by Dave Meltzer
Kobashi & Ace - 3.38 (3) / ---- / ----
Legion of Doom - 0.38 / 2.06 / -1.68
Luger & Giant - 1.83 / ---- / ----
Kojima & Nakanishi - 3.00 (6) / ---- / ----
Misawa & Akiyama - 4.35 (1) / 4.56 (1) / -0.21
Muto & Chono - 2.48 (9) / ---- / ----
Sasaki & Yamazaki - 2.96 (7) / ---- / ----
Steiners - 2.11 / 3.08 (6) / -0.97
Tenzan & NWO Sting - 0.58 / ---- / ----
Williams & Albright - 3.17 (4) / ---- / ----
While recognizing the limitations of a system where wrestlers (and teams) are ranked based on the average rating of their major show matches during the previous year (ie. quality of opponents isn’t taken into consideration; restraints based on promotional decision of time allotment and limitations and changes thrown in at the last minute; and the subjectivity of rating matches to begin with), there is a lot that can be learned from these numbers.
These numbers are a better indication of consistency throughout the year then memories of only the best or worst that survive the year. They also tell stories of whose work truly improved and dropped off as opposed to people swayed by illusory improvement of someone getting a bigger push or more television time. And they do tell just how pathetic 1997 was when it came to tag team wrestling in the United States, although I’m sure most realize you didn’t need to see numbers to figure that out.
In running down notes on the various people, here are more items to be considered:
Steve Austin was actually at a 3.94 clip before suffering the neck injury in the SummerSlam match with Owen Hart. Had he not suffered the injury, he’d have been in contention and possibly even been the most consistently productive performing wrestler in the United States for the year.
Although Marcus Bagwell received tons of support and will finish strongly in the Most Improved Wrestler category, that is more due to his heel role garnering him more of a television push and an improvement in persona based on being given a chance. It has nothing to do with actually having better matches.
Chris Benoit may very well be the single best junior heavyweight worker in the business and best overall worker in the United States, but he was buried with weak opponents and feuds all year long. While a drop of .79 in most cases would be a significant decline, upon closer look at his opponents, this is one case where the numbers have to be disregarded.
On the other hand, the decline in the work of Masahiro Chono is significant for a wrestler that is arguably the most important wrestler in arguably the most successful company in the world. Chono is another whose reputation as a worker exceeds his actual work and where these numbers actually do tell a story.
As they do for the actual level of worker Ric Flair was in 1997.
Although we haven’t heard it much over the past year, Dustin Runnels (Goldust) always had a reputation for being a good, although not great worker. It was a rep garnered many years ago in WCW, but he’s only shown limited spurts of that rep since joining the WWF. For two years now he’s actually been a below average worker in the ring.
Eddie Guerrero going into Starrcade was actually the top rated North American worker for 1997, but the subpar (by his standards, not for others) match on that card nudged him into fourth place behind Psicosis, Ultimo Dragon and Bret Hart.
For all the talk of Hart slipping, he actually had better big show matches in 1997 than he did in 1996. Quite frankly, more likely than not, had the Michaels match went to its fruition with the added four more minutes of near falls, it almost surely would have been better than a **** match and Hart would have been the top rated North American wrestler of the year. This isn’t to make any statements about his drawing power or whether he was worth what his contract says or if he’s a better choice to be on top than Shawn Michaels, only that when it came to the big shows, in the ring, Hart is still at the top of not only his game but of the game.
Despite having one of the best heads of hair in the business, when it comes to production in the ring, Hunter Hearst Helmsley was overall an average wrestler in 1996 and an average wrestler in 1997. He had an improved push during the year and was positioned as a superstar, but overall his work nor his ability to get over gave no backing to the new push. He’s doing well in his new role, but getting that role had more to do with he was one of Shawn Michaels’ few friends in the company and his look (and throughout the years there are numerous people in the business who have made tons of money based on their look with no ability in the ring).
The fact that Shinya Hashimoto’s decline was fairly small over the last year is actually amazing. There is not one major star in the business, not Benoit, not anyone, who was put in the ring in major singles matches with such a poor quality of opponents and to pull some actual good matches out of the likes of Naoya Ogawa (twice, and nobody else has come close to have matches with Ogawa at that level), and even bad matches out of Zane Frazier and Hubert Numrich and still keep a 2.73 average for the year shows Hashimoto to really be one of the best in the business.
If anyone was still judging Curt Hennig as a wrestler based on the fact he was top-five in the world in his prime, check out the numbers and if you figure in that his bouts have been against Page and Flair, both of whom even at this stage can’t be considered below average on their own, you’ll see his actual nickname at this stage of the game is either Mr. Slightly Below Average or the $750,000 lemon.
Jeff Jarrett declined, but there isn’t a guy who wouldn’t having to work a program with Steve McMichael.
Chris Jericho must be one of the most underrated workers in the business.
I’m amazed Ahmed Johnson has fared as well as he has the past two years.
It takes a long time to accept people at the level they are. I’ve noticed in awards when it comes to bests and worsts and improvement that often there is what I’d call a one year latency period, in that people don’t notice improvements and declines in talent until sometimes a year after it takes place. Case in point—Koji Kanemoto. Based on the full year, there was not a better worker in the business. But since Kanemoto was always considered a top-20 level guy, most would tab his improvement this year to maybe cracking the top ten when he not only cracked the top ten, but plowed through it.
On the other hand we have Toshiaki Kawada. There are a lot of people, myself included, who immediately would rank Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi and Kawada as the three best heavyweight wrestlers in the world. As you can see, both Misawa and Kobashi unquestionably deserve that reputation. Kawada, for two years running, has finished No. 13 and No. 15, despite having numerous Match of the Year type efforts. Fact is, Kawada, unlike Misawa and Kobashi, sometimes has real bad nights on real big shows. No doubt when Kawada turns it on, he’s equal to anyone in this business, but what these numbers show is that both of the last two years his consistency hasn’t been enough to crack the top ten even if his best matches are.
I guess whatever rep Kenta Kobashi has garnered is deserved. Finishing No. 1 two straight years says a lot. Sure, it helps when you get three major singles matches with Misawa so he’s been positioned where he should do well, but positioning alone isn’t going to make someone No. 1 two straight (and if we’d done these numbers before I’d guess Kobashi would be at or near the top for many years before that).
For Jushin Liger to have a year like he did coming back from a brain tumor which at first thought could be a career-ender, is probably the single most under-publicized story of 1997. Liger has been so good for so long that his work is taken for granted. In the ring, he is for consistency the greatest junior heavyweight of all-time. There are others, like Benoit, who are in his class, but on a nightly basis going back for the last nine years, he may be the best worker in the business.
Dean Malenko is consistently very good. What a revelation.
Shawn Michaels is, well, you can see the numbers. You can argue Shawn vs. Bret till the cows come home and it really doesn’t matter. Shawn didn’t get a good match out of Sid despite being in his home
city before 60,000 fans. But Bret probably couldn’t either. Bret got a better match out of Del Wilkes than Shawn did out of Ken Shamrock (from most accounts, Bret’s house show matches with Shamrock were better than Shawn’s television and PPV matches with Shamrock although Shamrock should be a better opponent for Bret since Bret had a hand in training him). Bret’s England PPV match with Undertaker and Shawn’s first PPV match with Undertaker were of similar quality, although Michaels’ cage match with Undertaker was one of the best performances by anyone all year. Michaels is a great worker, but on a consistent basis he’s also not the best in the business.
Misawa’s numbers aren’t a surprise. Actually, if you throw in tag team matches, he was better than Kobashi or Kanemoto. Kobashi did have one horrendous match on a big show (a tag match with he and Johnny Ace vs. Steve Williams & Gary Albright) this year while Misawa’s worst matches were still ***1/4 stars and that’s with 15 major show singles and tag matches and not all against Kobashi and Kawada—more than any wrestler in the business during the year, 11 of which were **** or better.
Misterio Jr’s decline can be summed up in two words—Prince Iaukea (whose illusory better than average rating can be summed up by Rey Misterio Jr.). Take the Prince matches out and you’ve got a 3.85 rating which again would be the top in North America for the year. In 1996, Misterio Jr. had the most consistent great matches in North America because he was largely booked against his best possible opponents on big shows, Ultimo Dragon, Juventud Guerrera, Psicosis, Dean Malenko and Jushin Liger among others. This year he had Iaukea and Konnan.
The numbers tell the story about Keiji Muto in 1997. He’s gone from being one of the best workers in the business to probably the most inconsistent (although even in the past he was inconsistent). He can still be a great worker when he’s got the working shoes on. But he laced those boots up a whole lot less this year than last year. He’s probably the equivalent in Japan to Randy Savage in his prime where he is a great worker, but he often sucks. Savage’s work plunged for years to where everyone wrote him off as being washed up. But as this year shows, he still has a lot left in him. Muto shows enough flashes to see he’s got a lot of great matches left in him, but he was sure inconsistent this year. And when he doesn’t have his lucky boots on, his matches smell like week-old fish.
Shinjiro Otani is one of the best. What a shock, huh?
Diamond Dallas Page is the Most Improved Wrestler in the business? Talk about the illusion based on positioning. In 1996, he had to work with guys like Booty Man so he deserved some slack. This year his big matches were against the likes of a revitalized Randy Savage, a good friend in Marcus Bagwell, and a guy with a great rep (although living off it) in Curt Hennig and he did no better. Page has a lot of charisma. His timing of when to do moves can be great and he did an incredible job of getting his finisher over. His interviews can be great. His major stardom in this business is because Hall & Nash sold for him and Sting and just about nobody else, because he was given ample TV and because positioning is almost everything. But is he one of the best workers in the business? His talk and push are so good that a lot of people believe it, and hey, that’s what this business is all about. Except he’s not.
Amazing that there wasn’t a North American worker in the business that was more consistent in big show matches than a WCW TV jobber (Psicosis)? Are he and El Samurai the single most underrated workers in the business today?
Savage’s numbers seem to be an accurate indication that for whatever reason he’s probably wrestling the best he has in many years.
Tatsuhito Takaiwa is the Most Improved Wrestler in the business? Going from an opening match wrestler with potential to No. 7 as a worker over a one year period is sort of unheard of.
Akira Taue’s 1996 was a lucky number based on so many singles matches with great opponents. His 1997 number isn’t so much an indication of a big decline as much as a reality check.
Hiroyoshi Tenzan has been the most improved wrestler of the year when it comes to an unheralded improvement. If you don’t believe it, check out of a tape of the Yasuda match. But his tag team work doesn’t hold up to his singles.
The only real comments in regard to tag teams is just how pathetic the list is overall, and how the Steiners and LOD are living off their reputations, the latter more than the former.
49 – Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards
Category A Awards
Winners determined by points voted on a 5-3-2 basis. First place votes in parenthesis.
Wrestler of the Year
1. Mitsuharu Misawa (338) - 2,288
2. Bret Hart (72) - 758
3. Kenta Kobashi (79) - 722
4. Steve Austin (79) - 705
5. Shawn Michaels (51) - 510
6. Shinya Hashimoto (10) - 345
7. Shinjiro Otani (19) - 208
8. Koji Kanemoto (18) - 197
9. Toshiaki Kawada (3) - 194
10. Rey Misterio Jr. (12) - 191
Honorable Mention
Jushin Liger 154, Eddie Guerrero 87, Dean Malenko 74, Maurice Smith 74
Previous Winners
1980 - Harley Race, 1981 - Ric Flair, 1982 - Ric Flair, 1983 - Ric Flair, 1984 - Ric Flair, 1985 - Ric Flair, 1986 - Ric Flair, 1987 - Riki Choshu, 1988 - Akira Maeda, 1989 - Ric Flair, 1990 - Ric Flair, 1991 - Jumbo Tsuruta, 1992 - Ric Flair, 1993 - Vader, 1994 - Toshiaki Kawada, 1995 - Mitsuharu Misawa, 1996 - Kenta Kobashi
MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER
1. Mitsuharu Misawa (143) - 1,002
2. Rey Misterio Jr. (114) - 894
3. Shinjiro Otani (82) - 713
4. Kenta Kobashi (59) - 680
5. Koji Kanemoto (47) - 544
6. Eddie Guerrero (48) - 538
7. Shawn Michaels (65) - 484
8. Chris Benoit (43) - 467
9. Ultimo Dragon (23) - 275
10. Dean Malenko (20) - 215
Honorable Mention
Toshiaki Kawada 185, Manami Toyota 119, Jushin Liger 110, Taka Michinoku 91, Bret Hart 78, Jun Akiyama 72
Previous Winners
1986 - Ric Flair, 1987 - Ric Flair, 1988 - Tatsumi Fujinami, 1989 - Ric Flair, 1990 - Jushin Liger, 1991 - Jushin Liger, 1992 - Jushin Liger, 1993 - Kenta Kobashi, 1994 - Kenta Kobashi, 1995 - Manami Toyota, 1996 - Rey Misterio Jr.
BEST BOX OFFICE DRAW
1. Hulk Hogan (235) - 1,576
2. Shinya Hashimoto (137) - 1,176
3. Steve Austin (76) - 746
4. Riki Choshu (58) - 537
5. Bret Hart (33) - 466
6. Roddy Piper (9) - 329
7. Shawn Michaels (17) - 323
8. Ric Flair (8) - 182
9. Mitsuharu Misawa (2) - 131
10. Undertaker (5) - 111
Honorable Mention
Nobuhiko Takada 90, Atsushi Onita 78
Best Babyface Previous Winners
1980 - Dusty Rhodes, 1981 - Tommy Rich, 1982 - Hulk Hogan, 1983 - Hulk Hogan, 1984 - Hulk Hogan, 1985 - Hulk Hogan, 1986 - Hulk Hogan, 1987 - Hulk Hogan, 1988 - Hulk Hogan, 1989 - Hulk Hogan, 1990 - Hulk Hogan, 1991 - Hulk Hogan, 1992 - Sting, 1993 - Atsushi Onita, 1994 - Atsushi Onita, 1995 - Perro Aguayo, 1996 - Shawn Michaels
Best Heel Previous Winners
1980 - Larry Zbyszko, 1981 - Don Muraco, 1982 - Buzz Sawyer, 1983 - Michael Hayes, 1984 - Roddy Piper, 1985 - Roddy Piper, 1986 - Michael Hayes, 1987 - Ted DiBiase, 1988 - Ted DiBiase, 1989 - Terry Funk, 1990 - Ric Flair, 1991 - The Undertaker, 1992 - Rick Rude, 1993 - Vader, 1994 - Love Machine, 1995 - Masahiro Chono, 1996 - Steve Austin
FEUD of the Year
1. Steve Austin vs. The Hart Foundation (157) - 1,212
2. WCW vs. NWO (116) - 891
3. Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels (93) - 715
4. Otani & Kanemoto vs. Liger & Samurai (47) - 362
5. New Japan vs. NWO (38) - 353
6. Michinoku Seikigun vs. Kaientai DX (11) - 287
7. Diamond Dallas Page vs. Randy Savage (18) - 259
8. Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Miste
rio Jr. (12) - 244
9. El Hijo del Santo vs. Negro Casas (23) - 155
10. Jerry Lawler vs. ECW (17) - 148
Honorable Mention
Sabu vs. Taz 130, Dean Malenko vs. Eddie Guerrero 122, Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker 119, Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada 91
Previous Winners
1980 - Bruno Sammartino vs. Larry Zbyszko, 1981 - Andre the Giant vs. Killer Khan, 1982 - Ted DiBiase vs. Junkyard Dog, 1983 - Freebirds vs. Von Erichs, 1984 - Freebirds vs. Von Erichs, 1985 - Ted DiBiase vs. Jim Duggan, 1986 - Hulk Hogan vs. Paul Orndorff, 1987 - Jerry Lawler vs. Austin Idol & Tommy Rich, 1988 - Midnight Express vs. Fantastics, 1989 - Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk, 1990 - Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa, 1991 - Tsuruta & company vs. Misawa & company, 1992 - Moondogs vs. Jerry Lawler & Jeff Jarrett, 1993 - Bret Hart vs. Jerry Lawler, 1994 - Gringo Locos vs. Mexican AAA, 1995 - Dean Malenko vs. Eddie Guerrero, 1996 - WCW vs. NWO
TAG TEAM of the Year
1. Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama (222) - 1,448
2. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (146) - 1,375
3. Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace (25) - 521
4. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda (44) - 392
5. Shinjiro Otani & Koji Kanemoto (34) - 367
6. Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith (42) - 342
7. Perry Saturn & John Kronus (41) - 335
8. Rick & Scott Steiner (24) - 319
9. Keiji Muto & Masahiro Chono (28) - 244
10. Dick Togo & Mens Teioh (22) - 215
Honorable Mention
Sabu & Rob Van Dam 183, Scott Hall & Kevin Nash 159, Harlem Heat 134, Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima 92, Legion of Doom 71
Previous Winners
1980 - Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts, 1981 - Terry Gordy & Jimmy Snuka, 1982 - Stan Hansen & Ole Anderson, 1983 - Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood, 1984 - Road Warriors, 1985 - Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith, 1986 - Bobby Eaton & Dennis Condrey, 1987 - Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane, 1988 - Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane, 1989 - Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty, 1990 - Rick & Scott Steiner, 1991 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada, 1992 - Terry Gordy & Steve Williams, 1993 - Brian Pillman & Steve Austin, 1994 - Love Machine & Eddie Guerrero, 1995 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi, 1996 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama