Greetings.
This past weekend on my syndicated Hart Beat Radio show, along with my esteemed colleagues Bob Johnson and Matt Merz, we conducted our annual year end awards, as voted on by our legions of fans from around the world and I’d like to now pay homage to our winners and reflect on the results.
The winner of the prestigious Stu Hart Lifetime Achievement Award – which was presented by the vivacious Pat Summerland (Sunny of the GLOW girls), was my old friend Bob Roop, who had a long and glorious career, headlining shows primarily in the southeast United States. Congratulations to Bob. I might add that my dad was a fan of his from way back and would have been pleased.
In the tag team division – former WWF tag team champion and president of the prestigious Cauliflower Alley club, former Killer Bee, himself, B. Brian Blair presented the inaugural Killer Bees Award to WWE tag team champs Chad Gable and Bobby Roode, who outpointed the Bar, the New Day and the Usos and the Young Bucks, among others.
As for the top independent wrestler of the year goes, the winner was Davey Boy Smith Jr., who just recently signed a deal with MLW and will continue the momentum he gained in 2018 and use that for the new year. Congrats!
The Smith Hart Writers’ Award went to John Cosper, who co-authored the best selling book “Don’t Call Me Fake”, along with former Stampede Wrestling star, the great David “Dr. D” Shults. If you haven’t had a chance to read Cosper and Shults’ book, check it out, it’s a compelling and fascinating retrospective of Shults’ wrestling career as well as his post wrestling trials and tribulations as a bounty hunter.
I was honored that Barbara Goodish – widow of the legendary Bruiser Brody chose to grace us with her presence as she came on, to present the Bruiser Brody Brawler of the Year award to Kevin Kross, who continues to be one of the best wrestlers on the Indy scene. Kudos to Kevin on the award, keep up the great work, my friend!
Barbara also awarded the prestigious Larry Matysik Award for the Top Indy Promotion Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling promoter Herb Simmons – a most deserving recipient. The HBU Top Trainer’s Award went to Tony Kozina of Portland, who emerged victorious over several other excellent candidates, including my friend David Lowe of Scotland and Jesse Helton of Australia.
The Ed Whalen Media Award was presented to Fulvio Cesare, for his critically acclaimed feature film “350 Days”, which chronicled life on the road in the wrestling business and was a sterling follow up to his previous movie, The Wrestler.
The Jim “the Anvil” Neidhart Big Man’s Award, was closely contested, with several strong candidates, including Brawn Strowman, Brock Lesnar, Drew McIntyre and Samoa Joe, among others in the running, but when the votes were all counted, our listeners, somewhat surprisingly, chose a female – the bombastic Nia Jax as the winner.
The winner of the Diane von Hoffman Women’s Wrestler of the Year award, was presented by Diane’s old friend Beverly Shade to Becky Lynch, who outpointed some outstanding competition, including Asuka, Natalya, Ronda Rousey, Tessa Blanchard and Alexa Bliss, among others.
The award for the Top Indy promotion was jointly awarded to Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling (Herb Simmons, promoter) and Defy Pro Wrestling (Matt Farmer and Jim Perry), who emerged victorious over several other outstanding Indy promotions in North America, the United Kingdom, Japan, the Middle East and Australia.
The winner of the HBU Top Trainer award was another close contest, with Marty Jones of Manchester, England and Tony Kozina, both of whom I have the utmost respect for, sharing the honors.
The Dynamite Kid (Tommy Billington) Rising Star award went to up and coming superstar Nick “the Kid” Curry, who came out on top over an impressive list of stellar candidates, including Lars Sullivan, Brian Pillman Jr., Ricochet, James Jeffries and Dynamite’s nephew Thomas, who’s been garnering rave reviews back in England.
From our associate in Australia – Jesse Helton, we were informed that the Australian male wrestler of the year award went to the dynamic Robby Eagles, while the female award went to the highly touted Shazza McKenzie.
The pay per view of the year was also a closely contested affair, with several outstanding shows all receiving a lot of votes. When all the votes were tabulated, Wrestlemania 34 & Wrestle Kingdom XII narrowly outpointed the Australian Super Show as the best.
As for the match of the year, the epic clash between Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho at Wrestle Kingdom XII in January came out on top, just ahead of the Asuka, Lynch & Flair triple threat showdown at Summer Slam and the Buddy Murphy/Cedrick Alexander cruiserweight title classic at Wrestlemania. Although the three ladies were beatout for match of the year, they did receive the award for best feud of the year.
Our final award – the prestigious PWP Nation Excellence of Execution Award for the Outstanding Wrestler of the Year went to the phenomenal one, himself, A.J. Styles – who outpointed several other great candidates, male and female. AJ continues to raise the bar and is also a class act, in every aspect – keep up the great work, my friend.
I’d like to congratulate all of our winners and to thank all of our readers and listeners from around the world for their input and ongoing support.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and fulfilling New Year!
IF YOU’D LIKE TO LISTEN TO BRUCE’S YEAR-END AWARD SHOW, YOU CAN DO SO BY CLICKING HERE.
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