WON93

There has been a decided up-down-up-down pattern when viewing Yearbooks for the first 4 years of the ‘90s. The ’90 Yearbook was a new experience for me and featured a ton of rare stuff from the last gasp of the multiple-territory days. Then we dipped in ’91 as WCW went to shit and WWF business declined, and USWA-TX disappeared. ’92 was by far the strongest year so far form an in-ring standpoint and will be hard to top as the decade continues—and then we dip back down in quality in 1993. As I said in the Flair/Vader review, basically the only promotions on the planet in as good or better of a spot at the end of ’93 than at the end of ’92 were UWFI (having just drawn 46,000+ for Takada/Vader) and AAA (running successful shows again in LA), and even AAA had scandals of its own as El Hijo del Santo was going through a messy public divorce and you had the Konnan/Jake Roberts mess earlier in the year. The WWF closed out the year having lost two iconic announcers and with Vince under indictment, after having a mostly hot year creatively if not financially. The USWA had a dark cloud over its head with a temporary end to its WWF partnership, Jeff Jarrett leaving, and most importantly Lawler under indictment of his own. WCW closed on about the highest note possible but was still in shambles business-wise without the consistent in-ring action to make up for it. All-Japan’s business took a hit with the departure of Jumbo Tsuruta and despite a high finishing note of their own had to deal with a mess of a Tag League—with their TV due to get cut in half in ’94, things can’t have been going all that swimmingly. New Japan was the world’s biggest promotion and even they regressed, if only because they had to after such a great ’92. Choshu blew out his achilles and gave up both wrestling and booking while recovering, and they were simply past the days of being able to sell out Sumo Hall 7 straight days. Even RINGS was dealing with a long-term injury to Maeda and PWFG seemed moribund. I confess to not knowing enough to say how the women’s promotions were doing, but it seems the interpromotional stuff peaked with DreamSlam and at the minimum, they weren’t doing great enough to give anyone an optimistic view of the future of wrestling. And unfortunately, 1994 figures to break the pattern—I hope to be surprised but I remember the WWF sucking and WCW having a good first half and a shitty-ass second. The bright side is the Japan and lucha stuff will mostly be new to me, and I hope it carries the load.

The ’93 Observer Award ballot follows. Real-life winners in parentheses.

CATEGORY A

WRESTLER OF THE YEAR (Vader)
1. Vader
2. Nobuhiko Takada
3. Aja Kong
Not an easy category in a year where business declined almost universally. The constant here is that these people generally worked on top of promotions that didn’t. You could objectively say that Vader was just as bad of a domestic draw as Sting was, but the Vader mark in me says WCW’s problems were beyond the capabilities of any one man besides Hogan—and since he was mostly inactive and not drawing when he was active, then the bar needs to be lower than “Not Hogan.” Vader was the best worker in the U.S. and was still a draw in Japan and putting on very good matches in an unfamiliar style. Takada was the ace of a booming company that was selling out baseball stadiums with no television. Kong was the ace of the top women’s promotion and with all the interactivity going on basically the focus of the entire women’s wrestling scene.

MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER (Kenta Kobashi)
1. Kenta Kobashi
2. Vader
3. Dynamite Kansai
I think there’s a lot more ’93 Kobashi that I need to see, but I saw enough down the stretch to agree with the consensus that he was the best in the world. Kansai may be a personal bias pick because all I saw from her were the “big” matches, but they’re my awards.

BEST BABYFACE (Atsushi Onita)
1. Bret Hart
2. Kenta Kobashi
3. Bob Armstrong
The Lawler feud did wonders for Bret as did the beginnings of the Owen turn, as he got to show off more sides of his personality—he got to work an aggressive brawling style, he got to work heel (always a strong consideration when determining Best Babyface!), and he even got to show off a bit of acting chops. Kobashi was finally in a bigger setting as Misawa’s new partner, but he was still a credible underdog against the other top guys, where his playing to the crowd and crying act still really worked. I’m not sure it says much for Cornette’s ability to book top babyfaces when his best one is a retired semi-active commissioner, but Bullet Bob was the best babyface interview in wrestling.

BEST HEEL (Vader)
1. Vader
2. Jerry Lawler
3. Cien Caras
As the first real “heel ace” since late ‘80s Flair, Vader did an excellent job artistically if not financially of being a foil for almost every other top WCW babyface. Lawler’s Memphis act seemed really fresh and new in the WWF setting. Caras was a guy who I really should have given a spot two earlier in the decade. He and Konnan had a huge moneymaking feud and I didn’t want to give Konnan a Best Babyface nod, so…

FEUD OF THE YEAR (Jerry Lawler vs. Bret Hart)
1. Jerry Lawler vs. Bret Hart
2. Genichiro Tenryu vs. New Japan
3. Cactus Jack vs. Vader
A recurring theme throughout these awards is me being a sucker for anything that spans multiple promotions. Bonus points if the roles get switched accordingly. It was one of the first WWF feuds in ages to show some real personal hatred that didn’t involve Randy Savage, and it started to incorporate other people throughout the year before dying a quick death. Not that it matters to ’93 specifically but I always loved how this feud, once Lawler came back, was always simmering under the surface and could be resurrected at a moment’s notice in years to come. It wasn’t until Bret turned heel 4 years later that it would be finally dead and buried—a Tommy Rich vs. Buzz Sawyer for the new generation. I liked the Cactus/Vader matches seemingly more than anyone else, and the initial injury angle was the best or second-best WCW “thing” of the year.

Despite continuing to have great interpromotional matches that played off each other, I had trouble getting into Toyota/Yamada-Ozaki/Kansai as a “feud,” rather than rematches that simply got booked. They were great but they almost seemed like TWA/WWA fantasy-booking rather than a long-standing running issue. Hokuto/Kandori the same way, though that definitely seemed more personal. If I watched more AJW/JWP/LLPW I could be persuaded to change my mind.

TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR (The Hollywood Blonds)
1. The Hollywood Blonds
2. The Heavenly Bodies
3. Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki
Shame about the ending, but the Blonds were the best thing about WCW television for the first 6 months of the year. The Bodies had at least 3 different line-ups but Jim Cornette had valid paperwork stating they were a CORPORATION and thus are to be evaluated as one unit. Domestic tag team wrestling is about to take several steps backwards and the Bodies and Rock ‘n Rolls are still anchoring a promotion. I can’t say any more about Kansai/Oz.

MOST IMPROVED (Tracey Smothers)
1. Yokozuna
2. Brian Lee
3. Marcus Alexander Bagwell
Tracey’s great but the Observer readers must not have “gotten” the Southern Boys/Young Pistols—he was great before ’93. Yokozuna turned into a terrific monster heel and was able to stand out as something other than a Vader ripoff. Brian Lee was the shock of the set for me—I suspect he’ll never be as good again but the heel turn instantly turned his career and his work around. Bagwell/Scorp was a fun team that was more than just “Scorpio and his anonymous whitebread partner.” I doubt there are a lot of hidden gem Bagwell singles bouts but he carried his end in tags just fine.

MOST UNIMPROVED (Rick Rude)
1. Rick Rude
2. Mr. Perfect
3. Terry Gordy
Sorry for the Gordy pick, but he would have gotten consideration even before the coma. That fucking MVC title loss still grates on me for how awful it was, not that Doc, Kawada, or Taue were blameless. Perfect had good stuff throughout the first half of the year but by his departure it was time for him to go. Rude was still a good heel capable of great heel interviews, but he wasn’t the top threat that he was in ’91 or ’92 and his match quality plummeted. The best Rude matches of the year were made by his opponent.

MOST OBNOXIOUS (Vince McMahon)
1. Eddie Gilbert
2. Joey Styles
3. The WCW Amateur Challenge guy
Again, the King of Philadelphia sketches were airing at the same time Lost in Cleveland was, and I had to ponder a bit about which was worse. Consider the implications of that. Styles’ Noo Yawk street tough character, who thought reciting pop culture references equated to wrestling commentary, was just barely starting to get tolerable at the end of the year. I’ve never seen or heard a more condescending ass than that Amateur Challenge announcer. I know it’s hard not to be condescending about the videos we saw, but he was symptomatic of a larger issue within the company that thought running these on the air was a good idea. This is a bad, bad year for annoyances: Rob Bartlett could not crack the top 3.

BEST ON INTERVIEWS (Jim Cornette)
1. Jim Cornette
2. Jerry Lawler
3. Cactus Jack
Cornette wins this comfortably. Funny promos, serious promos, and promos that drew money (to some degree). It’s easy to get all the promo time you need when you own the company, but at least it’s Cornette’s promotion and not Mr. Fuji or Harvey Wippleman. This year was the true balancing act for Lawler, as he was better and more effective as a heel in a fresh new setting than he was in Texas or 1990 Memphis. Turning somebody like Cactus Jack babyface seemed a lot more daring and out-of-the-box at the time than it does in retrospect, and without Foley’s mic skills or in the hands of the WWF, it could have been a disaster.

MOST CHARISMATIC (Ric Flair)
1. Ric Flair
2. Konnan
3. Atsushi Onita
I have to give Konnan some props, somewhere. This isn’t really a category I’m too concerned with in a time when business is down.

BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER (Hiroshi Hase)
1. Hiroshi Hase
2. Shinobu Kandori
3. Negro Casas
3a. Doink the Clown
“Technical wrestling” like tag wrestling is starting to retrogress, and not just in the U.S. as the big Japan heavies tend to be shying away from it and Mexico was much ligher on great technical title bouts. Hase is the exception—he was the most compelling heavyweight mat wrestler in the world. I couldn’t in good conscience put Doink in the top 3 but I felt he deserved acknowledgment. He was about the last guy left in the U.S., aside from Backlund, working a true mat-based style. Kandori was better but gets a vote for similar reasons to Doink—she stood out within the style, plus she had the legit judo credentials backing her up.

BRUISER BRODY MEMORIAL AWARD/BEST BRAWLER (Cactus Jack)
1. Cactus Jack
2. Sabu
3. Terry Funk
Not sure anyone has ever put more thought into garbage brawls than Cactus Jack. I think he could have been a valuable asset as a Pat Patterson-type, specializing in laying out hardcore matches. Sabu still comes off as fresh and exciting in this setting, and Funk tended to reign him in—like Cactus, he knew the importance of psychology regardless of how garbagey the setting.

BEST FLYING WRESTLER (Jushin Liger)
1. Jushin Liger
2. Manami Toyota
3. 2 Cold Scorpio
Do I have to defend any of these? Rey Jr. should get a shout-out, but I was more impressed by him as a sympathetic babyface in the matches we saw than as a flyer.

MOST OVERRATED (Sid Vicious)
1. Lex Luger
2. Sid Vicious
3. Ultimo Dragon
That fucking Lex Express push…God, that just didn’t get any better. Sid was the real target of the Observer reader’s wrath and for good reason, as he got a fat contract and (right before the hotel stabbing) an agreement to an even fatter four-year extension despite not showing any tangible reason to have earned it. I’ll say it: Ultimo Dragon fucking sucks and I can’t believe he was pushed all the way to the IWGP Jr. title. I’d have preferred to see Honaga get another reign, at least he understands what a heel and a babyface are (that matters, even in Japan).

MOST UNDERRATED (Bobby Eaton)
1. 2 Cold Scorpio
2. Arn Anderson
3. Felino
I have no clue if Felino was really underpushed or not. But he was terrific and with his boundless enthusiasm should have been a top babyface and worked a long series against Negro Casas. 2 Cold should have been pushed to the moon, like to U.S. or at least TV title levels. I think he was that good, and he had that…er, “urban” appeal. Not many wrestlers have gotten saddled with more crap in one year than Arn Anderson, from Erik Watts as an opponent to Paul Roma as a partner to being an anonymous sidekick on A Flair for the Gold to getting stabbed ina hotel room, Arn deserved better in every aspect.

BEST PROMOTION (All-Japan)
1. All-Japan
2. New Japan
3. AAA
New Japan continued to be great but I think it took a decided step back in quality—not a big one, but a noticeable one—while AJPW moved forward. #3 is kind of a dogfight, as I had to think about AAA, UWFI, and even the WWF. I went with AAA because it really seemed like a revolutionary game-changer for the business.

BEST TELEVISION SHOW (All-Japan)
1. All-Japan
2. Monday Night Raw
This one is always hard to answer in a Yearbook format. AJPW had maybe the best in-ring year ever to this point and Raw had the feel of an unpredictable old-time studio show, a direction the company really needed after such a bland 1992.

MATCH OF THE YEAR (Toyota/Yamada vs. Kansai/Ozaki, 4/11)
1. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (12/3)
2. Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki (12/6)
3. Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki (DreamSlam II, 4/11)
4. Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori (DreamSlam I, 4/2)
5. Sting vs. Big Van Vader (strap match, SuperBrawl III, 2/21)
6. Masahiro Chono vs. Hiroshi Hase (8/6)
7. Kenta Kobashi vs. Steve Williams (8/31)
8. Kenta Kobashi vs. Stan Hansen (7/29)
9.. Satanico vs. Pirata Morgan (11/26)
10. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (6/1)
’92 was hard to evaluate because of the sheer avalanche of great choices. ’93 had a lot of great stuff to consider but was a lot more top-heavy—every promotion had “big” matches that I didn’t like at all and no obvious blowaway match really stood out. The only thing I’m confident on here is what’s in the top 4 and what’s in the 6-10 slots. It’s all interchangeable after that.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR (Jun Akiyama)
1. Bobby Blaze
2. The Smoking Gunns
3. Juventud Guerrera
I gave Jun the #2 spot last year, though I suppose by MLB’s standards he’d be eligible in ’93. No one on a Yearbook stood out so I went with memories and reputation. The Gunns were two of the least-experienced indy guys ever to land a WWF contract and were almost immediately put on television, which is impressive on its surface, and they had some good performances despite the cheesy gimmick. Blaze was pretty compelling as a Mikey Whipreck/southern-style-junior-heavyweight guy.

MANAGER OF THE YEAR (Jim Cornette)
1. Jim Cornette
2. Tammy Fytch
3. Vince McMahon
Not a good year for managers at all, after a strong ’92. Another thing starting to go the way of the dodo. Cornette and Fytch lapped the field to the point where I was lost as whom to vote for for #3. I decided to cheat like crazy. Vince cut promos for guys and he appeared at least once at ringside, so he did just enough to be considered.

BEST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER (Jim Ross)
1. Jim Ross
2. Bob Caudle
3. Tony Schiavone
Not really a good year for announcers, either.

WORST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER (Gorilla Monsoon)
1. Joey Styles
2. Vince McMahon
3. Rob Bartlett
Not really a good year for annonce—yeah. Vince will almost always be good at getting over angles and he had more to get over than in ’92, but as a play-by-play man his worst tendencies are starting to come out more and more. I don’t have anything more to say about the dumpster fire that was Rob Bartlett. I suppose ECW is testimony that maybe announcers aren’t as important as some would like to think, because they were able to generate a cult following despite the utter incompetence of the various people, from Styles to Sulli to Tod Gordon, that they had behind the mic.

CATEGORY B
Note that for a lot of these, the Observer readers got them right.

BEST WRESTLING MOVE (Vader’s moonsault): Have to go with this—just a mind-blowing move the first time it was seen.

BEST MAJOR WRESTLING CARD (DreamSlam I): No argument with this either, though Dream Rush was still a better show.

WORST MAJOR WRESTLING CARD (Fall Brawl): In addition to being the least successful, BattleBowl was possibly the least consequential pay-per-view ever, despite having one of the best battle royals ever.

MOST DISGUSTING PROMOTIONAL TACTIC (Cactus Jack amnesia angle): Oh dear God, so many choices. Cactus Jack sacrifices himself to get an angle over and gets rewarded with Lost in Cleveland. Sid Vicious is hyped as being at a live Clash after the stabbing incident. Tully Blanchard is advertised, by name, as appearing at Slamboree. Cheetum the Midget tries to blow up Sting and Davey Boy’s boat. The WWF tries to portray the entire country of Japan as a heel—there’s old-school booking that’s good and there’s old-school booking with an ugly side. We didn’t need a rehash of the Jim Ross “Are there any nice-looking Orientals?” days. The Observer jumped big-time on the WWF using bullshit 900 line votes, like advertising on the West Coast airing of Raw despite final results already being announced out East, and having fans vote for an opponent despite the match already being taped. In the end, I have to go with Lost in Cleveland. It was the only storyline of this bunch to begin with real promise—the rest were bad or uncompelling programs simply made worse. The rampant false advertising by WCW was a major, major issue, though.

BEST COLOR COMMENTATOR (Bobby Heenan): I wish I could vote for Bobby in his last strong year, but Dutch Mantell was best in the land.

FAVORITE WRESTLER (Ric Flair): Kansai was my favorite in-ring wrestler to watch, but Ric managed to win me over by the end of ’93. Crazy to think now with how fucked up his life has become but he came off as all that was right in a horrible business, rising phoenix-like above a WWF de-push and WCW’s morass of shit and Sid fetish.

LEAST FAVORITE WRESTLER (Sid Vicious): Lex Luger, hands down. No wrestler has been involuntarily shoved down the viewers’ throats more, before or since. A deteriorated wrestler in the 100% wrong role. John McAdam pointed out that 1993 was the height of grunge—outside of maybe the height of the counterculture era there was not a worse time to be pushing an All-American goody-two-shoes as your top babyface.

WORST WRESTLER (The Equalizer): The Wrestlecrap on this Yearbook tended to be of the non-wrestling variety, so sure. I can’t vote for Catherine White or anyone from the Amateur Challenge, after all.

WORST TAG TEAM (The Colossal Kongs): See above. I literally think WCW was basing its signings by reading Apter mags. A ton of guys who constantly showed up in indy results like the Kongs and Charlie Norris were appearing on national television whether they were ready or not.

WORST TELEVISION SHOW (GWF on ESPN): Don’t think any of this made the set, which probably speaks volumes. I was surprised it was still on the air. What a goddamned waste. I wonder how wrestling would have changed if Jarrett had landed that ESPN spot back in 1986.

WORST MANAGER (Mr. Fuji): You know, as bad of a year for managers as it was…not many people stood out as horrible. Managers in ’93 tended to be negligible guys who just didn’t stand out, like Wippleman and Bert Prentice. Fuji was bad but was almost instantly marginalized once he became the manager of the #1 guy. I hate babyface Paul Bearer with a passion, so I’m giving this one to him.

WORST MATCH OF THE YEAR (4 Doinks at Survivor Series): See the Worst Wrestler/Tag Team votes. No Pearl-Cazanas or Sid-Nightstalkers on this set that I can recall. I’m on board with this, as the Doink babyface turn was one of many, many, MANY disappointing events to take place for the WWF in the last half of the year.

WORST FEUD (Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez): Hard to argue with this one, though Lex Luger vs. Ludvig Borga deserves strong consideration as the WWF actually expected that to main event shows.

WORST ON INTERVIEWS (Mr. Fuji): I suppose, but he basically stopped talking once Cornette showed up. Babyface Crush was godawful.

WORST PROMOTION (WCW): Yes. Just some absolutely unfathomable bullshit, like Black Scorpion levels of what-the-fuckery, all throughout the year or at least all throughout the post-Watts tenure. I have to say that the USWA would have been a really, REALLY tough watch if not for the WWF talent appearing. The non-McMahon stuff centered around winners like the Dogcatchers, babyface Moondogs, the team of evil school principal CW Bergstrom and student Melvin Penrod Jr., and Jeff Gaylord rehashes.

BEST BOOKER (Jim Cornette): Antonio Pena, assuming he was doing the booking for AAA. I admit to really digging some of the lucha-meets-Memphis bullshit technicality finishes, plus he was heading the only promotion to truly be expanding at the end of the year rather than shrinking and booked some tremendous long-term angles like the Los Gringos Locos formation and the Jake/Konnan feud. Cornette was much the same though on a much, much smaller scale and deserves credit as well. Riki Choshu gave up the book about halfway through the year when he blew out  his achilles, and I also think he was starting to get overly cute with the surprise finishes. When Tenryu went down first in the 10-man elimination match, WAR may as well have thrown the towel in right there. And as much as I marked out for Liger pinning Hase, what did that really do for Liger?

BEST PROMOTER (Giant Baba): Antonio Pena, for the reasons stated above.

BEST GIMMICK (The Undertaker): Evil Doink, comfortably. I think way, way more could have been done with the character.

WORST GIMMICK (The Shockmaster): Can I vote for A Flair for the Gold? That was the worst use of a legendary wrestler I could imagine. If I can’t…God, still a lot of choices here. The WWF is heading into its all-time worst period for character creativity and there were some epic duds in ’93. The Shockmaster was a bad but not otherworldly gimmick ruined by a disastrous technical error, so the biggest faceplant for me goes to Friar Ferguson. Ferguson vs. Chris Duffy is a strong Worst Match of the Year contender, come to think of it.

MOST EMBARRASSING WRESTLER (Bastion Booger): Mike Shaw in general. The gimmicks weren’t necessarily his fault, but they were what they were. Giant Gonzalez and that outfit are a strong contender as well.