Wrestling Observer Newsletter 2004 Year-End Result

[LucharesuFan619 0]

The numbers next to the names are the number of votes they got.

 

Wrestler of the Year

1) Kobashi 3,209

2) Benoit 2,045

3) Samoa Joe 1,223

4) Guerrero 572

5) Sasaki 409

6) Wanderlei Silva 299

7) HHH 190

8) Misawa 97

9) Liddell 93

10) HBK 92

 

Most Outstanding

1) Benoit 2,771

2) Kobashi 1,922

3) Danielson 617

4) Guerrero 560

5) Samoa Joe 482

6) HBK 314

7) Styles 263

8) KENTA 194

9) Punk 167

10) Angle 105

 

Best Draw

1) Kobashi 2251

2) Sapp 1829

3) Ogawa 986

4) Guerrero 708

5) W. Silva 575

6) Akebono 521

7) Masato 1271

8) Santo 255

9) Crocop 251

10) Couture 179

 

Best Feud

1) HHH vs. HBK vs. Benoit 1642

2) Orton vs. Foley 1606

3) Joe vs. Punk 1242

4) Joe vs. Homicide 439

5) Jericho vs. Xian/Trish 319

6) AMW vs. XXX 287

7) Angle vs. Guerrero 224

8) Ortiz vs. Liddell 215

9) Punk vs. Steamboat 172

10) Silva vs. Jackson 126

 

Best Tag Team

1) KENTA/Marufuji 2893

2) AMW 1112

3) Reyes & Romero 845

4) Ultimo Guerrero/Rey Bucanero 677

5) XXX 478

6) Misawa/Ogawa 397

7) Punk/Cabana 268

8) RVD/Mysterio 239

9) Briscoes 191

10) Suzuki/Takayama 146

 

Most Improved

1) Orton 1497

2) Batista 1277

3) Benjamin 830

4) Tanahashi 812

5) Samoa Joe 419

6) JBL 371

7) Nakamura 254

8) Aries 213

9) Monty Brown 194

10) J. Nitro 175

 

Best Interview

1) Foley 1895

2) Flair 983

3) Jericho 687

4) JBL 656

5) Punk 619

6) Q. Jackson 499

7) Heyman 321

8) Guerrero 251

9) Cena 238

10) Cornette 235

 

Charismatic

1) Guerrero 1073

2) Cena 921

3) Rock 897

4) Flair 766

5) Jericho 510

6) HBK 488

7) Sapp 341

8) Kobashi 338

9) Ogawa 247

10) Orton 244

 

Technical

1) Benoit 2541

2) Danielson 1838

3) Angle 501

4) Kobashi 399

5) Guerrero 359

6) Doug Williams 314

7) Nagata 277

8) Hero 181

9) McGuiness 146

10) Nishimura 110

 

Brawler

1) Benoit 1444

2) Samoa Joe 1055

3) Takayama 626

4) Raven 522

5) Sasaki 362

6) JBL 326

7) Homicide 319

8) HHH 287

9) Abyss 196

10) Kawada 168

 

Flyer

1) Mysterio 1463

2) Styles 1319

3) Evans 1201

4) Marufuji 813

5) London 649

6) Marvin 538

7) Mistic 506

8) KENTA 290

9) Dutt 173

10) P. Williams 146

 

Overrated

1) HHH 1767

2) Jarrett 1546

3) JBL 1405

4) Taker 617

5) Cena 262

6) Orton 230

7) Heidenreich 226

8) Snitsky 217

9) Jindrak 111

10) Big Show 108

 

Underrated

1) London 1622

2) Jericho 721

3) RVD 330

4) Xian 300

5) M. Hardy 259

6) Guerrero 244

7) Mysterio 222

8) Doug Basham 215

9) Daniels 199

10) Akio 181

 

Promotion

1) NOAH 2369

2) ROH 2007

3) PRIDE 1905

4) WWE 592

5) UFC 389

6) CMLL 371

7) OVW 357

8) TNA 129

9) New Japan 73

10) IWA Mid South 70

 

Weekly TV Show

1) RAW 2024

2) NOAH 2013

3) OVW 1513

4) CMLL 1007

5) Impact 514

6) Smackdown 329

7) Velocity 211

8) NJPW 183

9) IWA PR 91

10) Heat~! 64

 

Shootfighter

1) Silva 2341

2) Fedor 1431

3) Penn 1212

4) Nogueira 808

5) Couture 689

6) Liddell 599

7) Crocop 252

8) Jackson 125

9) Gomi 73

10) Edwards 69

 

Worked Match

1) Kobashi vs. Akiyama 7/10, 2270 (1st place votes 362)

2) Mania 3-way, 1974 (1st place votes 218)

3) Joe vs. Punk 10/16, 1681 (1st place votes 163)

4) Kobashi vs. Takayama 4/25, 410

5) Orton vs. Foley Backlash, 352

6) Eddy vs. Brock NOW, 209

7) Joe vs. Punk 6/12, 140

8) Sasaki vs. Takayama 8/8, 124

9) HHH vs. HBK 12/30/03, 108

10) Backlash 3-way, 94

11) KENTA/Marufuji vs. Misawa/Ogawa 4/25, 89

12) Sasaki vs. Tanahashi 11/3, 70

 

Shootfight

1) Jackson vs. Silva 10/31, 3886

2) Liddell vs. White 8/21, 629

3) Liddell vs. Ortiz 4/2, 597

4) Crocop vs. Rnaldmen 4/24, 341

5) Nogueira vs. Kharitonov 8/15, 308

6) Fedor vs. Randleman 6/20, 287

7) Lawler vs. Diaz 4/2, 274

8) Sakuraba vs. Nogueira 12/31/03, 253

9) Belfort vs. Couture 8/21, 170

10) Nogueira vs. Yoko 4/25, 160

 

Rookie

1) Petey 2495

2) Nakajima 1857

3) Doane 457

4) Chad Toland 446

5) Aries 412

6) Shiozaki 372

7) Ishimori 286

8) Misterioso II 219

9) Takagi 65

10) Anzawa 60

 

Non-Wrestler

1) Heyman 1725

2) Bischoff 1098

3) Cornette 919

4) D’Amore 611

5) Long 598

6) Steamboat 442

7) Foley 305

8) Vince 279

9) Smokes 241

10) Bolin 152

 

BEST TV Announcer

1) Tenay 2219

2) Ross 2005

3) Tazz 1287

4) Rutten 803

5) Cornette 615

6) Nulty 307

7) Ranallo 215

8) Punk 200

9) Goldberg 123

10) Bauer 90

 

WORST TV Announcer

1) Grisham 2098

2) Coach 1393

3) Cole 955

4) Lalwer 890

5) West 378

6) Bauer 161

7) DeMott 154

8) Mathews 141

9) Lloyd 134

10) Snow 72

 

Best Show

1) NOAH 7/10 2337

2) Mania 20 2134

3) Backlash 619

4) PRIDE 6/20 521

5) UFC 47 433

6) NJ 8/8 251

7) NOAH 4/25, 233

8) Rumble 169

9) PRIDE 10/31 142

10) ROH 3/13, 136

 

Worst Show

1) Great American Bash 447

2) Taboo Tuesday 62

3) Judgment Day 34

4) NJ 5/3 32

5) NJ 10/9 20

6) Unforgiven 18

7) Hustle II 17

8) K-1 12/31/03 AND No Mercy 15

10)Armageddon 2003 10

 

Best Maneuver

1) Canadian Destroyer 430

2) Crippler Crossface 65

3) Burning Hammer 62

4) Anaconda vise 20

5) RKO 19

6) Jack Evans corkscrew 640, 18

7) Pepsi plunge 17

8) SSP 14

9) Dropsault 12

10) Pounce AND Death Sentence 10

 

Disgusting Promotional Tactic

1) Miscarriage 252

2) Diva Search 124

3) Hassan/Daiviar exploit 9/11 116

4) JBL goosestepping to title 55

5) Cena/Carlito play off Brody stabbing 34

6) HHH push all year 32

7) Killing Paul Bearer 28

8) TNA using Luger AND ROH lying about Feinstine being out of the company 10

10)VKM media promo in Iraq 9

 

Worst TV Show

1) Smackdown 359

2) Heat 97

3) NJPW 74

4) AAA 53

5) Experience 51

6) Impact 48

7) IWA Total Impact 37

8) RAW 26

9) Afterburn 16

10) Xplosion 9

 

Worst Match

1) Tomko vs. Stevie Unforgiven, 370

2) Fujita vs. Sasaki 10/9, 215

3) Suzuki vs. Gunn GAB, 36

4) Taker vs. Heidenreich Surv. Series, 23

5) Carmella vs. Christy Taboo Tuesday, 20

6) Taker vs. JBL SummerSlam AND Brock vs. Goldberg Mania, 18

8)Taker vs. Dudleys GAB, 16

9) Yoshi vs. Nortje 5/3, 15

10) Holly vs. Mordecai GAB AND Chavo Jr. vs. Jacqueline Judgment Day, 9

 

Worst Feud

1) Kane vs. Lita/Matt 114

2) Kane vs. Snitsky 102

3) Taker vs. JBL 88

4) Taker vs. Heidenreich/Heyman 85

5) HHH vs. Orton 49

6) HHH vs. Eugene 47

7) Jarrett vs. J. Hardy 44

8) Ogawa vs. Takada 32

9) Watts vs. Goldylocks 3e0

10) Dusty vs. Russo 23

 

Worst Promotion

1) New Japan 269

2) Hustle 182

3) TNA 173

4) WWE 107

5) CZW 6A

6) All Japan 55

7) World Japana 31

8) AAA 21

9) Zero-one 19

10) All Japan Women 15

 

Best Booker

1) Sapolsky 442

2) Cornette 234

3) Misawa 190

4) Silva 20

5) Vince 11

 

Promoter

1) Sakakibara 485

2) Misawa 271

3) Silkin/Sapolsky 115

4) Vince 74

5) Tanigawa 39

6) Pena 22

7) Alonso 19

8) Cornette 12

9) White 10

 

Best Gimmick

1) JBL 142

2) Carlito 122

3) Eugene 80

4) Cena 45

5) Punk 44

6) MNM 38

7) Trish Stratus heel 29

8) Chad Toland 22

9) Evolution 20

10) Generation Next 18

 

Worst Gimmick

1) Mordecai 106

2) SNitsky 100

3) Eugene 99

4) Simon Dean 62

5) Rico 37

6) Kings of Wrestling 34

7) Poet John Heidenreich 28

8) Empire Saint Pat Kenney 26

9) Hassan/Daivari 25

10) Suzuki 22"

[Guest LooneyTune]

Woah... that's a lot of Results. I agree with almost all of them (at least for the North American ones, since I don't watch Puro) except for for the horrible booking ideas... EVERYTHING should've won. The Abortion, Diva Search (how "Classy" that was), Feinstein, JBL Goosesteps, 9/11 Exploting... oy.

 

Glad to see some of the winners of bad awards.

[AnonymousBroccoli 0]

Eugene gets 3rd place for both Best and Worst Gimmick.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I wouldn't agree with a single one of those results. Jesus Christ Meltzer got stupid voters.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

I bet TNA is happy that most of the "worst" categories featured a choice or two from them in high rankings.

[Guest LooneyTune]

I wouldn't agree with a single one of those results.  Jesus Christ Meltzer got stupid voters.

Would that be...

 

Jesus Christ, Meltzer, or actually calling him Jesus Christ Meltzer?

 

Wait a minute... you're right! How the HELL is Josh Matthews ranked in the WORST? He's fucking awesome. And how did Jim Ross get #2? the guy is old and senile.

 

I knew I shouldn't have just skimmed the results.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

It's Jesus Christ Meltzer. It's a new Andrudo Lloyd Webber musical.

[Dark Age 0]

How the Hell did Angle even qualify this year?

 

And Guerrero > Benoit for 2004. By quite a distance.

[Guest LooneyTune]

I disgaree. Both had an equally successful year, but Benoit wins because...

 

A.) He had a larger variety of opponents to have good matches with.

B.) Carried Kane to a good match.

C.) Wasn't shunted to the Midcard for the rest of the year.

D.) All of the Above

 

The only thing Guerrero held over Benoit was probably merchandise sales.

[Dark Age 0]

Guerrero had better matches than Benoit (this coming from a HUGE Benoit fan, just so you know I'm not biased or anything).

 

I'd say Eddie carrying JBL cancels out Benoit carrying Kane, but then, JBL at least held his own in the matches with Eddie (as did Kane with Benoit, though)>

 

Benoit wasn't shunted to the midcard? Are you kidding me? Benoit was always in a main event environment due to the fact that Raw is the bigger show. When Eddie was feuding with Luther, Benoit was facing Batista. Benoit/Batista may SEEM a lot bigger and more important than Eddie/Luther, but that's because Batista is a lot more established than Luther. Eddie/Luther was SD's Benoit/Batista - they were both (Eddie and Benoit) in the same position, just that Raw's midcard seems "better" then SmackDown's.

 

Besides all this, what does being a midcarder have to do with who is the best wrestler? If Rey Mysterio has **** matches with all the cruiserweights every week, is he DQed due to the fact that he's a midcarder? I said Eddie > Benoit in regards to who was the better WRESTLER for the year, nothing else. Not "who is more important" or "who was treated better". Just who is the better wrestler.

 

Anyway, Eddie's body of work for 2004 is stronger than Benoit's. How many, LEGIT, ***+ matches did Benoit have in 2004? The Mania 3-Way, BB with Kane, his two matches with Orton. They are the only DEFINITE matches that I can think of. You could perhaps argue for either of his TV matches with Shawn, his Raw match with Kane, or the million tag matches he's been in, but none are really that memorable. How many of those matches hit ****? The WM 3-Way IF you're generous.

 

Eddie was part of AT LEAST the two best (WWE) matches of 2004 - Vs. Brock at NWO and Vs. Angle at SS. The Brock match was outstanding, the best WWE match, IMO, since Austin/Rock at WM17. I'd put it at about ****1/4 MAYBE even ****1/2. It was that good. The Angle match is really underrated as well, and probably about **** - both are better than any Benoit match this year. Other than that. Eddie had a lot of definite ***1/2ish matches - JD with JBL, his first SD match with Rey, GAB with JBL, 2/3 Falls with Kurt, WM with Kurt. All of those matches are about ***1/2, maybe even a little higher in some cases. Benoit's matches with Orton are probably worse than all of those, BB with Kane is MAYBE equal to a couple. The Mania three way is the only one that could beat any of those matches - and that's debatable. If you want to bring Benoit's tag matches into the picture, let me note that Eddie/Booker Vs. Rey/RVD is as good as any tag match on Raw this year.

 

Eddie's year fizzled out towards the end - he didn't have the quality to work with that Benoit did. It's a testament TO Eddie that, despite this, he was still the best WWE wrestler this year.

[Guest LooneyTune]

I'm on the opposite side of the fence for Eddie/Angle. That match just seemed like Rock/Austin III. Good, but nowhere near as great as it could've been. 4-5 minutes of actual wrestling, and Angle doing all of his big moves over and over while Eddie would get a glimmer of hope in between.

 

That match hurt Eddie in my opinion more than it helped. Angle didn't need to go over and was already a well established Main Eventer, while Eddie had just come off the losing end of his feud with JBL and should've gotten something to jump-start another attempt at regaining the World Title.

[Guest OSIcon]

I wouldn't agree with a single one of those results. Jesus Christ Meltzer got stupid voters.

 

Care to give some insight? While quite a few aren't what I would have voted for, I can see where the voters are coming from in almost every case. Some of the awards I agree completely with the result.

 

Kobashi and Eddie were the only two real candidates for Wrestler of the Year. Since this category includes drawing, guys like Benoit and Samoa Joe didn't have a well-rounded enough resume to compete (though deserved votes based on their other strong points). My vote probably would have gone to Eddie and he definitely should have finised ahead of Benoit, but I can't complain too much about Kobashi taking the award.

 

Along those same lines, Eddie probably was a better candidate for "Most Outstanding" than Benoit was. Eddie, Danielson, and Joe were stronger candidates than Kobashi and Benoit for this particular award. Realistically, you can't expect Danielson and Joe to be any higher than they were give their limited reach. Eddie being as low as he is, is a shame though.

 

Kobashi vs. Akiyama wasn't the best match of the year. Then again, neither was the Wrestlemania 3-way. Part of me is happy that Kobashi/Akiyama won just because I was so sure that the incredibly overrated 3-way would take it. Joe vs. Punk II would have got my vote. I am actually shocked it got as many votes as it did considering it wasn't avaliable on VHS until early November and wasn't out on DVD until a couple weeks after that.

 

It is amazing how much seeing Benoit win the title can cloud people's judgment. People were so excited to see him win that they declared a mediocre 3-way to be one of the best matches of the year. Then they voted the feud as the best of the year when the feud basically sucked. From the illogical contract angle, to the needless addition of Michaels to the match, ect. it really wasn't a great feud. People just enjoyed it because of Benoit's involvment.

 

I'm not sure you can consider Benoit the best technical wrestler anymore when his offense is primarily brawling and he is no longer as crisp as he once was (see: german suplexes). Danielson would have gotten my vote.

 

The promotion seems about right to me. NOAH had a really strong year and while ROH might have had a better year, a good Japanese promotion will always beat out a good US Indy (and in some ways, it should).

 

I am sure there is going to be tons of complaining about the "Best Booker" award since there is still a camp of people that believe all ROH does his throw out dream matches. Of course, that isn't true. There is a reason that a lot of match ups mean more in ROH than they do in say....IWA-MS or PWG. That's because of the stories behind them and the build up. There's a reason that ROH is doing much better than other indy promotions that use the same talent, so in my eyes the first place finish in the Booker category and the third place finish in the promotor category are completely deserving.

 

Best draw is tricky because MMA way outdraws wrestling in Japan, so Kobashi shouldn't have taken the award. However, I would venture to guess that a fair share of voters don't vote for fighters in most of these categories and another large group votes for MMA fighers, but don't follow it regularly. That's why Sapp ends up in second when he didn't have that many fights this year.

 

Can't really complain about Best Tag Team, Charasmatic, Brawler, Flyer, and several others.

[Dark Age 0]

I'm on the opposite side of the fence for Eddie/Angle. That match just seemed like Rock/Austin III. Good, but nowhere near as great as it could've been. 4-5 minutes of actual wrestling, and Angle doing all of his big moves over and over while Eddie would get a glimmer of hope in between.

 

That match hurt Eddie in my opinion more than it helped. Angle didn't need to go over and was already a well established Main Eventer, while Eddie had just come off the losing end of his feud with JBL and should've gotten something to jump-start another attempt at regaining the World Title.

I agree the match hurt Eddie. It WOULDN'T have if they would have booked the feud properly, but whatever. Still, regardless of how they handled the aftermatch of the match, it, to me, doesn't change how good the match was.

 

The match is a hot topic for debate. I've heard a lot who love it, and a lot who don't think highly of it at all. I pretty much flat out disliked it at the time, due to how short it was, the fed bump, Angle kicking out of the frogsplash, etc. Then I read a post on this forum by, I believe, either LOTC or RRR, which did a great job of analysing the match. It basically summed it up as proving that Kurt was the smarter wrestler; at WM, Eddie outsmarted Kurt, but at SS, Kurt proved to be the smarter wrestler. I rewatched the match and it all made sense; I loved it the second time.

[Guest Loss]

It astonishes me that GAB got worst big show of the year, when there were several PPVs (Unforgiven, No Mercy, Survivor Series) that didn't even have any great matches and this one at least had two very good ones. People have poorly overreacted to the event simply because JBL won the title.

[Dark Age 0]

Agreed, to an extent. Eddie/JBL and Rey/Chavo are two of the better WWE matches from this year. However, I disagree in regards to the other PPVs, mainly No Mercy. I felt London/Kidman was a very good match, third best WWE cruiser match of the year. It wasn't a good show though.

 

GAB gets a bad reputation due to the fact that everything OTHER than those two matches is absolutely horrible. Like "worst ever" stuff.

 

Oh, and Armageddon was EASILY worst of the year. As worse an undercard as GAB, and two best matches (WWE Title and WWE Tag Title) are not even close to the two GAB matches.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

No, I think they're reacting to the countless awful, awful matches on the show. JBL Rules.

[JoeDirt 0]

What would your picks have been, Rudo?

[Guest OSIcon]

The Great American Bash thing puzzles me, too.

 

I've hardly seen any WWE PPV's this year, but I had the DVD of this. Granted, I doubt I'll ever watch any of the matches other than Eddie/JBL and Rey/Chavo, but both of those are really good. I suscribe to the philosophy that a PPV with two really good matches and a bunch of crap, is just s good or better than a PPV with nothing standout but nothing really terrible.

[Guest Rrrsh]

I agree. A PPV's crap shoudl be judged on its best three matches and its Main Event. GAB at a kick ass ME and one good undercard match. That makes it OK. Now Judgement Day is another story...

[Guest LooneyTune]

GAB had 2 hours of shit and 35 minutes of goodness (and nothing great either). That qualifies as garbage.

[Dark Age 0]

Yes, but Armageddon was almost 3 hours of complete crap. The worst stuff was as bad as GAB's, and the "good" stufff isn't anywhere near as good as GAB's. GAB > Armageddon

 

And also, Eddie/JBL and Rey/Chavo are both WWE MOTYCs. I'd have them both in my top ten.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I wouldn't have made picks, period. I didn't see enough of Japanese or Indy wrestling this year to make a comment. I barely feel qualified to comment on MMA stuff (which was the worst of all the lists). Just because one can vote doesn't mean one should vote.

 

I love Benoit, but him as best technical and best brawler as well as most outstanding is ridiculous. Quite frankly, I don't know how there were votes for MMA guys in wrestling categories BUT technical and brawler. There is better of both in MMA than there is in the wrestling. How does Wanderlei Silva not get VOTED for best brawler? Or Chuck Liddell. How does Nick Diaz or Karo Parisyan not even get voted for for most technical? They had an outstanding technical fight that dwarfed anything Benoit did in 04. This is a case of the voters not knowing what the fuck they are voting for, and I'll put part of that blame on Dave for not defining it properly. Then again, this is a guy who has "They just feel like Hall of Famers" as his reasoning for choosing his HOF, so maybe he just can't explain it. Apparently, because Benoit uses a submission hold he's a technical wrestler.

 

How does WWE have so many guys in the "best of" categories - more than any other company - yet is so low when it comes to "best promotion"? There's no consistency in the voting, I don't think many of the voters actually thought in it.

 

Putting Benoit/Michaels/HHH feud as "the best" in 04 just blows my mind. Not a lick of it made sense and it accomplished N_O_T_H_I_N_G. Foley/Orton at least did something.

 

Joe Silva deserved much more love than he got, the man put together some amazing cards in 04 and even managed to put on a really good show in The War of 04 after so many drop-outs. How doesn't Vince win (or at the very least come in 2nd) Best Promoter? His company drew the most fans, the most cumulative buyers... in other words the most money... than any other company for 2004. That's the job of a promoter - to promote their shows so they can draw money. That's why there is a difference between booker and promoter. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb. Somehow, a company that draws 1000 fans once a mont, which is a whopping total of 12,000 fans a year, manages to outdraw a company that does that in a single show. Does this make sense to anyone?

 

UFC should have gotten better consideration for best promotion as well. They had a killer year last year. I enjoyed every single one of their shows, and they had IMO the best show of the year with UFC 49 and it didn't even get considered for best show. BJ Penn isn't the best shootfighter?? How does SILVA get almost double the votes? He beat 2 guys! One of whom he outweighed by about 20 pounds and another whom he already demolished. Meanwhile BJ stepped UP in weight, DESTROYED the most dominant champion since Noguiera, and then beat Dwayne Ludwig and Rodrigo Gracie. Yet SILVA gets it? Jesus Christ.

 

Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg are the best commentary team today, bar none. They smoke everyone. Tenay and West? No competition. The ROH guys? Dear God No. JR and the King? Don't make me laugh. Rogan has been overlooked for far too long. He does everything Tenay does in terms of getting over fighters and knowing the moves and doesn't sound like a complete douche when doing it. But Rogan doesn't get pimped by Meltzer so he doesn't even get considered. Baa. Baa.

[Guest LooneyTune]

Eddie/JBL was good (great on a JBL scale), but I wouldn't rate it much higher than ***. I haven't seen Judgment Day, but I hear the match from that show was much better. Rey/Chavo I just don't get into much, so that is probably bias.

 

Armageddon deifnitely should've been Worst PPV. Not 1 thing on the show I would want, which is weird because at least 1 match on every PPV other than that I've wanted to see.

[King Cucaracha 0]

Benoit over Joe for best brawler? I'll go through the lot later, but that's the one that seems most wrong to me

[cawthon777 0]

Putting Benoit/Michaels/HHH feud as "the best" in 04 just blows my mind. Not a lick of it made sense and it accomplished N_O_T_H_I_N_G. Foley/Orton at least did something.

I agree with you on that one but Benoit / HHH / HBK seems to be a popular pick. Didn't that win the top spot on a PWInsider poll for feud of the year?

[Guest BrokenWings]

Glad to see Joe getting some props for the excellent work he did this past year, though I believe he's far and away a better brawler than Benoit is, so I was quite surprised at that outcome. Benoit going out and having an "intense" match with Orton after SS doesn't nearly equal the brawls Joe has been in. And JBL over Homicide in the same catagory? That one just doesn't seem right.

 

Fedor would have probably been my MMA fighter of the year, though.

 

Really surprised that Orton beat out many other much better choices as Most Improved, most notably Batista and Joe (although I've never really considered Joe as "most improved". He's just elevated himself to a whole different level.)

 

How are we supposed to judge "flyers", because if it's high spots than Evans should be numero uno. However, if it's juniors who can put together a great match, Evans shouldn't even be on the list. Really, there needs to be more clarification, and that's what leads to some of the problems.

 

Jarrett over HHH in the "overrated" catagory, by a landslide. I don't know how people fucked that up.

 

I haven't had a chance to see Akiyama/Kobashi yet. MOTY? Personally, mine was Joe/Punk.

 

What's the critique for "Best Manuever"?! Williams' Destroyer is cool to watch, but come on. Anaconda Vise is where it's at!

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I think it should be remembered that the voting system is not perfect. It's an unrestrained plurarity, so theoretically an award can be won with 10-15% of the vote. Some of these winners are just quirks of the system.

[Tim Cooke 0]

Chavo/Rey Jr from GAB is a top 5 Rey Jr. match ever.

 

Tim

[Dark Age 0]

Where would you rate it in regards to Chavo? Best?

[King Cucaracha 0]

OK, I'll debate these.

 

WOTY: I'm no Puro expert but from the little I've seen of Kobashi for this year, I'm not stupid enough to argue. Can't argue too much.

 

Outstanding: Nope. Benoit has been far from 'outstanding'. He's put on good matches, never anything 'spectacular', certainly nothing to rank alongside his best ever. Eddie helped (or carried, whatever) JBL to great matches. I'd put him top.

 

Draw: Kobashi's probably right, yeah.

 

Feud: Joe/Punk for me, closely followed by Orton/Foley. Quite simply, they promoted workers, like good feuds should. For all the times I've groaned at the Benoit conspiracy theories, I wouldn't say the 3 way feud elevated him to his opponent's levels, the way the two I've listed did.

 

Tag: Says a lot that the top WWE team is 6th. I agree with KENTA/Marafuji. AMW have FAR too many votes though.

 

Improved: Agreed. Compared with his Raw debut, Orton is EONS better.

 

Interview: Nobody stood out for me this year, except Foley and JBL, who gets my vote.

 

Charismatic: Eddie, agreed.

 

Technical: I wouldn't call WWE Benoit or any WWE wrestler 'best technical', simply because technical wrestling isn't seen enough in the WWE. Be it T.V time or whatever. I'd put Danielson top. McGuiness should be higher too.

 

Brawler: Benoit over Joe for best brawler? Benoit has the chops, sure, but come on. Other than that, Benoit has a stiff clothesline and maybe his forearms, to the side of the head. But, in the words of CM Punk, "Joe will kick your face". Forearms, chops, punches...it's not like Joe's limited to one strike. Infact, that entire list is suspect. They should have had a 'Striker' or 'Strong Style' award instead of brawler, to avoid confusion between guys like Abyss and guys like B-Boy.

 

Flier: Evans is the best flier. Mysterio and Styles can fly, but don't fly as much...if that makes sense.

 

Overrated: Is HHH overrated? Does anyone RATE Jarrett, PERIOD? Again, bad category.

 

Underrated: See above. Y2J underrated? RVD underrated? No way.

 

Promotion: Eh. WWE sucks so obviously the votes go elsewhere.

 

TV Show: Obviously we don't get all of those over here so RAW wins for me.

 

Shootfighter: How should I know?

 

Worked Match: Haven't seen Kobashi/Akiyama. Joe/Punk wins by default for me.

 

Shootfight: See above.

 

Rookie: Petey, agreed.

 

Non Wrestler: Heyman hasn't done much but I'd still put him top.

 

Best Announcer: Well, Dave Prazak doesn't get on TV, but I don't like Tenay or JR. Tazz wins for me.

 

Worst Announcer: Grisham, by a mile.

 

Show: Haven't seen NOAH 7/10, so can't comment.

 

Worst: I wouldn't say the Bash, as Rey/Chavo and Eddie/JBL were both good.

 

Move: Canadian Destroyer works for me. Batista's spinebuster should be ranked.

 

Disgusting Promo Tactic: Death is worse than miscarraige on the scale for me.

 

Worst TV Show: Bottom Line should win, if that's the one Grisham hosts.

 

Worst Match: Stevie/Tomko wins by a mile. Taker/Heidenreich is too high. It wasn't that bad, just

went on for too long.

 

Worst Feud: I kinda liked Kane/Snistky for comedy value, but it's still the worst.

 

Worst Promotion: NJ seems right.

 

Booker: I'm not a big ROH fan but I guess Gabe should win this.

 

Promoter: *shrugs*

 

Best Gimmick: JBL, agreed.

 

Worst Gimmick: Mordecai was pretty bad.