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1999 R.S.P-W Awards | Best Technical Wrestler |
Awards |
Best Technical Wrestler Award Description: To be given to the wrestler who has the most technical ability. The number of holds and moves you see this person do and the crispness with which the moves are executed makes his/her matches a pleasure to watch. In 1994, this award was split into three: North American, Non-North American, and overall. In 1998, it was recombined into one. Previous Winners: 1991: Bret Hart 1992: Bret Hart 1993: Bret Hart 1994: (overall/NA) Bret Hart 1994: (non-NA) Chris Benoit 1995: (overall/NA) Dean Malenko 1995: (non-NA) Chris Benoit 1996: (sweep) Dean Malenko 1997: (overall/NA) Dean Malenko 1997: (non-NA) Jushin Liger 1998: Dean Malenko **1999**: Chris Benoit 344 first place votes 338 second place votes 329 third place votes 141 85 33 1026 Chris Benoit 64 65 47 609 Bret Hart 57 54 49 545 Dean Malenko 16 16 27 182 Owen Hart 8 17 30 151 Chris Jericho 3 16 24 111 Jerry Lynn 5 15 18 106 Lance Storm 1 15 16 82 Eddie Guerrero 9 6 9 81 Yoshihiro Tajiri 3 5 11 52 Perry Saturn 1 7 11 48 Steve Regal 2 5 4 33 Kurt Angle 2 2 6 28 Al Snow 2 4 2 26 Koji Kanemoto 3 2 0 21 Minoru Tanaka 3 0 3 21 Shinjiro Otani 2 1 4 21 Taz 3 1 0 18 Rob Van Dam 2 0 2 14 Ken Shamrock 2 1 0 13 Mariko Yoshida 2 1 0 13 Kiyoshi Tamura 0 1 5 13 Norman Smiley 1 2 0 11 Mikiko Futagami 1 1 1 10 Daisuke Ikeda 0 2 2 10 Little Guido 0 2 2 10 Jushin Liger 1 1 0 8 Mitsuharu Misawa 1 0 1 7 Sting 1 0 1 7 Riptide 1 0 1 7 Carlos Amano 0 1 2 7 Curt Hennig 0 0 3 6 Jeff Jarrett 1 0 0 5 Yuki Ishikawa 1 0 0 5 Triple H 1 0 0 5 Susan Green 1 0 0 5 Road Dogg 1 0 0 5 Nova 1 0 0 5 Hulk Hogan 1 0 0 5 Dan Severn 0 1 1 5 Ric Flair 0 1 1 5 Edge 0 1 1 5 David Taylor 0 0 2 4 Rey Mysterio Jr. 0 1 0 3 X-Pac 0 1 0 3 Test 0 1 0 3 Naoya Ogawa 0 1 0 3 Malia Hosaka 0 1 0 3 Hacksaw Jim Duggan 0 1 0 3 Cuddley Berr 0 1 0 3 Bill Goldberg 0 0 1 2 Yoshiyuki Saito 0 0 1 2 Taka Michinoku 0 0 1 2 Shane Douglas 0 0 1 2 Mona 0 0 1 2 Kanyon 0 0 1 2 Gary Steele 0 0 1 2 Fit Finlay 0 0 1 2 Dr. Wagner Jr. 0 0 1 2 Bert Hart 0 0 1 2 Adam Pearce CHRIS BIRD: While this might be a good candidate to rename "the Dean Malenko Memorial Award", he doesn't win it this year. Bret Hart waged a one-man crusade to bring mat-wrestling back to the masses. Norman Smiley did the same and got over while doing it. Perry Saturn learned everything Dean taught him and expanded on it to develop his own distinctly unique and exciting mat style. EDC: Super Crazy brings a new meaning to the term Flyer. Everything he does is always on the mark and he hasn't botched anything I remember all year. Hardy gets on because of his Hangtime, although he does seem out of control sometimes. Dragon Kid can not be denied, but his blowing 50% of his spots drops him to number 3. CYBERAL33: I'm going to give Minoru Tanaka the best technical wrestler award, but it's a close call. His main advantage is his quickness and the sharpness, as he can break into a cross armbreaker (jujigatame) from any position. Second would have to be Mariko Yoshida whose intense jiu-jutsu training has really showed. She seems to now be the most credible fighter in ARSION. Third is Steven Regal who can stretch anyone, even in the routond shape he's in. Europe has produced a ton of great wrestlers that never seem to get any respect (Regal, Finlay, Taylor, Smiley, Jody Fleich, etc.) K. CANZANELLA: I was shootstyle-tape declined this year but I did get to see the work of Minoru Tanaka and I think he is the best of the technical wrestlers I have seen because of his ability to hit a killer submission out of anywhere. Koji Kanemoto is also quite prolific in this style. He gets second. Lance Storm is the best of the US technical wrestlers so I'll give him the third place vote. SVEN MASCARENHAS: Much as it pains me, I simply can't give Owen first place in this one. Dean Malenko was great up until Russo showed up, especially in his last match with Misterio at the end of the voting period. Tajiri did well enough for himself to earn third place (amazing what more regular ECW exposure can get you). FALCONARROW: Excuse my smartass vote for the Brooklyn Brawler :) DON BECKER: Deano-Machino gets the top spot again this year. Ohtani and Ikeda round out my three, Ikeda going over because he gets to do more mat-based stuff in BattleArts than Ohtani gets to in NJPW. SHAWN MULLIN: Deano Machino can do everyone's moves better than they can. He'll pull out moves he hasn't done in ages just to show people what he can do. I don't think anyone has the repetoire he has, and he rarely flubs anything. Benoit and Hart seem to know their shit too :) MAX CHITTISTER: I don't think there's more than four "technical" wrestlers left in the world, one of whom (Bret Hart) took most of the year off. So it's Benoit, Malenko, and Eddy, like always. PAUL SHOCK: Chris Benoit is the best wrestler in the world. I felt I had to vote for the late, great Owen Hart. Speaking of guys from Calgary...Alberta... Canada, Storm edges into third over Malenko, Guerrero, Snow and the Hitman. BLOB: Dean Malenko's great technical wrestling and many different holds and counters just barely put him over the Hart Brothers, who are famous for their scientific ability. Owen will forever be known for his wonderful mix of high impact and scientific wrestling. GEORGE CARTER: Man, this award keeps getting more and more difficult to choose each and every year. Dean is the purest of the pure and that's why I still like him. Bret isn't what he was a few years ago, but he is still very good. And Owen gets my third voite for being the great technical wrestler he has been for over a decade. JOHN C.:You don't have to leave the province of Alberta for this one. The top three are my fellow Canadians Benoit, Bret Hart and Lance Storm. Any questions? RICHARD BEAUBIEN: Hart wins this award thanks to his awesome match with Benoit, as the two of them provide the last bastion of good old fashioned North American style wrestling. Benoit comes in second because his mat works is solid and great, and works well with his stiff brawling and Japanese style offence. JAMES GOWDEY: Funny, Hart, Benoit, and Malenko are all in WCW...*coughMOREWRESTLINGWWFcough* SEAN FLYNN: WCW's one strong point, though dying under Vinny Roo BEN MILLER: Kanemoto is in a league of his own. Gotta love Benoit, though. KEVIN WONG: I almost voted for the Rock, because of his incredibly technical Greco-Roman spit-laden smack to the side of the head. Then I realized that Triple H's knee arsenal was much more deserving, and then I remembered that Hogan can still bust out that cross-armbreaker, so he HAD to be placed first. Then I realized the category was BEST Technical Wrestler, not LEAST Technical Wrestler B. SZPAKOWICZ: Rock?? Test?? Road Dogg?!? Right. Anyway, no one uses more moves per match than Dean Malenko. Like a lot of other people, he doesn't seem to use many of them anymore, but when he bothers to try, he's still great. Chris Benoit gets second, with the same caveat. Al Snow gets third, since he's the best (probably the *only*) technical wrestler in the WWF and since I refuse to vote for Bret Hart. JEREMY SORIA: Two-thirds of The New Japan Three are here... they still got it after all these years. Owen Hart still had it as well... and as a tribute to him, he's on my ballot. SELENA KYTE: I don't always need fancy moves or special holds to keep my attention on the match. I enjoy the basics as well, which is the main reason why I admire veteran Susan Green. Since she's traching other women the basics as well, maybe there can be more of a balance between technical skills and hard-impact moves. JASON BALDWIN: Steven Regal is sooooooo underrated, it's not even funny. So is Fit Finlay, but that's another category. |
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