@@distantandvague Idk I can't take you seriously if you watch AEW, like have some self awareness towards the people you hang out with. Fat, balding, neckbeard, act like children, yeah thats a brand that is cool to support
HBK, The Undertaker, Bret Hart and The Rock never won the wrestler of the year, but a bunch of Japanese wrestlers neither I or 95% of the people who've ever watched wrestling have even heard of won a decade's worth, says it all.
@@dmcathis3739 Actually no, it doesn't. Dave has become like some rock journalists in my youth who wrote endless articles in the late 70s about how some obscure garage rock or proto punk band was more important than Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd.
@@henrygvidonas9573 It's not really that simple. Japan is a huge country & success there isn't much smaller than in the West (it could be bigger even). I'm boxing fan too & there are a lot incredible Japanese champions dominating the smaller weight divisions, but very few western fans know about them. In MMA, UFC is big in West, but One is equally powerful in the East. The problem is that this planet is just too big. There should be 2 wrestler of the year awards, so that we could avoid problems like that.
Walter vs Dragunov was only 5th best match, Being The Elite was 3rd best weelky show, Orange Cassidy was 2nd most charismatic, Excalibur best television announcer ... this is nuts
If you take into the scope of all wrestling seen in 2020, it's actually accurate. But that's like saying which piece of dog shit tastes the least offensive to your taste buds.
Go Shiozaki, a man who carried Pro Wrestling NOAH on his back, leading it to be the most successful quality wise and business wise it’s been since Misawa died and Kobashi retired, doesn’t even win Japanese MVP. Naito is great, obviously, but Shiozaki more than deserved this award. Disgraceful
@@saschafeld1707 I'm a HUGE Shiozaki and NOAH fan since 2005, but very few people watch NOAH nowadays compared to NJPW (you can say the same thing about AJPW). Sad but true, cause the product is so much better than NJPW, especially in 2020 with the awesome Shiozaki championship run.
To be fair, Shawn Micheals is almost as bad as Hogan when it comes to politics. He did Vadar badly when he was in WWE and never recovered since and of course that whole 'clique' nonsense.
They gave The Young Bucks the Best Book award, even though there were books about Andre The Giant and Ken Shamrock that were way better. Tells you all you need to know about the WOR awards.
@@arnavbhagwat4232 I think the problem is it came out in December,-so not many would have read it, plus unless you sub to Crowbar Press/listen to 605 etc you likely wouldn't even have heard about it. Really I would say it should be up for next years ballot due to its publication date.
@@VillaFan767 well Corny takes him seriously enough to do two podcasts a week talking about him, and all of the comments from people butthurt about another mans opinion on fake fighting
Having Matt Hardy appear on Dynamite to swear he didn't have a concussion and put over how AEW handled it is a promotional tactic. AEW "politicizing" COVID by calling WWE a sloppy shop while they themselves had their own cases that they kept to themselves - promotional tactic. With the various things Chris Jericho was involved with this year and the flexibility of the definition of the category - Chris Jericho's been involved in some disgusting promotional tactics.
The Observer was the underground smart mark version of Pro Wrestling Illustrated in the 80's and 90's. It was like Alternative music until it went mainstream and now it is following fads pretending to be alternative.
"You fooled them all didn't you Dave...” (Dave staring at photo of Kenny Olivier) “But not me" -Jim Cornette paraphrasing Dr. Sam Loomis from the TV Cut of Halloween.
I'm going to attempt to change your mind about Meltzer being on AEW's payroll, but I will not change your mind that Tony Khan is potentially paying Meltzer. I doubt Meltzer is on AEW's payroll since that would way too easy to get busted and definitely destroy whatever little credibility Meltzer still has in claiming to be an journalist. The alternate theory you should consider is that Tony Khan might be paying Dave Meltzer indirectly by bulk subscribing to the hardcopies of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. It does not seem too difficult to do so as long as the subscriber has lots of money: www.f4wonline.com/news/wrestling-observer-home-delivery-161156
It was so obvious that these were the AEW Awards. Any category that was positive was filled with AEW/NJPW names, and any category that was negative had multiple WWE names. The fact that Sasha and Bayley weren't even listed for the feud of the year was a complete joke. People already think Meltzer is a joke anyway, but he's not doing anything to change people's minds.
Yes...as much as they say his subscribers vote on it but if they believe whatever the cult leader says then it’s exactly the same as him voting for it himself
Well WWE was not once the top promotion or particular hot in the drawing metrics under them - that was New Japan post Hogan WWE upto the NWO. So it makes sense that they never won it.
@@MC-mf7zj Does it really matter? WWE was still a huge company. By that logic TNA, ROH, AEW & perhaps AAA & Japanese companies couldn't win awards today, because they aren't as big as WWE.
@@vanderful2397 Perhaps just saying WWE being in bad shape at the time is a poor argument for the person specifically, but there is no real argument for them as far as WOTY is concerned when compared to the winners. Shawn Michaels was someone who'd help keep things okay but he wasn't a massive draw unlike people like Misawa, Kobashi, even Vader at the time. Hart was in Europe, so you could make an argument. Honestly the biggest ommison in the award's history is Hashimoto, who was a way bigger draw than both throughout the decade. So to say that they are shoo-ins when better candidates that didn't win is just baffling to me. Plus there is not many wrestlers in WWE that you could actually say are difference makers in their promotions unlike Moxley who is and Okada and Naito who won it in earlier years. I guess the case is relative to the person.
@@vanderful2397 Dont even waste your brain cells tryna figure these ppl’s logic out. One minute its about in ring ability then about drawing power then about how big the promotion is...they literally move the goal post until someone japanese or not employed by Vince McMahon fits the criteria. Insanity.
@@TheeCoachg in order to gauge drawing power it needs to be a big promotion because there's no point calling yourself a draw if you're getting 400 people in a field in Jersey. Hence why Austin is seen as one of the biggest draws ever because he basically sold out arenas on his own. Same as Cena did.
I absolutely love the pure division, but then they turn around and do shit like having the Danhausen guy and other bingo hall fuckery. I'm trying to hang in there, but most weeks I find myself doing something else when RoH is aired
@@SharptonsRaceCard exactly. I was excited when I heard Jim talk about the Pure division. I watched some of it and liked it. Then I turned to ROH on a random show and they were right back to doing the vanilla midget bullshit. I gave up on it.
ROH is a wonderful company, almost 70% of the current WWE main eventers are ex-ROH guys, but since the rise of AEW the poor ROH fall to the four or third place cause sadly they dont have money to compite against Khan.
I am a fan of NJPW myself and even I know that it cannot draw as good in the US as it does Japan due to cultural differences, language barriers and presentation. I have to switch my brain to Japanese effectively to understand what goes on in NJPW compared to anything in the US. The smarks in AEW, WON and especially the Joshi simps are the ones who overhype that shit and think it will work outside the Japan/WON bubble. Why do you think Shida is the only one to survive the joshi picks of Omega and two factors being joshi simps and her ESL?
Because he for the most part treats wrestling very seriously & is a good working big man built around power spots, in a world of midgets who do flips & stupid comedy.
Meltzer: "Oh what was one of WWE's biggest act in 2020? Fiend? Oh okay!" *writes down Fiend is over-rated* That'll win me brownie points! Like I'm all for people having their opinions and stuff, but this dude is far too transparent with things.
Just in case there was any doubt 2020 was the worst year in history of wrestling. A man who can't time his commercial breaks right on pre-taped shows just won booker of the year. Hope Jim resigns his nominations.
Was there a most improved award in 1999? If so then Hardcore Holly should get it. He was always good in the ring but he made a huge turn around when he became "Hardcore Holly" and ended the JOB Squad and "Bombastic Bob" stuff. He was the resident tough as hell mid card workhorse from 1999 - 2004
@@Herbert_Rudolf Growing up in the 80s, I couldn't stand Hogan. Even as a kid I found him extremely corny. I know, I'm weird. I found him somewhat interesting when he turned heel.
SmackDown is behind BTE 😂😂😂 But honestly, box office draw= money, ratings, merch so it should be someone from wwe or ufc since they are the biggest 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
The Young Bucks were entertaining...10 years ago. But their act has not evolved one bit since their time in PWG. They are not TV wrestlers. They look like crap. Bayley and Sasha were a better tag team in 2020 than the Bucks were.
Exactly they're only good in a context of an indie show that happens every 2 to 3 months week to week they do the same thing over and over and over no psychology just spots
That was the big complaint from any WWE fan. He hates WWE even when it’s good. The quality of match from 01-07 was very good with the right competitors and he wouldn’t give them their time of day because it wasn’t Japan.
Roman v Jey was a decent candidate for feud of the year. Ther ratings on SD were nearly Ruthless Aggression high for a bit during the height of that angle.
@@andrebryant5081 Let me say this, the whole idea of "this is my opinion, so please leave me alone" (which is scarcely used for anything more than simply a safety-net) should definitely not hold true especially for something that is trying to be somewhat objective, pretty much on account of it's very nature, which is to recognize the best candidates in their respective fields by a major newsletter. There should be a modicum of objectivity that maybe defined on certain standards, objectivity is not the same as being "factual" and while complete objectivity is perhaps not achievable there should and can be a rigorous attempt to keep subjectivity at a minimum(without which essentially every academic work would have to predicate itself by saying "please leave me alone"). Above everything even if you do disagree with everything I said above, please explain as to why shouldn't a person have the right to be angry over the opinion of another person? Why are people angry over certain people being blatantly racist or sexist? Above all being equally accepting towards all opinions would never result in any discourse about a debatable topic. Thank you for reading this stupidly long comment.
@@soumyadeepbanerjee964 You value Dave's opinion this much while I didn't value your edited comment at all because your opinion doesn't matter to me fool!
Here’s a disgusting promotional tactic that was missed: AEW using a dead wrestler’s 8 year old son on tv the week he died and has continued to use him still. That’s more disgusting to me than some bad acting by Seth Rollins and Rey Mysterio.
@@marcosant98 Now factor in Dave never took a bump and his wrestling opinion makes him 6 figures a year. Any wrestlers not a millionaire or billionaire the last 35 years is baddd at their job!
@@andrebryant5081 well that’s a good point. He’s made his life giving his opinion and that makes him money. He never gained popularity going to a show. He made his own popularity. Thanks!
@@CornerRoom_Thoughts it's Jim Smallman doing the actual booking, Michaels from my understanding just in the Vince/Triple H type role of approving things
Tbf Kobashi was Champion for like around 2 years, he drew huge crowds and had great matches. Actual wrestling matches. Not video game match slop. Kobashi was a double tough dude who was a great worker. Just look at the American legends who endorsed him. Harley Race and Stan Hansen are two that come to mind who were high on him.
Lol according to Dave Meltzer the Young Bucks, Omega, Moxley and Cody Rhodes are more popular and bigger draws than Randy Orton, Edge, Miz, Drew Mcintyre, Kofi Kingston, Seth Rollins lol. I gotta get whatever crack he's on
Not only that. He has tricked himself into believing that these AEW clowns draw more money than Stipe Miocic, Israel Adessanya or Khabib Nurmagomedov. A cursory glance at the PPV numbers crushes that delusion into dust. Almost like Old Dave only brings up the UFC to spite the WWE....
Tony Khan as booker of the year, 😪😪 the "forbidden door" i need another sport to watch now,😪 this is sad. The only 2 major sports entertainment companies have flipping midgets and kidnappings every week.
@Kevin Sims, & that's the main problem with the business now, is that Today's fans or "audience" just accepts what Khan & Vince do on their respective shows instead of demanding more from them from a LOGICAL booking standpoint.
@@TheSportsfan35 “LOGICAL” booking? Vince booked an old lady giving birth to a hand and it had like 5 million+ viewers. It’s not about logical booking. Logical booking ain’t important as long as it’s entertaining to fans. Not just to you.
@@TheSportsfan35 its like they're all burned out from the bs they've become immune to it. We never did get an explanation on how 3 men can fit in a 2 seater helicopter
@@Thebestoutthere Have you seen the tv ratings lately?All 3 companies have done HORRIBLE tv ratings & that's because now they seem to book the talent as if their viewers are kids, idiots or idiotic kids.
My first thought cam in feud of the year was Reigns vs Uso bcz it was not scripted it felt real to me uncle dave is not chicken or egg he is a fox of aew
Meltzer is not a good wrestling critic. A good historian, sure, but he critiques wrestling like it’s figure skating at the Olympics or something and there’s a LOT more to matches than just the moves - there’s the in-ring psychology, the storytelling, the booking, the selling, etc. He judges it almost exclusively on the technical side of things when he wants to and it’s never clear. A journalist also shouldn’t be so involved in certain organizations because it’s hard to ignore the fact that the WWE never paid him any attention while the other company has wrestlers who name moves after him. If AEW will give us anything, it’s exposing Meltzer for the ridiculous fraud that he’s always been, and also introducing the wrestling world to the tiny group of talented young wrestlers who will be wearing “Property of the WWE PC” within the next 3-5 years because this ALWAYS happens - WCW’s ignored midcard talent come to the WWE after a bunch of legends and older guys went to WCW, TNA’s home grown talent make a name for themselves in TNA and then eventually find themselves in WWE after the old timers and legends started populating TNA. But at least WCW and TNA had ratings at various points whereas AEW’s only two hours of television involving well known wrestling stars and a ton of advertising on the TNT and TBS networks is regularly competitive with the WWE’s sixth and seventh hour of weekly programming with their least popular roster. They’ve successfully used the old ECW “us against the world” cult like marketing to earn themselves a small but strong fan base but I think after a year and a half of false promises and pretty much the same old thing we’ve always seen mixed in with a lack of momentum for a lot of their promising young acts, the bloom is off the rose and people are starting to sober up. (But obviously AEW has the better catering.) WWE is the old husband that didn’t pay enough attention to them and they’re using AEW like the younger guy to make the husband jealous to inspire some kind of passion out of him, but the husband knows that they will always keep track of what he’s doing and the younger guy is bullsh*t, so a whole lot of nothing is going to happen and everybody is wasting their f*cking time.
I kept bursting out laughing when Brian was counting down the winners of the wrestler of the year awards. In the words of Big Kevin Nash: "Abu Zago vs Napo Zango in the Korakuen Hall"
Honestly I didnt knew about many Japanese Wrestler before i looked at the Awards and the Five Star Matches but some of them are really good much better than anything in America
When they were going over announcer of the year and said it wasn’t JR or Tony Schiavone I was thinking “Well it’s got to be Excrement then.” and it turned out to be right. Also as soon as Brian said that Book of the year was an indictment on the the readers that voted I was thinking”It’s the Young Bucks book.” and again I was right.
Les Thatcher who does his own podcast on Dave's/Bryan's Wrestling Observer site mentioned he agrees with 99% of the things Jim Cornette says but he himself would word it more differently than Jim
Yeah, a lot on the "Most disgusting promotional tactics" award list aren't really promotional tactics and some of them like Backlund as WWF Champion in 82 comes off as just petty.
Jim Cornette said it best. Orange Cassidy is the stand up comedian with only one joke. It works if he goes to different locations where no one's seen the joke. But once everyone's seen the joke on national TV, the joke got old really fast.
@@TomFoolery350 It's not a gimmick. 10 years of buzzards and fireflies. Never went anywhere. It's 2021. Only edgy 14-year-olds getting bullied a school still care for this tacky Rob Zombie sh-t. It's a fat juggalo in a mask. 33 years old, never got past his Hot Topic phase. Facepaint fishnet Jeff Hardy is another good example. Another delusional idiot who thinks his dated act is cool .
@@staalhard666 LOL, edgy. Here's the thing: even if you think he sucks; he's still better than Orange Cassidy hahaha! If you think otherwise, then your opinion is stupid and can't be taken seriously.
@@rodycaz8984 Amazing argumentation. "mY oPiNiOn ! yOu sTuPid!"... followed by an upvote for yourself. I can see why you fall in the Fiend fanbase category.
Best booker should go to ROH's team, what a turnaround. And all without any mainstream publicity from Corny or any of the talking heads. The era of the observer and people thinking it's some all mighty rag is over peeps.
Bucks have seriously won tag team of the year 7 times. How in hell does this not prove Dave is bias towards them? FTR? The New Day? Uso's? Broken Hardyz all together during that era. There's no way Dave doesn't pick these if Taz is non wrestler of the year over Heyman in 2020.
Probably not. Jim is sitting in his home over the phone and Brian is the only one in a studio. I don’t know if it’s a home studio that Brian has, Brian does other podcasts. Unless Jim videos himself
Wtf... The observer should just cover AEW only for now on cause he seems to only be a huge mark for everything Tony Khan, Young Bucks, and Jon Moxley... Everything else seems to be irrelevant to him..
Just hearing both the current winners and the past ones with a few exceptions just makes me think DM is nothing more than a hipster. Everything that isnt the mainstream is cool and everything that is sucks.
Ah, the perfect example of a feedback loop - The newsletter leans heavily towards a certain style making fans of other styles walk away, so the user feedback just endorses the WON's point of view, and then that reinforces theirs....
Idk Booker T has been Booker of the Year to me for like 25+ years running.
Tell me, you didn't just say that!
CAN YOU DIG IT??? SUCKAAAAA!
This is both awful and hilarious at the same time. Well done haha
Yeah but what does the 'T' stand for? My guess is Thumbpumper
👍
feud of the year Jim cornette vs AEW
Isnt Cornette vs Russo the feud of the year every year?
@@jimmyandersson9358 Shitstain hasn't done anything relevant in 2020 so it defaults to Cornette vs AEW, maybe Corny vs Meltzer/Jericho for 2021
Its more like squash of the year
id vote for that
@@distantandvague Idk I can't take you seriously if you watch AEW, like have some self awareness towards the people you hang out with. Fat, balding, neckbeard, act like children, yeah thats a brand that is cool to support
HBK, The Undertaker, Bret Hart and The Rock never won the wrestler of the year, but a bunch of Japanese wrestlers neither I or 95% of the people who've ever watched wrestling have even heard of won a decade's worth, says it all.
That says more about you than it does about the awards.
@@dmcathis3739 Actually no, it doesn't.
Dave has become like some rock journalists in my youth who wrote endless articles in the late 70s about how some obscure garage rock or proto punk band was more important than Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd.
@@henrygvidonas9573 It's not really that simple. Japan is a huge country & success there isn't much smaller than in the West (it could be bigger even). I'm boxing fan too & there are a lot incredible Japanese champions dominating the smaller weight divisions, but very few western fans know about them. In MMA, UFC is big in West, but One is equally powerful in the East. The problem is that this planet is just too big. There should be 2 wrestler of the year awards, so that we could avoid problems like that.
@@dmcathis3739,Your Point is invalid.
@@dmcathis3739 no it doesn't
That Young Bucks Book winning over the Andre Book is the single greatest insult to wrestling ever.
What promotion is that?
Facts
@@johnmarcus317
Literacy
@@johnmarcus317 minnow q
Walter vs Dragunov was only 5th best match, Being The Elite was 3rd best weelky show, Orange Cassidy was 2nd most charismatic, Excalibur best television announcer ... this is nuts
Meltzer has lost all credibility
If you take into the scope of all wrestling seen in 2020, it's actually accurate. But that's like saying which piece of dog shit tastes the least offensive to your taste buds.
A complete joke from a uncredible mark
@@sx9204 facts
@@stealthmode1303 no meltzers choices. Voted for.
Go Shiozaki, a man who carried Pro Wrestling NOAH on his back, leading it to be the most successful quality wise and business wise it’s been since Misawa died and Kobashi retired, doesn’t even win Japanese MVP. Naito is great, obviously, but Shiozaki more than deserved this award. Disgraceful
Hell yea my boy Rene Dupree is over there atm and says Go Shiozaki is top notch
That a thing I dont understand also. Great Matches and a great Worker but only NJPW seems to count.
@@saschafeld1707 I'm a HUGE Shiozaki and NOAH fan since 2005, but very few people watch NOAH nowadays compared to NJPW (you can say the same thing about AJPW). Sad but true, cause the product is so much better than NJPW, especially in 2020 with the awesome Shiozaki championship run.
I wouldn't know what happened to NOAH until you posted this. Is Marufuji still in there?
@@redhurricane24 Yes he is. And Mutoh won the belt a few days ago.
Can't believe Shawn Michaels never won wrestler of the year. Dave's always been a joke.
exactly what i thought.
I dont follow Dave and didnt know that, and that's insane. I can't believe anyone takes him seriously.
To be fair, Shawn Micheals is almost as bad as Hogan when it comes to politics. He did Vadar badly when he was in WWE and never recovered since and of course that whole 'clique' nonsense.
@@BeyondDaX Yet he is one of the best wrestlers of all time.
@@RandalfElVikingo He is one of the best seller of moves, I'll give you that much
Should’ve just called the awards the AEW awards
They gave The Young Bucks the Best Book award, even though there were books about Andre The Giant and Ken Shamrock that were way better. Tells you all you need to know about the WOR awards.
Tim Hornbaker's Buddy Rogers biography should have won!
The winners are Dave’s likes. I’m not impressed.
Absolutely delusional its because no one in wwe will speak to him
So if you don't value Dave's opinion why talk about it?
@@arnavbhagwat4232 I think the problem is it came out in December,-so not many would have read it, plus unless you sub to Crowbar Press/listen to 605 etc you likely wouldn't even have heard about it. Really I would say it should be up for next years ballot due to its publication date.
Can Jim cornette create his own news letter with corny awards at the end of the year for people to vote on?
Eh, he is far too busy with his collectable business to do that stuff
Why so Charlotte Flair Reha wins most awards.
He doesn’t watch Smackdown, so he’s missing the best weekly show and the top heel in the business Roman Reigns.
@@BenGetItIn That's very debatable.
@@BeyondDaX I know, it’s my opinion.
Corny’s been a lifesaver for me during this pandemic
Cornette has always been in my toughest times since 2010 lol.
Dude, same here. I'm not into some of his more vulgar comments, but for the most part Cornette tries to at least come up with constructive criticism.
I honestly think he is the last good thing about modern wrestling, probably wouldn't watch/ follow it anymore without this podcast 😂
The Slammy’s have more prestige than these awards.
These are the Slammy's, I'm shocked they did not have a ceremony on Dynamite.
Wow thats kinda a stretch 😆
This list of so called award winners is beyond atrocious.
Liked this upload before the ads finished playing, before it even started. Knew I wouldn't be disappointed
Same!
I know Dave Meltzer is pro AEW, but Jesus Christ.
The awards were voted on by fans
@@Station_AI The people who follow Dave have the same taste as him
@@Station_AI Only AEW fans even read Dave Meltzer anymore. No one can take him seriously at this point.
@@VillaFan767 well Corny takes him seriously enough to do two podcasts a week talking about him, and all of the comments from people butthurt about another mans opinion on fake fighting
@@Station_AI im pretty sure meltzer would win best journalist at the aew awards
Having Matt Hardy appear on Dynamite to swear he didn't have a concussion and put over how AEW handled it is a promotional tactic.
AEW "politicizing" COVID by calling WWE a sloppy shop while they themselves had their own cases that they kept to themselves - promotional tactic.
With the various things Chris Jericho was involved with this year and the flexibility of the definition of the category - Chris Jericho's been involved in some disgusting promotional tactics.
The Observer was the underground smart mark version of Pro Wrestling Illustrated in the 80's and 90's. It was like Alternative music until it went mainstream and now it is following fads pretending to be alternative.
Kind of like what the Simpsons has become.
Its the old wrestling saying....”If everything is a swerve then nothing is a swerve,really”
What a total coincidence that the greatest tag team on the planet happens to be the one that named their finishing move after Dave.
Enzo & Big Cass named a move after meltzer?
@@SaudiGod No, Haas and Benjamin did.
@@SaudiGod you didn't see Naomi and Lana using the Meltzer Buster?
That's the one thing I hate the most about Meltzer
No, The Two-Man Powertrip did.
Worst gimmick of the year (2020): The Fiend
Best gimmick of the year (2019): The Fiend
Ok
Ikr and stupid shit ever fucking orange Cassidy won the best gimmick a guy sticks his hands in his pockets.
@@trevorwright6395 Santino Marella won it twice. ^^
Well Tony's money to Dave was not wasted. He won an award!
2 actually lmao.
"You fooled them all didn't you Dave...”
(Dave staring at photo of Kenny Olivier)
“But not me"
-Jim Cornette paraphrasing Dr. Sam Loomis from the TV Cut of Halloween.
I read this in Pleasence’s voice lol
"I met him thirty years ago"
It's official people... The Observer means nothing to the business
Meltzer is on AEW's payroll. Change my Mind.
You ain’t lying.
I'm going to attempt to change your mind about Meltzer being on AEW's payroll, but I will not change your mind that Tony Khan is potentially paying Meltzer. I doubt Meltzer is on AEW's payroll since that would way too easy to get busted and definitely destroy whatever little credibility Meltzer still has in claiming to be an journalist.
The alternate theory you should consider is that Tony Khan might be paying Dave Meltzer indirectly by bulk subscribing to the hardcopies of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. It does not seem too difficult to do so as long as the subscriber has lots of money: www.f4wonline.com/news/wrestling-observer-home-delivery-161156
I don't think they pay him, he's just a regular fanboys... Oh and of course friends with the bucks.
Or Dave fanbase enjoy AEW
Yeah, starting to look that way.
It was so obvious that these were the AEW Awards. Any category that was positive was filled with AEW/NJPW names, and any category that was negative had multiple WWE names. The fact that Sasha and Bayley weren't even listed for the feud of the year was a complete joke. People already think Meltzer is a joke anyway, but he's not doing anything to change people's minds.
Had to be Sasha n Bayley or Adam Cole and Pat McAfee
The cult of Meltzer has ruined wrestling.
Pretty much
More Meltzer joining the cult of people who like this stuff, which has seriously contributed to the decline of wrestling the last decade plus.
Yes...as much as they say his subscribers vote on it but if they believe whatever the cult leader says then it’s exactly the same as him voting for it himself
Amen.
@@Hi-kq1vi facts
The 1990s' Wrestler of the Year was never once awarded to Shawn Michaels or Bret Hart. Madness
Well WWE was not once the top promotion or particular hot in the drawing metrics under them - that was New Japan post Hogan WWE upto the NWO. So it makes sense that they never won it.
@@MC-mf7zj Does it really matter? WWE was still a huge company. By that logic TNA, ROH, AEW & perhaps AAA & Japanese companies couldn't win awards today, because they aren't as big as WWE.
@@vanderful2397 Perhaps just saying WWE being in bad shape at the time is a poor argument for the person specifically, but there is no real argument for them as far as WOTY is concerned when compared to the winners. Shawn Michaels was someone who'd help keep things okay but he wasn't a massive draw unlike people like Misawa, Kobashi, even Vader at the time. Hart was in Europe, so you could make an argument. Honestly the biggest ommison in the award's history is Hashimoto, who was a way bigger draw than both throughout the decade. So to say that they are shoo-ins when better candidates that didn't win is just baffling to me.
Plus there is not many wrestlers in WWE that you could actually say are difference makers in their promotions unlike Moxley who is and Okada and Naito who won it in earlier years. I guess the case is relative to the person.
@@vanderful2397 Dont even waste your brain cells tryna figure these ppl’s logic out. One minute its about in ring ability then about drawing power then about how big the promotion is...they literally move the goal post until someone japanese or not employed by Vince McMahon fits the criteria. Insanity.
@@TheeCoachg in order to gauge drawing power it needs to be a big promotion because there's no point calling yourself a draw if you're getting 400 people in a field in Jersey. Hence why Austin is seen as one of the biggest draws ever because he basically sold out arenas on his own. Same as Cena did.
ROH deserves more credit, the pure division is amazing
I absolutely love the pure division, but then they turn around and do shit like having the Danhausen guy and other bingo hall fuckery. I'm trying to hang in there, but most weeks I find myself doing something else when RoH is aired
@@SharptonsRaceCard exactly. I was excited when I heard Jim talk about the Pure division. I watched some of it and liked it. Then I turned to ROH on a random show and they were right back to doing the vanilla midget bullshit. I gave up on it.
*Was. Nigel McGuinness MADE that division
ROH is a wonderful company, almost 70% of the current WWE main eventers are ex-ROH guys, but since the rise of AEW the poor ROH fall to the four or third place cause sadly they dont have money to compite against Khan.
@@carlitossalazar375 ROH is flippy bullshit.
Dave Meltzer’s obsession with Japanese wrestling is almost plain nauseating if not extremely ANNOYING.
I am a fan of NJPW myself and even I know that it cannot draw as good in the US as it does Japan due to cultural differences, language barriers and presentation. I have to switch my brain to Japanese effectively to understand what goes on in NJPW compared to anything in the US.
The smarks in AEW, WON and especially the Joshi simps are the ones who overhype that shit and think it will work outside the Japan/WON bubble. Why do you think Shida is the only one to survive the joshi picks of Omega and two factors being joshi simps and her ESL?
How is anyone but Roman Reigns wrestler of the year? The Observer marks treat him like crap and he's absolute money.
To be fair he was out for over 1/4 of the year.
Because he for the most part treats wrestling very seriously & is a good working big man built around power spots, in a world of midgets who do flips & stupid comedy.
Roman was out for too long. WON and F4W are full of disgruntled ex-WWE marks and Meltzer is just a shill for AEW now.
@@ssj7nick Yep, and people complained that the 2014 Slammys were rigged just because Roman won when he was out for the last three months
He was out for half the hear
But Drew McIntyre could have won it for sure.
Meltzer is the absolute worst
Tony Khan winning the Booker of the Year is like Michael Scott winning the Dundie Award for the Best Boss.
Meltzer: "Oh what was one of WWE's biggest act in 2020? Fiend? Oh okay!" *writes down Fiend is over-rated* That'll win me brownie points!
Like I'm all for people having their opinions and stuff, but this dude is far too transparent with things.
Just in case there was any doubt 2020 was the worst year in history of wrestling. A man who can't time his commercial breaks right on pre-taped shows just won booker of the year.
Hope Jim resigns his nominations.
Brian: "Manami Toyota....."
Jim: "Oh Good Lord."
How prestigious can these awards be if none of them have 1,200 people voting for the winner?
Dave Meltzer publishes his opinion as fact.
Bliss vs Orton is more of a feud than Mox & Eddie.
Sadly yes
Watching this in 2024 is insane 😂
So, The Rock doesn't get any awards in 1999 and 2000. Wow, what a shame.
Was there a most improved award in 1999? If so then Hardcore Holly should get it. He was always good in the ring but he made a huge turn around when he became "Hardcore Holly" and ended the JOB Squad and "Bombastic Bob" stuff. He was the resident tough as hell mid card workhorse from 1999 - 2004
These awards show why wrestling is dying. This is ridiculous and mind blowing.
so true. but there were always trash even in the 80s. Hogan never won wrestler of hte year
@@Herbert_Rudolf Growing up in the 80s, I couldn't stand Hogan. Even as a kid I found him extremely corny. I know, I'm weird. I found him somewhat interesting when he turned heel.
@@savagereaper6291 thats ok but it doesn’t matter if you like him or hate him he still deserved atleast 1 wrestler of th year award in 1984 or 1987
Best Box Office Draw; khabib IS behind the Bucks. Thats a Joke.
SmackDown is behind BTE 😂😂😂
But honestly, box office draw= money, ratings, merch so it should be someone from wwe or ufc since they are the biggest 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
No way who on the street knows who the bucks are khabib is actually mainstream draw
@@vedamonkar412 no way 😂😂😂 the audacity of these people 😂😂
the bucks have anout 100,000 annoying fans
The crazy Thing IS Jon moxley Dean Ambrose Had His best Matches Not this Year maybe around 2014 or so. And i believe even Moxley Had would admit this
The Young Bucks were entertaining...10 years ago. But their act has not evolved one bit since their time in PWG. They are not TV wrestlers. They look like crap. Bayley and Sasha were a better tag team in 2020 than the Bucks were.
Exactly they're only good in a context of an indie show that happens every 2 to 3 months week to week they do the same thing over and over and over no psychology just spots
Good joke when buck had a 6 star match against Kenny and page and a all time classic with ftr
SmackDown and MLW are my two favorite wrestling programs right now.
Smackdown (from what I heard) has gotten much better
Really Smack down? I could understand raw, but really? Smackdown?
@@me-kf4tq Smackdown is good right now. Raw is utter dog shit.
I once heard Excalibur call Matt Sydal "Anthony Sydal" while fast forwarding through dark
There are two Sydal brothers in AEW... Easy enough mistake to make. Lol
Your right that would be fair if you know they did look different and if it wasn't before his brother was on their roster lol@@drsmainemusic
@@drsmainemusic Aye, he's called Mike!
That was the big complaint from any WWE fan. He hates WWE even when it’s good. The quality of match from 01-07 was very good with the right competitors and he wouldn’t give them their time of day because it wasn’t Japan.
Oh schnapps it’s here! Get your popcorns everyone!
I'm here for the comments 🤣
How did Roman Reigns not win any award?. His heel run is currently the best thing in wrestling.
He's not in AEW that's why
Because Meltzer has an axe to grind against mainstream wrestling. Thus he is anointing this rag tag troupe of indy darlings
he should have won most improved of the year or best heel but he didnt
Dave meltzer is such a aew fan boy
Because he's not in aew lmao (dave meltzer is an aew fanboy)
Roman v Jey was a decent candidate for feud of the year. Ther ratings on SD were nearly Ruthless Aggression high for a bit during the height of that angle.
And we’re back to it…no complaints either 👍🏻
I'm pissed off by the fact that The Bucks won the best book and not Tim Hornbaker for Master of the Ring, Buddy Rogers book
Well, he should named his finisher after Dave if he wants an award
Why are you piss that others have a different opinion from you?
@@andrebryant5081 Let me say this, the whole idea of "this is my opinion, so please leave me alone" (which is scarcely used for anything more than simply a safety-net) should definitely not hold true especially for something that is trying to be somewhat objective, pretty much on account of it's very nature, which is to recognize the best candidates in their respective fields by a major newsletter. There should be a modicum of objectivity that maybe defined on certain standards, objectivity is not the same as being "factual" and while complete objectivity is perhaps not achievable there should and can be a rigorous attempt to keep subjectivity at a minimum(without which essentially every academic work would have to predicate itself by saying "please leave me alone").
Above everything even if you do disagree with everything I said above, please explain as to why shouldn't a person have the right to be angry over the opinion of another person? Why are people angry over certain people being blatantly racist or sexist? Above all being equally accepting towards all opinions would never result in any discourse about a debatable topic.
Thank you for reading this stupidly long comment.
@@soumyadeepbanerjee964 You value Dave's opinion this much while I didn't value your edited comment at all because your opinion doesn't matter to me fool!
@@andrebryant5081 I absolutely look like the fool here!
Either Dave is on the payroll or he’s lost his damn mind.
Here’s a disgusting promotional tactic that was missed: AEW using a dead wrestler’s 8 year old son on tv the week he died and has continued to use him still. That’s more disgusting to me than some bad acting by Seth Rollins and Rey Mysterio.
WWE's mass firing during the pandemic won that award. Not Rollins & Mysterio's jelly eye angle ...
That is a good point. What a supprise that wasn't on the list...
Yeah honoring a person is bad that's proved how much of a mark you are
51 minutes! Oh boy, better go make some popcorn.
It's damn good, you'd better believe it! 😀🍿
Only like 1000 people vote lol. You can get a larger, more diverse sample from fucking twitter polls.
SURELY not manipulated by Dave. No sirree!
Don't. Just don't. Adam Blampied did that for a few Quizzlemanias and the results are nearly always shite
Brian predicted Tony Khan winning on the last podcast!
Legit only like 1,200 people voted this year
That’s everything he’s got. 😂 35 years in the business and only 1,200 people pay him to watch, listen and read his opinion. That’s baaaaad!!!
@@marcosant98 Now factor in Dave never took a bump and his wrestling opinion makes him 6 figures a year. Any wrestlers not a millionaire or billionaire the last 35 years is baddd at their job!
@@andrebryant5081 well that’s a good point. He’s made his life giving his opinion and that makes him money. He never gained popularity going to a show. He made his own popularity. Thanks!
@@marcosant98 Plenty of people who are subscribed don't vote
WWE don’t even acknowledge these awards but aew will
Whoever is booking Walter in NXT UK should have won Booker of the year.
Shawn Michaels is in charge of UK, but I don't know if you could call him the "Booker" though.
@@CornerRoom_Thoughts it's Jim Smallman doing the actual booking, Michaels from my understanding just in the Vince/Triple H type role of approving things
"2003 Kenta Kobashi, 2004 Kenta Kobashi, 2005...Kenta Kobashi" was funny to me
Tbf Kobashi was Champion for like around 2 years, he drew huge crowds and had great matches.
Actual wrestling matches. Not video game match slop. Kobashi was a double tough dude who was a great worker. Just look at the American legends who endorsed him. Harley Race and Stan Hansen are two that come to mind who were high on him.
Lol according to Dave Meltzer the Young Bucks, Omega, Moxley and Cody Rhodes are more popular and bigger draws than Randy Orton, Edge, Miz, Drew Mcintyre, Kofi Kingston, Seth Rollins lol.
I gotta get whatever crack he's on
Not only that. He has tricked himself into believing that these AEW clowns draw more money than Stipe Miocic, Israel Adessanya or Khabib Nurmagomedov. A cursory glance at the PPV numbers crushes that delusion into dust.
Almost like Old Dave only brings up the UFC to spite the WWE....
Tony Khan as booker of the year, 😪😪 the "forbidden door" i need another sport to watch now,😪 this is sad. The only 2 major sports entertainment companies have flipping midgets and kidnappings every week.
Boxing and mma if you dont care about "story" and if you want story watch some foreign films.
@Kevin Sims, & that's the main problem with the business now, is that Today's fans or "audience" just accepts what Khan & Vince do on their respective shows instead of demanding more from them from a LOGICAL booking standpoint.
@@TheSportsfan35 “LOGICAL” booking? Vince booked an old lady giving birth to a hand and it had like 5 million+ viewers. It’s not about logical booking. Logical booking ain’t important as long as it’s entertaining to fans. Not just to you.
@@TheSportsfan35 its like they're all burned out from the bs they've become immune to it. We never did get an explanation on how 3 men can fit in a 2 seater helicopter
@@Thebestoutthere Have you seen the tv ratings lately?All 3 companies have done HORRIBLE tv ratings & that's because now they seem to book the talent as if their viewers are kids, idiots or idiotic kids.
Kingston vs Moxley for feud of the year over Orton Vs McIntyre? Orton Vs Edge? Reigns Vs Uso? Reigns Vs Owens?
My first thought cam in feud of the year was Reigns vs Uso bcz it was not scripted it felt real to me uncle dave is not chicken or egg he is a fox of aew
Because it's an opinion base award show. The day many of you ignore Dave the day his opinion die to you.
Orton vs MacIntyre was bad no fing storyline so yeah
These awards winners just show how far pro wrestling has fallen. It's dead and buried.
Only if we take the newsletter, its author and its readers seriously, which has been the problem for years now
I officially apologize for my generation of wrestling fans, I at one point couldn't tell wrestling from reality and there are many who still suffer.
Walter vs Ilja Dragonuv & Finn Balor vs Kyle Oriley were the 2 best matches this year in my opinion.
Randall vs edge too!!
How about the continual milking of Brodie Lee's death for most disgusting promotional tactic?
Is Darby Allin the "I like turtles" all grown up? The kid was from Oregon I believe and Darby is from the Pacific northwest
DUDE!
No Bret Hart, no HBK, no Rock, as wrestler of year or outstanding wrestler?
Meltzer is not a good wrestling critic. A good historian, sure, but he critiques wrestling like it’s figure skating at the Olympics or something and there’s a LOT more to matches than just the moves - there’s the in-ring psychology, the storytelling, the booking, the selling, etc. He judges it almost exclusively on the technical side of things when he wants to and it’s never clear. A journalist also shouldn’t be so involved in certain organizations because it’s hard to ignore the fact that the WWE never paid him any attention while the other company has wrestlers who name moves after him.
If AEW will give us anything, it’s exposing Meltzer for the ridiculous fraud that he’s always been, and also introducing the wrestling world to the tiny group of talented young wrestlers who will be wearing “Property of the WWE PC” within the next 3-5 years because this ALWAYS happens - WCW’s ignored midcard talent come to the WWE after a bunch of legends and older guys went to WCW, TNA’s home grown talent make a name for themselves in TNA and then eventually find themselves in WWE after the old timers and legends started populating TNA. But at least WCW and TNA had ratings at various points whereas AEW’s only two hours of television involving well known wrestling stars and a ton of advertising on the TNT and TBS networks is regularly competitive with the WWE’s sixth and seventh hour of weekly programming with their least popular roster. They’ve successfully used the old ECW “us against the world” cult like marketing to earn themselves a small but strong fan base but I think after a year and a half of false promises and pretty much the same old thing we’ve always seen mixed in with a lack of momentum for a lot of their promising young acts, the bloom is off the rose and people are starting to sober up. (But obviously AEW has the better catering.)
WWE is the old husband that didn’t pay enough attention to them and they’re using AEW like the younger guy to make the husband jealous to inspire some kind of passion out of him, but the husband knows that they will always keep track of what he’s doing and the younger guy is bullsh*t, so a whole lot of nothing is going to happen and everybody is wasting their f*cking time.
Well said
I kept bursting out laughing when Brian was counting down the winners of the wrestler of the year awards.
In the words of Big Kevin Nash: "Abu Zago vs Napo Zango in the Korakuen Hall"
That was a 5 star match.
Honestly I didnt knew about many Japanese Wrestler before i looked at the Awards and the Five Star Matches but some of them are really good much better than anything in America
Great match
Are they making money if they are clearly spending more than what is coming in?
Do you realize they just signed a contract with TNT worth 175 million?
Meltzer is definitely on AEW's payroll, no doubt in my mind.
This is supposed to include all promotions in the categories, right?
young bucks book - how do guys who've never done anything have a whole book to write about?
You just need a bunch of AEWtists and shove the book in people's faces and you are immediately a best seller nowadays.
Yeah even bad movies sometimes get huge numbers
In one night Conor McGregor got 100 million and Jon Moxley got a bottle of Jack Daniel's and a hot dog.
HAHAHAHA.
Walter vs Ilya getting 5th place for match of the year tells you everything you need to know about the Observer and it’s current readership
Goddamn. Roman Reigns vs Jey Uso should've won Feud of the Year. There was actual character development.
Yeah really helped solidify Roman's heel turn AND rocketed Jey up the card and made him much more than a tag team guy.
The cheeseburger analogy is spot on.
When they were going over announcer of the year and said it wasn’t JR or Tony Schiavone I was thinking “Well it’s got to be Excrement then.” and it turned out to be right.
Also as soon as Brian said that Book of the year was an indictment on the the readers that voted I was thinking”It’s the Young Bucks book.” and again I was right.
Meltzer looks like Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
I'd say there MIGHT be a bias towards AEW in these awards 😂
Les Thatcher who does his own podcast on Dave's/Bryan's Wrestling Observer site mentioned he agrees with 99% of the things Jim Cornette says but he himself would word it more differently than Jim
The last award discussed is just embarrassing.
Been looking forward to this!
Yeah, a lot on the "Most disgusting promotional tactics" award list aren't really promotional tactics and some of them like Backlund as WWF Champion in 82 comes off as just petty.
Pure bonkers booker of the year makes me laugh 😂
May as well rename it the "AEW Awards." 🙄😏😒
IMAGINE thinking Orange Cassidy is a better gimmick than The Fiend.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
Jim Cornette said it best. Orange Cassidy is the stand up comedian with only one joke. It works if he goes to different locations where no one's seen the joke. But once everyone's seen the joke on national TV, the joke got old really fast.
The booking of the Fiend was horrible but at least it's a real gimmick not some random guy doing nothing
@@TomFoolery350 It's not a gimmick. 10 years of buzzards and fireflies. Never went anywhere.
It's 2021. Only edgy 14-year-olds getting bullied a school still care for this tacky Rob Zombie sh-t.
It's a fat juggalo in a mask. 33 years old, never got past his Hot Topic phase.
Facepaint fishnet Jeff Hardy is another good example. Another delusional idiot who thinks his dated act is cool .
@@staalhard666 LOL, edgy.
Here's the thing: even if you think he sucks; he's still better than Orange Cassidy hahaha! If you think otherwise, then your opinion is stupid and can't be taken seriously.
@@rodycaz8984 Amazing argumentation. "mY oPiNiOn ! yOu sTuPid!"... followed by an upvote for yourself. I can see why you fall in the Fiend fanbase category.
I didn't know Ring of Honor was still around
Neither did they
Best booker should go to ROH's team, what a turnaround. And all without any mainstream publicity from Corny or any of the talking heads.
The era of the observer and people thinking it's some all mighty rag is over peeps.
Bucks have seriously won tag team of the year 7 times. How in hell does this not prove Dave is bias towards them? FTR? The New Day? Uso's? Broken Hardyz all together during that era. There's no way Dave doesn't pick these if Taz is non wrestler of the year over Heyman in 2020.
is there any chance we could get video..jims facial expressions and reactions would be pure gold
Probably not. Jim is sitting in his home over the phone and Brian is the only one in a studio. I don’t know if it’s a home studio that Brian has, Brian does other podcasts. Unless Jim videos himself
10 minutes in: AEW winners
15 minutes in: AEW winners
20 minutes in: AEW winners
25 minutes in: AEW winners
30 minutes in: AEW winners
I mean...was AEW the only organization in operation in 2020? What the fuck?
Kenny in triplemania
Kenny at impact ppv
Kenny vs moxley
Omega vs king in ROH....okay maybe not but come on.
Kenny is everywhere.
Wwe sucks that's why
Didn’t see that signing coming honestly but hey Shaq vs Paul Wight 😂
And most will be like who? Lol
@@Will_kid_cortez Who da fuq is Shaq?
I know Jim doesn't like watching Japanese wrestling but damn I wish he'd sit down and watch one show and give his thoughts
Wtf... The observer should just cover AEW only for now on cause he seems to only be a huge mark for everything Tony Khan, Young Bucks, and Jon Moxley... Everything else seems to be irrelevant to him..
Just hearing both the current winners and the past ones with a few exceptions just makes me think DM is nothing more than a hipster. Everything that isnt the mainstream is cool and everything that is sucks.
Ah, the perfect example of a feedback loop - The newsletter leans heavily towards a certain style making fans of other styles walk away, so the user feedback just endorses the WON's point of view, and then that reinforces theirs....
48:03 the pure disdain in Jim’s voice 😂😂
This years oscars, I mean Dave’s...Jim you kill me, I love this fuckin show it’s great,
Omg been dying for this