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With the end of the year comes a time of reflection. It's also time to start making your ballots for the WON Awards, which we probably won't know till like April or whatever. 2018 has been a fascinating year in pro wrestling. The top awards feel pretty wide-open at this point, with very few obvious front-runners. With that said, I'll list some of the biggest contenders and then y'all can argue among yourselves over who's more deserving. To make things simpler, I'll make a copy-paste bracket and then post my picks afterwards (which are absolutely not finalized at this point). And I'm leaving out the MMA categories because MMA is completely off my radar these days. Dave recently changed the class awards (meaning that some are a top-three rank and some only get one vote) and I don't know which ones are still accurate, so gently caress it, just list the top three of whatever category you like. Lou Thesz/Ric Flair Award (Wrestler of the Year) 1. 2. 3. Most Outstanding Wrestler 1. 2. 3. Tag Team of the Year 1. 2. 3. Best on Interviews 1. 2. 3. Promotion of the Year 1. 2. 3. Best Weekly TV Show 1. 2. 3. Pro Wrestling Match of the Year 1. 2. 3. Best Box Office Draw 1. 2. 3. Feud of the Year 1. 2. 3. Most Improved 1. 2. 3. Most Charismatic 1. 2. 3. Bryan Danielson Award (Best Technical Wrestler) 1. 2. 3. Bruiser Brody Memorial Award (Best Brawler) 1. 2. 3. Best Flying Wrestler 1. 2. 3. Most Overrated 1. 2. 3. Most Underrated 1. 2. 3. Rookie of the Year 1. 2. 3. Best Non-Wrestler 1. 2. 3. Best Television Announcer 1. 2. 3. Worst Television Announcer 1. 2. 3. Best Major Wrestling Show 1. 2. 3. Worst Major Wrestling Show 1. 2. 3. Best Wrestling Maneuver 1. Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic 1. 2. 3. Worst Television Show 1. 2. 3. Worst Match of the Year 1. 2. 3. Worst Feud of the Year 1. 2. 3. Worst Promotion of the Year 1. 2. 3. Best Booker 1. Promoter of the Year 1. Best Gimmick 1. 2. 3. Worst Gimmick 1. 2. 3. Best Pro Wrestling Book 1. Best Pro Wrestling Documentary 1. Now time for my picks (which will definitely change in a week)! Lou Thesz/Ric Flair Award (Wrestler of the Year) 1. Kenny Omega 2. Kazuchika Okada 3. LA Park This feels like a close race at first, but on the latest VOW Flagship, Lanza made an extremely compelling case for Omega -- he's been involved in many of New Japan's biggest draws of the year, set promotion/building records wherever he went international (including ROH's biggest-ever gate), and oh yeah, is arguably the best wrestler in the world today. Love him or hate him, you'd have a hard time making an argument against Kenny this year. But don't sleep on Okada, who had a brilliant first half of the year before dropping the belt. People remember his second half as the goofy midlife crisis story, but he's done some seriously underappreciated work getting Jay White over as a top heel, so credit to that, as well. When you consider his overall value to the company, Okada should be right there among the top contenders. LA Park's career revival has been quite the ride, popping huge gates in CMLL, reigniting his feud with Rush, and even getting some US bookings. Unfortunately, the hair vs. mask match never happened, which is a big mark against his resume. Nobody in WWE is a serious contender this year, and as hard as I'll put over Becky Lynch later on, she did nothing in like the first eight months of the year. And don't even try me with Seth Rollins. Other contenders: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Chris Jericho, Ronda Rousey, Will Ospreay Most Outstanding Wrestler 1. Will Ospreay 2. Kota Ibushi 3. Kenny Omega Ospreay's 2018 has been absolutely phenomenal. He's worked like a dozen different promotions all over the world and tore the house down every time (most notably against WALTER in OTT). His run with the IWGP junior heavyweight belt was one amazing match after another,and he capped off the year with a potential move up to heavyweight. Ospreay really put it all together this year, and unless the injuries catch up (a very real possibility), he's on his way to being an all-time great. Ibushi's year wasn't quite as consistent as you want from a MOW contender, but he has one of the best G1 performances of all time under his belt, along with an awesome tag run with the reunited Golden Lovers. I have him ranked this high as purely a personal thing, since he's one of my favorites and the highs were so godly high. Other contenders: Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, WALTER, Johnny Gargano, Seth Rollins, Roderick Strong, Kyle O'Reilly, Pete Dunne, Ricochet, Hiromu Takahashi  Tag Team of the Year 1. The Golden Lovers 2. Undisputed Era 3. The Young Bucks Will this be the year that the Bucks' streak finally ends? I won't count them out, because they had another great year. But the Lovers were the hottest act in wrestling earlier this year, with five-star matches against the Bucks and Tanahashi/Ospreay bookending their year. You could ding their resume for not being a regular tag team, but they always delivered and made their matches count. TUE were straight-up the best wrestlers in the entire WWE ecosystem, and could win here, as well. Other contenders: EVIL/SANADA, Mustache Mountain, Lucha Bros Best on Interviews 1. Tetsuya Naito 2. Juice Robinson 3. Becky Lynch Naito staying as popular as he is after a ... (let's be nice and say "strange") year is a testament to his mic skills and charisma. Look at how many people turned around on a Jericho rematch after his promo videos aired. I have little doubt he'll be back on top in 2019. And let's give some loving love to Juice, who was cutting the best promos in the business during his feuds with Jay White and Cody. I really hope that doesn't get forgotten when it's voting time. Other contenders: Samoa Joe, Jay White, Tommaso Ciampa, Adam Cole Promotion of the Year 1. New Japan Pro Wrestling Best Weekly TV Show 1. WWE NXT Pro Wrestling Match of the Year 1. Kota Ibushi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, NJPW G1 Climax Final 2. Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada, NJPW Dominion 3. Hiromu Takahashi vs. Taiji Ishimori, NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Final God, this is loving hard to narrow down. I might eventually go with Tana/Ibushi as my top pick, because it's the match I keep revisiting the most. But Omega/Okada IV is something special, and will probably win. It's hard. I can't do this. Other contenders: Way too goddamn many to list, check the Best Match thread for refreshers Best Box Office Draw 1. LA Park 2. The Elite 3. Chris Jericho People are gonna be real mad when the Elite wins this. Feud of the Year 1. LAX vs. OGz 2. Undisputed Era vs. Mustache Mountain 3. Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White I have some bad news for you: Gargano/Ciampa is going to do much better in this award than you want to admit. As much as it devolved into silly melodrama, let's give credit to the first half of the feud, which was full of raw emotion and visceral hatred, and had a perfect climax at TakeOver New Orleans. If the feud ended there, it'd be the best of the decade, but alas. It's still gonna do well in voting. Most Improved 1. Jay White 2. Buddy Murphy 3. Charlotte Flair It's really impressive how much of a leap White made this year. The awkward edgelord we saw at Wk12 has been completely wiped out by the sadistic, scumbag bully we see now. And his year-long arc of biding his time, waiting for the perfect moment to stab Okada in the back and take over Bullet Club, was an impressive bit of long-term storytelling (which is why I have it up there in Feud of the Year). Most Charismatic 1. Becky Lynch 2. Tetsuya Naito 3. LA Park I give Becky the edge here because breaking out the way she did in WWE's current environment is legitimately impressive. That SummerSlam angle, which was a rote heel turn on paper, doesn't get the reaction it did without the innate charisma we always knew Becky had in her. And then she took the ball and ran with it, becoming one of the company's biggest stars. Bryan Danielson Award (Best Technical Wrestler) 1. Zack Sabre Jr. 2. Kyle O'Reilly 3. Daniel Bryan Yeah gently caress it, now that Bryan's back let's throw him back in the category named after him. Bruiser Brody Memorial Award (Best Brawler) 1. WALTER 2. LA Park 3. Becky Lynch Best Flying Wrestler 1. Fenix 2. Will Ospreay 3. Bandido We are long overdue to give Fenix his due. And Bandido will be winning this award for the next decade if he takes off in ROH. Most Overrated 1. Baron Corbin 2. Nia Jax 3. Carmella I haven't forgotten Carmella's garbage title reign that killed Asuka's momentum dead for months, and neither should you. Most Underrated 1. Andrade "Cien" Almas 2. Finn Balor 3. Gran Metalik Almas finally caught fire as the NXT champion, had a five-star match with Gargano, looked on his way to an incredible 2018 ... then he went to SmackDown and loving disappeared. I'm pretty sure his manager has had more televised matches than he has on the main roster. If you're shocked that WWE is under-utilizing a Mexican talent, you must be new to WWE. Rookie of the Year 1. Ronda Rousey Yeah no, Ronda's winning this in a landslide. Apologies to the Shota Umino fan club. Best Non-Wrestler 1. Konnan 2. Gedo 3. Paige Konnan gets the nod for his excellent work in both Impact and MLW. The rest of these, eh ... I can take or leave. Gedo ranks high for his great breakup angle with Okada. Zelina Vega fell off once the main roster decided she should also wrestle. Best Television Announcer 1. Kevin Kelly 2. Rocky Romero 3. Chris Charlton I'm lumping all three together because their G1 work was by far the best commentary of the year. Worst Television Announcer 1. Jonathan Coachman 2. Michael Cole 3. Percy Watson Best Major Wrestling Show 1. NXT TakeOver: New Orleans 2. NJPW Dominion 3. Impact Slammiversary Worst Major Wrestling Show 1. WWE Crown Jewel 2. WWE Backlash 3. WWE Extreme Rules Best Wrestling Maneuver 1. Hiromu Takahashi's The D (don't @ me) Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic 1. WWE doing business with Saudi Arabia 2. WWE exploiting Roman Reigns' cancer diagnosis for cheap heat 3. WWE pillaging the UK scene to kill off competition Holy poo poo, that doesn't even scratch the surface. You could find at least a half-dozen worthy NY64 candidates from just this year alone. Worst Television Show 1. WWE Raw 2. Lucha Underground 3. Impact Worst Match of the Year 1. D-X vs. Brothers of Destruction, WWE Crown Jewel 2. Carmella vs. Charlotte Flair, WWE Backlash 3. Roman Reigns vs. Jinder Mahal, WWE Money in the Bank Worst Feud of the Year 1. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley 2. Bobby Lashley vs. Sami Zayn 3. WWE vs. moral values I'm curious to see how many votes Gargano/Ciampa gets in both Best Feud and Worst Feud Worst Promotion of the Year 1. WWE 2. Lucha Underground 3. Impact Best Booker 1. Joey Janela Promoter of the Year 1. The Elite Best Gimmick 1. "The Man" Becky Lynch 2. The Golden Lovers 3. "Switchblade" Jay White Worst Gimmick 1. Constable Baron Corbin 2. The B-Team 3. "Facebreaker" Nia Jax Best Pro Wrestling Book 1. "Eggshells" by Chris Charlton Best Pro Wrestling Documentary 1. Abstain
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Dec 30, 2018 05:45
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Here are my picks for Best Gimmick and Most Improved. Micro Man is by far the most improved and the #2 is Dragon Bane who is my pick for Rookie of the Year. https://twitter.com/mongo_ebooks/status/1081977796359061504 https://twitter.com/mongo_ebooks/status/1079776949906608128
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Jan 6, 2019 19:44
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I was going to give my full list but then I lost it; so oh well. I have Utami Hayashishita as my clear Rookie of the Year: she started training in February, debuted in June, immediately got a massive push (runner up in 5 Star Grand Prix; Tag Champion); had a load of very good matches and was just incredibly impressive. She's still green and was definitely protected by their booking but what super rookie isn't? She beats out Ronda because of the fact that she had more matches with a larger range of opponents and I don't think that she ever really laid an egg which Ronda has done at least once this year. Actually I have a few Stardom people on my ballot: Most Improved is Momo Watanabe (who had to step up massively when Io Shirai left and very much did so) and I also have Hazuki as a contender for a lower level spot (she's always been a very good in ring worker but at the start of the year she had the charisma of a rock; her moving to Oedo Tai seems to have lit a fire in her though and she's been really very good. I have Kagetsu up there for Most Charismatic (Naito wins obviously but she's also got a lot of presence) and Jungle Kyona for most underrated as well. Stardom as a whole is up there for my Promotion of the Year: I've really dug the year that they've had and I think that they coped as well as they could with the loss of Io who was by far their biggest star - business fell a little but its not been as bad as many predicted. From a pure in ring its perhaps a level below other promotions but its just great fun and that's what I'm watching for. I was looking at Best Announcer and having a think and I'm pretty sure that I'll get to put Tony Schiavone on there which is... a little unusual. Just can't really think of anyone to bump him off that third spot.
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Jan 7, 2019 16:28
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