The G9Z Wrestling Honor Roll: Class of 1992

Welcome to another edition of the HONOR ROLL.  Every year during my "Year End Awards" I give out roughly 15 awards. Of those awards, "the big four" are the Wrestler, Woman, Tag Team & Match of the year. The winners of these awards were generally the most awesome performers of the year and with hundreds of prominent wrestlers worldwide, it's a true honor to be able to snag one of the four. This section of the blog will be dedicated to the winners for every year dating all the way back to 1990 (roughly the time I first began watching wrestling)! Every week I will add another year's winners until the database is up to date. This is just a fun series that will give you an idea of what the best of the best was in any year you may have missed. Any current and/or future winners will also be added to the honor roll and join the most prestigious group in all of blogging!

This week, we're announcing the class of 1992!

 Wrestler Of The Year: Ric Flair

Ric Flair's two year stint with the WWE saw him proclaim himself the "real world champion" and he set out to prove it at the 1992 Royal Rumble.  In a victory which we hailed as the single greatest rumble moment of all time, Flair would trump a "who's who" of WWE legends becoming the only man to win the WWE Championship through the ultimate endurance test.  He would then main event Wrestlemania VIII defending the title against Randy Savage in a terrific clash that will go down as one of the most personal feuds in mania history.  He would lose the title to Savage that night, but then capture it for a second time in September before again losing it to Bret Hart.

Runner Up: Rick Rude

Woman Of The Year: Manami Toyota

Toyota is arguably, the single greatest female wrestler to ever live.  Her brilliance in the 1990s is unrivaled by competitors both male and female and her streak of matches in the earlier part of the decade, are some of the best ever.  She began an incredible singles run in 1992 capturing the IWA Singles Championship from her longtime rival Kyoko Inoue.  Her reign would go on for an incredible three years with one of her standout title defenses being a near five star battle against best friend Toshiyo Yamada in a hair vs. hair match in August of 1992.

Runner Up: Kyoko Inoue

 

Tag Team Of The Year: Miracle Violence Connection

The dominant tandem of Steve Williams & Terry Gordy defeated the legendary Steiner Brothers to capture the WCW Tag Team Championship during the summer of 1992.  Their stint with WCW was not very long, but their impact was heard all over the world.  Particularly in Japan, where Williams' decade-long undefeated streak made him a legendary figure.  They would also simultaneously hold the NWA World Tag Team Championship after defeating Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham.  Both reign would only last roughly three months, but it was the year's most impressive feat nonetheless.

Runner Up: Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes

Match Of The Year:: WCW Wrestlewar: Sting's Squadron vs. The Dangerous Alliance

In the greatest of the many legendary War Games matches, the team of Sting, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat & Nikita Koloff would face off against Rick Rude, Arn Anderson, Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Eaton & Steve Austin (w/Paul E. Dangerously & Madusa) in match that had so much heat it could have damn well burned the building down!  The match saw the culmination of nearly every major blood feud in WCW all play out at once in a beautifully structured and believably intense war that remains one of the finest multi-man battles wrestling has seen to this very day.  A must see for any true fan of the art.

Runner Up:: WWE Summerslam: Bret Hart vs. The British Bulldog