411Mania.com’s End Of The Year Awards – 2003 WWE Wrestler Of The Year And Best Reality TV Show
Posted by Mike Watters on 05.10.2004
Best of the Best from 2003 continues…
Hey! Thanks for clickin’ in…I surely do appreciate it. Today, Big Mike, in association with 411Mania.com presents to you two more awards that YOU, the valued readers of 411Mania.com voted upon!!! I know what you’re thinking…wasn’t this supposed to be up yesterday? Yeah, yeah…you waited this long. An extra day won’t hurt ya. And if it does, tell me about it on the Forums!!! That’s right…411Mania.com Fan Forums is a great way to express yourself, discuss just about anything you want, AND…it’s the only place on the ‘Net that has access to your fave writers here at our tiny little site.
Enough pimpin’…on to the awards. First up today, WWE Wrestler of the Year. Surprisingly, a little bit of in ring workmanship has come back to World Wrestling Entertainment, and 2003 featured several qualified workers who, at one time or another, busted their arse to give folks what they paid for. If ratings were down, you wouldn’t know it by these guys actions in the ring.
There were 8 guys in the running, and it was a foregone conclusion of who it would be…so enough of the tease…the winner is…
Kurt Angle!!!
Kurt Angle is a former Olympic Gold Medalist, and multiple time WWE Champion, winning a Championship for the 4th time on July 27, 2003 in a Triple Threat match with Brock Lesnar and The Big Show. He has consistently shown dedication to the ‘sport’, excellent mic skills, and I DARE you to find a Kurt Angle match that sucked. You can’t. Kurt Angle, when healthy, is probably the best all around worker in WWE. Angle was told by doctors that he should not wrestle, and risked permanent injury by doing so. But Angle wasn’t having any of it. Even though he had the same injury that kept Edge out of the ring for a year, and basically ended the active career of Steve Austin, Angle submitted himself to an experimental process that allowed him to come back in a little over 3 months. That’s a man, folks.
Recently, in 2004, WWE has masked Angle real life injuries with programs including the recent ‘GM of Smackdown’ storyline, and most recently being attacked severely by Big Show, you will be able to count on Angle making some sort of impact in later 2004.
Congrats to Mr. Angle for his victory!!!
In second place is current WWE Champion, Eddie Guerrero, who battled back from demons, and vaulted himself to main event status with programs with John Cena and his nephew Chavo. Third place is Shawn Michaels, who apparently found his smile again, with excellent efforts against the ‘Net’s favorite wrestler, Triple H.
Reality TV. It BLEW UP in 2003. Every Network…seriously…just about every Network had some sort of Reality TV show on its program schedule. It all started with shows like the People’s Court…then MTV hipped it up with the Real World…and now…every where you turn, average joe’s(no pun intended) can become TV Superstars. After the votes were tabulated, the winner of the 411Mania.com Best Reality TV Show is…
The Joe Schmo Show!!!
I had a feeling this show would win, and I indeed voted for it. Now…you could say that it is because the show was on Spike TV/TNN, where our Wrasslin’ programs air, but in truth, this was the most innovative of all of them out there. It was different because it was, in essence, a ‘non reality’ show. This guy, Matt Gould, basically thought he was on a show called ‘Lap of Luxury’, and he, with several others, would be subject to stunts, ala the genre, to win the cash. Well…thing is…he was the ONLY contestant. Every other participant was an actor…from the contestants, to the producers, to the host. And he was totally unaware the whole time. The actors were removed or ‘eliminated’ from the show not on their merits, but on how they were working poor Matt.
Think ‘The Truman Show’ on a much smaller scale. It was entertaining, it was TRUE real life, in my humble opinion, and it was the most entertaining of the cookie cutter reality shows out there. AND it was on little Spike TV. Take that CBS.
And the blonde?!?!? DEAR GOD.
In second place was CBS stalwart Survivor, and rounding out the winners was American Idol, who in 2003 brought us winner Ruben Stoddard, and runner Clay ‘I swear to you I am straight’ Aikin. American Idol is a juggernaut, starring hundreds of wannabee Idols, and judged by Record Exec Randy Jackson(no relation), 80’s pop Idol Paula Abdul, and evil Brit, and brains behind the concept of the show, Simon Cowell. Cowell….it even sounds evil.
Keep a watch out for more Award winners…next episode will include NWA-TNA Wrestler of the Year, and the Readers Choice Award for Best Pro Athlete. Thank you very much for reading.
