2023 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards

[Dylmatic]

Meltzer comments on booker of the year award :

I usually don’t comment on this. And for the first six months of the year you can make the argument. But WWE and AEW as businesses were in the same position with one much larger but the clear-cut 1-2 in the world all year. However, it was WWE that grew all year while AEW did not do nearly as well in comparison over the last eight months. You can argue bad luck or injuries, but in a coach of he year award, one team doing so much better in comparison at the end as compared to the beginning, that coach is going to win. Injuries are part of the game and regrouping and rebounding from them are as well. A comparison of the promotion of the returns of Cody Rhodes, C.M. Punk and Kenny Omega is so greatly in one side’s favor. Yes, AEW did create an environment on television and PPV to have far more great matches, and while some of the WWE’s growth relates to the stadium shows, a lot also relates to the aura of Roman Reigns, which is a creative issue, and the Bloodline angle, which is booking, and the most effective long-term angle in years. While the angle got stronger in 2023 where it doesn’t count for this balloting, it was still the strongest in 2022. In addition, whether you are a fan of Bray Wyatt or not, that out of the box thinking building up his return was a huge short-term interest level success. Even if Paul Heyman and Reigns played a huge part in one story and Wyatt himself in the other, the overseeing guy is Levesque.

On promoter of the year award :

This was notable because there were issues with so many candidates when it comes to winning. Khan’s major issue was the locker room issue which badly hurt the company, both in how it wasn’t handled months before the blow-up when all the warning signs were there, and how it was handled after it happened, basically not telling fans anything. For someone with a background in sports, where pretending it never happened on television and not mentioning names or doing even a basic explanation, especially when four people suspended had title belts, is tough. Still, I can see the complete not wanting to vote for White because of what happened on New Year’s Eve when he and his wife got in a slapping exchange. There are also questions regarding the Slap Fight promotion. With Vince McMahon, who was the man in charge of WWE much of the year, you couldn’t vote for him either. And then the nature of his return hurts the others in the company in that position. New Japan didn’t have a good enough year for business to win. Ogawa had the least baggage of the candidates but Stardom is also not high profile worldwide compared to WWE, UFC, AEW and NJPW.

 

[Beautiful Bobby Eatin]

Let me grab my snacks. The neckbeard rage for these awards is always good

 

[R=G]

Moxley?

 

[NoMorePie]

Imma let y'all have this one.

 

[Brad Piff]

 

[g-ice]

 

[THE 101]

The 'beards have spoken

 

[FunkDoc1112]

It's hilarious that even meltz was looking at it like "My readers wylin'"

 

[Jmare007]

Can't wait for people to blame and be mad at Double Talk when these awards always been fan voted

 

[Riley Escobar]

You know the neckbeards went too far when even Meltzer is disavowing the results

 

[Straw Hat Luffy]

These fat fukks know better what is this geek ass list

 

[Trips]

Tony right now

 

[King Sun]

Looks like a list of someone that watches other promotions

 

[Toe Jay Simpson]

 

[Wolfpac]

Mox over Reigns.