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Dangerous A

Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards

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I just got the 2003 WON awards issue and will share the results with everyone here. I will only include WWE people who placed in the top 10 of each category and what place they ended up unless the person or persons who won were number 1, in which I'll include them anyways.

 

Lou Thesz/Ric Flair Wrestler of the Year award

 

1-Kenta Kobashi

2-Kurt Angle

4-Brock Lesnar

8-Eddy Guerrero

 

Most Outstanding Wrestler

 

1-Kurt Angle

3-Chris Benoit

4-Eddy Guerrero

6-Chris Jericho

9-Brock Lesnar

10-Shawn Michaels

 

Best Box Office Draw

 

1-Bob Sapp

5-Rock

7-Steve Austin

8-Eddy Guerrero

9-Bill Goldberg

10-Brock Lesnar

 

Feud of the Year

 

1-Brock Lesnar vs Kurt Angle

3-Chris Jericho vs Shawn Michaels

9-Guerreros vs Haas and Benjamin

10-Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit

 

Tag Team of the Year

 

1-Naomichi Marufuji and KENTA

2-Benjamin and Haas

3-Guerreros

 

Most Improved

 

1-Brock Lesnar

2-John Cena

3-Trish Stratus

4-Shelton Benjamin

5-Charlie Haas

7-Randy Orton

 

Best on Interviews

 

1-Chris Jericho

2-John Cena

3-Rock

6-Ric Flair

7-Kurt Angle

9-Steve Austin

10-Vince McMahon

 

Most Charismatic

 

1-Bob Sapp

2-Rock

3-John Cena

4-Chris Jericho

5-Eddy Guerrero

6-Steve Austin

7-Ric Flair

8-Kurt Angle, Quinton Jackson (tie)

10-Hulk Hogan

 

Best Technical Wrestler

 

1-Chris Benoit

2-Kurt Angle

5-Eddy Guerrero

 

Bruiser Brody Memorial award (Best Brawler)

 

1-Brock Lesnar

3-Chris Benoit

9-Undertaker

 

Best High Flying Wrestler

 

1-Rey Mysterio

 

Most Overrated

 

1-HHH

3-Big Show

4-Undertaker

5-Kevin Nash

6- A-Train

7-Shane McMahon

8-Nathan Jones

9-Bill Goldberg

10-Kane

 

Most Underrated

 

1-Ultimo Dragon

3-Matt Hardy

5-Eddy Guerrero

6-Rico

7-Chris Benoit

8-Chris Jericho

10-Booker T

 

Promotion of the Year

 

1-Pride Fighting Championships

4-WWE

6-OVW

 

Best Weekly Television Show

 

1-Pro Wrestling NOAH

2-OVW

3-Smackdown

5-Raw

8-Velocity

9-Confidential

 

Match of the Year (worked)

 

1-Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi 3/1/03

2-Chris Benoit vs Kurt Angle 1/19

4-Chris Jericho vs Shawn Michaels 3/30

7-Kurt Angle vs Brock Lesnar 3/30

10-Kurt Angle vs Brock Lesnar 9/16

 

Rookie of the Year

 

1-Chris Sabin

2-Zach Gowen

4-Matt Capotelli

10-Sylvan Grenier

 

Best Non Wrestler

 

1-Steve Austin

2-Bischoff

4-Paul Heyman

5-Vince McMahon

6-Jim Cornette

7-Teddy Long

8-Ric Flair

10-Mick Foley

 

Best Television show Announcer

 

1-Mike Tenay

2-Tazz

3-Jim Ross

5-Jim Cornette

8-Michael Cole

 

Worst Televesion announcer

 

1-Jonathan Coachman

2-Ernest Miller

3-Jerry Lawler

4-Michael Cole

6-Josh Matthews

8-Al Snow

9-Bill DeMott

 

Best Major Wrestling Show

 

1-Pride Final Elimination 11/9

2-WWE Wrestlemania XIX 3/30

9-WWE Royal Rumble 1/19

10 WWE Vengeance 7/27

 

 

These were the category A awards. I will do a separate post for category B.

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How is Michael Cole both the 8th best and 4th worst announcer? And JR is 3rd best?

 

And in the overrated group, I think Big Show and Kane are both unfair. They've both worked extremely hard this year despite (in Kane's case) terrible angles and constant stopping and starting of their pushes.

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Feud of the Year

 

1-Brock Lesnar vs Kurt Angle

 

AAARGH!!!!!??! How could any one justify this as being the feud of the year?

 

Best on Interviews

 

2-John Cena

 

What interviews?

 

 

Best Weekly Television Show

 

1-Pro Wrestling NOAH

2-OVW

3-Smackdown

5-Raw

8-Velocity

9-Confidential

 

Ok, so lemme get this straight - OVW is a worse promotion than the WWE, yet produces better television?? Zah?

 

Match of the Year (worked)

 

1-Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi 3/1/03

2-Chris Benoit vs Kurt Angle 1/19

4-Chris Jericho vs Shawn Michaels 3/30

7-Kurt Angle vs Brock Lesnar 3/30

10-Kurt Angle vs Brock Lesnar 9/16

 

Yeah, I think this says it all

 

Best Television show Announcer

 

1-Mike Tenay

2-Tazz

3-Jim Ross

5-Jim Cornette

8-Michael Cole

 

Jim Ross? JIM FUCKING ROSS??? How many angles was he a part of in 03? How many HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE angles that effected his commentary ("I'm not a wrestler king, whuddillidooo???"). Hell, I can't think of a single good commentary job I've heard from fat ass this year - meanwhile, Stephen Quadros blew me away at Pride 25 but he's somehow not better than JR? Fuck, WO subscribers are fucking idiots.

 

Worst Televesion announcer

 

1-Jonathan Coachman

2-Ernest Miller

3-Jerry Lawler

4-Michael Cole

6-Josh Matthews

8-Al Snow

9-Bill DeMott

 

JR is just as bad as Lawler, yet isn't on this list... I must be missing something that's in these newsletters which makes JR the 3rd best announcer in the world.

 

Best Major Wrestling Show

 

1-Pride Final Elimination 11/9

2-WWE Wrestlemania XIX 3/30

9-WWE Royal Rumble 1/19

10 WWE Vengeance 7/27

 

Pride 25 and Total Elimination were much better than WM 19.

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Just post everything

I would, but then I'd

 

a) get tired of typing out every single thing

 

b) this is WWE folder. Perhaps I may post the whole thing in General Wrestling folder

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" Fuck, WO subscribers are fucking idiots."

 

 

I'll just assume you weren't talking about me. Also, non subscribers vote as well. The voting template was on the WO website. I'm betting there were quite a bit of non subscribers voting here.

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You assume right. I meant voters - who, by extention, are subscribers - who buy some of the stuff Dave feeds them. Just listening to WOL you never hear Dave badmouth JR, for example. JR clearly is a piss poor announcer, yet he still gets voted as #3 best. Angle/Lesnar was a god awful feud but Dave sang it's praises on WOL.

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Reader's Least Favorite Wrestler

 

1-HHH

2-Kevin Nash

3-A-Train

4-Kane

5-Hulk Hogan,Undertaker (tie)

7-Nathan Jones

8-Test,Shane McMahon (tie)

10-Bradshaw

 

Most Overrated

 

1-HHH

3-Big Show

4-Undertaker

5-Kevin Nash

6- A-Train

7-Shane McMahon

8-Nathan Jones

9-Bill Goldberg

10-Kane

 

... are they able to, like, but aside their likes and dislikes and try to vote objectively??? Cause this just seems like "I don't like them, they're getting pushed, they're overrated". Meanwhile, Angle/Lesnar gets picked as feud of the year dispite being horrible - which is overrated here?

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Lou Thesz/Ric Flair Wrestler of the Year award

 

1-Kenta Kobashi

2-Kurt Angle

4-Brock Lesnar

8-Eddy Guerrero

 

Most Outstanding Wrestler

 

1-Kurt Angle

3-Chris Benoit

4-Eddy Guerrero

6-Chris Jericho

9-Brock Lesnar

10-Shawn Michaels

 

Why is Angle above Eddy?

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number 9 on the most outstanding.
Lou Thesz/Ric Flair Wrestler of the Year award

 

1-Kenta Kobashi

2-Kurt Angle

4-Brock Lesnar

8-Eddy Guerrero

 

Most Outstanding Wrestler

 

1-Kurt Angle

3-Chris Benoit

4-Eddy Guerrero

6-Chris Jericho

9-Brock Lesnar

10-Shawn Michaels

 

Why is Angle above Eddy?

I don't see how brock can be the 4th best wrestler of the year and number 9 in the most outstanding list.

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Guest Mulatto Heat

Brock/Angle won Best Feud at RSPW too.

 

I think that due to the fact that it was one of the very few WWE feuds to last longer than 2 months, people just voted for it without much thought (I hope), showing that lemmings are indeed still plentiful in our world.

 

It's kind of like how the Brock/Angle Iron Man was given ****1/4 by Keith and ***** by Keller simply because it was done on free TV, without actually objectively evaluating the work done.

 

After this and the RSPW awards I am beginning to think that these kinds of things are pure drek. What is Josh Matthews doing on a Worst Announcer list while Jim Ross is on a Best Announcer list? ZACH GOWEN AND SYLVAN F'N GRENIER ON A ROOKIE OF THE YEAR LIST?

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... are they able to, like, but aside their likes and dislikes and try to vote objectively??? Cause this just seems like "I don't like them, they're getting pushed, they're overrated".

Its my understanding that the Most Overrated award is based on who you feel doesn't deserve the push they are getting, as in they are overrated in the mind of the company they work for and not the overall IWC. Vice versa for the Most Underrated award.

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I think some people don't understand how this category has worked over the years and how people have voted. Here's a little background.

 

Selected WON Most Overrated Winners and Runner-Ups:

 

1982: Backlund - Runner-Up

1983: Backlund - 1st

1984: Hogan - Runner-Up

1985: Hogan - 1st

1986: Hogan - 1st

1987: Hogan - Runner-Up

1989: Hogan - Runner-Up

1996: Hogan - 1st

1997: Hogan - 1st

1998: Hogan - 1st

 

Hogan had other high finishes over the years, but I wanted to just touch on those years where it's not defensible given the way posters in this thread are trying to claim to know what this category has always been about. The category has rarely been about people getting big pushes "they didn't deserve", unless "I don't like Wrestler X" was the definition of "didn't deserve".

 

I put the Backlund on in since it was a year where he not only drew huge, but he also had the same number of matches placing in the Match of the Year category as Ric Flair did - three each. Of course Backlund also won the "Most Disgusting Occurence of 1982" simply for remaining WWF champ, so one does have some idea of where WON voters were coming from that year. In 1983, Backlund was not as good of a worker as he had been, but the company still drew with him on top. Perhaps 1983 is defensible, but 1982 doesn't seem so.

 

Some quotes:

 

"I naturally picked Backlund first for reasons everyone knows."

-Dave Meltzer, 1983 WON Yearbook: Most Overrated

 

"The are so many you have to pick only the most offensive -- Hulk Hogan, Dusty Rhodes and Sgt. Slaughter."

-Dave Meltzer, 1985 WON Yearbook: Most Overrated

 

"Who do we want to pick on and how much?"

-Dave Meltzer, 1986 WON Yearbook: Most Overrated

 

There are countless quotes that Dave chose to publish in the 1984-89 Yearbooks where voters explained their hate for Hogan... I mean the justification for voting for biggest drawing wrestler in the business as "The Most Overrated Wrestler of the Year".

 

I pointed out in the prior thread that this is a category that lost it's innocence a long time ago. I didn't specify that it was lost "on the first date" (the original 1982 voting). But this is where people are coming from when voting for Angle. If it's a-o-kay to vote for a massive drawing champ who has some MOTYCs in 1982 or The Biggest Draw In The World from 1984-1989 and in essence looking down your nose at the rube fans filling the seats for those guys "overrate" him, it's a-o-kay to toss a vote at Angle because certain people who think he's one of the best workers of all-time "overrate" him.

 

People really need to get over defending the nobility or honor of this category. It's never had any, and instead has just been a spot for voters to crack jokes, or simply crack on people they don't like. If you doubt it, you can look it up.

 

John, who will credit Dave, notwithstanding the quotes above, for being more level headed in voting in this one than most of his torch carrying readers wanting to light wrestlers up...

 

- JDW

 

http://wrestlingclassics.com/.ubb/ultimate...ic;f=7;t=000229

 

I will further note that 7 of the 10 wrestlers selected in the "most overrated" were also featured in the "most hated" category.

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#4 tv show was?  CMLL?

Any promotion/show that includes Rey Bucanero, Ultimo Guerrero, Tarzan Boy, Shocker, and Ricky Marvin instantly makes it one of the best in the world.

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Well, they did put Benoit below Angle in the outstanding wrester list.

 

That's all I got.

 

Is Matt Capotelli actually turning into something decent or is he just on the rookie list from process of elimination?

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Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes

Kane is over-rated? How? From June-Early September he had the highest cable rating segments during RAW.

 

Big Show? sure, his US Reign blows, but he works as hard as he can wihtout dying in the ring from exhaustion.

 

I forgot the rest of the list, but if Brock Lesnar is on there...ugh. (Edit: He's Not)

 

 

 

 

Whoever voted this category blows.

 

Most Over-rated: RANDY ORTON. end of story.

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