Someone sent me a question about Erik Watts this morning, which led me to check Wikipedia to see what he was up to now (answer: nothing in particular), and I was reminded that in fact he won the PWI Rookie of the Year award in 1992. Now, this was interesting to me, because PWI had a few solid choices, but there’s some far more interesting misses in the list.
1990
Steve Austin
El Gigante
Brad Anderson
Chris Chavis
Obviously this was an awesome pick and the case where the winner really did go on to become the giant star they forecasted. El Gigante…eh, I guess he did about as well as he was going to. Brad Anderson, not so much. Chris Chavis went on to become Tatanka, but obviously Austin was the big one here. Observer award winner: Austin.
1991
Johnny B. Badd
The Patriot
Terri Power
The Lightning Kid
Lightning Kid was of course the one who went on to become the biggest star by far, although Badd certainly had the look and charisma so you would have thought that he was the can’t miss prospect. Certainly not a silly choice or anything. The Patriot did OK for himself, although calling him a rookie here is ridiculous since Wilkes was already in the AWA as the Trooper for years before getting the mask. That’s kayfabe for ya. Terri Power was Tori, but hardly a candidate for this award. Observer award winner: Badd as well.
1992
Erik Watts
Diamond Dallas Page
Vladimir Koloff
Chaz
Hindsight says that DDP should have won, but that was far from a sure thing at the time. Watts is still a ridiculous choice regardless. Koloff and Chaz (who was in Pedicino’s Global promotion that was getting so much play in PWI for reasons unknown) are so non-notable that they don’t even have their own Wikipedia pages. I don’t think there was any legitimate rookie contenders to choose from in the kayfabe sense, but even so DDP should have won. Observer award winner: Rey Mysterio Jr. Wow, was he 12 or something?
1993
Vampire Warrior
Robbie Eagle
Kent and Keith Cole
The Headhunters
Hmm, Gangrel and Cole Twins? Robbie Eagle went on to become The Maestro in WCW, but this is a pretty sad year otherwise. Observer award winner: Some Japanese guy named Jun Akiyama. He did pretty well for himself, I guess.
1994
911
Bob Holly
Abbudah Singh
Mikey Whipwreck
Really, 911? This is like the all-ECW crew, since Abbudah Singh went on to become Ballz Mahoney. Bob Holly is the clear pick out of this bunch, although Whipwreck would have played into kayfabe better at the time. Observer award winner: Whipwreck.
1995
Alex Wright
Craig Pittman
Lawrence Taylor
Madd Maxxine
Lawrence Taylor?! He wrestled one match! Pittman flamed out after a few years in WCW. Wright should have been bigger and wasn’t for a variety of reasons, but I can see this pick making sense at the time. I don’t know who Maxxine is, the Wiki page links to the wrong person. Observer award winner: Perro Aguayo, Jr. Well, PWI doesn’t cover lucha
1996
The Giant
Steve McMichael
Rocky Maivia
Joe Gomez
Giant was a solid choice at the time, especially since Rocky had barely debuted by the cut-off date in kayfabe, but MAN does that look silly now. Mongo finishing AHEAD of The Rock looks even sillier. Joe Gomez is still kicking around. Observer award winner: The Giant. Way to go, Dave. Well, Giant did have a ton of upside and he was World champion right away.
1997
Prince Iaukea
Ernest Miller
Chris Chetti
Brakkus
Well this year is a writeoff. Iaukea is a good enough choice from a kayfabe sense. Chetti went nowhere, neither did Bracchus. Observer award winner: Mr. Aguila (Essa Rios).
1998
Goldberg
Sable
Droz
Mark Henry
Henry debuted in 96 so this is an odd place for him to say the least. Goldberg, duh. Observer award winner: Goldberg. No-brainer here.
1999
Shane McMahon
Evan Karagias
Vince McMahon
Lash LeRoux
Yeah, that Vince, what a rookie sensation. Karagias and LeRoux both flamed out of wrestling completely, and so did Shane himself I guess. Wonder what Vince is up to now? Observer award winner: Blitzkrieg. Another one-hit wonder. 99 was a rough year for new stars.
2000
Kurt Angle
Lita
Mark Jindrak and Sean O'Haire
Chuck Palumbo
Any other choice cannot be justified with any argument whatsoever. Lita ended up a solid #2 in this group, though. The rest, we know the story. Observer award winner: Sean O’Haire. Huh. Way to pick ‘em, Dave.
2001
Randy Orton
Brock Lesnar
K-Kwik
The Prototype
Now there’s a hell of a rookie crop. Interesting case, because Orton did not look like a star at all for a long time after his OVW debut, but obviously they were determined to wait him out and make a star out of him. Brock you could tell was a big deal right from the start. Truth looks like the redheaded stepchild out of this group. The Prototype is a good wrestling name, did he ever amount to anything? I mean, if he was a big star, he’d have been on RAW last week, right? So he’s probably not. Observer award winner: El Hombre Sin Nombre. Yeah, Dave missed the boat on that one. Even that Protoype goof would have been a better choice, I’m pretty sure. I wonder if that was an eligibility thing since Prototype debuted in 2000?
2002
Maven
Christopher Nowinski
Nidia
Taylor Matheny
The year of Tough Enough! Gone, gone, gone, gone! Observer award winner: Bob Sapp. I never saw much of him, actually.
2003
Zach Gowen
Sylvain Grenier
Trinity
Matt Morgan
Morgan ended up being the biggest star of the bunch. Gowen was just missing a vital part, you know? He just couldn’t get a leg up in the business. He could only get so far, and then he got cut off at the knees by politics. Observer award winner: Chris Sabin.
2004
Monty Brown
Petey Williams
Johnny Nitro
Matt Cappotelli
Obviously Nitro should have won this one, although at the time Cappotelli seemed like the sure thing out of the pair before the brain tumor ended his career. Brown is now firmly in the “Whatever Happened To?” file, as is Williams. Observer award winner: Petey Williams.
2005
Bobby Lashley[21]
Christy Hemme
Mikey Batts
Ken Doane
One wannabe MMA badass, a cheerleader, a referee, and a ring announcer. Quite the crew of washouts. Doane should have been way bigger, but WWE just drove him out of the business. Observer award winner: Shingo Takagi. Not familiar with him.
2006
The Boogeyman
Charles Evans
Akebono
Cody Runnels
Yeah, the Boogeyman beat out Cody Rhodes for Rookie of the Year. And Akebono got third just by working on shitty match with Big Show. What a year. Observer award winner: Atsushi Aoki. Get the feeling that Dave wasn’t big on the US scene at that point?
2007
Hornswoggle
Ted DiBiase, Jr.
Pelle Primeau
Mike DiBiase
I’m pretty sure Hornswoggle wasn’t a rookie in 2007. We’re still waiting on the Dibiases to do anything in the business to live up to their potential. Primeau was an ROH guy who went nowhere. Observer award winner: Erick Stevens. He hasn’t done much either since then.
2008
Joe Hennig
Brett DiBiase
Ricky Steamboat, Jr.
Ryan McBride
There’s THREE Dibiases? Ted had million-dollar sperm too, I guess. Why hasn’t Vince just brought them all in with Sr. as manager? Hennig was a safe choice, but obviously hasn’t panned out yet. Observer award winner: KAI, from All Japan. OK then.
2009
Mike Sydal
Jesse Neal
Brittney Savage
J.T. Flash
I have nothing interesting to say here because I don’t know any of these people.
2010
David Otunga
Tamina
Percy Watson
Corey Hollis
Did you know that the 1977 Rookie of the Year runner-up had a daughter?
2011
Ace Hawkins
Nick Madrid
Leakee
Briley Pierce