It was yet another year in pro wrestling where the business was either linear or down. In the US, WWE continued to plod through with mind-boggling booking, but WrestleMania saved buyrates from being alarmingly down over the year. In TNA, they continued their usual business strategy of booking for TV ratings and not really giving a damn about their PPV numbers. ROH left HDNet and went into syndication, but the jury is still out on how they are doing.
Our pro wrestling awards will be WWE heavy because it’s the number one promotion in the US. But Alan keeps us honest with his independent and international choices. Alan, Duan, myself, Big D from Superfriends Universe, Ryan Pike from Tough Talk MMA give us their picks for the awards.
Most Outstanding Wrestler Of The Year
Alan – Daisuke Sekimoto and Akira Tozawa
I’m sitting on the fence and splitting this between two men who’ve had years that were utterly incredible. Daisuke Sekimoto basically played the NWA touring world champion role in the first half of the year as wXw champ defending the belt in three different continents. Invaded All Japan with Yuji Okabayashi and won the All Asia titles in one of several classics with Soya & Sanada. Had a MOTYC in his home promotion of Big Japan when Soya and Hama came to try to take back the belts. Won the Fire Festival in Zero 1 in a great final with the usually average Kohei Sato. Has had countless other ****+ singles and tag matches.
Akira Tozawa shares the spoils by having two amazing half years. The 1st half was all in the US where he became a hero in PWG with an absurd amount of MOTYCs, and was the best guy on the DGUSA shows too. Then in the second half of the year he made his return to Japan and instantly was in the main event picture. His title match with Mochi was incredible.
Duan – Dolph Ziggler
A huge breakout year for Ziggler – always gave it absolutely everything inside the ring regardless of his place on the card. There’s not a more consistent performer on the roster.
Ryan – CM Punk
Consistently delivered great promos and delivered great performances in the ring at the right times.
Big D – Daniel Bryan and CM Punk
Despite the storyline going from fascinating to lame WWE garbage, CM Punk managed to completely reinvigorate his career and for the first time became a super-over top babyface. Bryan had good matches up and down the card with guys of all shapes and sizes from Sin Cara to Mark Henry. He won Money in the Bank. He does tons of jobs and doesn’t even complain about it, then ends the year as World Champ. The cream rises to the top.
GG – Dolph Ziggler
He was my choice last year for who I expected big things from in 2011. And even throughout horrendous booking, I think he was the brightest star. For one, I looked forward most to his matches on every PPV and TV taping. Secondly, his selling has become Mr. Perfect-like, taking athletic bumps, and really selling the hell out of the beating he’s taking. Thirdly, I’m not sure there’s a better athlete in the company and if they don’t turn him loose in 2012, it will boggle my mind.
The best match I’ve seen so far this year, an absolute belter for All Japan’s junior title. Minoru and Kaz Hayashi, two of the smoothest, most gifted pro wrestlers of our generation tear it down in Korakuen Hall in a match filled with fluid technical wrestling, beautiful strikes, elaborate counters, bigtime nearfalls all building to a dramatic finish. Enjoy!!!
Now this is an interesting kettle of fish. Everybody I’m sure knows the story of what was the All Japan of the 90′s basically turning into NOAH, and leaving a few remnants to scrape together some semblance of a promotion with guys from all corners of the map. Then of course, Keiji Muto jumped from New Japan and took over as president of the new AJPW. Operating on a small, near indy, scale – modern day All Japan has a unique feel to it modelled after Muto’s “ProWres Love” ideals. Through a combination of booking which gets the most out of a thin roster, and the hard work of a promising crop of young wrestlers, this fed has continued to produce an enjoyable product.
This year has been all about pushing the next generation. Suwama leads the way as the Triple Crown champion, having just won the belts in an incredible 40 minute war of attrition against Minoru Suzuki in Sumo Hall. He’s hot-headed, aggresive and a damn good wrestler. Most importantly he’s over with the crowd, and thus is the perfect man to lead the charge. The afformentioned Suzuki has formed an alliance with his former Pancrase rival from the 90′s, Masakatsu Funaki. These two have looked great in tag matches and complementeach other well with Suzuki’s off the charts charisma balanced out by the more stoic, intense Funaki. The near 15 year break from wrestling has allowed the former shootstyle star to come back in incredible shape with little mileage on his tyres.
Often teaming with Suwama was Masayuki Kono, another young star who just took a big step in his progression by turning full-on heel and being renamed KONO as part of the rudo unit “The Voodoo Murders”. He will be someone to keep an eye on for the next few months. As will the new All Asia Tag Champs – Seiya Sanada & Manabu Soya. These are the two youngest heavyweights on the roster and have looked great in recent times, particularly Sanada who has almost all the tools to be a huge star. With top class veterans like Taiyo Kea (who has been in great form this year) there to rub off on them, they can only get better.
The junior division has gone from one I wasn’t really interested in to one that is awesome. Kaz Hayashi has held the title for almost 20 months and has pretty much run out of challengers so it will be interesting to see where they go next as he tries to beat Masa Fuchi’s record for defenses. Underneath Kaz is the ever reliable Shuji Kondo and Minoru, youngsters KAI, Hiroshi Yamato (who is so so great) and BUSHI, and veterans like Super Crazy.
The only negative to All Japan is there propensity to bring in wrestlers who are less than stellar in the ring. Generally if you steer clear of the matches with Akebono, KENSO and the like, you’ll be fine. Some would lump Ryota Hama into this category but his incredible charisma and “lovability” overcomes any shortcomings he has between the ropes. A great great man!
I am extremely sad to report that one of my favorite, most bad-ass wrestlers of all time, “Dr. Death” Steve Williams has sadly lost his battle with cancer and passed away last night at the age of 49.
Steve Williams will be remembered by the hardcore fans for his series of incredible matches in All Japan Pro Wrestling during it’s heyday in the mid 90s. Traditional fans of the sport will remember his runs in ECW, teaming with the late Terry “Bam Bam” Gordy. In addition, he had a few shorter runs in WCW In 1992 and then again in 1999, and for the WWF as Jim Ross’ protege in 1998 and 1999.
We would like to send our condolences to the family of Steve Williams.
The only solace is that Doc and Gordy are suplexing each other around in Heaven…
At long last we conclude Misawa Week here on FightGameBlog. Today we present one of the biggest matches in Japanese Puro history. This match is regarded as one of Misawa’s finest moments.
On May 2nd, 1999, All Japan Pro Wrestling ran the world famous Tokyo Dome in a tribute to the founder of the company and it’s primary mentor – Shohei “Giant” Baba, who passed away earlier in the year. A sell-out crowd of 55,000 fans witnessed history in the making. In the highly anticipated main event, the most feared gaijin, perhaps of all time, Super Vader, would defend his AJPW Triple Crown Title. Vader was a feared monster in Japan and the fans had seen him throughout the years lay waste to their grandest heroes. In his debut, Vader annihilated Antonio Inoki in seconds, something that had never been done. Then in the mid 90s, Vader defeated Nobuhiko Takada to win the UWFI’s “Original Pro Wrestling World Title”. Vader was unbeatable. On this day, he faced Mitsuharu Misawa, the other hero. Misawa was competing for his unprecedented FIFTH AJPW Triple Crown Championship. Could Misawa fight for his fallen mentor, vanquish the beast, and bring the AJPW Triple Crown back into Japanese hands?
Today we present an awesome match from June 9th, 1995 in Budokan Hall. This is a tag team match for the AJPW All Asian Tag Team Titles as Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi defend against Akira Taue and Toshiaki Kawada. What I loved about this AJPW booking was how things would twist around quickly, and it always made sense. Misawa and Kawada were tag partners for most of 94, feuding with the old regime. Kawada and Taue were feuding since Taue was Baba’s storyline trainee and Kawada and Misawa were school friends. Soon after Misawa got successful, Kawada wanted a piece. So he joined up with his enemy to face Misawa and Kobashi. It wasn’t like a typical WWE “turn” where one guy went from being a good guy to a bad guy and did dastardly things – he just wanted gold and to get out of Misawa’s shadow. Thus, this match happened. This was 40 minutes of orgasmic work.
It was yet another year in pro wrestling where the business was either linear or down. In the US, WWE continued to plod through with mind-boggling booking, but WrestleMania saved buyrates from being alarmingly down over the year. In TNA, they continued their usual business strategy of booking for TV ratings and not really giving a damn about their PPV numbers. ROH left HDNet and went into syndication, but the jury is still out on how they are doing. 
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