE has to be able to have great matches, and people in WWE who aren't on top don't have much of an opportunity to have great matches. Whereas comparatively, for example, Nitro-era Benoit or Mysterio could win most outstanding but never contend for WOTY.
I kind of have a weird/polite policy of never acknowledging podcasts, but since the words Wrestling Observer came up, I was just on one of their site's window dressing podcasts hosted by an ebullient Irishman doing a WWE year-in-review with the LA Times' Todd Martin. It's a very extended aural version of all my posts crying about the Shield and Brock Lesnar from the last six months. http://media001.f4wonline.com/free/011715dks.mp3
Ronda Rousey is dead-on as best draw ad MMA MVP. After she won her July 2014 match in 16 seconds, she was asked by Joe Rogan -- before she had even left the octagon -- if she would fight at the very next UFC PPV. She deferred due to injuries.
I wouldn't call Kane overrated, but I get the implication. He's over emphasized. Even with nearly a year lost to injury, his feud with Daniel Bryan is interminable, and he's a default Cena opponent because of the Authority. But he doesn't bring anything new to the matches except his attire.
"To be the man, you gotta beat demands." -- The Lovely Mrs. Tracker
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