Every year members of the wrestling & mixed-martial arts industry and readers of Dave Meltzer’s ‘Wrestling Observer Newsletter’ (WON) vote on a series of categories to award the successes (or in some cases, failings) of the year. The WON awards were first given out in 1980, and over the years different categories have been added, changed & removed. We’re at roughly the halfway point in the year so I’ve decided to try and predict who will walk away with the WON accolade.

Lou Thesz/Ric Flair Award (Wrestler of the Year)

Previous Winners: Hiroshi Tanahashi (2011-13), Shinsuke Nakamura (2014), A.J. Styles (2015-16)

Honorable Mentions: Kenny Omega, A.J. Styles, Tetsuya Naito.

Predicted Winner: Kazuchika Okada (NJPW)





Wrestler of the Year represents a lot more than just the most talented wrestler, or the person with the best workrate, it should be someone who, without them, their company would be in serious danger of collapsing. At the moment it’s a close-fought race between Kenny Omega (IWGP US Champion) and Kazuchika Okada (IWGP Heavyweight Champion), and though the mainly-Western readership of the Newsletter may give Kenny the edge, I’ve given it to Okada. The IWGP Champion has had an unbelievable year, starting with the first Omega match in the Tokyo Dome, and he shows no signs of stopping. The Rainmaker has had top quality matches with virtually everyone he’s stepped in the ring with, including the aforementioned Omega, Tomohiro Ishii, Minoru Suzuki, Bad Luck Fale and Katsuyori Shibata. Having won the US title in Long Beach, Omega’s ROH commitments are predicted to rise, which means he might not necessarily have the same post-G1 break that Okada will have. Okada, perhaps being more rested than Omega, may have the edge over the ‘ace’ of the Bullet Club in match quality towards the tail end of the year, but he will have to keep that IWGP title to stay in the hunt.

As big a fan of Styles as I am, his overall match quality hasn’t been as high as the previous two years, putting his chances of a ‘threepeat’ in question. A potential reignited rivalry with Nakamura in WWE might do the trick, but it’s hard to see anyone beating Omega or Okada this year. Naito definitely has the skill & ability to be the best in the world, but being seemingly locked-in to a rivalry with an injured Tanahashi has lead Naito to lag behind his New Japan cohorts.

Mixed Martial Arts Most Valuable

Previous Winners: Georges St-Pierre (2013), Ronda Rousey (2014-15), Conor McGregor (2016).

Honorable Mentions: Jon Jones/Daniel Cormier.

Predicted Winner: Conor McGregor (UFC).

It’s almost impossible to think of anyone else who could be an MMA MVP for the year than Conor McGregor. While the year is halfway over and McGregor has been spending his time outside of the Octagon promoting a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather instead of fighting, his stock as a draw in the fighting world has skyrocketed. This is crucial to UFC’s success following its sale to WME-IMG last year, but with McGregor making much more money than he normally does for a glorified exhibition match he may be reluctant to fight for the UFC again. In that scenario, it comes down to a combo of Jon Jones & Daniel Cormier to both be the major breadwinners for the UFC and put on an entertaining fight…if they actually fight.

Most Outstanding Wrestler

Previous Winners: Davey Richards (2011), Hiroshi Tanahashi (2012-13), A.J. Styles (2014-16).

Honorable Mentions: Kazuchika Okada, Testsuya Naito, A.J. Styles

Predicted Winner: Kenny Omega (NJPW)

I honestly debated switching the winners of this and the Lou Thesz/Ric Flair Award several times, and though, as noted, the demographics might well give both to Omega, in the end this is how I see it going. While Okada is an outstanding wrestler in his own right, contributing his fair share of work in their two fantastic singles matches so far this year, Omega’s breathtaking displays have shown he’s a step ahead of everyone else. He may need to tone his style down a bit in the latter half of 2017 so he can have a comparable 2018, but as long as he isn’t injured or enters into a long-term rivalry with Yoshitatsu he should be a lock for this. As noted above both Naito and Styles have the ability, skill and potential opportunity to catch up to Okada & Omega, but it’s hard to credibly see at this stage.



Best Box Office Draw

Previous Winners: Georges St-Pierre (2013), Ronda Rousey (2014-15), Conor McGregor (2016).

Honorable Mentions: Georges St-Pierre, Jon Jones, Daniel Cormier.

Predicted Winner: Conor McGregor (UFC, Showtime Boxing).

When WWE cannibalised its own PPV business by launching the WWE Network, it effectively ended the chances of a wrestler or wrestling promotion, outside of maybe CMLL, to be in a position to win this award again. Even if they hadn’t done that, it’s impossible to see anyone besides ‘The Notorious One’ winning this award. Though it’s true he technically hasn’t drawn a dime in MMA in 2017 so far, you can be a draw in a sport without competing in it – just look at CM Punk’s effect on the UFC 203 card – and McGregor’s promotion of his boxing match with Mayweather has increased his already high stock, and only an incredibly embarrassing outing could possibly damage that. Behind McGregor are the pair of Jones & Cormier, who have been looking for their blow-off fight for years now, and returning legend Georges St-Pierre, who provides the same sort of legacy draw as Brock Lesnar did while providing an added dimension in that he may be able to revive the somewhat lagging Canadian market.

Feud of the Year

Previous Winners: Jon Jones – Daniel Cormier (2014), José Aldo – Conor McGregor (2015), Conor McGregor – Nate Diaz (2016).

Honorable Mentions: Kazuchika Okada – Kenny Omega, Young Bucks & Cody Rhodes – The Revival, Jon Jones – Daniel Cormier.

Predicted Winner: Conor McGregor – Floyd Mayweather (UFC/Showtime Boxing)

Nothing has dominated combat sports more this year than the mammoth fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather. Even before the fight was officially announced the two traded insults and barbs back & forth, and things didn’t cool off during the fight’s promotional tour. Though at times their vocal sparring has been awfully repugnant, on occasion being homophobic, racist and generally offensive, this has only served to increase the hype for their fight. While it’s unlikely their rivalry will go too far beyond the fight in August, it should be more than enough to win them this award. The closest a wrestling rivalry will get is probably Okada-Omega, having had two ‘Match of the Year’ candidates already with a prospective third on the horizon, and a decent wildcard option is the rivalry between the Bullet Club (Cody & the YBs in particular) and The Revival, based entirely on references in the former’s Youtube show and the Bucks’ knack for successfully pushing things on social media.

Tag Team of the Year

Previous Winners: Bad Influence (Daniels & Kazarian – 2012), The Shield (Rollins, Ambrose & Reigns – 2013), The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson – 2014-16).

Honorable Mentions: The Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder), War Machine (Hanson & Rowe), Sheamus & Cesaro, British Strong Style (Tyler Bate, Trent Seven & Pete Dunne), The Fashion Police (Tyler Breeze & Fandango).

Predicted Winner: The Young Bucks (PWG, ROH & NJPW)

It’s been a hallmark year for the ‘Bucks of Youth’, touring the world, winning titles and selling merch to thousands of people across the globe, and it shows no real signs of stopping. Despite being somewhat limited in New Japan’s Junior Tag division the Bucks have been, without doubt, the only major tag team draw still working on the planet. It’s been a decent world for tag wrestling outside of the brothers Jackson, with War Machine impressing in New Japan & ROH and Sheamus & Cesaro putting on impressive performances against the Hardy’s. Both the Fashion Police and British Strong Style are outside shots for very different reasons: ‘Breezango’ have been rather entertaining, and their comedy segments have proved popular among fans, but they’ve been booked to look like complete idiots; BSS, on the other hand, have been dominant in the British scene, but their popularity being limited to the UK also limits their ability to get votes. The Revival will probably do well, but their major showings were at the beginning of the year, missing crucial Raw screen time to injury. They will have to be booked very well (as well as doing a little bit of campaigning) to pip the Bucks for the prize, otherwise it’s all #FTR.

Most Improved

Previous Winners: Rusev (2014), Bayley (2015), Matt Riddle (2016)

Honorable Mentions: Cody Rhodes, Braun Strowman, Neville (WWE).

Predicted Winner: Juice Robinson (NJPW)

What a journey Juice Robinson has been on: from floundering in NXT in 2015, and becoming a young lion, to being a credible force in New Japan in 2017. It’s honestly still hard to believe that last part, that I could believe that ‘CJ Parker’ of all people could credibly challenge for the NEVER Openweight and IWGP Intercontinental Championships. Proving himself to be a popular babyface in Japan, Robinson seems to have forgone the tradition of excursion, with his largely female fan base keeping him relevant. Though Robinson has had a contextually meteoric rise, it’s still very tough to call: Cody Rhodes has had an exceptional post-WWE career, Braun Strowman has become a certifiable main eventer and Neville has gone from relative obscurity to being an incredible heel & the best thing about the entire Cruiserweight division. For my money it’s really between Neville and Robinson, as Rhodes’ lack of super high-quality matches & Strowman’s supposed destiny to be fodder for Roman Reigns may limit them both. What really stands in Robinson’s favour is his potential & high ceiling when it comes to booking for the rest of the year: Neville is stuck in a lacklustre cruiserweight division with no other real credible stars, Strowman could only really beat Lesnar to improve, and Rhodes must either win the IWGP Heavyweight or Intercontinental Championships, or start putting on ‘five-star classics’.

Best on Interviews

Previous Winners: CM Punk (2011-12), Paul Heyman (2013-14), Conor McGregor (2015-16).

Honorable Mentions: The Miz, Samoa Joe, Kenny Omega.

Predicted Winner: Conor McGregor (UFC)

This one was another that was almost too close to call. While McGregor has arguably had his best promos of his career in the run-up to the Mayweather fight, the controversial nature of some of his comments as well as the fact that they’re happening in boxing may preclude his threepeat. The Miz, on the other hand, has continued his career-renaissance with performances on Talking Smack and in his endless feud with Dean Ambrose. The best of Miz’s work actually happened in late 2016, but that mightn’t matter in a public vote. Joe & Omega are outsiders, in that neither are people particularly think of as great promos, but Joe’s promotion of the Lesnar match struck a chord with the crowd, and Kenny’s unusual diction continues to be enthralling whenever he gets time on the mic. In the end, the high-profile nature of McGregor’s work will probably lead to the Crumlin native picking up the gold.

Most Charismatic

Previous Winners: Hiroshi Tanahashi (2013), Shinsuke Nakamura (2014-15), Conor McGregor (2016).

Honorable Mentions: Conor McGregor, Tetsuya Naito, Dalton Castle.

Predicted Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura (WWE)

If there was ever a category that I think I’m wrong but decided “fuck it, do it anyway” it’s this one. There is no one on this planet that is more charismatic than Shinsuke Nakamura. Not one. As great as McGregor is in hyping himself up, Shinsuke’s ability to elicit the reactions he gets by just gesturing his hands and making a face is astounding. His working a lighter style in his NXT/WWE career combined with the bizarre branding he’s gotten on the main roster (The Artist etc.) could stand against him,, but on the flipside, he has gotten insanely over in the biggest wrestling company in the world without really saying anything – that’s charisma. Dalton Castle’s wonderfully bizarre character & work continue to be bizarrely wonderful, but it’s unlikely he’ll beat Conor or Nakamura. The leader of Los Ingobernables de Japon oozes cool whenever he’s on camera, but again it’s hard to imagine Naito beating the King of Strong Style.

Bryan Danielson Award (Best Technical Wrestler)

Previous Winners: Chris Benoit (2003-04), Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan (2005-2013), Zack Sabre Jr. (2014-16)

Honorable Mentions: Minoru Suzuki, Chad Gable, Toru Yano

Predicted Winner: Zack Sabre Jr. (PWG, Evolve, NJPW et al)

Much like Daniel Bryan dominated the category for nine years, no one is coming close to beating Zack Sabre Jr. for this. You could maybe make a case for someone else if Zack hadn’t had a good year, but Sabre has made some great steps, having a successful career in indies across the world and having a decent start to his New Japan career as a heavyweight in Suzuki Gun. I honestly struggled to think of anyone else, hence the inclusion of the 49 year-old Suzuki, Chad Gable who’s had a disappointing main roster career to date, and Toru Yano who is almost the polar opposite of a technical wrestler at this stage in his career, but he has as much chance as anyone else does in pipping ZSJ for this. Realistically a lot of the NJPW Juniors (like Kushida & Marty Scurll, for example) are outstanding technical wrestlers, but they’re no Zack Sabre Jr.

Bruiser Brody Memorial Award (Best Brawler)

Previous Winners: Kevin Steen (2010-12), Katsuyori Shibata (2013), Tomohiro Ishii (2014-16)

Honorable Mentions: Samoa Joe, Silas Young, Minoru Suzuki

Predicted Winner: Tomohiro Ishii (NJPW)

The stout killer of New Japan is going to continue his amazing run in 2017, you just watch. Not content with putting on genuinely amazing matches, the ‘Stone Pitbull’ is far and away the best brawler working today. Even though he works that tough, stiff style Ishii has reportedly worked at least one match a month since 2005 (which isn’t true…he didn’t work in March or December of 2005). I might get a bit of flack for including ‘Wrestling’s Last Real Man’ but Silas Young is an impressive, tough worker for ROH, and only seems to be getting better. Joe & Suzuki speak for themselves on this, but Ishii is far and away the favourite.

Best Flying Wrestler

Previous Winners: Kota Ibushi (2012-13), Ricochet (2014-15), Will Ospreay (2016)

Honorable Mentions: Mustafa Ali, Ricochet, Jushin Thunder Liger.

Predicted Winner: Will Ospreay (NJPW)

Despite the reintroduction of a cruiserweight division in WWE, 2017 has so far felt weirdly like a step backwards for high-flyers. It might just be me, but I’ve felt that since pretty much everyone outside of the Big Show does a tope these days you have to be pretty exceptional to stand out as a flying wrestler. And the biggest standout high-flyer of 2017 is ‘The Aerial Assassin’ Will Ospreay. His work in independent promotions across the world has been phenomenal, and an incredible match against Kushida in the final of the Best of the Super Juniors cements Ospreay’s place as the premier Junior Heavyweight in the world. Lucha Underground has kept Ricochet a bit on the shelf this year, as the show’s awkward airing of taped shows (as well as the limits to the places he can work outside of LU) has meant that we haven’t seen as much as ‘The Future of Flight’ as we’d like. Mustafa Ali has probably been the highlight of 205 Live, outside of Neville’s bad-guy antics & Jack Gallagher’s…everything, and his inverted 450 splash seems to be the only thing to get the cruiserweight crowd going. Jushin Liger is a biased pick, but at 52 he’s been having incredible matches.

Most Overrated

Previous Winners: Randy Orton (2013), Kane (2014-15), Roman Reigns (2016).

Honorable Mentions: Cody Rhodes, Baron Corbin, Jinder Mahal.

Predicted Winner: Roman Reigns (WWE).

This award should probably be replaced with the defunct “Readers’ Least Favorite Wrestler” award, because I don’t see Roman Reigns losing this any time soon. Roman didn’t deserve to win this last year, and he certainly doesn’t deserve to win it this year. I may lose some street cred with this, but Roman Reigns is criminally underrated. He’s a great in-ring worker, he’s got a fantastic look and he’s a great athlete…but he’s been booked horribly. Despite being a handsome man, he’s just not a proper good guy…yet. Outside of Reigns, but thinking along the same lines, I could see people voting for Cody Rhodes, Baron Corbin & Jinder Mahal: Cody has had a much better indie career than probably anybody could’ve seen, but hasn’t had many truly great matches; Corbin was third last year after Reigns and Braun Strowman, and unlike Strowman, Corbin hasn’t really set the world on fire; Jinder arguably has the strongest chance of dethroning Reigns, but if he can move away from the rather generic xenophobic heel character in the latter half of the year I can see people refusing to hinder Jinder.

Most Underrated

Previous Winners: Dolph Ziggler (2011), Tyson Kidd (2012), (Antonio) Cesaro (2013-16).

Honorable Mentions: Gran Metalik, Adam Page, Rusev.

Predicted Winner: Luke Harper (WWE).

Did you know that the first winner of this award was the Iron Sheik? Mad. Quite like ‘Most Overrated’, Most Underrated is a bit of a deceptive title. You might think it’s a guy who’s out on the indies, or maybe on the lower end of the card in a major promotion, who has a lot of talent & potential but just doesn’t get that praise, but more times than not it’s a really great wrestler who just isn’t used right or doesn’t get the push they deserve. Cesaro absolutely deserved the title of ‘Most Underrated’ from 2013 until last year, but his tag run with Sheamus has been stellar to the time of writing. The guy who fits the 2013 Cesaro role the most at present is Luke Harper. Incredibly athletic for a big man, Harper has had fleeting opportunities in the main event, mainly with Randy Orton, and knocked them all out of the park, but he’s been rather absent since March. A reunion with Erick Rowan mightn’t be the worst thing for Lukey, but it is certainly a step back. If the award were called “Worst Used Wrestler” then it would be a travesty for anyone but Gran Metalik to win it. The former Máscara Dorada hasn’t really appeared on 205 Live, and even his appearances on Main Event have been few & far between. In fact, I don’t expect him to win this award purely on the basis that most people have forgotten that he exists at all! Rusev hasn’t had a great start to the year, first having an awful pairing with Jinder Mahal that just sortof ended, and then being on the shelf on Smackdown for most of the year. Adam Page is totally a personal pick, and I’ve picked him for this because I feel that he’s an incredibly solid worker with a lot of upsides that just doesn’t get any recognition because most of his work is in ROH, and when he’s in New Japan he’s either surrounded by the most talented guys on the planet (Omega, Bucks, Scurll) or is the fall guy in six man tags. His one major chance to impress this year was in the IWGP US Title tournament, but that didn’t really help the Hangman’s fan club to recruit new members.

Promotion of the Year

Previous Winners: Pro Wrestling NOAH (2004-05), Ultimate Fighting Championship (2006-11), New Japan Pro Wrestling (2012-16).

Honorable Mentions: WWE, DDT, PWG.

Predicted Winner: New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW).

In what has been a year of high quality wrestling, New Japan has been far & away the best. While commercially they may be a distant second, the match quality has somehow jumped tremendously, and with the long term booking style of Gedo it’s unlikely the latter half of the year will be any worse. WWE are always going to be in contention for this, whether as a whole or just through its developmental brand NXT. DDT have arguably had a banner year of sorts, gaining a lot more traction in the west, though they are huge underdogs here. PWG will always get votes here, and while I don’t see them beating New Japan or WWE, I could see them jumping over ROH or even UFC.

Best Weekly TV Show

Previous Winners: TNA: Impact Wrestling (2012), WWE NXT (2013-15), New Japan Pro Wrestling: World Pro Wrestling (2016).

Honorable Mentions: WWE NXT, WWE Smackdown Live!, CMLL Friday Night.

Predicted Winner: New Japan Pro Wrestling: World Pro Wrestling (NJPW).

Part of me feels like the New Japan show winning this is somehow cheating. I mean, I don’t watch it, and as far as I know, I can’t actually legally watch it. World Pro Wrestling, as far as I can tell, is the show produced by TV Asahi that was, up until a few months ago, dubbed with english commentary and broadcast in North America on AXS. If the AXS show, which is very technically a different show, still counts towards World Pro Wrestling’s votes, it’s a lock. The only major challengers to NJPW are NXT & Smackdown, both of which have had a resurgence this year. NXT has finally recovered from the talent drain that was the WWE Draft, and Smackdown has benefited well from the brand split. CMLL Friday Night, despite being broadcast for free on Youtube, isn’t as talked about from the other shows, so while it has a chance, I don’t see it beating New Japan or WWE this year.

Pro Wrestling Match of the Year

Previous Winners: A.J. Styles – Minoru Suzuki (2014), Shinsuke Nakamura – Kota Ibushi (2015), Kazuchika Okada – Hiroshi Tanahashi (2016).

Honorable Mentions: Tyler Bate – Pete Dunne (NXT Takeover: Chicago), Kenny Omega – Kazuchika Okada (NJPW), several future matches.

Predicted Winner: Kenny Omega – Kazuchika Okada (NJPW).

So I’ve cheated a bit here. I don’t think it’s possible that anyone will have a better match this year than Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada. People are split on which match was better, which may split their votes, but regardless I’ve given the win to one of their matches. And while the Tyler Bate/Pete Dunne match was truly outstanding, I could see some matches from the G1 Climax or even Summerslam beating it for votes. Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s Battle of Los Angeles is another event that’s likely to throw out some contenders, but as far as the first six months of 2017 are concerned, there’s no beating Omega/Okada.

MMA Match of the Year

Previous Winners: Johny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler (2014), Robbie Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald (2015), Robbie Lawler vs. Carlos Condit (2016).

Honorable Mentions: N/A

Predicted Winner: N/A

I’ve declined to give an entry to this award because I just honestly have not had the time for MMA that I have had in previous years. This isn’t due, of course, to the quality of the fighting, but just a casualty of working life. I’ve heard a lot of great things about Justin Gaethje vs Michael Johnson from TUF 25, but I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, nor much else to compare it to.

Rookie of the Year

Previous Winners: Dragon Lee (2014), Chad Gable (2015), Matt Riddle (2016).

Honorable Mentions: Otis Dozovic*, Shota Umino

Predicted Winner: Katsuya Kitamura (NJPW)

There has not, to my knowledge, been a real standout newcomer to the world of professional wrestling. There are lots of wrestlers who really came into their own this year, but debuted before the start of the year. A great example of this is NXT’s Otis Dozovic. While Dozovic’s current television run started this year, he had one televised match last year as part of the Dusty Rhodes’ Tag Classic. My watching is mostly limited to the major promotions (WWE, New Japan, ROH, Impact/GFW on occasion) so admittedly I may be missing out on a few names. New Japan, in particular, seems to have gotten an outstanding crop of Young Lions, namely Shota “Son of Red Shoes” Umino and Katsuya “Japanese Brock Lesnar” Kitamura. While the latter likely has the higher ceiling, Umino’s talent is impressive considering he only started wrestling in general in April. I’ve given it to Kitamura because he’s a bit further along in his career, and because of his amateur background has more obvious potential to put on a great match.

Best Non-Wrestler

Previous Winners: Ricardo Rodriguez (2011), Paul Heyman (2012-14), Dario Cueto (2015-16).

Honorable Mentions: Dario Cueto, Daryl Takahashi, Kurt Angle

Predicted Winner: Titus O’Neil

This was one of the biggest potshots for me, to be honest, because of the lack of emphasis put on managers & authority figures in most companies at the moment. Lucha Underground, despite being taped last year, hasn’t been on air for most of the year, but it’s possible that Dario will win again. I picked Titus because he’s one of two great things on 205 Live, and despite his stunningly lacklustre in-ring career his work as the CEO of the Titus Brand (Worldwide) has been great. Daryl Takahashi, despite being a stuffed animal that technically isn’t animate, is incredibly over to most New Japan fans at home and in the crowds. Angle, despite a rocky start, has a lot of potential to be great as the Raw GM this year.

Best Television Announcer

Previous Winners: Jim Ross (2012), William Regal (2013-14), Mauro Ranallo (2015-16).

Honorable Mentions: Nigel McGuinness, Don Callis, Corey Graves.

Predicted Winner: Mauro Ranallo (WWE, Bellator MMA, Showtime Boxing).

Momma Mia! This category probably had the furthest reaching consequences of any in the awards, leading to a controversial promo on WWE’s ‘Bring it to the Table’ Network show that itself lead to Mauro taking time away from WWE. Indeed, many thought his time working for Big Vinny Mac was over for good, but in June/July he was announced as the new play-by-play announcer for NXT. Combined with his previous work on Smackdown Live!, as well as his future work with Bellator MMA and his continued efforts on Showtime Boxing, Ranallo is a dead cert. Corey Graves is the best of WWE’s crew outside of Mauro, and McGuinness has been decent since his debut on the WWE UK Tournament. I could easily see Callis, who began doing english commentary for NJPW World in January following the departure of Steve Corino, starting a campaign to try win this award on his podcast ‘Killing the Town’, but I don’t think it will work, even though his work for New Japan has been tremendous.

Worst Television Announcer

Previous Winners: Taz (2013), John ‘Bradshaw’ Layfield (2014-15), David Otunga (2016). Honorable Mentions: David Otunga, Josh Barnett, Byron Saxton.

Predicted Winner: John ‘Bradshaw’ Layfield (WWE).

If voting was done purely on performance throughout the year, Otunga is running away with this. I think, however, that “extra-curricular” activities might tip this in a different direction. As alluded to under the ‘Best Announcer’ category, JBL was involved in an incident on the ‘Bring it to the Table’ show, where he berated Smackdown colleague Mauro Ranallo for celebrating his win on Twitter. This lead to Ranallo, a popular figure in wrestling & MMA, to take a leave of absence from the company, and either purposefully or coincidentally, a lot of accusations of bullying by Bradshaw began to surface & gain steam. While the “Fire Bradshaw” chants have largely disappeared by now, JBL’s commentary isn’t so great that people will totally forget what happened with Mauro. Otunga looks unlikely to return to the broadcast booth, which means that Layfield may be the best/worst candidate. Barnett’s poor performance on the NJPW G1 Special in Long Beach received massive amounts of criticism from fans and wrestlers alike, but people will probably either forget about this by voting time, or judge Bradshaw/Otunga worse overall.

Best Major Wrestling Show

Previous Winners: G1 Climax 24: Day 7 (2014), Wrestle Kingdom 9 (2015), Wrestle Kingdom 10 (2016).

Honorable Mentions: Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall, NXT Takeover: Chicago, future shows.

Predicted Winner: Wrestle Kingdom 11 (NJPW).

At the time of writing, the G1 Climax has just begun, and WWE’s Battleground has literally just been held. In the interest of fairness I won’t be mentioning them, but let me tell you, there’s no danger of Battleground winning this award.

Despite having the unenviable position of taking place in January, the sheer quality of the Wrestle Kingdom show keeps it in contention. While many think the main event of this year’s Dominion show was better than that of WK, the overall card wasn’t as strong, which could give the Tokyo Dome show the edge. As great as Takeover: Chicago was, it really can’t hold a candle to New Japan’s big show. I could see the finals of the G1 or possibly even Summerslam making a good case for the win, but it’ll have to be incredibly special to unseat Wrestle Kingdom.

Worst Major Wrestling Show

Previous Winners: WWE Battleground (2013-14), Triplemanía XXIII (2015), Wrestlemania 32 (2016).

Honorable Mentions: N/A

Predicted Winner: N/A

I am terribly unqualified to judge this, because I haven’t really watched a lot of awful shows, just boring ones. I suppose some of the WWE B-Shows would qualify for this. While it happened in the second half of the year, WWE Battleground is probably the front runner at this stage.

(Editor’s Note: Battleground was fucking dreadful.)

Best Wrestling Maneuver

Previous Winners: Meltzer Driver – The Young Bucks (2014), Styles Clash – A.J. Styles (2015), One-Winged Angel – Kenny Omega (2016).

Honorable Mentions: Rainmaker – Kazuchika Okada, Meltzer Driver – The Young Bucks, Rainmaker V-Trigger – Kenny Omega/Seth Rollins.

Predicted Winner: One-Winged Angel – Kenny Omega (NJPW).

No move is as protected or ‘feared’ as Kenny Omega’s One-Winged Angel. In what looks to be a year-long storyline between Omega & Okada, a major plot point is that if Kenny hits Okada with the OWA then that’s it, it’s all over for the Rainmaker. To this point, Kenny has only hit Okada with the move once in the 100+ minutes of singles wrestling, and on that occasion Okada only escaped because they were too close to the ropes. The storytelling from Okada, Omega and Gedo (New Japan head booker) here is amazing in today’s wrestling world, and makes it the standout move. While the Rainmaker isn’t as protected as the One-Winged Angel, it is incredibly over, as well as being relatively safe to take. The Meltzer Driver is a few years old now, but with the version the Bucks hit as a tribute of the then-recently deceased Herb Meltzer raising the bar yet again it has a decent shot at winning again. The yet-unnamed finisher of Seth Rollins is a cool move that he blatantly stole from Omega, hence the naming above. The fact that Omega uses it as a spot but not a finish could limit its chances, but you can’t deny it’s a great maneuver.

Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic

Previous Winners: “Insulting fans who purchased PPVs” (WWE – 2014), “Using Reid Fliehr’s death in an angle” (WWE – 2015), “Kimbo vs. Dada 5000 fight” (Bellator MMA – 2016).

Honorable Mentions: AAA stripping Taya of the Reina de Reinas Championship to give it to Sexy Star, WWE making jobber Jinder WWE Champ to target Indian Market, Lucha Underground stop Ricochet from working NJPW in USA show.

Predicted Winner: Impact/GFW Withholding the ‘Broken’ Gimmick.

WWE must have been making an effort to avoid this category, because as far as I can recall they haven’t done anything too bad in a while. In fact, I can’t think of anything too bad anybody really did, at least in the context of the last two years. The worst thing WWE did that I can think of is rapidly pushing Jinder Mahal, who was a literal ‘jobber’, to the top prize in WWE, just because they think his heritage will improve business in India. AAA have a decent chance of winning by stripping Taya of her title, just to give it to an un-retired Sexy Star. They got the belt back by telling Taya’s partner, Johnny Mundo, that they needed the physical belt for a photo shoot, and then stripped the title from her because she no-showed an event she wasn’t booked on. Mundo, it should be noted, currently holds three of AAA’s major men’s single titles. Awkward. On a similar point, the AAA-allied Lucha Underground promotion continues to be unpopular with some of its wrestlers, not allowing a lot of them to work major North American promotions (other than AAA). The most notable case of this being Ricochet, aka LU’s Prince Puma, not being allowed to work New Japan’s G1 Special in Long Beach, despite being a major Jr. Heavyweight star for the company. The front-runner, at least for me, is the continuing saga of Impact/GFW and the formerly Broken Hardys. Both claim ownership of the popular gimmick, and though they’ve come close to making a deal at times, at the time of writing negotiations continue. The worst moment came when it was revealed that the latest offer from GFW was to sell the gimmick to the Hardys in exchange for 10% of their future earnings, including Jeff’s art & music careers. Impact/GFW have denied fans an act that they love, and while you could make an argument that they have a right to do so, negotiating like they have has not helped their public image. I could see it getting worse as well, possibly having ‘fake’ Broken characters like WWF did in 96 with Fake Diesel & Fake Razor Ramon…which at the time won this award. Huh.

Worst Television Show

Previous Winners: WWE Raw (2012), TNA Impact Wrestling (2013), WWE Raw (2014-16).

Honorable Mentions: Impact Wrestling, 205 Live!.

Predicted Winner: WWE Raw.

Last year there were only three nominees for this award: WWE Raw, which won, TNA Impact and Lucha Underground. I don’t think anyone who doesn’t like LU is watching it any more, so I don’t see that winning, and Impact has largely been good this year. Raw, on the other hand, has been just about bearable at its best, completely maddening at its worst – ratings didn’t continuously plunge on their own. Traditionally Raw is at its worst between Summerslam and the Rumble, so I don’t see it getting better. 205 Live! is virtually unwatchable due to the crowd being quieter than an abandoned church on the moon, but the actual in-ring work is consistently great, so if you can ignore the crowd that’s ignoring the wrestling then the show is probably pretty good. In-ring work, as well as the character work of eternal cruiserweight champ Neville, will likely protect 205 Live! from victory.

Worst Match of the Year

Previous Winners: John Cena – Bray Wyatt (Extreme Rules – 2014), Psycho Circus – Villanos (Triplemania – 2015), Shelly Martinez – Rebel (ONO: Knockouts Knockdown – 2016).

Honorable Mentions: Hiroshi Tanahashi – Billy Gunn (G1 Special in USA – Night 2), Bray Wyatt – Randy Orton (House of Horrors) (Payback).

Predicted Winner: Randy Orton – Bray Wyatt (Wrestlemania 33) (WWE)

We’ve had an outstanding year of wrestling so far, which is why it could be hard to find something truly awful. So far, as far as I know, no major promotion has come close to touching the utterly awful Shelly Martinez/Rebel or Psycho Circus/Villanos from years gone by. Absolutely no one expected anything out of Tanahashi/Billy Gunn, but it still somehow disappointed most who watched it. A lot of this was probably due to the Ace of New Japan’s bicep injury, as well as Billy Gunn’s advanced age. People did, however, see some potential in Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton from Wrestlemania. Sure, Orton can be a bit lackadaisical in big matches these days, and Bray hasn’t had the best singles run, but surely a combination of that Wrestlemania hype and the talent of both men would provide at least a solid WWE World Championship match?

Sadly it was not to be. The actual wrestling was non-existent, in that I can’t recall a move other than the RKO that finished the match. If you don’t remember, Bray would get hit with something, or bail out of the ring, and a “spooky image” would be projected on the ring, images of maggots & other creepy-crawlies writhing on the mat. While the House of Horrors was bad, at least they didn’t pretend it was going to be anything other than a badly made Broken Hardys knockoff.

Worst Feud of the Year

Previous Winners: Brie – Nikki Bella (WWE, 2014), P.C.B. – B.A.D – Bellas (WWE, 2015), Titus O’Neill – Darren Young (WWE 2016).

Honorable Mentions: Randy Orton – Bray Wyatt, Josh Mathews – Jeremy Borash, Enzo – Big Cass.

Predicted Winner: Noam Dar – Cedric Alexander – Rich Swann – Alicia Fox (WWE)

While Orton/Wyatt gave us the House of Hardcore, and an awful ‘spoopy’ Mania match, the frontrunner for Worst Feud of the Year has got to be the ballad of Alicia Foooooooooooooooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxx. The feud really started back in January, when something happened between Noam Dar and Cedric & Alicia. If I remember correctly, Noam made creepy advances, separately Cedric began to tire of Alicia, Alicia flirted with Noam to make Cedric jealous and Cedric dumped Alicia. That happened at the beginning of January. We’re in July, and it’s just now finished up…hopefully. It was bad when it started and it’s bad now just thinking about it. Mathews/Borash deserves a mention due to how pointless the feud is, but Mathews’ annoying heel gimmick combined with the supposed blow-off match that turned out to be great means that they probably won’t win, even if the long feud accomplished seemingly nothing. While it’s still early days for the Enzo & Cass split, Enzo has lost every conflict they’ve had in convincing fashion, and not even his promos have been able to save it thus far. The worst thing about it is I don’t quite know where either man fits in the card beyond this program. As ‘stale’ as some may think they’ve gotten, they were likely better off together.

Worst Promotion of the Year

Previous Winners: New Japan Pro Wrestling (2004-05), WWE (2006), TNA/Impact (2007-16).

Honorable Mentions: Global Force Wrestling, WWE

Predicted Winner: AAA

Global Force/TNA & WWE will always be in with a chance of winning this, unless their product is consistently outstanding. If I had to bet money on it, AAA will take home the award for Worst Promotion of the Year. If you’ve read all of this article to this point, you know some of the reasons why. The handling of the situation with Taya and the Reina de Reinas title, potential issues with her multi-champion boyfriend Johnny Mundo, not to mention the controversial way AAA have handled the departure of the former Pentagon Jr., Daga and Garza Jr, with the former having to change his name to the less-catchy Penta El Zero M. While all of this is pretty sketchy, it’s not exactly horrible, but it is, to date, the worst major promotion.

Best Booker

Previous Winners: Gedo & Jado (NJPW, 2011-14), Paul Levesque & Ryan Ward (WWE NXT, 2015), Gedo (NJPW, 2016).

Honorable Mentions: Paul Levesque (WWE NXT), Hunter Johnston/Delirious (ROH).

Predicted Winner: Gedo (NJPW).

I mean, is there anybody else it could be? At the start of 2016 New Japan lost four of their top stars when A.J. Styles, Karl Anderson, Luke ‘Doc’ Gallows and Shinsuke Nakamura signed with WWE. Fast-forward to January 2017, and not only had Gedo rebuilt the company, but arguably it was bigger than ever…but that’s why he won the award last year. Since the start of the year New Japan has contained some of the biggest & best matches and feuds, and while a lot of that is down to the ability and creativity of guys like Omega & Okada, they wouldn’t be in the position to have those great matches without the ‘Raintaker’. Outside of those two you need only look at the rise of Juice Robinson to see what the writing of Gedo can do for a guy’s career. A big proponent of long-term booking, as well as writing captivating stories across New Japan’s many tournaments, Gedo is a surefire winner of this award. The two Hunters have dealt with similar issues as Gedo, losing large parts of their roster throughout the year, and though they’ve both recovered well enough, their upsides can’t compare to the heights of New Japan.

Promoter of the Year

Previous Winners: Dana White (UFC, 2005-13), Takaaki Kidani (NJPW, 2014), Dana White (UFC, 2015-16).

Honorable Mentions: Dana White, Takaaki Kidani, Paul Levesque/HHH.

Predicted Winner: Floyd Mayweather/Conor McGregor.

Okay, so I may be thinking a little bit outside the box here, but quite honestly Conor McGregor deserves this award on its own. He started a little feud with Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather on Twitter, made what we then presumed were jokes about a fight and kept tipping away. And here we are, McGregor/Mayweather is a real thing, it’s actually happening and it may be the biggest drawing fight in the history of combat sports. Combine that with the fact that neither WWE nor UFC have had particularly great years to date and I can’t see anyone else winning this. Maybe Dana White could win it, piggybacking off of the Mayweather thing? Either way, you can’t look beyond the mammoth fight in August.

Best Gimmick

Previous Winners: Rusev & Lana (WWE – 2014), The New Day (WWE – 2015), ‘Broken’ Matt Hardy (Hardys/TNA 2016)

Honorable Mentions: Testsuya Naito, Neville, Braun Strowman.

Predicted Winner: Marty Scurll (ROH, NJPW, Rev Pro etc.)

This one was much harder than I thought it’d be. I originally had Neville in this spot, as his ‘King of the Cruiserweights’ gimmick is arguably the only reason to keep watching 205 Live! week-in and week-out. As great as it is, the fact that it is limited to the cruiserweight division, a division where he has no real credible challengers, damages the gimmick’s effectiveness in my opinion. Therefore, I went with the original close second, ‘The Villain’ Marty Scurll. With relatively little exposure to the Japanese audience, Scurll got over in the famed Korakuen Hall almost instantly. Thus is the strength of his character work & gimmick. The theme, the entrance attire, the birdlike mannerisms, the finger dislocating and the chicken-wing, all work towards and strengthen his gimmick.



I’m really painting an ‘always the bridesmaid, never the bride” picture of Naito with this list, but the tranquilo leader of Los Ingobernables de Japon is just so damn cool & charismatic it’s hard to ignore him. Strowman’s almost retro gimmick of overly large man who smashes things is refreshing in the WWE main event scene, and has helped him to become one of the most popular stars on Raw. Still, anybody who thinks they can beat Marty for this will surely find themselves in a spot of bother.

Worst Gimmick

Previous Winners: Adam Rose (WWE – 2014), Stardust (WWE – 2015), Bone Soldier (NJPW – 2016).

Honorable Mentions: Mike Kanellis.

Predicted Winner: Jim Cornette

This will probably be a bit divisive, if it’s even applicable, but in my opinion the worst gimmick going in wrestling is Jim Cornette’s constant anger at virtually anything new or different in wrestling. I should quickly add, I’ve loved Cornette’s work as a manager, and later as a commentator, in the past, and I’ve even enjoyed one or two of his rants, but his unwillingness to admit that Kenny Omega is talented has just become ridiculous at this point. And while everybody is entitled to their opinions, his recent comparison of Omega to Adolf Hitler highlights how tasteless and how far out of hand this gimmick has gotten. At this point it’s just kind of sad to see what he’ll do for clicks & views.

If it must be an active wrestler, then the only truly awful gimmick I can think of is Mike Kanellis’. If you’ve ever wanted to know what a gimmick designed to bury someone, and maybe break up their marriage, looks like, it’s this. Kanellis, despite having a decent theme and a great manager in his wife Maria, is effectively DOA, with nowhere to go with just a month or so on TV. Sure he could turn it around, but I don’t think even the power of love can help him now.

Best Pro Wrestling Book

Previous Winners: The Death of WCW – 10th Anniversary Ed. (Bryan Alvarez & RD Reynolds – 2014), Yes!: My Improbable Journey to the Main Event of Wrestlemania (Bryan Danielson & Craig Tello, 2015), Ali vs. Inoki (Josh Gross, 2016).

Honorable Mentions: Crazy Is My Superpower: How I Triumphed by Breaking Bones, Breaking Hearts, and Breaking the Rules (AJ Mendez Brooks), NXT: The Future Is Now (Jon Robinson), The Death of WCW Audiobook (RD Reynolds & Bryan Alvarez, narrated by Alvarez).

Predicted Winner: Best Seat in the House: Your Backstage Pass Through My WWE Journey (Justin Roberts).

These last two categories are rough, because not a lot of DVDs or books have been produced this year, to my knowledge, and I certainly haven’t been able to read them myself, so I’m mainly going on what I’ve heard about these through articles, podcasts & general buzz. ‘Best Seat in the House’, the autobiography of former WWE announcer Justin Roberts, received a lot of publicity in March/April when allegations of bullying emerged surrounding John ‘Bradshaw’ Layfield. Roberts’ book contained stories about ‘hazing’ that went on in his time in the WWE, particularly one that occurred on an overseas tour. The other major books published this year, the autobiography of the former-AJ Lee and the NXT hardcover book, certainly have a chance, but I haven’t heard much of either since their release. The Death of WCW book has won this award twice, and if the audiobook counts it may well win a third.

Best Pro Wrestling DVD

Previous Winners: Ladies & Gentlemen, My Name is Paul Heyman (WWE, 2014), Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes! Yes! Yes! (WWE, 2015), WWE 24: Seth Rollins (Redesign, Rebuild, Reclaim) (WWE, 2016).

Honorable Mentions: WWE 24: Finn Balor, WWE 24: Kurt Angle – Homecoming, PWG BOLA – Battle of Los Angeles.

Predicted Winner: Bruiser Brody – Wrestling’s Last Rebel (Highspots).

Same deal as the books, I haven’t seen a lot of the DVDs mentioned. I have seen the WWE 24 specials, and I will watch BOLA when it comes out. As much as I loved the Finn Balor show, it’s really between Kurt Angle & Bruiser Brody. While the popularity of the former may help its chances with the modern fans, the death of Bruiser Brody still has a somewhat mythical air to it in 2017. Brody’s death is almost wrestling’s equivalent to the moon landing, in that we technically know all the facts but there’s so much talk & rumours about it that there’s some part of you that maybe believes the myths. While I haven’t seen the Highspots documentary myself, the reviews so far have been incredible, so it’ll definitely be a hard one to beat.

So that’s it, my predictions for the Observer Awards at the six month mark. Think I’m wrong, stupid, ignorant or a mix of all three? Feel free to comment below or tweet at me.

Rob O’Sullivan – @RBOSull / @JournalistRob