IT'S HERE AGAIN! For those of you just tuning in, these are the rec.sport.pro-wrestling.* Year-End Achievement Awards. They celebrate the excellence, as well as the....opposite thereof, of the past year in professional wrestling. The Awards are decided by the readers of r.s.p-w, voting for a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in nearly fifty categories. Believe it or not, this is our big FIFTEENTH year for the Awards. This year we received just over fifty ballots, making this the lowest level of participation in a decade. This is probably both a testament to the overall interest in pro wrestling in 2004 as well as the amount of wrestling discussion in general taking place on r.s.p-w, combined with the fact that we managed to fly under the radar with the Usual Suspects who have ended up inflating our vote count in the past. Thanks to everyone on r.s.p-w who participated, readers and lurkers alike! The following pages provided invaluable assistance with research. Bookmark them ALL right now: With my site on semi-permanent hiatus, The Cubs Fan's site is the place to go to find all the dates and times of WWE matchups in 2004 The Wrestling Supercards & Tournaments Web Page is THE place to get dates and results of every major card of the past year - and earlier The Great Hisa's Puroresu Dojo is a great storehouse of information Rev. Ray's Page of 1,000 Holds hasn't been updated in forever but I still like it so I'll keep it here For better of worse, THE website of r.s.p-w.* - basically I threw a bunch of links on a page but it's the quickest way to access full versions of ALL fifteen years of awards! I can be reached by emailing crz{at}rspw{dot}org, amongst other ways. Without further ado, HEEEEEEEEEEEERE WE GO!!!! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This document is copyright 2004 by Christopher Robin Zimmerman. All rights reserved. Portions of this document are copyright 1990-1995 Herb Kunze and used with his kind permission. Visit the r.s.p-w Awards links page at . First up, some general comments... ALLAN J. BENSON: Seriously, I think some of Flair's promos this year have been among his best ever (when he's not kissing Triple H's ass). I'm thinking his promos vs. Orton, regarding Eugene and some of his back stage material. JUNG JIN: My name is Jung jin. This is my first time doing the RSPW awards. and of course, best wrestler of the 2004 would go to Chris benoit. because he's a always great technical wrestler. Great year for Benoit. also, i think Shawn Michaels and Undertaker are the good legends in wwe. especsially, wrestlemania 20th greatest ppv og all time. PHANTOM LORD OF LORDSOFPAIN.NET Very tough choices on these ballots as there were alot of deserving wrestlers who deserve praise and jeers. CLAUDE LUCAS: Jeff Jarrett and Triple H win their respective worst, most obnoxious, etc, awards for abusing their backstage influence. It's sad that neither one is close to being as effective as they seem to think they are. Triple H would be OK if he'd just dial it back a bit in interviews and not hog the belt(and the book). Jarrett is a large stone around the neck of TNA and should retire. JJ makes "suspension of disbelief" impossible. Not much chance of either happening for the obvious reasons. I didn't vote for JJ in the "Most Deteriorated" category because he's always been about the same. He's always had only 3 moves including the way overdone guitar shot. Additional award for best cameo appearances to H's father in law, Vince McMahon. I still mark out when he shows up unannounced, but I wouldn't want him to go back to being a regular. Honorable mention in this category to The Rock. CHILE CHANG: recently wwe has so many ppv. it's suck. sucks. worst year. and JBL. Triple H. they're sucks. JBL is just a terrible wrestler.i have not enjoyed one JBL this year. he isn't interesting. sure, i hate triple h. he just suck. HSB: I don't watch TNA so I have no idea what its Tag Teams and X-Division is like. I wasn't able to consider any of them. This year was hard to pick since so many names on the list don't deserve to be. CHAK: My ballot is not filled out anywhere near completely. Of course, with the reduced quality of the WWE product my viewing has been nowhere near complete, either. In general, it can be summed up as follows: They have the right idea over on Smackdown! with pushing new main-event talent (i.e. John Bradshaw Layfield) but they picked the wrong guy to do it with (i.e. John Bradshaw Layfield) especially for this length of time. And, as bad as Smackdown! has been, it's almost better than Raw for one reason: Triple H. He is *A* main eventer. For the past 2 years, in the WWE booker's minds, he *IS* the main event. Sorry, but the guy ain't that good. And, instead of continually pushing him, how about using him to help push new blood instead of burying them? Wow! What a concept! JOHN C.: This has been a year of up and downs. If you looked at it as a calender, I'd say everything from November 2003 up until about April 2004 was pretty good, but the six months that followed were generally bad. Ultimately though, I'm going to remember 2004 as the year where one of my favorite wrestlers ever, Chris Benoit, reached the top of the business and was put over in a way that I never thought was possible. For all the bad stuff that happened this year (many of which involved JBL), I'm going to remember how much I loved the business the moment Benoit held the belt for the first time because it's one of those images you'll never forget. It was also a year that will make you wonder "what if" especially with regards to Brock Lesnar. What if Lesnar never left WWE, would JBL have been pushed at all and would Smackdown have deteriorated as much as it has? I guess we'll never know, but it's always something we'll be wondering about. This was not a good year or a bad year for wrestling, it was average. CRIMEFIGHTER: Well, with WCW a distant memory, it's just WWE on most televisions. Though TNA now airs one hour on Fox Sports Net, it's still not at the point where WCW was in terms on competing against WWE. The other alternative is the independents, and remarkably the RSPW regulars apparently don't watch much in the way of indies given the lack of anything non-WWE and non-TNA in the nominees. Sure they may think no one deserves to be nominated for anything, but given the WWE's steep slide the indies is the only way to go to see actual wrestling anymore. I had pushed for the reinstatement of the Best/Worst Second awards, but CRZ did not agree that there are "enough" candidates out there to fill such a category and thinks only MEN should be eligible for the award. Well there's certainly more to choose from than announcers...like Paul Bearer and Goldylocks! So my votes for Best Second: 1st: Scott D'Amore 2nd: Paul Heyman 3rd: Teddy Long. Worst Second: 1st: Shaniqua 2nd: Geisha Girl Hiroko 3rd: Chavo Classic Gee look at this I filled the whole thing with several choices to spare! THECUBSFAN: This year, at least in the US, saw fewer interesting shows, fewer fans watching, and very little glimmers showing for the future. Rather just move on to the next then spend another moment in the here and now. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Wrestler Award Description: To be given to the athlete who was the best overall wrestler of the year. This includes all facets of wrestling: workrate, technical ability, interviews, charisma, value to his/her promotion, etc. In 1994, this award was split into three: North American, Non-North American, and overall. In 1998, it was recombined into one. Previous Winners: 1990: Curt Hennig 1991: Ric Flair 1992: Ric Flair 1993: Big Van Vader 1994: Bret Hart 1994: (NA) Sabu 1994: (non-NA) Chris Benoit 1995: (overall/NA) Shawn Michaels 1995: (non-NA) Chris Benoit 1996: (overall/NA) Shawn Michaels 1996: (non-NA) Jushin Liger 1997: (overall/NA) Shawn Michaels 1997: (non-NA) Taka Michinoku 1998: Stone Cold Steve Austin 1999: Chris Benoit 2000: Triple H 2001: Stone Cold Steve Austin 2002: Kurt Angle 2003: Kurt Angle **2004**: Chris Benoit 53 first place votes 52 second place votes 51 third place votes 26 12 4 174 Chris Benoit 8 15 6 97 Eddie Guerrero 1 2 7 25 AJ Styles 2 2 4 24 Chris Jericho 1 2 6 23 Shawn Michaels 3 2 0 21 Kenta Kobashi 2 1 3 19 Kurt Angle 2 2 0 16 Samoa Joe 1 3 1 16 Triple H 0 2 2 10 Shelton Benjamin 0 0 4 8 John Bradshaw Layfield 1 0 1 7 Trish Stratus 0 0 3 6 Randy Orton 1 0 0 5 William Regal 1 0 0 5 Slim J 1 0 0 5 Rico 1 0 0 5 Hiroshi Tanahashi 1 0 0 5 Gene Snitsky 1 0 0 5 CM Punk 0 1 1 5 Undertaker 0 1 0 3 Petey Williams 0 1 0 3 Kensuke Sasaki 0 1 0 3 Jimmy Rave 0 1 0 3 Hijo del Perro Aguayo 0 1 0 3 Hector Garza 0 1 0 3 Eugene 0 1 0 3 Cheerleader Melissa 0 1 0 3 Alexis Laree 0 0 1 2 LA Park 0 0 1 2 John Cena 0 0 1 2 Hiroyoshi Tenzan 0 0 1 2 Edge 0 0 1 2 Christopher Daniels 0 0 1 2 Christian 0 0 1 2 Brock Lesnar 0 0 1 2 Batista REJECTED 0 0 1 Dan Puder HACK-MAN: If I limited this to best wrestler in WWE, it would have been Benoit, Eddie, and then either Tajiri, Noble, or RVD to fill in the third. Even knowing they won't win, I went with Slim J, Jimmy Rave--giving Benoit 3rd. NATRBOY72: 2004 would have been an almost total loss without career years from Kenta Kobashi, Chris Benoit, & Eddie Guerrero whom I voted for in that order. PAUL ZOROVICH: It's the Kurt 'n' Chris show! JUNG JIN: Chris Benoit has been so great 2004. what more can i say? he is the best there was, best there is, best there ever will be. Undertaker at #2. Shawn Michaels at #3. they are legends in wwe. they still entertain me. Undertaker is good brawl. Most charisma. the Undertaker is probably the most talented big men in North america wrestler with Andre the Giant.Vader. also, Shawn Michaels is still the best worker. Most charisma. Most entertainer ever. YNAE316: Hands down Chris Benoit is the best wrestler of 2004. He had a banner year in the business lasting from #1 to win the Royal Rumble, to taking the title off Triple H at Wrestlemania. Like a true champion he defended it against all comers providing stellar matches until they decided to job him to Orton. No other wrestler is more deserving of the wrestler of the year award then Chris Benoit. Eddie takes a distant second to Benoit for his stellar beginning part of the year. He represented Smackdown well as champion. Unfortunately he didn't have much to play off with on Smackdown so they decided to job him to BRADSHAW of all people. Hey, being made Bradshaw's bitch must qualify you for SOMETHING so he gets #2. AJ gets number three for carrying TNA well into the FSN era. MATT HOCKING: Shawn Michaels gets my undisputed nod here for not only having a bunch of good matches, but continually bumping like crazy while both his knee and back were hurt. Chris Benoit is at number two for having his best year as an overall performer, and AJ Styles gets the bronze for...being the only guy from TNA I'm willing to vote for. Good for him. JOHN C.: Benoit leads the pack this year. Maybe he didn't deserve to win this award in the past, but this year he did. He reached the top, he performed in an array of high quality matches and he became more over with the crowd than he's ever been. The first six months of this year in wrestling was among my favorites ever due to Benoit. Guerrero comes in second for carrying Smackdown for much of the year. His matches with Lesnar and Angle were top notch. Michaels is third for his amazing performances during the period of voting. He missed a few months, but not enough to take him out of the top three. Runners up would be HHH, Jericho and Angle, in that order. EMMA: It was the total body of Eddie's work this year that put him on top for me. Eddie had legitimate MOTY-candidate matches with Kurt Angle, Rey Mysterio, & Brock Lesnar -- that's a pretty impressive breadth of opponent styles to work very, very well with. He's excellent in-ring, in promos, doing comedy or drama. He's the man this year. CRIMEFIGHTER: Chris Benoit gets the title, he has put on some five star bouts this year. Cheerleader Melissa, a top talent from APW and whose matches are the most downloaded from Clickwrestle.com gets the nod for best woman wrestler. Shawn Michaels seems to be back in the form he was since before the back injury that kept him out for five years. SCOTT CHRIST: I look at this as the MVP award on the ballot, and it brings up an interesting question that most of the baseball MVP awards come around to every year. If a guy's team sucks really bad but he is obviously better than everyone, shouldn't he win the MVP? What's more valuable than being the best? I've always thought the answer to that question is yes, so I voted Eddie Guerrero, who did everything within his power to make the show worthwhile, and perhaps even gained superpowers in order to make Bradshaw halfway credible. Smackdown is terrible, sure, but it's not his fault. Guerrero was the Bonds of Smackdown, and in that regard Kurt Angle was something of a Jason Schmidt. They turned useful talent into non-factors on the show, and then you had a bunch of Edgardo Alfonzos like Booker T and Rob Van Dam. Guerrero had just a great year in which he did more with less around him than any of the other contenders. RYAN FAULCONER: Samoa Joe is a great pick for wrestler of the year. He kept his company's title for the full twelve months - raising its prestige and delivering many strong matches in the process. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Tag Team Award Description: To be given to the tag team who were the best overall team of the year. This includes all facets of wrestling: workrate, technical ability, interviews, charisma, hot team moves, value to their promotion, etc. In 1994, this award was split into three: North American, Non-North American, and overall. In 1998, it was recombined into one. Previous Winners: 1990: The Steiners: Rick & Scott 1991: The Steiners: Rick & Scott 1992: Terry Gordy & Steve Williams 1993: The Hollywood Blonds: Brian Pillman & Steve Austin 1994: (overall/non-NA) The Steiners: Rick & Scott 1994: (NA) Eddy Guerrero & Love Machine 1995: (overall/NA) Public Enemy: Flyboy Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge 1995: (non-NA) Mitsuhara Misawa & Kenta Kobashi 1996: (overall/NA) Harlem Heat: Booker T & Stevie Ray 1996: (non-NA) Doug Furnas & Dan Kroffat 1997: (overall/NA) The Eliminators: John Kronus & Perry Saturn 1997: (non-NA) NWO: Masahiro Chono & Great Muta 1998: New Age Outlaws: Road Dogg Jesse James & Badd Ass Billy Gunn 1999: Hardy Boyz: Matt & Jeff 2000: Edge & Christian 2001: Edge & Christian 2002: Kurt Angle & Chris Benoit 2003: Self-Proclaimed World's Greatest Tag Team: Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas **2004**: America's Most Wanted - Chris Harris & James Storm 50 first place votes 50 second place votes 49 third place votes 12 3 3 75 America's Most Wanted - Chris Harris & James Storm 5 3 11 56 Paul London & Billy Kidman 7 4 2 51 World's Greatest Tag Team - Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin 2 7 3 37 La Resistance - Sylvain Grenier & Robert Conway 1 6 4 31 Los Guerreros - Eddie & Chavo 3 3 3 30 Charlie Haas & Rico 2 5 0 25 XXX - Chris Daniels & Elix Skipper 1 1 7 22 Rob Van Dam & Rey Mysterio 4 0 0 20 KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji 2 2 1 18 Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero 1 2 3 17 Evolution - Ric Flair & Batista 2 1 1 15 William Regal & Eugene 1 2 0 11 Briscoe Brothers - Jay & Mark 1 1 1 10 Team Canada - Eric Young & Bobby Roode & Johnny Devine 1 1 1 10 Chris Benoit & Edge 0 2 2 10 Booker T & Rob Van Dam 1 0 0 5 Rene Dupree & Kenzo Suzuki 1 0 0 5 Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA 1 0 0 5 Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Shinsuke Nakamura 1 0 0 5 Havana Pitbulls - Rocky Romero & Ricky Reyes 1 0 0 5 Dudleys - Bubba Ray & D-Von 0 0 2 4 Hurricane & Rosey 0 0 2 4 Evolution - Randy Orton & Batista 0 1 0 3 Yuji Nagata & Blue Wolf 0 1 0 3 XXXplicit Content - Bailey Mannix & Danny Scott 0 1 0 3 Rhyno & Tajiri 0 1 0 3 Naturals - Andy Douglas & Chase Stevens 0 1 0 3 LA Park & Shocker 0 1 0 3 CM Punk & Colt Cabana 0 1 0 3 Brass Munkey & American Steel Ninja 0 0 1 2 Satoshi Kojima & Kaz Hayashi 0 0 1 2 Jado & Gedo 0 0 1 2 Brad Bradley & Ryan Boz HACK-MAN: This has got to be the worst year for tag teams ever. While all three combinations of the "Three guys who totally rule" should probably be listed here, I went with XXX, Los Guerreros, and RVD/Rey. ANDREW KAY: The fact that I voted Chris Benoit & Edge, a thrown together non-long term team, as the number 1 tag team of the year shows just how awful the tag division has been as of late. Long gone are the days of the Hardy Boyz, Edge & Christian and the Dudleys having 4 star bouts every month. YNAE316: AMW is clearly the best tag team in the business today. Luckily FSN is finally giving them a decent forum to showcase their talents. They may not win too many matches but they certainly harken back to the golden age of tag teams like the Midnight Express with their sweet teamwork. Benjamin and Haas, before being broken up in the mid-year draft, were easily on track to being the best tag team in WWE for this year as they were last year. For that I give them #2. La Resistance, by default, takes #3 as sadly enough they're the ONLY regular WWe tag team. To their credit they've done pretty well this past year. Conway's a solid hand and Grenier's getting better. The "Au Revoir" finisher is one of the coolest tag team finishers I've seen in years. JOHN C.: This was one of the worst years in tag team wrestling ever. CRIMEFIGHTER: What do the WGTT, XXXplicit Content, Booker T & RVD have in common? They all are no longer teaming together and the breakups of these teams has done no good for anyone. THECUBSFAN: So what if GdI didn't have a single memorable match that made US TV. Logic can't stop this vote. It was kind of a lame year tag teams, as far as lame tag team years go. SCOTT CHRIST: With no WWE tag team worth much of anything this year, this is all indy and easily so. Havana Pitbulls win for me on account of reminding me of the Steiners when they were good. RYAN FAULCONER: KENTA & Marufuji were really fun to watch this year and stand above the rest as the best of 2004. If Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero had more actual tag matches they would place higher than second. The Briscoes are young enough to still improve a lot but placing third in tag team of the year isn't too shabby at this stage in their careers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Heel Award Description: To be given to the person who was the best villain this past year. This person should bring out the fans' wrath. Match quality is not paramount here; this award should be based primarily on how over the wrestler was in the past year. Previous Winners: 1990: Ted DiBiase 1991: Cactus Jack Manson 1992: Jake Roberts 1993: Big Van Vader 1994: Bob Backlund 1995: Big Van Vader 1996: Steve Austin (Ring Master) 1997: Shawn Michaels 1998: Mr. McMahon (Vince McMahon) 1999: Triple H 2000: Triple H 2001: Stone Cold Steve Austin 2002: Kurt Angle 2003: Chris Jericho **2004**: Triple H 53 first place votes 52 second place votes 51 third place votes 13 5 5 90 Triple H 9 5 9 78 John Bradshaw Layfield 7 6 4 61 Christian 2 10 4 48 Trish Stratus 4 1 6 35 Kurt Angle 4 2 1 28 Gene Snitsky 3 3 0 24 Edge 1 2 2 15 Paul Heyman 0 2 4 14 Randy Orton 1 2 0 11 Eric Bischoff 1 1 1 10 Homicide 1 0 2 9 Chris Jericho 0 1 3 9 Jonathan Coachman 1 1 0 8 Perro Aguayo Jr. 0 2 1 8 Kane 0 2 1 8 Chavo Guerrero 0 2 1 8 Brock Lesnar 1 0 1 7 Ric Flair 1 0 0 5 Katsuyori Shibata 1 0 0 5 Dr. Wagner Jr. 1 0 0 5 Carlito Caribbean Cool 1 0 0 5 CM Punk 1 0 0 5 Bubba Ray Dudley 0 1 1 5 Scott D'Amore 0 1 1 5 Kid Kash 0 0 2 4 Spike Dudley 0 1 0 3 Masahiro Chono 0 1 0 3 Hector Garza 0 1 0 3 Arik Cannon 0 0 1 2 Sal Renaro 0 0 1 2 Jushin Liger NATRBOY72: I had to go with Triple H first primarily due to all the evil things he did to Eugene for which he will be damned to hell. Trish Stratus is awesome with the insincere/catty/slutty stuff. I didn't see much TNA, but Kid Kash was a strong heel for them - at times even outside the lockerroom. ANDREW KAY: Triple H won my vote by default more than anything. Vince needs to start building up some new heels that are a legitimate threat for the title. Right now it's pretty obvious that whoever ends up dethroning HHH is just going to end up giving the title back to him down the road. SYDNEY BROWN: HHH is a shoe-in for this one. I think what people sometimes fail to understand is you're SUPPOSED to hate him. Now if he was trying to book himself as a face..... YNAE316: Say what you will about how much Bradshaw sucks, but I found his "ultra-Republican" persona to be well-booked and quite entertaining. From running illegal Mexican immigrants back over the border to terrorizing Eddie's mom to hiring thugs like Orlando Jordan, Viscera and Gangrel, "JBL" epitomized the role of the "cowardly heel." Despite sub-par main events Bradshaw played the ROLE of a top heel very well and for this reason I give him "Best Heel" for 2004. Triple H takes #2 by default. He is Raw's top heel and he plays the role well despite what people may think of him. Trish Stratus found her niche as the top female heel on Raw this year. She started off a little tentatively following Wrestlemania but in her feud against Lita she perfected the "insincere bitch" role with true classic stuff. Trish is a easy pick for the #3 heel of the year. MATT HOCKING: HHH is my number one for being the most consistent heel at a top level for the longest time. Kurt Angle is at number three because he's always been a solid heel for Smackdown to fall back on. But the biggest surprise of the year was John Bradshaw Leyfield who gets my number two vote for being a thousand times more entertaining than he had any right to be. JOHN C.: Triple H takes this easy partially because he won't let anybody else be a heel on Raw. He had a good year, having good feuds and matches with Michaels, Benoit, Benjamin and a fun ride with Eugene too. Christian is second for taking his game up to the next level, holding his own in matches along the way. Kurt Angle is third for being consistently great, as he always is. If Brock Lesnar didn't leave, he'd probably be first here. CRIMEFIGHTER: The WWE stumbled on Gene Snitsky as a monster heel quite by accident when he was supposed to be jobbing to Kane. THECUBSFAN: Wagner and Aguayo's rudo fun this year are proof that breaking things equals enjoyable violence. RYAN FAULCONER: First goes to Perro Aguayo Jr. who was a super smug bastard and I loved to hate him this year. Second goes to the only rudo to match Perrito in smugness - Hector Garza. Homicide reinvented himself as a heel this year and got people to actually boo him in ROH and that's good enough for third. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Babyface Award Description: To be given to the person who best portrayed the hero this past year. This person should get lots of fan support. Match quality is not paramount here; this award should be based primarily on how over the wrestler was in the past year. Previous Winners: 1990: Hulk Hogan 1991: Brian Pillman 1992: Sting 1993: Bret Hart 1994: Bret Hart 1995: Shawn Michaels 1996: Shawn Michaels 1997: Steve Austin 1998: Stone Cold Steve Austin 1999: The Rock 2000: The Rock 2001: The Rock 2002: Booker T 2003: Kurt Angle **2004**: Eddie Guerrero 53 first place votes 52 second place votes 51 third place votes 18 11 4 131 Eddie Guerrero 7 11 7 83 Chris Benoit 7 3 4 52 Chris Jericho 4 2 4 34 Shawn Michaels 4 1 5 33 Eugene 1 5 6 32 John Cena 2 2 6 28 Shelton Benjamin 2 2 1 18 Mick Foley 2 1 0 13 AJ Styles 0 2 3 12 Rob Van Dam 0 2 2 10 Rey Mysterio 0 2 1 8 Undertaker 1 0 1 7 Rico 1 0 0 5 Slim J 1 0 0 5 Shocker 1 0 0 5 Shinsuke Nakamura 1 0 0 5 Nate Webb 1 0 0 5 Brazo de Plata 0 0 2 4 Trish Stratus 0 1 0 3 Stacy Keibler 0 1 0 3 Samoa Joe 0 1 0 3 Randy Orton 0 1 0 3 Laz Parka 0 1 0 3 LA Park 0 1 0 3 Hiroshi Tanahashi 0 1 0 3 Gee Star 0 1 0 3 Altar Boy Luke 0 0 1 2 Wataru Inoue 0 0 1 2 Ron Killings 0 0 1 2 Monty Brown 0 0 1 2 Mike Quackenbush 0 0 1 2 Hijo del Santo ALLAN J. BENSON: It's was Benoit's year. See comment #1 for details. HBK, surprisingly, has done well as a face, although I still like him better as a heel. YNAE316: Chris Benoit, the fighting champion, who took on ALL challengers and prevailed against them is the definition of the babyface. No one did it any better this year than him. Eddie and Cena, Smackdown's top faces, fill in at #2 and #3 respectively. JOHN C.: Best babyface is the same as best wrestler for me with Benoit, Guerrero and Michaels. They all performed wonderfully. CHRISTOPHER SHEA: Even though Cena bored me this year, I have to admit he's still crazy over, and his fan support shows no sign of drying up. THECUBSFAN: Till the clock hit midnight and Eddie's title run turned into a pumpkin, things were pretty fun. SCOTT CHRIST: It's not hard to get everyone up and clapping for a Wheatus song. You gotta be Nate Webb to accomplish that. RYAN FAULCONER: Brazo de Plata is the greatest babyface on the planet. La Parka is almost as good but he has a bit of an unfair advantage since he wears a skeleton costume while Super Porky merely wears a lot of sweaty fat. El Hijo del Santo has a babyface aura that is hard to match but I didn't think he topped Parka or Porky this year so he gets third. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Worker Award Description: To be given to the wrestler with, on average, the best workrate. In 1994, this award was split into three: North American, Non-North American, and overall. In 1998, it was recombined into one. Previous Winners: 1990: Ric Flair / Randy Savage (tie) 1991: Jushin Liger 1992: Jushin Liger 1993: Bret Hart 1994: (overall/NA) Sabu 1994: (non-NA) Chris Benoit 1995: (overall/NA) Shawn Michaels 1995: (non-NA) Chris Benoit 1996: (overall/NA) Rey Mysterio, Jr. 1996: (non-NA) Jushin Liger 1997: (overall/NA) Shawn Michaels 1997: (non-NA) Taka Michinoku 1998: Mankind (Cactus Jack / Dude Love / Mick Foley) 1999: Chris Benoit 2000: Chris Benoit 2001: Chris Benoit 2002: Kurt Angle 2003: Kurt Angle **2004**: Chris Benoit 52 first place votes 51 second place votes 51 third place votes 29 3 7 168 Chris Benoit 5 14 7 81 Eddie Guerrero 2 7 5 41 Shawn Michaels 2 4 9 40 Kurt Angle 3 3 1 26 AJ Styles 3 2 2 25 Bryan Danielson 1 1 6 20 Chris Jericho 2 0 0 10 Kenta Kobashi 0 3 0 9 Christopher Daniels 0 1 2 7 Rey Mysterio 0 2 0 6 Rob Van Dam 1 0 0 5 Yuji Nagata 1 0 0 5 Slim J 1 0 0 5 Rico 1 0 0 5 Rey Bucanero 1 0 0 5 Orton 0 1 1 5 Tajiri 0 0 2 4 Samoa Joe 0 1 0 3 Val Venis 0 1 0 3 Ultimo Guerrero 0 1 0 3 Shelton Benjamin 0 1 0 3 Petey Williams 0 1 0 3 KENTA 0 1 0 3 Jimmy Rave 0 1 0 3 Homicide 0 1 0 3 Hiroyoshi Tenzan 0 1 0 3 Christian 0 1 0 3 CM Punk 0 0 1 2 Yoshihiro Takayama 0 0 1 2 Xsiris 0 0 1 2 Triple H 0 0 1 2 Randy Orton 0 0 1 2 LA Park 0 0 1 2 Hiroshi Tanahashi 0 0 1 2 Hijo del Santo 0 0 1 2 Eugene 0 0 1 2 Azrael ALLAN J. BENSON: I chose HBK here because I feel that his matches show slightly more variety than Benoit's have this year. If only the WWE would allow its midcarders freer reign in their matches. YNAE316: These three men, Benoit, Guerrero and Michaels, all put on the best matches of the year. Benoit gets the nod for #1 having consistently put out the best matches at the biggest profile all year. Guerrero, Smackdown's best champion of the year, comes in at #2 and Shawn Michaels, God bless him, looked back in top form putting on the second best matches of the year on Raw behind Benoit. JOHN C.: Benoit and Michaels bring the best out of their opponents, no matter who they are. Mysterio gets third simply because he's underused, underappreciated and underrated most of the time. When does Mysterio have bad matches? Never. SCOTT CHRIST: Not really a hard choice to pick Bryan Danielson here. The more difficult decision was the glut of great workers behind him. Benoit, Guerrero, Homicide, Punk, Joe, Styles, a few others. I went with Homicide and Eddie, in that order. RYAN FAULCONER: Call him American Dragon. Call him Bryan Danielson. As long as you call him the best worker of 2004 you can't go wrong. Second goes to KENTA who was a step ahead of everyone else but trails AmDrag by quite a large margin. Third goes to El Hijo del Santo who masters the most difficult style with brawling and finesse. I would have placed him higher but he doesn't seem to like to wrestle in front of a camera :( ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Jobber Award Description: To be given to the Professional Loser that does an incredible job of putting his name opponent over. Maybe the bumps that this person takes are just that much more spectacular than other PLs. After seeing a match with this person, you feel sorry about the punishment he/she took and realize how good it made his/her name opponent look. In 2000, this category was removed. Previous Winners: 1990: Barry Horowitz 1991: Rip Rogers 1992: Barry Horowitz 1993: Barry Horowitz 1994: Barry Horowitz 1995: Barry Horowitz 1996: Barry Horowitz 1997: Spike Dudley 1998: Lenny Lane 1999: Bad Barry Horowitz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Jobber to the Stars To be given to the "Superstar" who has no problem defeating "real" jobbers, but for some reason can't score the victory when facing comparable opposition. This award should recognise performers who manage to look good both in victory AND defeat, as well as helping their opponents look good while jobbing, and may or may not represent a wrestler deserving of a push (that is better reflected in the "Most Underrated" category). In 2000, this category was removed. 1998: Chris Benoit 1999: Al Snow ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Flyer Award Description: To be given to the wrestler who did the most and the best high-flying maneuvers throughout the year. In 1994, this award was split into two: North American and Non-North American. In 1998, it was recombined. Previous Winners: 1991: Jushin Liger 1992: Jushin Liger 1993: 1-2-3 Kid (Lightning Kid) 1994: (NA) 1-2-3 Kid 1994: (non-NA) Jushin Liger 1995: (NA) Sabu 1995: (non-NA) Jushin Liger 1996: (NA) Rey Mysterio, Jr. 1996: (non-NA) Jushin Liger 1997: (NA) Rey Mysterio, Jr. 1997: (non-NA) Taka Michinoku 1998: (Billy) Kidman 1999: Jeff Hardy 2000: Jeff Hardy 2001: Rob van Dam 2002: Rey Mysterio 2003: Rey Mysterio **2004**: Rey Mysterio 49 first place votes 49 second place votes 48 third place votes 17 10 1 117 Rey Mysterio 9 7 12 90 Paul London 8 7 3 67 AJ Styles 1 6 4 31 Sonjay Dutt 2 4 3 28 Rob Van Dam 3 1 1 20 Jack Evans 2 2 1 18 Amazing Red 0 1 4 11 Eddie Guerrero 2 0 0 10 Naomichi Marufuji 0 1 3 9 Chris Sabin 0 1 2 7 Hector Garza 0 2 0 6 Kenta 0 0 3 6 Billy Kidman 1 0 0 5 Tiger Mask 1 0 0 5 Slim J 1 0 0 5 Scorpio Sky 1 0 0 5 Petey Williams 1 0 0 5 Mascarita Sagrada 2000 0 1 1 5 Chris Jericho 0 1 1 5 Chavo Guerrero 0 0 2 4 Jeff Hardy 0 1 0 3 Volador Jr. 0 1 0 3 Teddy Hart 0 1 0 3 Taiji Ishimori 0 1 0 3 Matt Sydal 0 1 0 3 Bryan Danielson 0 0 1 2 Seth Delay 0 0 1 2 Octagoncito 0 0 1 2 Nate Webb 0 0 1 2 Mysterioso Jr. 0 0 1 2 Jerrelle Clark 0 0 1 2 Dragon Kid 0 0 1 2 Chris Benoit ALLAN J. BENSON: I can't honestly pick a best flyer based on the WWE "style". It's a laugh. And I'm not familiar enough with the other workers, so I left this category blank. YNAE316: Sonjay Dutt, a virtual mid-carder in TNA's X Division is MY top pick for best flyer of the year. Most people probably haven't heard of him which is a shame because his moves are some of the SWEETEST things I've seen out of ANYONE is years harkening back to the heydey of WCW's cruiserweight division in the mid to late 90's which brought people like Rey Mysterio to the forefront. Dutt's "Hindu Star Press" is impressive to watch along with many of his other "flippy" offensive maneuvers. Rey Jr. and RVD take #2 and #3 respectively by default although many of TNA's lesser known X-Division guys, such as Jerelle Clark or Mikey Batts look promising for the future. JOHN C.: Mysterio, Van Dam and London, in that order. London's going to be first once he gets more exposure. In fourth was that baby that got punted by Gene Snitsky. THECUBSFAN: CMLL's wonky TV workings hurt here (and all over the place); I've got a feeling I'm going to have wanted to vote for Mistico at least third place here, but I just haven't gotten to see much of him in this period, yet. Lots of possible guys from Mexico City, but no one gets the consistent time Paul London did, and he made pretty good use of it. SCOTT CHRIST: Jack Evans is ridonkulous. Runners-up to the ever-improving Matt Sydal and the ever-lovable Spyder Nate Webb. RYAN FAULCONER: Mascarita Sagrada 2000 is the most spectacular flyer regardless of size. Second goes to Jack Evans, who is clearly made of some sort of rubber material which explains why he can do the INSANE things that he does. Octagoncito gets overshadowed by his mini partner but he's better than every other flyer I haven't nominated as well. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Technical Wrestler Award Description: To be given to the wrestler who has the most technical ability. The number of holds and moves you see this person do and the crispness with which the moves are executed makes his/her matches a pleasure to watch. In 1994, this award was split into three: North American, Non-North American, and overall. In 1998, it was recombined into one. Previous Winners: 1991: Bret Hart 1992: Bret Hart 1993: Bret Hart 1994: (overall/NA) Bret Hart 1994: (non-NA) Chris Benoit 1995: (overall/NA) Dean Malenko 1995: (non-NA) Chris Benoit 1996: (sweep) Dean Malenko 1997: (overall/NA) Dean Malenko 1997: (non-NA) Jushin Liger 1998: Dean Malenko 1999: Chris Benoit 2000: Chris Benoit 2001: Chris Benoit 2002: Chris Benoit 2003: Kurt Angle **2004**: Chris Benoit 52 first place votes 51 second place votes 46 third place votes 34 10 4 208 Chris Benoit 6 20 7 104 Kurt Angle 2 7 7 45 Eddie Guerrero 5 3 3 40 Bryan Danielson 1 2 5 21 Shawn Michaels 0 1 5 13 Jamie Noble 0 1 3 9 Christopher Daniels 0 2 1 8 Shelton Benjamin 0 1 2 7 Ric Flair 0 0 3 6 Chris Jericho 1 0 0 5 Ultimo Guerrero 1 0 0 5 Shinsuke Nakamura 1 0 0 5 Samoa Joe 1 0 0 5 Mike Quackenbush 0 1 1 5 Triple H 0 1 0 3 Val Venis 0 1 0 3 Osamu Nishimura 0 1 0 3 Hijo del Santo 0 0 1 2 Yuji Nagata 0 0 1 2 William Regal 0 0 1 2 Rey Mysterio 0 0 1 2 Doug Williams 0 0 1 2 Chris Hero YNAE316: Benoit, Guerrero and Michaels are my three picks, in order, for best technical wrestlers of the year having consistently put on the best matches in the industry throughout the year. JOHN C.: Why not just name this the Chris Benoit award? He's always going to win it. Angle is second. THECUBSFAN: Angle and Benoit are probably winners, but I'm not sure I still believe they deserve particular merit. They do some cool things now and then, but the technical wrestling hype they get are no less promotion hype jobs - they've distilled their matches down to suplex, suplex, trademark move, trademark move, submission finisher, with clothesline miss transitions to fill the gap. You can have a good match doing that, but if that's what "techinical wrestling" is, then I don't understand why it can be considered anyone's speciality. SCOTT CHRIST: Mike Quackenbush is just insanely smooth, and despite his veteranness never falls into the trap of seeming too mechanical. Quack, Danielson and Hero were the easy top three here. RYAN FAULCONER: "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson is just so ahead of the curve right now making him an easy choice for first. Second goes to El Hijo del Santo, who works the lucha style and never ever ever botches the intricate and wonderful wacky lucha moves. Chris Benoit is still mostly flawless but I'm getting really tired of those damn german suplexes so he gets third. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Brawler Award Description: To be given to the wrestler who brawled his/her way through the year most convincingly. This award would go to Frank "Bruiser Brody" Goodish if he were still around. In 1994, this award was split into two: North American and Non-North American. In 1998, it was recombined. Previous Winners: 1991: Stan Hansen 1992: Cactus Jack 1993: Big Van Vader 1994: (NA) Cactus Jack 1994: (non-NA) Stan Hansen 1995: (NA) Cactus Jack 1995: (non-NA) Stan Hansen 1996: (NA) Mankind (Cactus Jack) 1996: (non-NA) Terry Funk 1997: (NA) Mankind 1997: (non-NA) Stan Hansen 1998: Mankind (Cactus Jack / Mick Foley / Dude Love) 1999: Mankind 2000: Mick Foley (Cactus Jack / Mankind) 2001: Stone Cold Steve Austin 2002: Brock Lesnar 2003: Brock Lesnar **2004**: Batista 52 first place votes 49 second place votes 48 third place votes 6 11 5 73 Batista 10 3 1 61 Mick Foley 6 1 6 45 Chris Benoit 5 4 2 41 Brock Lesnar 2 5 6 37 John Bradshaw Layfield 3 5 3 36 Triple H 3 2 3 27 Raven 2 1 3 19 Undertaker 2 2 1 18 John Cena 0 3 3 15 Kane 2 0 2 14 Gene Snitsky 1 3 0 14 Randy Orton 2 0 1 12 Kid Kash 0 3 1 11 Samoa Joe 2 0 0 10 Homicide 1 0 2 9 Yoshihiro Takayama 1 0 0 5 Perro Aguayo Jr. 1 0 0 5 Kensuke Sasaki 1 0 0 5 Hiroyoshi Tenzan 1 0 0 5 Chris Harris 0 1 1 5 Goldberg 0 0 2 4 Abyss 0 1 0 3 Shawn Michaels 0 1 0 3 Necro Butcher 0 1 0 3 Low-Ki 0 1 0 3 Katsuyori Shibata 0 1 0 3 Dr. Wagner Jr. 0 0 1 2 Roderick Strong 0 0 1 2 Ric Flair 0 0 1 2 Ray Gordy 0 0 1 2 Negro Casas 0 0 1 2 Monty Brown 0 0 1 2 Blue Wolf PAUL ZOROVICH: This is the ONLY time JBL will appear on my ballot. JUNG JIN: Undertaker still the best classic brawler in WWE. also, Foley at #2 what more can i say? and JBL at #3 he's a cool. YNAE316: Benoit, though known as the "Best Damn Technical Wrestler in the WWE" is also aptly known as the "Rapid Wolverine" for his viciousness in the ring and his year-long showcase as WWE championship contender and champion where he took on ALL-COMERS proved beyond a doubt that he was the "real deal" brawling with everyone from Big Show, to Kane to Batista to Triple H. For this reason I also award Benoit "Best Brawler" for 2004. Batista comes in at #2 for his outstanding work at Evolution's muscle man and TNA's "Alpha Male" Monty Brown takes #3 for running roughshod over the entire TNA roster for the year. The Asylum was indeed the "Serengiti." JOHN C.: Weak year for brawls in WWE. Go with HHH here with Michaels in second due mainly to their tilts over the course of the past twelve months. This company is really showing why they miss Austin & Foley, the two kings of brawls. THECUBSFAN: You can vote for the guy who's going to pick up a chair and throw it at you, or you can vote for the guy who's going to pick up a row of chairs and throw it at you. Either way, I'd run. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Most Favourite Wrestler Award Description: To be given to the wrestler you like the most, regardless of the reason. Previous Winners: 1991: Ric Flair 1992: Ric Flair 1993: Ric Flair 1994: Ric Flair 1995: Shawn Michaels 1996: Stone Cold Steve Austin 1997: Stone Cold Steve Austin 1998: Mankind (Cactus Jack / Dude Love / Mick Foley) 1999: Chris Jericho 2000: Triple H 2001: Stone Cold Steve Austin 2002: Kurt Angle 2003: Kurt Angle **2004**: Chris Benoit 53 first place votes 52 second place votes 51 third place votes 12 9 4 95 Chris Benoit 8 7 4 69 Chris Jericho 3 8 4 47 Eddie Guerrero 3 4 0 27 Kurt Angle 2 3 2 23 Mick Foley 2 2 1 18 Christian 2 0 4 18 AJ Styles 2 1 2 17 Shawn Michaels 2 1 1 15 Rico 1 1 3 14 Tajiri 1 1 2 12 John Cena 1 1 1 10 Trish Stratus 1 1 1 10 Ric Flair 1 1 1 10 Gene Snitsky 0 1 3 9 Shelton Benjamin 1 1 0 8 Kenta Kobashi 1 0 1 7 William Regal 1 0 1 7 Big Show 0 2 0 6 LA Park 1 0 0 5 Ultimo Guerrero 1 0 0 5 Triple H 1 0 0 5 Tigre Blanco 1 0 0 5 Slim J 1 0 0 5 Shinsuke Nakamura 1 0 0 5 John Bradshaw Layfield 1 0 0 5 Chris Hero 1 0 0 5 CM Punk 1 0 0 5 Alexis Laree 0 1 1 5 Rob Van Dam 0 1 1 5 Monty Brown 0 0 2 4 Eugene 0 0 2 4 Carlito Caribbean Cool 0 1 0 3 Seth Delay 0 1 0 3 Scott D'Amore 0 1 0 3 Samoa Joe 0 1 0 3 Rey Mysterio 0 1 0 3 Homicide 0 1 0 3 Hiroshi Tanahashi 0 0 1 2 Val Venis 0 0 1 2 Sonjay Dutt 0 0 1 2 Shocker 0 0 1 2 Ric Converse 0 0 1 2 Rey Bucanero 0 0 1 2 Raven 0 0 1 2 Felino 0 0 1 2 Blue Wolf 0 0 1 2 Batista 0 0 1 2 Austin Aries ALLAN J. BENSON: Based purely on the actions of the last year. PAUL ZOROVICH: Kurt 'n' Chris are joined by Eddy - and not for the last time. YNAE316: Benoit and Jericho have always been perennial favorites of mine with Benoit's stellar year pushing him over Jericho as my favorite for 2004. TNA's Monty Brown keeps me tuned in week to week in TNA as I totally dig his "Alpha Male" gimmick. I look for big things from the man from the Serengiti in 2005. JOHN C.: Benoit is always first for me in this one. How can you not like a guy who dedicates his life to the wrestling business, who has given as much as he has and this year has finally been rewarded for all his work? Benoit's at the top. Christian is second because I think he's a very good all around performer who always manages to entertain me. Michaels is third because he's one of my favorite wrestlers ever and I've really enjoyed his comeback. Other notables would be Benjamin, Edge, Eddie, London and Mysterio. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Most Improved Wrestler Award Description: To be given to the wrestler who most improved himself/herself in all facets of the sport in the past year. Previous Winners: 1990: Lex Luger 1991: Ron Simmons 1992: Steve Austin 1993: Marcus Alexander Bagwell 1994: Diesel 1995: Johnny B. Badd 1996: Wildman Marc Mero (Johnny B. Badd) 1997: Ken Shamrock 1998: The Rock 1999: Hardcore Holly 2000: Triple H 2001: Rob van Dam 2002: Trish Stratus 2003: John Cena **2004**: Batista 53 first place votes 52 second place votes 48 third place votes 12 13 4 107 Batista 11 6 5 83 Randy Orton 6 8 9 72 Shelton Benjamin 10 5 1 67 John Bradshaw Layfield 3 3 2 28 Trish Stratus 2 3 0 19 Christian 1 1 3 14 Big Show 2 1 0 13 Rico 1 2 1 13 Gail Kim 0 0 6 12 Jonathan Coachman 0 1 2 7 Renee Dupree 0 2 0 6 John Cena 1 0 0 5 Shinsuke Nakamura 1 0 0 5 Seth Delay 1 0 0 5 Mark Henry 1 0 0 5 LA Park 1 0 0 5 Austin Aries 0 1 1 5 Triple H 0 1 1 5 Spike Dudley 0 1 1 5 Orlando Jordan 0 1 1 5 Eddie Guerrero 0 1 0 3 Hiroshi Tanahashi 0 1 0 3 Charlie Haas 0 1 0 3 Arik Cannon 0 0 1 2 Victoria 0 0 1 2 Rob Conway 0 0 1 2 Ray Gordy 0 0 1 2 Monty Brown 0 0 1 2 Maven 0 0 1 2 Katsuyori Shibata 0 0 1 2 Kane 0 0 1 2 KENTA 0 0 1 2 Jeff Hardy 0 0 1 2 Jack Evans 0 0 1 2 Homicide PAUL ZOROVICH: Batista has gone from a one-dimensional, musclebound brawler to a decent, one-dimensional, musclebound brawler. So much for not getting a rub from hanging out with better wrestlers, huh? SYDNEY BROWN: I saw both Benjamin and Orton at a TV taping two years ago and both men got ZERO reaction from the crowd. If you told me two years later that one would be I-C champ, and the other would be a former World champ, I'd have said you were out of your mind. I think Orton got pushed too fast, but he's certainly held his own as much as some of us would like to believe otherwise. And Shelton has been one of the few bright talents this year. YNAE316: Like many others I too jumped on the "DAVE" bandwagon in 2004. Originally a green rookie monster Dave has evolved into a more complete wrestler, likely from his association with both Triple H and Flair, competing in great matches with guys like Benoit and Shelton Benjamin on Raw. I only see things getting even better for DAVE in 2004. Trish Stratus continues to impress me with her committment to excellence and gets my award for a THIRD YEAR IN A ROW in the "Most Improved" category. Already a solid in-ring competitor Trish vastly improved in her promo work in 2004 following her heel turn and is now one of the most complete all-around performers on Raw. Much props to the Diva from Toronto for her work. My third place award goes to the recently released Gail Kim which is a shame. Originally a highspot artist with a hit and miss ratio like that of Lita or a Jeff Hardy, Gail added a solid in-ring and submission game to her repertoire in 2004 which impressed the heck out of me. Her "tilt the whirl" armbar/scissors finisher was one of the best and most innovative moves of the year and her mid-year feud against Victoria looked promising till they aborted. What a shame. Props to Gail for her hardwork in 2004. Hopefully she'll pop up somewhere else where she'll be more appreciated. MATT HOCKING: JBL is an easy number one for going from being a vanilla tag guy to a believable, if not entirely agreeable champion in just a few months. The WWE really hit the right gimmick on that one. Randy Orton gets a nod for trying very hard to step up his game this year, and while he made more missteps than strides, he's gotten consistently better. Rounding out the list is Shelton Benjamin who went from 'loud guy in The World's Greatest Tag Team to legit I.C. Title contender just by moving to RAW. Honorable mention for Gail Kim who sucked a lot less when she was fired, but still wasn't entertaining. JOHN C.: Orton is the pick. He had a good year. Should still be a heel, but I won't let three months ruin the other eight. Even if you dislike him as a face, look at where he was a year ago and look at where he is now, he's a guy that has really earned what he's got. Christian is second. He became a more serious competitor with an edge to him, as well as having a very good feud with Chris Jericho, but I don't think he was ever poor to begin with, so there's not much he could improve on, in my eyes. Third is Shelton Benjamin. I think of him like a high draft pick on an NBA team. He started out as the tenth guy, coming in for little time here or there. Now he's in that sixth man role, playing big roles when they need him and small roles when they don't. In the next 2-3 years, I see him as a top two or three overall performer for this company. Improved? Yes, but I don't think he was ever poor. It's just opportunity more than anything. CHRISTOPHER SHEA: Coach deserves a vote here for showing he can actually hold up his end of a real match, not just an "announcer match." EMMA: Hounourable mention to Sylvain Grenier. He was really a pretty bad worker at first, but has come a long way to being pretty serviceable. CRIMEFIGHTER: Bastista has made some strides in his ring work. Gail Kim was sloppy as heck when she first started. Once she ditched the high flying stuff and went to submission wrestling she improved a lot. And Triple H who put out a number of worst match of the year candidates had a big turnaround and had some best match of the year candidates. Course it had to do with WHO he was fighting. THECUBSFAN: Putting Park first here is kinda dumb, because he was likely doing pretty fine before he got back on TV, but if trading an extra A for a chance to get back to the big stage counts as improvement, he wins. RYAN FAULCONER: Mark Henry was having a nice little run on RAW before his shoulder injury this year. He seemed to really get the big monster man role down perfectly for the first time in his career. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Most Overrated Wrestler Award Description: To be given to the wrestler who really has little talent, but has a large place in the spotlight nonetheless. This is a measure of how undeserved a wrestler's push is. Previous Winners: 1990: Hulk Hogan 1991: Hulk Hogan 1992: Ultimate Warrior 1993: Hulk Hogan 1994: Hulk Hogan 1995: Hulk Hogan 1996: Hulk Hogan 1997: Hulk Hogan 1998: Hollywood Hogan 1999: Hulk Hogan 2000: Goldberg 2001: The Undertaker 2002: Triple H 2003: Triple H **2004**: Triple H 53 first place votes 49 second place votes 49 third place votes 12 7 2 85 Triple H 8 2 3 52 Randy Orton 4 7 4 49 Jeff Jarrett 6 5 0 45 John Bradshaw Layfield 2 3 4 27 Goldberg 3 2 2 25 Kurt Angle 2 3 3 25 Undertaker 2 2 2 20 Heidenreich 1 1 4 16 Luther Reigns 1 2 2 15 Booker T 1 1 3 14 Teddy Hart 1 1 2 12 Shawn Michaels 1 1 2 12 Gene Snitsky 0 2 3 12 John Cena 1 1 1 10 Chris Benoit 0 2 1 8 Edge 0 1 2 7 Hardcore Holly 1 0 0 5 Tajiri 1 0 0 5 Rob Van Dam 1 0 0 5 Lita 1 0 0 5 Kenta Kobashi 1 0 0 5 Jeff Hardy 1 0 0 5 Bryan Danielson 1 0 0 5 Amazing Red 1 0 0 5 Abyss 0 1 1 5 William Regal 0 1 1 5 Billy Gunn 0 1 0 3 Super Dragon 0 1 0 3 Naomichi Marufuji 0 1 0 3 Molly Holly 0 1 0 3 Low Ki 0 0 1 2 Victoria 0 0 1 2 Ric Flair 0 0 1 2 Molly 0 0 1 2 Kevin Nash 0 0 1 2 Homicide 0 0 1 2 Eugene 0 0 1 2 Chris Jericho HACK-MAN: For Most Overrated Wrestler, I hated to leave Abyss, Billy Gunn, HHH, and Bob Holly off the list, but I had to go with Undertaker, JBL, and Jeff Jarrett. ALLAN J. BENSON: Assuming this is overrated by the company, Triple H and his TNA clone Triple J win by a wide margin. PAUL ZOROVICH: Oh, so many to choose from...I'm going with JBL, Heidenreich, and Snitsky. Choose your order. YNAE316: Orton, Orton, Orton. Orton is obviously the future of the business but unfortunately the FUTURE is not now. I honestly don't think Orton's quite ready yet for the push he's getting but giving the kid his due he's doing the best he can. Unfortunately his matches border on passable and not brilliant and he's only had about one promo (his promo against Flair) which was memorable and not horrendously laughable. For this reason I give Orton the "Most overrated Wrestler" of 2004 award. MATT HOCKING: I'll never understand the net's attraction to Luther Reigns, I guess. Is it because Angle likes him? He's a big bland guy who cuts really awkward promos and has some blah moves. I guess he was really entertaining on a DVD one time? I mean, he's still Horshu. William Regal, who did some of the best promos of the year, never showed up wrestling wise and hasn't since he came to the WWE a few years ago. Chris Benoit won the World title. Good for him, I think it's great. But he's got the distinction of being the blandest world champion in a long, long time, and, yes, that includes Randy Orton. Honorable mention for Monty Brown. He's big and he apparently really likes wrestling. But his promos and his matches are awful, and his finisher is probably the worst in 'major' wrestling. CHAK: Most Overrated=Triple H. To quote part of the award description "This is a measure of how undeserved a wrestler's push is." Maybe I'm wrong, but he doesn't deserve to be headlining *EVERY* PPV Raw has. He deserves a high spot on the roster, but not anywhere near as high as he currently enjoys. JOHN C.: If you think JBL is good just because he got a push, you're wrong. Look at what Smackdown is. You think there's anything good about it? I don't. CRIMEFIGHTER: Most overrated...Teddy Hart, and because he personally overrates himself so much, that has led to his behavior problems. JBL is also vastly overrated. RYAN FAULCONER: Kurt Angle, when all is said and done, could go down as one of the most overrated wrestlers of all time. He's just that good. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Wrestling Gimmick Award Description: To be given to the wrestler who had the best character gimmick in the past year. Previous Winners: 1991: The Undertaker 1992: The Undertaker 1993: The Undertaker 1994: Bob Backlund as the real WWF champ 1995: Goldust 1996: NWO 1997: Mick Foley's multiple personalities 1998: Lionheart Chris Jericho as a Paragon of Virtue 1999: Hardcore Holly as The Big Shot and a Superheavyweight 2000: Edge & Christian, for the benefit of those with flash photography 2001: His name is Steve Austin - WWF Champion - he does not deserve this 2002: Matt Hardy's Mattitude 2003: John Cena as the Minister of Thuganomics **2004**: Trish Stratus as an insincere meddler 51 first place votes 50 second place votes 48 third place votes 7 5 6 62 Trish Stratus - Insincere Bitch 7 7 2 60 John Bradshaw Layfield 8 3 4 57 Eugene 5 7 1 48 Eddie Guerrero Lie/Cheat/Steal 5 3 4 42 Gene Snitsky 2 2 7 30 Randy Orton, Legend Killer 2 3 3 25 Carlito Caribbean Cool 2 3 1 21 Kane as a melodramatic villain 2 2 1 18 Christian (CLB) 2 0 4 18 Rico 2 1 1 15 Chris Benoit Is For Real 1 2 2 15 Billy Kidman scared to do the shooting star press 1 1 3 14 Spike Dudley as the Boss 1 2 1 13 William Regal, mentor of Eugene 0 3 0 9 Alpha Male Monty Brown 1 0 1 7 Daniel Mishima & Michael Iwasa as the Florida Brothers 0 1 2 7 John Cena 1 0 0 5 Monty Brown, the Alpha Male 1 0 0 5 Mickie Knuckles, Redneck Woman 1 0 0 5 Ebessan's Imitation Gimmick 0 1 0 3 Steven Richards as GM of Heat 0 1 0 3 Slim J as Eminem clone 0 1 0 3 Scott D'Amore 0 1 0 3 Jack Evans and his breakdancing 0 1 0 3 Delirious 0 0 1 2 Zach Gowen - As Seen on TV 0 0 1 2 Triple H 0 0 1 2 Simon Dean - fitness & diet guru 0 0 1 2 Johnny Nitro 0 0 1 2 Colt Cabana and his wackiness NATRBOY72: New Award Suggestion: Most Underrated Gimmick - 'Goat Boy' Tyson Tomko SYDNEY BROWN: I picked Eugene simply because it's insane that he got over as much as he did. And even after a depushing that would have killed most guys, he's still one of the four or five most popular guys on the roster. YNAE316: Gene Snitsky's "Psychotic Jobber" gimmick was the BEST thing on Raw after the summer doldrums. Who COULDN'T love a jobber that could "think" and get the best of "established stars." His "It wasn't my fault" promos were gold and him running roughshod over the WWE mid-card and Kane was the best and most unexpected thing all year. Gene Snitsky, Psycho Jobber, gets my "Best Gimmick" of 2004 Award. Monty Brown's "Alpha Male" gimmick is the best thing TNA's got going today. A decent take off off of Goldberg's WCW push where the "Monster" runs over the entire roster, the "Alpha Male" is money in the back and gets my #2 vote for 2004 Orton's "Legend Killer" gimmick gets my vote at #3. I honestly believe WWE had it right in their initial push of Orton as the Legend Killer as it built him up nice and slow and BELIEVABLY as he, one by one, took out noted "legends" like Michaels, Foley, Harley Race, etc. His best matches and promo work of the year was in his feud with Foley (and Rock toward Wrestlemania). Moreover, that work was more believable than his fluke, "RKO OUT OF NOWHERE" wins against Benoit, Triple H and just about everyone else in his current push. JOHN C.: Saying "Benoit is for real" got pretty annoying after a while, but it was the best thing out there. For the first time ever I actually liked Kane this year as a heel. He made me laugh more than he made me want to boo him, but it's the character advancement that matters most. Carlito gets third because even though he's a Razor Ramon ripoff, it's still better than most of the crap out there. TEXAS KELLY: I'm so heartened to see that (for now) they're still keeping Carlito on the air despite the shoulder injury. I boycotted Smackdown after the Bash in protest of the JBL title reign, but it was Carlito (and solely Carlito) that had me end it early and has me watching again. The gimmick's that good and that much of a breath of fresh air in this little world of ours. SCOTT CHRIST: I don't really think there are many good gimmicks left, so I'll give Mickie Knuckles a vote for being cool. RYAN FAULCONER: Whatever Delirious' gimmick is - it rules. Zach Gowen as a heel in IWAMS was AWESOME as well. It worked on SO MANY LEVELS:) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Wrestling Move Award Description: To be given to the move that is just the damn best thing you've seen this past year. This should probably be a "finishing" move or something really spectacular. Previous Winners: 1990: Scott Steiner's Frankensteiner 1991: Scott Steiner's Frankensteiner 1992: Jushin Liger's moonsault off the second ropes to floor 1993: Big Van Vader's moonsault 1994: Vader's moonsault 1995: Hakushi's Space Flying Tiger Drop 1996: Wildman Marc Mero's Wild Thing shooting star press 1997: Bret Hart's figure four leglock around the ringpost 1998: Rock's People's Elbow elbowdrop 1999: Jeff Hardy's senton bomb 2000: Jeff Hardy's swantonbomb senton 2001: Rob van Damn's Five Star frog splash 2002: Brock Lesnar's F-5 fireman carry neckbreaker 2003: Brock Lesnar's F-5 fireman carry neckbreaker **2004**: Petey Williams' Canadian Destroyer flip piledriver 51 first place votes 50 second place votes 50 third place votes 11 4 4 75 Petey Williams' Canadian Destroyer flip piledriver 4 2 3 32 Victoria's Widow's Peak 4 1 4 31 Chris Benoit's Crippler crossface 2 5 0 25 Paul London's London Calling 450 splash 2 4 1 24 Paul London's Dropsault backflip dropkick 2 2 2 20 AJ Styles' Styles Clash 1 1 5 18 Randy Orton's RKO 2 1 2 17 Brock Lesnar's F5 1 2 2 15 Kurt Angle's anklelock 1 2 0 11 Ric Flair's figure four 0 3 1 11 Chris Benoit's rolling German suplexes 2 0 0 10 Undertaker's Tombstone piledriver 2 0 0 10 Eddie Guerrero's frog splash 1 1 1 10 Kenta Kobashi's Burning Hammer 1 1 1 10 Eddie Guerrero's Three Amigos rolling vertical suplexes 0 2 2 10 Jerelle Clark's 630 splash 1 0 2 9 La Resistance's Au Revoir 1 0 2 9 Gail Kim's submission holds 1 1 0 8 Triple H's Pedigree 1 1 0 8 Shawn Michaels' Sweet Chin Music superkick 0 1 2 7 Rey Mysterio's 619 swingout kick 0 2 0 6 Naomichi Marufuji's shiranui 0 2 0 6 Jack Evans' 630 corkscrew Flying Phoenix Senton 0 2 0 6 Batista's sitdown powerbomb 1 0 0 5 Shinsuke Nakamura's Shining Triangle 1 0 0 5 Rico's moonsault 1 0 0 5 Randy Orton's headlock/neckbreaker across his back 1 0 0 5 LA Park's reverse bodyscissors powerbomb 1 0 0 5 KENTA's busaiku knee kick 1 0 0 5 John Cena's F-U 1 0 0 5 John Bradshaw Layfield's Clothesline from Hell 1 0 0 5 Homicide's Cop Killer 1 0 0 5 Christopher Daniels' Best Moonsault Ever 1 0 0 5 Chris Hero's Hangman's Clutch STF 1 0 0 5 Big Show's chokeslam 0 1 1 5 Shelton Benjamin's Exploder Powerslam 0 1 1 5 Christian's Unprettier 0 0 2 4 Shelton Benjamin's corner splash 0 1 0 3 Trish Stratus' Stratusfaction 0 1 0 3 Sonjay Dutt's corkscrew flip 0 1 0 3 Roderick Strong's running boot 0 1 0 3 Rob Van Dam's Five Star frog splash 0 1 0 3 Monty Brown's Pounce shoulderblock 0 1 0 3 Luther Reigns' test drive neckbreaker 0 1 0 3 Hiroshi Tanahashi's Dragon sleeper 0 1 0 3 Eddie Guerrero's simultaneous legscissors/arm drag 0 0 1 2 Tajiri's kick 0 0 1 2 Super Dragon's curbstomp 0 0 1 2 Spanky's Sliced Bread #2 0 0 1 2 Rene Dupree's French Tickler 0 0 1 2 Perro Aguayo Jr.'s double footstomp 0 0 1 2 Hiroyoshi Tenzan's Anaconda Vice 0 0 1 2 Eddie Guerrero's tilt-a-whirl head scissors 0 0 1 2 Chris Jericho's Walls of Jericho 0 0 1 2 Chris Benoit's sharpshooter 0 0 1 2 Batista's spinebuster 0 0 1 2 Abyss' Black Hole slam 0 0 1 2 A-Train's Train Wreck backbreaker HACK-MAN: It was easy to choose my three top picks for Best Wrestling Move, but it was hard to decide between Petey Williams' Canadian Destroyer flip piledriver and Sonjay Dutt's corkscrew flip for the top spot. I went with PW. And for #3, I always mark for that "630 Splash". PAUL ZOROVICH: Ric Flair's figure four get it here, mainly for old times' sake. SYDNEY BROWN: Petey Williams flip piledriver may be the most innovative move I have ever seen. It's that move and that move alone that got me interested in TNA after trying them on their inception. YNAE316: Hands down, Petey William's "Canadian Destroyer" Flip Piledriver is THE #1 move in wrestling today. Much like Shane Helms' "Vertebreaker" in 2000 this move ALWAYS inspires a "Holy Shit" upon first seeing it. It's too bad Petey doesn't have a bigger forum than TNA to show his goods. (Not like they'd EVER let that move out in WWE though). Also from TNA's X-Division comes my #2 move of the year, Jerelle Clarks' 630 degree splash. It's an impressive move to see pulled off and easily gets my #2. It's moves like this and the "Canadian Destroyer" that easily demonstrates that TNA IS the alternative wrestling promotion of choice for today's fan. Gail Kim's submission moves (in particular, the "Tilt-A-Whirl Armbar and Scissors") get my #3 Best Wrestling Move Award for 2004. Her innovative submission offense was awesome to watch and made for some great wrestling in the women's division in 2004. It's too bad they fired all the female wrestlers and picked up all the Diva Search rejects as it seems like the women's division is now buried. Oh well... JOHN C.: London's 450 is my favorite move, even if WWE doesn't have him use it. Had Lesnar been around longer, he'd probably have won this for another year. CRIMEFIGHTER: Petey Williams Canadian Destroyer is a thing to belong, cause if done wrong can put someone in the hospital. Taking Monty Brown's spear at the side of your body hurts bad. And Chris Benoit knows how to string them Germans together, just how many can he do in one chain? RYAN FAULCONER: Jack Evans' Corkscrew 630 Flying Phoneix Splash is insane. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Match Award Description: To be given to the best wrestling match you've seen this year, either live, on TV, PPV, or in an arena, or on tape. If it took place in the past year, it is eligible. In 1994, this award was split into three: North American, Non-North American, and overall. In 1997, due to lack of participation on both the NA and non-NA sides, it was recombined. Previous Winners: 1990: 04/22/90: Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart vs. Marty Janetty & Shawn Michaels (SNME) 1991: 03/21/91: Steiners vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Hiroshi Hase (Tokyo, aired on taped PPV) 1992: 01/18/92: Royal Rumble (Royal Rumble) 1993: 10/24/93: Cactus Jack vs. Big Van Vader (Halloween Havoc) 1994: (overall/NA) 03/20/94: Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon (WrestleMania) 1994: (non-NA) 04/16/94: Chris Benoit vs. Great Sasuke (Super J Cup) 1995: (overall/NA) 08/27/95: Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon (SummerSlam) 1995: (non-NA) 11/20/94: Aja Kong vs. Manami Toyota (AJW V*TOP Tourney) 1996: (overall/NA) 03/31/96: Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels (WrestleMania) 1996: (non-NA) 03/17/96: Jushin Liger vs. Shinjiro Otani 1997: 10/05/97: Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker (Hell in the Cell cage) 1998: 06/28/98: Undertaker vs. Mankind (Hell in the Cell cage) 1999: 10/17/99: Brood (Matt & Jeff Hardy) vs. Edge & Christian (ladder) 2000: 08/27/00: Edge & Christian vs. Hardy Boyz vs. Dudley Boyz (tag TLC) 2001: 05/21/01: Steve Austin & Triple H (tag) vs. Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho (RAW) 2002: 10/20/02: Chris Benoit & Kurt Angle v. Edge & Rey Mysterio (WWE tag final) (No Mercy) 2003: 01/19/03: Kurt Angle (WWE) v. Chris Benoit (Royal Rumble) **2004**: 03/14/04: Triple H (World) v. Chris Benoit v. Shawn Michaels (WrestleMania) 46 first place votes 46 second place votes 43 third place votes 20 6 3 124 03/14/04 Triple H (World) v. Chris Benoit v. Shawn Michaels 2 6 6 40 02/15/04 Brock Lesnar (WWE) v. Eddie Guerrero 2 5 6 37 04/18/04 Randy Orton v. Mick Foley 2 7 1 33 01/25/04 Thirty Man Royal Rumble 3 2 3 27 03/14/04 Eddie Guerrero (WWE) v. Kurt Angle 3 1 1 20 09/02/04 Eddie Guerrero v. Kurt Angle (2/3) (Smackdown) 2 1 3 19 07/26/04 Chris Benoit (World) v. Triple H (iron man) 1 2 1 13 05/03/04 Chris Benoit (World) v. Shawn Michaels 1 1 2 12 03/18/04 Eddie Guerrero (WWE) v. Rey Mysterio 1 1 1 10 04/18/04 Chris Benoit (World) v. Triple H v. Shawn Michaels 1 1 0 8 07/10/04 Kenta Kobashi v. Jun Akiyama 1 0 1 7 12/29/03 Triple H (World) v. Shawn Michaels 0 1 2 7 12/02/03 Brock Lesnar (WWE) v. Chris Benoit 0 2 0 6 04/25/04 Kenta Kobashi v. Yoshihiro Takayama 1 0 0 5 10/16/04 CM Punk v. Samoa Joe 1 0 0 5 08/15/04 Hiroshi Tanahashi v. Hiroyoshi Tenzan 1 0 0 5 08/04/04 Kid Kash v. AJ Styles 1 0 0 5 07/17/04 Homicide & Havana Pitbulls v. Samoa Joe & Briscoes 1 0 0 5 04/24/04 Bryan Danielson v. Homicide 1 0 0 5 01/07/04 Chris Sabin v. Low-Ki v. Christopher Daniels v. Michael Shane (Ultimate X) 0 1 1 5 06/13/04 Triple H v. Shawn Michaels (hell in a cell) 0 1 1 5 04/12/04 Evolution v. Mick Foley & Chris Benoit & Shawn Michaels & Shelton Benjamin (RAW) 0 1 0 3 12/30/03 Tajiri v. Rey Mysterio 0 1 0 3 08/07/04 Austin Aries v. American Dragon 0 1 0 3 07/11/04 Benoit v. Triple H 0 1 0 3 06/13/04 Chris Benoit (World) v. Kane 0 1 0 3 04/10/04 Chris Hero v. B-Boy 0 1 0 3 03/26/04 Virus & Safari & Volador Jr. v. Zumbido & Super Crazy & Violencia 0 1 0 3 02/11/04 Juventud Guerrera & Abismo Negro & Aguila & Hector Garza v. Jerry Lynn & Elix Skipper & Chris Sabin & Sonjay Dutt (elimination) 0 0 1 2 09/10/04 Kenta Kobashi v. Akira Taue 0 0 1 2 09/03/04 Averno v. Zumbido (NWA middleweight) 0 0 1 2 07/18/04 Mitsuharu Misawa v. Satoshi Kojima 0 0 1 2 07/15/04 John Bradshaw Layfield (WWE) v. Eddie Guerrero (cage) 0 0 1 2 05/29/04 Samoa Joe v. Chris Hero 0 0 1 2 04/25/04 Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa v. Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA 0 0 1 2 04/05/04 Triple H (World) v. Shelton Benjamin (RAW) 0 0 1 2 04/05/04 Seven woman Battle Royal (RAW) 0 0 1 2 03/14/04 Molly Holly (WWE) v. Victoria (hair) 0 0 1 2 03/14/03 Rock & Mick Foley v. Ric Flair & Randy Orton & Batista REJECTED - out of eligible timeframe 1 0 0 11/07/04 Petey Williams (X) v. AJ Styles 0 1 0 11/03/04 Kensuke Sasaki (IWGP) v. Hiroshi Tanahashi 0 0 1 11/13/04 Heat (IWGP Jr) v. Koji Kanemoto HACK-MAN: As much as I hate to do it, I'm limiting "Best Match" to just PPV matches, since the matches I've seen over the past year that were better I didn't write down the specific date or participants. That said, the only three PPV matches that rated ten buck or more in the past year:1st:03/14/04 Triple H (World) v. Chris Benoit v. Shawn Michaels ($20), 2nd:07/11/04 Benoit v. HHH ($13), 3rd:02/15/04 Brock Lesnar (WWE) v. Eddie Guerrero ($10) ALLAN J. BENSON: I'm really no good at remembering all these matches (and half of them I never saw anyway). So I'll just skip this category. DAN MILLER: Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama from the 7/10 NOAH Tokyo Dome show is by far the best match of the year. This match has incredible psychology, story telling and the wrestling is off the charts. It's almost sick how stiff some of the spots are (the vertical suplex off the apron onto the concrete is insane). It's vastly superior to the WM XX main event w/HHH, Benoit and HBK (which is unquestionably the best US match this year). If you haven't seen this match, you're missing out. YNAE316: Hands down, Benoit's triumphs over Michaels and Triple H at Wrestlemania and his triumph over the WWE Roster (#1 BABY!!!) at the Royal Rumble are MY best matches of 2004. Benoit Rules!!! JOHN C.: The WMXX main event wins due to not only being a great all around wrestling match, but also giving fans a moment they will remember for the rest of their lives. Michaels/HHH in the cell gets the second spot for being a great match psychologically and for ending what was the company's top feud for the past couple of years. Third is Guerrero over Lesnar for giving us a great big man-little man match that ended with a happy ending that we all wanted to see. CHRISTOPHER SHEA: The memory of screaming "TAP!" at Triple H at the end of the Wrestlemania three-way still brings a smile to my face. The Royal Rumble was simply the best-booked of all the ones they've done. And while the Eugene run-in at the end of the Benoit/Triple H iron man match cut down on its awesomeness, that doesn't negate the 55 minutes of great wrestling that led up to it. EMMA: I was suprised to realise that my top 4 MOTY selections were all from free TV. I've seen most of the PPVs this year, & 7 out of 8 of the next matches on my list were from PPVs. But for whatever reason, the WWE was giving away my favourite stuff for free. Very odd. CRIMEFIGHTER: The triple threats Benoit/HHH/Michaels produced two match of the year candidates at ***** and ****3/4. This year's royal rumble was also *****. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Feud Award Description: To be given to the feud that gave us the most heated and best wrestling match(es) of the year. In 1994, this award was split into two: North American and Non-North American. In 1996, due to lack of participation on the non-NA side, it was recombined. Previous Winners: 1990: Doom: Ron Simmons & Butch Reed vs. Horsemen: Arn Anderson & Barry Windham 1991: Doom: Ron Simmons & Butch Reed vs. Steiners 1992: Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage 1993: Big Van Vader vs. Cactus Jack 1994: (NA) Cactus Jack & partner vs. Nasty Boys 1994: (non-NA) All Japan Women vs. JWP (& other outside women) 1995: (NA) Dean Malenko vs. Eddy Guerrero 1995: (non-NA) Aja Kong vs. Manami Toyota 1996: NWO vs. WCW 1997: Bret Hart / Hart Foundation vs. Steve Austin 1998: Mr. McMahon vs. Steve Austin 1999: Mankind vs. Rock 2000: Triple H vs. Mankind / Cactus Jack 2001: Rock vs. Chris Jericho 2002: Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle 2003: Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar **2004**: Randy Orton vs. Mick Foley 51 first place votes 50 second place votes 47 third place votes 15 3 3 90 Mick Foley v. Randy Orton 10 7 6 83 Eddie Guerrero v. Kurt Angle 9 5 10 80 Chris Benoit v. Triple H v. Shawn Michaels 5 9 6 64 Chris Jericho v. Christian 3 2 1 23 Gene Snitsky v. Kane 1 4 3 23 America's Most Wanted v. XXX 1 2 2 15 Randy Orton v. Triple H 0 4 1 14 Brock Lesnar v. Eddie Guerrero 1 0 3 11 Kane v. Undertaker 0 1 4 11 Eddie Guerrero v. John Bradshaw Layfield 1 1 1 10 Chavo Guerrero v. Eddie Guerrero 0 3 0 9 Lita v. Trish Stratus 1 1 0 8 Samoa Joe v. Homicide 1 1 0 8 Homicide & The Rottweilers v. Samoa Joe 1 1 0 8 CM Punk v. Ricky Steamboat 0 1 2 7 Kid Kash v. AJ Styles 1 0 0 5 Nakamura v. Shibata 1 0 0 5 Dr. Wagner Jr. v. Canek 0 1 0 3 Triple H v. Shawn Michaels 0 1 0 3 Ric Flair v. Randy Orton 0 1 0 3 El Hijo del Santo v. Perro Aguayo Jr. 0 1 0 3 Eddie Guerrero v. Chavo Guerrero 0 1 0 3 AJ Styles v. Matt Sydal 0 0 1 2 The Prophecy v. Second City Saints 0 0 1 2 Eddie Guerrero v. Brock Lesnar 0 0 1 2 Corey Macklin v. Jerry Lawler 0 0 1 2 Chris Hero v. Samoa Joe 0 0 1 2 Brock Lesnar v. Goldberg YNAE316: Benoit's feuds against Triple H and Michaels leading into Wrestlemania 20 provided the best action and promos and the year and gets my best feud of 2004 award. Snitsky's late-year feud with Kane was probably the most entertaining story wise with the unexpected swerve of "jobber" Snitsky actually winning. Jericho vs. Christian, though not as high profile, was an entertaining midcard feud throughout the early and middle part of the year so I give it the nod for 3rd place. JOHN C.: Benoit vs. HHH vs. Michaels wins fairly easily. Their first match was the match of the year, their second match was a top five match and everything else they did together was top notch. Christian vs. Jericho had the best story of any WWE feud during the time period we're looking at. The matches were very good, but not at the level of the Raw main events. Plus, I love Trish and need to honor her somehow. Third is Eddie Guerrero v. Kurt Angle for having solid storylines to go along with high quality, somewhat forgotten, matches. Snitsky/Kane wins for being the funniest feud, even though it wasn't intentionally funny. SCOTT CHRIST: Samoa Joe and Homicide was a real wrestling feud to remember, in my opinion. Their matches just got better and better, building off the last one every time out, and stayed consistent throughout. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Worst Wrestler Award Description: To be given to the name athlete who was the worst overall wrestler in the past year. Minimal technical ability, lousy interviews, non-existent workrate, and the charisma of a rock should describe this person. Previous Winners: 1990: Junkyard Dog 1991: Andre The Giant 1992: Nailz 1993: Giant Gonzalez 1994: Hulk Hogan 1995: Hulk Hogan 1996: Hulk Hogan 1997: Hulk Hogan 1998: Hollywood Hogan 1999: Hulk Hogan 2000: Hulk Hogan 2001: Buff Bagwell 2002: Jackie Gayda 2003: Nathan Jones **2004**: Heidenreich 50 first place votes 50 second place votes 49 third place votes 12 8 4 92 Heidenreich 5 3 3 40 Tyson Tomko 3 4 6 39 Mordecai 4 2 4 34 Triple H 4 3 1 31 Hardcore Holly 3 3 2 28 Undertaker 3 1 2 22 Ernest Miller 1 4 2 21 Gene Snitsky 2 2 2 20 Kenzo Suzuki 1 4 1 19 John Bradshaw Layfield 2 2 1 18 Scott Steiner 3 0 1 17 Mark Henry 0 2 3 12 Shaniqua 0 2 3 12 Lita 1 0 2 9 John Cena 1 1 0 8 Jeff Jarrett 0 2 1 8 Scotty 2 Hotty 0 2 1 8 Billy Gunn 1 0 1 7 Rob Van Dam 1 0 0 5 Tajiri 1 0 0 5 Jim Ross 1 0 0 5 Gino Latino 1 0 0 5 Carmella DeCesare 0 1 1 5 A-Train 0 0 2 4 Sable 0 0 2 4 Rodney Mack 0 1 0 3 Sylvain Grenier 0 1 0 3 Stacy Keibler 0 1 0 3 Kane 0 1 0 3 Goldberg 0 0 1 2 Rhyno 0 0 1 2 Randy Orton 0 0 1 2 Dawn Marie 0 0 1 2 David Young HACK-MAN: Just like last year, it was hard to whittle "Worst Wrestler" down to just three. I had to leave off horrid guys like A-Train, Billy Gunn, Ernest Miller, Bob Holly, Rikishi, Rodney Mack, and HHH. And Jeff Jarrett wasn't even nominated! In the end, I votes for Undertaker, JBL, and Shaniqua. PAUL ZOROVICH: Once again, so many ways to go here. Mark Henry belongs on any "worst wrestler" list (I wasn't even sure he was still attempting to BE a wrestler, actually), and Heidenreich and Rodney Mack just...aren't good. SYDNEY BROWN: The only positive things I can say about Mark Henry are that he injures easily and he only has two more years left on his contract. YNAE316: I've given the "worst" wrestler nods to Heidenreich and Tomko. Subpar matches are the main reason although both can hopefully develop futher in the new year. Heidenreich almost killing Stevie Richards and Tomko's near "Nathan Jones" like debut were memorable for all the wrong reasons. I've given Lita the "3rd place" slot here because she basically had the mostbrutal promos and storylines to deal with all year and didn't have any good matches whatsoever all year long. CHAK: Worst Wrestler=Triple H. The award description says "To be given to the name athlete who was the worst overall wrestler in the past year. Minimal technical ability, lousy interviews, non-existent workrate, and the charisma of a rock should describe this person." His in-ring skills have deteriorated, his interviews aren't even half as amusing as he seems to think, he rarely wrestles, and makes me want to change the channel. Seems pretty much dead-on to me. JOHN C.: This is so hard to vote for without Hogan, Nash or Sid as a choice, but thankfully we've got Heidenreich to rely on. Snitsky is second and Undertaker comes in third for having no good matches in a very long time. TEXAS KELLY: As much as I hate Triple H & JBL, I have to rank them behind Hardcore Holly for one simple reason: All three may suck in the ring and be ridiculously overpushed given their abilities, but only Hardcore's proven himself, again and again, to be an actual idiot. CRIMEFIGHTER: Take Golddust's hair, give him Bret Hart's tights and Rico's personality while subtracting all wrestling ability of the three and you have the horrible Gino Latino out of the Chicago area. Stacey Keiber can't wrestle, and I threw David Young in there cause he has this endless losing streak. SCOTT CHRIST: If "Best Wrestler" is for the MVP, then "Worst Wrestler" should be the LVP, and I can't figure out anyone LESS valuable than Hardcore Holly. He sucks, he's not over, he's an asshole who hurts people, and he somehow got a world title program. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Worst Tag Team Award Description: To be given to the name tag team who were the worst overall wrestlers in the past year. Minimal technical ability, lousy interviews, non-existent workrate, the charisma of a rock, and lousy team moves should describe this pair. Previous Winners: 1990: Rhythm & Blues: Greg Valentine & Honky Tonk Man 1991: The Patriots: Todd Champion & Firebreaker Chip 1992: Bushwhackers: Luke Williams & Butch Miller 1993: The Colossal Kongs: Awesome Kong & King Kong 1994: Bushwhackers: Luke Williams & Butch Miller 1995: Tekno Team 2000: Travis & Troy 1996: Godwinns: Henry O. & Phineas I. 1997: Godwinns: Henry O. & Phineas I. 1998: Diamond Dallas Page & Jay Leno 1999: Ministry of Darkness: Mideon & Viscera 2000: Harris Brothers: Big Ron & Heavy D 2001: Kronik: Brian Adams & Bryan Clarke 2002: Rosey & Jamal 2003: 3 Minute Warning: Rossey & Jamal / La Resistance: Sylvain Grenier & Rene Dupree & Rob Conway (tie) **2004**: Hardcore Holly & Billy Gunn 49 first place votes 46 second place votes 45 third place votes 7 6 2 57 Hardcore Holly & Billy Gunn 4 6 7 52 Test & Scott Steiner 6 4 3 48 Fabulous Moolah & Mae Young 5 2 3 37 Garrison Cade & Mark Jindrak 2 4 7 36 Scotty 2 Hotty & Rikishi 5 3 0 34 Ministry - Gangrel & Viscera 5 2 1 33 La Resistance - Sylvain Grenier & Robert Conway 1 2 7 25 Dudleys - Bubba Ray & D-Von 3 2 1 23 Basham Brothers - Doug & Danny 2 4 0 22 Kenzo Suzuki & Rene Dupree 2 1 3 19 Hurricane & Rosey 1 3 0 14 Luther Reigns & Mark Jindrak 0 4 1 14 3 Live Crew - Ron Killings & B.G. James & Konnan 0 1 2 7 APA - Faarooq & Bradshaw 1 0 0 5 Rene Dupree & Kenzo Suzuki 1 0 0 5 New York Connection - Glen Gilberti & Johnny Swinger 1 0 0 5 Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa 1 0 0 5 FBI - Nunzio & Johnny Stamboli 1 0 0 5 Animals - George Jr. & George 3rd 1 0 0 5 Akio & Sakoda 0 0 2 4 Sonny Siaki & Pat Kenney 0 1 0 3 Michael Modest & Donovan Morgan 0 1 0 3 D-Lo Brown & Apollo 0 0 1 2 Rhyno & Tajiri 0 0 1 2 Naturals - Andy Douglas & Chase Stevens 0 0 1 2 Gino Latino & Boink 0 0 1 2 Gail Kim & Molly Holly 0 0 1 2 Chris Benoit & Edge ALLAN J. BENSON: Yes, Virginia, tag team wrestling really _is_ in its worst state in decades. YNAE316: Cade and Jindrak started the year off with a pretty strong push going into Wrestlemania and looked to perhaps be Raw's next big tag team in the vein of La Resistance, sad to say. So-so matches, Vanilla characters and the LAMEST finisher (an elevated dropkick) do not a great tag team make. However, I will give the benefit of saying that they probably could have developed into a decent tag team given time. Steiner and Test get my 2nd place award because they both sucked so bad they HAD to be put together having nothing else to do. JOHN C.: Moolah & Mae win this because, frankly, they don't do anything good. Holly & Gunn is next for being the team that I never want to see together under any circumstances. APA is last. CRIMEFIGHTER: Remember George "The Animal" Steele? Well he has kids, and they can't wrestle very well and after seeing three matches that sucked between them I finally made it clear what I think of them. Moolah & Mae Young, WHY are they still wrestling? They're both well into their 80s! I don't care if they think it's just a number, they should only make appearances, not wrestle matches against people 50 years younger than them. Gino Latino & Boink are the worst tag team of the Intergalatic Wrestling Federation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Worst Heel Award Description: To be given to the person whose casting as a bad guy just didn't work well. Maybe there was just no heel heat drawn or maybe the fans actually cheered this person, but for whatever reason the heel image just didn't get over. Previous Winners: 1990: Rick Martel 1991: The Mountie Jacques Rougeau 1992: Razor Ramon 1993: Giant Gonzalez 1994: Bastion Booger 1995: Zodiac (The Butcher/Brutus Beefcake) 1996: Hulk Hogan 1997: Ahmed Johnson 1998: Hollywood Hogan 1999: Sting 2000: Goldberg 2001: Rob van Dam 2002: Triple H 2003: Triple H **2004**: Jeff Jarrett 51 first place votes 49 second place votes 46 third place votes 11 3 1 66 Jeff Jarrett 6 5 5 55 Mordecai 8 2 3 52 Carmella DeCesare 5 6 1 45 Triple H 3 4 4 35 Heidenreich 1 5 3 26 Mark Jindrak 2 1 6 25 Undertaker 4 1 0 23 Monty Brown 0 3 6 21 Tyson Tomko 2 3 0 19 John Bradshaw Layfield 2 1 1 15 Simon Dean 1 2 1 13 Luther Reigns 0 3 2 13 Spike Dudley 1 1 2 12 Shaniqua 1 1 1 10 Garrison Cade 1 1 1 10 Chavo Classic 1 1 0 8 Gail Kim 0 1 2 7 Rodney Mack 1 0 0 5 Goldy Locks 1 0 0 5 Booker T 0 1 1 5 Matt Morgan 0 0 2 4 Gene Snitsky 0 1 0 3 Randy Orton 0 1 0 3 Orlando Jordan 0 1 0 3 Johnny Nitro 0 1 0 3 Jazz 0 0 1 2 Kurt Angle 0 0 1 2 Kenzo Suzuki 0 0 1 2 Kane 0 0 1 2 CM Punk ALLAN J. BENSON: If being a heel means shoving yourself down everyone's throat until the fans are so sick of you that buyrates, attendance and ratings drop to near record low levels, then Triple H and Triple J are great heels. Unfortunately, in reality no drawing power means you are a shitty heel. If these guys didn't have family running the show backstage, does anyone think either one would be champ right now? Seriously. PAUL ZOROVICH: Was Gail Kim supposed to be a heel? SYDNEY BROWN: I chose Garrison Cade only because I didn't know he was a heel this year. I guess Undertaker's heel turn was just that five minute period where he killed his manager. YNAE316: Monty Brown gets my "Worst Heel" award because he's so bad ass he became a defacto face in TNA. Carmella DeCesare takes my #2 award because she frankly sucked and didn't seem in the least interested to be a part of WWE. Crowd apathy doesn't translate to heel heat and frankly, the fans just shit on the whole "Diva Search" anyway. JOHN C.: Heidenreich easily. Is there anything positive you can say about this guy? Anything? Mordecai comes in second, followed by Kenzo Suzuki. Those three names pretty much sum up everything that is wrong with Smackdown. CHRISTOPHER SHEA: Too early to vote Maven here, but I have a feeling=85 Voted Taker here because I -still- can't understand why he didn't turn heel after KILLING HIS MANAGER. Reigns and Tomko are just personality-less guys drifting along on contact heeldom. TEXAS KELLY: Why they turned Booker heel, I'll never figure out. CRIMEFIGHTER: Chavo Classic squandered his chance to have one more big run in a major promotion, now he's finished. RYAN FAULCONER: When you need an actual sledgehammer to get heat when you beat up a babyface...you are really really bad at this heel stuff. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Worst Babyface Award Description: To be given to the person whose casting as a good guy just didn't work well. Maybe there was just no face heat drawn or maybe the fans actually booed this person, but for whatever reason the face image just didn't get over. Previous Winners: 1990: Dusty Rhodes 1991: P.N. News 1992: Sid Justice 1993: Lex Luger 1994: Hulk Hogan 1995: Hulk Hogan 1996: John Tenta 1997: Rocky Maivia 1998: Warrior 1999: Hulk Hogan 2000: Hulk Hogan 2001: "The One" Billy Gunn 2002: Triple H 2003: Stephanie McMahon / Scott Steiner (tie) **2004**: Hardcore Holly 48 first place votes 48 second place votes 46 third place votes 14 5 2 89 Hardcore Holly 10 3 6 71 Edge 7 8 2 63 Randy Orton 3 4 1 29 Kane 1 4 5 27 Goldberg 3 3 1 26 John Cena 2 2 3 22 Undertaker 0 5 3 21 Billy Gunn 2 2 2 20 Vince McMahon 0 2 5 16 Lita 0 3 3 15 Maven 1 1 2 12 Big Show 1 0 2 9 Jeff Hardy 1 0 1 7 Victoria 1 0 1 7 Christy Hemme 0 1 2 7 Scotty 2 Hotty 1 0 0 5 Tajiri 1 0 0 5 Booker T 0 1 1 5 Cat 0 0 2 4 Rico 0 1 0 3 Zumbido 0 1 0 3 Rosey 0 1 0 3 Rob Van Dam 0 1 0 3 Ken Shamrock 0 0 1 2 Rhyno 0 0 1 2 John Walters HACK-MAN: For Worst Babyface, it was hard to omit one of Undertaker, Billy Gunn, Hardcore Holly, and Rhyno. I flipped a coin a Rhyno was off the list. ALLAN J. BENSON: Edge just sucked as a face and did anyone feel even a little sympathetic for Kane or Lita? I sure as hell didn't. (Although, that is more of a writing problem than fault on their parts, I admit.) PAUL ZOROVICH: Kane in a walkover. ANDREW KAY: The crowd reaction at Toronto speaks for itself. Edge sucks as a face. Or at least the Edge that was given to us for the better course of the year. SYDNEY BROWN: Edge's babyface reign was so awful even HE knew nobody liked him. Kane rapes Lita, and her baby dies, and I'm supposed to like him now? If anything, it makes me hate Lita more. YNAE316: Edge was the single WORST babyface of 2004. The fans just didn't get behind him as much as they should have. His "triumphant" return to Raw was lukewarm at best and his babyface push was met with more lukewarm reaction. The fact that the guy got booed out of the building in HIS OWN HOMETOWN goes to show how horrible a face he was. Edge's heel turn? Now THAT is something to be proud of. Randy Orton takes my #2 spot for worst babyface of 2004. Slowly but surely the WWE WILL get him the #1 babyface spot by default but his current push and initial face turn is tentative at best and the fans just didn't buy into him at first (and arguably STILL aren't buying into him at the moment). For this reason Orton's my #2 "Worst Babyface" of 2004. JOHN C.: Why was Kane getting cheered after the whole Snitsky thing? Are fans stupid enough to forget that he practically raped a girl to get her pregnant? Oh yeah, they are. My bad. TEXAS KELLY: I said to a friend months before Edge came back that the WWE should have brought him back a while. It took a while, but it was around the time the babyface cheers began for Orton that he finally figured out that I'd been right all along. CRIMEFIGHTER: Well Hardcore Holly really should not be considered a face of any sort, very poor attitude and doesn't keep himself in check whatsoever. Sooner or later when he shoots on the wrong person he's gonna find himself in the hospital. Big Show was practically gonna kill Torrie Wilson and ended up nearly killing Kurt Angle, but he's back and he's not hated for that? SCOTT CHRIST: Edge's babyface run was just sad. Jeff Hardy and Ken Shamrock were both complete wastes of everyone's time in every way imaginable. RYAN FAULCONER: Anyone who looks like Zumbido makes a terrible babyface. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Worst Worker Award Description: To be given to the name wrestler whose workrate is so low it's barely measureable. Previous Winners: 1990: Junkyard Dog 1991: Andre The Giant 1992: Nailz 1993: Giant Gonzalez 1994: Hulk Hogan 1995: Hulk Hogan 1996: Hulk Hogan 1997: Hulk Hogan 1998: Hollywood Hogan 1999: Hulk Hogan 2000: Kevin Nash 2001: Buff Bagwell 2002: Jackie Gayda 2003: Nathan Jones **2004**: Heidenreich 50 first place votes 48 second place votes 46 third place votes 13 1 5 78 Heidenreich 7 5 5 60 Tyson Tomko 3 4 1 29 Undertaker 3 1 4 26 Mordecai 2 4 2 26 John Bradshaw Layfield 0 8 1 26 Kenzo Suzuki 2 3 2 23 Hardcore Holly 3 0 3 21 Viscera 2 2 2 20 Billy Gunn 1 3 3 20 Mark Henry 2 2 1 18 Gene Snitsky 0 2 4 14 Stacy Kiebler 1 2 1 13 Goldberg 2 0 1 12 Triple H 2 0 1 12 Ernest Miller 1 0 2 9 Torrie Wilson 1 1 0 8 John Cena 0 2 1 8 Luther Reigns 0 2 0 6 Sylvain Grenier 1 0 0 5 Rene Dupree 1 0 0 5 Jun Izumida 1 0 0 5 Jazz 1 0 0 5 Canek 1 0 0 5 Booker T 0 1 1 5 Randy Orton 0 1 1 5 Gail Kim 0 1 0 3 Monty Brown 0 1 0 3 Mitsuharu Misawa 0 1 0 3 Carmella DeCesare 0 1 0 3 Billy Kidman 0 0 1 2 Takeshi Rikio 0 0 1 2 Shaniqua 0 0 1 2 Rob Van Dam 0 0 1 2 Ric Flair 0 0 1 2 Eric Watts ALLAN J. BENSON: Has _anybody_ injured more people in as short an amount of time as Heidenreich? PAUL ZOROVICH: Shouldn't this award be renamed in honor of Mark Henry? SYDNEY BROWN: I went Undertaker, JBL, and Heidenreich. UT's so deteriorated he'll only wrestle six times a year, JBL wrestles as little as possible to hide his lack of talent, and Heidenreich screwed up so many matches a year ago, he gets rewarded with a main event push now. YNAE316: Tomko had some shitty matches all year since his debut and he nearly BLEW his big debut by blowing his main move. That's bad. Orton gets my #2 worst worker of 2004 because quite frankly, he's not at main event level in his workrate with his IMPRESSIVE array of chinlocks. Orton needs to get with DDP on how to hit the RKO from different positions. He may be the future of the business but he has A LOT of work cut out for him in 2005 if he ever wishes to be taken seriously by the SMARKS. CHAK: Triple H wrestles 2-3 times per month on TV. When he has the belt. If that doesn't qualify him as "worst worker" I don't know what does. JOHN C.: Again, this is hard without Hogan, Nash or Sid available. Heidenreich is the new champion for this, I think. EMMA: Stacy as fluff -- whatever. Putting Stacy into matches? No. SCOTT CHRIST: Dupree, Cena and Tomko - the future is now! RYAN FAULCONER:Canek is crap. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Least Favourite Wrestler Award Description: To be given to the wrestler you like the least, regardless of the reason. Previous Winners: 1991: Hulk Hogan 1992: Hulk Hogan 1993: Hulk Hogan 1994: Hulk Hogan 1995: Hulk Hogan 1996: Hulk Hogan 1997: Hulk Hogan 1998: Hollywood Hogan 1999: Hulk Hogan 2000: Hulk Hogan 2001: Buff Bagwell 2002: Triple H 2003: Triple H **2004**: Triple H 50 first place votes 48 second place votes 46 third place votes 12 6 5 88 Triple H 8 2 3 52 Jeff Jarrett 5 7 3 52 Hardcore Holly 5 5 2 44 John Bradshaw Layfield 4 4 2 36 Heidenreich 1 6 4 31 Undertaker 2 2 3 22 Billy Gunn 1 2 4 19 Tyson Tomko 0 1 4 11 Mark Jindrak 2 0 0 10 Kane 1 1 0 8 John Cena 0 0 4 8 Maven 1 0 1 7 Shaniqua 1 0 1 7 Christy Hemme 1 0 0 5 Tajiri 1 0 0 5 Pierroth 1 0 0 5 Orlando Jordan 1 0 0 5 Lita 1 0 0 5 Goldberg 1 0 0 5 Eugene 1 0 0 5 Bryan Danielson 0 1 1 5 Spike Dudley 0 1 1 5 Randy Orton 0 1 1 5 Luther Reigns 0 1 0 3 Super Dragon 0 1 0 3 Shawn Michaels 0 1 0 3 Rob Van Dam 0 1 0 3 Rey Mysterio 0 1 0 3 Mark Henry 0 1 0 3 Jeff Hardy 0 1 0 3 Glen Gilberti 0 1 0 3 Gene Snitsky 0 1 0 3 Bob Holly 0 0 1 2 Sonny Siaki 0 0 1 2 Rodney Mack 0 0 1 2 Kenzo Suzuki 0 0 1 2 John Walters 0 0 1 2 Edge 0 0 1 2 Booker T 0 0 1 2 Bill DeMott YNAE316: Triple H and Randy Orton - no brainer JOHN C.: JBL gets this because I never want to see him in a wrestling match ever. At least with Undertaker he's had some good matches in his life. JBL being at the top has killed Smackdown and in doing so, he's become my least favorite. RYAN FAULCONER: Every year "creative" in WWE does things with Kane that make me hate him THAT much more. This year they have really outdone themselves by turning a psychopathic "killer" into a babyface father avenging the death of a baby conceived thru "coercion". Bra-Vo! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Most Deteriorated Wrestler Award Description: To be given to the person whose skill has deteriorated the most over the past year. This person should be a shadow of his/her former self. Previous Winners: 1990: Dusty Rhodes 1991: Hulk Hogan 1992: Hulk Hogan 1993: Hulk Hogan 1994: Hulk Hogan 1995: Hulk Hogan 1996: Hulk Hogan 1997: Roddy Piper 1998: British Bulldog 1999: Hulk Hogan 2000: Undertaker 2001: Undertaker 2002: Triple H 2003: Scott Steiner **2004**: Jeff Hardy 49 first place votes 47 second place votes 46 third place votes 6 8 6 66 Jeff Hardy 9 2 5 61 Ric Flair 5 8 0 49 Scott Steiner 6 3 4 47 Undertaker 4 0 4 28 Kurt Angle 2 3 4 27 Rob Van Dam 2 3 4 27 Booker T 3 2 1 23 Triple H 3 2 1 23 John Cena 0 4 2 16 Jeff Jarrett 0 2 5 16 Sabu 2 0 0 10 Chris Jericho 1 1 1 10 Edge 1 1 1 10 Big Show 0 2 0 6 Tajiri 0 2 0 6 Dusty Rhodes 1 0 0 5 Raven 1 0 0 5 Mitsuharu Misawa 1 0 0 5 John Bradshaw Layfield 1 0 0 5 Eddie Guerrero 1 0 0 5 Brock Lesnar 0 1 1 5 Ron Simmons 0 0 2 4 Kane 0 0 2 4 A-Train 0 1 0 3 Mr. Niebla 0 1 0 3 Goldberg 0 1 0 3 Akira Taue 0 0 1 2 Victoria 0 0 1 2 Tamon Honda 0 0 1 2 Kid Kash HACK-MAN: Most Deteriorated Wrestler was hard to limit to three. Kurt Angle was a lock for #1 (sure it's because of his broken freakin neck, but he's still about a quarter of what he used to be). Even though it's been about three years since they were two of the best wrestlers in the world, and the deteriorization wasn't as much over the past year, I still went with Tajiri & Kid Kash for the other spots. The same could be said for Kidman & RVD (who were great before having to dumb down to the WWE style a few years back). Jeff Hardy is a shadow of his former workrate. Rey still puts out watchable matches, despite having bad knees for the past ten years. ALLAN J. BENSON: This is a bit of a painful nomination, because I love Ric Flair for being one of the greatest entertainers of all time, but time to face facts, his matches this past year have been _at best_ formulaic (they consist almost totally of chops, punches, backdrops and flops, with an occassional figure four thrown in for good measure). Cena's gimmick just does not work as a face. He's stale and obnoxious. And Undertaker, well, he's been deteriorating for half a decade, so why stop now? YNAE316: This award should probably be renamed the "Jeff Hardy Most Deteriorated Wrestler Memorial Award" in honor of a once promising wrestler just totally crapping his career down the drain. Jeff Hardy returned to TNA in 2004. Wrong choice for a main eventer Double J. JOHN C.: Undertaker is at the top here. His match with Kane at WrestleMania and JBL at Summerslam were so bad that Nathan Jones was probably calling him to congratulate him for a job well done. Jeff Jarrett is the reason I don't care about TNA, so he gets a vote here too. SCOTT CHRIST: Chris Jericho used to be top-notch in the ring and also amusing on the mic. He is not close to either anymore. He runs away with this award. RYAN FAULCONER: Mr. Niebla went from one of my favourite wrestlers to the world's best possible Rayo de Jalisco Jr. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Most Underrated Wrestler Award Description: To be given to the person whose ability merits a far greater push than the person receives. There may be many such people, but the winner of this award should have the most ability with least push. Previous Winners: 1990: Terry Taylor 1991: Cactus Jack Manson 1992: Owen Hart 1993: Chris Benoit 1994: 1-2-3 Kid 1995: Barry Horowitz 1996: Owen Hart 1997: Chris Benoit 1998: Chris Benoit 1999: D'Lo Brown 2000: Al Snow 2001: Lance Storm 2002: D'Lo Brown 2003: Matt Hardy **2004**: Paul London 52 first place votes 50 second place votes 48 third place votes 8 2 1 48 Paul London 7 0 2 39 Chris Jericho 4 4 1 34 Rico 5 1 2 32 Jamie Noble 4 3 1 31 Christian 2 5 1 27 Hurricane 2 2 3 22 Tajiri 0 4 4 20 Steven Richards 2 3 0 19 Rob Van Dam 2 2 1 18 Funaki 3 0 0 15 Val Venis 1 2 2 15 Nidia 1 1 3 14 Nunzio 1 0 4 13 William Regal 0 3 2 13 Charlie Haas 0 3 2 13 Akio 1 2 0 11 Nigel McGuinness 0 1 3 9 Spanky 1 1 0 8 Christopher Daniels 1 0 1 7 Shelton Benjamin 1 0 1 7 Rey Mysterio 1 0 1 7 Petey Williams 0 2 0 6 Chris Sabin 1 0 0 5 Slim J 1 0 0 5 Masayuki Naruse 1 0 0 5 LA Park 1 0 0 5 AJ Styles 1 0 0 5 A-Train 0 1 1 5 Kanyon 0 1 1 5 Chuck Palumbo 0 1 0 3 Seth Delay 0 1 0 3 Rhyno 0 1 0 3 Rene Dupree 0 1 0 3 Maven 0 1 0 3 Jimmy Jacobs 0 1 0 3 Hiroyoshi Tenzan 0 1 0 3 Bryan Danielson 0 0 1 2 Wataru Inoue 0 0 1 2 Sonjay Dutt 0 0 1 2 Shannon Moore 0 0 1 2 Scott D'Amore 0 0 1 2 Lance Storm 0 0 1 2 Johnny Stamboli 0 0 1 2 Hector Garza 0 0 1 2 Gran Apache 0 0 1 2 D-Ray 3000 0 0 1 2 Chavo Guerrero 0 0 1 2 Alexis Laree HACK-MAN: There are a lot of Underrated Wrestlers (or at least underpushed) in WWE (Tajiri, RVD, Chavo, Nunzio, Hurricane, London, Moore, and Funaki all come to mind), but the mere fact that they are in the WWE keeps them, off my list this year. Guys that should be making more than ten times what they are: Slim J, Kool Seth Delay, and Kanyon. ALLAN J. BENSON: Assuming this means most underrated by the company, not by the fans (who can be equally ignorant of a talent at times), Chris Jericho is the most underrated (despite being a former world champion). The past year he has been abandoned in the midcard, despite being one of the most over and entertaining heels and faces on the roster. PAUL ZOROVICH: Jamie Noble was so underrated he's no longer on WWE's roster. (Dammit.) YNAE316: I've always advocated a consistent main event push for Jericho, the most talented all-around talent in WWE. Year in, year out, he doesn't receive one. Unfortunately, it looks like he's become complacent in his role as he just doesn't really seem to TRY anymore with his promos. Like RVD and Booker it seems WWE is willing to let things pass with Y2J. Sad. Jericho is my pick for most underrated wrestler for his lack of top push in WWE. Hurricane and Tajiri are two talents just WASTING in the mid-card on Raw. Last year I advocated for Matt Hardy to get a huge push in 2004 and they semi-delivered after JOBBING him on Raw after his trade. Unfortunately it was the embarrassing Kane-Lita Stalker Angle. Next year I look to see if two relatively undamaged guys in the form of Hurricane and Tajiri get their chance. They've teased a heel turn for Hurricane and they've somewhat used Tajiri in some fun spots. With the quality of ringwork these two can deliver (and promo work in the case of Helms) it's sad these two are so underutilized. Hopefully creative can "find" something for them in 2005. MATT HOCKING: Nunzio is at my number one spot because, I think he's probably the best combination of solid workrate, halfway decent character and good mic work they've got on the undercard, and yet he remains on Velocity except for the occasional excursion to a backstage segment on Smackdown. Now, I'm not saying he's a WWE Title contender, but he's a guy they could use as a Jobber to the Stars more effectively. Stevie Richards is my guy on RAW for the same reasons except with a little bit shaved off the character and workrate. Alexis Laree is my token girl, good workrate, decent looker. In OVW. JOHN C.: I think when it comes to being underrated you have to ask yourself if a person ever has a bad performance. When I ask myself that, the name that comes up is Rey Mysterio. He's just so valuable for WWE that even when they misuse him, which is most of the time, he still finds ways to steal the show. Others for this one would be Christian and Shelton Benjamin. CHRISTOPHER SHEA: A-Train, A-Train, A-Train. He bumps well, works hard, has a bigger arsenal than just the generic big man punch/big boot/sidewalk slam moves, and he even jobbed clean to Funaki once. And now he's gone. Sigh. TEXAS KELLY: I'll take a page from Carlin on this one: Whoever made the decision to keep Hardcore Holly over Rico needs to be dragged into the forest kicking and screaming, beaten repeatedly with a piece of heavy mining equipment, then hung from a limb and shot in the head. ;) SCOTT CHRIST: AJ Styles is ridiculously underused by TNA, where he completely blows everyone out of the water and is actually liked by the fans. All seventeen of them. RYAN FAULCONER: La Parka was super this year and I hope people can see past the costume. Jimmy Jacobs ditched the HUSS gimmick so hopefully he will be taken more seriously as the talent he is. Third goes to Gran Apache because he needs to be on tv more. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Worst Wrestling Gimmick Award Description: To be given to the wrestler who had the worst character gimmick in the past year. Previous Winners: 1991: Mike Rotundo as Irwin R. Shyster 1992: Papa Shango's voodoo 1993: Doink the Clown 1994: Doink the Clown 1995: Dungeon of Doom 1996: The Leprechaun 1997: Glacier / Blood Runs Cold 1998: Warrior appears in "strange mist" / forms One Warrior Nation 1999: Beaver Cleavage (Chaz) 2000: That 70's Guy / Not a Mullet / Fat Chick Thriller / Career Killer Mike Awesome 2001: Diamond Dallas Page as Sara's Stalker 2002: WWE's necrophilia 2003: La Resistance as French sympathizers **2004**: Heidenreich as a tortured poet 50 first place votes 50 second place votes 50 third place votes 4 10 5 60 Heidenreich as a tortured poet 6 4 0 42 Gene Snitsky - Baby Killer 5 1 5 38 Steven Richards as Victoria's mystery woman 3 5 3 36 Mordecai as religious zealot 3 5 3 36 Mark Jindrak as Reflection of Perfection 3 3 5 34 Victoria as a booty shakin' fitness model 4 3 2 33 Kane - sympathetic rapist 4 2 3 32 Simon Dean's infomercial training program 2 4 2 26 Kurt Angle as Smackdown GM 3 2 2 25 Undertaker goes back to his roots 3 1 2 22 Jeff Jarrett - King of the Mountain 0 2 4 14 Tyson Tomko, problem solver 2 0 1 12 Eugene 0 3 1 11 Spike Dudley as the boss 1 1 1 10 John Bradshaw Layfield 1 0 2 9 Shaniqua, evil dominatrix 1 0 1 7 Rosey as Superhero in Training 0 1 2 7 Kenzo Suzuki, Bronze Warrior 1 0 0 5 Shane McMahon "Impervious to Pain" 1 0 0 5 Lance Storm is "Well-Hung" 1 0 0 5 Hurricane as a superhero 1 0 0 5 Goldy Locks, crazy woman who controls Abyss 1 0 0 5 Carlito Caribbean Cool 0 1 1 5 Johnny Nitro as Bischoff's lackey 0 1 0 3 Rico as a flamboyant homosexual 0 1 0 3 Randy Orton 0 0 1 2 Orlando Jordan as chief of staff 0 0 1 2 John Cena as a White Rapper 0 0 1 2 Goldberg as NOT unstoppable 0 0 1 2 Ernest Miller as the guy who dances 0 0 1 2 A-Train ALLAN J. BENSON: These all have one thing in common: Long time wrestler tries to move into new role with horrible results. I like Angle a lot, but his role as GM was unquestionably a failure. Jarrett is ruining TNA. Undertaker's "return to his roots" was one of the year's biggest anti-climaxes and considering it was half-assed, it was also a huge disappointment to people expecting him to _really_ return to his deadman image. NATRBOY72: 1st: Mark Jindrak as Reflection of Perfection Mark actually did worse with basically the same gimmick as "The Narcissist" Lex Luger, that's bad. Surely, no other gimmick was less over than this, even Teddy Long couldnt get this going at all. Jindrak's charisma level makes Steve Blackman look like the Rock. 'Cowboy' Undertaker and the always sorry Cat are runners up. PAUL ZOROVICH: WWE takes a page from "General Hospital"'s Luke & Laura saga of 25 years ago and presents Kane as a sympathetic rapist. It wasn't good then, and it isn't good now. SYDNEY BROWN: This was the easiest category to vote on. Victoria threw away two years of growing on me with her psycho self in five seconds with her idiotic dance. Kane gets a dose of his own medicine, and I'm supposed to cheer him on, and as for Mordecai repeat after me, RELIGIOUS ANGLES NEVER WORK. YNAE316: Poor, poor Lance Storm. As a Storm mark 2004 was a sad year for me as Lance retired but what gets me is the the HORRIBLE gimmicks Lance got toward the end of his WWE career. In 2003 he was saddled with the "dancing fun guy" gimmick. In 2004 he was teamed with Val Venis in the "Well-Hung" Tag Team. The sad part is, Lance was SOOO rarely on TV that many people didn't even KNOW that was his gimmick!!! What horrible gimmicks for a guy who's wrestling pedigree comes from no less than the Hart family of Calgary, Alberta, Canada!!! It's just as well Lance retired given pushes like that. Lance Storm's "Well-Hung" gimmick takes my #1 Award for "Worst Wrestling Gimmick" of 2004. Johnny Nitro as "Bischoff's lackey" is my #2 Worst Gimmick of 2004 winner. Bischoff's lackey isn't all that bad a gimmick in that it at least gives you guaranteed TV time. The bad part though is that you're Bischoff's lackey which means you always get your asses kicked by the top babyfaces. Too bad that's all they could come up with yet for the co-winner of Tough Enough 3. John Hennigan was easily one of the most athletically gifted competitors on ANY season of Tough Enough being able to execute awesome moves such as his standing Shooting Star Press. This guy should have been trained further and PUSHED as a top contender in the Cruiserweight division or been put into feuds with guys like RVD or Rey Mysterio. Instead he's given "Johnny Nitro," is jobbed out and sent back to purgatory (OVW, or wherever they stuck him). JOHN C.: Simon Dean wins even though we haven't seen much of him. Does anybody really think that gimmick is going to work? After him, Mordecai and Kenzo round out the top three. Apologies to Snitsky and Tomko, you guys sucked, but you didn't suck enough. Maybe next year. TEXAS KELLY: While I wouldn't have condoned actually doing this (since it involves a talentless hack such as Heidenreich), if they really wanted to get him over, they should have gone the Goldberg route: No talking, lots of ass-kicking, and FOR THE LOVE OF GOD no implied male rape sequences involving Michael Cole, or anyone else for that matter. If I want to see that, I'll watch the Shawshank Redemption. ;) CRIMEFIGHTER: Mordecai is an example of why the WWE needs to stop giving new gimmicks to OVW callups, cause they spend a couple years developing themselves and have to start from scratch when they get to the WWE. Mordecai & Tyson Tomko used to be known as the Disciples of Synn, which probably would had gone over a lot better than these stupid gimmicks they're giving them these days. SCOTT CHRIST: Hurricane blows - ahahahaha! RYAN FAULCONER: The one-two punch of Kane - sympathetic rapist and Gene Snitsky - baby killer is proof positive that WWE is still trying...to get me to stop watching WWE forever. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Worst Wrestling Move Award Description: To be given to the move that is the worst thing you've seen this year. This shouldn't be given to a move that was flubbed by a wrestler - the move was performed correctly, but was just too stupid for words. This move should probably be a "finishing" move or something that was meant to be spectacular. Previous Winners: 1990: Hulk Hogan's leg drop 1991: Hulk Hogan's leg drop 1992: Crush's Compactor head-vise 1993: Crush's Compactor head-vise 1994: Hulk Hogan's leg drop 1995: Hulk Hogan's leg drop 1996: Hacksaw Jim Duggan's taped fist 1997: Hulk Hogan's leg drop 1998: Hollywood Hogan's legdrop 1999: Hulk Hogan's legdrop 2000: Scotty 2 Hotty's Worm chop 2001: Chyna's handspring elbow 2002: Rikishi's stinkface 2003: Jim Ross' Stone Cold Stunner **2004**: John Cena's Five Knuckle Shuffle fistdrop / Scotty 2 Hotty's Worm chop (tie) 50 first place votes 49 second place votes 48 third place votes 6 4 3 48 John Cena's Five Knuckle Shuffle fistdrop 4 6 5 48 Scotty 2 Hotty's Worm karate chop 2 8 2 38 Rikishi's stinkface 4 2 1 28 John Cena's FU 3 1 4 26 Eugene's Airplane Spin 4 0 2 24 Kenzo Suzuki's claw/russian leg sweep 3 2 1 23 Victoria's booty shakin' standing moonsault 3 1 0 18 Triple H's sleeper 3 1 0 18 Chris Jericho's dance & butt drop on the ropes 3 0 1 17 Randy Orton's RKO 2 1 0 13 Billy Gunn's Famouser 1 2 1 13 John Bradshaw Layfield's cigarbomb 1 2 1 13 Chris Benoit's diving headbutt 2 0 1 12 Bob Holly's Alabama Slam 1 1 2 12 Randy Orton's chinlock 0 2 3 12 Heidenreich's shoulderbreaker 1 1 1 10 Spike Dudley's spear 1 1 1 10 John Bradshaw Layfield's Clothesline from Hell lariat 0 1 3 9 Torrie Wilson's DDT 1 1 0 8 Rob Van Dam's Rolling Thunder 1 1 0 8 Monty Brown's Pounce shoulderblock 1 1 0 8 Edge's Edge-O-Matic 0 2 1 8 Rey Mysterio's bronco buster 1 0 0 5 Triple H's Pedigree 1 0 0 5 Rene Dupree's Michinoku Driver 1 0 0 5 Mick Foley's mandible claw 1 0 0 5 Jeff Jarrett's Stroke forward legsweep 0 1 1 5 Rob Van Dam's European uppercut 0 1 1 5 Chris Jericho's Lionsault 0 0 2 4 Rob Van Dam's turnbuckle shoulderblocks w/ backflip 0 0 2 4 Booker T's scissor kick 0 1 0 3 Undertaker's chokeslam 0 1 0 3 RKO (Randy Orton) 0 1 0 3 Jeff Hardy's Spineline 0 1 0 3 Edge's spear 0 1 0 3 Chris Benoit's sharpshooter 0 1 0 3 Booker T's Brisco roll-up 0 1 0 3 Billy Kidman's shooting star press 0 0 1 2 Viscera's Big Splash 0 0 1 2 The Big Boot(who?) 0 0 1 2 Super Dragon's Curb Stomp 0 0 1 2 Shelton Benjamin's T-bone suplex 0 0 1 2 Rhyno's bearhug 0 0 1 2 Petey Williams' Canadian Destroyer flip piledriver 0 0 1 2 Maven's top rope DDT 0 0 1 2 Lita's moonsault 0 0 1 2 Kenzo Suzuki's chops 0 0 1 2 Jeff Jarrett's Guitar Shot PAUL ZOROVICH: The WORM takes this, hands down. Still the stupidest move ever. And while JBL executes the CFH pretty convincingly, it just ain't a finisher nowadays. CLAUDE LUCAS: I listed Chris Benoit's diving headbutt as the #1 worst move because it is one of the only moves in Pro Wrestling that actually looks to be really dangerous. I hope that he doesn't ever screw it up and hurt himself for real... SYDNEY BROWN: The RKO is the poor man's Stone Cold Stunner, the Five Knuckle Shuffle is the poor man's People's Elbow, and the only thing guaranteed with Benoit's diving headbutt is 30 seconds of laying around and a two count. YNAE316: Silly moves always seem to pop a crowd for whatever reason, probably for the fact that they are silly and funny. BUT, in the context of a supposed "contest" they are unbelievable and thus will always get my "Worst Wrestling Move" award. My winners, in order, for 2004 are "Eugene's Airplane Spin," "Jericho's dance and butt drop on ropes" and "John Cena's Five Knuckle Shuffle." They're entertaining to watch and are waaay too silly to be bought as serious offense. CHAK: Triple H's Sleeper has to be the worst move. This is a guy whose matches can put you to sleep on their own. A rest hold like that isn't going to help matters any. JOHN C.: Kenzo wins this one for his crappy russian legsweep. RYAN FAULCONER: Petey Williams' Canadian Destroyer just barely crosses that line past ridiculouly awesome and ridiculously awkward. I'd take it over either Jarrett's or Cena's finishers any day of the week though. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Worst Match Award Description: To be given to the worst wrestling match you've seen this year, either live, on TV, PPV, or in an arena, or on tape. If it took place in the past year, it is eligible. Previous Winners: 1990: 06/13/90: Ric Flair vs. Junkyard Dog (CoC XI) 1991: 05/19/91: El Gigante vs. Sid Vicious (SuperBrawl) 1992: 01/18/92: Beverly Brothers vs. Bushwhackers (Royal Rumble) 1993: 04/04/93: Hulk Hogan vs. Yokozuna (WrestleMania IX) 1994: 09/18/94: Jim Duggan vs. Steve Austin (Fall Brawl) 1995: 03/19/95: Hulk Hogan vs. Vader (Uncensored) 1996: 03/24/96: Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair & Arn Anderson & Lex Luger & Kevin Sullivan & Meng & Barbarian & Ze Gangsta & Ultimate Solution (Uncensored) 1997: 10/26/97: Hulk Hogan vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper (cage) (Halloween Havoc) 1998: 10/25/98: Hollywood Hogan vs. Warrior (Halloween Havoc) 1999: 09/26/99: Al Snow vs. Big Boss Man (Kennel from Hell) (Unforgiven) 2000: 06/25/00: Pat Patterson vs. Gerald Brisco (hardcore evening gown) 2001: 07/02/01: Booker T (WCW) v. Buff Bagwell (RAW) 2002: 07/08/02: Jackie Gayda & Christopher Nowinski vs. Trish Stratus & Bradshaw (mixed tag RAW) 2003: 01/19/03: Triple H (world) v. Scott Steiner (Royal Rumble) **2004**: 03/14/04: Brock Lesnar v. Goldberg (WrestleMania) 45 first place votes 43 second place votes 38 third place votes 15 4 1 89 03/14/04 Brock Lesnar v. Goldberg 9 3 0 54 09/12/04 Tyson Tomko v. Steven Richards 5 4 1 39 06/27/04 Undertaker v. Dudleys (Concrete Crypt handicap match) 2 8 2 38 10/16/04 Christy v. Carmella (Pillow Fight) 2 3 8 35 05/16/04 Jacqueline (cruiser) v. Chavo Guerrero 1 3 8 30 01/25/04 Brock Lesnar (WWE) v. Hardcore Holly 1 4 3 23 03/14/04 Undertaker v. Kane 1 3 4 22 06/27/04 Kenzo Suzuki v. Billy Gunn 2 1 2 17 09/23/04 Fabulous Moolah & Mae Young v. Torrie Wilson & Dawn Marie 0 3 3 15 06/27/04 Sable v. Torrie Wilson 1 1 2 12 04/18/04 Kane v. Edge 1 0 2 9 01/25/04 Triple H (World) v. Shawn Michaels (last man standing) 1 1 0 8 01/25/04 Batistia & Ric Flair (world tag) v. Dudleys (table) 0 2 1 8 10/20/04 John Bradshaw Layfield (WWE) v. Undertaker (last ride) 0 2 0 6 09/12/04 Randy Orton (world) v. Triple H 1 0 0 5 11/17/03 Kane v. Shane McMahon 1 0 0 5 08/15/04 John Bradshaw Layfield (WWE) v. Undertaker 1 0 0 5 05/03/04 Yutaka Yoshie v. Jan Norte 1 0 0 5 03/28/04 Kazunari Murakami v. Hiroshi Tanahashi (Empty Arena Cage) 0 1 0 3 02/15/04 Hardcore Holly v. Rhyno 0 0 1 2 07/31/04 Sabu v. Danny Daniels v. Kid Kash ALLAN J. BENSON: See #14. SYDNEY BROWN: The Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg match was so terrible, so awful, I couldn't even fairly award a second or third place. Because no match can even rightly compare. What other match had Vince McMahon actually come out and "apologize" for after it was over? YNAE316: Lesnar vs. Goldberg, in any OTHER year, probably would have been a legitimate big money match which SHOULD have highlighted Wrestlemania with the belts on the line. Unfortunately in 2004, BOTH guys were on their way out of the company and the FANS knew it. In the match both wrestlers looked like they wanted to be "anywhere but here" and the fans just took a total complete SHIT on both guys. Ladies and gentlemen, you're WORST MATCH OF 2004, Lesnar vs. Goldberg. Christy vs. Carmella from Taboo Tuesday gets my #2 pick. Seriously, most fans knew both girls didn't have any legit heat between them from the Diva Search contest and neither could work a match, even a bogus match such as a Diva pillow fight. Normally speaking, these gimmick Diva matches aren't great and given two non-wrestlers such as Christy and Carmella being the combatants, this one had DUD written all over it. MATT HOCKING: Brock/Goldberg is first for the sheer strangeness of it. It probably wasn't acutally the 'worst' match of the year, but the combination between the news, hype and crowd surrounding the match was just so surreal it's gotta be on the list somewhere. Why not at number one? Brock and Hardcore at the Rumble was probably the worst WWE Title match in a long time. Kenzo/Gunn had no business being on PPV ever. JOHN C.: It's an Undertaker sweep for worst matches. His match with JBL at Summerslam was so bad that the crowd turned on them. Undertaker was pissed off that he lost the crowd, but it's his own fault that it was horrible. The Concrete Crypt match actually headlined a show where they charged people $35 to watch it on TV! Imagine that! Undertaker/Kane at WMXX was the worst match on that show easily. Way worse than their match from six years ago. Kenzo vs. Gunn would have been next. CHRISTOPHER SHEA: The Concrete Crypt match was just bad on every conceivable level: the booking was asinine, and the actual match was tedious, with an intelligence-insulting aftermath. In last year's comments, I said I was looking forward to the Undertaker-Kane feud. I was looking forward to a real When Titans Clash moment, but instead I got a When One Titan Runs Right Over Another Titan Like an Eighteen-Wheeler Over a Moped moment instead. After a four-month buildup, that was it? And the Triple H/HBK last man standing match gets in by virtue of being the only WWE PPV match to draw a "bullshit" chant from the crowd -- deservedly so -- this year. TEXAS KELLY: You could borrow Scott Keith's observation about the David Arquette Title Defense and apply it verbatim to the Jacqueline/Chavo match: "So we're now back where we were two weeks ago, except the title is now worthless. Great booking." CRIMEFIGHTER: Kenzo Suzuki v. Billy Gunn, Tyson Tomko v. Steven Richards, Sable v. Torrie Wilson all clock in at -**. SCOTT CHRIST: Tomko/Richards was about as bad as wrestling gets. RYAN FAULCONER: The empty arena cage match between Tanahashi and Murakami made no sense at all. It gets first place because I couldn't decide which Canek matches I disliked more. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Worst Feud Award Description: To be given to the feud that nobody cared about at all this year. When they were pushing the feud on TV, you'd go to the fridge for a snack. Previous Winners: 1990: Hulk Hogan vs. Earthquake 1991: Hulk Hogan vs. Sgt. Slaughter 1992: Ultimate Warrior vs. Papa Shango 1993: The Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez 1994: Doink vs. Bam Bam Bigelow 1995: Hulk Hogan vs. Dungeon of Doom 1996: Big Bubba vs. John Tenta 1997: Nation of Domination vs. Disciples of Apocalypse vs. Los Boricuas 1998: Warrior vs. Hollywood Hogan 1999: No Limit Soldiers vs. West Texas Rednecks 2000: Big Show vs. Big Boss Man 2001: Undertaker vs. Diamond Dallas Page 2002: Triple H vs. Kane 2003: Stephanie McMahon vs. Vince McMahon **2004**: Chavo Guerrero v. Jacqueline 49 first place votes 49 second place votes 46 third place votes 5 3 3 40 Chavo Guerrero v. Jacqueline 7 0 2 39 Christy v. Carmella 1 6 5 33 Undertaker v. Heidenreich 4 2 3 32 Matt Hardy v. Kane 3 3 4 32 Test v. Scott Steiner 3 4 2 31 Booker T v. Undertaker 2 5 3 31 Kane v. Gene Snitsky 3 4 1 29 Undertaker v. Dudleys 3 2 3 27 Dusty Rhodes v. Vince Russo 3 2 1 23 Undertaker v. John Bradshaw Layfield 1 2 5 21 Hardcore Holly v. Brock Lesnar 2 2 1 18 Eddie Guerrero v. John Bradshaw Layfield 2 1 0 13 Shawn Michaels v. Kane 2 1 0 13 Randy Orton v. Evolution 1 2 0 11 Goldberg v. Brock Lesnar 2 0 0 10 Big Show v. Kurt Angle 0 1 3 9 John Cena v. Booker T 1 0 1 7 Dawn Marie v. Miss Jackie 0 1 2 7 Jamie Noble v. Nidia 1 0 0 5 Universo 2000 v. Rayo de Jalisco Jr. 1 0 0 5 Stevie Richards v. Tyson Tomko & Trish Stratus 1 0 0 5 Shawn Michaels v. Triple H 1 0 0 5 Kane v. Lita 0 1 1 5 Eugene v. Triple H 0 1 1 5 Eugene v. Eric Bischoff 0 1 0 3 Pat Kenney & Sonny Siaki & Desire v. New York Connection 0 1 0 3 Molly Holly v. Stacy Keibler 0 1 0 3 Jeff Jarrett v. Jeff Hardy 0 1 0 3 Eddie Guerrero v. Kurt Angle 0 1 0 3 Dinamitas v. Pierroth Family 0 0 1 2 Undertaker v. Paul Heyman 0 0 1 2 Spike Dudley v. Rey Mysterio 0 0 1 2 La Resistance v. Rhyno & Tajiri 0 0 1 2 Kenzo Suzuki v. Billy Gunn 0 0 1 2 Hardcore Holly v. Mordecai REJECTED 0 1 0 Jeff Jarrett v. The World ALLAN J. BENSON: You know, I don't even hate the Undertaker, like I did when he was a biker. I just don't give a shit about him anymore. I guess phenoms never die, they just fade away and take up space. PAUL ZOROVICH: Were Dawn Marie and Jackie actually feuding? YNAE316: Orton vs. Evolution is my #1 pick for "Worst Feud" of 2004. This "honor" isn't so much because the feud itself is particularly bad. It's more because the feud isn't particularly "good." I firmly believe WWE pulled the trigger on Orton's main event push waaaay too soon and his feud with Evolution is so lackluster. I'll get into this more in the "Worst Promotional Move" category. Molly Holly's mid-card TV feud with Stacy Keibler takes my #2 award for "Worst Feud" because they DARED to bury a legit top women's wrestler like Molly by jobbin her out to a non-wrestler in Stacy week after week. Pffft. JOHN C.: Undertaker/JBL wins this one easily. What feud was there? Undertaker walked out, beat him up and suddenly he's the number one contender because he did an attempted murder on his only friend? If there was any justice, OJ Simpson would be a ten time champion now because at least he's a successful murderer. Undertaker/Heidenreich is second only because the other one was for the title. Hardy/Kane comes in third for taking so damn long and then having a stupid, nonsenical storyline to follow with Kane actually being a babyface. CRIMEFIGHTER: Chavo vs. Jackie, Eddie vs. JBL, Bob Holly vs. Brock really set the world on fire didn't they? SCOTT CHRIST: HHH and Michaels blew off their "epic" feud with an "epic" match that summed it all up: all bullshit and video packages, no substance. RYAN FAULCONER: First there was the Matt Hardy feud where he stalked and eventually raped Lita. Then there was the Gene Snitsky feud where he tried to avenge the death of his baby. Poor Kane. You had a heck of a year. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Most Disappointing News item Award Description: To be given to the wrestling news item that most disappointed you when heard of it. When you first learned of this news story, you couldn't believe that it was true, and when you learned that it was, you were bummed out for a while. Previous Winners: 1991: Scott Steiner gets injured 1992: Legion of Doom: Hawk & Animal split up 1993: WWF brings Hulk Hogan back and gives him the title 1994: WCW signs Hulk Hogan and makes him World champion 1995: Death of Eddie Gilbert 1996: Scott Hall and/or Kevin Nash leave WWF and/or join WCW 1997: Death of Brian Pillman 1998: Death of Louie Spicolli 1999: Death of Owen Hart 2000: David Arquette wins WCW World heavyweight championship 2001: Chris Benoit out for the year after neck surgery 2002: Steve Austin leaves WWE in frustration over creative direction 2003: Death of Curt Hennig **2004**: Brock Lesnar leaves WWE with intent to try out for the NFL 51 first place votes 51 second place votes 50 third place votes 16 8 5 114 Brock Lesnar retires from wrestling, heads for NFL 6 6 4 56 Death of Ray Traylor 2 5 5 35 WWE books John Bradshaw Layfield to championship run 2 3 6 31 TNA continues to center around Jeff Jarrett 4 2 1 28 Pat Patterson leaves WWE 3 3 2 28 Death of Crash Holly 2 4 2 26 Lance Storm retires 3 2 2 25 John Tenta announces he has incurable cancer 2 1 3 19 Ric Flair takes shots at Foley, Hart in autobiography 2 1 2 17 WWE doesn't hire competent writers 1 2 3 17 WWE runs $250,000 Diva Search 2 1 1 15 WWE releases Jamie Noble 0 3 1 11 Steve Williams has cancer/has voice box removed 1 1 0 8 Yoshihiro Takayama suffers cerebral thrombosis during match 0 1 2 7 WWE releases Kanyon 1 0 0 5 WWE releases Sean O'Haire 1 0 0 5 WWE drops Confidential 1 0 0 5 Neck Problem might cause Ric Flair to retire 1 0 0 5 Naohiro Hoshikawa suffers head injury & lapses into a coma 0 1 1 5 WWE runs Tough Enough 4 during Smackdown 0 1 1 5 Teddy Hart's erratic behavior 0 1 1 5 Joanie Laurer, Sean Waltman have sex tape for sale 0 1 1 5 Hulk Hogan not at WrestleMania XX 0 1 0 3 WWE tones it down after Janet Jackson's Super Bowl incident 0 1 0 3 Vince Russo resigns from TNA 0 1 0 3 TNA makes sure their wrestlers don't work for ROH 0 1 0 3 Death of Hercules Hernandez 0 0 1 2 WWE's ratings/buyrates/attendance continue to go down 0 0 1 2 WWE adds more PPVs, plans to expand to 20 per year 0 0 1 2 TNA, Randy Savage have ambiguous relationship 0 0 1 2 Spanky quits WWE 0 0 1 2 Rob Feinstein gets busted 0 0 1 2 Moondog Spot suffers heart attack, dies during match 0 0 1 2 Chris Nowinski continues to have post-concussion symptoms REJETED - no "tie" votes 1 0 0 Any Death HACK-MAN: As usual, I'll leave deaths off the Most Disappointing News item votes. It was tempting to vote for Noble, Kanyon, et.al. getting fired, but I decided to go with what has made it harder and harder to stay a wrestling fan. 1st:WWE doesn't hire competent writers, 2nd:TNA continues to center around Jarrett, 3rd:WWE books John Bradshaw Layfield to championship run ALLAN J. BENSON: All the big name wrestlers from when I was a kid/teenager are dropping like flies. It feels quite odd to hear about it. If TNA keeps focusing on Jarrett to the exclusion of everyone else, it will die off. It's as simple as that. Of course, that may not be totally disappointing if a better fed were to spring up in its place, but that's not a guarentee. YNAE316: I'm a Storm mark. Lance retiring was personally the saddest thing for me to hear this year. I was also shocked and saddened when the Boss Man passed away earlier this year which is my #2 Most Disappointing New Item for 2004. Boss Man was one of my favorite heels from childhood and his huge face run in the early 90's was fun. I always found Boss Man to be under appreciated after his return to McMahon's Corporation in the late 90's. Traylor was one of the best "Big Man" workers ever with solid looking offense. Boss Man's "slide out of the ring uppercut to opponent on ropes" and the "Boss Man Slam" were some of the coolest things I've ever seen a big guy pull off. His feud with Big Show for the title was universally panned for either bad taste or bad execution, but I personally found it to be some of the best heel work I've seen anywhere. I'll definitely miss Big Boss Man the performer just as much as the world will miss Ray Traylor the man. Bradshaw winning the WWE title was one of the WORST news items and booking decisions of 2004 and takes my #3 award. MATT HOCKING: Brock leaving the WWE was disappointing insofar as he left Smackdown in a horrible position that it hasn't yet recovered from. Not his fault, necessarily, but it's still difficult to get around. Jeff Jarrett's never ending run with the NWA title despite obvious signs that he's tanking and better options throughout the year constantly popping up, grabs the 2 spot. And the WWE's continued slide in ratings despite putting out a better quality product, is disappointing thing number 3. CHAK: Crash Holly's death was very dissappointing, and that had to be #1 for me. But Pat Patterson leaving the WWE is a very close #2. Letting him walk for any reason was bad, but reports linking his departure to criticism of Triple H make it especially heinous. Expanding the number of pay-per views is #3 because the product is the weakest it has been in the past 5-6 years, so why expect people to spend even MORE money on it? JOHN C.: One and two go hand in hand here. Lesnar leaving the company was huge, forcing Vince McMahon to change plans all of a sudden and put the belt on somebody he knew would be loyal to him. Sadly, that person is JBL. During the JBL era, things have become so bad on Smackdown that you should not be shocked by the crap that's on it sometimes. You just come to expect it. TEXAS KELLY: It's the *way* Pat Patterson went out that's more disappointing than Patterson leaving itself, since it's just yet more proof that us Jerichoholics will never be rid of the cancer in wrestling that is Triple H. CRIMEFIGHTER: Brock Lesnar leaving wrestling for the NFL, couldn't had come at a worse time for WWE, but looking at the way things are now, it probably wasn't a bad idea. But if he doesn't make the NFL at some point the salary losses won't justify the move. Teddy Hart's self-destructive behavior has been making headlines a lot this year, getting banned from Ring of Honor, no-showing many indy shows, and even preventing his own H2W wrestling company from ever running a show with mishandling of venue rentals! This guy doesn't learn from his own stupidity, yet he thinks he's so great that promoters will still try to book him. When's the last time you've heard his name lately? He's pretty much blacklisted himself from the sport and his attempt to start a fed to keep his flailing career in the sport alive has blown up in his face. Last item, the former WWF wrestler known as Moondog Spot died at a Memphis Wrestling show during a hardcore tornado match. This guy was doing hardcore wrestling way before hardcore went mainstream. SCOTT CHRIST: The fact that Lesnar had gotten *really* good and *really* fun to watch made his leaving wrestling just awful. Not only was he a big star, but he was one of the best performers on the WWE roster. It really killed the SD product, too. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Most Obnoxious Personality Award Description: To be given to the person who just rubs you the wrong way. This could be anybody involved in the wrestling biz. Previous Winners: 1991: Dusty Rhodes 1992: Vince McMahon 1993: Vince McMahon 1994: Hulk Hogan 1995: Eric Bischoff 1996: Eric Bischoff 1997: Eric Bischoff 1998: Eric Bischoff 1999: Eric Bischoff 2000: Vince Russo 2001: Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley 2002: Jerry Lawler 2003: Stephanie McMahon **2004**: Jerry Lawler 49 first place votes 48 second place votes 47 third place votes 8 7 6 73 Jerry Lawler 4 8 2 48 John Bradshaw Layfield 4 2 6 38 Hardcore Holly 6 1 2 37 Triple H 3 3 2 28 Jim Ross 3 1 1 20 Teddy Hart 1 3 3 20 Carmella DeCesare 2 1 3 19 Jonathan Coachman 1 2 1 13 Todd Grisham 1 2 1 13 Bill DeMott 1 0 4 13 Shaniqua 2 0 1 12 Shawn Michaels 2 0 1 12 Lita 1 1 2 12 Vince McMahon 1 1 2 12 Jeff Jarrett 1 1 1 10 Vince Russo 0 3 0 9 Dusty Rhodes 0 2 1 8 Eric Bischoff 1 0 1 7 Heidenreich 0 1 2 7 Paul Heyman 1 0 0 5 Michael Cole 1 0 0 5 John Cena 1 0 0 5 Goldy Locks 1 0 0 5 Ernest Miller 1 0 0 5 Christy Hemme 1 0 0 5 Christian 1 0 0 5 Carlito Caribbean Cool 0 1 1 5 Undertaker 0 0 2 4 Kurt Angle 0 1 0 3 Trish Stratus 0 1 0 3 Tajiri 0 1 0 3 Simon Dean 0 1 0 3 Shane McMahon 0 1 0 3 Raven 0 1 0 3 Matt Hardy 0 1 0 3 Hulk Hogan 0 1 0 3 Gene Snitsky 0 0 1 2 Theodore Long 0 0 1 2 Minoru Suzuki HACK-MAN: Wow. How did we forget to nominate Jeff Jarrett for Most Obnoxious Personality? Either wrestling is getting more tolerable this year or I'm just so jaded that it's stopped affecting me.1st:Bill DeMott, 2nd:JBL, 3rd:Jim Ross. ALLAN J. BENSON: When your #1 announce team is more obnoxious than most of your heels, you have a problem. JOHN C.: JBL wins this easily for believing his own hype, for thinking he's any good and for doing many stupid things over the course of the past several months. CRIMEFIGHTER: Continuing on from Most Disappointing News Item, Teddy Hart due to his misconduct earns him this title. This guy would be in the spotlight a lot more if he'd just GROW UP. JBL's ridicious promo in Germany got him fired from CNBC and a couple of completely retarded and defiant columns boasting how great he is earned him a runner up. I still hate Bischoff. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Second Award Description: To be given to the manager who outperformed their peers at ringside and behind the microphone in interviews. This award was discontinued after the 2001 awards. Previous Winners: 1990: Jim Cornette 1991: Bobby Heenan 1992: Mr. Perfect 1993: Jim Cornette 1994: Jim Cornette 1995: Jim Cornette 1996: Sunny 1997: Chyna 1998: Chyna 1999: Dawn Marie 2000: Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley 2001: Stacy Keibler ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Announcer Award Description: To be given to the commentator/announcer who makes the most insightful and entertaining comments while pushing his product. "Ring announcers" don't qualify here. As of 1992, the difference between this and colour commentator will be enforced. Previous Winners: 1990: Jesse Ventura 1991: Jesse Ventura 1992: Jim Ross 1993: Jim Ross 1994: Jim Ross 1995: Jim Ross 1996: Jim Ross 1997: Jim Ross 1998: Jim Ross 1999: Jim Ross 2000: Jim Ross 2001: Jim Ross 2002: Michael Cole 2003: Michael Cole **2004**: Jim Ross 46 first place votes 43 second place votes 34 third place votes 14 9 5 107 Jim Ross 12 12 5 106 Michael Cole 11 5 10 90 Mike Tenay 4 10 7 64 Josh Mathews 2 0 1 12 Dave Prazak 0 2 3 12 Jonathan Coachman 1 1 0 8 Dan Wilson 1 0 0 5 Alfonso Morales 0 1 0 3 Todd Grisham 0 1 0 3 Mick Karch 0 1 0 3 Jim Fannin 0 1 0 3 Excalibur 0 0 1 2 Jimmy Bauer 0 0 1 2 Chris Lovey REJECTED 1 0 1 Joey Styles (I'm pretty sure he didn't announce all year) PAUL ZOROVICH: I voted for nobody here. I didn't hear ANY good announcers this year. SYDNEY BROWN: If you have any questions about Michael Cole's skills, listen to his alternate commentary on the new ECW DVD. He pays attention to details and brings up appropriate questions in a way I never knew he had in him. I used to call him the 2000's edition of Sean Mooney. But more and more, he's making me eat my words. JOHN C.: It's Jim Ross' turn again. Josh Matthews is next, and is probably a winner of this award in the next three or four years. CHRISTOPHER SHEA: I'm leaving this blank because I can't think of a single announcer this year who actually added anything to the show for me. CRIMEFIGHTER: The big two feds just don't produce a whole lot of candidates to vote for. SCOTT CHRIST: Dave Prazak in a cakewalk. RYAN FAULCONER: Dave Prazak is head and shoulders above any other announcer out there today. Excalibur and the PWG crew are pretty fun to listen to as well. Chris Lovey improved so much this year that he had to change his name to Jimmy Bauer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Colour Commentator Award Description: To be given to the colour commentator who provides the most insightful and entertaining comments. Previous Winners: 1991: Bobby Heenan 1992: Bobby Heenan 1993: Jesse Ventura 1994: Bobby Heenan 1995: Bobby Heenan 1996: Bobby Heenan 1997: Jerry Lawler 1998: Jerry Lawler 1999: Jerry Lawler 2000: Jerry Lawler 2001: Paul Heyman 2002: Tazz 2003: Tazz **2004**: Tazz 49 first place votes 37 second place votes 31 third place votes 40 3 1 211 Tazz 2 12 3 52 Jerry Lawler 0 9 5 37 Don West 1 4 8 33 Bill DeMott 1 3 7 28 Scott Hudson 0 3 2 13 Al Snow 1 1 2 12 CM Punk 2 0 0 10 Steve Prazak 1 0 0 5 Bryan Danielson 1 0 0 5 Allison Danger 0 1 0 3 Leobardo Magadan 0 1 0 3 Eddie Kingston 0 0 1 2 Konnan 0 0 1 2 Disco Machine REJECTED 0 0 1 Bas Rutten JOHN C.: Tazz is the best color guy. He's funny, he offers insight and unlike his counterpart on Raw, he's able to stay fresh as he's doing his job. SCOTT CHRIST: Allison Danger in a cakewalk. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Interviewee Award Description: To be given to the person who gives the best interview in the biz. This could be a wrestler or a manager. Previous Winners: 1990: Ric Flair 1991: Ric Flair 1992: Ric Flair 1993: Ric Flair 1994: Ric Flair 1995: Shawn Michaels 1996: Stone Cold Steve Austin 1997: Stone Cold Steve Austin 1998: Mankind (Dude Love / Cactus Jack / Mick Foley) 1999: Mankind 2000: The Rock 2001: Stone Cold Steve Austin 2002: Kurt Angle 2003: Chris Jericho **2004**: Chris Jericho 50 first place votes 49 second place votes 48 third place votes 10 7 7 85 Chris Jericho 7 4 3 53 Mick Foley 5 5 3 46 Ric Flair 5 5 1 42 Rock 4 3 4 37 William Regal 3 3 4 32 Christian 1 4 5 27 Eddie Guerrero 3 1 3 24 Kurt Angle 1 4 3 23 John Cena 1 3 4 22 John Bradshaw Layfield 1 3 2 18 Trish Stratus 2 0 1 12 Gene Snitsky 1 1 0 8 Monty Brown 1 1 0 8 Colt Cabana 1 0 1 7 CM Punk 0 2 0 6 Raven 1 0 0 5 Paul Heyman 1 0 0 5 Goldy Locks 1 0 0 5 Carmine Despirito 1 0 0 5 Carlito Caribbean Cool 0 1 1 5 Shawn Michaels 0 1 0 3 Kane 0 1 0 3 Chris Benoit 0 0 1 2 Triple H 0 0 1 2 Scott D'Amore 0 0 1 2 Sal Renaro 0 0 1 2 Kid Kash 0 0 1 2 Edge 0 0 1 2 AJ Styles ALLAN J. BENSON: I chose Ric Flair, for reasons I stated earlier. He really is still one of the best interviews in wrestling and would make a great mouthpiece for up and coming talent. I just think his days of wrestling above average matches are done. PAUL ZOROVICH: Ric Flair is still showing the young'uns how it's done, William Regal is consistently terrific, and I just love Chris Jericho on the stick. SYDNEY BROWN: Three Rock interviews are more entertaining than the entire roster for an entire year. YNAE316: I'm giving the always awesome Jericho and Cena the #1 and #2 awards for best interview because they're awesome and everyone knows it. They both seem to be slipping in the quality of their work but even their "phoned in" interviews are better than most other people's work on any day. I'm giving Trish Stratus the #3 slot because, as I mentioned earlier, she developed into the complete package in 2004 finally developing her promo skills. Her first promos after her heel turn were pretty tentative and brutal but by the end of the year she was cutting some of the most entertaining promos on all of Raw in her feud with Lita. The "Insincere Bitch" work is some of the best stuff out there today. Kudos to Trish Stratus. MATT HOCKING: William Regal constantly showed up with quality interviews despite being put into the awkward Eugene angle. Raven has always been one of my favorite interviews because he understands character and psychology better than anybody except MAYBE Mick Foley. JBL is my dark horse pick because he's done some great, funny interviews that have really gotten under people's skin over the last year. JOHN C.: I'm going with Christian here because I think he took a step up the ladder this year, especially in terms of his mic work. By adding funny things in like the Creepy Little Bastard, Captain Charisma and the Christian Coalition, he's able to still bust out the comedy while keeping a serious edge to him as well. Jericho comes in second for his consistent work, although I like him much more as a heel. Kurt Angle comes in third for being good in a serious role. If Rock was on TV for three months he'd have won this award. He's that good. SCOTT CHRIST: Colt Cabana is a national treasure. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Angle Award Description: To be given to the best angle you've seen in the sport this year. Previous Winners: 1990: Horsemen turn heel 1991: "Real World Champion" Ric Flair challenges Hulk Hogan 1992: Ric Flair "knew Elizabeth first" 1993: WWF brings in Sean Waltman as 1-2-3 Kid 1994: Shane Douglas forfeits NWA title moments after winning it 1995: Barry Horowitz finally wins on WWF television 1996: NWO forms and attempts takeover of WCW 1997: Bret Hart turns on USA, reforms Hart Foundation 1998: Mr. McMahon offers Steve Austin the easy way - or the hard way 1999: "Countdown to the Millennium" ends with Chris Jericho's WWF debut 2000: Triple H, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley, Kurt Angle love triangle 2001: ECW joins WCW, forms alliance 2002: Goldust, Booker T turn "At the Movies" gig into friendship 2003: Paul Heyman presents Kurt Angle with Team Angle **2004**: Chris Benoit's world championship journey ends with WrestleMania win 51 first place votes 48 second place votes 47 third place votes 20 4 5 122 Chris Benoit's Road to WrestleMania 7 6 3 59 Randy Orton calls Mick Foley a coward 5 2 4 39 Chris Jericho, Christian bet CDN$1: who beds Trish/Lita first? 1 7 3 32 Eddie Guerrero becomes champion 1 4 6 29 Edge frustrated by Taboo Tuesday voting 1 4 4 25 Trish Stratus dumps Chris Jericho for Christian 1 4 3 23 Gene Snitsky goes on rampage through Raw roster 2 0 3 16 Evolution dumps Randy Orton 0 4 2 16 Shelton Benjamin tears through Evolution 2 1 1 15 Eric Bischoff assigns nephew to William Regal 0 2 4 14 Billy Kidman scared to do shooting star press 0 3 2 13 Kane marries Lita 2 0 0 10 TNA X Cup/World Cup 1 0 1 7 Undertaker taunts Kane from beyond the grave 1 0 1 7 Chavo Guerrero turns on his uncle 0 2 0 6 Kurt Angle, injured, remains on SmackDown in GM role 1 0 0 5 Shelton Benjamin has Triple H's number 1 0 0 5 Rock & Eugene thoroughly beat down Jonathan Coachman 1 0 0 5 Ricky Steamboat returns to fight CM Punk 1 0 0 5 RAW introduces $250,000 Diva Challenge 1 0 0 5 RAW Locker Room v. Triple H 1 0 0 5 Low Ki turns heel, aligns with The Rottweilers 1 0 0 5 Kurt Angle strips John Cena of U.S. title 0 1 1 5 Homicide hits Samoa Joe with a fireball 0 1 0 3 Triple H, Eugene are best friends 0 1 0 3 Samoa Joe handcuffs, assaults Chris Hero after hourlong match 0 1 0 3 Raven's mind games against Sabu 0 1 0 3 Miss Jackie helps her team by flaunting her assets 0 0 1 2 Tradition v. Hardcore in ROH 0 0 1 2 Theodore Long named Smackdown GM 0 0 1 2 Kurt Angle's gang shave Big Show's head 0 0 1 2 Generation Next Debuts ALLAN J. BENSON: It's been a poor year for angles, but Trish/Jericho/Christian was the most well executed and logically sound angle, as far as I can recall. Coincidence that Jericho and Stratus wrote most of it, not the inept writers? I think not. SYDNEY BROWN: Chris Benoit winning the World title and embracing Eddie Guerrero was the highlight of 2004 without question. HHH being unable to pin Shelton Benjamin helped elevate Shelton and actually made HHH's matches interesting. And Randy Orton getting dumped was one of the few moments I was NOT expecting. At least not that early. YNAE316: Benoit's "Road to Wrestlemania" was the best story of 2004 for all the right reasons. The matches and promos and hype TOTALLY kicked ass and the human drama of Benoit's "18 Year JOurney" affirmed what EVERY ONE wants to hear and believe. If you work hard and persevere enough in anything, you will be rewarded. Seeing Benoit beat the roster at the Rumble and triumph against all odds against Triple H AND Shawn Michaels, two of wrestlings biggest legends, showed everything we needed to see as fans of this sport. Bravo to WWE for an awesome early 2004. Snitsky's rampage through the Raw midcard in the later parts of 2004 was one of the best things to come on screen in all ages. To say it was a shock to see a JOBBER beating legit, established stars like Kane, Val Venis, Eugene and Regal is an understatement. It's innovative stories like this that brings the old tag of "Anything can happen in the WWE" back to life. SNITSKY gets my #2 Award for "Best Angle of 2004." Edge's frustration against the fans for Taboo Tuesday gets my #3 award for "Best Angle of 2004." After a failed babyface push, Edge's anger against the fans and frustration pushes him "Over the Edge" into a MAJOR heel turn late in 2004 sending him railing against the fans and the Raw roster. Since then we had awesome promos and matches from him. I look to a HUGE year for Edge in 2004 right where he should be, a Top Heel. Hopefully Triple H doesn't bury him. DON DEL GRANDE: Okay, HHH's job to Benjamin isn't exactly an "angle", but I didn't know where else to put it (I wouldn't call it a "promotional move"), and there doesn't seem to be a "best news item" category. JOHN C.: Benoit's road to WrestleMania captures this one. It was well booked, the story was well told and the finish was almost like a fairy tale ending. I like how most of his title run was booked too. The Jericho/Christian/Trish story was well done with a long story attached to it. The Foley/Orton saga was great as well, helping Orton become a top level star and allowing Mick Foley to prove just how good he still is, even with being out of the ring for a few years. SCOTT CHRIST: Benoit's Road to Wrestlemania was truly inspiring stuff. Big honorable mention to the locker room-clearing brawl from the 4/23 ROH show, featuring Steamboat kicking some ass. RYAN FAULCONER: Low Ki's heel turn at the Reborn Completion show was hands down the angle of the year. Its probably better than angle from any company over the past couple of years. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Organization Award Description: To be given to the organization/promotion that has the best product. This is the organization whose TV and house shows you just can't miss. Previous Winners: 1990: NWA 1991: WWF 1992: WCW 1993: SMW 1994: ECW 1995: WWF 1996: WWF 1997: WWF 1998: WWF 1999: WWF 2000: WWF 2001: WWF 2002: WWE (WWF) 2003: WWE **2004**: WWE 46 first place votes 39 second place votes 30 third place votes 28 7 3 167 WWE 6 15 5 85 TNA 2 10 7 54 ROH 3 2 1 23 CMLL 1 2 5 22 IWA Mid-South 3 0 2 19 NOAH 1 0 1 7 NWA Wildside 1 0 0 5 New Japan 1 0 0 5 NMW 0 0 2 4 PWG 0 1 0 3 SDW 0 1 0 3 CWF MidAtlantic 0 1 0 3 APW 0 0 1 2 Osaka Pro 0 0 1 2 MCW 0 0 1 2 LLL 0 0 1 2 CHIKARA HACK-MAN: It was easy to vote for Best Organization this year. None of the local indies have had anything to write home about for a couple years now. Even though they've lost some of their top names, NWA Wildside was far and wide the best thing to watch in 2004. I only attended one ROH show (the only one within 500 miles of here) and it landed them the second spot. TNA was hit and miss, as they still insist on polluting their cards with Jarrett, Abyss, and other crap I don't care about--but it was still better than WWE so I gave them #3. ALLAN J. BENSON: I'm sure there are better feds, but for what I've seen, I'd rate WWE better than TNA based on production and booking. YNAE316: WWE is without a doubt THE top promotion in the world today. Look out though because TNA is coming on strong. With a strong program in the form of Impact on FSN and off the heels of a hot "Victory Road" and a whole slew of the brightest young talent in America, TNA can easily and quickly establish itself as a true challenger to WWE. By default, TNA is already the #2 promotion in America and if they can stay the course and develop their talent and promotions further we can have ourselves another promotional war in 2005 and all I can say is, "It's about time." JOHN C.: When you're poor then WWE is really your only option. CHRISTOPHER SHEA: I'm also leaving this one blank, as it seems increasingly pointless in a day when most fans -- myself included -- get the vast majority of their wrestling from one source. I don't WANT to vote WWE here -- but I haven't seen enough of any other promotion to give a honest assessment. CRIMEFIGHTER: New Midwest Wrestling of Illinois, All Pro Wrestling out of California, and IWA Mid-South. 175 indy groups are profiled in a special issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated and only 13 groups in all get nominated? Come on! A lot of people need to broaden their horizons. Yes I am partial to NMW since it's my local fed. So how do I know about APW? This promotion has pushed itself online heavily using the Clickwrestle.com service. And my last choice is a Chicago area fed that showcases several current NWA-TNA and former WWE stars. SCOTT CHRIST: IWA Mid-South was by far the top mix of wrestling in the United States this year. Old school, new school, technical, brawling, death match junk, the TPI -- everything you could want out of a promotion was there. Second place to ROH, who picked up serious steam but their shows run together for me, and third to CHIKARA for being brilliant. RYAN FAULCONER: The best promotion in 2004 is CMLL because they always leave me wanting more. ROH & IWAMS had very strong years themselves so they get second and third, respectively. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best TV Show Award Description: To be given to what is on average the best wrestling TV show. In 1994, TV shows and major shows were given separate award categories. Previous Winners: 1991: 03/21/91: WCW & New Japan Supershow (aired on tape) 1992: 01/18/92: WWF Royal Rumble 1993: WWF Monday Night RAW weekly TV 1994: WWF Monday Night RAW 1995: WWF Monday Night RAW 1996: WWF Monday Night RAW 1997: WWF Monday Night RAW (WWF RAW is War / WWF RAW / WWF War Zone) 1998: WWF RAW is WAR (RAW / War Zone) 1999: WWF RAW is WAR (RAW / War Zone) 2000: WWF RAW is WAR (RAW / War Zone) 2001: WWF RAW (RAW is War / War Zone / RAW Zone) 2002: WWE SmackDown! 2003: WWE Smackdown **2004**: WWE RAW (RAW / RAW Zone) 47 first place votes 43 second place votes 37 third place votes 34 2 3 182 WWE RAW 2 21 2 77 WWE Smackdown 3 7 8 52 TNA Wrestling Impact! 3 4 9 45 WWE Velocity 2 2 1 18 CMLL weekly TV 1 1 4 16 TNA weekly PPV 0 1 4 11 WWE Sunday Night Heat 1 0 1 7 NWA Wildside weekly TV 0 1 2 7 WWE Confidential 1 0 0 5 New Japan World Pro Wrestling Complete Edition 0 1 0 3 New Japan sXW 0 1 0 3 Memphis Pro Wrestling 0 1 0 3 CWF MidAtlantic Weekly TV 0 1 0 3 AAA weekly TV 0 0 1 2 Steel Domain Wrestling 0 0 1 2 New Japan on Samurai! TV 0 0 1 2 AWWL Big Time Wrestling ALLAN J. BENSON: RAW was better than Smackdown for most of the year, especially after the horribly booked draft lottery in April. YNAE316: Raw was the top brand in 2004 and gets #1 easily. I'm gonna go ahead and throw a wrench by calling TNA Impact at #2. I didn't follow TNA's weekly PPVs and got on the bandwagon after Impact debuted and I'm VERY impressed by what Jarrett throws out week to week. The TNA wrestlers, particularly those in the X Division, put on some of THE BEST matches ANYWHERE in the country and the show's production values improve each and every week. TNA is much better now than ECW was at this stage in their development. I look for TNA to get better in 2005 assuming they can keep the promotion financially afloat. Smackdown takes #3 by default. JOHN C.: Raw had a strong year, thanks in large part to the addition of Chris Benoit. Smackdown took a step back with the loss of Lesnar and Benoit, as well as the ascension of JBL. Velocity gets third because it's a fun show to tape and watch on a Sunday morning. CHRISTOPHER SHEA: Again, there is nothing in this category that I could fairly vote for that I would -want- to vote for. SCOTT CHRIST: Wrestling on TV was utter garbage all year long. I voted for Velocity to show my support for Josh. RYAN FAULCONER: One hour a week of CMLL just isn't enough. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Major Show Award Description: To be given to the best major event. This could be a pay-per-view, a TV special, or any big arena event. In 1994, TV shows and major shows were given separate award categories. Previous Winners: 1991: 03/21/91: WCW & New Japan Supershow (aired on tape) 1992: 01/18/92: WWF Royal Rumble 1993: WWF Monday Night RAW weekly TV 1994: 03/20/94: WWF WrestleMania X 1995: 08/27/95: WWF SummerSlam 1996: 03/31/96: WWF WrestleMania XII 1997: 04/14/97: ECW Barely Legal 1998: 03/24/98: WWF WrestleMania XIV 1999: 08/22/99: WWF SummerSlam 2000: 01/23/00: WWF Royal Rumble 2001: 04/01/01: WWF WrestleMania X-7 2002: 08/25/02: WWE SummerSlam 2003: 03/30/03: WWE WrestleMania XIX **2004**: 03/14/04: WWE WrestleMania XX 44 first place votes 41 second place votes 35 third place votes 32 5 0 175 03/14/04 WWE WrestleMania XX 2 15 9 73 01/25/04 WWE Royal Rumble 2 6 9 46 04/18/04 WWE Backlash 2 5 9 43 02/15/04 WWE No Way Out 1 1 1 10 07/10/04 NOAH Tokyo Dome 1 0 1 7 05/26/04 TNA World X Cup 1 0 0 5 09/17/04 IWA Mid-South Ted Petty Invitational 1 0 0 5 08/08/04 New Japan 1 0 0 5 07/24/04 ROH Death Before Dishonor 1 0 0 5 04/10/04 IWA-MS Simply the Best 5 0 1 1 5 04/25/04 NOAH Encountering Navigation 0 1 0 3 10/02/04 ROH Midnight Express Reunion 0 1 0 3 09/18/04 IWA Mid-South Ted Petty Invitational 0 1 0 3 08/15/04 WWE SummerSlam 0 1 0 3 07/23/04 ROH Death Before Dishonor 0 1 0 3 07/11/04 WWE Vengeance 0 1 0 3 03/28/04 New Japan 0 0 1 2 12/27/03 ROH Final Battle 0 0 1 2 10/19/04 WWE Taboo Tuesday 0 0 1 2 08/15/04 New Japan 0 0 1 2 05/29/04 IWA-MS A Shot of Southern Comfort 0 0 1 2 04/24/04 ROH Reborn: Stage II REJECTED - out of timeframe 0 2 0 11/07/04 TNA Victory Road ALLAN J. BENSON: I've seen none of these, so I cannot vote for this category. YNAE316: Best Shows? Wrestlemania XX and Royal Rumble. Reason? Benoit wins the title and Benoit beats the roster in over an hour. Benoit Baby!!! JOHN C.: It's WrestleMania in a walk. Just had that "special" show feel to it from start to finish, although if they cut an hour out it would have been better. Four hours is fine, five is too much. No Way Out is second thanks to a strong cruiser match and the excellent main event. Backlash is third for another excellent main event, plus a great brawl by Foley and Orton. Tough to leave out the Rumble and Benoit's win, but I had to make the choice. SCOTT CHRIST: The Ted Petty Invitational reminded me of why I love professional wrestling. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Promotional Move Award Description: To be given to the best move made by a promotion this past year. This could include giving somebody a push, demoting someone, firing someone hiring someone, or anything of a promotional nature. Previous Winners: 1991: WWF signs Ric Flair 1992: WCW signs Jake Roberts 1993: WWF works with SMW & USWA 1994: WWF pushes Bret Hart as champion again 1995: WCW signs Sabu, Chris Benoit, Eddy Guerrero & Dean Malenko away 1996: WCW signs Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Ted DiBiase & Syxx 1997: ECW uses "working agreement" with WWF 1998: WWF books Vince McMahon into top storyline role 1999: WWF signs Chris Jericho 2000: WWF signs Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn 2001: WWF adds ECW to "invasion" angle 2002: WWE names Paul Heyman head of SmackDown! writing team 2003: NWA TNA offers one cent PPV **2004**: WWE books Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero to World, WWE championships 52 first place votes 48 second place votes 45 third place votes 21 6 6 135 WWE books Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero to top titles 9 9 6 84 WWE markets DVD sets for Flair, Benoit, Guerrero 3 8 4 47 WWE keeps McMahons (mostly) off TV 1 9 3 38 WWE puts classic matches online for paid download 0 6 7 32 WWE largely lets Foley book his feud with Orton himself 5 2 0 31 TNA books deal with FSN 2 0 1 12 TNA creates World/X Cup tournaments 2 0 1 12 ROH changes ownership 1 2 0 11 WWE books Shawn Michaels into several PPV main events 1 0 3 11 TNA switches to six-sided ring 1 0 2 9 WWE quickly sends Mordecai back to OVW 1 0 1 7 WWE creates Smackdown Your Vote campaign 1 0 1 7 CNBC fires John Layfield following controversy 0 2 0 6 WWE tapes Raw, Smackdown overseas 1 0 0 5 WWE lets useless big namers go (Austin, Nash, Goldberg, et al) 1 0 0 5 WWE introduces $250,000 RAW Diva Search 1 0 0 5 New Japan pushes the new version of the "3 Musketeers" 0 1 0 3 WWE takes title off Randy Orton after a month 0 1 0 3 WWE plans Interactive PPV 0 1 0 3 TNA World/X cup tournaments 0 1 0 3 IWA-MS builds a strong women's division 0 0 1 2 WWE introduces $1 million Tough Enough 0 0 1 2 WWE brings back gimmicks (Carlito, Mordecai, Snitsky, et al) to spice things up 0 0 1 2 Triple H is sent to Smackdown in lottery 0 0 1 2 TNA ditches once-a-week PPVs 0 0 1 2 ROH reunites Midnight Express with Jim Cornette 0 0 1 2 ROH pushes the young guys 0 0 1 2 ROH brings in Jushin Liger 0 0 1 2 New Japan signs Jamie Noble 0 0 1 2 NOAH & All Japan exchange talent REJECTED 1 0 0 TNA Invades a WWE Commercial (out of timeframe) 0 0 1 Duplicated votes ALLAN J. BENSON: Pay on demand classic matches or shows is the way of the future. Kudos to the WWE for taking the first steps. YNAE316: As a fan I think WWE did a lot of things right this year. In terms of in-ring storys my #1 pick for best promotional move was moving the belts to Benoit and Eddie early this year. The two best in-ring workers in the world today as the #1 men on their brand said so much of the right things. Wrestlemania XX ending with both of them standing triumphantly in the ring celebrating in tears said so much of the right things. Never give up on your dream. Don't let anyone ever tell you you can't do it. Hard work DOES pay off. I had a lot of hope for the WWE at the end of Wrestlemania XX with Benoit and Eddie on top. So of course they job them out to BRADSHAW and ORTON later that summer. Business wise, I think WWE wisely opened up their goldmine of a tape library. I award the DVD productions of videos for Flair, Benoit, Guerrero #2 and the WWE OnDemand classic match download service #3. THAT is how you cash in on your video library and deliver to your market what they want. Bravo Vince!!! MATT HOCKING: The WWE has been nothing but excellent at the utilizing their library which gets my numbers 1 and 2 spots. The Flair, Benoit, Guerrero, and, now, ECW DVDs are just awesome examples of the WWE's ability to really market something and reach an audience with great quality. Putting the matches online for viewing is alos a great opportunity to throw random stuff out there that was either really good, really special or would NEVER make a DVD and make a profit off of it while giving fans what they want. The pushes of 'fresh faces' Benoit and Guerrero to the main event was just a really neat deal for both guys and their fans, and I'll give the WWE some love for that. JOHN C.: Booking Benoit and Guerrero at the top this year made it a very fun year, or at least six months, for me as a fan. For a guy who has followed those guys throughout their careers, it meant a lot to see them get rewarded for all the years of hard work. Big fan of the WWE DVD sets. It's one of the things the company is really doing right and probably doesn't get enough credit for. Foley did an awesome job in booking his feud with Orton. Too bad Mick doesn't want to book full time because he'd be great in such a role. CHRISTOPHER SHEA: Give WWE credit -- they seem to have actually learned that last year's McMahon overload turned people off. Here's hoping for a happy and equally McMahon (mostly)-free 2005. TEXAS KELLY: Putting out the DVD sets is the most important and valuable business decision the WWE has made since the birth of the Attitude era. Flair, Benoit, Eddie, ECW, RVD, Andre... now, if they'd just throw us a bone and PUT OUT A GODDAMNED JERICHO SET, all would be right with the world. CRIMEFIGHTER: Best promotional move was NWA TNA adopting use of the hexagon ring. I have seen that there had been use of those in Japan but believed a US-based promotion should start using one to distinguish itself from most other promotions. Now the next step is for someone to use an octagon ring. The best moves WWE did was putting its matches online for a fee, something a little website called www.clickwrestle.com has been doing for the past couple years. Considering the crap that WWE puts on television these days they call entertainment, the good stuff can only be gotten online now. And for once two guys that needed to be world champs were allowed to be world champs. If CNBC firing JBL wasn't rejected as a best promotional move nominee I would had casted a vote for it as #3. SCOTT CHRIST: I couldn't think of much that was good in terms of promotional moves, so I'll go with WWE marketing those great DVD sets. I probably would have voted ROH bringing in Liger No. 1, except I don't know much it really helped them. RYAN FAULCONER: I don't think there could be any better promotional move possible than ROH changing ownership earlier in the year. All things considered there is no competition whatsoever. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Worst Second Award Description: To be given to the manager whose presence at ringside and during interviews is really unnecessary. This person does little to enhance the matches in which his/her wrestler(s) participates. This award was discontinued after the 2001 awards. Previous Winners: 1990: Mr. Fuji 1991: Coach John Tolos 1992: Harvey Wippleman 1993: Harvey Wippleman 1994: Harvey Wippleman 1995: Harvey Wippleman 1996: Teddy Long 1997: Uncle Cletus 1998: Eric Bischoff 1999: Curtis Hughes 2000: Mae Young 2001: Sara ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Worst Announcer Award Description: To be given to the commentator/announcer who makes the dumbest comments while pushing his product. This person probably gets you to turn down the TV when he/she is announcing. As of 1992, the difference between this and colour commentator will be enforced. Previous Winners: 1990: Vince McMahon 1991: Vince McMahon 1992: Vince McMahon 1993: Vince McMahon 1994: Eric Bischoff 1995: Eric Bischoff 1996: Eric Bischoff 1997: Tony Schiavone 1998: Tony Schiavone 1999: Tony Schiavone 2000: Tony Schiavone 2001: Tony Schiavone 2002: Jim Ross 2003: Jim Ross **2004**: Jonathan Coachman 43 first place votes 37 second place votes 28 third place votes 14 9 4 105 Jonathan Coachman 11 11 8 104 Todd Grisham 13 6 4 91 Jim Ross 3 7 4 44 Michael Cole 2 3 7 33 Josh Mathews 0 1 1 5 Chris Lovey ALLAN J. BENSON: Jim Ross, what can I say? It may or may not be his fault, but he doesn't sound like a announcer calling a sporting event now, he sounds like an executive making sure to discuss all the selling points for the next big PPV. Between J.R. and the King it's like listening to a 2 hour infomercial every Monday night now. Awful. Coach should just stick to managing or backstage interviewing. Any "coolness" from his heel turn is wearing very thin very fast, IMO. And Todd Grisham should just be fired. NATRBOY72: Benoit needed to shoot on 1. Todd Grisham during the commentary taping for his DVD set and crush his windpipe with the crossface. JOHN C.: Grisham wins for the horrible work he did on the Benoit DVD. Why are they paying this guy? Hire somebody that, you know, actually likes the business! CRIMEFIGHTER: Well there's not many candidates to choose from here. The Coach is pretty much the frontrunner. SCOTT CHRIST: "Mordecai has just damned this audience to hell," Michael Cole somberly reported one Thursday night. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Worst Colour Commentator Award Description: To be given to the commentator/announcer who makes the dumbest comment while pushing his product. This person probably gets you to turn down the TV when he/she is announcing. Previous Winners: 1991: Dusty Rhodes 1992: Lord Alfred Hayes 1993: Randy Savage 1994: Dusty Rhodes 1995: Steve McMichael 1996: Dusty Rhodes 1997: Dusty Rhodes 1998: Larry Zbyszko 1999: Jason Hervey 2000: Mark Madden 2001: Mark Madden 2002: Jerry Lawler 2003: Jerry Lawler **2004**: Jerry Lawler 46 first place votes 35 second place votes 27 third place votes 21 7 4 134 Jerry Lawler 7 5 7 64 Bill DeMott 5 6 3 49 Al Snow 5 6 2 47 Don West 2 8 1 36 Todd Grisham 3 1 3 24 Jeff Hammond 1 1 1 10 Jonathan Coachman 0 1 3 9 Tazz 1 0 0 5 McCoy Counterfit 1 0 0 5 AJ Styles 0 0 1 2 Ray Murrows 0 0 1 2 John House 0 0 1 2 Gary Murrow ALLAN J. BENSON: Lawler just plain sucks now. The other two are just dull as dirt. JOHN C.: I'm not a big fan of Coach as an announcer. Why is a guy who has done nothing in his career so cocky? At least with a former wrestler it's alright, but he's just a normal guy who seems so forced in what he does. CRIMEFIGHTER: Don West is the most annoying voice on a microphone. I prefer second worst and third worst to him. SCOTT CHRIST: Al Snow and that "babaganoush" shit steal the award right from the King's greasy hands. RYAN FAULCONER: AJ Styles is one heck of a terrible colour commentator. We're lucky he only does it a handful of times a year. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Worst Interviewee Award Description: To be given to the person who gives the worst interview in the biz. This could be a wrestler or a manager. Previous Winners: 1990: Ultimate Warrior 1991: El Gigante 1992: Ultimate Warrior 1993: Giant Gonzalez 1994: Yokozuna 1995: Hulk Hogan 1996: Ahmed Johnson 1997: Ahmed Johnson 1998: Warrior 1999: Sid Vicious 2000: Hardy Boyz 2001: Linda McMahon 2002: Triple H 2003: Al Wilson **2004**: Lita 49 first place votes 46 second place votes 44 third place votes 12 4 4 80 Lita 4 4 2 36 Triple H 5 3 0 34 Linda McMahon 5 1 3 34 Gene Snitsky 2 6 3 34 Heidenreich 1 4 4 25 Jeff Jarrett 3 0 1 17 Vince Russo 1 1 4 16 Torrie Wilson 2 1 0 13 Shaniqua 1 2 1 13 Hardcore Holly 2 0 1 12 Batista 1 1 2 12 Rob Van Dam 2 0 0 10 Carmella DeCesare 1 1 1 10 Undertaker 1 1 1 10 Jazz 1 1 1 10 Billy Kidman 1 0 2 9 Kenzo Suzuki 0 1 3 9 Luther Reigns 1 1 0 8 Chris Benoit 1 0 1 7 Dusty Rhodes 0 2 0 6 Randy Orton 0 2 0 6 John Bradshaw Layfield 1 0 0 5 Maven 0 0 2 4 Billy Gunn 0 1 0 3 Tyson Tomko 0 1 0 3 Tajiri 0 1 0 3 Sable 0 1 0 3 Ricky Steamboat 0 1 0 3 Paul Heyman 0 1 0 3 Nidia 0 1 0 3 Mordecai 0 1 0 3 Gail Kim 0 1 0 3 Chris Harris 0 1 0 3 Charlie Haas 0 0 1 2 Shawn Michaels 0 0 1 2 Matt Hardy 0 0 1 2 Johnny Nitro 0 0 1 2 John Cena 0 0 1 2 Jacqueline 0 0 1 2 Eric Watts 0 0 1 2 Bryan Danielson REJECTED 1 0 1 "Tie" votes ALLAN J. BENSON: The fact that 2/3 of these were fired last week should tell you something. Why does it seem like, except for Trish Stratus and perhaps Molly Holly, none of the current WWE divas can cut a half-decent promo? PAUL ZOROVICH: Lita should NEVER, under any circumstances, be allowed near a microphone. Gail Kim won't have the chance any more. Batista should shut up and let Flair do all his talking for him. SYDNEY BROWN: I wish someone would tell HHH he's not being paid by the minute. You can get your point across just as easily in two minutes rather than fifteen. YNAE316: Carmella is my #1 WORST interviewee for 2004. The Diva Search was sooo much based on needing to show your fans your personality. Moreso than showing your tits or ass or what not. Carmella was popular with the fans for being in Playboy but she showed the personality of a door knob. To paraphrase Chandler, "Could she BE any less interested in being here." Her promos sucked ass being devoid of any enthusiasm or life. That's the difference between Christy Hemme and the other women who competed. Christy showed she WANTED to be there and demonstrated the same type of fire as any of the WWE Superstars. Christy DEFINITELY deserved to win. Lita takes my #2 award. Yes, she had HORRIBLE material to work with but Lita is easily THE WORST promo in WWE today or ever. Yes, she's worse than Linda McMahon. #3 goes to the other Diva Search contestants. Some of their stuff was just absolutely horrible. "Seducing Kamala" particularly stands out in my mind. JOHN C.: Torrie Wilson is hot. On mute. CRIMEFIGHTER: Kenzo and his Gesha Girl are annoying as heck to listen to. Triple H can't seen to limit his time. SCOTT CHRIST: Vince Russo is just such a smug, unlikable piece of trash. It doesn't even matter what he says, because he's so unconvincing and retarded that it's impossible to pay attention to him. Paul Heyman is quite overrated. The guy is just overbearing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Worst Angle Award Description: To be given to the worst angle you've seen in the sport this year. It may be the worst because of taste or because of execution. Previous Winners: 1990: Earthquake breaks Hulk's ribs & get well card drive / Black Scorpion (tie) 1991: WWF exploits the Gulf war 1992: Papa Shango curses the Ultimate Warrior 1993: WCW's Cactus Jack gets amnesia; search leads to Cleveland 1994: WCW gives Hulk Hogan the WCW Title 1995: WCW bills Giant as Andre the Giant's alleged son 1996: Jim Ross announces return of Razor Ramon and Diesel to WWF 1997: Brian Pillman claims paternity of Dakota Runnells 1998: "Mysterious laughter" source revealed as Chucky the doll 1999: Big Show's father stricken with cancer; Big Boss Man exploits it 2000: Mae Young's pregnancy results in birth of hand 2001: Triple H quickly returns from fall inside car dropped from forklift 2002: Triple H reveals Kane's role in a death - and immediately afterwards 2003: Dawn Marie, Al Wilson give new meaning to "'til death do us part" **2004**: Kane stalks, then impregnates, then marries Lita 51 first place votes 51 second place votes 50 third place votes 13 6 3 89 Kane stalks, impregnates, marries Lita 8 10 4 78 Paul Bearer kidnapped by Paul Heyman's men, buried in cement 3 8 7 53 Booker T turns to voodoo to fight Undertaker 3 4 10 47 Heidenreich kidnaps Michael Cole, reads him poetry 6 2 1 38 Jacqueline wins cruiserweight championship 4 2 1 28 John Cena stabbed in nightclub 1 4 1 19 John Bradshaw Layfield gives Mama Guerrero a heart attack 0 4 3 18 Stevie Richards cross-dresses to help Victoria 2 0 3 16 Triple H, Eugene are best friends 2 0 2 14 Kurt Angle shoots, shaves Big Show 2 1 0 13 Kurt Angle named Smackdown GM 1 2 1 13 Kurt Angle chokeslammed off a ledge, breaking his leg 0 1 3 9 Undertaker terrorizes Kane with supernatural occurrences 1 1 0 8 Gene Snitsky causes Lita to "miscarry" 0 2 1 8 Big Show terrorizes Torrie/Angle; returns as babyface 1 0 1 7 Heidenreich hides in hearse, tries to kill Undertaker 1 0 0 5 RAW hosts Diva Search 1 0 0 5 Michael Shane, Kazarian named Co-X Division Champs 1 0 0 5 Eugene shaves Uncle Eric "bald" 1 0 0 5 Dusty Rhodes, Vince Russo campaign to be named Director of Authority 0 1 1 5 Eric Bischoff wants to fire his nephew Eugene 0 0 2 4 Theodore Long named Smackdown GM 0 0 2 4 Theodore Long books best of five series between Booker T, John Cena 0 1 0 3 Steve Austin is "sheriff" of Raw 0 1 0 3 Mordecai denounces Eddie Guerrero 0 1 0 3 Dawn Marie tries to break up Charlie Haas, Miss Jackie 0 0 1 2 Someone craps in Carnage Crew's bags 0 0 1 2 Goldy Locks "wins" TNA contracts 0 0 1 2 Chris Jericho, Christian bet CDN$1 over who beds Trish or Lita first 0 0 1 2 Billy Kidman turns on Paul London ALLAN J. BENSON: Oh, there are _so_ many choices this year. Although Kane/Lita gave us Gene Snitsky, I have to pick that angle as #1. Never have I seen such a drug out, poorly received, highly pushed angle with such gaps in logic and memory. Wrestlecrap will be highlighting this one soon, if it hasn't already. NATRBOY72: 1st: Kane stalks, impregnates, marries Lita Terrible angle in every aspect as it hurt Matt Hardy badly and would have killed off Lita if not for some damn fine heel work from superbitch Trish to save her character. Then, after all of the above, Kane is a face??? PAUL ZOROVICH: The Kane/Lita/Snitsky angles -- all of them -- were offensive in the extreme. And while the capsule description "Heidenreich kidnaps Michael Cole and then reads him poetry" is actually pretty funny, the execution was painful. SYDNEY BROWN: Oh, what great angles to choose from. I picked the Kane rape angle, the Undertaker murder angle, and HHH taking advantage of the mentally handicapped. At least one of those isn't considered a felony. I know wrestling isn't real, must the writers go out of their way to prove it? YNAE316: Hands down, the Kane-Lita stalker angle was the most BRUTAL angle of the year. Poor Kane. What does he DO to get such HORRIBLE storylines? To say the Lita stalker angle had no place on TV is an understatement. It killed Lita's "Extreme character" and wound up burrying Matt Hardy in the process. The angle subjected us to hours of brutal acting from Lita, Matt and Kane and as a whole was unfunny. The only bright spot was it allowed Trish to develop her "Insincere Bitch" character. The wedding itself was a pretty funny segment but it HAD TO be as the fans completely crapped on the angle that creative could only play it for laughs at that point. This whole angle is sooo the worst angle of 2004 and is a sure in for the 2004 Gooker Award at WrestleCrap. Booker T turning to voodoo to fight Taker and Heidenreich kidnapping Cole to read him poetry take #2 and #3 respectively. They weren't as long or as bad as Kane-Lita, but they were pretty dumb. DON DEL GRANDE: Cena "being stabbed in a nightclub" wouldn't be that bad of an angle, except for the fact that they're using it as an excuse to give him time to make a movie. I'm surprised they haven't run any "send in your get well cards" spots during Smackdown, the way they did when Hogan had a convenient injury just when he needed time off to make a movie of his own. Is "Cena returns without any scars but sells an injury to the 'punctured' kidney" eligible for next year? JOHN C.: Heidenreich kidnapping Cole was downright creepy and about as bizarre as any angle I've ever seen in wrestling. I'm supposed to be scared of the guy because he beat up an announcer nobody likes? Doesn't work. The Paul Bearer getting buried in cement thing was one of the funniest things ever. It wasn't funny in a "haha" type of way, but funny because there's actually people being paid money to come up with an idea like that to end a pay per view event. Isn't it just a riot? CHRISTOPHER SHEA: All my votes in this category involve either Undertaker, Kane, or both. Odd, that. TEXAS KELLY: *Voodoo*? WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? CRIMEFIGHTER: Worst angles, gee a lot of Smackdown nominees...which shows how far that brand has fallen, or how greatly sabatoged the brand has been. The worst of the bunch is the attempted murder of Paul Bearer...a LOT of logic is thrown out the window on THAT one! The Keystone Cops would had done a better job stopping that crime! WWE creative has a lot of retards on their staff! SCOTT CHRIST: Paul Bearer, cemented in wrestling history - bahahahaha, oh. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Worst Organization Award Description: To be given to the organization/promotion that has the worst product. This is the organization whose TV and house shows you wouldn't even think of attending. Probably not even as a freebie. Previous Winners: 1990: WWF / AWA (tie) 1991: WCW 1992: WWF 1993: WCW 1994: WCW 1995: WCW 1996: AWF 1997: WCW 1998: WCW 1999: WCW 2000: WCW 2001: WCW 2002: XPW 2003: XPW **2004**: TNA 34 first place votes 23 second place votes 19 third place votes 11 7 1 78 TNA 8 3 2 53 WWE 3 0 3 21 AAA 1 1 3 14 ROH 2 1 0 13 Intergalactic Wrestling Federation 1 2 1 13 Capitol City Championship Wrestling 1 1 2 12 Future Legends of Wrestling 1 2 0 11 New Japan Pro Wrestling 1 1 1 10 Steel Domain Wrestling 1 1 0 8 Mid-Florida Wrestling 0 2 0 6 3PW 1 0 0 5 PWG 1 0 0 5 MLW 1 0 0 5 IWA Japan 1 0 0 5 Combat Zone Wrestling 0 1 1 5 H2W 0 0 2 4 CZW 0 1 0 3 NOAH 0 0 1 2 Midwest Powerhouse Wrestling 0 0 1 2 IWA Puerto Rico REJECTED 0 0 1 Duplicated votes ALLAN J. BENSON: I'm sure there's worse feds, but for what I've seen, I'd rate TNA worse than WWE based on production and booking. MATT HOCKING: TNA is the worst promotion, easily. While the WWE wanders aimlessly off course at times, TNA seems to be completely clueless. They've got such a limited fan base and mainstay talent roster, they can't afford to slight their fans in any area. They don't want Jarrett as champion, they like crazy spotty X-Division matches, but instead of making the few fans they do have happy and building from their, they continue to throw crap at the wall to see what sticks, which can work for the WWE because it's so big and has such a good history with its fans, TNA doesn't have that. They need to build that.. CRIMEFIGHTER: My votes are all indy feds that I've been to. I voted for Intergalatic last year cause they put on one of the crappiest shows I had ever seen at the Illinois State Fair, well they topped themselves with an even CRAPPIER show this year. This is a group that is more qualified to manufacture Kraft cheese than book a wrestling show. CCCW is a fed in my town, it's pretty much an example of it's become TOO EASY to start up an independent fed and run a show, not necessarily a good one. The last one, Midwest Powerhouse, that fed is the home of Randy Orton's dad, and their booking decisions leave a lot to be desired and they absolutely do not want to hear any crititism of it. The last straw came when MPW pulled all its talent from an NMW show for no apparent reason. SCOTT CHRIST: TNA wins with ease here as they continued to hopelessly spiral down the tubes, from cancelled big PPV with Hogan to having a three-hour turd almost a year later main evented by Jeff Hardy, with the draw being Hall and Nash. WWE in second, H2 in third. RYAN FAULCONER: The first two places go to MLW and H2W for being spectacular failures. Third spot goes to WWE for continuing to do what they do best....whether the fans want it or not. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Worst TV Show Award Description: To be given to what is on average the worst wrestling TV show. In 1994, TV shows and major shows were given separate award categories. Previous Winners: 1991: 07/07/91: WCW Great American Bash 1992: 12/03/91: WWF This Tuesday In Texas 1993: 04/04/93: WWF WrestleMania IX 1994: WCW World Wide 1995: WWF Mania 1996: AWF Warriors of Wrestling 1997: WWF LiveWire 1998: WCW Worldwide 1999: WCW Thunder 2000: WCW Thunder 2001: (tie) WWF Excess / WCW Thunder 2002: WWF Excess 2003: WWE RAW **2004**: The WWE Experience 39 first place votes 34 second place votes 29 third place votes 17 5 3 106 WWE Experience 9 4 6 69 WWE Smackdown 0 11 4 41 WWE Heat 4 0 6 32 TNA Wrestling Impact! 3 3 2 28 TNA Xplosion 2 3 4 27 WWE Velocity 1 4 1 19 WWE RAW 2 1 0 13 SDW weekly TV 1 2 0 11 AAA/LLL weekly TV 0 1 1 5 WWE Confidential 0 0 1 2 WWE The Bottom Line 0 0 1 2 WWE Afterburn ALLAN J. BENSON: WWE Experience is one of the worst recap shows I've ever had the misfortune to bear witness to. Heat and Velocity don't even have decent jobber matches anymore, from what I've seen. The WWE needs to give its b-shows a makeover _desperately_. JOHN C.: Does anybody watch WWE Experience? I don't know of anybody. I miss Confidential, actually. Smackdown was downright horrible at times this year. CRIMEFIGHTER: Well, Smackdown used to be the best TV show, after the draft lottery, it became the worst TV show. I have no interest in recap shows. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Worst Major Show Award Description: To be given to the worst major event. This could be a pay-per-view, a TV special, or any big arena event. In 1994, TV shows and major shows were given separate award categories. Previous Winners: 1991: 07/07/91: WCW Great American Bash 1992: 12/03/91: WWF This Tuesday In Texas 1993: 04/04/93: WWF WrestleMania IX 1994: 06/19/94: WWF King of the Ring 1995: 03/19/95: WCW Uncensored 1996: 03/24/96: WCW Uncensored 1997: 01/25/97: NWO Souled Out 1998: 08/08/98: WCW Road Wild 1999: 10/10/99: Heroes of Wrestling 2000: 10/29/00: WCW Halloween Havoc 2001: 01/14/01: WCW Sin 2002: 06/23/02: WWE King of the Ring 2003: 06/15/03: WWE Bad Blood / 05/19/03: WWE Judgment Day (tie) **2004**: 06/27/04: WWE Great American Bash 34 first place votes 32 second place votes 29 third place votes 16 7 5 111 06/27/04 WWE Great American Bash 5 13 8 80 05/16/04 WWE Judgment Day 6 3 7 53 10/19/04 WWE Taboo Tuesday 2 1 2 17 12/14/03 WWE Armageddon 1 0 4 13 10/03/04 WWE No Mercy 1 1 1 10 05/03/04 New Japan Tokyo Dome 1 1 0 8 11/16/03 WWE Survivor Series 0 2 1 8 09/12/04 WWE Unforgiven 1 0 0 5 08/15/04 WWE SummerSlam 1 0 0 5 02/22/04 PWG Taste the Radness 0 1 1 5 02/15/04 WWE No Way Out 0 1 0 3 06/13/04 WWE Bad Blood 0 1 0 3 04/23/04 ROH Reborn: Stage I 0 1 0 3 04/18/04 WWE Backlash ALLAN J. BENSON: I've seen none of these, so I cannot vote for this category. SYDNEY BROWN: Seeing as there were only four worst show nominees, I'm rather curious if anyone actually bothered to BUY three bad shows this year, since deep down, we all kinda knew what shows would be good, and what would be horrible. JOHN C.: The three Smackdown PPVs following WM20 take the title here with Judgment Day beating out the Great American Bash only because GAB had a good cruiserweight title match to salvage it somewhat. I'm still yelling "REFUND" from paying for those shows. CRIMEFIGHTER: Why only four nominees for this category??? Least I found a fifth in Armageddon. SCOTT CHRIST: Armageddon featured a putrid main event and absolutely nothing on the undercard to save it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Worst Promotional Move Award Description: To be given to the worst move made by a promotion this past year. This could include giving somebody a push, demoting someone, firing someone hiring someone, or anything of a promotional nature. Previous Winners: 1991: WCW loses Ric Flair 1992: WCW bans off the top rope moves under Bill Watts 1993: WCW tapes 13 weeks of TV at one time in Orlando, Fla. 1994: WCW lets Hulk Hogan control his scenarios 1995: WCW gives Hulk Hogan too much control 1996: WWF lets Scott Hall and/or Kevin Nash go 1997: Sting doesn't wrestle for the entire year 1998: WCW sues Ric Flair, causing nearly five month absence from television 1999: (Tie) WCW lets big names go / WCW signs musical acts for Nitro 2000: WCW gives Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko, and Saturn requested releases 2001: WWF botches seemingly surefire WWF/WCW "interpromotional" storyline 2002: WWE airs simulated necrophilia in attempt to foster controvery 2003: WWE pushes McMahons, announcers rather then pushing wrestlers **2004**: WWE runs Diva Search during multiple segments of many weeks of RAW 51 first place votes 51 second place votes 51 third place votes 7 6 3 59 WWE runs $250,000 Diva Search 7 2 0 41 ROH's Rob Feinstein attempts to meet chatroom teenager 5 1 2 32 WWE storylines continue to ignore logic 3 3 3 30 WWE books John Bradshaw Layfield to WWE Championship 4 3 0 29 WWE books Triple H back to World Championship 1 4 6 29 TNA continues to book Jeff Jarrett as NWA Champion 3 4 0 27 WWE books Randy Orton/Evolution split too quickly 2 3 3 25 Smackdown trades Triple H back to RAW after lottery 2 1 6 25 WWE schedules multiple PPv. in same month 2 3 1 21 WWE Creative "has nothing" for any wrestlers with talent 1 4 1 19 WWE lets Pat Patterson walk 3 1 0 18 WWE continues to not utilize Paul Heyman in creative 1 3 2 18 WWE books Hardcore Holly to PPV match for WWE Championship 2 1 2 17 WWE sabotages Smackdown to make RAW "flagship" show 1 1 4 16 WWE books Cruiserweight titles for Jacqueline, Chavo Classic 1 1 2 12 WWE books Eddie Guerrero to losing feuds after WrestleMania 1 1 0 8 WWE continues transition away from wrestling 1 0 1 7 WWE names John Laurinaitis head of Talent Relations 1 0 1 7 WWE buries Goldberg 1 0 1 7 Draft lottery breaks up World's Greatest Tag Team 0 1 2 7 WWE runs Tough Enough 4 during Smackdown 0 1 2 7 TNA switches Impact! to squash match format 1 0 0 5 WWE brings in Nick Dinsmore as Eugene 1 0 0 5 TNA gives up PG-13 style show, becomes sanitized by Universal 0 0 2 4 New Japan puts IWGP title on Kazuyuki Fujita 0 1 0 3 WWE names Theodore Long Smackdown GM 0 1 0 3 WWE makes Kurt Angle general manager of Smackdown 0 1 0 3 TNA switches to six-sided ring 0 1 0 3 TNA overhypes Jeff Hardy as contender for NWA title 0 1 0 3 TNA brings in Randy Savage without written aggreement 0 1 0 3 Promoter of World Wrestling Zone Chicago allows his 12-year old son to wrestle professionally 0 1 0 3 New Japan puts IWGP title on Bob Sapp 0 0 1 2 WWE shoves Edge down the throats of the fans as a babyface 0 0 1 2 WWE puts US title on Carlito in debut 0 0 1 2 WWE decides to get into the movie business 0 0 1 2 WWE cuts off Rene Dupree as a singles wrestler 0 0 1 2 WWE continues to operate with split brands 0 0 1 2 TNA runs Hulk Hogan angle without having him under contract 0 0 1 2 TNA moves emphasis away from X Division HACK-MAN: Worst Promotional Move was another that was hard to limit to 3. I wanted to include Feinstein getting busted, JBL getting pushed to the main event too early, and WWE continues to not utilize Paul Heyman in creative, but went with 1)WWE Creative "has nothing" for any of the wrestlers with talent, 2) TNA continues to book Jeff Jarrett as NWA Champion, 3)TNA moves emphasis away from X Division. ALLAN J. BENSON: This was a pretty easy one. The WWE just continues to make _awful_ business and creative decisions and thus continues not to live up to its own potential. While that owner who let his 12 year old kid wrestle professionally sounds like a complete moron, he owns a regional indy fed. The WWE, as the #1 fed in North America, should simply know better than to make all the inane mistakes it has been making the last year. And that Feinstein thing, while disgusting, I don't think it was a ROH business decision. NATRBOY72: 1) WWE having Eddie Guerrero lose every major tv and ppv match for months after Mania totally flattened him out before he might developed into a draw who could have helped turn business around. 2) The less said about the WWE Diva Search the better as it was the worst waste of tv time in years - at least until the new Tough Enough. Did they really do the same thing with the bikinis 6-7 weeks in a row? 3) TNA switching Impact to a mostly squash match format was totally outdated and stupid in today's wrestling landscape SYDNEY BROWN: No matter what happens with Ring of Honor, it's unfortunately going to have the black eye of Feinstein from here on. YNAE316: WWE booking of Orton and Evolution's split was the worst promotional move of 2004. I agree, Orton SHOULD be the future of WWE. He eventually needed to be split from Evolution but as I spoke to earlier, it was done way to soon and could have been done much better. I would like to contrast Orton's main event push with that of another 3rd generation star who ALSO had an initial hard time connecting with the crowd. The Rock, Rocky Maivia, was ALSO put into a stable, the Nation of Domination, after a failed babyface push. Maivia got over in the Nation and then USURPED control from it's leader Farooq and became a MEGA-HEEL and eventually turned into a MEGA-FACE which launced a Hollywood career for him and status as a cultural icon. Contrast this with Orton. Orton failed as a babyface in his initial push. Turned heel and joined Evolution. He GOT OVER as a upper mid-card heel with solid work against Mick Foley and Shawn Michaels. He gets a FLUKE WIN over Benoit for the belt out of nowhere and then is kicked out of Evolution. He slooooowly languishes as the supposed top babyface in a battle with Benoit and Jericho for title of "Top Face" while his "feud" with Evolution sputters with little heat. Yes, Orton does get some pops and the RKO chants are pretty over. It's not as mega over as a guy like Steve Austin was after HIS face turn. Orton's only over by default though and still is in a battle for #1 face with Jericho and Benoit who both still consistently get more pops than Orton. Bottom Line: Orton is NOT as over as the top face SHOULD be. The reason for this is hot shot booking. This angle COULD have been so much more had they built it up better and waited. I'd say BATISTA currently has a bit more energy going into an eventual turn on Triple H NOW then Orton ever did. WWE's putting the belt on Bradshaw was the SECOND worst promotional move of 2004. Most would agree that Bradshaw has NEVER been main event material. He's always been a decent promo but never main event caliber. His ringwork is sooooo not main event level. It boggles me that they even seriously thought he was championship material. His abysmal matches and PPV buyrates show he is NOT main event material. Vince, what WERE you thinking? HSB: It was very hard to only pick 3 choices for ballot #45! CHAK: #1-Triple H should not be World Champion for at least a year. He should not even fight for the belt for at least 6 months. Period. There are plenty of talented wrestlers on Raw that deserve the spotlight. #2-Pat Patterson was "allowed" to walk because he criticized Triple H. He should have been listened to and given a medal. #3-Triple H should have stayed on Smackdown! and just made an already bad show unwatchable. Raw might have actually been good. Or, the guys that SHOULD be main eventing on Raw (Jericho, Benoit, Orton, etc.) should have gone to Smackdown! in the trade. JOHN C.: JBL as World Champion is definitely the worst. Smackdown went from being the show to watch to every week to being the show you shouldn't watch every week. It's all thanks to Vince for booking JBL in that spot. At least he gives good stock tips though, right Vince? Diva Search is second. What a clusterfuck that was. The HHH trade is third because it was just another excuse to feed the ego of a man whose ego is already too big and has no signs of getting smaller. The draft lottery was good otherwise. CHRISTOPHER SHEA: Impact might actually have gotten me interested in TNA again, even though it airs midnight Saturdays in these parts -- if I wanted to tune in to see one meaningless squash after another. CRIMEFIGHTER: Boy the worst promo move was a tough choice, cause there were a LOT of bad moves made this year. But when Vince McMahon got mad cause Smackdown got a higher rating than RAW did one week, oh did that demonstrate the utter stupidity of how he's been running WWE lately. Supposedly it's only 30% of the entire WWE viewership that watch both brands. No matter how you slice is, that is a DISASTER. That is HURTING THE PROMOTION BADLY! The highest rated RAW episode was when Smackdown was there for the draft lottery, and THAT illustrates why the split brands need to be combined now. Cause buyrates for PPVs are dropping to record low levels, house show attendance is dropping to the levels of what a good indy fed pulls in on their best nights, yet Vince wants to keep those split brands despite how stale the matchups have gotten. Being from Illinois, I have to throw in an indy vote to WWZ Chicago for allowing a 12 year old to wrestle a match against a 15 year old as a professional. NOTE: On that one, I am aware a number of 14-18 year olds formed a company in the late 80s and ran for five years. Isn't something I recommend kids to be doing before they're allowed to drive. SCOTT CHRIST: Rob Feinstein trying to pick up underage hotties on the internet was just a bad idea all around. RYAN FAULCONER: New Japan risked the company's top title not once but TWICE by putting it on shoot fighters It came back to bite them not once but TWICE. Shame on them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- And now, the 'netter suggested awards... Wrestler most likely to find a mysterious orb from space and make a conscious decision to dissipate himself across the planet thereby bringing love, understanding, and tolerance to all of humanity: Rico Best Female: 1. Trish Stratus 2. Victoria 3. Stacy Keibler Best Cameos: 1. The Rock 2. Mick Foley 3. Vince McMahon Best DVD (Non-PPV): 1. The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection (WWE) 2. Mick Foley's Greatest Hits and Misses (WWE) 3. Best of AJ Styles (NWA-TNA) Best Surprise 1.Rock comes back after Coach browbeats Eugene into almost quitting. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- That's all folks - thanks for reading!