The 2010 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Annual Awards

Besides, calling it one of the best years for a wrestler ever when he's made no impact on ratings and buyrates is a tad bit silly.

So when Miz's reign has seen it hit 3.3 and Sheamus and Orton had it down lower means that they're not draws? So, Miz is a higher draw than Orton?
 
John Cena being 10th on interviews, behind CM Punk of all people, is laughable. First of all, they ought to put wrestlers and MMA fighters on separate lists, as those are two very different interviews. MMA fighters are speaking from the heart, wrestlers speak based on the persona they are presenting. Furthermore, find one CM Punk promo that had the stuff that makes guys legends. He didn't have one. John Cena could cut legendary promos in his sleep. Everything he said during the Nexus feud was provocative, and the IWC shit itself over CM Punk's commentary (which I will admit I enjoyed, but mostly because he was funny, not insightful) because he talked about his diet soda.

I am happy to see Randy Orton at the top of that most overrated list. He deserves it. Randy Orton isn't a guy I don't like... I just think his Viper persona and gimmick are awful. The fact that he is cheered for doesn't make any sense to me. I am not happy Kane topped the list off, though I can see why. His title run was not that great, but I blame that more on the booking instead of Kane.

Christian on the underrated list? What do people see in him? He was never a big enough draw to be the champ in the big leagues, and he's only gotten older since he was even close enough to being able to capture that WWE Title. If he stayed in the WWE, he may have eventually gotten a title reign or two, but he threw that away when he went to TNA. He is not underrated. I would also argue Kaval is about perfectly rated. Everyone knows that this guy is extremely talented, it's just the fact that he's hard to book for a company like WWE that doesn't have a ton of guys that it looks like he could really beat. He didn't fit in at the WWE, but that doesn't mean people don't realize how good he is.

I don't get Promotion of the Year either. It makes perfect sense to me that UFC is number one, and it should be, but how does Ring of Honor rank higher than WWE? Are their matches really THAT much better than WWE's that it makes them a better company? Do profitability and public exposure mean nothing?

Percy Watson got mentioned as a rookie of the year? He ranked sixth!? Well okay.

Michael Cole being mentioned as one of the best non-wrestlers makes me sick to my stomach. Vickie deserved that number one spot. Bischoff and Hogan getting votes is a huge stretch if you ask me, but at least Miss Carter didn't get her name on the list. And how does Dana White get on honorable mention? If we're talking all non-competitor personalities in wrestling and MMA, he should be number one. He is the one that made the company what it is, he promotes the hell out of his fights and his guys, and he is in full control of his company. If they're talking from a kayfabe perspective, then he doesn't belong in this category at all.

CM Punk was the third best TV announcer? Oh brother. He was funny, and he was somewhat effective, but I think he was really not much more than a novelty. You have no idea how much it tickles me that Josh Matthews got ranked above Cole. He deserves it. I don't think we're looking at a future Joey Styles in Josh Matthews, but he'll be a very good play by play guy.

Michael Cole is the worst TV announcer? There is a god!

TNA Hardcore Justice getting Worst Major Show is... well, justice. The reason ECW ONS worked (in the beginning anyway) is because the WWE let ECW be ECW. TNA tried to make ECW be TNA, and it didn't work. TNA used the ECW wrestlers and enigma to try to convince ECW that TNA could be their outlet for all things hardcore and "real" wrestling. Too bad ECW fans aren't as stupid as TNA fans and can smell bullshit in Florida all the way from Philly. ECW fans know what real wrestling is, and it ain't in the Impact Zone.

Why is John Cena's firing a "disgusting" tactic? It might not have been a good angle, but it wasn't a disgusting promotional tactic. Stand Up for the WWE was, the chair shot was, hell, everything on that list was except for the firing. There was nothing disgusting or even unusual about that.

Really? The two Kane feuds were worse than the Bischoff/Hogan/Carter feud? And John Cena-Nexus being the worst feud of the year? HA! That was some of the best stuff WWE produced all year.

Wow, TNA ran away with the worst promotion title and left everyone in the dust.

Santino should win best gimmick every year until he retires.
 
I never called Japan the indies, I was referring to Davey Richards. I fully understand that Japanese wrestling is just as big if not bigger than the US scene, and since I don't know anything about it I wasn't trying to argue that Miz was any better than those strangers on the list. That said, he at least deserves to be above Richards and Jericho.
 
So when Miz's reign has seen it hit 3.3 and Sheamus and Orton had it down lower means that they're not draws? So, Miz is a higher draw than Orton?

Reruns of NCIS score 4.0 routinely for USA.

Let that soak in for a minute and realize just how far off wrestling has fallen popularity-wise.
 
I never called Japan the indies, I was referring to Davey Richards. I fully understand that Japanese wrestling is just as big if not bigger than the US scene, and since I don't know anything about it I wasn't trying to argue that Miz was any better than those strangers on the list. That said, he at least deserves to be above Richards and Jericho.

Fuck no he doesn't deserve to be above Richards, Davey put on more **** matches this year alone than Miz has in his entire career and he was successful all over the globe winning world titles in the US, Europe, and Japan. Miz spent most of 2010 either wrestling in a tag team or jobbing to Daniel Bryan.
 
Fuck no he doesn't deserve to be above Richards, Davey put on more **** matches this year alone than Miz has in his entire career and he was successful all over the globe winning world titles in the US, Europe, and Japan. Miz spent most of 2010 either wrestling in a tag team or jobbing to Daniel Bryan.

I was under the impression that that's why they have the Most Outstanding Wrestler category. I see the Lou Thesz/Ric Flair award and I think drawing power, kayfabe success, ability to get over with the fans. The Most Outstanding Wrestler category is the place for Daniel Bryans and Davey Richards, guys who, while not the most popular guys in the world of wrestling, are extremely talented and worthy of recognition.
 
Wow... was Kevin Steen vs. El Generico really worthy of feud of the year? Unfortunately, I didn't pay any attention to ROH this past year whatsoever, so I'm not being sarcastic in asking that question. I genuinely want to know if it was really that good.

And sorry, but Alberto Del Rio got way too much love here. I don't see any appeal in that guy. I also don't see how Sheamus has improved one bit. He does and has always sucked ass. Just because he was carried by Morrison and Danielson to a couple of decent matches didn't make me forget how worthless he was as champion, stinking up the joint with his matches against Orton, Cena, and HHH. He has a great look, I'll give him that, but everything else about him sucks. Bottom line.

Vickie Guerrero winning best Non-Wrestler was pretty awesome, though.

And KB... even Wrestlezone has started reporting major MMA headlines. The MMA fan base isn't as big as the MMA Community wants people to believe... they still need that core wrestling audience, so it's not surprising that MMA fans who run wrestling sites give them as much attention as they do, especially since it's so easy to connect the two.
 
And KB... even Wrestlezone has started reporting major MMA headlines. The MMA fan base isn't as big as the MMA Community wants people to believe... they still need that core wrestling audience, so it's not surprising that MMA fans who run wrestling sites give them as much attention as they do, especially since it's so easy to connect the two.

Yeah I get the connection and that it's reality. I just don't like it.
 
I had very few problems with this list, seeing as I don't really watch MMA and I am not all that familiar with foreign wrestling promotions.

1. A.J. Styles rating lower than Jericho on the "Most Outstanding Wrestler" list. This year may not be the best we've seen out of A.J., but he was definitely better than Jericho. When did Jericho put on a great performance? His matches with Edge at and around Mania were average at best. A.J., on the other hand, had several great matches with Kurt Angle, Doug Williams, Jeff Hardy and RVD. Not to mention getting a couple half-way decent matches out of Pope.

2. Yoshi Tatsu coming in at #4 on the "Most Underrated" list. I think he's right where he belongs. He has no character, hasn't shown the ability to work a promo (if he's even been given that opportunity), and just hasn't shown any reason to end up on this list. I'm not even saying it's his fault, but where is this coming from? What have we seen him do?

3. Taz ending up at #7 on both the Best and Worst commentators list. I don't really have a problem with this, I just find it funny. And yes, I think he's shit.

4. Vince vs. Bret Hart at Mania as the #2 Worst Match of the Year. Complete bullshit. The match did exactly what it was supposed to do. If you had a problem with this match, A. You were too dumb to realize what it was going to be, and B. You probably didn't like the entire program from the start, and would have rather seen Yoshi freakin' Tatsu on Raw as opposed to one of the greatest competitors the wrestling business has ever seen. This pisses me off to no end.

5. Alberto Del Rio getting "Best Gimmick" is ridiculous. Yeah, wow, he's Mexican, he has an accent. Besides that, what else? Jericho, CM Punk, Cena, Orton, Undertaker, Kane, Sheamus, Ken Anderson, etc. I could go on all day. This guy is as overrated as it gets.

6. And yes, now the Randy Orton "mark" is going to complain about Orton getting shit on..because he did. The man went from hottest heel in the business, to the second biggest face in WWE. Let's not forget that it wasn't manufactured, it was completely organic.

Smarks like Meltzer and whoever else can complain about him all they want, but the audience chose Orton. Cena is still the face of the WWE, and it's not even close, but Orton doesn't get "mixed" or "controversial" reactions (or whatever bullshit term WWE wants to use today). He blows the roof off of every place he goes, and still gets no respect from most people around here.

Also, I didn't see so much Orton hate when he was a heel. If you don't like his current character, fine. If you always disliked him, more power to you. But now you see people complaining about him "phoning in matches" and "not working hard." It's idiotic shit like that drives me nuts as it relates to Orton-haters. There. Rant over.
 
I would have put Devitt at number one actually. He's been the unofficial ace of New Japan for some time now, and has pulled out great matches out of anyone he's faced (including Strong Man in the G1 Climax tournament, which if anyone who's seen how green Strong Man is, is quite a feat.) and made the Junior Heavyweight division a joy to watch. I'm really hoping at some stage, they put some build into a possible match between him and Tanahashi, possibly at this year's G1 Climax. It would be Japan's equilivant of John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels.

By the way Xfear, I have a point to run by you. While I did enjoy the match Devitt had with Marafuji in June in Osaka, and was overjoyed with glee when Devitt finally won the strap, I personally think that it wasn't able to top the first match Devitt and Naomichi had on January 30. Your thoughts.

Also, people saying that WWE should have won Best Promotion need to get their head out their arse. We as fans don't watch this shit and base it off of buyrates and overall money. We base it off the quality of the product and the great matches each promotion serve up. And while WWE has certainly had one of their more better years in recent ones, they wouldn't be able to take the top spot when companies like NJPW, ROH, CMLL and even smaller companies like DDT have been stepping up their game over the past year.

Finally, speaking of DDT, I'd expect Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi to make a bigger splash on this list next year, this two are the shit.
 
I wouldn't say Orton doesn't work hard. I'd go so far as to say that he works just as hard as the next guy, if not harder. He has to, as you said, he's the second biggest face in the company, and that is a job that comes with a heavy work load. That said, I think he's absolutely horrible as a face. All of his promos are the same, he is unexciting on the mic, and his wrestling style is much better suited for a heel. I never really liked him as a heel either, but at least that made sense to me. I just simply don't understand why so many people like him.
 
That said, I think he's absolutely horrible as a face. All of his promos are the same, he is unexciting on the mic, and his wrestling style is much better suited for a heel.

I think it has much more to do with the booking/writing than his overall level of talent. With that being said, I would almost rather he turned back heel (if it's even possible right now) as opposed to watching him be booked in such a shitty fashion.
 
Randy would have been a lot better off as a heel if he had kept going with his behaviour around January-March 2010 with the McMahons-HHH storyline. But then he got buried by Hunter on multiple occasions and just ended up softening up.

After that it was the same old "I'M THE CHAMP, LOOK AT ME I'VE GOT A GANG OF GUYS TO HELP ME KEEP IT" gimmick. If Randy didn't have to live within the confines of the PG era, he would be a phenomenal heel.
 
I can agree with both those statements Nick and Macca. Orton's feud with Triple H would have been legendary if it could have gotten more graphic. Imagine if he pantomimed sex on Steph instead of just pecking her on the lips? Imagine if Triple H busted Randy's face open when he broke into his house? I'm not one to bash the PG Era, but it definitely prevented what could have been an extremely provocative feud from happening.

And WWE booking totally botched what I think was supposed to be a Cody Rhodes/Ted DiBiase face turn, and it make Orton look like the good guy. I don't know how that happened... but it did, and he was getting such a reaction that I think they decided to just run with it.
 
By the way Xfear, I have a point to run by you. While I did enjoy the match Devitt had with Marafuji in June in Osaka, and was overjoyed with glee when Devitt finally won the strap, I personally think that it wasn't able to top the first match Devitt and Naomichi had on January 30. Your thoughts.

You know I'm scanning across my ratings and not finding it rated so I don't think I've even seen their match last year on 1/30. I'll have to get on top of that. Devitt and Marufuji could have a good match blindfolded though so I'm sure it was excellent.

Also, people saying that WWE should have won Best Promotion need to get their head out their arse. We as fans don't watch this shit and base it off of buyrates and overall money. We base it off the quality of the product and the great matches each promotion serve up. And while WWE has certainly had one of their more better years in recent ones, they wouldn't be able to take the top spot when companies like NJPW, ROH, CMLL and even smaller companies like DDT have been stepping up their game over the past year.

I agree mostly with you here. The thing to remember is the readers play a large part in voting for these awards so you've got to expect someone as into wrestling that subscribes to a dirtsheet is probably going to be a smarkier fan more into independent wrestling than sports entertainment.

Looking over my ratings again here and counting up all the ****+ matches I rated in 2010 and ROH leads the pack with 13 matches, followed up by 11 with the WWE, TNA/NJPW with 9, 8 for NOAH, 5 for PWG, 3 for Dragon Gate, AJPW/EVOLVE with 2, and one for DGUSA and DDT. So I'd say ROH as far as match-quality goes was probably the best promotion of 2010.

Finally, speaking of DDT, I'd expect Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi to make a bigger splash on this list next year, this two are the shit.

I'm shocked Kenny Omega didn't get more love, 2010 was another breakout year for him.

Back to reviewing the 12/11 NJPW show.
 
Kane & Kaval's wins are jokes. Seriously, Kane? The guy pulled off some excellent promos and even had some pretty decent matches, Abyss? That shit was bad from January to December. Abyss was never, ever any good.

As for Kaval, the guy was only on TV for a few months and even then he never showed anything that impressive. That award should be going to Mr. Desmond Wolfe of TNA wrestling.

Everything else is your typical Meltzer & co. list.
 
YouTube that shit X. I think the 1/30 match gets a few more minutes extra then the Osaka one, and boy do they ever fill up those last few minutes before Marafuji goes end game with Tiger Flowsion.

The thing as well with NJPW is that they definately made some major improvements in the last 1-2 years, with the younger talent geting their shots (Tanahashi/Nakamura/Makabe), only a couple of the older guys getting a leg up (Takayama/Mutoh), and then borrowing the big names from other promotions to boost the show (Kojima/Sugiara/Marafuji/Ibushi/Shiozaki).

The only issue I'd have with them now is they need to make sure their own homegrown talent is still blooming. The heavyweight division needs some new faces (Tanahashi has been holding the division for way too long now, and they really need to pull the trigger on Goto.) and the Jr. Heavyweight division is much better off either (Since winning the belt, Devitt has only defended it against outsiders. I'm thinking someone like Kanemoto or even Taguchi may need to turn heel.). So it'll be an interesting year in 2011, but you can't doubt the progress they made in 2010.

Also, I probably would have swapped Sugiara for Nakamura. He's the best heel along with Iizuka in the company and never seemed to have a bad match all year.
 
I don't know why people are bitching about Sheamus. It is "MOST IMPROVED" after all, for me that means that Sheamus has improved both his mic skills and ring skills. The first time he was champion it was completely boring. But then he got bettre with his feud with HHH. Granted, the guy hasn't put any classics, but comparing to 2009 matches, Sheamus has IMPROVED alot. Obviously it helped his feud with JoMo but you can't deny the chemistry they both had.

Now, I have two problems with Cena. First of all, wrestler of the year? If he continued to have some maint eventer feuds like he did with Batista, I would've been ok with it. The Nexus feud has been gold, but IDK, Cena in past years had better/matches/feuds. I'm no taking away ANTHING from Nexus, but like I said, Cena have at least 4 years better than 2010.
Most discuting firing Cena angle? I do not find it at all discusting, it was stupid and poorly booked, but it wasn't by any means discusting.

Alberto del Rio had a great year, but his gimmick isn't THAT great. It is good, but comparing to the straight edge messiah, the dead man walking it isn't that good. Plus, I think it's too early to tell. I mean, it finally ended the feud with Mysterio, it depends now to where his gimick is going. Also, I think it is cool to see ADR's announcer on the best non-wrestler list.

Finally Kaval and Kane
Kaval underrated? Well, the man has a reputation, but he wasn't for a very long time with WWE. A couple of months, so at least for me, he wasn't underrated.
Kane, completely agree, the man gave good promos but what about the matches? I literally took a nap on every single match he had with Taker cause it didn't interested me at all!

Macca said it clearly, it isn't about making money, it is about the product. This isn't a economic newsletter, this is a WRESTLING newsletter and the analysis made is about the quality of the product.
 
This Randy Orton hate is unbelievable. He might not be the best promo man ever but all his promos are pretty effective and get the job done pretty well. I'll say that no one ever does very different promos. Cena talks about conquering insurmountable odds and Punk talks about how he is better than you because of his high moral code. And those two guys are like the best two promo cutters in the industry today. Just like actual matches, promos need not be varied to be entertaining.
 
Hilarious that Superstars had more votes than Impact. As for the list, not too many issues. Get rid of Kane on that list, move Miz up on the top Wrestler list, get rid of all the MMA shit, and RAW should be #1 on the shows, not ROH. Also, the most underrated should be Christian or Bourne.
 
How the fuck does Wade Barrett not win "most improved"? He ended 2009 as a commentator in FCW, and has improved a great deal over how he was in NXT.
 
I can agree with both those statements Nick and Macca. Orton's feud with Triple H would have been legendary if it could have gotten more graphic. Imagine if he pantomimed sex on Steph instead of just pecking her on the lips? Imagine if Triple H busted Randy's face open when he broke into his house? I'm not one to bash the PG Era, but it definitely prevented what could have been an extremely provocative feud from happening.

Totally disagree. Things are usually better when more subtle, and the Orton/HHH feud was no different. The kiss on Stephanie was awesome because it was so careful and didn't involve pretending to fuck a KO'd woman.

Another example: imagine if the Bryan/Gail/Bellas segment/story had taken place in the Attitude Era. Instead of the quite funny punchline of "No, I said vegan!", we'd have it shoved in our faces that the Bellas think he's a virgin, probably with segments of them buying condoms or some stupid shit like that, and it would have made the punchline a lot less funny.

The PG Era has made things more subtle, and while I wish we had more interesting personalities and characters, the toning down forces people to sometimes be a bit more creative when it comes to the subtleties.
 
Surprised by people coming out of the woodwork to defend Kane. He was terrible this year, his promos were future Wrestlecrap Hall of Fame inductions, his feud with 'Taker was garbage, as was his feud with Edge, and he had some absolutely terrible matches as world champ. He deserves the overrated award, no way did he deserve that title reign at this stage in his career and he proved why when he flopped so hard with it.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
174,826
Messages
3,300,733
Members
21,726
Latest member
chrisxenforo
Back
Top