Hi! My name is Bryan Rose and I’m new here at SLTD. I’ll be covering PPVs for WWE, TNA and New Japan, but I’ll also have something up every week with my general thoughts on pro-wrestling.
This week, we witnessed the fallout of the Wrestling Observer awards, which always bring about much contention within the wrestling world. For me, they went about as expected, although there were a few that surprised me. I think once you read my thoughts on the awards, you’ll get a better understanding of what I like and I don’t like in the world of pro-graps!
Wrestler of the Year: Hiroshi Tanahashi
My Pick: Hiroshi Tanahashi
I couldn’t think of anyone else deserving of the award this year. Kazuchika Okada is the closest at second, but I think in terms of performances, Tanahashi had stellar matches against a lot of key names. Okada did too, but they weren’t as spectacular as Tanahashi’s. Considering he’s 37 and the style they do in Japan isn’t pretty, I don’t know how much Tanahashi has left in the tank, but we’ll see how 2014 fares for him. I voted for John Cena in third. He had some great matches last year and while CM Punk is worthy of a mention as well, I think Cena edges him just a little bit as the best big match guy in North America in 2013.
Most Outstanding Wrestler: Hiroshi Tanahashi
My Pick: Hiroshi Tanahashi
He was pretty outstanding this year, that’s to say the least. He was awesome in matches against Okada, Ishii, both members of the Killer Elite Squad, and so many others this year, that he deserves to be on top. I thought this one was closer than the Wrestler of the Year category because you can say the same for Okada, but again, I think Tanahashi edges him out here.
Best Box Office Draw: Georges St. Pierre
My pick: Georges St. Pierre
The Rock and John Cena helped make WrestleMania into a big time money maker in 2013, and while they’re the big draws in WWE, they didn’t do anything significantly anywhere else this year, at least in terms of buyrates. Georges St. Pierre did, so he walks away with the award this year.
Feud of the Year: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada
My Pick: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada
Their rivalry rivals Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat as one of the all-time great wrestling feuds. They fought 4 times this year, 3 of them at the ****3/4 mark and 1 at the ***** mark (my ratings), so if you haven’t seen these two go at it yet, listen up – DO IT! They were all amazing matches, even the one that ended in a draw. Nothing else even came close, but the Lesnar/Punk stuff was good in the WWE this year, so I have to give a shout out to that.
Tag-Team of the Year: Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins
My Pick: Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins
All three members of The Shield were excellent this year. They’ve consistently had great matches on Raw and SmackDown, as well as on PPV, so the nod here is very much deserved. A shout-out also has to go to Cody Rhodes and Goldust as they’re a fantastic team. Goldust has been awesome this year, without a doubt.
Most Charismatic: Hiroshi Tanahashi
My Pick: John Cena
Finally, we differ! I think John Cena gets a bigger reaction out there than Tanahashi does, but Tanahashi is more universally loved in Japan than Cena, who usually gets a mixed reaction due to the way they portray him. I won’t disagree with Tanahashi getting the award, but I do think Cena should have won here. Rock got a lot of votes too, but considering he was only around for a few months I didn’t think he made as big an impact as he could have in this category.
Most Improved: Roman Reigns
My Pick: Roman Reigns
Looking at him from his time in NXT, you knew Roman Reigns had something. Something that made people look at him and go “he’s going to be a star”. I think he got called up too early, but as he grew into his role as a member of The Shield and wrestled a bunch of times on WWE programing, he became pretty damn good. In due time I think he can be a big part of the WWE, and they’ve been teasing a singles run with him for a while now, so it will be fascinating to see where 2014 takes Reigns. I think he can only get better from here. Oh, and his Superman punch is GREAT.
Best on Interviews: Paul Heyman
My pick: Paul Heyman
This was a tough category because no-one stood out. Nick Diaz talked a lot of crap about GSP, but that was early in the year. Then, he (supposedly) retired. Bray Wyatt has excellent delivery, but often, his promos don’t really go anywhere. I voted for Paul Heyman because his stuff with CM Punk was pretty damn good, as well his stuff in the feud with Triple H. Nothing really stood out, but still pretty great.
Best Technical Wrestler: Daniel Bryan
My Pick: Hiroshi Tanahashi
OK. I don’t really know what to base this award on, so I just did it based on who can have a great match with anyone on the roster, good or bad. I think Daniel Bryan won this one because he’s won it for the last 8 years. There’s no doubt that he deserves it, but I think this award is a bit antiquated because I’m not really sure what it’s about. Maybe it’s time to retire it?
Best Brawler: Katsuyori Shibata
My Pick: Katsuyori Shibata
Geez did he ever deserve to win this award! Shibata ruled 2013 with his brutal suplexes and devastating kicks, and had some of the stiffest matches known to man against the likes of Tomohiro Ishii and Hirooki Goto. Ishii is also known for his stiff style and held his own big-time, but in the end, Shibata was more consistent in being stiff and if anyone deserved to win this award in 2013, it had to be the guy who makes me wince every time he runs to do that running dropkick to the corner.
Best High Flyer: Kota Ibushi
My Pick: Kota Ibushi
Ibushi was the best high flyer in New Japan, so he got my vote this year, even though I’m sure there are more spectacular flyers in Mexico. No-one in WWE really does any great high-flying, so that leaves them out. Regardless of who’s out there, no-one can deny Ibushi does some really damn impressive dives and makes it look easy.
Most Overrated: Randy Orton
My Pick: Ryback
Orton is good at what he does. He’s charismatic and, with the right guy, he can have a pretty damn good match. I think he got a lot of votes because of his role in The Authority angle that plagued us during the fall.
He’s a handpicked World Champion who plays second fiddle to the real top stars, the McMahons. In that sense, I can see him as an overrated. Ryback’s bad in the ring, never got over the same as his push (which isn’t entirely his fault) and at the end of the day, is probably right where he needs to be.
I think this award is voted based on what you define as overrated. If you think in terms of push, Orton is fine. If you think in terms of workrate, Ryback is a good choice.
Most Underrated: Antonio Cesaro
My Pick: Antonio Cesaro
Cesaro is someone who is just way, way better than his push. When given the time, he has excellent matches. The problem is that he’s saddled with a midcard gimmick, manager and tag-team partner.
I’m hoping there’s a split coming soon, because Cesaro’s better than just being in a mid-card tag-team. He can be a big player if WWE present him that way.
Ziggler’s another good pick here. Something happened during the summer and man, did he fall off a cliff fast in terms of a push? Now he’s at the Miz’s level, where no-one seems to react to him because they know his place on the card. It’s really sad considering where he was at this time last year.
Promotion of the Year: New Japan Pro Wrestling
My Pick: New Japan Pro Wrestling
Easy choice here. UFC had a good year, but over-saturation is starting to become very apparent. WWE was profitable this year and had some fine matches, but they went nowhere creatively, especially in the fall when The Authority angle started and went south quickly. New Japan, while not as profitable as the other two, solidified itself as the number 2 pro wrestling company in the world, and had the hottest matches and angles to boot.
Best Weekly TV Show: WWE NXT
My Pick: WWE Raw
I guess you can make a case for NXT. Most of the angles are fine, there are some good matches on there from time to time and it’s only an hour so it doesn’t drag. I picked Raw because, out of all the television shows this year, they had the best matches out of any of them. The Shield matches were usually the highlight of Raw this year, along with some great ones from Daniel Bryan, as well as the Punk/Cena match from February that was my favorite match of the year in WWE.
Wrestling Match of the Year: Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (4/7)
My Pick: Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (4/7)
Considering these guys wrestled four times this year and every one of them was outstanding, the question you may ask is “what makes this match different from the rest?”. Well, it’s simple – right setting, right heat, right storyline, right victory. This match had all of that, plus it was a damn excellent match. Their draw at the G1 was great and the Tokyo Dome and October matches were great, but they weren’t as great as this.
Best Television Announcer: William Regal
My Pick: Mike Goldberg
I probably should have changed this. I don’t watch a ton of NXT, but I enjoy Regal far more than anyone else, probably because he doesn’t annoy me. That’s my criteria for best announcer these days, it’s who annoys me the least. Goldberg, while extremely robotic and usually has nothing of interest to say, doesn’t annoy me as much as everyone else from mainstream TV announcing in either pro wrestling or MMA. So therefore, in my book, that makes him the BEST ANNOUNCER OF 2013!
Best Non-Wrestling Personality: Paul Heyman
My Pick: Paul Heyman
He’s the best at what he does in WWE. None of the authority figures are any good. Colter’s OK, but he could be better and while I like Gedo in New Japan, his inability to speak English makes it difficult to vote for him, but he’s great regardless. Heyman made every one of his angles better than they would have been without him, so he gets my vote.
Worst Television Announcer: Taz
My Pick: JBL
This is the only one that baffled me. Taz is bad, that’s for sure, but he didn’t even make my top 3!
JBL is, without a doubt, the most grating announcer I’ve heard in quite some time. I don’t even know how that happened, because I thought he was pretty good on SmackDown a few years ago, but he’s back and has been terrible all year.
First of all, he’s Vince McMahon’s new puppet, so you know when Vince McMahon wants to take his frustrations out on someone, it’s going to be done in JBL’s voice. Second, he has nothing of value to say. Ever. He repeats himself way too often, using the same cliches over and over. Third, guess who’s usually the first one to derail the commentary with inside jokes that take away from the match?
I could go on and on, but I think you got my point. I mean, if anyone deserved to win it this year, it’s JBL, and the fact that he didn’t is astounding.
Rookie of the Year: Yohei Komatsu
My Pick: Sho Tanaka
Both of these guys have a lot of potential. They’re both from the New Japan dojo and have been wrestling on smaller cards. Both of them are obviously green, but they’re already pretty good at this point, so once they go on their excursions and return with pushes, they’re going to be pretty great. Watch out for both of them in the near future.
Card of the Year: New Japan G-1 8/4
My Pick: New Japan WrestleKingdom 7
In terms of spectacle and match quality, the WrestleKingdom show is the best show I’ve ever seen live. It just had an incredible card with an awesome main-event.
Day 8 of the G1 was pretty damn incredible, with Ishii/Shibata and Ibushi/Nakamura particular highlights, but that only got third place in my book, with the Invasion Attack’s terrific main-event, featuring the Match of the Year, inching ahead at the number 2 spot.
Still, the G-1 show was incredible and I have no qualms about it being voted the best card of the year. If you missed out on any of these 3 cards, watch them now – you won’t regret it.
And that’s the big awards sorted out! All in all, I was fine with most of the winners, barring one dubious snub that will leave me scratching my head for a while. But 2013 was a fun year for wrestling in general if you looked in the right places. New Japan had a great year, and when you look at it in terms of workrate, WWE had a great year too. TNA existed, which is putting it nicely considering their prior years of being horrendous.
That’ll do it for me today. Stay tuned to SLTD for more from me. Until then…
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