One of the (I hate to use the word "Famous") stories you'd always hear about in internet wrestling fan circles like ours back in the day was about Sabu dominating the 1994 WON Awards. jdw always used to talk about Meltzer calling him while tabulating ballots and saying how Sabu might win WOTY and all sorts of other awards and how crazy they thought that was. I've watched and thought a lot about Sabu lately so I thought it'd be interesting to take a look at where he finished in some of the awards
WRESTLER OF THE YEAR
1. Toshiaki Kawada (134) 960
2. Sabu (123) 923 3. Ric Flair (71) 616
4. Kenta Kobashi (44) 488
5. Steve Williams (25) 442
6. Great Sasuke 424
7. Shawn Michaels 354
8. Mitsuharu Misawa 332
9. Bret Hart 311
10. Terry Funk 305
Honorable mention: Nobuhiko Takada 217, Konnan El Barbaro 215, Love Machine 209, Vader 166, Shane Douglas 142, Jushin Liger 141, Akira Hokuto 104, Perro Aguayo 93
Sabu coming in 2nd here is insane. I dunno about Kawada over Misawa even if Kawada won the CC & TC (Misawa held the TC most the year, the tag belts the whole year & won the tag league & was Misawa), but Kawada at #1 isn't as crazy as Sabu at #2. Misawa, Takada, Onita, Hash, Tenryu, Aja, & the top Luchadores are the WOTYCs. If you were making a top 10 WOTY you could maybe thrown Sabu a #10 pick as a nod to what really was a great year in the ring and making a name for himself on the indy scene, but you had to be in a major promotion to be a real candidate. Wrestling in Japan and Mexico had too many real candidates for an outside the box pick like Sabu.
MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER
1. Kenta Kobashi (119) 1,121
2. Sabu (162) 1,009 3. Chris Benoit (95) 993
4. Great Sasuke (75) 626
5. Toshiaki Kawada (33) 566
6. Shawn Michaels 538
7. Manami Toyota 289
8. Ric Flair 247
9. Rey Misterio Jr. 160
10. Vader 144
Honorable Mention: Love Machine 135, Mitsuharu Misawa 135, Jushin Liger 124, Steve Williams 116, Bret Hart 112, Akira Hokuto 99, Eddy Guerrero 75, Psicosis 72
I mean, this is obvoiusly a case where taste is the determining factor. But I don't think Sabu is a truly outlandish pick at #1 or anywhere in the top 10. He wouldn't be my choice for #1 and may not even make a top 5 (Tamura, Han, Bull, Funk, Tenryu...ok he wouldn't make my top 5) but he'd likely fall somewhere in that 6-10 range and that's fine. He was a truly unique in-ring performer and in this era was really awesome at blending his crazy innovative style into more traditionally great matches. His rivalry with Terry Funk is awesome with multiple great matches and maybe my pick for US singles MOTY (2/28/94). He also has by far the best Al Snow match I've ever seen (9/11/94) and one of Foley's best matches ever (10/30/94). So for being able to produce great matches in the ring and standout as a wholly unique presence, I don't think its terrible he ended up on this list. 2nd place and most #1 votes is better than he should have done...but when I look at this particular list...like yeah I think he's better than 1994 Shawn, Toyota, Flair, Psicosis, Eddy and Benoit. The WON voters were wrong about Sabu being a top 10 1994 Most Outstanding wrestler, but they were wrong about most of the top 10 anyway
.THere's a bunch of really interesting looking stuff from his 1994 that I'd like to take a look at. Like there's a Sabu vs Damian handheld match from 1994 FMW. Hell yes I'd like to watch that.
FEUD OF THE YEAR
1. Gringo Locos Vs. Mexican AAA (157) 961
2. Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart (80) 738
3. Misawa & co. vs. Kawada & co. (74) 665
4. Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair (66) 649
5. Konnan El Barbaro vs. Perro Aguayo (22) 353
6. Atsushi Onita & FMW vs. Mr. Pogo & W*ING 264
7. Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels 262
8.
Sabu vs. Terry Funk 211
9.
Sabu vs. Cactus Jack 197
10. Sandman vs. Tommy Dreamer 152
Honorable Mention: Sandman vs. Tommy Cairo 100, Steve Williams vs. Toshiaki Kawada 98, Ricky Steamboat vs. Steve Austin 97, Nasty Boys vs. Cactus Jack & Maxx Payne 86, Ric Flair vs. Vader 70
You know what, with 26 years of hindsight, thats not a bad list. You don't want to see Sandman vs Tommy Dreamer sneak into the top 10 but the other 9 are perfectly good choices. I'm glad Sabu vs Terry finished ahead of Sabu vs Cactus. It should have.
BRUISER BRODY MEMORIAL AWARD (BEST BRAWLER)
1. Cactus Jack (313) 2,180
2. Sabu (122) 1,151 3. Terry Funk (59) 922
4. Vader (40) 521
5. Stan Hansen (9) 316
6. Public Enemy 122
7. Atsushi Onita 84
8. Aja Kong 71
Can't really argue with that top 8 excluding Public Enemy. Personally I'd put Funk & Sabu both ahead of Cactus, but its not like Cactus is a bad pick.
BEST FLYING WRESTLER
1. Great Sasuke (411) 2,478
2. Rey Misterio Jr. (152) 2,149
3. Sabu (96) 1,208 4. Jushin Liger (25) 437
5. Manami Toyota (19) 355
6. Too Cold Scorpio 283
7. Chris Benoit 211
8. 1-2-3 Kid 172
Really wouldn't quibble with this list either. Sabu's probably in the right place again. His highflying spots were still jaw-dropping high end spots and helped enhance his character.
MATCH OF THE YEAR
1. Razor Ramon Vs. Shawn Michaels 3-20 New York (125) 984
2. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada 6-3 Tokyo (136) 945
3. Great Sasuke vs. Wild Pegasus (Chris Benoit) 4-16 Tokyo (99) 928
4. Machine & Guerrero vs. Santo & Octagon 11-6 Los Angeles (85) 799
5. Terry Funk vs. Shane Douglas vs.
Sabu 2-5 Philadelphia (48) 508
6. Ric Flair vs. Vader 12-27-93 Charlotte 281
7. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 5-21 Sapporo 171
8. Nasty Boys vs. Cactus Jack & Maxx Payne 4-17 Chicago 157
9. Jushin Liger vs. Great Sasuke 4-16 Tokyo 154
10. Cactus Jack & Kevin Sullivan vs. Nasty Boys 5-22 Philadelphia 148
Kinda funny that Sabu's only match to make the top 10 or even honorable mention is also a really terrible match. That sums up ECW pretty well actually. There are other matches (vs Funk & vs Cactus) that wouldn't be out of place on a top 10 1994 MOTY list.
BEST WRESTLING MANEUVER
1. Great Sasuke Space Flying Tiger Drop 121
2. Eddy Guerrero Frankensteiner off Machine's shoulders 113
3. Rey Misterio Jr. Frankensteiner off top rope 64
4. Scott Steiner SDD 56
5. Steve Williams backdrop driver 49
6.
Sabu moonsault on table 46
7. Vader moonsault 26
8. Too Cold Scorpio Scorpio splash 15
1994 WON Fans ladies and gentlemen.
Also (#2), Eddy didn't even fucking hit that spot.
READERS PERSONAL FAVORITE WRESTLER
1.
Sabu 88
2. Ric Flair 83
3. Shawn Michaels 57
4. Manami Toyota 47
5. Cactus Jack 39
6. Toshiaki Kawada 31
7. Vader 28
8. Terry Funk 22
9. Love Machine 13
10. Great Sasuke 12
Honorable Mention: Akira Hokuto 11, Al Snow 11, Nobuhiko Takada 11, Jushin Liger 10, Steve Williams 10, Eddy Guerrero 9, Jerry Lawler 8
I honestly didn't expect Michaels to finish so well already in 1994. I know he always had a great rep in the WON, but 3rd behind peak Sabu & Flair and ahead of peak Toyota is pretty shocking.
And that's it. He only actually won one WON award (I couldn't resist that sentence). There are some categories where he didn't even place where he definitely should have (most underrated, most charismatic, best gimmick), others where he's in a perfectly reasonable place (flying & brawling), one that's totally subjective (Most Outstanding) and one that looks bad (WOTY). Given the state of WCW & WWF in December 1994 (when voting was happening) in terms of drawing/national interest/quality product, its not really surprising that a bunch of voters would go with this utterly unique character.