The G9Z Wrestling Honor Roll: Class Of 1990

Great news!  I'm starting a new section of the blog called 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 going to start with the class of 1990!

Wrestler Of The Year: Sting

After having been dismissed by the Four Horsemen due to tensions within the group and then missing half the year due injury, Sting would return with a vengeance fully focused on Ric Flair's World Heavyweight Championship.  He would eventually usurp Flair and then begin to dominate the wrestling landscape becoming the most over babyface in the business in the process.  He would then begin his run as the franchise of WCW.

Runner Up: Ric Flair

Woman Of The Year: Bull Nakano

Nakano was one of the most dominant female wrestlers of the early 90s and on January of 1990, she won a tournament that granted her the vacant WWWA World Championship.  It was her first major title win and she would go on to hold the title for just under three years.  Nakano's impact on All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling is now the stuff of legend.  And it all began here.

Runner Up: Aja Kong

Tag Team Of The Year: The Steiner Brothers

Brothers Rick & Scott Steiner began the year as NWA World Tag Team Champions and reigned for the better half of the year before being defeated by Doom.  The legendary duo would bounce back however when they captured their first NWA United States Tag Team Championship from The Midnight Express and finished the year the same way they started it.  As the best team in the world.

Runner Up: Demolition

Match Of The Year:: AJPW Budokan Hall Show (June): Mistuharu Misawa vs. Jumbo Tsuruta

This was a match designed to make the then upstart Misawa into a household name.  He had spent years giving fantastic performances as the second man to earn the honor of competing under the moniker of Tiger Mask, but without the mask, he was just another wrestler.  Tsuruta was the Japanese Ric Flair and the best wrestler in the 1980s save for the Nature Boy himself.  This match was a masterful work of art and Misawa's victory here was the shocker of the year.  A classic match that would be just the first in a series of many five star Budokan Hall wars for a man who is arguably, the best ever.

Runner Up:: WWE WrestleMania VI: Hulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior