The 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards were released today. For the full list of winners, check out f4wonline.com
Overall, it was domination for Kenny Omega and New Japan Pro Wrestling across numerous categories, with a few surprises, and the end of lots of debates when faced with raw voting totals. This isn’t quite a column, just some things I gathered scanning over the list. Feel free to add in the comments.
Tomohiro Ishii has now won best brawler the last 5 years straight.
Zack Sabre Jr. has won best technical wrestler 5 years straight. The last winner of this award was Daniel Bryan who had won the award 9 years in a row.
Kenny Omega had more first place votes for Thesz/Flair Wrestler of the year (642) than the rest of the Top 10 had combined (525).
The Young Bucks have now won best tag team for the 5th straight year, the most of all time. Mitsuharu Misawa has won the award 4 times, with 3 different partners (Jun Akiyama x2, Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi) the next closest team is The Midnight Express with 3.
New Japan Pro Wrestling has won promotion of the year for the seventh straight year, breaking the record for most consecutive wins which was 6, previously held by the UFC from 2006-2011.
The average star rating for the top 10 matches this year is 5.42 (Dave)
Kenny Omega and Tomohiro Ishii were the only wrestlers to get votes in multiple regions. Omega finishing second in the US barely losing to AJ Styles, and first in Japan. Ishii finishing 4th in Japan, 6TH in Europe. Suzuki finished 10th in Europe.
Raw has won worst television show for five consecutive years.
It took Shawn Michaels 34 years to be part of the worst match of the year.
Gargano vs Ciampa is the first WWE feud to take home Feud of the year since John Cena vs CM Punk in 2011.
Baron Corbin (597) votes in Most Overrated, had 191 more votes than the rest of the Top 10 combined (406).
WWE was behind 5 of the 6 shows on Worst Major Show. AAA Triplemania was the only other show with votes.
Impact Wrestling ended their 11 year streak of Worst Major Promotion, with WWE winning the award. – Pointed out by Voices Of Wrestling.
GEDO has won best booker 7 out of the last 8 years, with Triple H/Ryan Ward winning in 2016.
9 Of 10 Worst Feuds of the year came from WWE. The other one was the Tongans ruining the G-1.
Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay and Hiroshi Tanahashi were the 5 men to have top 10 finishes in BOTH Wrestler Of The Year, and Most Outstanding Wrestler.
Charlotte vs Becky – Last Woman Standing was the highest ranking WWE main roster match.
AJ Styles and Johnny Gargano were gridlocked across several categories and were the top 2 WWE male performers this past year.
