Observer Awards 2011 - My Ballot (now w/ RESULTS)

[Reject]

I've spent most of the afternoon completing my ballot whilst I should be working. Anyway, thought I would share. You can read previous winners here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wrestling_Observer_Newsletter_awards

Let me know your views on my picks and who you'd choose.

"CATEGORY A" AWARDS. PICK A FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD PLACE FINISHER IN EACH CATEGORY. POINTS WILL BE AWARDED ON A 5-3-2 BASIS. THE WINNER OF THE AWARD IS DETERMINED BY TOTAL POINTS.

1. LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD: 1) John Cena, 2) Hiroshi Tanahashi 3) Yuji Nagata

2. MMA MOST VALUABLE FIGHTER: Not voting as do not follow MMA.

3. MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER: 1) Davey Richards, 2) Hiroshi Tanahashi 3) Kurt Angle

4. MOST OUTSTANDING FIGHTER: Not voting as do not follow MMA.

5. BEST BOX OFFICE DRAW: Not voting as do not follow MMA and UFC guys own this.

6. FEUD OF THE YEAR: 1) Colt Cabana vs. Weedman 2) CM Punk vs. John Cena 3) Davey Richards vs. Eddie Edwards

7. TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR: 1) Benjamin and Haas 2) Jay and Mark Briscoe 3) Hero and Castagnoli

8. MOST IMPROVED: 1) Cody Rhodes 2) Wade Barratt 3) Robbie E

9. BEST ON INTERVIEWS: 1) The Rock 2) CM Punk 3) Colt Cabana

10. MOST CHARISMATIC: 1) The Rock 2) John Cena 3) Colt Cabana

11. BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER: 1) Davey Richards, 2) Yuji Nagata 3) Kurt Angle

12. BRUISER BRODY MEMORIAL AWARD: 1) Corporal Robinson 2) Bully Ray 3) Abyss

13. BEST FLYING WRESTLER: 1) Kota Ibushi, 2. Prince Devitt, 3. Brian Kendrick

14. MOST OVERRATED: 1) Sin Cara 2) Matt Hardy 3) Matt Morgan

15. MOST UNDERRATED: 1) The Pope D'Angelo Dinero, 2) Brian Kendrick 3) Robbie E

16. PROMOTION OF THE YEAR: 1) JCW, 2) ROH 3) WWE

17. BEST WEEKLY TV SHOW: 1) Superstars 2) Smackdown, 3) Raw

18. PRO Sports Entertainment MATCH OF THE YEAR: John Cena vs CM Punk @ MITB, Davey Richards vs. Eddie Edwards @ Best in the World, Triple H vs. Undertaker @ WrestleMania

19. MMA MATCH OF THE YEAR: Not voting as do not follow MMA.

20. ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Need a nominees list to choose as many rookies I may vote for may not be eligible.

21. BEST NON-WRESTLER PERFORMER: 1) Vicki Guerrero, 2) Ricardo Rodriguez 3) Eric Bischoff

22. BEST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER: 1) Kevin Gill 2) Kevin Kelly 3) Jim Ross

23. WORST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER: 1) Taz 2) Booker T 3) Michael Cole

24. BEST MAJOR SHOW: 1) Money in the Bank 2) Hatchet Attacks 3) Destination X

"CATEGORY B" AWARDS. PICK ONE IN EACH CATEGORY. WINNER CHOSEN ON THE BASIS OF FIRST PLACE VOTES.

1. WORST MAJOR SHOW OF THE YEAR: Victory Road

2. BEST Sports Entertainment MANEUVER: Starship Pain

3. MOST DISGUSTING PROMOTIONAL TACTIC: A Jeff Jarrett vs. Kurt Angle match for custody of Angle's kids

4. WORST TELEVISION SHOW: NXT

5. WORST MATCH OF THE YEAR: Jeff Jarrett vs. Kurt Angle (MMA Exhibition)

6. WORST FEUD OF THE YEAR: Samoa Joe vs. The Pope D'Angelo Dinero

7. WORST PROMOTION: TNA

8. BEST BOOKER: Mike Quackenbush.

9. PROMOTER OF THE YEAR: Mike Quackenbush.

10. BEST GIMMICK: Officer Colt Cabana

11. WORST GIMMICK: Johnny Curtis NXT winner can't get on TV

12. BEST Sports Entertainment BOOK: Undisputed by Chris Jericho

13. BEST PRO Sports Entertainment DVD: True Story of WrestleMania

[jacknewbury]

What's the difference between that Lou Thesz/Ric Flair thing and the Most Outstanding Wrestler?

[Reject]

1. LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD - This is open to pro wrestlers, for a combination of everything, being both important and influential this year in a positive manner from a business perspective, combining both box office impact as well as strong match quality in worked matches. Last year's top three were John Cena, Takashi Sugiura and Masato Yoshino.

3. MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER: This is based on working ability in the ring only. Simply, the best workers in the world on a consistent basis over the past year. Drawing power, charisma and push shouldn't be considered. Last year's top three were Daniel Bryan(winning it for the fifth year in a row), Davey Richards and Prince Devitt.

[jacknewbury]

These don't seem as coveted as Dave's DDT Awards. But, I'll give some of my thoughts/temporary picks for some of the Category A stuff and probably some comments on yours. I'm still trying to catch up on a decent bit of puro by the end of the year as well.

On the Wrestler of the year, and both those descriptions overlap for me, so, I wouldn't separate them, but, Shinsuke Nakamura would probably be on the list, but, I'm not sure on the other two spots.

14. MOST OVERRATED: 1) Sin Cara 2) Matt Hardy 3) Matt Morgan

This one I can do pretty easily.

1. Davey Richards 2. Randy Orton 3. Kota Ibushi

18. PRO WRESTLING MATCH OF THE YEAR: John Cena vs CM Punk @ MITB, Davey Richards vs. Eddie Edwards @ Best in the World, Triple H vs. Undertaker @ WrestleMania

I haven't seen Taker/Hs, but, Cena/Punk is one of the few WWE PPV matches I've seen.

Since I think Wrestling Observer includes last December for some weird reason, Steen/Generico would be my pretty easy #1 and as of right now I'd probably have Edwards/Daniels from ROH 9th Anniversary as my #2 with Cena/Punk third. Maybe the Briscoes/ANX match from Atlanta, would need to re-watch, though.

9. BEST ON INTERVIEWS: 1) The Rock 2) CM Punk 3) Colt Cabana

I'd flip Rock and Punk. No comment on a third, though.

6. FEUD OF THE YEAR: 1) Colt Cabana vs. Weedman 2) CM Punk vs. John Cena 3) Davey Richards vs. Eddie Edwards

Richards/Edwards as a feud has fucking sucked. I can't think of anything really, but Briscoes/All Night Express would probably be my ROH feud of the year.

[Dave Dubya]

Wrestling is still real to the Observer.

[cbpulse]

Robbie E. on any ballot for anything positive truly disturbs me.

[Angry Gorilla]

TL,DR

I vote for Mantaur.

[jacknewbury]

Dec 3, 2011 10:37:16 GMT -5 cbpulse said:

Robbie E. on any ballot for anything positive truly disturbs me.

Welcome to Reject.

[Blair The Great]

On what basis did Cody Rhodes, Wade Barrett, or Robbie E improve? That's like saying Shaemus or Mark Henry have improved.

[jacknewbury]

I'd certainly argue that Mark Henry has improved this year.

[Dave Dubya]

Dec 2, 2011 10:56:03 GMT -5 Reject said:

1. LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD: 1) John Cena, 2) Hiroshi Tanahashi 3) Yuji Nagata

Why is it both the Lou Thesz and the Ric Flair award?

13. BEST FLYING WRESTLER:

Humans cannot fly unaided (the wrestling world knows this all too well), and I don't think aircraft or similar contraptions are allowed in the wrestling ring.

14. MOST OVERRATED:2) Matt Hardy 3) Matt Morgan

Have either of these been "rated" in any way in the past year?

16. PROMOTION OF THE YEAR: 1) JCW

Seriously?

9. PROMOTER OF THE YEAR: Mike Quackenbush.

I don't even know who he works for now. Which suggests he's not really that good at promotion.

[Lurk]

Dec 3, 2011 18:36:47 GMT -5 jacknewbury said:

I'd certainly argue that Mark Henry has improved this year.

Well he's been booked as a main eventer this year, not that neccesarily he's been any better.

[jacknewbury]

Dec 3, 2011 18:50:50 GMT -5 Lurk said:

Dec 3, 2011 18:36:47 GMT -5 jacknewbury said:

I'd certainly argue that Mark Henry has improved this year.

Well he's been booked as a main eventer this year, not that neccesarily he's been any better.

To me, he has been better. I don't know necessarily between this year and LAST year, but, between this year and past years...I think he's clearly improved in the ring. I haven't seen all of his PPV work, but, a decent amount of his TV work and I definitely think he's gotten a lot better in terms of pacing and providing focus within his matches. It's definitely been a surprise to me that Henry has actually been fairly good this year, which strikes me as improvement.

[Blair The Great]

Dec 3, 2011 18:36:47 GMT -5 jacknewbury said:

I'd certainly argue that Mark Henry has improved this year.

Shut up, Jack.

[itskon]

Dec 3, 2011 18:25:35 GMT -5 Blair The Great said:

On what basis did Cody Rhodes improve?

Kneepads

[Reject]

Dec 3, 2011 10:37:16 GMT -5 cbpulse said:

Robbie E. on any ballot for anything positive truly disturbs me.

Whilst I am not a fan of the gimmick, he does it well and I think he is very underrated by most fans, your comment goes someway to show that.

I think TNA should re-package him witha more serious gimmick.

[Reject]

Dec 3, 2011 18:49:02 GMT -5 Dave Dubya said:

Dec 2, 2011 10:56:03 GMT -5 Reject said:

1. LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD: 1) John Cena, 2) Hiroshi Tanahashi 3) Yuji Nagata

Why is it both the Lou Thesz and the Ric Flair award?

Humans cannot fly unaided (the wrestling world knows this all too well), and I don't think aircraft or similar contraptions are allowed in the wrestling ring.

Have either of these been "rated" in any way in the past year?

Seriously?

9. PROMOTER OF THE YEAR: Mike Quackenbush.

I don't even know who he works for now. Which suggests he's not really that good at promotion.

Thesz/Flair award as Meltzer loves them and considers them best wrestlers ever as far as I know.

JCW has been most enjoyable wrestling for me in 2011. Has an early ECW feel about it.

Matt Hardy and Matt Morgan have both been featured heavily on TNA at different times, and neither ability nor performances warranted it in my opinion. So I would say very overrated by TNA.

Quackenbush owns Chikara, and King of Trios got tons of coverage this year.

[fdswayze]

I got no problem with your list Reject. I just think some people are surprised that you are a juggalo now.