This is the pro wrestling installment of our 2009 year end awards. Later in the week, we’ll give out awards in MMA and pro boxing.

Pro Wrestling

Wrestler Of The Year
Big D – Christopher Daniels

Consistent tremendous matches and great promos in a company which is usually ridiculous and proving that he belongs in the main event by having two match of the year candidates back to back makes Chris Daniels my pick for the Wrestler of 2009.

Alan – KENTA

Fairly simple reasoning. No other wrestler has entertained me as much as this man did before he got injured in October. An absolutely stunning year from not only my Wrestler Of The Year, but my Wrestler Of The Decade.

Duan – Chris Jericho

It was a blessing having Jericho on both shows for the last several months, and his series of matches with Mysterio earlier in the year was my favourite thing in WWE.

GG – Chris Jericho

He didn’t need any world title to be significant, was the most entertaining wrestler in the company so they stuck him on two shows, and single-handedly made the tag belts meaningful again.

Match Of The Year Continue Reading »

Part 1 of the 2009 Dr. Keith Present Christmas Party featuring Alan (of this site), Chris Hero, Rob Naylor and even Dr. Keith making his return.

Listen below.

Right click to download.

Topics covered include:
-ROH NYC PPV
-Hero in NOAH
-Ricky Marvin stories
-Teddy Hart impressions
-PWG

and more…

With DVDVR ballots due soon, here’s my top 20 puro matches for the year 2008:

1. Kensuke Office vs. Burning (8/17) (KO)
2. Speed Muscle vs. Shingo/BxB (1/15) (DG)
3. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kohei Suwama (4/9) (AJPW)
4. Mashimo/Madoka vs. Men’s Teioh/Shinobu (5/23) (BJW)
5. Nakanishi/Nagata vs. Ohtani/Tanaka (7/7) (NJPW)
6. Naomichi Marufuji vs. Shuji Kondo (11/3) (AJPW)
7. Briscoes vs. Ibushi/Nakajima (9/6) (NOAH)
8. Speed Muscle vs. Shingo/Dragon Kid (8/28)(DG)
9. Masato Yoshino vs. Dragon Kid (11/16) (DG)
10. Kobashi/Honda/Taniguchi vs. Marufuji/Sugiura/Morishima (2/21) (NOAH)
11. Nakajima/Sasaki vs. Akiyama/Rikio (4/27) (NOAH)
12. KENTA vs. Naomichi Marufuji (10/25) (NOAH)
13. Yugi Nagata vs. Masato Tanaka (10/13) (NJPW)
14. Masato Tanaka vs. Koji Kanemoto (4/13) (NJPW)
15. Shingo/BxB Hulk vs. KENTA/Ishimori (3/20) (DG)
16. Suzuki/Kanemaru vs. KENTA/Ishimori (12/7) (NOAH)
17. Naruki Doi vs. KENTA (5/5) (DG)
18. Doi/Tanisaki vs. Cyber Kong/YAMATO (11/16) (DG)
19. Kobashi/KENTA vs. Nakajima/Sasaki (6/14) (NOAH)
20. Suwama/Kondo vs. TenKoji (11/24) (AJPW)

I also did a top 20 for all of wrestling, but this was done under the Observer criteria (Dec2007-Nov2008)

Continue Reading »

Apologies for the unexpected hiatus from this, but we’re back rolling with the final 2 names announced…. oh wait what’s that…. they announced 3 names??? What? But that means there’s 17 guys in the tournament. How do you have a tourney with 17 guys? PWG have come up with a nice little way it seems.

TJ Perkins
The former “Puma” is known in SoCal wrestling for being the youngest veteran in the business. Still in his early 20′s, TJ has been working the best part of 10 years (he started in his early to mid teens). After being somewhat out of the limelight in 2006 and 2007, this year has been a big comeback year for Perkins. He turned heel and formed an extremely entertaining team with Hook Bomberry (their team name is TJ Hooker in a stroke of greatness). A motivated and focused TJ Perkins is a scary prospect because the dude has so much talent. It’ll be interesting to see how he fares in BOLA.

Bryan Danielson/Low Ki
Yes, the final entrant is TWO MEN. PWG Commissioner Of Wrestling, Dino Windwood and PWG Commissioner Of Food & Beverage, Excalibur couldn’t agree on who should have the last spot so both men are in. In the next column I’ll look at how this plays into the bracketing which was also announced in the last few days, but for now let’s talk a little about each guy. Low Ki is the current IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion and former PWG Heavyweight Champion. He spent most of the year on the sidelines with an injury which forced him to vacate the PWG belt, but now he’s back and based on recent New Japan shows, is looking as good as ever. Ki is without question a favourite to win the whole thing.

Danielson, of course, also fits the bill of favourite. I’d be here all day listing the credentials of “The Best In The World”, so I won’t bother. I’ll just say that looking at this lineup, there are a ton of great potential matchups for Dragon that we don’t usually get to see (cough Yoshino cough). Hopefully he goes deep in the tournament and we get to see him used to his fullest.

4 particpants named in the last two days:

“Slick” Nick Jackson
One half of “The Young Buck$” and the only half that isn’t getting married BOLA weekend, so “Slick” Nick is in the tourney. Hopefully he wrestles in a tux coming straight from the reception. Nick is a promising young wrestler with incredible high flying skills and he showed that he can do singles as well as tag when he had an enjoyable match with Brandon Bonham earlier this year. Coming of significant Dragon Gate experience this year, Nick is sure to be much improved and whilst not a favourite to go far, he could well have a memorable match (or two) over the weekend.

Roderick Strong
Another guy that I think everyone’s familiar with at this point. Roddy has yet to win a BOLA but he’s had two impressive showings – reaching the semi’s in 2006 and the final in 2007. He’s had a mixed year in ROH but in recent months he’s started to become more consistent putting together a string of very good matches. Strong always impresses in PWG though so he makes a great addition to the tourney. Hopefully he’s matched up with some smaller flyers because he excels as a base.

Joey Ryan
One of the PWG owners, Joey’s never made much of an impact in BOLA’s past. However he’s been on fire this year, having several great tags with Scott Lost, having one of the brawls of the year with Super Dragon, and of course inventing the most astounding move seen in decades – The Boobplex! Matchups will be key for Joey’s entertainment value this year. There are plenty of matches he could be in that would be tons of fun, but there are some that may not be as interesting.

Nigel McGuinness
The best singles wrestler of 2008, bar none. Nigel is perfect for a tournament like this as he knows how to go out there and have great singles matches with wrestlers of any ilk. We could see him matched up with some of the guys he’s torn the house down with already this year such as Aries, Generico or Strong; or we could see him in new matchups with the likes of Omega, Taylor or Yoshino. Either way, Nigel is sure to bring entertainment and credibility to this years BOLA.

Tomorrow we get the final names announced. Fingers crossed everybody! I WANT DANIELSON~!

Two names added today

Necro Butcher
COMING TO A BIG SCREEN NEAR YOU, is the latest entrant into BOLA, The Necro Butcher. Yes the man who has a significant role in the upcoming movie “The Wrestler”. Necro’s been a regular in PWG this year so it’s not surprising at all that he gets his third shot at the BOLA. He provided a memorable match filled with the craziest crap ever in 2006 against Super Dragon and last year decided to take a more technical approach, using a “picture perfect” O’Connor Roll to move through the rounds. Necro will definitely add a unique flavour to the tournament so he’s a solid addition.

Scott Lost
One of the owners of PWG, Lost has been on fire in recent months, taking his wrestling to levels it’s never been. If anyone is going to rival the man I talked about in part 1, Masato Yoshino, for athleticism – it’s Scott Lost. The guy can seemingly do anything and he makes it look so easy. Many people are picking Lost as a dark horse to go far in the tournament. This would not shock me at all and I think his performances this year have earned him a big push. I’m going to go out on a limb and say the man everyone will be talking after this tournament is Scott Lost.