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MJeff
Jun 2, 2011

THE LIAR
Past Observer Award Threads:
2020
2021
2022

It's June, you fucker!!!!!! What I have now decided is the traditional time for us to put up the Observer Awards thread and start discussing our picks for the best of the best in wrestling this year. The more I think about it, the more I like June as the place to start discussing this. It's halfway through the year, AEW has done two of their major PPVs in Revolution and Double or Nothing, NJPW has done two of their major live events in Wrestle Kingdom and Dominion, the two promotions have come together to put together (what is likely going to be for some years to come) another highly acclaimed Forbidden Door show, WWE has done two of their major events in Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania (and will have done another in Money in the Bank within 48 hours of this post), Stardom has done its biggest show ever in the All Star Grand Queendom, everybody has done a lot and had a lot of opportunities to succeed or fail in the first half of the year. But there's still plenty, PLENTY to come, plenty of big shows like All In, All Out, Summerslam, big tournaments like the G1, the N1, the Five Star Grand Prix, so we can set our opinions now and then have the fun of tinkering with them and discussing them the next half of the year! We've had huge jumps from one company to another, we've had big returns, we've had long title reigns, we've had brand new championships, we've had new young stars being pushed at the very top of major companies, we've had stories that may or may not have been finished! Let's fuckin' do it! Let's talk some WRASSLIN'!

Rules:
1. Don't be an rear end in a top hat. Seriously. Good natured ribbing is one thing, we can all take a bit of friendly goofin', but if somebody genuinely feels someone is the best wrestler of the year or whatever or if somebody puts something you like as the worst thing of the year, you can disagree with them, but don't call them an idiot who doesn't know what they're talking about. We should all know how to behave ourselves on this one at this point. So behave yourself.

And that's it. That's the only rule. Just be nice.

Here's a C+P friendly version of the ballot! Don't feel obligated to fill out anything you don't want to. I'll personally be skipping every MMA Award because I don't watch MMA. Remember that category A awards are top-3 ranked voting and category B awards are single vote. If you're not sure what you're feeling for any particular award, post your thoughts about it! The point of this is to generate discussion!

Note: The "Best Box Office" and "Shad Gaspard/Jon Huber Memorial Award" categories are decided by Dave, not voted on by readers. I left them so we can share our opinions on them anyway for fun, but don't take them too seriously. We don't need to argue with each other too much on the "is a good person" award. :lol:

code:
[b][i]Category "A" Awards:[/i][/b] You vote three times for these. 
[b]Lou Thesz/Ric Flair "Wrestler of the Year" Award:[/b]
[b]Mixed Martial Arts Most Valuable: [/b]
[b]Most Outstanding Wrestler: [/b]
[b]Most Outstanding Fighter of the Year: [/b]
[b]Tag Team of the Year: [/b]
[b]Best on Interviews: [/b]
[b]Promotion of the Year: [/b]
[b]Best Weekly TV Show: [/b]
[b]Pro Wrestling Match of the Year: [/b]
[b]MMA Match of the Year: [/b]

[b][i]Category "B" Awards:[/i][/b] You vote once for these. 
[b]US/Canada MVP: [/b]
[b]Japan MVP: [/b]
[b]Mexico MVP:[/b]
[b]Europe MVP: [/b]
[b]Non-Heavyweight MVP: [/b]
[b]Women's Wrestling MVP: [/b]
[b]Women's MMA MVP: [/b]
[b]Best Box Office Draw: [/b] Note that this award is no longer voted on, it's just decided by Dave. 
[b]Feud of the Year: [/b]
[b]Most Improved: [/b]
[b]Most Charismatic:[/b]
[b]Bryan Danielson "Best Technical Wrestler" Award:[/b]
[b]Bruiser Brody Memorial "Best Brawler" Award:[/b]
[b]Best Flying Wrestler:[/b]
[b]Most Overrated:[/b]
[b]Most Underrated:[/b]
[b]Rookie of the Year: [/b]
[b]Best Non-Wrestler:[/b]
[b]Best Television Announcer:[/b]
[b]Worst Television Announcer:[/b]
[b]Best Major Wrestling Show:[/b] 
[b]Worst Major Wrestling Show:[/b]
[b]Best Wrestling Maneuver:[/b]
[b]Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic:[/b]
[b]Worst Television Show:[/b]
[b]Worst Match of the Year: [/b]
[b]Worst Feud of the Year:[/b]
[b]Worst Promotion of the Year:[/b]
[b]Best Booker:[/b]
[b]Promoter of the Year:[/b]
[b]Best Gimmick:[/b]
[b]Worst Gimmick: [/b]
[b]Shad Gaspard/Jon Huber Memorial Award:[/b] This award is for people in wrestling who make contributions outside the ring for the betterment of society. There is no limit to the amount of people you can name. Also note that Dave decides this award himself, it's not actually voted on. 
[b]Best Pro Wrestling Book:[/b] 
[b]Best Pro Wrestling DVD/Streaming Documentary:[/b]

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Rarity
Oct 21, 2010

~*4 LIFE*~
Gonna be real hard arguing against Ospreay winning Most Outstanding this year

forkboy84
Jun 13, 2012

Corgis love bread. And Puro


Category "A" Awards: You vote three times for these.
Lou Thesz/Ric Flair "Wrestler of the Year" Award: 1. Kento Miyahara 2. Kazuchika Okada 3. Keiji Mutoh?
Most Outstanding Wrestler: 1. Kento Miyahara 2. Yuma Aoyagi 3. Kenoh
Tag Team of the Year: 1. Naoya Nomura & Yuma Aoyagi 2. M3K (Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda) 3. Miyaken to Takuya (Kento Miyahara & Takuya Nomura)
Best on Interviews: 1. Kenoh 2. Zack Sabre Jr 3. Bryan Danielson
Promotion of the Year: 1. All Japan Pro Wrestling 2. New Japan Pro Wrestling 3. Stardom
Pro Wrestling Match of the Year: 1. 22/1 AJPW Miyaken to Takuya vs Aoyagi & Nomura 2. 4/1 NJPW Kenny Omega vs Will Ospreay 3. 11/2 NJPW Kazuchika Okada vs Shingo Takagi

Category "B" Awards: You vote once for these.
Japan MVP: Kento Miyahara
Non-Heavyweight MVP: Atsuki Aoyagi
Women's Wrestling MVP: Chihiro Hashimoto
Feud of the Year: Black Generation International vs BULK Orchestra
Most Improved: Ryo Inoue
Most Charismatic: Kento Miyahara
Bryan Danielson "Best Technical Wrestler" Award: Zack Sabre Jr
Bruiser Brody Memorial "Best Brawler" Award: Suzu Suzuki
Best Flying Wrestler: Rising HAYATO
Most Overrated: MJF
Most Underrated: Kento Miyahara
Rookie of the Year: Yuma Anzai
Best Television Announcer: Milano Collection AT
Best Major Wrestling Show: Stardom Allstar Grand Queendom
Best Wrestling Maneuver: Kenoh's PFS
Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic: Vince McMahon's return to WWE
Worst Match of the Year: 3/1 AJPW Masao Inoue & Takao Omori vs Kendo Kashin & NOSAWA Rongai
Worst Gimmick: House of Torture

Some thoughts. Flair Thesz, Kento is the guy, he's the entire reason All Japan still does enough business to keep going,. #3 is hard, there's no real obvious standout. Japan isn't exactly at a high point right now (business wise. The wrestling is pretty great), I want to pick someone from Stardom but there's no real "ace". Giulia maybe is the closest, Hayashishita has been down-cycled since her long-title reign, Syuri rules but I'm not sure how much of a draw she in particular was. Same with Tam. So just went with Mutoh for his retirement tour drawing some big houses. Trying to keep choices to companies I watch.
Outstanding wrestler, I just go for the top 3 points scorers on my spreadsheet, despite the points I attributed being totally arbitrary. Anyway, if you read the MOTYC thread you'll know how I feel about Kento. He's one of 6 wrestlers to have a ***** match, & a total of 14 MOTYC nominations from me, Yuma Aoyagi is another & at 11 MOTYCs has the 2nd most nominations. Kenoh has 5 matches I rated ****¾. They all rule.
Tag Team, how loving weird is it to be nominating Yasushi Kanda? In 2023? Very weird. But between the Rey de Parejas Final & the absolutely jawdropping match with Kongo, as well as the match against Masaaki Mochizuki & Mochizuki Jr it's deserved & then some. The 2 All Japan teams had one of my ***** matches, but sadly we've not gotten much of Takuya Nomura in AJPW since so I can't put them #1. Shame Aussie Open left Japan, they'd probably have been on-pace for consideration by year end.
I voted Danielson #3 on the back of one promo at Dominion building up the Forbidden Door match with Okada. Partly because promos aren't that important to me because I'm mostly watching guys who don't promo in English, partly because it was real good. Kenoh is all attitude & is so compelling even when I can't understand a word he says.
Promotion of the year is easy, Stardom are well worth #3 but All Japan, despite a flat Champion Carnival, easy pick for #1.
MOTY, well, 1 & 2 are both ***** matches, 3 is harder, I might need to rewatch the Okada Takagi match & the Dragongate Shun Skywalker vs Madoka Kikuta match from 5/5 before locking that in.
Top Woman's Wrestler was tough between Suzu Suzuki & Chihiro Hashimoto, but seeing as I've seen half as many Big Hash matches as Suzu matches means I gotta give her the nod, that hit-rate is bonkers good. If you've not seen her match with Syuri or the Marvelous match with Mio Momono then yeah, do yourself a favour & do so. Oh, & her match with Sareee at Sareee's comeback show? Also great.
Rookie of the Year is hard, but hey, Yuma Anzai only debuted in September.
If there were multiple options for TV Announcer I'd give #2 to Dragongate's Jae Church.
Vince McMahon coming back in order to sell the company to someone who'll leave him in charge, is that a promotional tactic? It's sure disgusting, should probably be in prison but instead he's raking in the cash.
WMOTY is sure a perfect meditation on how All Japan might be tremendous but it sure has it's lows. At least NOSAWA has retired.

I keep saying to myself "I'll watch the big US matches", right now I've seen 1 MLW match, a handful of AEW from the start of the year & that's it. Bryan Danielson is wrestling in a company & I'm not watching it & I need to rectify that at some point but it's just...there's always more to watch. And only so many hours in the day. And honestly, I'm getting to see plenty of loving rad wrestling as it is.

Rarity posted:

Gonna be real hard arguing against Ospreay winning Most Outstanding this year

Not that hard! Having only seen his New Japan work, he's got a *****, ****½ & a ****¼ & that's it. Omega, Taichi, Davis. Hell, I've only seen 5 matches of his this year thanks to his injury during the NJ Cup. Just doesn't have the volume, should hopefully change with the G1

forkboy84 fucked around with this message at 17:02 on Jun 29, 2023

MJeff
Jun 2, 2011

THE LIAR
Bryan's had a lot of great work this year so it's hard to fit in at all but at the very least make sure you watch the Danielson/MJF Iron Man Match, forkboy.

SatoshiMiwa
May 6, 2007


For me Wrestler of the year right now is Okada/MJF/Bryan but I think voters will probably go with....Roman this year

Rarity
Oct 21, 2010

~*4 LIFE*~
Ok I'm home now I can properly think about this

Category "A" Awards: You vote three times for these.
Lou Thesz/Ric Flair "Wrestler of the Year" Award: 1. Kazuchika Okada, 2. Kenny Omega, 3. Orange Cassidy
Most Outstanding Wrestler: 1. Will Ospreay, 2. Kenny Omega, 3. Orange Cassidy
Tag Team of the Year: 1. Aussie Open, 2. Catch 2/2, 3. FTR I guess, geez this was hard this year
Best on Interviews: 1. Eddie Kingston, 2. Zack Sabre Jr., 3. Jay White
Promotion of the Year: 1. NJPW, 2. AEW, 3. ROH
Best Weekly TV Show: 1. AEW Dynamite, 2. AEW Collision, 3. AEW Rampage
Pro Wrestling Match of the Year: 1. Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay, AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, 2. Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay, NJPW Wrestle Kingdom, 3. Hangman Page vs. Jon Moxley, AEW Revolution

Category "B" Awards: You vote once for these.
US/Canada MVP: Kenny Omega
Japan MVP: Kazuchika Okada
Mexico MVP: El Hijo del Vikingo
Europe MVP: Will Ospreay
Non-Heavyweight MVP: Darby Allin
Women's Wrestling MVP: Athena
Best Box Office Draw: The Bloodline
Feud of the Year: 1. Kenny Omega/Will Ospreay, 2. Kazuchika Okada/Youngsters, 3. Eddie Kingston/Everyone
Most Improved: Yota Tsuji
Most Charismatic: Eddie Kingston
Bryan Danielson "Best Technical Wrestler" Award: Zack Sabre Jr.
Bruiser Brody Memorial "Best Brawler" Award: Jon Moxley
Best Flying Wrestler: El Hijo del Vikingo
Most Overrated: Roman Reigns
Most Underrated: Sammy Guevara
Rookie of the Year: I'm guessing Kosei Fujita isn't eligible but if he is, him
Best Non-Wrestler: Don Callis
Best Television Announcer: Chris Charlton
Worst Television Announcer: Corey Graves
Best Major Wrestling Show: AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door
Worst Major Wrestling Show: WWE Elimination Chamber
Best Wrestling Maneuver: Satoshi Kojima's Elbow Drop to the Balls
Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic: Vince coming back to WWE
Worst Television Show: WWE NXT
Worst Match of the Year: Bray Wyatt vs. LA Knight
Worst Feud of the Year: Keith Lee/Swerve Strickland
Worst Promotion of the Year: WWE
Best Booker: Gedo
Promoter of the Year: Bushiroad
Best Gimmick: Eddie Kingston, Man In His Feelings
Worst Gimmick: Bray Wyatt

Rarity fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Jun 29, 2023

CopywrightMMXI
Jun 1, 2011

One time a guy stole some downhill skis out of my jeep and I was so mad I punched a mailbox. I'm against crime, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.
code:
Category "A" Awards: You vote three times for these.
Lou Thesz/Ric Flair "Wrestler of the Year" Award: Bryan Danielson, Orange Cassidy, Kenny Omega

Most Outstanding Wrestler: Bryan Danielson, Will Ospreay, Orange Cassidy

Tag Team of the Year: FTR, Usos, Gunn Club

Best on Interviews: Don Callis, Danielson, Mark Briscoe

Promotion of the Year: WWE, AEW, NJPW

Best Weekly TV Show: Dynamite

Pro Wrestling Match of the Year: omega Vs Ospreay at forbidden door, Omega/Vikingo on Dynamite, Danielson/takeshita on dynamite



Category "B" Awards: You vote once for these.
US/Canada MVP: Danielson

Non-Heavyweight MVP: orange Cassidy

Women's Wrestling MVP: Hayter

Best Box Office Draw: Note that this award is no longer voted on, it's just decided by Dave. It’s like Roman

Feud of the Year: Danielson/MJF

Most Improved: Daniel Garcia

Most Charismatic: Cody

Bryan Danielson "Best Technical Wrestler" Award: Danielson

Bruiser Brody Memorial "Best Brawler" Award: Moxley

Best Flying Wrestler: Vikingo

Most Overrated: Jericho

Most Underrated: Hangman

Best Non-Wrestler: Don Callis

Best Television Announcer: Excalibur

Worst Television Announcer: JR

Best Major Wrestling Show: Forbidden Door

Best Wrestling Maneuver: Orange Punch

Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic: Vince returning

Worst Feud of the Year: Swerve/Keith Lee

Worst Promotion of the Year: NWA

Best Booker:Tony khan

Promoter of the Year: vince/HHH

Best Gimmick: Orange Cassidy - defending champ

Worst Gimmick: wardlow - loser monster

SG Bamboo
Aug 21, 2013

Smile. Win. Yay!

Category "A" Awards: You vote three times for these.
Lou Thesz/Ric Flair "Wrestler of the Year" Award:
1. Kazuchika Okada 2. Kento Miyahara 3. Kazusada Higuchi
Most Outstanding Wrestler:
1. Kento Miyahara 2. Yuma Aoyagi 3. Kazuchika Okada
Tag Team of the Year:
1. Bishamon (YH and Goto) 2. Zennichi Shin Jidai (Kento and Yuma) 3. 37KAMIINA (Shunma and MAO)
Best on Interviews:
1. Zack Sabre Jr. End of list
Promotion of the Year:
1. NJPW 2. AJPW 3. TJPW
Pro Wrestling Match of the Year:
1. Kazusada Higuchi vs Yuji Hino (DDT Jan 29th) 2. Kenoh and Manabu Soya vs Kento Miyahara and Yuma Aoyagi (AJPW June 15th) 3. Yuka Sakazaki vs Mizuki (TJPW March 18th)

Category "B" Awards: You vote once for these.
Japan MVP: Kazuchika Okada
Europe MVP: Zack Sabre Jr
Non-Heavyweight MVP: Robbie Eagles
Women's Wrestling MVP: Hyper Misao
Feud of the Year: Kenoh vs the World
Most Improved: YOH
Most Charismatic: Zack Sabre Jr
Bryan Danielson "Best Technical Wrestler" Award: Zack Sabre Jr
Bruiser Brody Memorial "Best Brawler" Award: Shingo Takagi
Best Flying Wrestler: Kyle Fletcher
Most Underrated: DOUKI
Rookie of the Year: Yuma Anzai
Best Major Wrestling Show: NJPW January 4th
Best Wrestling Maneuver: Yuji Hino - King Kong Sleeper
Best Booker: Gedo
Best Gimmick: Kazuchika Okada, man who is sick of all these loving kids in his ring
Worst Gimmick: Pheromones

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El Generico
Feb 3, 2009

Nobody outrules the Marquise de Cat!

SatoshiMiwa posted:

For me Wrestler of the year right now is Okada/MJF/Bryan but I think voters will probably go with....Roman this year

Best Box Office for sure, right? But there's no award for "Best Wrestler At Doing Their Own Creative"

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