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Forums - Sports Discussion - The Official Pro Wrestling Thread

The big Wrestling Observer Awards are out for 2014.

Category A awards:

LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD (WRESTLER OF THE YEAR)
SHINSUKE NAKAMURA (323): 2,262
A.J. Styles (188): 1,739
Hiroshi Tanahashi (145): 1,563
Kazuchika Okada (92): 1,268
Daniel Bryan (55): 481
Rush (37): 423
Ricochet (8): 261
John Cena (21): 206
Seth Rollins (13): 199
Brock Lesnar (17): 180


MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER
A.J. STYLES (220): 1,819
Tomohiro Ishii (247): 1,671
Shinsuke Nakamura (190): 1,639
Kazuchika Okada (46): 697
Hiroshi Tanahashi (34): 604
Ricochet (54): 466
Sami Zayn (12): 289
Katsuyori Shibata (11): 182
Negro Casas (8): 179
Seth Rollins (4): 171

BEST BOX OFFICE DRAW
RONDA ROUSEY (286): 1,825
John Cena (129): 910
Hiroshi Tanahashi (46): 838
Shinsuke Nakamura (63): 559
Brock Lesnar (53): 507
Daniel Bryan (13): 263
Chris Weidman (2): 261
Atlantis (13): 235
Anderson Silva (19): 166
Ultimo Guerrero : 145

TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR
YOUNG BUCKS (509): 3,374
Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly (159): 2,042
T-Hawk & Eita (158): 1,344
Usos (36): 731
Masato Tanaka & Takashi Sugiura (56): 561
Alex Shelley & Kushida (8): 479
Goldust & Stardust (3): 101
Luke Harper & Erick Rowan (2): 99
Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards (14): 92
Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori (10): 92

MOST IMPROVED
RUSEV (181): 1,372
Charlotte (152): 1,281
Sasha Banks (2): 383
Erick Rowan (41): 313
Luke Harper (15): 241
Bobby Lashley (19): 205
Tomoaki Honma (19): 182
Cedric Alexander (22): 172
Ethan Carter III (19): 154
Tomohiro Ishii (18): 137

BEST ON INTERVIEWS
PAUL HEYMAN (411): 4,395
Conor McGregor (169): 1,675
Jay Briscoe (44): 582
Michael Bisping (20): 452
Stephanie McMahon (25): 417
Daniel Cormier (3): 387
Adam Cole (21): 277
Dean Ambrose (11): 193
Bray Wyatt (7): 139
Lana (7): 131

MOST CHARISMATIC
SHINSUKE NAKAMURA (421): 2,527
Hiroshi Tanahashi (71): 1,015
Conor McGregor (136): 993
Daniel Bryan (73): 638
John Cena (37): 532
Sami Zayn (16): 437
Dean Ambrose (17): 391
Ronda Rousey (29): 363
Brock Lesnar (28): 255
Rush (19): 232

BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER
ZACK SABRE JR. (145): 1,221
Kyle O’Reilly (78): 841
A.J. Styles (58): 610
Hiroshi Tanahashi (61): 588
Daniel Bryan (62): 517
Shinsuke Nakamura (75): 506
Cesaro (34): 461
Kazuchika Okada (55): 460
Timothy Thatcher (64): 407
Minoru Suzuki (46): 401

BRUISER BRODY MEMORIAL AWARD (BEST BRAWLER)
TOMOHIRO ISHII (424): 2,785
Katsuyori Shibata (181): 1,834
Dean Ambrose (42): 781
Kevin Steen (30): 532
Jay Briscoe (48): 367
Togi Makabe (28): 316
Brock Lesnar (32): 278
Luke Harper (8): 194
Hirooki Goto (1): 154
Minoru Suzuki (2): 128

BEST FLYING WRESTLER
RICOCHET (543): 3,365
Kota Ibushi (142): 1,907
Flamita (104): 1,182
Adrian Neville (42): 909
ACH (18): 371
Fenix (9): 309
Aero Star (2): 287
Titan (35): 273
Sami Zayn (19): 270
Mascara Dorada (17): 199

MOST OVERRATED
KANE (143): 1,117
Roman Reigns (145): 1,113
Randy Orton (5): 397
Big Show (23): 357
Ryback (18): 331
Michael Elgin(49): 326
Bray Wyatt (26): 225
Yujiro Takahashi (27): 218
John Cena (25): 197
Batista (15): 166

MOST UNDERRATED
CESARO (377): 2,275
Tomoaki Honma (99): 1,189
Tyson Kidd (29): 585
Dolph Ziggler (35): 422
Sami Zayn (16): 252
Dean Ambrose (18): 175
Yuji Nagata (1): 102
Chris Hero (8): 70
Katsuyori Shibata (10): 63
Austin Aries (1): 58

PROMOTION OF THE YEAR
NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING (779): 4,064
Ring of Honor (16): 1,038
Dragon Gate (36): 884
Ultimate Fighting Championships (23): 835
CMLL (8): 504
World Wrestling Entertainment (4): 392
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (8): 348
AAA (3): 279
Bellator MMA (3): 238
DDT (1): 91

BEST WEEKLY TV SHOW
WWE NXT (416): 2,961
Ring of Honor (175): 1,744
Lucha Underground (106): 1,369
Dragon Gate Infinity (100): 838
Ultimate Fighter Season 20 (76): 796
WWE Raw (2): 234
New Japan World Pro Wrestling (28): 226
TNA Impact (2): 110
WWE Smackdown (9): 88
WWE Main Event (2): 84

PRO WRESTLING MATCH OF THE YEAR
A.J. STYLES VS. MINORU SUZUKI 8/1 TOKYO (298): 1,855
Kazuchika Okada vs. Shinsuke Nakamura 8/10 Tokorozawa (143): 1,310
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata 9/21 Kobe (74): 524
Atlantis vs. Ultimo Guerrero 9/19 Mexico City (49): 522
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hirooki Goto 11/8 Osaka (47): 471
The Shield vs. The Wyatts 2/23 Minneapolis (37): 417
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tomoaki Honma 8/3 Osaka (10): 330
Daniel Bryan vs. HHH 4/6 New Orleans (25): 287
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tetsuya Naito 2/11 Osaka (20): 226
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tomoaki Honma 7/26 Akita (19): 181

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
DRAGON LEE (190): 1,476
Moose (142): 1,092
Yuga Hayashi (145): 982
Alexa Bliss (55): 927
Cachorro (81): 910
Australian Suicide (56): 550
Ashley Remington (47): 396
Black Panther (3): 378
Chris Melendez (15): 152
Naoya Nomura (2): 72

BEST NON-WRESTLER
PAUL HEYMAN (377): 2,336
Stephanie McMahon (129): 1,103
Lana (28): 987
Bruce Tharpe (41): 524
Dario Cueto (21): 334
Konnan (9): 239
Gedo (2): 163
William Regal (1): 108
Rockstar Spud (3): 105
Maria Kanellis (2): 102

BEST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER
WILLIAM REGAL (192): 1,273
Shimpei Nogami (170): 1,189
Joe Rogan (109): 1,053
Steve Corino (69): 745
Brian Stann (127): 689
Kevin Kelly (45): 608
Mike Tenay (28): 316
Matt Striker (8): 307
Jimmy Smith (34): 261
Mike Goldberg (7): 190

WORST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER
JOHN LAYFIELD (165): 1,378
Jerry Lawler (125): 1,287
Michael Cole (146): 1,252
Taz (36): 655
Alex Riley (49): 399
Vampiro (9): 288
Matt Striker (33): 264
Mike Tenay (4): 93
Tom Phillips (8): 78
Byron Saxton (4): 61

BEST MAJOR WRESTLING SHOW
NEW JAPAN G-1 8/1 TOKYO (313): 2,227
New Japan G-1 8/3 Osaka (166): 1,297
WWE WrestleMania 4/6 New Orleans (115): 920
CMLL Anniversary show 9/19 Mexico City (49): 502
New Japan G-1 7/26 Akita (8): 406
New Japan G-1 finals 8/10 Tokorozawa (35): 402
Dragon Gate Dead or Alive 5/5 Nagoya (23): 388
UFC 168 12/28/13 Las Vegas (60): 347
ROH 5/10 Toronto (16): 190
WWE SummerSlam 8/17 Los Angeles (8): 166

Category B Awards

WORST MAJOR WRESTLING SHOW
WWE BATTLEGROUND 7/20 TAMPA : 275
TNA Lockdown 3/9 Miami: 69
WWE Royal Rumble 1/26 Pittsburgh: 42
WWE Survivor Series 11/23 St. Louis: 40
TNA Sacrifice 4/27 Orlando: 33
WWE TLC 12/15/13 Houston: 26
WWE Hell in a Cell 10/26 Dallas: 23
UFC 177 8/30 Sacramento: 17
WWE Night of Champions 9/21 Nashville: 12
UFC 4/16 Quebec City: 9

BEST WRESTLING MANEUVER
YOUNG BUCKS MELTZER DRIVER: 323
Kazuchika Okada Rainmaker: 153
Adrian Neville Red Arrow: 54
Young Bucks More Bang for Your Buck: 46
Sami Zayn tope into DDT: 19
Cavernario Barbaro splash off top to floor: 18
Seth Rollins curb stomp: 18
Fish & O’Reilly Chasing the Dagon: 13

MOST DISGUSTING PROMOTIONAL TACTIC
WWE INSULTING FANS WHO PURCHASED PPVS: 65
Dixie Carter tweeting a Storm is coming to Japan during a typhoon: 62
TNA building TV for months around Dixie Carter table spot: 49
WWE having Lana playoff off plane going down in The Ukraine and then acting like they didn’t: 42
WWE firing C.M. Punk on his wedding day: 33
UFC hiring Thiago Silva and then having to fire him: 32
WWE false advertising Rollins vs. Ambrose on PPV: 31
CZW saying if Havok loses she has to give a blowjob to DJ Hyde: 28
WWE botched U.K. network launch: 26
WWE using Warrior’s last Raw speech to promote network: 22

WORST TELEVISION SHOW
WWE RAW: 283
TNA Impact: 168
WWE Smackdown: 77
Championship Wrestling from Hollywood: 8

WORST MATCH OF THE YEAR
JOHN CENA VS. BRAY WYATT 5/4 EXTREME RULES EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ: 122
Sakuraba & Nagata vs. Gracies 1/4 Tokyo: 89
Naomi vs. Cameron 9/15 Lafayette: 39
Divas Survivor Series match 11/23 St. Louis: 34
Eva Marie vs. Bayley 7/17 Winter Park, FL: 25
Samuel Shaw vs. Ken Anderson 4/27 Orlando: 22
A.J. Lee vs. Cameron 2/23 Minneapolis: 20
Aksana vs. Naomi 2/3 Omaha: 19
A.J. Lee vs. Nikki Bella 11/23 St. Louis: 16
Layla vs. Summer Rae 6/29 Boston: 14

WORST FEUD OF THE YEAR
NIKKI BELLA VS. BRIE BELLA: 299
Minoru Suzuki vs. Toru Yano: 50
John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt: 42
Samuel Shaw vs. Ken Anderson: 38
Daniel Bryan vs. Kane: 37
Bully Ray vs. Dixie Carter: 26
Fandango vs. Summer Rae & Layla: 13
Adam Rose vs. The Bunny: 13
Mark Henry vs. Big Show: 12
Samuel Shaw vs. Gunner: 12

WORST PROMOTION OF THE YEAR
TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION: 438
World Wrestling Entertainment: 125
3 CHIKARA Pro: 17
BEST BOOKER
GEDO & JADO (NJPW): 611
Genki Horiguchi (Dragon Gate): 55
Paul Levesque/Ryan Ward (NXT): 54
Joe Silva (UFC): 53
Hunter Johnston (ROH): 51

PROMOTER OF THE YEAR
TAKAAKI KIDANI (NJPW): 602
Dana White (UFC): 190
Scott Coker (Bellator): 47
Vince McMahon (WWE): 21
Joe Koff (ROH): 12
Sanshiro Takagi (DDT): 11

BEST GIMMICK
RUSEV & LANA: 131
The Bullet Club: 88
Yosuke Santa Maria: 78
Damien Mizdow: 72
Shinsuke Nakamura: 68
Dean Ambrose: 37
Tyson Kidd: 33
Rockstar Spud: 14
Brock Lesnar: 13

WORST GIMMICK
ADAM ROSE: 140
Samuel Shaw: 82
The Bunny: 58
Corporate Kane: 49
Bray Wyatt: 40
The Menagerie: 36
The Authority: 33
Dixie Carter as heel owner: 25
C.J. Parker: 20
New Day: 17



Around the Network

My personal opinions:

Wrestler of the Year -- They nailed it. Shinsuke Nakamura had his name written all over this one. He main evented 6 PVPs this year AS THE IC CHAMPION, five of which were sell-outs, he pulled excellent matches out of guys like Bad Luck Fale, which shocked everyone, he had several matches that were in the MOTY running, and he made guys look fantastic even when he beat them. Well deserved.


Most Outstanding Wrestler -- AJ Styles is a great choice, considering that he put on an absolute ton of great matches all over the planet for several different promotions. A lot of people wanted Ishii to win this award but I prefer Styles. Ishii's style is less dynamic and less versatile. Good to see Sami Zayn and Ricochet on the list.

Tag Team of the Year -- The order of the top three is exactly right, in my opinion. Young Bucks, reDragon, The Millennials.

Best Technical Wrestler -- Zack Sabre Jr. Heck yeah. One of my favorite wrestlers. There are a few guys who do more technical stuff but Sabre does it AND makes it entertaining.

Important note: As it has been explained to me, Most Overrated/Underrated are ACTUALLY Most Over-pushed/Under-pushed. With that in mind, yes, without doubt, Most Under-pushed belongs to Cesaro. Funny that finally two categories are dominated by the WWE, except they're two categories that scream bad decision making.

Promotion of the Year -- New Japan winning this by 3,000 votes over second place should be no shock to anyone. WWE only pulling in 392 votes is a surprise, though, even though they probably don't deserve that many.

Pro Wrestling Match of the Year -- A.J. STYLES VS. MINORU SUZUKI 8/1 TOKYO. Yes, yes, and yes. That's the one I've been touting all year as my own call for MOTY. I think I've linked it here like ten times. New Japan dominates the top ten, though the WWE gets on the board with The Shield vs. The Wyatts and Daniel Bryan vs. HHH.

The WWE wins Worst Television Show of the Year with RAW, Worst Match of the Year with Cena vs. Wyatt, Worst Feud of the Year with Bella vs. Bella (I completely agree), and the Diva's Division OWNS most of the Worst Match of the Year list. TNA wins Worst Promotion of the Year, with WWE a distant second.  I think NXT was the WWE's big saving grace when people judged the company as a whole.



what? Whats with all the Bray Wyatt hate? He is a great heel and has one of the best entrances in wrestling. Although I can't stand his feud with Cena. Cena ruined another promising career.



MOST UNDERRATED - CESARO

Yep.

They completely dropped the ball with Cesaro.



                            

bunchanumbers said:
what? Whats with all the Bray Wyatt hate? He is a great heel and has one of the best entrances in wrestling. Although I can't stand his feud with Cena. Cena ruined another promising career.

It's mainly the bad choices they made with him.  Remember, the Wyatt Family was red hot with the fans at the beginning, then the WWE sent them on a nose-dive into mediocrity.  That cage match, especially, was horrible.  It made Vince Russo booking look brilliant.  It was one of those "wft is this" matches and a mistake in every sense of the word.  After that, they made him "not care about losing" and had Cena squash the entire goddamn Wyatt family just to prove he was still strong after the Lesnar beating.



Around the Network
pokoko said:
bunchanumbers said:
what? Whats with all the Bray Wyatt hate? He is a great heel and has one of the best entrances in wrestling. Although I can't stand his feud with Cena. Cena ruined another promising career.

It's mainly the bad choices they made with him.  Remember, the Wyatt Family was red hot with the fans at the beginning, then the WWE sent them on a nose-dive into mediocrity.  That cage match, especially, was horrible.  It made Vince Russo booking look brilliant.  It was one of those "wft is this" matches and a mistake in every sense of the word.  After that, they made him "not care about losing" and had Cena squash the entire goddamn Wyatt family just to prove he was still strong after the Lesnar beating.


That was so heartbreaking to me. They were so excellent and had all the momentum with them too. The Daniel Bryan feud was excellent and the Elimination Chamber match against The Shield was one of the best matches that year. Its such a shame to see what they did to them.



I am disgusted that Roman Reigns was voted only the second most overrated wrestler of the year.



Proud member of the SONIC SUPPORT SQUAD

Tag "Sorry man. Someone pissed in my Wheaties."

"There are like ten games a year that sell over a million units."  High Voltage CEO -  Eric Nofsinger

I gotta say that I'm shocked that they gave worst announcer to Bradshaw. He is such a good color commentator. And the funny thing is that almost everything he says ends up being the truth. He predicted the end of the Real Americans, The Shield, and Brock Lesnar conquering the Streak.



bunchanumbers said:
I gotta say that I'm shocked that they gave worst announcer to Bradshaw. He is such a good color commentator. And the funny thing is that almost everything he says ends up being the truth. He predicted the end of the Real Americans, The Shield, and Brock Lesnar conquering the Streak.

The reason so many people, including me, can't stand JBL as an announcer is that he will often completely ignore the match and go off on a tangent.  A lot of people believe he's VKM's mouthpiece.  I remember him ruining a Ziggler match because he wouldn't shut up during the peak and it really got under my skin.  He didn't used to be this bad.

Carl2291 said:
MOST UNDERRATED - CESARO

Yep.

They completely dropped the ball with Cesaro.

I said it elsewhere but, after the way the WWE totally flubbed up Cesaro's obviously growing popularity, this award needs to be named after him from this year on.  One of the most inexplicable things I've seen in wrestling.  The guy was getting over with every match he wrestled and they just totally pulled the plug.

Honma in New Japan came in second but it's very interesting how different the circumstances are.  He became massively over during the G1 Climax tourament when he was subbed in for an injured Kota Ibushi.  As such, he was booked to lose but the fans ate it up.  Whenever he comes close to winning, they go crazy.  It's kind of awesome.  People want to see him win so badly but they almost want the suspense to continue.

amp316 said:
I am disgusted that Roman Reigns was voted only the second most overrated wrestler of the year.

It just goes to show how tired of Kane people have become.  The guy wrestles every RAW with the same DQ results while up-and-coming guys get left off or languish in the midcard.  

Trust me, though, Roman would have dominated this category if he hadn't gotten hurt.  Believe dat.



Voices of Wrestling MOTY results 10-1.  

This isn't a straight fan poll but instead a list tallied from people who contribute to wrestling websites or podcasts.  I think they had 60+ voters this year.  It's a good article, with quotes from the people who voted for each match.  They have separate articles from matches that got votes but did not make the top 10.

I don't want to steal quotes from the article without permission--and I encourage people to read the article itself--so all comments will be from me.

-------------------

10  Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tomoaki Honma  August 3  G1 Climax – Night 8 (NJPW)  86 total points (1 first place vote)

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hirooki Goto  November 8  Power Struggle (NJPW)  95 total points (1 first place vote) 

8  Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H  April 6  WrestleMania XXX (WWE)  102 total points (1 first place vote)

7  Tetsuya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii  February 11  New Beginning in Osaka (NJPW)  102 total points (1 first place vote) 

6  Atlantis vs. Ultimo Guerrero  September 19  81st Anniversary (CMLL)  172 total points (7 first place votes) 

5  Cesaro vs. Sami Zayn  February 27  NXT ArRival (WWE)  201 total points (4 first place votes) 

4  Adrian Neville vs. Sami Zayn  December 11  NXT Takeover: [R] Evolution (WWE)  248 total points (6 first place votes) 

3  The Shield vs. Wyatt Family  February 23  Elimination Chamber (WWE)  282 total points (8 first place votes) 

2  Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kazuchika Okada  August 10  G1 Climax Finals (NJPW)  332 total points (9 first place votes) 

1  AJ Styles vs. Minoru Suzuki  August 1  G1 Climax – Night 7 (NJPW)  376 total points (11 first place votes) 

-----------------------------------

First of all, I'm rather surprised at the WWE love on this list, even if most of it is for Sami Zayn, who certainly deserves it.  They almost had Cena vs. Lesnar in the top ten (#11), which I think is ridiculous.  Personally, I believe Nakamura vs. Tanahashi (#23) or Shibata vs. Tanahashi (#14) should be there.

A LOT of people loved the Atlantis vs Ultimo Guerrero match to death and called it the biggest match of the year.  I'm not a Lucha guy, though, and I just couldn't get into it, even if I do understand how big of a deal the mask vs. mask thing can be.

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hirooki Goto was an absolute "slobberknocker" and I'm glad to see it represented.  They beat the hell out of each other.