That was an
award, not proof that Austin was the top draw in '99, read this:
It's laughable that you are questioning the authenticity of this award when you have basically not given any proof till now that Rock was the top draw. For all the proof that you have tried to muster up, you have only come up with Rock drawing more in big arenas. "Rock was the biggest draw of 1999" is a statement that I have never heard till now in any of the articles that you have provided.
Also, there are lots of industry insiders who take part in this voting process. Dave Meltzer might also have done some research before giving the award. It is not as if he would have given the award to Funaki if the fans would have voted so.
First of all, the awards don't even cover the calendar year, it covers the time period from 12/1/98 to 11/30/99 (December 1998 is not 1999, does December 1999 not exist?).
December 1999 is obviously covered in the next year. At any rate it still covers one whole year which is as good an indicator as any. Also this should benefit Rock if anything else. Wasn't Rock champion in December 1998? Still, he hasn't won? That's rather amusing.
Secondly, The Rock wrestled more than Austin did in 1999, most notably from August-December since Rock wasn't a heel anymore by that time, duh! Just bringing up who headlined the PPVs is not even close to enough proof Austin was the top draw for the year. And you can't even say Austin was the bigger draw in the fall, because The Rock wrestled way more than he did.
The guy who headlines a PPV gets the most credit for drawing fans into the PPV. Are you serious here? I am asking this because you have used the same logic to state that Rock was a bigger draw in one of the links that you posted and yet when I state the same reason for Austin, you are just regarding it as bullcrap. Here is wha one of your links say:
Rock did set the all-time pro wrestling record for headlining the most shows that drew more than 10,000 fans paid during 1999
So headlining most shows that drew more than 10000 fans matters for Rock but Austin headlining most PPV's does not prove that he is the bigger draw. That's a rather hypocritical thing to say.
But of course if Austin was named the top draw in '99 instead of The Rock in the sites I brought up, no one would've had anything to say.
That may be the case but that is not because everyone is biased towards Austin but because Austin had already won the biggest draw award in 1999 and his name coming up on those sites would have only gone with what had already been mentioned.
You are basically trying to use these sites as proof that Rock drew more than Austin despite the fact that it says nowhere that every arena big or small has been taken into consideration. In fact, it clearly states that only big arenas have been taken into consideration. That is why people are unwilling to accept this as any proof.
The difference between a most popular wrestler award and a box office office draw award is you don't need numbers or figures to determine who was the most popular wrestler that year. The best box office draw award is who in their opinion was the top draw for the year, not who actually was the top draw.
Uh, where is this most popular wrestler award you keep talking about? I have never heard of this award as far as the WON is concerned. There is one such award that PWI institutes and The Rock has indeed won that award in 1999. Austin came second but that is also no proof of Rock being the number one draw that year. RVD won that in both 2001 and 2002, though, basically killing all credibility that the award might have had prior to that.
