Best Brawler

Award Description:

To be given to the wrestler who brawled his/her way through the year most
convincingly. This award would go to Frank "Bruiser Brody" Goodish if he
were still around. In 1994, this award was split into two: North American
and Non-North American.  In 1998, it was recombined.

Previous Winners:

  1991: Stan Hansen
  1992: Cactus Jack
  1993: Big Van Vader
  1994: (NA)     Cactus Jack
  1994: (non-NA) Stan Hansen
  1995: (NA)     Cactus Jack
  1995: (non-NA) Stan Hansen
  1996: (NA)     Mankind (Cactus Jack)
  1996: (non-NA) Terry Funk
  1997: (NA)     Mankind
  1997: (non-NA) Stan Hansen
  1998: Mankind (Cactus Jack / Mick Foley / Dude Love)
  1999: Mankind

**2000**: Mick Foley (Cactus Jack / Mankind)

563 first place votes
551 second place votes
532 third place votes

183 87 37 1245   Cactus Jack (Mankind / Mick Foley)
120 85 52  959   Triple H
 72 39 36  549   Steve Austin
 15 35 54  288   Steve Blackman
 23 21 40  258   Rock
 15 24 22  191   Chris Benoit
  8 32 27  190   Mike Awesome
 17 21 16  180   New Jack
 11 13 15  124   Hardcore Holly
  5 19 18  118   Tazz
  4 18 20  114   Kane
  6 14 13   98   Scott Steiner
 10  8 11   96   Masato Tanaka
  5 12 14   89   Undertaker
  8  6 14   86   Rhino
  6 13  3   75   Ryuji Yamakawa
  5 10 10   75   Balls Mahoney
  5  7 13   72   Goldberg
  3 10 11   67   Tommy Dreamer
  7  7  5   66   Tomoaki Honma
  5  5 11   62   Yoshihiro Tajiri
  0 10  9   48   Steve Corino
  2  7  8   47   Vader
  4  3  7   43   Big Vito
  2  7  6   43   Bradshaw
  2  1  6   25   Sandman
  1  4  3   23   Buh Buh Ray Dudley
  1  2  6   23   Rikishi
  3  0  3   21   Brooklyn Brawler
  1  3  3   20   Raven
  1  4  1   19   Perry Saturn
  1  2  4   19   Test
  1  2  2   15   Crash
  1  2  1   13   Kintaro Kanemura
  1  1  2   12   Crowbar
  1  0  3   11   Booker T.
  2  0  0   10   Aja Kong
  1  1  1   10   Mayumi Ozaki
  1  0  2    9   Kaoru
  0  3  0    9   Faarooq
  0  0  4    8   Terry Funk
  1  0  0    5   Shane Douglas
  1  0  0    5   Rjuji Yamakawa
  1  0  0    5   Genichiro Tenryu
  1  0  0    5   Chris Jericho
  0  1  1    5   Survival Tobita
  0  1  1    5   Spike Dudley
  0  1  1    5   Kurt Angle
  0  0  2    4   Shane McMahon
  0  0  2    4   Hulk Hogan
  0  0  2    4   Bam Bam Bigelow
  0  1  0    3   Toshiaki Kawada
  0  1  0    3   Tomaoki Honma
  0  1  0    3   Sugar Sato
  0  1  0    3   Norman Smiley
  0  1  0    3   Meng
  0  1  0    3   Masahiro Tanaka
  0  1  0    3   Lobo (CZW)
  0  1  0    3   Kyoko Inoue
  0  1  0    3   Jeff Jarrett
  0  1  0    3   Albert
  0  0  1    2   Tomoko Watanabe
  0  0  1    2   Tank Abbott
  0  0  1    2   Tamoaki Honma
  0  0  1    2   SCSA
  0  0  1    2   Justin Credible
  0  0  1    2   Jeff Hardy
  0  0  1    2   Diamond Dallas Page
  0  0  1    2   Big Boss Man

REJECTED

  0  0  1        Anyone from ECW
  0  0  1        Acolytes

C. JOSEPH HOFFMAN: Who in the hell is Buffy Republic?

HIRO: Triple H wins this one after beating Mick senseless in their two
matches early this year. Benoit is here only because of his kicks and
chops.

DEAN RASMUSSEN: Rjuji Yamakawa edges out Honma for the simple fact that he
is better carrier of lesser workers of the two. Honma wins in the Power
Sprayer Of Sweeet Sweet Blood department and Honma brawls like a total
motherfucker- and he is a better technical wrestler than Yamakawa, but-
this is gonna sound really weird, I know- Yamakawa is a SMARTER worker.
When you notice what total idiots these two are and how each match they
are in knocks off 4 months of their lives, smarter is a relative term.
Yamakawa is better at telling a story and sets up his big hellishly
horrible spots better. It's really close because both will selflessly take
absolutely ANY bump to the match over with the seedy Big Japan rubes in
attendence and we toothless yahoo tape-collecting rubes here in the
states. Kaoru became even HOTTER and more VIXENLIKE becoming Hardcore
KAORU and then proceeds to go out and have to of the best deathmatches in
the annals of Joshi- the ass-stomp against Aja and the Heart's- Greatest-
Hits- On- A- Pole Stevie Nicks Invitational Redneck Chicks Angry And On
High-Grade Crank Deathmatch of Deathmatches. I could have also put her as
one of the top three high-flyers but her high-flying is now just part of
the fabulously slutty, cocktail-waittressy brawling style she has created-
so to call it simple high-flying is to misinterpret her work. Oh yeah!

JASON BOUGGER: You can't go with Foley this year.  He sat out just about
all year.

MARK POLISHUK: Tajiri's (Insert country here) Death Matches with Super
Crazy never failed to rule.

ALEX BECKERS: Even though he wasn't nominated I had to put Bradshaw in
there. Wrestlemania hardcore battle royale, 'nuff said.

ROBERT STRUPP: Very weak field this year, as the WWF has tried to get away
from this, Steve Austin was hurt all year, and WCW doesn't do it very
well. Rhino and Sandman excel at this, though, so they get the top two
spots. Foley and Hunter had two ***** brawls early in the year, and I've
voted Hunter enough in these awards, so Foley gets the third spot here.

ALEX GIPSON: Foley's back-to-back knockout performances at Royal Rumble
and No Way Out early in the year only further solidified his dominance in
this division;  there is no one better, and probably never will be, IMO.
Triple H's matches against Foley and Jericho added a piece to the puzzle
which is lacking in several hardcore matches-storyline, hence he gets my
second place vote.

CHRIS OSTER: How do you wrestle for only three months (plus one match) of
the qualifying period, and still get a high vote in one of these
categories? Easy...be Mick Foley, and put on one great brawl after another
around the turn of the faux millennium.  Triple H outranks him only
because he had another one in him, against Jericho at Fully Loaded.  
Masato Tanaka takes third for his two superlative World title matches on
TNN against Mike Awesome, and because I like him way more than Awesome.

DANIEL HERMAN: Foley gets the nod for having two high-snowflake matches at
the beginning of the year. Vito is shaping up to be a top brawler and
Tobita is Tobita.

SCOTT W.: Why is there 2 choices for Mick Foley?  Cactus Jack and Mick are
on the ballot.  Well, Foley gets the nod with New Jack and Balls coming in
2nd and 3rd. I wonder if the workrate freaks skip over this part of the
ballot?  LOSERS!!

MARCUS SPARKS: Tommy Dreamer's proven himself to be brutal and innovative
with violent spots before he screwed up his back.  Even after that he's
only slowed down a bit.  Steve Austin's a bit more reliant on just
punching and kicking, and New Jack's a weapon machine.  Either way, when
their music hits, you know someone's getting their ass handed to them.

JOHN C.: The Game wins again. More often than not, Hunter's matches have
been tremendous brawls that go all around the arena so he was the easy
choice once again. Mick Foley gets the second spot here as he ended his
career using the same reckless style that made him famous in the first
place.  Finally, Mike Awesome gets kudos for his work mostly in ECW where
he had some magnificent brawls with the likes of Masato Tanaka and Spike
Dudley.

MICHAELA FISCHER: Isn't Lombardi the only "Brawler" in wrestling?

TONY LING: BLACKMAN HARDCORE CHAMP 4 LIFE

ANDY P. GOSS: Fine, here's your damn HHH vote!  His matches with Cactus
Jack and Chris Jericho proved he could brawl with the best of them.  
Steve Blackman and New Jack are almost exclusively brawlers nowadays, but
that's cool.  Their matches define mindless brawl, and the fans love them.

JON WALTON: While not the most punishing brawler, the brawling that Austin
has used to compensate for his declining in ring skills is always extremly
convincing and intense.  A mention of New Jack for consistently killing
himself on a nightly basis.

JAMES HOWARD: Mike Awesome, Kane and Vader are all giant men who use a
brawling style. And their matches are a lot of fun to watch. Think about
that: Huge brawling giants... *who consistently have good matches*. It's a
short list - in fact, it's a three-person list, and there they are. :)

JOE GAGNE: His Royal Rumble and No Way Out matches easily earn Foley the
top spot. Vader has returned to proper asskicking form in Japan.  
Hardcore Holly was having some very good brawls before the arm injury.

JEREMY SORIA: Mick Foley gets the nod for the top spot, if only for the
final run in wrestling. Tazz is number two here… but mostly that's from
his early weeks in the WWF, before he injured himself and briefly removed
himself from competition. (Someone tell him to bring back that singlet and
get back into suplexing wrestlers into submission. Or the Tazmission, as
it were.) Chris Benoit again is here, because he has great ability to
adapt.

TROY OLSON: Interesting that HHH stepped up to have good technical matches
with Benoit, Angle, Rock as well as establishing himself as a great
brawler against Foley.

JEREMY DELINE: Best Brawler-Voting in Memory of Mick Foley, and his last
blaze of glory (not withstanding the Wrestlemania 2000 main event). Second
place goes to Steve Corino, the walking plasma bank who'll twist his body
into a crushed pretzel for the amusement of a handful of fans. Third place
is a toss-up. I picked Mike Awesome partly for his decimation of the ECW
roster, and partly for his solid work in WCW (if only he'd given ICP those
concussions in their hardcore handicap match instead of hurting
Vampiro..if only..)

NATHAN LONEY: Did you see the street fight in January?  That's my example
that Mick Foley is the best brawler... or was the best brawler... in the
biz.  Something has happened to Steve Austin.  The guy who only used his
fists and boots in a fight has been replaced... with a guy who can GO in
the ring!  However, I held out on awarding him, because I want to see
more.  Now brawling... he's done that for a while, and with great results!  
Tazz is a guilty pleasure of mine, and he's got the thug persona down.  
He's beating people up, tossing them around like sacks of shit, and
choking them out.  Very adept at brawling.

BILL LEHECKA: I have to point to Triple H's brawl with Chris Jericho
(their last man standing match).  I just like the way Triple H can either
go at it in a technical match or just go at it in a bloody brawl.  It's
too bad there's no category for best bladejob of the year (what I've
seen), because Triple H's gusher gave me goose bumps.

BLAZEJ SZPAKOWICZ: Well, it's the last time I'll be able to vote for him,
but Mick Foley is still the best brawler of all time. Bar none. I doubt
he'll have any trouble winning that one last award in this category, and
all power to him! He may only have been active the first few months of the
year, but I think he deserves this one for his two matches with Triple H
alone. And, speaking of Triple H, he gets an easy second. He's had some
great, psychotic brawls against not only Mick, but also the likes of
Jericho, Benoit and Rock, and I wouldn't be surprised if I end up voting
for him here next year as well. Buh Buh Ray Dudley get third, since he's
worked his ass off in all of his high-profile matches this year, and I'm
not about to vote for him as Best Worker...

KEVIN SMITH: Triple H and the Rock over Cactus Jack simply because while
Mick's stunts are awesome, he's lucky to still be able to walk. I find HHH
and Rock entertaining without them risking their lives.

OCTAVIAN: Mick Foley gets my only vote in this category.  Happy
retirement, Mick!

LAWRENCE BENEDETTO: Can't spell Blackman without the MAN!

TANVIR RAQUIB: In my definition, brawlers are those who punch and bleed
alot. And they also do especially stupid things during their matches. New
Jack punches, bleeds and does INCREDIBLY stupid things in his matches.
Give him "Best Brawler", damnit.

JEFF "FRO" WAHLMAN: Cactus has to get the nod here... a truly legendary
brawler.  Triple H gets #2 based on the strength of his work with Mr. Bang
Bang!  Steve Blackman after beholding the power of cheese got over and
truly found his niche in the hardcore division.

JBELL55146: Triple H proved in his wars with Mick Foley in the early part
of the year that he can brawl with anybody and anything. And it's gonna be
hard not voting next year for Foley.