Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards 2023

[Canadian Dragon]

LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD (WRESTLER OF THE YEAR)

1. Jon Moxley (498) 3,101
2. Roman Reigns (232) 2,216
3. Will Ospreay (105) 1,591

MIXED MARTIAL ARTS MOST VALUABLE

1. Isreal Adesanya (105) 866
2. Alexander Volkanovski (129) 825
3. Alex Pereira (57) 410

MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER

1. Will Ospreay (951) 4,807
2. Bryan Danielson (92) 1,286
3. Kazuchika Okada (9) 703

MOST OUTSTANDING FIGHTER OF THE YEAR

1. Alexander Volkanovski (225) 1,265
2. Alex Pereira (82) 663
3. Islam Makhachev (10) 482

TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR

1. FTR (782) 3,859
2. Mark & Jay Briscoe (54) 1,357
3. Young Bucks (38) 937

BEST ON INTERVIEWS

1. MJF (486) 2,984
2. Jon Moxley (152) 1,561
3. CM Punk (79) 961

PROMOTION OF THE YEAR

1. All Elite Wrestling (480) 3,270
2. Stardom (273) 1,561
3. World Wrestling Entertainment 1,848

BEST WEEKLY TV SHOW

1. AEW Dynamite (753) 4,020
2. WWE SmakcDown (104) 1,847
3. AEW Rampage 911

PRO WRESTLING MATCH OF THE YEAR

1. Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay 8/18 Tokyo (256) 2,016
2. FTR vs. The Briscoes 12/10 Arlington, TX (244) 1,824
3. Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay 1/5 Tokyo (104) 1,359

MMA FIGHT OF THE YEAR

Fight

1. Jiri Prochazka vs. Glover Teixeira 6/11 Kallang, Singapore (295) 1,583
2. Dustin Poirier vs. Michael Chandler 11/12 New York (18) 735
3. Khamzat Chimaev vs. Gilbert Burns 4/9 Jacksonville (16) 375

"CATEGORY B" AWARDS - WINNER

DETERMINED BY FIRST PLACE VOTES

UNITED STATES/CANADA MVP

1. JON MOXLEY 638
2. Roman Reigns 232 3.Chris Jericho 32

JAPANESE MVP

1. KAZUCHIKA OKADA 495
2. Will Ospreay 422
3. Syuri 125

MEXICO MVP

1. EL HIJO DEL VIKINGO 678
2. Mistico 79
3. Rey Fenix 50

EUROPE MVP

1. WILL OSPREAY 799
2. Michael Oku 95
3. Ricky Knight Jr. 39

HODGE AWARD/NON-HEAVYWEIGHT MVP

1. EL HIJO DEL VIKINGO 215
2. Darby Allin 164
3. El Desperado 124

WOMEN’S WRESTLING MVP

1. SYURI 455
2. Bianca Belair 201
3. Jamie Hayter 146

WOMEN’S MMA MVP

1. ZHANG WEILI 239
2. Amanda Nunes 62
3. Valentina Shevchenko 46

BEST BOX OFFICE DRAW

MMA

1. ISRAEL ADESANYA
2. Kamaru Usman
3. Nate Diaz

Pro Wrestling

1. ROMAN REIGNS
2. John Cena
3. C.M. Punk

FEUD OF THE YEAR

1. FTR VS. MARK & JAY BRISCOE 362
2. C.M. Punk vs. MJF 347
3. Cory Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins 34

MOST IMPROVED

1. THE ACCLAIMED 164
2. Mina Shirakawa 159
3. Jamie Hayter 97

MOST CHARISMATIC

1. MJF 272
2. Sami Zayn 126
3. Roman Reigns 102

BRYAN DANIELSON AWARD (BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER)

1. BRYAN DANIELSON 464
2. Zack Sabre Jr. 317
3. Daniel Garcia 30

BRUISER BRODY MEMORIAL AWARD (BEST BRAWLER)

1. JON MOXLEY 576
2. Tomohiro Ishii 134
3. Minoru Suzuki 75

BEST FLYING WRESTLER

1. EL HIJO DEL VIKINGO 472
2. Rey Fenix 351
3. Dante Martin 44

MOST OVERRATED

1. RONDA ROUSEY 159
2. Tyrus 145
3. Roman Reigns 112

MOST UNDERRATED

1. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA 114
2. Chad Gable 98
3. Ricochet 65

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

1. BRON BREAKKER 339
2. Hook 261
3. Logan Paul 152

BEST NON-WRESTLER

1. PAUL HEYMAN 384
2. William Regal 255 3, Don Callis 80

BEST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER

1. KEVIN KELLY 332
2. Excalibur 308
3. Ian Riccaboni 71

WORST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER

1. COREY GRAVES 191
2. Booker T 183
3. Jim Ross 157

BEST MAJOR WRESTLING SHOW

1. AEW/NJPW FORBIDDEN DOOR 6/26 CHICAGO 524
2. AEW Revolution 3/6 Orlando 136
3. WWE WrestleMania Night One 4/2 Arlington, TX 64

WORST MAJOR WRESTLING SHOW

1. WWE ROYAL RUMBLE 1/25 ST. LOUIS 311
2. WWE Elimination Chamber 2/19 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 129
3. GCW The Wrld 1/23 New York 112

BEST WRESTLING MANEUVER

1. WILL OSPREAY HIDDEN BLADE 117
2. Adam Page Buckshot lariat 96
3. Kenny Omega One Winged Angel 68

MOST DISGUSTING PROMOTIONAL TACTIC

1. WWE VINCE MCMAHON APPEARING ON TELEVISION FOR A CROWD POP AFTER SEXUAL MISCONDUCT ALLEGATIONS CAME OUT 704
2. WWE continues relationship with Saudi Arabia 110
3. Ric Flair’s last match 80

WORST TELEVISION SHOW

1. WWE RAW 415
2. WWE NXT 327
3. NWA Powerrr 98

WORST MATCH OF THE YEAR

1. PAT MCAFEE VS. VINCE MCMAHON 4/3 ARLINGTON, TX 435
2. Ric Flair & Andrade vs. Jeff Jarrett & Jay Lethal 7/31 Nashville 169
3. Ronda Rousey vs. Shotzi 1126 Boston 71

WORST FEUD OF THE YEAR

1. THE MIZ VS. DEXTER LUMIS 208
2. Ronda Rousey vs. Liv Morgan 76
3. Bray Wyatt vs. LA Knight 62

WORST PROMOTION OF THE YEAR

1. WWE 376
2. NWA 359
3. Control Your Narrative 81

BEST BOOKER

1. TONY KHAN 372
2. Rossy Ogawa 327
3. Paul Levesque 183

PROMOTER OF THE YEAR

1. TONY KHAN 415
2. Dana White 287
3. Rossy Ogawa 198

BEST GIMMICK

1. SAMI ZAYN 332
2. The Acclaimed 110
3. Danhausen 108

WORST GIMMICK

1. MAXIMUM MALE MODELS 119
2. Uncle Howdy 112 3, Kip Sabian 79

BEST PRO WRESTLING BOOK

1. BLOOD & FIRE BY BRIAN SOLOMON 152
2. There’s Just One Problem By Brian Gewirtz 114
3. Dynamite & Davey by Stephen Bell 58

BEST PRO WRESTLING DOCUMENTARY

1. TALES FROM THE TERRITORIES: LAWLER/KAUFMAN 71
2. Dangerous Breed: Crime, Cons, Cats, Teddy Hart 63
3. Tales from the Territories: Mid South 59

 

[Chris]

Most of the winners are pretty expected from the Observer base but some of those 2nd and 3rd places are actually really interesting

My main takeaway is NWA does not get enough hate as people seemed to have forgotten them when voting

Also Maximum Male Models rule but they've been way better the last few months, when LA Knight was with them and they were doing the stalling gimmick, I can see how it would win

 

[Canadian Dragon]

Ronda edging out Tyrus at most overated is harsh but fair lol

 

[Chris]

But Raw over Power and WWE over NWA for the worst is a joke lol Velvet also not even close to winning worst announcer lmao

 

[Canadian Dragon]

mostly because NO ONE even rated Tyrus lol

 

[Chris]

Corgan gonna be mad, he was really banking on winning these worst awards to continue pushing the narrative of internet trolls hating them lol

 

[Vegeta]

Ngl. The whole Sammy/Tay vs Scorpio Sky/ATT should’ve won worst feud of the year. Unless that was before the cut off period, then nvm. I’m almost sure it was after tho, given some of the stuff on here.

Byran winning his own award

 

[Canadian Dragon]

But Raw over Power and WWE over NWA for the worst is a joke lol Velvet also not even close to winning worst announcer lmao

2 things imo

1 - as you said, NWA is tucked away and forgotten
2 - I think you forget WWE was dogshit for 6 mo this year, the beginning of 2022 especially was shit and RAW was unwatchable until hunter came back

 

[Chris]

mostly because NO ONE even rated Tyrus lol

Thay award has been misnamed forever, its always voted on the criteria of "most overpushed" no one considers what people actually rate them as, it's actually infuriating lol underrated is the same way, Cesaro won that a lot bc he was underpushed...but no one rated him low

 

[Canadian Dragon]

Ngl. The whole Sammy/Tay vs Scorpio Sky/ATT should’ve won worst feud of the year. Unless that was before the cut off period, then nvm. I’m almost sure it was after tho, given some of the stuff on here.

Byran winning his own award

it did on other outlets for sure

 

[Chris]

Ngl. The whole Sammy/Tay vs Scorpio Sky/ATT should’ve won worst feud of the year. Unless that was before the cut off period, then nvm. I’m almost sure it was after tho, given some of the stuff on here.

Byran winning his own award

The timeline for these are actually correct now, it's January-December no weird cutoff

So yes it should have won lol

 

[Chris]

2 things imo

1 - as you said, NWA is tucked away and forgotten
2 - I think you forget WWE was dogshit for 6 mo this year, the beginning of 2022 especially was shit and RAW was unwatchable until hunter came back

Smackdown was worse than Raw before HHH took over IMO, both improved after, smackdown more so tho

 

[Chris]

it did on other outlets for sure

Including our own lmao

 

[Chris]

Also, I'm more than happy Ospreay was 3rd for WOTY but how awesome would it have been if Seth got that so the shield would have been top 3 lmao

 

[Canadian Dragon]

Smackdown was worse than Raw before HHH took over IMO, both improved after, smackdown more so tho

ya prob why, sdl ppl could argue is the best rasslin weekly. id disagree, but the argument is not laughable now n it used to be (0at its darkest it had like 3 mins of womens wrtestling in like 2 or 3 weeks)