A Review of the 2022 Wrestling Observer Awards

For the 44th time, the Wrestling Observer gave out awards (not actual physical silverware unlike Fightful, just saying) to the best of the best from the year just completed and as per the norm, there was a lot of fat to chew from the results.

For those who may be unaware of the process of voting, voting is confined only to subscribers of the newsletter with those sending in their Top 3 in whatever categories they chose to vote in. Would we find some difference from what has been the consensus among fans in 2022. Would someone not called Tomohiro Ishii win Best Brawler, would WWE get more votes than in previous years and would Rossy Ogawa get his flowers in 2022.

My picks are in bold.

LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD -

1. Jon Moxley (498)3,101

2. Roman Reigns (232)2,216

3. Will Ospreay (105) 1,591

4. Kazuchika Okada (39) 679

5. Syuri (34) 551

6. Chris Jericho (37)439

7. MJF (20)325

8. CM Punk (19)203

9. Giulia (17)199

10. Bryan Danielson 91

The in-ring vs Box Office debate for who was the more worthy WOTY has been won by the in-ring work of Jon Moxley. If you use the “Most Valuable” metric for your vote, Jon is the worthy winner. Mox in the chaotic main event picture of AEW’s summer of 2022 was the glue that held the top of the All Elite card together and with three million dollar gates with his name on the main event poster, Jon Moxley feels like the right pick for 2022 WOTY.

With Jon adding 2022 to his 2020 WOTY collection, it makes him the eighth guy to win two WON WOTY awards joining Harley Race, Ric Flair, Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Chris Jericho, Hiroshi Tanahashi, AJ Styles and John Cena with 2 WOTY wins and with Mox being the only member of the 2-time WOTY club not to be inducted into the Observer Hall of Fame, November time will be ripe for discussion about Jon Moxley’s HOF candidacy.

MMA MOST VALUABLE FIGHTER:

1. Isreal Adesanya (105) 866

2. Alexander Volkanovski (129) 825

3. Alex Pereira (57) 410

When you look at the numbers, Israel is the only pick that is sensible for this reward. 3 of the Top 4 UFC PPV buy rates for 2022 had Israel in the main event. In a business that while doesn't solely rely on PPV anymore thanks to the ESPN deal, PPV buyrate numbers should still be used as a metric on who fans want to spend money to see fight and Israel was that guy fans wanted to see fight in 2022.

MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER:

1. Will Ospreay (951)4,807

2. Bryan Danielson (92) 1,286

3. Kazuchika Okada (9) 703

4. Mike Bailey (9)536

5. Jon Moxley (11)398

6. Dax Harwood (18)384

7. Gunther (32)329

8. Syuri (10)289

9. Konosuke Takeshita241

10. Shingo Takagi (7) 240

Will Ospreay was hands down the best wrestler from bell to bell in 2022 as seen below where I taken the best 10 matches from all the Top 10 from Outstanding Wrestler plus two others and calculated an average from those matches and Ospreay's 0.37 gap to Kazuchika Okada in second is bigger than the gap between 2nd and 12th. For those who care, Gunther's average was 8.27

Averages of wrestlers Top 10 matches of 2022 on Cagematch

MOST OUTSTANDING FIGHTER: Alexander Volkanovski

1. Alexander Volkanovski (225)1,265

2. Alex Pereira (82) 663

3. Islam Makhachev (10) 482

4. Zhang Weili (25)378

While there were three fighters in the UFC that won 2+ title fights in the Octagon in 2022, Aljamain Stirling’s two victories’ came in a contentious points win over Petr Yan and a victory over a TJ Dillashaw that should not have been cleared for battle and while Zhang's two wins bought her Performance of the Night both times, Alex Volkanovski’s three title wins were dominant and while Alex Pereira’s three wins in 2022 might have been good enough to win him awards for Best fighter from MMAfighting, Yahoo and ESPN, the Observer voters took Volanovski’s dominance in the division as a worthy factor for their vote.

TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR

1. FTR (782)3,859

2. Mark & Jay Briscoe (54) 1,357

3. Young Bucks (38) 937

4. The Usos (40)856

5. The Acclaimed (32) 708

6. Aussie Open423

7. Penta El 0 M & Rey Fenix175

8. Tam Nakano & Natsupoi156

9. Hazumi & Koguma98

10. Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland86

With multiple ***** and 9.00+ matches on the Observer and Cagematch respectively, FTR had a phenomenal year and while Aussie Open had more matches over 7.00 on Cagematch, it was a case of quality over quantity in this category.

2022 Cagematch Ratings for Tag Teams

Aussie Open’s sixth place finish does feel off considering their stellar year in many promotions and a lack of Top 10 finish for Chris Brookes and Masahiro Takanashi shows how stacked the tag team ranks are in 2022

BEST ON INTERVIEWS -

1. MJF (486)2,984

2. Jon Moxley (152)1,561

3. CM Punk (79) 961

4. Sami Zayn (33)760

5. Eddie Kingston (23) 554

6. Paul Heyman (11)378

7. Kevin Owens (8)224

8. Jay White (24)208

9. Roman Reigns (9)185

10. Will Ospreay (12)164

A good sign for how MJF was the best talker in wrestling was that in a category dominated by AEW at least in the Top 5 was Maxwell winning Promo of the Week in our website's AEWeekly Roundtable the most times from it's inception in March 2022 despite MJF's three month absence from AEW.

However in bad news for AEW, they didn't have the majority of Top 10 attendees since the companies first time on the awards ballot in 2019 with AEW and WWE having 4 each in the 10

PROMOTION OF THE YEAR

1. All Elite Wrestling (480)3,270

2. Stardom (273)2,561

3. World Wrestling Entertainment 1,848

4. New Japan Pro Wrestling (23)1,799

5. Ultimate Fighting Championship (17) 634

6. Impact Wrestling 120

7. Dragon Gate (9)104

8. Pro Wrestling NOAH89

9. Game Changer Wrestling (6)80

10. DDT63

Well, if AEW has won the most awards in this year's WON Awards, they were always winning this award. More on this later in the conclusions of the results.

BEST WEEKLY TV SHOW -

1. AEW Dynamite (753)4,020

2. WWE SmackDown (104)1,847

3. AEW Rampage 911

4. New Japan Strong (18)679

5. Impact Wrestling (16) 456

6. We Are Stardom (20) 333

7. WWE Raw210

8. NXT (15)176

Despite Dynamite ending up with double the votes of Smackdown, Dynamite and Smackdown had the same mode average with the each shows ending up with their highest tally of shows in the 7.99-7.50 bracket on Cagematch but Dynamite's 18 shows with a 8.00+ rating outlasts Smackdown's 5 above that same mark.

Rampage's third place is interesting when their mode average was 6.99-6.50 andwais lower than IMPACT and NJPW Strong and the downfall of the show being on of the major discourses in 2022.

PRO WRESTLING MATCH OF THE YEAR -

1. Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay 8/18 Tokyo (256)2,016

2. FTR vs. The Briscoes 12/10 Arlington, TX (244)1,824

3. Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay 1/5 Tokyo (104)1,359

4. FTR vs. The Briscoes 4/1 Garland, TX (98)836

5. Gunther vs. Sheamus 9/3 Cardiff (19) 393

6. Giulia vs. Syuri 12/29 Tokyo (44) 392

7. Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins 6/5 Chicago (34)347

8. Adam Page vs. Bryan Danielson 1/5 Newark (12)334

9. El Desperado vs. Jun Kasai 9/12 Tokyo (34)285

10. Will Ospreay vs. Michael Oku 1/29 London (36)279

On first glance, I did let out an audible "huh" during my lunch break at the Big Johns' near my work (please don't judge me for my lunch choice) and while I was one of many that voted for FTR/Briscoes III in my Voices Of Wrestling MOTY ballot in the No.1 spot, as seen below Okada vs Ospreay in the G1 final winning isn't exactly a miscarriage of justice.

MMA FIGHT OF THE YEAR -

1. Jiri Prochazka vs. Glover Teixeira 6/11 Kallang, Singapore (295)1,583

2. Dustin Poirier vs. Michael Chandler 11/12 New York (18)735

3. Khamzat Chimaev vs. Gilbert Burns 4/9 Jacksonville (16)375

Thought of as one of the great fights of all time by MMA pundits, It wasn’t a surprise that Prochazka/Texeira won Fight of the Year but on the Rushmore of Greatest Fights? Not for me, but that’s for another time and another jurisdiction.

"CATEGORY B" AWARDS. PICK ONE IN EACH CATEGORY. WINNER CHOSEN ON THE BASIS OF FIRST PLACE VOTES

UNITED STATES/CANADA PRO WRESTLING MVP -

1. JON MOXLEY 638

2. Roman Reigns 232

3.Chris Jericho 32

4. MJF 25

5. Bryan Danielson 19

6. Sami Zayn 10

7. Cody Rhodes 9

JAPAN MVP -

1. KAZUCHIKA OKADA 495

2. Will Ospreay 422

3. Syuri 125

While Jon Moxley winning USA MVP was the sensible option considering Mox’s WOTY win, the Japan MVP was more wide-open and while Okada is the face of Japan’s biggest promotion, his fine 2022 just doesn’t feel worthy of a MVP victory in Japanese wrestling in 2022.

While Will Ospreay’s in-ring work make him a worthy contender for the award, Syuri was the no.1 star and champ for a company that has been hitting uncharted heights in the last 12 months and finished ahead of their brother company in Best Promotion in these awards. So Syuri should have won right?

MEXICO MVP

1. EL HIJO DEL VIKINGO 678

2. Mistico 79

3. Rey Fenix 50

4. Atlantis Jr. 49

5. Laredo Kid 19

6. Dragon Lee 17

7. Pentagon Jr. 13

El Hijo Del Vikingo was the star of lucha in 2022 with his matches getting massive playbacks on YouTube and have made him a big attraction for American bookings. His in-ring work in AAA refused to be camouflaged by the garish yellow background that attacks the senses. The son of Vikingo was the most valuable player in Mexico for the fact that he made you ignore the commentary over the loudspeakers drowning out any atmosphere when he wrestles. Is it obvious that I do not like AAA's production?

EUROPEAN MVP -

1. WILL OSPREAY 799

2. Michael Oku 95

THE PRO WRESTLING HODGE AWARD/NON-HEAVYWEIGHT MVP -

1. EL HIJO DEL VIKINGO 215

2. Darby Allin 164

3. El Desperado 124

4. Mike Bailey 111

WOMAN WRESTLING MVP

1. SYURI 455

2. Bianca Belair 201

3. Jamie Hayter 146

4. Giulia 138

5. Kairi 31

6. Becky Lynch 22

7. Miyu Yamashita 16

8. Rhea Ripley 8

9. AZM 7

For the reasons that I thought Syuri was Japan MVP, she deserves her Women’s MVP win but the interesting story is lack of AEW and WWE in the Top 10 (the four combined in this years award is fewest since the awards birth) which is an indictment of how bad the women's divisions were booked east of the Pacific Ocean.

WOMAN MMA MVP -

1. ZHANG WEILI 239

2. Amanda Nunes 62

3. Valentina Shevchenko 46

In a competitive three-way race for Women’s MMA MVP, Zhang Weili isn’t a surprise win but the massive gap of victory is.

While Zhang's two wins did earn her Performance of the Night awards, Amanda Nunes main evented a show that did a $4 million+ gate which was bigger than the PPV after which was a Kamaru Usman title defence and in Valentina Shevchenko’s sole fight of the year on the same night as Zhang vs Jelena and the Prochazka/Teixeira fight, the Kyrgyz fighter won fan bonus award showing her popularity.

BEST BOX OFFICE DRAW -

MMA

1. ISRAEL ADESANYA

2. Kamaru Usman

3. Nate Diaz

PRO WRESTLING

1. ROMAN REIGNS

2. John Cena

3. C.M. Punk

While Israel’s win is obvious as mentioned above, the Pro Wrestling section of Best Box Office Draw wasn’t.

Listeners to Wrestlenomics have been told data that shows that CM Punk was a frequent quarter hour riser, the PPV’s he was a major attraction on are the 5 highest PPV buy rates in AEW history, main evented two million-dollar gates and had 4 of the Top 10 selling merchandise on AEWShop and ProWrestlingTees for the year until All Out 2022

Roman Reigns according to the year-end attendance figures posted in the Observer in the Year in review issue had the most 10,000+ gates in 2022

John Cena in his two appearances on WWE television drew an enormous number and was responsible for a big spike in ticket sales for the final Smackdown of 2022 and the 20 Years of Cena edition of RAW.

Which of the following three makes the best case for Best Box Office Draw of 2022. As a stats nerd and someone who catalogues the End of Year numbers in the Observer, my vote goes to Roman Reigns. The interesting question to ask is, if John Cena having wrestled one match is WWE’s second biggest draw, is WWE really in great shape when it comes to the box office? But to be fair, maybe John Cena should have won for the fact I watched an average political thriller on Sky Cinema because John Cena is in a starring role.

FEUD OF THE YEAR -

1. FTR VS. MARK & JAY BRISCOE 362

2. C.M. Punk vs. MJF 347

3. Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins 34

4. Tam Nakano vs. Natsupoi 33

5. Elite vs. Death Triangle 32

6. Bloodline vs. Kevin Owens 25

7. Eddie Kingston vs. Chris Jericho 24

8. Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay 21

9. JAS VS. BCC 18

10. Giulia vs. Suzu Suzuki 9

It was a case of matches>story when it came to the winners for Feud of the Year. Whether it was the high quality of the trilogy, the recency bias of the final act of the rivalry, Jay’s tragic death playing into the voting or maybe an anti-Punk movement (more on that later) that played into the vote that’s for people who voted to answer but it’s not the first time that a matches based rivalry beat the story-based feud. Cole/Gargano beating Cody/Jericho in 2019, Okada/Omega winning in 2017 and Tanahashi/Okada going back-to-back in 2012 and 13 coming to mind.

Side note- Whoever voted for JAS vs Blackpool Combat Club, we need to have a chat.

MOST IMPROVED - My Pick- Sheamus

1. THE ACCLAIMED 164

2. Mina Shirakawa 159

3. Jamie Hayter 97

4. Wheeler Yuta 55

5. Dominik Mysterio 53

6. Ricky Starks 32

7. Powerhouse Hobbs 24

Chris Jericho 24

9. Giulia 23

10. Mirai 18

Nick Wayne 18

2021 to 2022 averages from Top 10 matches on Cagematch

(Singles matches only/Tag Matches only for The Acclaimed)

The Acclaimed's improvement in 2022 really came from Max Caster considering that Anthony Bowens had a very stellar 2021 (remember Bowens hanging with Bryan Danielson on Rampage?) and the likes of Jamie Hayter and Giulia's inclusion is interesting considering that improvement was really not there on the basis that their 2021 was great.

Chris Jericho though had a massive improvement in 2022 with an big increase in their average of Top 10 matches of the year on Cagematch from 2021 to 2022. Thanks to weight loss and great opponents, Chris has found the fountain of youth yet again and was the rightful winner if you look at the numbers

MOST CHARISMATIC - MJF

1. MJF 272

2. Sami Zayn 126

3. Roman Reigns 102

4. C.M. Punk 71

5. Giulia 67

6. Jon Moxley 44

7. The Acclaimed 36

8. Orange Cassidy 33

9. Suzu Suzuki 26

10. Ricky Starks 24

You’d think that the winner of Most Charismatic would come from the winner of Best of Interviews but in the 40 years of the Awards, only eight times before 2022 has someone won both awards in the same year (Steve Austin 1997-98, Rock- 99-00, Eddie Guerrero- 05, John Cena-07, Connor McGregor-2016, Chris Jericho-2019)

BRYAN DANIELSON BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER AWARD

1. BRYAN DANIELSON 464

2. Zack Sabre Jr. 317

3. Daniel Garcia 30

4. Syuri 26

My biggest take on this is I can’t wait for Danielson vs Sabre Jr.

BRUISER BRODY MEMORIAL BEST BRAWLER AWARD - Jon Moxley

1. JON MOXLEY 576

2. Tomohiro Ishii 134

3. Minoru Suzuki 75

4. Eddie Kingston 38

5. Gunther 26

6. Jay Briscoe 20

7. Suzu Suzuki 18

Moxley now joins Bruiser Brody, Mick Foley (who has won the award 10 times so should that make this award the Mick Foley Award), Tomohiro Ishii and Kevin Owens, nee Steen as 3+ time winners.

Fun fact- 29 of the 44 Best Brawler Awards has gone to one of the five mentioned.

BEST FLYING WRESTLER -

1. EL HIJO DEL VIKINGO 472

2. Rey Fenix 351

3. Dante Martin 44

4. Komander 41

5. Will Ospreay 31

6. Ninja Mack 19

7. Mike Bailey 12

MOST UNDERRATED - Shingo Takagi

1. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA 114

2. Chad Gable 98

3. Ricochet 65

4. Mustafa Ali 49

5. Ricky Starks 32

6. Eddie Kingston 31

7. Riho 27

8. Utami Hayashishita 25

9. Malakai Black 24

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