WON91

Another year over, and despite a super-hot month of January, wrestling definitely saw an overall decline from the peaks of 1990. WCW almost disintegrated before making a recovery in October. All-Japan provided a number of great matches but also seemed to be spinning its wheels a bit as Misawa’s crew slowly continued their push—but lacking the freshness of the big 1990 reconstruction of the promotion. USWA-Texas fell off and then folded, and Memphis declined throughout the year as well as Eddie Gilbert left and Eric Embry got more and more marginalized. The UWF split up three ways and Tenryu was off in his own world and lacking the number of standout opponents he got to work with from 1987-89. Mexico fell off as well, though that may be because 1990 was so spectacular. The promotion with the biggest shot in the arm was the WWF and even it saw a decline in the depth of quality work—there were some outstanding matches but less in the way of really strong mid-card bouts like POP/Rockers and Piper/Perfect. But the booking was tons better with lots of super-hot angles and the arrival of Flair, which was a major boost even if he wasn’t used as ideally as we all would have wanted. AJW had more to offer as well, as the mid-carders improved and things seemed to revolve a bit less around Bull Nakano.

So this wasn’t as good of a watch as 1990, but things are looking up for 1992—tons of Dangerous Alliance goodness to come, the beginnings of post-Jumbo All-Japan, the Flair/Savage feud, and more new NJPW, AJW, and lucha shit I haven’t seen. With the end of ’91, again come my picks for the Observer Awards. Same format as the 1990 edition—real-life winners in parantheses, same criteria as set out by Dave but again, going by the full 1991 calendar year rather than November-to-November.

CATEGORY A
WRESTLER OF THE YEAR (Jumbo Tsuruta)
1. Keiji Mutoh
2. Jumbo Tsuruta
3. Mitsuharu Misawa
Everyone in North America had major weaknesses going against them. Business was down, Flair was misused and inactive, and Hogan spent most of the year with a steroid cloud over his head. As a guy who snarkily has dismissed Mutoh as a one-year wonder in the past I have to admit I was way wrong about him. Even in losing the G-1 finals he came off as New Japan’s top guy in a strong year for the promotion and offered up a ton of great performances as both a singles and tag worker. AJPW also was very hot, but I think Jumbo was still bringing more to the feud than Misawa was—again in both singles and tag work. Misawa is still a year away from being the Man.

MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER (Jushin Liger)
1. Keiji Mutoh
2. Jushin Liger
3. Jumbo Tsuruta
Dandy, Hansen, and Eaton all disappear after being on the ballot last year. Dandy had a good peak but not the transcendent peak of 1990 and we just didn’t see enough of his other matches. Liger may have been the most versatile worker of the year, working face-vs.-heel U.S. style, high-flying divefests, showing good mat skills, and by the end of the year even getting over with North American crowds. He only barely loses out on the top spot due to Mutoh’s G-1 performance.

BEST BABYFACE (Hulk Hogan)
1. Jerry Lawler
2. Mitsuharu Misawa
3. Randy Savage
Hogan was a bigger negative on the WrestleMania VII build than Slaughter and did more in his promos to exploit the war. Plus he was telling us to believe in Hulk Hogan while his reputation outside of the WWF bubble was being beaten to a pulp. So despite all objective evidence to the contrary I can’t in good conscience vote for him.

BEST HEEL (The Undertaker)
1. Jake Roberts
2. Jumbo Tsuruta
3. Ric Flair
Undertaker was simply too popular for me to give him the award here, even after a semi-desparate attempt to heel him up with the Warrior casket angle. Jake’s ’91 cemented him as possibly the scariest motherfucker in wrestling history, because he barely even changed his character and didn’t need elaborate sets or being booked to no-sell all the top babyfaces to come across as a threat. Jumbo really ramped up the dickishness in 6-mans as the year wore on, relentlessly targetting every Misawa injury including eye and nose work not really seen in Japan, and just acting above it all when in the ring with anybody else on his team. Flair may be more of a sentimental pick but he ultimately thrived in afresh setting with fresh new opponents, in an environment where he was finally suited to being a heel instead of forcing himself into the role because that’s how he preferred it. His Survivor Series interview about killing Hulkamania and the WWF Championship is the tiebreaker that puts him over Eric Embry.

FEUD OF THE YEAR (Super Generation Army vs. Jumbo’s Army)
1. Super Generation Army vs. Jumbo’s Army
2. Randy Savage vs. Jake Roberts
3. The Ultimate Warrior vs. Randy Savage
Savage had an incredible year for a guy who didn’t wrestle for half of it. As a talker Jake was almost on another level from anyone else in wrestling, yet Savage came as close as anybody possibly could to keeping up with him. And his other feud with him in the opposite role against a limited (to say the least) opponent was almost as good. Nothing is going to touch the All-Japan feud for sheer consistency and match quality, however.

TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR (Misawa/Kawada)
1. Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada
2. Los Brazos
3. Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki
Honorable Mention: The Enforcers
Had the Enforcers been formed earlier and not given way to the Arn/Eaton team by year’s end they’d have gotten a spot on the ballot proper. Misawa & Kawada finally solidified and got the best work out of the MVCs and were as reliable as any team you’ll ever see in wrestling. This ballot was three American teams last year and three international teams this year. Even with an improved AJPW tag division and more great work from the Brazos, it’s a sign of how badly tag team wrestling was beginning to trail off in the Big Two.

MOST IMPROVED (Dustin Rhodes)
1. Cactus Jack
2. Masahiro Chono
3. Dustin Rhodes
Jack was in a different world from 1990 in every facet, or even the spring of ‘91. He bulked up (*cough*), added actual hurty-looking offense to go along with the sick bumps, and turned into a tremendous interview and sort of a spiritual alternative to Jake Roberts’ work. Chono was now a legitimate main eventer and would be a WOTY contender in a year without as much competition from All-Japan. That Dustin managed to win the real-life award despite the entire Observer readership being against the very thought of his existence is a major testament to him.

MOST UNIMPROVED (Davey Boy Smith)
1. Tatsumi Fujinami
2. Konnan
3. Black Blood
Honorable Mention: Teddy Long
I don’t think Dave’s criteria allow you to vote for managers for this category, or otherwise I’d give it to last year’s Manager of the Year who followed up on that by losing Doom and being sidelined with a comedy gimmick character. I think Davey Boy was already on his way to being a roided-out balloon in 1990 .Fujinami was involved in some very good matches but also a number of disappointing ones—and most of those very good matches were carry-jobs by his opponent. Masked Konnan offered some glimpses of being a very good worker in addition to being a charismatic star, but this year was pretty much a reminder of why so many of us can’t stand him. I don’t really know what Haynes was like in his post-WWF period but man was that a shitty gimmick with a shitty performance living down to it.

MOST OBNOXIOUS (Herb Abrams)
1. Jason Hervey
2. Herb Abrams
3. Tony Rumble
Yeah, there was less UWF on this Yearbook, but I don’t think Abrams could have improved that much. If at all. Still, at least Abrams knew what his character was supposed to be instead of the obnoxious twerp TV star who palled around with Dusty while cutting promos like a heel and dating a heel announcer. Hervey was the equivalent of your boss’ trust-fund kid, with a trophy wife/girlfriend to boot. The merger with what was left of “World Class” did little to improve the ICW product.

BEST ON INTERVIEWS (Ric Flair)
1. Jake Roberts
2. Eric Embry
3. Randy Savage
Ric was great and made a strong run towards this award at the tail end of the year, but Jake was a force unseen by anyone in the WWF and Embry was a constant throughout 1991. Savage’s sitdown interview after the reception attack may have been the single best promo of the year. Jake and Savage also delivered great promos as both heels and babyfaces.

MOST CHARISMATIC (Hulk Hogan)
1. Hulk Hogan
2. The Undertaker
3. Atsushi Onita
Hard for anyone to unseat Hogan at this time. Undertaker compelled crowds despite rarely doing a whole lot in the ring, and Onita even with the help from the explosions and barbed wire, made some fairly pedestrian opposition look like a struggle to the death.

BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER (Jushin Liger)
1. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
2. Hiroshi Hase
3. The Scorpion
Volk Han had just debuted towards the end of the year, so Fujiwara retains the award from 1990. Hase had what may have been his first truly outstanding year, while the Scorpion places 3rd just for the sheer shattering of expectations. If Liger wasn’t 1991’s most versatile worker, then Scorpion was.

BRUISER BRODY MEMORIAL AWARD (Cactus Jack)
1. Cactus Jack
2. Atsushi Onita
3. Stan Hansen
Cactus went from being a nothing bump machine to providing two legit MOTYCs, in matches with Gilbert and Sting. Quite the turnaround. Onita anad Hansen are a little less surprising and I don’t think they need much explanation.

BEST FLYING WRESTLER (Jushin Liger)
1. Jushin Liger
2. Brian Pillman
3. The Lightning Kid
I really wanted to put a lucha guy here because I feel like I’m shortchanging it, as well as AJW. But the cross-section of guys we saw from Mexico was pretty diverse in comparison to 1990 and a lot of the best performances were either on the mat or in bloody brawls. The best pure lucha flyer may have been Eddie Guerrero.

MOST OVERRATED WRESTLER (The Ultimate Warrior)
1. The Triangle of Terror
2. Sid Justice
3. El Gigante
I liked Sarge’s performances and the fireball angle was a good one, but after the Desert Storm Match the horse was dead. Sid still wasn’t anything other than a great look and amazingly, despite the big initial push, it didn’t seem like the WWF missed him while he was gone. It’s flabbergasting that WCW still believed there was something worthwhile in keeping El Gigante around.

MOST UNDERRATED WRESTLER (Terry Taylor)
1. Brian Pillman
2. Dutch Mantell
3. Bobby Eaton
Taylor may have been lost in the shuffle in the York Foundation, may have been stuck on a scaffold on a major PPV appearance, and may have in a past life been the Red Rooster—but he didn’t have to dress up like Goldust’s poorer cousin, either. Meanwhile Dutch Mantell is one of the best talkers in the business and is a solid worker, and he can’t get a cup of coffee with the WWF and WCW…yeah. They did attempt a token push with Eaton but he spent most of the year lost in the wilderness as a babyface.

BEST PROMOTION (All-Japan)
1. New Japan
2. All-Japan
3. WWF
I’ve always been an All-Japan guy first but New Japan felt fresher and even if it wasn’t quite as consistent, was much better when it came to diversity. Better juniors action and the “on any given night…” vibe was palpable without being like the modern-day WWE of no one really coming off as special. The WWF wasn’t high on ring action, but man, those angles and feuds. After so many lame-ass programs in 1990 the dark storylines of 1991 were greatly appreciated.

BEST TELEVISION SHOW (AJPW)
1. All-Japan
2. Memphis
Basically N/A on this one, the same as last year. AJPW is still a fairly safe bet for the top spot and Memphis was still good for a hot angle or promo most weeks, just not every week as in 1990. Superstars probably should be #3.

MATCH OF THE YEAR (Steiners vs. Hase/Sasaki)
1. Keiji Mutoh vs. Masahiro Chono (8/11/91)
2. Misawa/Kawada/Kobashi vs. Jumbo/Taue/Fuchi (4/20/91)
3. The Ultimate Warrior vs. Randy Savage (3/24/91)
Honorable Mention: Scorpion vs. Cutie Suzuki (8/30/91), Trio Fantasia vs. Los Thundercats (12/8/91), Sting vs. Cactus Jack (11/23/91), WarGames (2/24/91)
Mutoh/Chono was the best-worked match with what felt like the biggest setting—the final piece of one of the best round-robin tournaments ever, and carried an historic, star-making performance with it. The 6-man was the best of the year’s best feud and may have been the year’s best-worked match, but like all those Dangerous Alliance 6-mans you could argue that the long-term effect wasn’t that great. I suppose I’m going sentimental again with #3 but it is to WWF-style sports entertainment what 6/3/94 was to All-Japan, and I felt it deserved notice.

MANAGER OF THE YEAR (Sensational Sherri)
1. Paul Bearer
2. Paul E. Dangerously
3. Sensational Sherri
Maybe the last year of managers mattering. Cornette was basically absent after January, Bobby Heenan retired, Paul E. was on commentary for the bulk of the year, Teddy Long suffered a horrendous dropoff, and Hart and Fuji were almost playing out the string at this point. Bearer managed the year’s best gimmick and was an integral part of that gimmick. Paul E. probably did better overall work but was only a manager for the last two months of the year. Sherri and Savage were a terrific combo but I don’t think she and DiBiase ever quite clicked.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR (Johnny B. Badd)
1. Volk Han
2. Johnny B. Badd
Like last year, a two-horse race. Badd was mostly potential here while Han was already bringing the goods.

BEST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER (Jim Ross)
1. Dave Brown
2. Tony Schiavone
3. Dr. Alfonso Morales
Granted, a lot of the product sucked, but Ross tapered off very badly, to the point where I simply can’t place him on the ballot. His enthusiasm went down and much of the time he acted like the match was getting in the way of the hotline, merchandise Braves,, and radio shills he wanted to do. You can blame that on WCW as a whole but I thought Schiavone had an excellent year working both roles as play-by-play man and color. He may have had less bullshit to call on the syndie shows but he got guys over (I still think his explanation of how Big Josh was adopting professional techniques was outstanding and fit perfectly within the story of the match) and had all sorts of historical nuggets to contribute on the PPV shows. But Brown remained the standout, even if his own work, activity, and the product he called declined a bit. With Russell more or less gone from TV, Brown was also wrestling’s best interviewer. Morales is a reputation pick but I don’t think it’s quite fair to give zero consideration to the foreigners when so much attention is paid to the wrestling that goes there. Terrific voice that has me picking up things through my limited understanding of Spanish, and fluent speakers whose opinions I trust have vouched for him as well.

WORST WRESTLING ANNOUNCER (Gorilla Monsoon)
1. Herb Abrams
2. Sean Mooney
3. Gorilla Monsoon
See Most Obnoxious for the write-up of Abrams. Fairly safe pick. Monsoon had some good banter with the Brain and showed some really good outrage at times, especially towards Jake, but he also didn’t do shit to get Ric Flair over in any way. We would need Flair’s Royal Rumble performance to drag him into doing that, kicking and screaming. Honestly, my issues with Ross aside ’91 was not a bad year for announcing. Mooney didn’t have me running for the mute button and Gorilla was still better than he’d become.

CATEGORY B
BEST MAJOR WRESTLING CARD (WrestleWar): WrestleWar it is. A North American MOTYC main event and some terrific matches on the undercard.

WORST MAJOR WRESTLING CARD (Great American Bash): Like this is even a contest. GAB ’91 lives down to its reputation as the longtime gold standard for shitty PPVs. I will continue to give credit for Morton vs. Gibson, a grossly underappreciated match that I suspect will ultimately rank this show ahead of the WCW shit to come at the end of the decade.

BEST WRESTLING MANEUVER (Masao Orihara’s moonsault to the floor): Well, unfortunately Orihara didn’t make the Yearbook. Among things we actually saw, I’ll go with Eddie Guerrero’s springboard dive about six rows into the seats. Among actual moves for the year as a whole, a moonsault to the floor from a Japanese junior is pretty spectacular. A moonsault to the floor from a pudgy scuzzball like Billy Black is something else altogether.

MOST DISGUSTING PROMOTIONAL TACTIC (Persian Gulf War angle): Yep. Almost everything to do with Slaughter for the whole year, in fact. Maybe having been to Arlington National Cemetery last year is making me less than rational but that “I want my country back” promo from the graveyard may actually have been worse.

BEST COLOR COMMENTATOR (Paul E. Dangerously): Tony Schiavone, again, was excellent in this role. For a long time after the lowest depths of Nitro I fell into the belief that he was never really that good to begin with and that David Crockett was secretly carrying the team. Well, I still share Chad and Parv’s enthusiasm for Crockett but Schiavone really was good at one point, maybe for longer than we remember.

FAVORITE WRESTLER (Ric Flair): I have to go with Jake Roberts, who when his head was on straight may have had the greatest mind for the business that wrestling had ever seen. He made cheesy angles seem heavy and made genuinely heavy stuff look like the darkest, most terrifying shit ever conceived.

LEAST FAVORITE WRESTLER (Hulk Hogan): Yo baby, yo baby…(long, awkward silence while waiting to find the beat)…yo.

WORST (NON-ROOKIE) WRESTLER (Andre the Giant): Several candidates to choose from whose matches did not make the Yearbook. Andre is one, as are the Dragon Master, Cousin Harold, Van Hammer, Oz, Jeff Gaylord, Spirit of America, and Paul Bunyan. I feel bad voting for Andre knowing his condition and how “retirement” was not a realistic option for him, so I’ll vote for the eminently less talented El Gigante.

WORST TAG TEAM (Baba/Andre): Two years running for Baba & Andre in the real-life poll, but it was a dream team last year and is a dream team in ‘91. The Patriots were absolutely putrid and Todd Champion is another strong candidate for worst worker among guys we actually saw.

WORST WEEKLY TELEVISION SHOW (Abrams UWF): Safe pick from the readers. I(WC)CW is a perennial contender as long as it remains active.

WORST MANAGER (Mr. Fuji): Coach was a monumentally dumb idea. I know Cornette simply wasn’t interested but there was never a better time to bring him than as Bobby Heenan’s successor. Kevin Sullivan and his charges were all thoroughly embarrassing.

WORST MATCH OF THE YEAR (News/Eaton vs. Taylor/Austin scaffold match): Yep. I don’t think I can compare shoots to worked matches, whether it’s here, Pancrase, or PRIDE, so Takada vs. Berbick stays off.

WORST FEUD OF THE YEAR (Hogan vs. Slaughter): As disgusting as the premise was, Hulk and Sarge simply had enough really good matches to save it. I will again step outside of the Yearbook box and nominate Diamond Studd vs. the Z-Man. Two bad workers in a lame feud over who was sexier in a way that was about as 1/100th as entertaining as Rick Martel vs. Shawn Michaels the next year.

WORST ON INTERVIEWS (The Ultimate Warrior): Warrior was much better than in 1990 because he had strong storylines and feuds to focus on. El Gigante was only focused on wanting da belt, which wasn’t enough.

WORST PROMOTION OF THE YEAR (Abrams UWF): Hard to argue with this.

BEST BOOKER (Shohei Baba): Riki Choshu did an amazing job in New Japan on all levels. The any-given-night style gave weight to every single near-fall and every change of momentum. All-Japan simply didn’t have that, as great as the action was. It’s telling that the most significant match result of the year was a result that happened in June of 1990, done in a different way. This year will also probably be the closest Pat Patterson will ever come to deserving this award.

BEST PROMOTER (Shohei Baba): Same problem as last year in that I don’t know who gets singular credit for “promoting” New Japan. So Baba it is.

BEST GIMMICK (The Undertaker): Oh, this one’s not even a contest.

WORST GIMMICK (Oz): I get the thought process behind PN News and Van Hammer even if they were failures. I can’t fathom the thought process behind Oz, nor whichever suit at Turner (and there had to be one besides Jim Herd) signed off on using a 7-foot-tall wrestler in an old man’s mask to capitalize on the fact that THE had acquired the rights to the movie. 1991 was a year marked by every other promotion trying to outgimmick the WWF, and the WWF simply leaving everybody else in the dust in that regard. Not every WWF gimmick was a winner and not every wacky non-WWF character was without value, but the WWF was still doing what it does well, better than any other promotion.

MOST EMBARRASSING WRESTLER (Van Hammer): Many to choose from. Hammer at least was charismatic and had a great look that fit the gimmick and got carried to a watchable feud by Cactus Jack. PN News was about as dignified as Mabel with worse MC skills and equally bad ring attire.