I'm a big Meltzer fan, always have been. I don't give a fuck if that makes me your typical ultra smarky-smark, the man has consistently been the single best wrestling journalist in the business for well over twenty years now. Let's take a look at the awards this year, see how I might or might not agree with him.
Best Wrestler - Chris Jericho (2nd year running)
Can't really agree there. Jericho had a great year, no doubt about it, he started of the year great bringing out the best out of what everyone thought was an over-the-hill Ricky Steamboat, and going on to have several Match of the Year candidates with Rey Mysterio over the summer, as well as continue to be relevant with the surprisingly good Jerishow tag team. A solid year for sure, but best wrestler? Not sure I can agree there. I might rank Styles and maybe Punk above him, I know I'd rank Danielson, KENTA, Davey Richards, and Naruki Doi all easily ahead of Jericho in terms of consistently excellent match quality, but that's more because Jericho hasn't been booked very well for most of the year and hasn't really been given a shot to go at it full force in the ring. I'd also rank Hiroshi Tanahashi, Takashi Sugiura, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Katsuhiko Nakajima above Jericho right now. That's not disrespect to Jericho, it's just the truth from the wrestling I've seen around the globe in 2009.
MMA Most Valuable Fighter - Brock Lesnar (Duh)
Yeah, seeing as how he's the UFC Heavyweight champ and won it in resounding fashion, that's an easy one. Perhaps with Fedor in Strikeforce in 2010 this may be his year.
Most Outstanding Wrestler - Bryan Danielson (4th year running)
Don't think I could disagree there. Never really got what the subtle differences in some of these awards are though. Again, there are some other names I'd argue next to Danielson, but he'd certainly be in the running.
Biggest Box Office Draw - Brock Lesnar (2nd year running)
UFC 100 did make gangbusters. No shocker there.
Feud of the Year - Jeff Hardy vs. CM Punk
Agree here as well, atleast when it comes to the mainstream promotions. Punk and Hardy put on one of the best feuds I've seen in the WWE in years and it's a fucking shame it had to end prematurely.
Tag Team of the Year - American Wolves
Definitely no arguing here from me either. Maybe you could argue MCMG with their solid IWGP Jr. Tag Title reign and the series of great matches they had with Apollo 55 but the Wolves have just been on fire for a long time now, both Richards and Edwards are one of the best teams I've seen in awhile.
Most Improved - Miz (2nd year running, only he and Lesnar have won it twice)
Maybe. I don't think I'd agree though. Miz is certainly good, even borderline great, but he's still got a good ways to go before he can break through the midcard. I may have gone with a dark horse candidate like Muta who has been better this past year than he has in long time in the ring. Miz was just missing a real juicy feud in 2009 to make him the most improved IMO. I understand why he got the award though.
Best on Interviews - Chris Jericho (2nd Year Running)
Solid choice there, but I would have went with CM Punk here. He cut some of the best promos the WWE has seen since the Attitude Era.
Most Charismatic - John Cena (4th year running)
Hard to argue there. Punk captured my attention more than any other wrestler in 2009 probably though.
Best Technical Wrestler - Bryan Danielson (5th year running)
Hard to argue there again. Infact, yeah, even in a bit of a down year Danielson is still probably the best technical wrestler in the game today.
Best Brawler - Necro Butcher (2nd year running)
I'd begrudgingly have to agree. I've never liked Necro, but somehow he has become damn fun to watch over the past few years in ROH and FIP among other indies. I've never been much of a deathmatch fan, but it's hard to argue when it comes to straight-up brawling that Butcher is probably the best in the game right now.
Best Flying Wrestler - Kota Ibushi (From a small Japanese company)
Technically you could call DDT Ibushi's home promotion, but he wrestles just about everywhere, from ROH to PWG to Chikara to NJPW and NOAH. He's definitely a phenomenal wrestler and a guy I've loved to watch all year long, but I would have put KENTA ahead of Ibushi here.
Most Overrated - HHH (4th time he's won but not in a row)
I guess so. I can't remember a single particularly good singles match he's had this year. Legacy and DX had a few solid matches over the summer-fall, but that's about it. Not a particularly good year for HHH, but don't think I'd call him the most overrated. No, the most overrated has to be Tiger Mask IV. I almost shed tears of joy when I heard Marufuji finally won the title from him at Wrestle Kingdom IV. I mean, the guy isn't a bad wrestler particularly, but he's not just nowhere near as good as he's been pushed to be, and he has just been pushed to the fucking moon.
Most Underrated - Evan Bourne
Ehhh, leaning towards no there. In fact definitely not. Muta might just win this as well for me, I don't know
how the fuck the guy keeps doing it at his age and with his knees, but he somehow almost always seems to deliver the goods.
Promotion of the Year - UFC (4th year running, despite it not being a WRESTLING company it wins a WRESTLING Observer award)
He's always included "shoot" wrestling companies into this category though KB, so yes UFC would technically fall under that category, and it most certainly is promoted just as wrestling is. Last I heard MMA was still beating the hell out of wrestling these days.
Best Weekly TV Show - Friday Night Smackdown (Breaks Ultimate Fighter's four year win streak)
Definitely over the summer. Infact considering just how good some of the matches over the summer on Smackdown were, I'd tend to agree here. Jericho, Mysterio, Morrison, Punk, Hardy, and Ziggler could be the new Smackdown Six, atleast for 2009.
Most Outstanding Fighter - GSP
For sure. He's just fucking annihilisted his weight division.
Match of the Year - Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels: Wrestlemania 25
This is where I'd disagree for sure. I mean, this was a GREAT match no fucking doubt about it, but there were several matches I had rated about the 'Taker-HBK match from Wrestlemania. I believe I had the WM 25 match rated at about ****1/4 or ****1/2 stars, but the triple threat match from Turning Point of Styles vs. Joe vs. Daniels was better, had that at ****3/4 stars. I also had Rey Mysterio and Chris Jericho's match at the Great American Bash of Mask vs. Title at ****3/4 stars, as well as two other matches, Nigel McGuinness vs. KENTA from ROH and KENTA vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima, both from March of this past year, both of which also I had rated at ****3/4 stars. I'd also argue that Danielson and Naruki Doi's match from the second Dragon Gate PPV was just as good as the HBK-Taker Wrestlemania match. Yeah, can't agree with Meltzer here, but I understand why the match got the award. I can only imagine how fun that match was to watch live.
Fight of the Year - Sanchez vs. Guida
I would have went with Couture vs. Nogueira actually, but that was a great fight as well.
Rookie of the Year - Frightmare
No. Just no. Maybe it's because I'm not as keen on Chikara as everyone else seems to be, but I just can't agree here. Not sure who I'd rank over him, but I just can't agree here.
Best Non-Wrestler - Vickie Guerrero
...What?!
Best TV Announcer - Jim Ross
Don't think I could agree here. JR has sounded completely uninterested for quite some time now. I think it's only a matter of time before he retires.
Worst TV Announcer - Michael Cole
No arguments here. Cole is simply terrible.
Best Major Show - Open the Historic Gate
I have to agree here as well. The second show, Untouchable and TNA's Turning Point would also be in the running here.
Worst Major Show - Victory Road
Bad show, but so were most of the TNA PPVs the first half of this year.
Absolutely disagree here, Raw has been much, much worse. Granted Impact only started getting awesome in the fall, but it has been consistently the best wrestling show on TV right now since October, and continues to be presently.
Worst Promotion of the Year - TNA (3rd year running)
I really wanted to disagree here, but honestly I can see where Meltzer is coming from. TNA was pretty fucking bad for the first eight or so months of this year and only got really good around Bound for Glory. Just because it's been solid since then doesn't mean it makes up for those first 8 months though, so I understand Meltzer here. Considering how highly he's rated a slew of TNA matches since BFG, I know he doesn't think TNA is as bad as it may seem he's making it out to be.
Absolutely agree. This was the year that Punk finally became a legitimate main eventer in the WWE and solidified his status as the future of this business.
Worst Gimmick - Hornswoggle
Again, agreed. I cannot underrate just how unentertaining he is.
And those are all of the awards I cared to comment on. Wow, I kind of ranted there. Anyways, yeah, seems like Meltzer was mostly spot-on this year though. A few things I disagree with but for the most part Meltzer hit the nail on the head as usual.
