It's December, which means it's time for the annual
Carny Awards, our community's recognition of all of the carny bullshit that the conflict play industry provides over the course of the calendar year.
The goal is to have the Carnies decided by January 2020 and posted in the January OT. To do that, we'll need to spend this week on determining categories, next two weeks on nominations, and the last two weeks on voting. Voting will be done via Google Form, as we've done in the past.
Advocacy is strongly encouraged! Since we have a pretty good set of representatives for joshi, lucha, EuroGraps, and ULTRAVIOLENCE, I think our Carny Award lists could look fairly different from, say, the Post Wrestling end of year awards.
It all depends on the nomination process. Want to advocate that Nick Gage is the male wrestler of the year or that Tokyo Joshi Pro is the promotion of the year? Nominate and post your reasons why!
Speaking of Tokyo Joshi Pro, last year, I broke Tokyo Joshi Pro out from DDT but kept NXT in with main roster WWE. Given how much more NXT has been integrated into WWE programming this year, I think that the same distinction should apply. If you feel strongly, post in this thread and tag me. Work is busy this year, but I'll try to read everything that I can.
So, by Sunday, December 8, we need to have final categories for the 2019 Carny Awards. Here were last year's categories. I always feel like there are too many categories, but I don't know where to cut. Some questions to consider:
1. Do we want to collapse the Male and Female WWE Superstar of the Year into WWE Superstar of the Year?
2. Should we cut out Best Gimmick, "What a Maneuver," or Best Theme Music? I like that we acknowledge these other pieces of the wrestling world, but I don't know if anyone's passionate about keeping them.
3. Are "Carny Motherfucker" and "WWE Promotes Murderous Dictatorships" redundant categories?
If there are no changes, then these are the categories that we'll roll with for the 2019 Carny Awards.
Male WWE Superstar of the Year
Female WWE Superstar of the Year
Best Male Non-WWE Wrestler of the Year
Best Female Non-WWE Wrestler of the Year
Best Tag Team of the Year
"The Drizzling Shits" Award for Worst On-Screen Performer
"The Rusev" Award for Most Underutilized Performer
"The Hot Take" Most Overrated Wrestler of the Year
Comeback of the Year
"The King Kong Bundy WrestleMania 2 to 3" Fall from Grace Award
Most Improved Wrestler
"The Big Show" Award for Please Retire
Best Gimmick
"The Bray Wyatt Is Sister Abigail" Award for Worst Gimmick
"What a Maneuver!" Award for Coolest Move/Dive
Best Theme Music of the Year
WWE Match of the Year
Non-WWE Match of the Year
"The Jenna Morasco vs. Sharmell" Award for Worst Fucking Match
Promotion of the Year
Show of the Year
Best Angle
The "WWE Promotes Murderous Dictatorships" Award for Angle That Made You Ashamed To Be A Wrestling Fan
Gif of the Year
WrassleERA Community MVP Award
The "I'm Marking Out, Bro" Legit Shook Moment of the Year
"Carny Motherfucker" of the Year
Fun 'n' Playful Carnyism of the Year