Falls Count Anywhere

01-06-09

Because everybody has one.

Let’s start with what this year was: a hold-over. There was little in the way of big news in Pro Wrestling, but this was another big year for MMA. WrestleMania was a huge deal, but seldom did the WWE do anything that really made me stand up and notice. TNA continued to limp along, even though they put on some really good matches. There was nothing out of Japan that made big waves, the Spanish wrestling boom seems to be over and Italy’s dead too.

The WWE didn’t quite make a lot of money, but it did OK. There were no real new stars, though some really came close to making that level. There are fewer wrestlers working for a living wage now than in many, many years. That’s a shame.

The Trish Stratus Award for Woman of the Year (Last Year’s Winner: Gail Kim)
Gina Carano

Looks like a winner to us...

Yes, she’s the first MMA fighter to win the Trish Stratus Award, but she had a great year (including time as an American Gladiator) and she’s a legit draw and star. Second is Beth Phoenix, who’s not the biggest name in the Divas division at the moment (that’d be Kelly Kelly), but she’s the one who’s actually managed to make it seem like she knows what she’s doing and has lived a great gimmick.

Her bits with Santino are really fun, and there’s a lot going on for the Glamazon. I’m expecting better things out of her this year. Kelly Kelly is third and I’m going to say that Ms Chif of Shimmer is right there with her. Not a great year for the Knockouts in TNA, though both Awesome Kong and Karen Angle would have done better if programmed right.

Tag Team of the Year
(Last Year’s Winner: Rated RKO)
Beer Money
They haven’t been around all that long, but Robert Roode and James Storms are an awesome, and increasingly over, tag team. They hold the TNA Tag Tiles and are both pretty good. I’d say that they’re the best thing to come out of recent TNA booking. Not a great year for tag teams, but the second place goes to Miz and Morrison, who are a good team but are terribly booked a lot of the time and The Beautiful People take third.

Best on Interviews (Last Year’s Winner: Santino Morella)
Santino Morella
There is no question that this year was one of the better years for interviews, but the funniest guy and in a way the most effective was Santino. The Honky-o-Meter and his interviews were all great. I laugh every time I see him! It’s a gift. Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho are tied for second because the interviews they did as a part of their feuding were magnificent. I can’t say enough how good they were. The matches weren’t bad either. I’ll give third to Mick Foley. He’s done some good stuff recently.

Most Misused Wrestler (Last Year’s Winner: Samoa Joe)
MVP
Remember when MVP was the next big thing and Matt Hardy was just a stepping stone? Times, they are a changin’. It’s kind of a shame because the feud with Hardy made him into a pretty good worker, but he also got into the wrong people’s faces. I’m going to give second to John Cena, who came back too soon and it showed, and then his latest return was fairly well bumbled. Third goes to Shelton. Poor guy. CM Punk is right up there too.

The Lou Thesz Award for Good Wrestling (Last Year’s Winner: Bryan Danielson)
Bryan Danielson

It's all about the honor.

If he were in the WWE, and he did get a dark match win this year, he’d be a nobody who had great matches with the number 2 and 3 Good Wrestler, Evan Bourne and Shawn Michaels.

He’s the perfect RoH wrestler and I’m glad that he’s not gone to TNA yet. That’ll be a dark day, though I believe he was there once already. Of course, they were booking better back then…

Finisher of the Year
Go2Sleep
Whether it’s CM Punk’s version, or the original from KENTA in NOAH, it’s just an awesome move. The way he cracked Rey Misterio with it at Armageddon and everyone thought that he busted up his face good shows the impact people ascribe to it.

Rey Misterio’s forward Sunset Flip thing gets my second place. It’s impressive. Third goes to The Canadian Destroyer, though it’s kinda getting a little old and it’s seldom used for finishes anymore.

MMA Show of the Year (Last Year’s Winner: The Ultimate Fighter Finale)
The October EliteXC show
I thought this was the best show of the year. The fights were surprising, Gina Carano was hot, and the ending with Kimbo on the floor was perfect. It also ended up being the show that killed MMA on free TV, so it should be remembered. I’ll go with Shamrock vs. Cung Le in San Jose as the second place and the Fight for the Troops thing that UFC did at Fort Bragg as the third. That was a brutal and exciting show.

Wrestling Show of the Year (Last Year’s Winner: WrestleMania 23)
WrestleMania 24
It’s good. Really good. I’ve seen all the Manias and this was top 7 or so (WMs 3, 10, 20, 21 16 and 18 all top it) but it was a strong show with great storytelling and one of the most dramatic matches of all-time. The whole effect was to show that the WWE still knows how to build an event and deliver. I’m going to say that the NOAH show with the battle of partners, KENTA and Marifuji, comes in second as I really liked that show. Heatstroke 2008 from Ring of Honor was a great show and I’ll give it third. The WWE had some good shows in the fall and TNA usually had really good main events, but seldom did they produce up and down the card.

MMA Match of the Year (Last Year’s Winner: Frank Shamrock vs. Phil Boroni)
Frank Shamrock vs. Cung Le
A San Jose fight that was a success. The two of them put it all out there and Cung and Shamrock both came out of it all beat to hell. It was an impressive match and you can see that these are the best guys not working for UFC right now…well, if you add Fedor Emelianenko. The match was great, better than Brock vs. Couture, which takes second. I thought it was a great match, and it had drama in extreme. Thrid is a tough one, but I’ll go with Lawler vs. Smith from the first EliteXC show on CBS. A really strong fight that produced a good return match on the second EliteXC CBS show.

Wrestling Match of the Year (Last Year’s Winner: Morishima vs. Danielson, Ring of Honor)
Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania

Farewell, Nature Boy...

No other match this year, or possible in several years, had this level of drama. The match was really strong, with great effort from both guys, and they told an amazing story. This was Ric Flair being the Ric Flair of old, though not able to move as crisply. He busted out all of his classics, and even managed to hit a cross-body off the top without being thrown off. That was amazing. It’s a match that you can watch over and over, and I have. The scene of the finish is pure emotion. That’s the only match from this year that I’ll remember, honestly. There’s nothing else that comes close to the effect this match had.

Feud of the Year (Last Year’s Winner: Shamrock vs. Boroni)
Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels
They had a large hand in what got shown, and Chris and Shawn put together the kind of feud that you don’t see much anymore. It was easy to build heat off the angle with Whysper (Shawn’s wife Rebecca) getting decked by Jericho. It was a great angle and a very strong feud that I wish had gotten more time to play out. Second will go to Ric Flair vs. Time (a feud he only won in that final match) and then it’s the underrated Jeff Hardy vs. HHH feud.

MMA Fighter of the Year (Last Year’s Winner: Randy Couture)
Anderson The Spider Silva
I would have hated myself if I would have given this award to Georges St. Pierre, who had two great wins, but Anderson had three excellent outings against Cote, Dan Henderson and Jame Irvin. It’ll be harder next year because whoever wins between St. Pierrer and BJ Penn’ll probably be the front runner, as GSP and Penn are the second and third for this one. Carano and Lesnar are both right up there, too.

Wrestler of the Year (Last Year’s Winner: Morishima)
Jeff Hardy
It’s not impossible to think that Jeff Hardy could have been out of the WWE forever due to drug problems, or that he lost his home and his dog in a fire that really changed his life. Jeff is now WWE Champion and it shows. He’s a true star, massively over and has gone from the bottom to the top as a star at every level of the game. Shawn Michaels comes in second and Kurt Angle hangs in for third.

Chris Garcia