DRAFT 2023 Defunct WON Awards
Awarding only the defunct Awards from WON
Prologue
WON has had many different awards throughout its history, as a bit I decided to run two surveys to see what would win these dead awards for 2023 giving you all the top 3ish. I will also be writing about why I think these awards went defunct and give my opinion on who I would vote for
*= equals who I would vote for, will act as a tiebreaker, think of it like a half point
The Awards
Most Impressive Wrestler
This award kind of still exists today as its spiritual successor (The Most Outstanding Wrestler) started in 1986, the year after this award was retired. Why this is considered a dead award and not a name change perplexes me. The Best Pro Wrestling DVD/Streaming Documentary award was previously just The Best Pro Wrestling DVD award and past winners include match collections that aren’t documentaries, yet that is considered one ongoing award that just had its name and criteria changed. Wrestling is stupid.
Bryan Danielson (3)
El Hijo Del Vikingo (2)
GUNTHER (1)(*)
This is probably the tightest race of the whole poll, a bunch of guys got just one vote, too many to mention. I voted for Gunther because what is most impressive to me is the fact he has been able to genuinely great pro wrestling happen on WWE Raw, that is insane
Most Washed Up Wrestler
This one is just mean lol. I guess this award was gotten rid of because as Dave himself notes, the Observer is very popular in the industry. Can you imagine paying for a monthly newsletter just to learn everyone is calling you washed? That’s kinda fucked up
Chris Jericho (7)
Kota Ibushi (3)(*)
Shit-ton of people (1)
Fuck Chris Jericho lmao, get owned. I voted for Ibushi because to be washed you had to at some point be good and while I have never been big on Jericho, Ibushi was at one point probably the best in the world
Strongest Wrestler
This award is weird because theoretically there is an objective answer but we don’t have the information to know it. Hypothetically you could organize a strong man event among all the major promotions to determine this but that would never happen because a, get all major promotions to work together would be a nightmare and b, why the hell would a promotion want to expose the shoot strength of their talent in an industry built on kayfabe. Imagine if someone like Braun Strowman had a bad showing in this hypothetical cross promotion strongman competition, it would completely kill his gimmick. Ultimately, this award is just a weird guessing game.
Powerhouse Hobbs (5)(*)
Claudio Castagnoli (3)
Omos / Brock Lesnar (2)
HE BREAKS BACKS
Best Three-Man Team
I’m honestly shocked this award hasn’t been brought back as AEW and NJPW now both have trios titles, not to mention the prevalence of trios wrestling in Mexico. This award existed for one year in 1983 and went to the Freebirds. Of all the awards in this list, I think this one has the best chance of coming back.
CMFTR (10)(*)
House Of Black (4)
BCC / Best Friends (1)
There were no votes cast for either the current AEW trios champions which I think sums up the state of those belts well.
Most Unimproved
Once again this award’s scrapping could be blamed on its cruelty but also, it is kind of a dumb award. I get the idea to have an opposite of the Most Improved award but I’m not sure that is what an unimproved award does. Is it meant for wrestlers who have gotten worse over the past year, wrestlers who haven’t improved at the pace previously expected, or just wrestlers who are done growing? I mean, RUSH hasn’t exactly improved this year but that is because he is already one of the best in the world. Would it really be fair to give someone a negative award simply for already being great?
Lexis King (4)
Austin Theory (3)
MJF (2)(*)
Seeing WWE fans hype up Pillman Jr only for him to bomb all over again was hilarious. I voted for MJF because if this is meant to be an opposite to the most improved award, he is someone is significantly worse than they were by the end of last year
Most Obnoxious
Again, I think this one was disregarded just for being mean. I’m really glad this wasn’t isn’t around today god knows how much observer readers like to get on twitter to piss and moan whenever someone in AEW dares to suggest they get a better position on the card.
Young Bucks (4)(*)
MJF / Seth Rollins (3)
Sammy Guevara (2)
Editors Note: There was one vote for just Matt Jackson that I decided to count as a vote for the Young Bucks, they would have one anyway due to the tiebreaker but technically they got 3 votes and Matt Jackson got 1
This is expected. I like that MJF and Seth Rollins are grouped together because MJF’s current direction is basically a shot for shot remake of how 2019 Seth Rollins squandered all his goodwill.
Best Babyface
This award was combined with the next award (Best Heel) to become the modern Best Box Office award. This happened in 1997 just as major wrestling companies began blurring the lines between heel and face more and more so I get why Dave decided to just combine them rather than try to define what is ultimately an arbitrary distinction. Still I think something is lost in making the awards simply best box office as it boils down the winner to just drawing power. Where as Best Face and Best Heel imply that the winner is the wrestler who is able to bring out the most emotion in you, whether negative or positive.
Cody Rhodes (5)
Sami Zayn (4)(*)
CM Punk / Hangman Page (3)
Hey look, another funny pairing
Best Heel
See Above
Christian Cage (6)(*)
Swerve Strickland (4)
Samoa Joe (3)
Father of the Year Baby
Biggest Shock of the Year
Going through the history of this award it is easy to see why it was gotten rid of. What counts as a shock is so broad that the winners range from genuine heartbreaking tragedies to just booking decisions that weren’t expected (An issue that I have with the still ongoing Worst Promotional Tactic award
CM Punk being fired (7)(*)
Cody failing to finish the story (2)
CM Punk being fired is also the dumbest decision of the year.
Hardest Worker
Like the Strongest Wrestler award, this one relies on information that fans simply do not have access too. Is it just who had the most matches in the year? In that case just check cagematch. Should matches count for more if they are good? Who determines what is good? Does a good match necessarily mean the participants worked hard? If a wrestler has additional backstage roles such as producer or booker, do they work harder than people who don’t? Ultimately this is an award that’s criteria is too dumb to try and make work.
Cody Rhodes (3)(*)
Another incredibly close category, a bunch of people with one or two votes, too many too name
Manager of the Year
Now a days managers are lumped into the much more generic “Best Non-Wrestler” which also includes Authority figure type roles such as Vince McMahon and Dario Cueto. Still though, this award ended in 1996 and Best Non-Wrestler didn’t start until 1999, Did 1997 and 1998 just have no good non-wrestlers worth giving an award too?
Prince Nana (12)(*)
Paul Heyman (3)
First category I would think isn’t even close and one I am sure will stay the same throughout the year. As someone who is doing an ROH rewatch I am loving the Nana-renaissance. A few other people got one vote including Ace Steel and AJ Lee, one person just wrote “Not Don Callis”.
Best Color Commentator
Again, another award where the participants now go for a more all encompassing award of Best Television Announcer. Interestingly however, this award is actually younger than its generic counterpart and ran along side it for many years. Unlike most of the other awards that have simply been absorbed into broader categories, I actually don’t think this award needs to come back. For one, I don’t think there is much good tv commentary in wrestling so why reward them. Secondly, as three man booths now dominate modern television wrestling, the distinction between play by play and color is becoming harder to determine. For instance, Tony Schiavone seems to change roles on a segment to segment basis.
Nigel McGuinness (7)(*)
Taz (4)
Caprice Coleman (3)
This one was closer than I expected, I thought Nigel was a lock. This one might change before the end of the year
Reader’s Favorite Wrestler
Like Best Heel/Face I’m gonna combine my commentary on this award and its counterpart (Reader’s Least Favorite Wrestler) into one paragraph. I think these awards dismissal is the most logical. Since wrestling is ultimately subjective, there isn’t really a meaningful difference between someone’s favorite and least favorite wrestler, and who they think the best and worst wrestler is. Although Dave has previously claimed that he can objectively determine the quality of wrestling, he at least seems to understand that his readers think wrestling is subjective.
CM Punk (12)(*)
Everyone else only got one vote, Best in the Fucking World Baby
Reader’s Least Favorite Wrestler
See above
Chris Jericho (5)(*)
MJF (4)
Jack Perry / Young Bucks (2)
Editors Note: Again, a vote was cast for just Matt Jackson and I counted it for the Bucks as a whole
Yeah Jericho sucks.
Worst Wrestler
Another award dismissed for meanness, but still I think this one should come back it would be funny.
Chris Jericho (3)
Lexis King / MJF (2)
Tyrus (1)(*)
A few other people got ones but tie-breaker gives it to Tyrus because my God, he is just impossible to watch.
Worst Tag Team
Meanness, I am getting tired of repeating myself. Why did I do this bit?
Young Bucks (14)
Brochachos / Golden Jets (2)
Hardy Boys (1)(*)
The Outcast and Chaos Project? (Aren’t they broken up) also got noms but man, the Hardy’s fucking suck.
Worst Manager
Since I don’t anyone is reading these little commentaries since they are getting repetitive I’m gonna admit something embarrassing. The first boy I had a crush on was Derrick Bateman
Don Callis (13)(*)
Brandon Cutler (3)
Few other noms that got one vote. Most funny to me as that both Adam Cole and MJF got nominated for managing each other lmao.
Worst on Interviews
I lied about the Derrick Bateman thing.
Jack Perry (5)(*)
Young Bucks (5)
MJF (3)
I gave Jack Perry the tie breaker because the dude is infamous for throwing up before every promo. Also it is really funny to see MJF nominated because he won Best on Interviews last year
Most Embarrassing Wrestler
This time the issue doesn’t seem to just be meanness but also vagueness!!! Should this be awarded to wrestlers who have embarrassed themselves, embarrassed others, or who make you embarrassed to be a fan?
MJF / Chris Jericho (3)
Lexis King (1)(*)
Another one with a lot of different names. Lexis King just makes me physically cringe so I gave him the boost. Man Jericho is really cleaning up here, hope he sees this
Worst Non-Wrestling Personality
God is dead and I killed him
Don Callis (6)
Tony Khan (2)
Ric Flair (1)(*)
Another one with a lot of people with one vote, I went with Flair because I hope he dies soon.
Conclusion
This was a dumb bit, but a fun one. Thanks for reading, please subscribe and like as well as follow me on twitter @AidanIsStrong. Sweet Dreams *gives you droopy nightcap*