This is the Call for Votes for

Wait wait wait wait wait. It’s May.

You see, May first is International Workers’ Day, and wrestlers are workers, as we all know, so –

Not buying that.

Well, we were trying to build this new site, and then decided not to do it, and then someone’s work exploded again – look, nobody pays us for this, you know? We don’t even have a Venmo or anything to beg change off you. We’re hoping that for the 2022 Awards we can have a system in place that automates a lot of the stuff that makes putting this whole thing together take so long, but for now it is what it is, and we’re asking for your forebearance and also to not let recency bias creep in when you vote. And we do apologize. We’re aiming to have the results ready for around AEW Double Or Nothing.

All right then. Continue.

Ahem.

This is the Call for Votes for the 2021 RSPW (Theszie) Awards. You can vote here.

The Theszies are the oldest fan awards in pro wrestling history, going back to 1990 (when Mr. Perfect quite appropriately won Best Wrestler and Junkyard Dog v. Ric Flair at Clash of the Champions XI won Worst Match). They offer a record of wrestling fan opinion lasting decades, and although we may not agree with some awards in retrospect, what matters is that they offer a snapshot of every year of wrestling as the fans loved it. We think that’s pretty cool.

As usual, following the nominations period, we have compiled all of the nominations into menus to make voting faster and easier (since the menus should include most or all of the most popular candidates for each award), while still allowing for write-in votes for those who don’t see their favorite choices as nominees. We do this strictly to streamline the voting process; this should not be construed as favoritism towards any wrestler for being nominated, as we do not nominate wrestlers ourselves. We have edited the nominations to remove some nominations that we thought were inappropriate, mistakes/errors, or unlikely to get enough votes to justify the nomination, as well as culling the nominations somewhat to make the ballot more manageable.

Remember, though: if your candidate for an award isn’t nominated, you can always write him in.

We’ve also used TECHNOLOGY to let you save your ballot and return to it later, if need be. Finally, we’ve also given fans the opportunity to include their own commentary on their voting choices for each award or just The State of Wrestling in General in 2020.

The deadline for entering votes is May 22, 2022. Have fun!

This is the Call for Nominations for the 2021 Theszie Awards (the rec.sport.pro-wrestling Awards).

(Look, I started a new job late last year and my December was slammed. Sorry for the delay.)

To nominate candidates for all categories, you may use this form. Nominations are due by January 28, 2021.

Finally, to see previous years’ results, click here for 2020, here for 2019, here for 2018, here for 2017, here for 2016, here for 2015, here for 2014, here for 2013, here and here for 2012, and here for most older historical awards.

Welcome to the results of the 2020 Theszies / Rec.sport.pro-wrestling Awards –

HOLD UP HOLD UP. It’s been like three months since the voting deadline! Where the hell have you been?

*sigh*

About a week and half after voting closed, my wife got Covid-19. She was sick into mid-March and had to stay in hospital for a while. She’s since made a full recovery (thank god), but between caregiving and sheer worry I didn’t have time to do anything else for all that time, and once she was better I had to spend the next six weeks catching up on work. Hence the massive delay. Covid-19: it hasn’t just fucked with wrestling, but also wrestling fans. Wear your damn masks and get your damn shots, everybody.

…okay, we retract the question. Please continue.

No worries.

This year we had 212 voters participating. As always, for next year we encourage all of you wrestling media people to nominate yourselves and your favorites, and try to get your fans out to vote for you. Fair is fair!

As always, thank yous to Justin Henry, Christopher Robin Zimmerman, Herb Kunze and all those who have previously run the Awards and contributed to their legacy; everybody who chipped in to promote the awards; all of you voters, of course; and finally and most importantly an extra-double-sized thanks to mgkdotcom’s Tech Guy, James Young, without whose invaluable assistance these Awards would almost certainly have failed to be anywhere near as successful and user-friendly as they in fact were.

The “Best” Award results can be found here.

The “Worst” Award results can be found here.

Finally, full ballot results for all Awards can be found here.

Thanks for voting, and we’ll see you next year!

(Sorry for the delay: we had a record number of nominations to plow through – over 250 in most categories!)

This is the Call for Votes for the 2020 RSPW (Theszie) Awards. You can vote here.

The Theszies are the oldest fan awards in pro wrestling history, going back to 1990 (when Mr. Perfect quite appropriately won Best Wrestler and Junkyard Dog v. Ric Flair at Clash of the Champions XI won Worst Match). They offer a record of wrestling fan opinion lasting decades, and although we may not agree with some awards in retrospect, what matters is that they offer a snapshot of every year of wrestling as the fans loved it. We think that’s pretty cool.

As usual, following the nominations period, we have compiled all of the nominations into menus to make voting faster and easier (since the menus should include most or all of the most popular candidates for each award), while still allowing for write-in votes for those who don’t see their favorite choices as nominees. We do this strictly to streamline the voting process; this should not be construed as favoritism towards any wrestler for being nominated, as we do not nominate wrestlers ourselves. We have edited the nominations to remove some nominations that we thought were inappropriate, mistakes/errors, or unlikely to get enough votes to justify the nomination, as well as culling the nominations somewhat to make the ballot more manageable.

Remember, though: if your candidate for an award isn’t nominated, you can always write him in.

We’ve also used TECHNOLOGY to let you save your ballot and return to it later, if need be. Finally, we’ve also given fans the opportunity to include their own commentary on their voting choices for each award or just The State of Wrestling in General in 2020.

The deadline for entering votes is February 14, 2021. Have fun!

This is the Call for Nominations for the 2020 Theszie Awards (the rec.sport.pro-wrestling Awards).

To nominate candidates for all categories, you may use this form. Nominations are due by January 3, 2021.

Finally, to see previous years’ results, click here for 2019, here for 2018, here for 2017, here for 2016, here for 2015, here for 2014, here for 2013, here and here for 2012, and here for most older historical awards.

Welcome to the results of the 2019 Theszies / Rec.sport.pro-wrestling Awards.

(Editor’s note: Some of you may be wondering “what took so long?” The answer is: 1.) Immediately after the voting period ended, my wife and I went on a previously-scheduled vacation to Italy, which was great, and 2.) then when we got back we had to get screened for Covid-19, which took a while. Don’t worry, we’re fine.)

This year we had 395 voters participating. As always, for next year we encourage all of you wrestling media people to nominate yourselves and your favorites, and try to get your fans out to vote for you. Fair is fair!

As always, thank yous to Justin Henry, Christopher Robin Zimmerman, Herb Kunze and all those who have previously run the Awards and contributed to their legacy; everybody who chipped in to promote the awards; all of you voters, of course; and finally and most importantly an extra-double-sized thanks to mgkdotcom’s Tech Guy, James Young, without whose invaluable assistance these Awards would almost certainly have failed to be anywhere near as successful and user-friendly as they in fact were.

The “Best” Award results can be found here.

The “Worst” Award results can be found here.

Finally, full ballot results for all Awards can be found here.

Thanks for voting, and we’ll see you next year!

This is the Call for Votes for the 2019 RSPW (Theszie) Awards. You can vote here.

The Theszies are the oldest fan awards in pro wrestling history, going back to 1990 (when Mr. Perfect quite appropriately won Best Wrestler and Junkyard Dog v. Ric Flair at Clash of the Champions XI won Worst Match). They offer a record of wrestling fan opinion lasting decades, and although we may not agree with some awards in retrospect, what matters is that they offer a snapshot of every year of wrestling as the fans loved it. We think that’s pretty cool.

As usual, following the nominations period, we have compiled all of the nominations into menus to make voting faster and easier (since the menus should include most or all of the most popular candidates for each award), while still allowing for write-in votes for those who don’t see their favorite choices as nominees. We do this strictly to streamline the voting process; this should not be construed as favoritism towards any wrestler for being nominated, as we do not nominate wrestlers ourselves. We have edited the nominations to remove some nominations that we thought were inappropriate, mistakes/errors, or unlikely to get enough votes to justify the nomination, as well as culling the nominations somewhat to make the ballot more manageable.

Remember, though: if your candidate for an award isn’t nominated, you can always write him in.

We’ve also used TECHNOLOGY to let you save your ballot and return to it later, if need be. Finally, we’ve also given fans the opportunity to include their own commentary on their voting choices for each award or just The State of Wrestling in General in 2019.

The deadline for entering votes is February 8, 2020. Have fun!

This is the Call for Nominations for the 2019 Theszie Awards (the rec.sport.pro-wrestling Awards).

To nominate candidates for all categories, you may use this form. Nominations are due by January 5, 2019.

Finally, to see previous years’ results, click here for 2018, click here for 2017, here for 2016, here for 2015, here for 2014, here for 2013, here and here for 2012, and here for most older historical awards.

Welcome to the results of the 2018 Theszies / Rec.sport.pro-wrestling Awards.

This year we had 508 voters participating. As always, for next year we encourage all of you wrestling media people to nominate yourselves and your favorites, and try to get your fans out to vote for you. Fair is fair!

As always, thank yous to Justin Henry, Christopher Robin Zimmerman, Herb Kunze and all those who have previously run the Awards and contributed to their legacy; everybody who chipped in to promote the awards; all of you voters, of course; and finally and most importantly an extra-double-sized thanks to mgkdotcom’s Tech Guy, James Young, without whose invaluable assistance these Awards would almost certainly have failed to be anywhere near as successful and user-friendly as they in fact were.

The “Best” Award results can be found here.

The “Worst” Award results can be found here.

Finally, full ballot results for all Awards can be found here.

Thanks for voting, and we’ll see you next year!

This is the Call for Nominations for the 2018 Theszie Awards (the rec.sport.pro-wrestling Awards).

To nominate candidates for all categories, you may use this form. Nominations are due by December 31, 2018.

Finally, to see previous years’ results, click here for 2017, here for 2016, here for 2015, here for 2014, here for 2013, here and here for 2012, and here for most older historical awards.

Welcome to the results of the 2017 Theszies / Rec.sport.pro-wrestling Awards.

This year we had 532 voters participating. As always, for next year we encourage all of you wrestling media people to nominate yourselves and your favorites, and try to get your fans out to vote for you. Fair is fair!

As always, thank yous to Justin Henry, Christopher Robin Zimmerman, Herb Kunze and all those who have previously run the Awards and contributed to their legacy; everybody who chipped in to promote the awards; all of you voters, of course; and finally and most importantly an extra-double-sized thanks to mgkdotcom’s Tech Guy, James Young, without whose invaluable assistance these Awards would almost certainly have failed to be anywhere near as successful and user-friendly as they in fact were.

The “Best” Award results can be found here.

The “Worst” Award results can be found here.

Finally, full ballot results for all Awards can be found here.

Thanks for voting, and we’ll see you next year!

This is the Call for Votes for the 2017 RSPW (Theszie) Awards. You can vote here.

The Theszies are the oldest fan awards in pro wrestling history, going back to 1990 (when Mr. Perfect quite appropriately won Best Wrestler and Junkyard Dog v. Ric Flair at Clash of the Champions XI won Worst Match). They offer a record of wrestling fan opinion lasting decades, and although we may not agree with some awards in retrospect, what matters is that they offer a snapshot of every year of wrestling as the fans loved it. We think that’s pretty cool.

As usual, following the nominations period, we have compiled all of the nominations into menus to make voting faster and easier (since the menus should include most or all of the most popular candidates for each award), while still allowing for write-in votes for those who don’t see their favorite choices as nominees. We do this strictly to streamline the voting process; this should not be construed as favoritism towards any wrestler for being nominated, as we do not nominate wrestlers ourselves. We have edited the nominations to remove some nominations that we thought were inappropriate, mistakes/errors, or unlikely to get enough votes to justify the nomination, as well as culling the nominations somewhat to make the ballot more manageable.

Remember, though: if your candidate for an award isn’t nominated, you can always write him in.

We’ve also used TECHNOLOGY to let you save your ballot and return to it later, if need be. Finally, we’ve also given fans the opportunity to include their own commentary on their voting choices for each award or just The State of Wrestling in General in 2016.

The deadline for entering votes is February 10, 2017. Have fun!

This is the Call for Nominations for the 2017 Theszie Awards.

To nominate candidates for all categories, you may use this form. Nominations are due by December 31, 2017.

Finally, to see previous years’ results, click here for 2016, here for 2015, here for 2014, here for 2013, here and here for 2012, and here for most historical awards.

Welcome to the results of the 2016 Theszies / Rec.sport.pro-wrestling Awards.

This year we had 717 voters participating. As always, for next year we encourage all of you wrestling media people to nominate yourselves and your favorites, and try to get your fans out to vote for you. Fair is fair!

As always, thank yous to Justin Henry, Christopher Robin Zimmerman, Herb Kunze and all those who have previously run the Awards and contributed to their legacy; everybody who chipped in to promote the awards; all of you voters, of course; and finally and most importantly an extra-double-sized thanks to mgkdotcom’s Tech Guy, James Young, without whose invaluable assistance these Awards would almost certainly have failed to be anywhere near as successful and user-friendly as they in fact were.

The “Best” Award results can be found here.

The “Worst” Award results can be found here.

Finally, full ballot results for all Awards can be found here.

Thanks for voting, and we’ll see you next year!

UPDATE: Unfortunately there was a tech snafu almost immediately on our end as a result of an accidental Limesurvey mis-save, which was causing the survey to crash on the third page (it was trying to load data that was slightly different than what existed). We’ve fixed the problem by rebooting into a fresh survey, but those of you who had already begun your ballots have unfortunately lost your progress so far and will have to restart the essay (we have updated all links to the survey in this post to reflect the new survey). We apologize for the inconvenience.

This is the Call for Votes for the 2015 RSPW (Theszie) Awards. You can vote here.

The Theszies are the oldest fan awards in pro wrestling history, going back to 1990 (when Mr. Perfect quite appropriately won Best Wrestler and Junkyard Dog v. Ric Flair at Clash of the Champions XI won Worst Match). They offer a record of wrestling fan opinion lasting decades, and although we may not agree with some awards in retrospect, what matters is that they offer a snapshot of every year of wrestling as the fans loved it. We think that’s pretty cool.

As usual, following the nominations period, we have compiled all of the nominations into pulldown menus to make voting faster and easier (since the pulldown menus should include most, if not all, of the most popular candidates for each award), while still allowing for write-in votes for those who don’t see their favorite choices as nominees. We do this strictly to streamline the voting process; this should not be construed as favoritism towards any wrestler for being nominated, as we do not nominate wrestlers ourselves.

We have edited the nominations to remove some nominations that we thought were inappropriate, mistakes/errors, or unlikely to get enough votes to justify the nomination, as well as culling the nominations somewhat to make the ballot more manageable (we applied a max nominee count of 30 to most categories). Remember, though: if your candidate for an award isn’t nominated, you can always write him in.

We’ve also used TECHNOLOGY to let you save your ballot and return to it later, if need be. Finally, we’ve also given fans the opportunity to include their own commentary on their voting choices for each award or just The State of Wrestling in General in 2016.

Changes this year: No new categories! No deleted categories! For the first time in years, the category count is stable! Hooray!

There is one minor change, however: due to the Cruiserweight Classic as well as New Japan becoming much easier to stream, we have decided to treat televised/streamed multi-night tournaments lasting longer than three nights (such as the Classic or the G1 Climax) as “regular shows” rather than “major shows” for the sake of category classification. Individual nights within said tournaments (such as the Cruiserweight Classic Finale) still qualify as “major shows.”

The deadline for entering votes is February 10, 2017. Have fun!