Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards

Dave Meltzer well known wrestling journalist created **Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards**.

#### Lou Thesz/Ric Flair Award (Wrestler of the Year)

|Year|Wrestler|Promotion(s)|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1980|rowspan=2|Harley Race|rowspan=5|National Wrestling Alliance|
|1981|||||
|1982|rowspan=5|Ric Flair|||
|1983|||||
|1984|||||
|1985|rowspan=2|Jim Crockett Promotions|||
|1986|||||
|1987|Riki Choshu|All Japan Pro Wrestling|||
|1988|Akira Maeda|Universal Wrestling Federation|||
|1989|rowspan=2|Ric Flair|rowspan=2|World Championship Wrestling|
|1990|||||
|1991|Jumbo Tsuruta|All Japan Pro Wrestling|||
|1992|Ric Flair|World Wrestling Federation|||
|1993|Big Van Vader|World Championship Wrestling|||
|1994|Toshiaki Kawada|rowspan=4|All Japan Pro Wrestling||
|1995|Mitsuharu Misawa||||
|1996|Kenta Kobashi||||
|1997|Mitsuharu Misawa||||
|1998|Stone Cold Steve Austin|World Wrestling Federation|||
|1999|Mitsuharu Misawa|All Japan Pro Wrestling|||
|2000|Triple H|World Wrestling Federation|||
|2001|Keiji Mutoh|New Japan Pro-Wrestling All Japan Pro Wrestling|||
|2002|Kurt Angle|World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment|||
|2003|rowspan=3|Kenta Kobashi|rowspan=3|Pro Wrestling Noah|
|2004|||||
|2005|||||
|2006|Místico|Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre|||
|2007|John Cena|rowspan=4|World Wrestling Entertainment||
|2008|rowspan=2|Chris Jericho|||
|2009|||||
|2010|John Cena||||
|2011|rowspan=3|Hiroshi Tanahashi|rowspan=4|New Japan Pro-Wrestling|
|2012|||||
|2013|||||
|2014|Shinsuke Nakamura||||
|2015|rowspan=2|A.J. Styles|New Japan Pro-Wrestling Ring of Honor||
|2016|New Japan Pro-Wrestling WWE||||
|2017|Kazuchika Okada|New Japan Pro-Wrestling|||
|2018|Kenny Omega|New Japan Pro-Wrestling Ring of Honor|||
|2019|Chris Jericho|rowspan=2|New Japan Pro-Wrestling All Elite Wrestling||
|2020|Jon Moxley||||
|2021|Kenny Omega|All Elite Wrestling Impact Wrestling|||
|2022|Jon Moxley|All Elite Wrestling|||
|2023|Will Ospreay|New Japan Pro-Wrestling|||

#### Mixed Martial Arts Most Valuable

|Year|Fighter|Promotion(s)||
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|2007|Randy Couture|rowspan=17|Ultimate Fighting Championship|
|2008|rowspan=3|Brock Lesnar||
|2009||||
|2010||||
|2011|Georges St-Pierre|||
|2012|Anderson Silva|||
|2013|Georges St-Pierre|||
|2014|rowspan=2|Ronda Rousey||
|2015||||
|2016|Conor McGregor|||
|2017|Georges St-Pierre|||
|2018|Conor McGregor|||
|2019|Jorge Masvidal|||
|2020|Khabib Nurmagomedov|||
|2021|Kamaru Usman|||
|2022|Israel Adesanya|||
|2023|Jon Jones|||

#### Most Outstanding Wrestler

|Year|Wrestler|Promotion|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1986|rowspan=2|Ric Flair|rowspan=2|Jim Crockett Promotions|
|1987|||||
|1988|Tatsumi Fujinami|New Japan Pro-Wrestling|||
|1989|Ric Flair|World Championship Wrestling|||
|1990|rowspan=3|Jushin Thunder Liger|New Japan Pro-Wrestling||
|1991|rowspan=2|New Japan Pro-Wrestling World Championship Wrestling|||
|1992|||||
|1993|rowspan=2|Kenta Kobashi|rowspan=2|All Japan Pro Wrestling|
|1994|||||
|1995|Manami Toyota|All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling|||
|1996|Rey Misterio Jr.|Extreme Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling|||
|1997|Mitsuharu Misawa|All Japan Pro Wrestling|||
|1998|Koji Kanemoto|New Japan Pro-Wrestling|||
|1999|Mitsuharu Misawa|All Japan Pro Wrestling|||
|2000|Chris Benoit|World Championship Wrestling World Wrestling Federation|||
|2001|rowspan=3|Kurt Angle|rowspan=4|World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment|
|2002|||||
|2003|||||
|2004|Chris Benoit||||
|2005|Samoa Joe|Ring of Honor Total Nonstop Action Wrestling|||
|2006|rowspan=5|Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan|rowspan=3|Ring of Honor|
|2007|||||
|2008|||||
|2009|Ring of Honor Dragon Gate USA||||
|2010|World Wrestling Entertainment Evolve Dragon Gate USA Chikara||||
|2011|Davey Richards|Ring of Honor Pro Wrestling Guerrilla|||
|2012|rowspan=2|Hiroshi Tanahashi|rowspan=2|New Japan Pro-Wrestling|
|2013|||||
|2014|rowspan=3|A.J. Styles|rowspan=2|New Japan Pro-Wrestling Ring of Honor|
|2015|||||
|2016|New Japan Pro-Wrestling WWE||||
|2017|Kazuchika Okada|rowspan=3|New Japan Pro-Wrestling||
|2018|Kenny Omega||||
|2019|Will Ospreay||||
|2020|Kenny Omega|All Elite Wrestling Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide|||
|2021|Shingo Takagi|rowspan=3|New Japan Pro-Wrestling||
|2022|rowspan=2|Will Ospreay|||

#### Most Outstanding Fighter of the Year

|Year|Fighter|Promotion(s)||
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1997|Maurice Smith|rowspan=3|Ultimate Fighting Championship|
|1998|rowspan=2|Frank Shamrock||
|1999||||
|2000|Kazushi Sakuraba|rowspan=3|Pride Fighting Championships|
|2001|Wanderlei Silva|||
|2002|Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira|||
|2003|Randy Couture|Ultimate Fighting Championship||
|2004|Wanderlei Silva|rowspan=3|Pride Fighting Championships|
|2005|Fedor Emelianenko|||
|2006|Mirko Filipović|||
|2007|Quinton Jackson|rowspan=17|Ultimate Fighting Championship|
|2008|rowspan=3|Georges St-Pierre||
|2009||||
|2010||||
|2011|Jon Jones|||
|2012|Anderson Silva|||
|2013|Cain Velasquez|||
|2014|Ronda Rousey|||
|2015|rowspan=2|Conor McGregor||
|2016||||
|2017|Demetrious Johnson|||
|2018|Daniel Cormier|||
|2019|rowspan=2|Khabib Nurmagomedov||
|2020||||
|2021|Kamaru Usman|||
|2022|Alexander Volkanovski|||
|2023|Islam Makhachev|||

#### Best Box Office Draw

Before 2021, this was a single award. Starting in 2021, separate awards for MMA and pro wrestling were introduced.

|Year|Performer|Promotion(s)|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1997|Hulk Hogan|World Championship Wrestling|||
|1998|rowspan=2|Stone Cold Steve Austin|rowspan=3|World Wrestling Federation|
|1999|||||
|2000|The Rock||||
|2001|Kazushi Sakuraba|Pride Fighting Championships|||
|2002|rowspan=2|Bob Sapp|rowspan=2|K-1 Pride Fighting Championships New Japan Pro-Wrestling|
|2003|||||
|2004|rowspan=2|Kenta Kobashi|rowspan=2|Pro Wrestling Noah|
|2005|||||
|2006|Místico|Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre|||
|2007|John Cena|World Wrestling Entertainment|||
|2008|rowspan=3|Brock Lesnar|rowspan=3|Ultimate Fighting Championship|
|2009|||||
|2010|||||
|2011|rowspan=2|The Rock|rowspan=2|WWE|
|2012|||||
|2013|Georges St-Pierre|rowspan=6|Ultimate Fighting Championship||
|2014|rowspan=2|Ronda Rousey|||
|2015|||||
|2016|rowspan=3|Conor McGregor|||
|2017|||||
|2018|||||
|2019|Chris Jericho|All Elite Wrestling New Japan Pro-Wrestling|||
|2020|Conor McGregor|Ultimate Fighting Championship|||
|rowspan=2|2021|**MMA**: Conor McGregor|Ultimate Fighting Championship||
|**Pro wrestling**: CM Punk|All Elite Wrestling||||
|rowspan=2|2022|**MMA**: Israel Adesanya|Ultimate Fighting Championship||
|**Pro wrestling**: Roman Reigns|WWE||||
|rowspan=2|2023|**MMA**: Jon Jones|Ultimate Fighting Championship||
|**Pro wrestling**: Roman Reigns|WWE||||