Tag: awards

March 1, 2021 Observer Newsletter: 2020 Awards Issue, Elimination Chamber

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

The Miz cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase on Drew McIntyre, who had both taken a pounding in winning the Elimination Chamber and taken a second beating from Bobby Lashley to win the WWE title.

Miz’s second WWE title win, meaning he has held every major WWE men’s title at least twice, ended the 2/21 Elimination Chamber PPV and seems to shake up the scene.

Miz feels like a transitional champion, and they are doing everything possible to make you believe he’s going to lose the title on the 3/1 Raw to Lashley. Lashley has been booked like a monster, and one would come out of the PPV feeling that the title match for WrestleMania would be Lashley vs. McIntyre, particularly since Miz is still earmarked for the Miz & Morrison vs. Big Bunny & Damien Priest angle. There are many different ways to go, and a 3/21 PPV show, just three weeks before WrestleMania to shake things up.

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January 19, 2004 Observer Newsletter: 2003 year-end awards

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD

(WRESTLER OF THE YEAR)

1. KENTA KOBASHI (531) 3,388

2. Kurt Angle (196) 1,770

3. Randy Couture (92) 949

4. Brock Lesnar (69) 908

5. Wanderlei Silva (33) 501

6. Yuji Nagata (3) 360

7. Yoshihiro Takayama (14) 301

8. Eddy Guerrero (10) 205

9. Bob Sapp (13) 190

10. Mirko Cro Cop (21) 188

Honorable Mention: Chris Benoit 148, Chris Jericho 143, Jun Akiyama 133, Shawn Michaels 107, Hiroyoshi Tenzan 75, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 71

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 – Harley Race; 1981 – Harley Race ; 1982 – Ric Flair; 1983 – Ric Flair; 1984 – Ric Flair; 1985 – Ric Flair; 1986 – Ric Flair; 1987 – Riki Choshu; 1988 – Akira Maeda; 1989 – Ric Flair; 1990 – Ric Flair; 1991 – Jumbo Tsuruta; 1992 – Ric Flair; 1993 – Vader; 1994 – Toshiaki Kawada; 1995 – Mitsuharu Misawa; 1996 – Kenta Kobashi; 1997 – Mitsuharu Misawa; 1998 – Steve Austin; 1999 – Mitsuharu Misawa; 2000 – HHH; 2001 – Keiji Muto; 2002 – Kurt Angle

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March 13, 2020 Observer Newsletter: 40th Annual Awards Issue

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

The following are the results of the 40th annual Wrestling Observer Newsletter readership awards, along with a listing of the previous winners in the various categories. On a worldwide basis, these are the most covered mainstream international pro wrestling awards. The awards are based on the time frame from January 1, 2019 through December 31, 2019. Readers are encouraged to send in their comments on the results.

“CATEGORY A” AWARDS – WINNERS

DETERMINED BY POINTS ON A 5-3-2 BASIS.

FIRST PLACE VOTES IN PARENTHESIS

LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD

(WRESTLER OF THE YEAR)

1. CHRIS JERICHO (522) 3,695

2. Kazuchika Okada (349) 3,133

3. Will Ospreay (158) 1,773

4. Cody (72) 865

5. Adam Cole (26) ` ` 459

6. Kento Miyahara (51) 422

7. Kota Ibushi (14) 234

8. Jon Moxley (11) 217

9. Hiroshi Tanahashi (2) 158

10. Kenny Omega (1) 109

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January 20, 2003 Observer Newsletter: Death of Naoto Morishita, year-end awards

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

What is officially being labeled a suicide, the death of Dream Stage Entertainment (Pride) president Naoto Morishita is just the latest in a string of events that is changing the face of the industry at record speed.

Morishita’s death at the age of 42 comes just two weeks after K-1 President Kazuyoshi Ishii was forced to resign his post after being indicted on tax evasion charges. This leaves the future cloudy of the two companies that, from an appearance and business standpoint, appeared to go into 2003 as the strongest entities in this rapidly changing industry. The circumstances and speculation surrounding Morishita’s death combined with Ishii’s arrest have left this aspect of the industry in Japan, which was at an all-time popularity peak this past month, reeling with an image problem and there is fear that a lot of sponsors will pull out. The traditional pro wrestling industry in Japan went through a similar problem in 1964 after the gangland style slaying of Rikidozan.

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January 13, 2003 Observer Newsletter: Wrestler of the Year contenders, more

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

With the balloting now completed and the awards issue a week away, it’s time to take a list look at the Wrestler of the Year Award, renamed this year the Lou Thesz/Ric Flair award.

It’s a wide open field this year because, unlike most years, which have multiple strong candidates, this year has multiple candidates that come close, but nobody that would have won the award in any previous year.

Two years ago, when it was a four-man field (all of whom would have been good winners), we went back in a number of categories and tried to make comparisons. This year, the top candidates are Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddy Guerrero, HHH, Brock Lesnar, Keiji Muto, Yuji Nagata, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Tito Ortiz, Rock, Bob Sapp, Yoshihiro Takayama, Genichiro Tenryu and Manami Toyota.  For purposes of comparisons, I’m going to first eliminate Benoit (no PPV main events, nor a strong draw, didn’t wrestle the entire year, and the only thing he has going for him is workrate and there are other candidates stronger), Guerrero (for the same reasons as Benoit, plus he was even lower on the totem poll then Benoit in WWE), HHH (a big star who was pushed, but probably overall did more harm than good), Ortiz (one match, no matter how well it did at the box office, does not win Wrestler of the Year, and there are a half dozen stronger shoot candidates this year) and Toyota (a great worker and Hall of Famer, but women’s wrestling just isn’t popular enough and she isn’t a big enough star, and that’s a major part of this award). 

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November 18, 2002 Observer Newsletter: Year end awards preview, Survivor Series build

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

We’ll be doing our awards balloting in just a few weeks, and this is going to be a very interesting year because there doesn’t appear to be a lot of locks for the major categories. One thing is clear when it comes to Wrestler of the Year. Whomever wins will be unique in that they will win with different qualifications than any winners of the past.

We are also going to make a symbolic name change in the award, as the Wrestler of the Year award will be named the Lou Thesz/Ric Flair award. This kind of exemplifies what the award is about, which is a great wrestler inside the ring combined with being a dominant star of the year (and in their cases, of the era). The only previous time we’ve done something like this was in 1988, when, and this was due to tremendous response after the death of Bruiser Brody to do so, was naming the Best Brawler award after the guy who had dominated that category in the voting for so many years.

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January 14, 2002 Observer Newsletter: 2001 Readership Awards results, more

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

In the most hyped WWF return in recent memory, a much larger version of HHH returned working house shows starting on 1/4 in Binghamton, NY and made his first appearance on Raw on 1/7 from Madison Square Garden.

After being out of action since a 5/21 quadriceps tear, and one of the great promotional video pieces ever in wrestling to build up his return, crowds blew the roof off every building he appeared ni. It may ended up being the injury, like what happened with Shawn Michaels in 1996 after beating beaten up outside a bar and WWF playing it off as a career ending injury and then in his comeback, the injury made a great worker into someone who really becomes a significant arena draw. The silver lining in coming back from a very serious injury is that from a marketing standpoint, time off is the greatest thing for most characters who are overexposed on television.

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June 18, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Potential Awards winners halfway through 2001

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

We’re roughly halfway through certainly one of the most unique years in the history of pro wrestling. We’ve had arguably the biggest news story of the past 15 years, the combination of the cancellation of pro wrestling on the Turner networks and the purchase of the name WCW by WWFE. In reality, we’ve had the folding of WCW and ECW and other companies, most notably RINGS, seemingly teetering on the edge. After seemingly having the midas touch for the past few years when it comes to promotion, Vince McMahon had his biggest and most publicized flop of his career with the XFL, and followed that with the quickest ratings decline of a show in a constant time slot in the history of the industry. We’ve heard a million rumors about start-ups in the U.S., none of which have gotten off the ground. Even the re-launched WCW brand is hardly viewed with the excitement it was even a few weeks ago.

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February 14, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Vince McMahon announces the XFL, 1999 awards, more

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Vince McMahon made sports and business headlines on 2/3 with the announcement of him starting his own professional football league called the XFL.

McMahon, who failed in negotiations last year to buy the Canadian Football League, looks to be that league’s No. 1 rival for players not quite good enough for the NFL in his eight-team league scheduled to start in February 2001 with each team playing ten games and ending with championship playoffs in April.

The announcement sent his stock prices tumbling, closing at press time at $11.38 per share on 2/8, down from $17.88 at the time of the announcement, meaning McMahon’s own personal paper worth in WWFE stock dropped from a high of $1.66 billion when the stock opened at 34 to the public down to the current $555.9 million, with his personal on paper losses since the football announcement being $317.8 million over five days.

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March 6, 2017 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: 2016 Awards issue, talent departing TNA, more

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

The UFC announced its first true marquee fight of 2017, the Michael Bisping vs. Georges St-Pierre battle for the middleweight title that both fighters have wanted for months and at one point was talked about for the 12/10 show in Toronto.

Dana White confirmed rumors and our reports that the fight was being worked on, saying it was a done deal on ESPN on 3/1. At this time, no date nor location is finalized. It would make sense for this to be the main event for International Fight Week, for the 7/8 show at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The UFC is doing shows on both 7/7 and 7/8 in the building, including the Ultimate Fighter finals on FS 1 the night before. It would also make sense to do the Cody Garbrandt vs. T.J. Dillashaw bantamweight title match that weekend.

None of this is finalized and the fact they didn’t announce it yet for that show would tell you details are still being worked out.

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January 17, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Death of Gary Albright, Observer awards, more

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Gary Albright, a former world class amateur wrestling star and headliner on many big shows as a pro in Japan, died after collapsing in the ring at an independent show in Hazleton, PA before about 100 fans on 1/7. He was 36.

The preliminary reports from the corner attributed the death of the 6-foot-4, 340-pound powerhouse to a heart attack, technically speaking a combination of severe atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus and acute pulmonary edema. Albright was a known diabetic for years. Funeral services were scheduled for 1/14 in Pensacola, FL, where he had resided for many years.

He was a current regular with All Japan Pro Wrestling, where he was scheduled to return on 2/12 after being given the current tour off. Since he had time off, he decided to take a vacation in Pennsylvania where many members of the Anoia family had moved, and work a few shows while there.

The peak of his pro wrestling fame was in the mid-90s as the monster foreigner with the now-defunct Union of Wrestling Force International (UWFI) promotion and the beginnings of his stay with All Japan. He was wrestling along with several members of his family on the first of two weekend shows for his father-in-law, Afa Anoia of Wild Samoans fame, and his promotion called World Xtreme Wrestling. On the fifth match of the card at the local American Legion building, during a match against Lucifer Grimm, real name Bill Owens of Wilkes-Barre, PA, he collapsed after receiving an Ace crusher, a move somewhat similar to a stone cold stunner or a diamond cutter. He apparently suffered a heart attack at that point. Owens, who is said to have idolized Albright, told the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader that he sensed that Albright lost power. Since he sensed something was wrong, and knew he was supposed to lose the match, Owens rolled to his back, and Albright instinctively put his arm on top of Owens. Owens told the ref to count to end the match, and then he started yelling for help. Albright was reportedly still breathing at this point.

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