2008:
MMA Fight of the Year: Cung Lee v. Frank Shamrock-Strikeforce
runner-up: Miguel Torres v. Maeda WEC
Top 10 Pro Wrestling Matches of the Year:
10. Low Ki v. Chris Hero, PWG 11/2/08
9. KENTA & Kenta Kobashi v. Kensuke Sasaki & Nakajima, NOAH 6/14/08
8. Jimmy Jacobs v. Austin Aries, ROH 11/8/09
7. Bryan Danielson v. Takeshi Morishima, ROH 12/27/08
6. Shawn Michaels v. Chris Jericho, WWE 7/20/08…to me, the best in their series.
5. Yuji Nagata v. Masato Tanaka, Zero-1 10/13/08
4. Nigel McGuiness v. Bryan Danielson, ROH 2/23/08
3. Roderick Strong v. Erik Stevens, FIP 2/16/08
2. Samoa Joe v. Kurt Angle, TNA 4/13/08
1. Kensuke Office v. Burning, SEM/KO 8/17/08
Wrestler of the Year: Nigel McGuinness, KENTA, Masato Tanaka, Shawn Michaels
Top 20 Matches from Japan from 2009:
1. KENTA vs. Nakajima, NOAH March 1st
2. KENTA vs Kotaro, NOAH January 25th …Kotaro brings the best heel work since, well, the KENTA-SUWA title match from a few years back.
3. KENTA & Shiozaki v. Sasaki & Nakajima, NOAH June 22nd
4. Kanemaru & Suzuki vs Jado & Gedo, NOAH October 3rd…Tremendous as they ditch the typical exchange of spectacular moves that is commonplace and opt for an old-school style babyface v. heel tag match. Gedo & Jado control Kanemaru for the 1st half of the match and beat him to a bloody mess. Suzuki’s great hot tag includes what is among the best spots of 2009, his setting up of the opposing duo to have opponent A powerbomb opponent B. So many of the stand-out matches today are great because of what’s done in the final minutes, but suffer from the 1st 2/3rds being almost meaningless. Here, I was considering this for my Top 20 by the half-way mark.
5. KENTA & Ishimori vs Ibushi & Aoki, NOAH July 12th...The 1st 2/3rds is what you would expect from these The Final stretch, however, is outstanding as Aoki frantically tries to survive the overwhelming offense of KENTA and continuously attempts an armbar submission. Meanwhile, Ibush and Ishimori are dynamite in their logical exchanges as Ishimori’s attempts to break up the arm bar submission attempts are constantly thwarted by an intercepting Ibushi. Finally, after several attempts, Aoki scores the upset submission victory over the ace of the Juniors division positioning himself as a future challenger.
6. Nakamura vs Ohtani, New Japan October 12th
7. Nakamura & Goto vs Misawa & Sugiura, New Japan January 4th
8. Tanahashi vs Sugiura, New Japan July 20th
9. Shingo vs Yamato, Dragon Gate January 23rd
10. MCMG vs Devitt & Taguchi, New Japan July 5th
11. Sugiura & Shiozaki vs Nakamura & Milano Collection AT, NOAH March 1st
12. Nakanishi vs Tanahashi, June 20th
13. Kanemoto vs Hayato, New Japan December 22nd
14. Takayama vs Kojima, All Japan September 26th ….FANTASTIC. Kojima’s selling is magnificent on several levels. This lacks that brief, uber-stiff strike exchange at the tail end of Takayama-Suwama, but aside from that it’s far superior.
15. Tanahashi vs Nakamura, New Japan February 15th
16. Ibushi & Omega vs Dino & Yoshihiko, DDT May 4
17. KENTA vs Nakajima, Kensuke Office February 11th
18. Takayama vs Sugiura, NOAH October 3rd
19. KENTA vs. Akiyama, NOAH May 17
20. Takayama vs Suwama, All Japan August 30th
Top 45 Overall:
1. KENTA vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima, NOAH March 1st
2. KENTA vs Kotaro, NOAH January 25th
3. KENTA & Shiozaki v. Sasaki & Nakajima, NOAH June 22nd
4. Shawn Michaels v. Undertaker; WWE 4/5/09
5. Kanemaru & Suzuki vs Jado & Gedo, NOAH October 3rd
6. Mistico v. Negro Casas; CMLL 3/20/09
7. CM Punk v. Jeff Hardy-Steel Cage; WWE 8/28/09
8. Bryan Danielson v. Chris Hero; PWG 9/4/09
9. KENTA & Ishimori vs Ibushi & Aoki, NOAH July 12th
10. Nakamura vs Ohtani, New Japan October 12th
11. Nakamura & Goto vs Misawa & Sugiura, New Japan January 4th
12. Young Buck$ v. 2 Skinny Black Guys; PWG 7/31/09
13. Tanahashi vs Sugiura, New Japan July 20th
14. Shingo vs Yamato, Dragon Gate January 23rd
15. MCMG vs Devitt & Taguchi, New Japan July 5th
16. Sugiura & Shiozaki vs Nakamura & Milano Collection AT, NOAH March 1st
17. Nakanishi vs Tanahashi, June 20th
18. Kanemoto vs Hayato, New Japan December 22nd
19. Takayama vs Kojima, All Japan September 26th
20. Tanahashi vs Nakamura, New Japan February 15th
21. Ibushi & Omega vs Dino & Yoshihiko, DDT May 4
22. KENTA vs Nakajima, Kensuke Office February 11th
23. Takayama vs Sugiura, NOAH October 3rd
24. Negro Casas & Heavy Metal v. La Sombra & Volador Jr., CMLL 3/13/09
25. KENTA vs. Akiyama, NOAH May 17
26. Takayama vs Suwama, All Japan August 30th
27. Bryan Danielson v. Naruki Doi; DGUSA 9/6/09
28. Danielson & Strong v. Young Bucks; PWG 5/22/09
29. Liger & Kanemoto vs Kanemaru & Hirayanagi; NOAH 5/6/09
30. Hirooki Goto & Okada v. Takashi Sugiura & Aoki; NJ 5/5/09
31. Young Bucks v. Chuck Taylor & Kenny Omega; PWG 5/22/09
32. Tanahashi v. Tanaka; NJPW 8/15/09
33. American Wolves/Chris Hero v. KENTA/Steen/Generico; ROH 7/18/09
34. Bryan Danielson v. Roderick Strong; ROH on HDNET 11/16/09
35. Nagata v. Nakanishi; NJPW 8/11/09
36. Misawa & Shiozaki v. Sasaki & Morishima; NOAH 5/6/09
37. Kanemoto v. Devitt; NJPW BOSJ Final
38. Michinoku & Honda v. Dino & Yoshihiko; DDT 4/5/09
39. Milano v. Devitt; NJPW 5/30/09
40. KENTA v. Marvin; NOAH 6/4/09
41. Togo & Hidaka v. Taguchi & Devitt; NJPW/LOCK-UP April 12th
42. Jack Swagger v. Christian; WWE 2/24/09
43. Edge v. J.Hardy v. Kozlov v. Big Show v. Undertaker v. Triple H, WWE 2/15/09
44. Mysterio v. Edge v. Jericho v. Knox v. Kane v. Cena; WWE 2/15/09
45. Minoru Suzuki v. Kaz Hayashi; AJPW 4/12/09
2009 Wrestling Observer Ballot:
Lou Thesz/Ric Flair Award (Wrestler of the Year): Tanahashi
MMA Most Valuable Fighter: Brock Lesner
Most Outstanding Wrestler: KENTA
Best Box Office Draw: Brock Lesner & Mistico
Feud of the Year: Mistico-Negro Casas
Tag Team of the Year: American Wolves & Yoshihiro Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki
Most Improved: Davey Richards
Best on Interviews: Jim Cornette
Most Charismatic: Kenny Omega & Negro Casas
Bet Technical Wrestler: Negro Casas
Bruiser Brody Memorial Award (Best Brawler): Togi Makabe & Yuji Nagata
Best Flying Wrestler: The Young Bucks
Most Overrated: Triple H, John Cena, Tiger Mask IV
Most Underrated: Negro Casas & Extreme Tiger
Promotion of the Year: New Japan Pro Wrestling & Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
Best Weekly TV Show: WWE Smackdown
Most Outstanding Fighter: Anderson Silva
Match of the Year: KENTA vs. Nakajima, NOAH 3/1
Fight of the Year: Faber-Brown, WEC 6/7/09
Rookie of the Year: Frightmare
Best Non-Wrestler: Yoshihiko's handler
Best Television Announcer: Matt Stryker (I don't care for him, but he's good)
Worst Television Announcer: Michael Cole
Best Major Show: WEC 6/7/09, Dragon Gate-USA ‘Enter The Dragon’, PWG DDT4 5/22/09
