2002 Puroresu Awards

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

Finally added. Sorry for the delay.
http://www.puroresu.com/awards/2000s.html#2002

Every year, the selection of Puroresu Awards is sanctioned by Tokyo Sports Newspaper, and the winners are selected by judges from puroresu-related magazines and newspapers.

[Shepster]

Hmm... not sure about some of those. I never seem to be on the same wavelength, especially on match of the year... I can see why Tenryu/Kojima didn't get it cos, even though it was very good, it did have obvious flaws. There are a lot of singles matches around the same level this year, so I can appreciate why they'd come to that decision. Trouble is there were tag matches which were of a noticably higher standard (ie Gotch-ism/Chono & Tenzan (NJPW), Akiyama & Nagata/Misawa & Kobashi (NOAH) ) but seeing as tag matches have won 3 times in 23 years now, they obviously don't hold them in the same regard.

I always doubted the Match of the Year award when I looked at 1994's winner - TEnryu & Hara/Onita & Goto (WAR) Now I haven't seen it, but look at the people involved. Can it really compare to Misawa/Kawada or Pegasus/Sasuke? Oh wait, I forgot, it's got to be a heavyweight match too - none of those pesky juniors on OUR best match list, forget how good the Best of the Super Junior and Toryumon was this year.

I sound really angry reading this back, and I'm not, I'm just puzzled. I mean, I love Kojima, I think he's a great wrestler, but giving him the technique award? Over Heavyweights like Nishimura and Nagata, not to mention the Juniors (Minoru Tanaka, Milano Connection AT, Kanemoto, Murahama, Liger, and I'm not even trying there...)? I don't know...

Well one thing I will say is - I can't argue with the tag team award

[thegreatdanabusa]

I wanted Tenryu to win something. That guy had awesome matches all year. Given his age, it really suprises me that he keeps going from strength to strength. The tag team award is spot on. Shepster, I agree with you about the juniors.

[Luds]

This just shows how CRAZY over Bob Sapp is in Japan... I only saw his match against Nakanishi (not his Muta match at w-1) and it was ok, since the crowd was hot...

I mean, Takayama had a great year, so did Chono, but Nagata si the real wrestler of the year...

I'm also very happy about Tanaka & Otani... GREAT team... I love them... I'd like them to win the GHC Tag, the AJ unified and the IWGP tag at the same time as the Z1 NWA Intercontinental tag team titles... that would be awesome!

[Shepster]

Okay. I do think Tenryu is awesome for his age, but I don't think he's had enough great matches to win Wrestler of the year (like Bob Sapp has... *shakes head*). Tenryu's had 5 decent outings in singles this year - 2 against Mutoh, 2 against Kojima and 1 against Tea. Thing is, all those except for the July match with Kojima were in the *** to ***1/2 range. Nagata, on the other hand, has had *** to **** matches with Akiyama, Yasuda (stretching it I know) Takayama (the best match winner), Sasaki, Nakanishi and Nishimura in the G1, and (apparantly) the 60 minutes with Chono. THAT'S consistancy, whereas Takayama is perenially in tag matches with NOAH.

I think the very fact Sapp won best wrestler shows that they don't just take WRESTLING into account. Why they don't look at the juniors is probably the lack of Fighting Spirit, but when Liger and Kanemoto put on a match the calibre of the one they had in the BOSJ group stages and I haven't seen it mentioned ANYWHERE as even a low-end MOTY contender, it saddens me. I guess you have to be two bona fide shooters (Minoru Tanaka and Murahama) to get your match noticed as a junior in Japan (as was in 2001), which again shows the non-WRESTLING train of thought.

It's the strangeness of them that puzzles me. Takayama probably deserved an award, but in the fighting spirit category rather than performance (which if you're not going to give "wrestler" to Nagata, this one has his name stamped all over it...). I'm actually amazed, seeing as they gave Sapp best wrestler, they didn't give Goldberg fighting spirit, cos he showed plenty of that squashing Kojima and Tea in under 5 minutes a piece (or was that just no-selling? I get so confused between the two).

Anyway this post is getting too long...

[El Fiasco]

Sapp?!

...anyway, Ohtani\Tanaka was the obvious choice, but I think Nagata or Tenryu were both the locks for best wrestler this year. Sapp still somehow prevails. And I agree that while Kojima is great, his technique pales in comparison to Nagata, Minoru Tanaka, and most notably Osamu Nishimura...ah well, still better than the...*snicker*...PWI Year-End Awards...heh heh...