New Japan cleans up Wrestling Observer Awards

[Warner2BruceTD]

Tanahashi - Wrestler of the Year, Most Outstanding

Tanahashi vs Okada - Feud of the Year

Tanahashi vs Suzuki (King of Pro Wrestling) - Match of the Year

King of Pro Wrestling - Best Major Show

Okada's Rainmaker - Best Move

Gedo & Jado - Best Booker(s)

Okada - Most Improved (by like a billion votes, biggest blowout i've ever seen, Elgin came in second)

A bunch of second place finishes, too.

Our buddy ACH came up short for Rookie of the Year:

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

1. DINASTIA (199) 1,530

2. Mr. Touchdown (214) 1,496

3. Eita Kobayashi (106) 755

4. ACH (5) 519

5. Saturyne (31) 341

6. Tadarius Thomas (40) 291

7. Ross & Marshall Von Erich (1) 110

One of the closest races of the year, Mark Angelosetti, Mr. Touchdown of CHIKARA had the most first place votes, but fell just short of AAA’s Dinastia in the battle of people who first came on the radar this year.

Great job overall by the voters this year, my only major gripe was Daniel Bryan being zombie voted as Best Technical Wrestler, since he was doing a comedy gimmick for half the year and had nothing but shitty tag matches that nobody will ever remember.

Also, TNA won Worst Promotion, yet Impact won Best TV Show. That makes no sense, but probably speaks to the fact that there are no good TV shows.

So glad the voters buried UFC this year for promotion & booker, UFC had a bad year and New Japan rocked.

If you guy want anything posted, let me know and i'll copy & paste.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Impact won Best TV Show, and came in second for Worst TV Show.

That would have been something. Impact certainly is divisive.

 

[SHOGUN]

What was the final ranking for Best TV Show?

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

"Best of" Awards breakdown by promotion:

New Japan - 9
WWE - 8
UFC - 4 (3 were MMA only awards, plus "Promoter of the Year" Dana White)
TNA - 3
ROH - 1
DDT - 1 (Kota Ibushi, "Best Flying Wrestler", which may have been won due more to his work in New Japan)
AAA - 1
n/a - 1

"Worst of" Awards breakdown by promotion:

WWE - 6
TNA - 2
UFC - 1

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

What was the final ranking for Best TV Show?

here you go, with honorable mention and Meltzer comments

BEST WEEKLY TV SHOW

1. TNA IMPACT (122) 1,043

2. Ring of Honor (73) 926

3. WWE NXT (61) 869

4. WWE Monday Night Raw (76) 828

5. WWE Main Event (85) 819

6. Dragon Gate Infinity (65) 781

7. WWE Smackdown (28) 591

8. Bellator (60) 433

9. New Japan World Pro Wrestling (62) 401

10. Fight Factory (36) 289

HONORABLE MENTION: CMLL 277, IWRG 258, AAA 253, WWE Saturday Morning Slam 241, Ultimate Fighter 193, All Japan Banquet 107

TNA Impact went from winning worst TV show for five straight years, finally got rid of Vince Russo, and now won best TV show. Part of the reason is the WWE votes were divided among five different shows. Raw’s move to three hours may have been why it didn’t win. Smackdown remained a solid show every week, but with all of its stars on Raw, it became a secondary show. Still, ratings held up decently well since it’s been a fixture on Friday nights for years.

The most notable thing was Fight Factory finishing 10th. Fight Factory was a reality show on Nuvo TV, a station that almost nobody gets, and people who do probably have no idea they do. It was based on the antics at American Kickboxing Academy and it was easily the best MMA reality show I’ve seen, in the sense it comes across as completely real. It was the one show I saw this year that when the show was over, I couldn’t wait for the next episode. This speaks volumes about 60 minute shows and compelling stories. There’s no word if the show will be renewed, but it was this year’s best kept television secret.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Copy-Paste entire awards breakdown.

Thanks.

 

[SuperKevin]

Aside from the Best TV Show, the awards TNA won aren't unreasonable. Daniels and Kazarian are an amazing tag team and Joseph Park Esq is a great gimmick

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Aside from the Best TV Show, the awards TNA won aren't unreasonable. Daniels and Kazarian are an amazing tag team and Joseph Park Esq is a great gimmick

I dont think anything was unreasonable this year, aside from Daniel Bryan as Best Technical. It's weird that Impact won, but WWE has 19 shows that split the WWE vote, and there aren't really any good TV shows these days so who cares.

Dana White as Best Promoter is a weird one, because they had a bad year in a lot of ways, so Vince or Kadaani from New Japan probably should have won, but it's not horrible or anything.

Overall the least offensive results i've seen in many, many years, if not ever.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Ltd. New Japan Pro Wrestling @ Njpw1972
Gao was named the MVP of celebration Wrestling Observer! It Gao steak! http:// Twitpic.Com/bxr9w5

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

didn't want to start a new thread, here are the DGUSA/EVOLVE awards for 2012

Wrestler Of The Year
Winner: Johnny Gargano
Runner Up: Akira Tozawa
3rd Place: El Generico
There was no denying the Open The Freedom Gate Champion in the past year. "The Whole Shebang" won with a whooping 38% of the vote. That is a huge compliment to Gargano, as this was a deep and tough field. Ricochet and Sami Callihan both trailed Generico for 3rd place by less than 2%.

Tag Team/Stable Of The Year
Winner: The Super Smash Brothers
Runner Up: El Generico & Samuray Del Sol
3rd Place: The Gentleman's Club
Player Uno & Player Dos were rewarded for their great contributions to the DGUSA and EVOLVE tag team scene by running away with this award with 31% of the vote. Now we'll see if they can finally get a title shot in 2013. There is no doubt about their popularity.

Show Of The Year
Winner: DGUSA Open The Golden Gate
Runner Up: DGUSA Mercury Rising 2012
3rd Place: DGUSA Freedom Fight 2012
This one went right down to the wire with Open The Golden Gate winning by less than 1%. Open The Golden Gate produced one of the best top-to-bottom cards in DGUSA history highlighted by CIMA & Ricochet vs. Mochizuki & Susumu for the DGUSA Tag Team Titles, Tozawa vs. PAC, Fox vs. Callihan in a Tables Match and Doi vs. Yoshino.

Match Of The Year
Winner: Johnny Gargano vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Ricochet vs. AR Fox at DGUSA Freedom Fight 2012
Runner Up: PAC, Ricochet & Mochizuki vs. Low Ki, Tozawa & Hulk at Mercury Rising 2012
3rd Place: CIMA & AR Fox vs. El Generico & Samuray Del Sol at Untouchable 2012
The Four Way Elimination DGUSA Title Match ran away with the award with 34% of the vote. The two runner ups were only separated by 1%. Tozawa vs. Mochizuki from Open The Ultimate Gate 2012, Callihan vs. Finlay at EVOLVE 11 and Gargano vs. Callihan at EVOLVE 18 were all close to cracking the top 3.

Feud/Rivalry Of The Year
Winner: Johnny Gargano vs. Chuck Taylor
Runner Up: AR Fox vs. Sami Callihan
3rd Place: El Generico vs. Samuray Del Sol
The top three was close and these three feuds/rivalries dominated the category. All three brought different elements of hate, violence, competition and storylines to DGUSA and EVOLVE.

Best Newcomer
Winner: Samuray Del Sol
Runner Up: The Super Smash Brothers
3rd Place: Drew Gulak
Samuray Del Sol ran away with this award with 61% of the vote. 2013 looks to be a big year for the luchador.

Story Of The Year
Winner: Chuck Taylor Breaks Up Ronin
Runner Up: Johnny Gargano Retains DGUSA Title For Entire Year
3rd Place: Akira Tozawa's MVP Year Of Outstanding Matches
There was only 1% separating the winner and runner up here. El Generico and Samuray Del Sol's rivalry and tag team just missed cracking the top 3.