WON90

This was my first plow-through of a Yearbook set and so there's a whole lot for me to digest. And unlike the '80s sets I wasn't taking notes as I went along or thinking about rankings in terms of a big picture. So I'm just going to bring up a WON Awards ballot and go with my thoughts as they come to me in thinking out the awards. Standard 1-2-3 votes but going by the 1990 calendar year only, not the 11/30-12/1 cut-off. Real-life winners in parentheses.

WRESTLER OF THE YEAR (Ric Flair)
Well, I'm hitting a problem right away because this is supposed to be a combination of ringwork and promotional value and all the big candidates seem to have deficiencies. CMLL, UWF, and New Japan were the most consistent promotions of the year but each have a few guys who seem to deserve some credit--plus New Japan was awfully reliant on outside talent. Every other promotion was up and down (or just down). Hogan wasn't around for the summer and offered very little for the first half of the year before coming on strong at the end. Warrior and Sting were failures as torch-receivers. Flair started off great and was pulling viewers in to boot, then got shunted into a tag feud before his horrific kidnapping.
1. Ric Flair
2. Akira Maeda
3. El Dandy
I went with the sentimental favorite. Maeda was positioned as the UWF's top man and was only marginally behind Fujiwara as a worker.

MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER (Jushin Liger)
1. El Dandy
2. Stan Hansen
3. Bobby Eaton
Dandy wins this comfortably--no one had as many great matches in as many disparate styles. Honestly 2-10 could have been in a multitude of orders as Flair, Jumbo, Liger, Lightning Kid, Satanico, and others could have fought it out for the other 2 spots. In the end Hansen had tremendous output including some unexpectedly awesome matches with Vader, Dr. Death, Luger, and Rich. Eaton was the most consistent week-to-week performer of the set that we saw. Liger was outstanding but in the end simply didn't have enough volume to earn the award he won in real life.

BEST BABYFACE (Hulk Hogan)
1. Hulk Hogan
2. Mitsuharu Misawa
3. Ricky Morton
As obnoxious as he was for the first chunk of the year and as subpar as I thought the actual Brother Love Show attack was, Hogan rebounded strong with possibly the year's single best promo and a very good performance at SummerSlam. Throw in the fact that he while he was around he was clearly the year's best babyface box office draw and he takes it. Misawa came alive as soon as the mask came off and the Jumbo feud reignited a stagnant promotion. Morton doesn't have the houses the other two do and I was honestly thinking of putting Lex Luger on this "ballot," but his tag work was just too good to ignore--plus he was a babyface for the whole year. This was certainly another banner year for Lex, however. Honorable mention to Jake Roberts, who deserves a spot here on merit but was just too down in the cards to be a serious candidate.

BEST HEEL (Ric Flair)
1. Eddie Gilbert
2. Ted DiBiase
3. Randy Savage
I can't in good conscience give this to a guy who was better off as a babyface and was turned unnecessarily. Gilbert was better off as a heel and was turned because that was the only way he could go, and was a tremendous addition to the USWA roster, becoming the heel focus of the promotion without suffocating everything else the way Lawler did. I enjoyed Lawler's act but also agree he was too shticky to be classified as a World Champion and was way too quick to bury his opponents, regardless of who they were. DiBiase was involved with the WWF's best angle (the SNME attack on Dustin Rhodes) and seemed to be the most consistently pushed man on the heel side of the company, all while cutting the best promos. That Savage was able to get a spot here in spite of the stifling and endless Dusty Rhodes feud is incredible, but he was just that good working against the Warrior and working against Buster Douglas.

FEUD OF THE YEAR (Misawa vs. Jumbo)
1. El Dandy vs. Satanico
2. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jumbo Tsuruta
3. Jerry Lawler vs. The Snowman
Dandy/Satanico had a beginning, middle, and payoff all in one year while Misawa/Tsuruta still has a long way to go, so that may not be entirely fair. Both feuds provided multiple great matches and this really could have come to a coin flip. Lawler/Snowman didn't last as long but has to be on here because of how out-of-the-box it was--completely incomparable to any other feud I've ever seen in wrestling, both from an angle and match standpoint. It also fizzled, but as I said in the Yearbook comments, in a way I'm not sure if the feud could have ended in any other fashion.

TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR (The Steiners)
1. The Midnight Express
2. The Rockers
3. Doom
The Midnights take this despite being stuck in mid-card purgatory for the year--they still had some killer angles and one of the US MOTYs with the Southern Boys. The Rockers had 2 out of the 3 best WWF matches of the year and the fact that one of those matches was with the Powers of Pain is a testament to their greatness. Unlike many WWF signees they clearly did not lose a step from their AWA days. Doom is an upset pick for #3 and had I made Half-Year Awards there was no way they'd be there. But their performance at Halloween Havoc and Starrcade as well as Theodore Long's all-around awesomeness has me putting them just ahead of the Steiners. This is a little odd because I simply can't think of any international teams that would rate--Misawa/Kawada hadn't solidified yet, Jumbo had a rash of tag partners...the best non-U.S. team I think I've seen would probably have to be Los Brazos, to be honest.

MOST IMPROVED (Kenta Kobashi)
1. Kenta Kobashi
2. Mitsuharu Misawa
3. Toshiaki Kawada
Three members of the Super Generation Army, how about that. At the beginning of the year we had a young nobody in red trunks, a guy in a ripoff gimmick who had flashes of greatness along with some absolute shit performances, and the inferior half of a juniors tag team. At the end of the year we had a guy who looked like he would (and did) become the best worker in the world, a Triple Crown contender, and the vicious heavyweight Kawada we know and love. Thank God for the Tenryu & co. exodus to force All-Japan's hand--Baba and the workers all stepped up.

MOST UNIMPROVED (Sting)
1. Kerry Von Erich
2. Yoshiaki Yatsu
3. Barry Windham
"Biggest Decline" might be the more accurate term judging by the criteria. I know he was a box office flop and that he had two disappointing (one bad) match with Flair on PPV, but Sting is an absurd choice. Regardless of the booking or who his opponent was he was always at least working hard, and didn't seem to miss a beat physically after the knee injury. Kerry was still offering quite a bit to USWA-TX in '89 and had flashes in 1990, but even in Texas he had more disappointing performances than good ones and looked really awful in the WWF. Yatsu lived up to his past rep as a guy who fell off quick--just that he waited until this year to do it instead of 1987-88 when the original consensus pegged it. He was in horrible shape and had to be hidden in most of his matches. I honestly didn't pick up on any other precipitous workrate decline just watching the Yearbook--the worst guys were guys I expected to be among the worst. Windham is simply a default pick--he came back with a super-hot angle but in about 9 months of being part of WCW, he makes the Yearbook with precisely one match. It's a fantastic match at that, but with what is evidently no other standout performances of the year 1990 has to be chalked up as a disappointment.

MOST OBNOXIOUS (Vince McMahon)
1. The Ultimate Warrior
2. Sapphire
3. Tony Rumble
Vince was bad at actual match-calling but was, mostly, pretty great when it came to getting angles over. Warrior had weeks upon weeks of thoroughly pointless, mind-numbing promos before improving at the end of the year, but not enough. Sapphire was a total millstone on Savage, Sherri, and Rhodes all at once and her disappearance after her heel turn neither received nor deserved any explanation. Rumble was so annoying on color for ICW that he made Pete Doherty sound like Gordon Solie. I suspect watching various promotions week-by-week would change this up a bit (DDP in particular had the opportunity to shoot way up), but this is what I have to go by.

BEST ON INTERVIEWS (Arn Anderson)
1. Eddie Gilbert
2. Arn Anderson
3. Tony Atlas
See above--this is how Gilbert won the Best Heel award. Arn was incredible as usual throughout and I'm heartened to see that he won the real-life award--I'd have figured it would have just gone to Flair by default like WOTY did. I could be accused of grading Tony Atlas on a curve or disregarding that most of his interviews were about him rather than his opponent, but I don't care. The vast gulf between his actual output and my expectations going in was so great that I had to put him here. Besides, the best Atlas promo WAS about his opponent--karate master Mr. Onita. It feels wrong to leave Lawler off, but his heel interviews were on the disappointing side and Atlas' certainly were not.

MOST CHARISMATIC (Hulk Hogan)
1. Hulk Hogan
2. Kendo
3. The Junkyard Dog
The criteria mentioned "doing the least to get the most reaction" so I'm going to give JYD the nod here. If he was in even half-decent shape he would still have a lot to offer to any U.S. promotion--he was still that good on the stick and interacting with others in a non-wrestling setting. It was enough that I honestly didn't mind WCW signing him, because I could see where they were coming from. Nobody had as much control over a crowd in the midst of a match than Kendo did.

BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER (Jushin Liger)
1. El Dandy
2. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
3. Angel Azteca
I guess this is "best on the mat" but we had this debate in one of the DiBiase threads and I don't feel like rehashing it. These are your three best mat guys of the year. Next.

BRUISER BRODY MEMORIAL AWARD (Stan Hansen)
1. Jerry Lawler
2. Stan Hansen
3. Bull Nakano
If realism is what you're looking for in a brawl, then Lawler takes it hands down. The Snowman matches are all terrific in their own way from what we see but he also had standout tag brawls with Akbar's anonymous goons as well as Gilbert/DWB. I know I spent most of the Yearbook complaining about Nakano but they were about match layouts more than her ability, plus the final cage match with Aja Kong put her back in my good graces, hoping for a better overall year from joshi in 1991.

BEST FLYING WRESTLER (Jushin Liger)
1. Jushin Liger
2. The Lightning Kid
3. El Dandy T
ough to narrow this down as a lot of the juniors didn't get tons of time. I don't get how Liger wins the Technical Award but he deserves this one. Not only did these 3 guys have some spectacular moves, their dives look like they HURT which is always a plus. Quite the year for El Dandy, wasn't it?

MOST OVERRATED (Ultimate Warrior)
1. The Ultimate Warrior
2. The Black Scorpion
3. Tugboat
The spirit of this award is clearly "most overpushed." Warrior did have some strengths but was at least a year away from being championship material. I don't know if it's right to give an award to a concept more than a person but Jesus fucking Christ was that gimmick hideous. Tugboat was a fish out of water (haha) as an ostensible #3 babyface and gladhanding Hogan pal. Ottman could have contributed in a better role but he was given a character that was way too cheesy and obnoxious to be saved. The gimmick could have gone somewhere had they made him more hard-nosed and blue-collar (I'm thinking Shipwreck from GI Joe here), but that was never going to fly in the WWF.

MOST UNDERRATED (Bobby Eaton)
1. Bobby Eaton
2. Rip Rogers
3. Tony Atlas
"Most underpushed"--see above. #1 could honestly go to Cornette, who had little opportunity to cut loose on the mic in heavily pushed angles the way he was in years past. The Midnights had to settle for a Pillman/Zenk feud where they weren't allowed to mention the whole impetus for the attack which was Pillman's throat surgery history. Eaton and Rogers closed out the year as "good hands" putting babyface talent over. In retrospect, with Lane wanting out of full-time wrestling months earlier they could have done worse than letting him go and doing a New New Midnight Express with Rogers as Eaton's new partner. Atlas was awful in the ring but no worse than the Junkyard Dog who got a featured spot. Atlas got a featured spot doing a Jump Jim Crow routine instead of at least getting work as a mouthpiece. He probably could have improved the Snowman angle to be even better than it was.

BEST WRESTLING PROMOTION (All-Japan)
1. EMLL
2. All-Japan
3. New Japan
New Japan was a bit more consistent, maybe, but it didn't quite have All-Japan's highs, which were pretty fucking great in spite of a poor first third. EMLL beats both in terms of both peak and consistency.

BEST WEEKLY SHOW (All-Japan)
Not something I can really answer from a yearbook setting, but All-Japan seems like a safe bet. Memphis and USWA-Texas seemed to be good for one high-quality angle and several great interviews every week.

MATCH OF THE YEAR (Liger vs. Sano)
1. El Dandy vs. Satanico (hair vs. hair, 12/14/90)
2. El Dandy vs. Angel Azteca (6/1/90)
3. Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano (1/31/90)
Dandy had one of the best lucha brawls ever and one of the best lucha technical bouts ever, in the span of 6 months. Liger/Sano was a worthy blowoff to one of the best in-ring feuds of all-time.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR (Steve Austin)
1. The Lightning Kid
2. Steve Austin
I had to go to wrestlingdata to see who else debuted in 1990 but it was no one that we saw on the Yearbooks. No matter, it's these two and then everybody else. Austin projected more star power at an earlier stage in his career but Kid's matches were too spectacular to ignore.

MANAGER OF THE YEAR (Jim Cornette)
1. Theodore Long
2. Bobby Heenan
3. Jeannie Clark
I really wanted to put Sherri here but Long came from under the radar with some great work in the Horsemen feud. Heenan did yeoman's work carrying two incredibly weak storylines--"Rude beat the Warrior once" and the comments about the Big Boss Man's mother--with great performances both funny and serious. Jeannie was full of surprises during the Adams feud and Toni made for a much better foil for her than Sapphire did for Sherri. Cornette clearly got this award by default. He was good with the Louisville Slugger but as an actual manager he didn't get the opportunity to do much. Doom had clearly surpassed the Midnights as the #1 heel team in the company.

BEST TV ANNOUNCER (Jim Ross)
1. Dave Brown
2. Jim Ross
3. Lance Russell
I suspect Lance could be #1 if we had more national Pro, but we don't. Ross had his moments of annoyance but was still stronger than just about anybody else...except Dave Brown, who was a model of consistency and professionalism throughout and getting a few moments to shine himself like when he told off Eddie Gilbert after being accused of taking extra payoffs from the Jarretts. Marc Lowrance gets an honorable mention, as he did very good work until leaving in the spring.

WORST TV ANNOUNCER (Herb Abrams)
1. Lee Marshall
2. Herb Abrams
3. Tony Rumble
2/3 of the Most Obnoxious Ballot plus Abrams, who was sort of Tony Rumble-like except on play-by-play instead of color.

And the Category B awards...

BEST MAJOR CARD (NJ/AJ/WWF Wrestling Summit): Halloween Havoc. Three great, different tag matches and a main event that was at least memorable, with a good performance from Sting. Honorable mention to NJPW's Super Fight '90 in the Tokyo Dome and to the 1990 Bash.

WORST MAJOR CARD (Clash XII). I think Clash XIII was worse.

BEST WRESTLING MANEUVER (Scott Steiner's Frankensteiner). Going to go with Liger's SSP instead.

MOST DISGUSTING PROMOTIONAL TACTIC (Onita/Gonzalez): It didn't make the Yearbook but I'm going to override that and agree with the WON voters--it has to go to the attempted Atsushi Onita/Jose Gonzalez stabbing feud. Among stuff that actually made it, the Horsemen vs. JYD/Rocky King/Thunderbolt racial card feud, which just barely edges out the Slaughter/Iraq alliance.

BEST COLOR COMMENTATOR (Jesse Ventura). Jesse it is, who remained strong right up until his departure. FAVORITE WRESTLER (Ric Flair). Flair or Dandy.

LEAST FAVORITE WRESTLER (Ultimate Warrior). I'm actually going to go with Dusty in spite of his strong finish to the year on promos. Did I mention how much I hated, hated, HATED the Dusty/Savage feud?

WORST (NON-ROOKIE) WRESTLER (Junkyard Dog). Jeff Gaylord was worse. Just a mesmerizingly awful performer.

WORST TAG TEAM (Baba/Andre). Baba & Andre were at least a dream team of sorts. The Master Blasters were just insulting.

WORST TELEVISION SHOW (AWA on ESPN). I think ICW had less to offer. Wasn't the AWA running classic matches a lot by this point?

WORST MANAGER (Mr. Fuji). Sapphire, period. I also have to come to the conclusion that Sam Bass Lowe is incredibly, incredibly pointless.

WORST MATCH OF THE YEAR (Sid/Nightstalker). Pearl vs. Cazana was twice as long and even more boring even if the spots weren't insultingly bad. Zeus/Abby was mesmerizing in its own way.

WORST ON INTERVIEWS (Ultimate Warrior). Oh, I think this has to go to Leon Spinks, don't you?

WORST PROMOTION (AWA). This or ICW. The AWA did provide some pretty good matches even at the bitter end.

STRONGEST WRESTLER. ??? Yeah, I give a fuck.

BEST BOOKER (Baba). I'm assuming Choshu was booking 1990 and he set up a great "on any given night..." vibe that All-Japan rarely had. Still, Baba gets credit for crisis management in how he got through the mass exodus of April. The NWA was red-hot for the first several months under Flair, despite his stupid babyface turn. I'm going to go with the readers.

PROMOTER OF THE YEAR (Baba). As bad as he botched Hawk & Animal after finally landing them, and as little as I think of a lot of how the product was presented, it's hard to argue with Vince here. New Japan was doing monster business at the end of the year but...to whom do I give credit? Inoki was off negotiating hostage releases, Choshu was booking...Seiji Sakaguchi? I don't know.

BEST GIMMICK (The Undertaker). Full credit for UT to take this award despite showing up at the very end of the voting period. That said, I will go with John Tatum as a CHANGED MAN.

WORST GIMMICK (Gobbledygooker). Kowabunga was the Gooker with a cheaper outfit and he actually wrestled. The biggest thing working against the Gooker was the amount of hype that the egg got. However, no gimmick combines massive hype with absolute shit output more than the Black Scorpion. Shitty angles, shitty interviews (from Ole Anderson, of all people!) and it somehow got Ric Flair to turn in a shitty performance.

MOST EMBARRASSING WRESTLER (Dusty Rhodes). Oh, I think the Scorpion can take this one as well--even if I'm again voting for a concept over a wrestler. I hated a lot of WWF Dusty but he wasn't as embarrassing as guys like the Warrior or the Bushwhackers--clearly this award was based on past hatred for the man for his NWA work and booking.

At some point I may break down some of the Category A awards by country or promotion. But this took way, way longer than I expected.