Looking back at the PWI Awards: Part 1

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Here are the past winners and runners-up for PWI's Wrestler of the Year Award, with some comments. I'm only going back to 1985. Some strange selections to say the least.

 

2004: Chris Benoit

1. Randy Orton

2. Eddie Guerrero

3. A.J. Styles

 

Didn't watch much wrestling from here back to '01, so I'll reserve my comments.

 

2003: Kurt Angle

1. Brock Lesnar

2. Triple H

3. A.J. Styles

 

2002: Brock Lesnar

1. Rob Van Dam

2. Triple H

3. The Undertaker

 

2001: Steve Austin

1. Kurt Angle

2. The Rock

3. Rob Van Dam

 

2000: The Rock

1. Triple H

2. Booker T

3. Kurt Angle

 

Should have been Trips, probably one of the better groups of award winners, though.

 

1999: Steve Austin

1. The Rock

2. Sting

3. Taz

 

Not too bad of a group, Foley should have been included instead of Sting or Taz.

 

1998: Steve Austin

1. Bill Goldberg

2. Diamond Dallas Page

3. The Rock

 

No problem with Austin, Goldberg, or Rock, but DDP? Come on.

 

1997: Lex Luger

1. Steve Austin

2. The Undertaker

3. Diamond Dallas Page

 

Yeah fucking right. Austin should have won and Bret should have been on here.

 

1996: The Giant

1. Shawn Michaels

2. Ric Flair

3. Ahmed Johnson

 

Um, what the fuck. Probably one of the worst fields. Shawn definitely should have won this year.

 

1995: Diesel

1. Shawn Michaels

2. Sting

3. Hulk Hogan

 

I'm not really bothered by this, except for the presence of Hogan.

 

1994: Hulk Hogan

1. Bret Hart

2. Razor Ramon

3. Ric Flair

 

I can hear the "bullshit" chants from 1994 on this one. Bret did way more, for 6 more months than Hogan at that.

 

1993: Big Van Vader

1. Bret Hart

2. Shawn Michaels

3. Yokozuna

 

Not too bad at all. Replace Yoko with Sting and we have a great field.

 

1992: Ric Flair

1. Ron Simmons

2. Rick Rude

3. Bret Hart

 

I'm liking this, but what in the hell is Ron Simmons doing there? Replace him with Savage and this would be a good year.

 

1991: Hulk Hogan

1. Lex Luger

2. Bret Hart

3. Sting

 

This is where it gets hard to judge these things, as we slowly progress back in time before the internet. I guess Hogan deserves this. Flair was inactive during the middle part of the year so I can understand his absence.

 

1990: Sting

1. Ultimate Warrior

2. Hulk Hogan

3. Lex Luger

 

Get rid of Luger and put Flair in at 2nd runner-up, drop Hogan to 4th. Hennig would be a sleeper choice to throw on here.

 

1989: Ric Flair

1. Hulk Hogan

2. Lex Luger

3. Rick Steamboat

 

I like this okay, although I think Luger must have paid off PWI for as many times as he's made it on here. Still, Luger was less of a slug at this point than he was later, so I'm okay with this, just drop him and Hogan and move Steamer to 1st runner-up.

 

1988: Randy Savage

1. Jerry Lawler

2. Lex Luger

3. Ric Flair

 

What is Lawler doing on here? I don't recall much of Lawler's stuff being televised outside of Memphis, so how he would make 1st runner-up on such a national poll is beyond me.

 

1987: Hulk Hogan

1. Ric Flair

2. Randy Savage

3. Steve Williams

 

Not too bad.

 

1986: Ric Flair

1. Hulk Hogan

2. Randy Savage

3. Nikita Koloff

 

No major problems with this.

 

1985: Ric Flair

1. Hulk Hogan

2. Rick Martel

3. Sgt. Slaughter

 

Bet Martel being on here is a surprise to some people, same for Slaughter. This was a bit before my time so I'll reserve judgment.

 

Thanks for reading.

[Guest cacheton]

Not too hate but your wrong about some of those choices. In 92 Simmons had a way bigger impact than Savage. Sure Savage won the title a couple of times from Flair but by the end of 92 he was an announcer. Simmons had that big "first black champion" reign. It wasn't Simmons fault he got screwed over with Rude being injured and Vader being tied up with Sting. Savage was no doubt the better wrestler but Simmons had the best moment of the year beating Vader in that memerable match after Sting got injured by Jake Roberts.

 

In 93, Yoko pretty much carried the WWF title the entire year. Sting was stuck in pointless gimmick matches with Vader for most of the year and by the end of the year he was pushed down in the card working against the Nasty Boys.

 

96. You must be thinking about the modern Big Show because in 96, The Giant was an awesome rookie who was able to do kip ups and dropkicks. HBK had a good year but The Giant seemed like he was going to be the next big star in wrestling.

 

Everything else, I pretty much agree with you about.

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1988: Randy Savage

1. Jerry Lawler

2. Lex Luger

3. Ric Flair

 

What is Lawler doing on here? I don't recall much of Lawler's stuff being televised outside of Memphis, so how he would make 1st runner-up on such a national poll is beyond me.

 

Unless my memory is off by a year, wasn't Lawler the unified champion in '88, and thus was in the USWA, Continental and the AWA, and thus was on ESPN weekly? He had that huge bloodbath versus Kerry Von Erich at a PPV, and was hugely over as a heel. Makes sense that someone that was part of a potentially revolutionary occurrence (organizations working together to create a larger federation) would be rated so highly.

 

Of course, politics fucked it all up and left us with Larry Zbyszko, world champ. Thanks, Verne!