2008 in review mid-February
I base the time frame of my awards to the Wrestling Observer Newsletters rules, mostly that a year goes from Dec 1 thru Nov 31.
MOTY contenders:
Kurt Angle (c) vs. Yuji Nagata **** 1/4/08
Kurt Angle vs. Christian Cage ***
Kurt Angle vs. Christian Cage ***3/4 (Against All Odds PPV 2/10/08)
Triple HHH vs. Jeff Hardy *** - Armageddon 12/16/07
Shinsuke Nakamura Vs. Togi Makabe, IWGP #1 Contendership - NJPW 12/9/07 ***3/4
Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Kenta Kobashi & Yoshihiro Takayama - NOAH 12/2/07 ***
Kota Ibushi (c) vs. KAGETORA (El Dorado***3/4) 12/29/07
Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki vs. KENTA & Taiji Ishimori ***3/4 - NOAH 1/20/08
ROH World Title: Nigel McGuinnes (c) vs. Go Shiosaki ***3/4 -NOAH 1/20/08
Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki vs. KENTA & Taiji Ishimori ***3/4 -NOAH 1/6/08
JWP Tag Team Title: Tsubasa Kuragaki & Kayoko Haruyama (c) vs. Nanae Takahashi & Natsuki*Taiyo 12/9/08 ****
JWP Openweight Title: Azumi Hyuga (c) vs. Kaori Yoneyama 12/9/08 ***1/2
The Royal Rumble 1/27/08 ***1/2
IWGP Heavyweight Title:
Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura *** 1.4.08
Masato Tanaka (c) vs. Daisuke Sekimoto (Z1 World Heavyweight Title)***3/4 — 1/1/08
NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Title: Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin (c) vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Dick Togo ***3/4 — 1/1/08
Best Event:
Royal Rumble 2008
No Way Out 2008
Worst Event:
Inoki Genome 2
CZW Cage of Death 9
IWA-DS 12/1/2007 Carnage Cup
Best Promotion:
So far I have watched a little bit of a lot of different things. Most of it is puro but of course you can throw in the WWE and TNA. So frar my top pick for the promotion of 2008:
NOAH
Most Charismatic
Naoya Ogawa
Toshie Uematsu
MVP
Ric Flair
John Cena
HHH
Wrestler of the Year
Jeff Hardy
Kurt Angle
Brawler of the Year
Masato Tanaka
Togi Makabe
Tag Team of the Year
MCMGs
The Miz & John Morrison
Mixed Martial Arts Most Valuable
Brock Lesnar
George St. Pierre
