Wrestling Observer News 2015 awards

[Shadowmancer]

LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD AKA WRESTLER OF THE YEAR

AJ Styles
Hiroshi Tanahashi
Kazuchika Okada

MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER

AJ Styles
Shinsuke Nakamura
Hiroshi Tanahashi

FEUD OF THE YEAR

Conor McGregor vs. Jose Aldo
Bayley vs. Sasha Banks
John Cena vs. Kevin Owens

TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR

The Young Bucks, Matt & Nick Jackson
reDRagon, Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly
New Day, Big E., Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods

MOST IMPROVED

Bayley
Moose
Sasha Banks

BEST ON INTERVIEWS/BEST PROMO

Conor McGregor
Paul Heyman
Kevin Owens

MOST CHARISMATIC

Shinsuke Nakamura
Conor McGregor
Hiroshi Tanahashi

BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER

Zack Sabre Jr
Kyle O'Reilly
Timothy Thatcher

BEST BRAWLER

Tomohiro Ishii
Katsuyori Shibata
Kevin Owens

BEST FLYER

Ricochet
Kota Ibushi
Will Ospery

MOST OVERRATED

Kane
Roman Reigns
Sheamus

MOST UNDERRATED

Cesaro
Luke Harper
Neville

PROMOTION OF THE YEAR

NJPW
UFC
Ring of Honor

BEST WEEKLY TV SHOW

NXT
Lucha Underground
New Japan World of Pro Wrestling

MATCH OF THE YEAR

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
Sasha Banks vs. Bayley

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

Chad Gable
Jay White
Dana Brooke

BEST NON-WRESTLER

Dario Cueto
Paul Heyman
Xavier Woods

BEST ANNOUNCER

Mauro Ranallo
Corey Graves
Shimpei Nogami

WORST ANNOUNCER

John Layfield
Michael Cole
Jerry Lawler

BEST MAJOR WRESTLING SHOW

Wrestle Kingdom 9
UFC 189
WrestleMania 31

WORST MAJOR WRESTLING SHOW

AAA Triplemania
WWE Royal Rumble
WWE TLC

BEST WRESTLING MANEUVER

AJ Styles' Styles Clash
Young Bucks' Meltzer Driver
Okada's Rainmaker

MOST DISGUSTING PROMOTIONAL TACTIC

WWE using Reid Flair's death in an angle
WWE Divas Revolution
James Storm kills Mickie James

WORST MATCH OF THE YEAR

Psycho Circus vs. Villianos
Royal Rumble
Big Show vs. Erick Rowan, Stairs Match

WORST FEUD OF THE YEAR

Team PCB vs. Team Bella vs. Team BAD
Seth Rollins vs. Kane
Ziggler & Lana vs. Rusev & Summer Rae

WORST PROMOTION OF THE YEAR

TNA
WWE
AAA

BEST BOOKER

Paul Levesque/Ryan Ward
Gedo
Joe Silva

PROMOTER OF THE YEAR

Dana White
Takaaki Kidani
Paul Levesque

WORST GIMMICK

Stardust
ADR/Mex-America
Divas Revolution

Here are the top 3 for all of the categories for this year. I agree with this list quite a bit more than this forums or the PWI awards. But I am happy for Jay White to get 2nd in rookie of the year, he has had a great year and the booker have confidence in him going forward as well.

 

[Reflection]

Around 95% of the people that nominated and voted in the WZF awards are people like me, who watch only the WWE shows, so it won't have the objectivity of the Wrestling Observer or even the PWI awards. AND because fans on WZ have the tendency to vote for John Cena in almost every good category.
-I agree with Kane being the most overrated, it had to go to either him or Big Show. One is a demon and the other is a giant, but I neither care about them, nor want to watch them Chokeslamming and KO-punching people.
-I am at the three RAW announcers being voted as the three worst announcers in pro wrestling. They really are atrocious.
-I disagree with Luke Harper being voted the second-most underrated wrestler; yes, he is athletic for someone his size but he didn't stand out all that much when he was given a chance to go solo.
-Surprised to see the Styles Clash win Maneuver of the year, after those accidents. They weren't AJ's fault, but still... a surprise there.
-WWE Survivor Series was worse than TLC, in my opinion. Guess the critics noticed something that I didn't.
-NXT rocks, baby! TV show of the year.
-The Royal Rumble match should have been chosen as the Worst match of the year. It would be a perfect "f*ck you too" to the WWE for the arrogant booking that they did.
-Above all, I am heartened to see Bailey and Sasha Banks find a place in three good categories- Most improved, Best feud and Best match. They really earned it.

 

[Shadowmancer]

-The Royal Rumble match should have been chosen as the Worst match of the year. It would be a perfect "f*ck you too" to the WWE for the arrogant booking that they did.

The Rumble Match just was, it was a bad way to book it, but it wasn't objectively bad like Los Villanos and Psycho Circus, it got -5*. That is the only match that got it this year. It has to be incredibly bad to get that

 

[Reflection]

Wow.. now that you mentioned the rating, I think I really have to watch it. The Royal Rumble match had certain strong points against it, and the number of screw-ups that they did in one match... It won't be wrong to call the Royal Rumble match the most anticipated match of the year, people watch the Rumble match with a very positive expectation and enthusiasm, and that was completely shattered last year. The fan-favourite got eliminated like a nobody, other fan-favourites were eliminated by two wrestlers that no one gave a f*** about, the wrestler that they were skeptical of, went on to win the match in the very fashion that they didn't want him to win in. Then they sent The Rock to cool down the fans and send them home less angry. In terms of impact too, they had to make the winner face the fan-favourite in the next PPV to show that he is good enough. He then became the guy that came oh-so-close but not close enough, because the fans didn't want to see him as the World champion. A minus 5 star match is really hard to top (bottom?), but I wonder if even that match had these many things going against it.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

While it's true that the WON awards do seem to be broader than various other wrestling awards, the fans who vote on the awards typically vote for whomever Dave Meltzer wants them to or, at the very least, there are certain wrestlers, promotions and styles that they're insane marks for that Meltzer himself often touts. The PWI Awards are mostly for more "mainstream" fans whereas the WON Awards seem mostly for indie fans/smarks. Many of the awards are exactly as they were last year in terms of the winners. Some awards seem like little more than an excuse to sticking to WWE in some ways like the "Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic." WWE "wins" that one every year all that happened this time around was Paige said Reid Flair's name yet it was voted more heinous than James Storm "killing" Mickie James by pushing her in front of an oncoming train?

One peeve I have is the inclusion of MMA for awards cited for pro wrestling as MMA and pro wrestling are two entirely separate entities with different approaches. I mean...the 1st runner up for the Best Major *WRESTLING* Show was UFC 189.

I do have to say that I find it encouraging to see that Triple H & Ryan Ward won for best booker as they've really been killing it in NXT. NXT was voted the Best Weekly TV Show for the 3rd consecutive year. I don't expect AJ Styles to be Wrestler of the Year or Most Outstanding Wrestler next year as he's WWE bound and won't be working for Meltzer's favorite, New Japan Pro Wrestling, in 2016.

 

[Navi]

Wow they really like NJPW and really hate the WWE. I think it's hilarious.

Do agree with the Most Underrated Group of Cesaro, Harper and Neville. These guys are certainly worth the investment to at least try and give them pushes.

Most overrated being Kane. I can kind of see that. At his age being featured prominently over the course of the last year was kind of silly. Surprised at Reigns being in that group though, but can see why. The rest of the roster has been forgotten about in the attempt to get him over.

LMAO at the three worst announcers and the three worst feuds all being WWE. That was spot on. But Bayley, Sasha Banks and NXT as a whole getting high marks was nice to see.

Again strange how two lists this one and the one from PWI can be so different yet cover the same small world of professional wrestling. It's almost like one is from Venue the other Mars.

 

[Shadowmancer]

Wow they really like NJPW and really hate the WWE. I think it's hilarious.

Thats because New Japan has had a pretty good year for a holding year, all those matches that are brought up are good matches and tell good stories. There is a bias there but it is more that the likes of Dragongate and DDT not being as popular stateside. New Japan also has the entire getting more eyes on its product this past year with WK9 and New Japan World and the AXS show.

 

[Reflection]

So I watched that -5 star rated match between Psycho Circus and Villanos last night, and it was absolutely hilarious! I doubt if they were even trying to have a serious match. Everything about it, the two referees, the terrible punches, one of the Villanos just walking around here and there the entire time, the ridiculous triple-team move, Team 3D's Whassup?, stopping the pinfall midway like The Undertaker... everything about it was funny for the wrong reasons. I wish the guys at WON had treated this match as a joke, and ranked it #2 or #3; this match won't even be remembered in a couple of years.