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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. code:
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# ? Jun 29, 2023 15:43 |
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# ? May 21, 2024 18:34 |
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Gonna be real hard arguing against Ospreay winning Most Outstanding this year
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# ? Jun 29, 2023 16:01 |
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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 |
# ? Jun 29, 2023 16:47 |
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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.
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# ? Jun 29, 2023 16:56 |
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For me Wrestler of the year right now is Okada/MJF/Bryan but I think voters will probably go with....Roman this year
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# ? Jun 29, 2023 17:10 |
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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 |
# ? Jun 29, 2023 17:25 |
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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
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# ? Jun 29, 2023 17:30 |
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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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# ? Jun 30, 2023 08:43 |
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# ? May 21, 2024 18:34 |
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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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# ? Jun 30, 2023 09:21 |