As 2020 marks the start of a new decade, it offers a chance to look back at the decade that was. Part of that is the Wrestling Observer Newsletter decade awards. In the most recent edition of the newsletter, Dave Meltzer compiled the list of awards for the 2010s.
The categories and winners were generated by compiling the people who got votes in the yearly awards. The more first-place votes a wrestler or team received, the more points they received in these awards.
Here is the list of winners for the 2010s:
Lou Thesz/ Ric Flair Award (Best Wrestler)
- Hiroshi Tanahashi
- Kazuchika Okada
- John Cena
Most Outstanding Wrestler
- Kazuchika Okada
- Hiroshi Tanahashi
- AJ Styles
Best Box Office Draw
- Brock Lesnar
- Conor McGregor
- John Cena
Best Tag Team
- Young Bucks
- Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly
- Sekimoto & Okabayashi
Best on Interviews
- Paul Heyman
- Conor McGregor
- CM Punk
Most Charismatic
- Hiroshi Tanahashi
- Shinsuke Nakamura
- John Cena
Bryan Danielson Award (Best Technical Wrestler)
- Zack Sabre Jr.
- Daniel Bryan
- Kyle O’Reilly
Best Brawler
- Tomohiro Ishii
- Kevin Owens
- Katsuyori Shibata
Best Flyer
- Ricochet
- Kota Ibushi
- Will Ospreay
Best Promotion
- New Japan Pro Wrestling
- UFC
- WWE
Best Non-Wrestler
- Paul Heyman
- Dario Cueto
- Gedo
Best Television Announcer
- Kevin Kelly
- Joe Rogan
- Mauro Ranallo
Clearly New Japan Pro Wrestling had a hell of a decade. The promotion put on hundreds of incredible matches and had three of the all time best storylines in wrestling history with Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Okada vs. Kenny Omega, and Tetsuya Naito fall and rise.
We highly recommend you subscribe to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter to see the full list and analysis of all the awards.
What do you think of the awards? Let us know on Twitter!
