The 45th annual Wrestling Observer Awards are in the books and once again we take a look at what are the most prestigious awards that exist in our space. While the Observer Awards don’t give out physical hardware – with the only way you could fill space in a trophy cabinet being maybe framing a printed copy of the write-up of the award you win, (that’s something you can imagine Eddie Gilbert doing back in the day) – looking at the Observer Awards is a very good guide to what

Another Observer Hall of Fame season is in the books and after all the debate, podcasts and people on group chats pointing out why Gran...

For the last three autumns, I have written about the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame and the ballot and when the results come out around late November/early December I'll write about them and forensically analyse the percentages for the third year running. It's a role that I've enjoyed. It has gotten me a guest spot on Voices of Wrestling annual ballot look on their Patreon, Dave Meltzer, the founder and proprietor of the Observer and it's Hall of Fame has retweeted my work

It's that time of the year. The 2025 diaries and calendars are out, so are Christmas items on the retail shelves and as the 2024...

1- Will Opsreay was the Man of the Year The biggest winner in this years awards was obviously Will Ospreay. His six awards is the most since Kurt Angle in 2002 and now with 18 overall WON Awards in his career, it puts him joint 5th with Kenta Kobashi on the all time list with only Ric Flair (39) Mitsuharu Misawa (20) Steve Austin (20) and Hulk Hogan (19) with a higher tally of Observer Awards In a year where the main champions of the “Big 3” promotions had flawed cases for Fl

I don't know what the right word is but the massive feeling upon reading the Wrestling Observer and the results of this years Hall of Fame was "huh" None of the exciting Modern US/Canada candidates that entered the ballot got in, none of polarising candidates got in, ending with the advocates for CM Punk, Young Bucks and Roman Reigns pointing at each akin to the Spider-Man meme but instead of asking who they are, they just blame each other for not being inducted (I blame the

In the final part of our look at the 2023 Observer Hall of Fame ballot (I can finally sleep now) we are now looking at the International and Non-Wrestlers sections. With three of the four members of the ballot that need to get 50% of the vote share to stay on the ballot after spending 15 years on said ballot being in the International section (the other being Sgt. Slaughter) attention on the International section is greater than previous years especially on the British conti

With Japan and Mexico getting a lot of love from voters (is The Mexican Block doing Mexican Block things running joke getting boring now?) Their sections in the Ballot are getting thinner and thinner now and with just a max of 3 names allowed to be filled in either of the other 2 of the triangle of influential countries in wrestling history than isn't the USA sections, it makes choosing harder (also, it is going to be 2 votes plus the team of Jackie Soto and Maki Ueda for Jap

With Modern US/Canada all done and published and no-one yelling at me (that I'm aware of) it's time to look at those on the ballot that made their name in the USA and Canada before the 1990's became a thing. With the below being stars before many in the coveted 18-49 demo were born, it's easy for people to ignore the legacy they built and left behind which makes Hall of fame season so much fun so we can learn about the history of this thing that we love. So let's look at tho

After looking at the Newbies (and returnees) to the ballot and everyone who had 50%+ vote share in last year's ballot, now we look at the big cases in each category starting with the Modern US/Canada section with a lot of recognisable faces and a lot of debate that will come from it. CM Punk Last Year- 41% Nothing happened with Punk the last 12 months huh? This time last year, I talked about CM Punk and the Gripebomb and how it could affect his voting percentage going forwar

With a successful opening part of this year’s look at this year’s ballot (it’s already fourth from the top on the Google search engine when you type in the words Observer Hall Of Fame) it is now time to look at those on the ballet that scored 50% or more of the vote share and look at whether they will or should be voted in Argentina Rocca/Miguel Perez- Last Year 57%- Historical Statistically, Argentina and Miguel were the top draws in wrestling in 1958 and 1959 when wrestling

It's the most magical time of the year. No, I'm not talking about the time of the year when shops start stocking up on Christmas items to remind you that Christmas is in fact coming and that we will be subjected to Mariah Carey non-stop for two months and I'm not talking about Halloween or Bonfire night when millions of British people point at fireworks, I am in fact talking about Hall of Fame season. When the words Hall of Fame come up in the wrestling landscape, invariably

It's been a week since All In weekend and you all are missing the wonderment of that weekend aren't you? You're missing the expensive prices that only London can bring (£4 for an apple juice in a bar in Westfield!), the London tube map that made you thankful you weren't colour blind, the queues, the walking and the hanging out with folk from Notting Hill Carnival or Carnival as its known locally at the hotel bar.... actually I don't need to tell that story on a public platfor

31 years after WWE(F) put on a massive show under the twin towers, AEW took advantage of WWE’s decision to go to Cardiff instead of North London for last year's UK stadium show by holding a show which has already exceeded expectations with the amount of tickets sold before bell time. With Adam Cole vs MJF happening under the arch that is now England’s national stadium’s trademark and with memories of that night on Bank Holiday weekend in August 1992 on some minds, I thought

After 45 hours of action in a 4 week span with socialising no longer a thing in that time, the G1 finally felt real again with crowds fully back and fans being able to make noise and not clapping to show appreciation (except for Nagano) While the arguments about fields being too big and formats not working, the final week with 3 knockout rounds was always going to be a great watch and despite EVIL threatening to not make it a great watch, the end of G1 was something to put i

This was the week we've all waiting for mainly because it means 3 hour shows every other day that includes Chase Owens, Tanga Loa and Gabe Kidd every other day are no longer a thing for another 11 months. It also means that we get important decision matches which means the quality of in-ring action goes up big style (well, apart from one match) so let's look at the best from Week Three of the G1 How do you outsmart Gabe Kidd? That question is easier to answer than Is the Pope

With July in the books and most of Britain staying indoors in the rain, saving money for All In weekend, going to Barbieheimer in the cinemas and watching the G1, a lot of wrestling away from wrestling’s top tourney exhilarated those that watched it. So let’s look at the best of the best from July. If you’re wondering where the best G1 matches are on this list, I have done an in-depth look at the first 3 weeks of the G1 Climax which is on the site (and yes I'm going to revi

With three nights making up the third week of the G1, we will doing a shortened version of our latest edition of G1 in Star Ratings and with one rubbish night amongst the three, the amount of matches we will look at is going to be further shortened. It was 15 minutes into the Tonga/Takagi match where I thought “I’m doing this on a Sunday morning?”. Luckily, the next two nights were better with some fun matches and some interesting calls booking-wise. So, let's look at the bes

Week Two of the G1is done and between work, a possible chest infection, Barbieheimer weekend, the FIFA Womens World Cup and 39 matches of G1 (I skipped Loa vs Khan, I'm not a masochist) I'm a very tired man right now. So lets get into the best of the best and a slight reference to Owens vs Loa before I hit my head on the laptop while writing this up While Night Five had a contender for worst match of 2023 (Chase Owens, everybody) there were three worthy matches to go into

So the 33rd edition of the G1 Climax is underway with more wrestlers than ever (any excuse to have Chase Owens in the G1 I guess) in a format change with 4 blocks of 8 with a quarter-final stage added. So with 119 matches on offer. I will watch every one (the majority of them with my dad for reasons) even the EVIL and Chase Owens matches and look at the best on offer with a little homage to Joe Lanza from Voices of Wrestling and his notebook chronicling his 4 star plus matche