Brian Kelley of AudioWrestling.com sent these notes in:
WRA 2009 award show now archived to hear online
The 2009 “Wrestling Radio Awards” event is now available to hear in its entirety for free on the recently relaunched WrestlingRadioAwards.com website. This was the 8th annual WRA event and the show featured an appearance by Rob Van Dam, prerecorded comments by many top WWE stars, and over a dozen wrestling radio shows were represented. The WRA is an annual award show designed to honor the best of the freely broadcasted wrestling radio shows for their hard work throughout the previous year. Voting for these awards takes place annually on WrestlingRadioAwards.com.
Here are the highlights from WRA 2009:
The show opens with the announcement that RVD Radio has won for People’s Choice Show Of The Year. Rob Van Dam himself accepts the award and thanks all of the RVD listeners and “extremists” for their support. RVD promises there will be big things ahead in 2009 from himself.
Doc Young (from Wrestling Weekly/co-hosted by Les Thatcher) is announced as the official WRA host for this award show and had a great monologue introduction speech.
The U.K.’s WrestleCast show host Simon Lilsboy is announced as Host of the year. Simon had Randy Orton as a guest. Orton discussed his marriage and how it has helped him “shape up.” Orton explains he spent three weeks in an anger management course that cost $30,000. Orton said the cost was split [I’m assuming between himself and WWE] because he “did good.” Orton goes on to shoot on “Bubba Dudley” calling him “the most out of shape, fat, non work ethic having person” he had ever met. Orton also blames “BD” for breaking his leg because he claims “BD” was careless during their match when the injury occurred. Randy recounted an incident where “BD” headbutt another WWE wrestler backstage after a match.
WrestleCast was right back on the stage to accept the award for “Male Interview Of The Year” with guest Steve Austin. An excerpt from this interview is played with Steve Austin talking about Hulk Hogan being a “reject… Bitter insecure human being.” Austin says he hasn’t ruled out another match but “all of the stars have to align” for the perfect scenario. Austin thinks for $10 million he could pull a “5 star match of the year candidate” with Hogan (said mostly tongue and cheek). Either way Austin is glad he patched things up with Vince McMahon after a previous dispute and Austin goes into detail on his meeting with McMahon at a hotel.
A special wrestling roundtable segment took place (hosted by Wrestling News Live) to discuss who was the most deserving of Wrestler Of The Year title in 2008. Shortly after it is announced that Chris Jericho has been named 2008 Wrestler Of The Year (no surprise there). A prerecorded clip is played from Chris Jericho and he explains how he reinvented himself in 2008. Jericho said he got his inspiration from the film “No Country For Old Men” for his new heel character. Jericho explained when he was developing the character that he went to Vince McMahon and was able to persuade him to put the World Title on him. Jericho went on to talk about how his feud with Shawn Michaels was important to the development of his character because it gave him a great nemesis to play off of.
The Phantom from the retired “Get In The Ring” NY radio show made a surprise return and had some funny one liners and announced that The Pain Clinic has been named the Terrestrial Broadcast Show Of The Year.
Monday Night Mayhem won as the “Best Booked” Show Of The Year. A clip was played later in the show illustrating the lineup of guests that helped earn them this award which included Hulk Hogan, Beth Phoenix, Jim Ross, Bruno Sammartino, Eric Bischoff, Dennis Rodman (along with each eliminated CCW cast member week-by-week), Robert Roode, Jerry Jarrett, Rob Van Dam, Charlie Haas, The Beautiful People, AJ Styles, Armando Estrada and dozens of unmentioned others.
Maryse was announced as Babe Of The Year. A prerecorded package of Maryse not breaking character was played claiming she has been modeling since she was 15 and why she is the hottest woman in wrestling.
Friday Night Fever won as Best New Show. Show host Jack had a very comedic acceptance skit.
The Pain Clinic won the Media Interview Of The Year award for their interview with Bret Hart. An excerpt from the interview was played. Hart claims when he punched Vince McMahon he thought his whole history with WWE was going to be erased or stashed in some lost basement. He now has a speaking relationship with McMahon. He is glad when Jim Ross mentions him on TV as he wants to be remembered. Hart puts over Natalie Neidhart and Harry [DH] Smith as good wrestlers and he is glad WWE is using them.
Wrestling News Live won the Female Interview Of The Year for their interview with Shelly Martinez.
Monday Night Mayhem won the final award of the night as Show Of The Year.
Overall the event ran about an hour and 10 minutes. The full archive is available to listen to now on the WRA official website: WrestlingRadioAwards.com
The website has also added the nomination form to begin nominating the best interviews of 2009 (as the year goes along) to be honored at next year’s award show. You can also listen to many of the WRA shows from previous years.
It is looking like a busy week for wrestling radio shows with many big interviews coming up that you will be able to hear on AudioWrestling.com
I had the honor to listen in on the U.K. Sun’s WrestleCast exclusive interview with Ken Kennedy and it is going to receive a lot of attention and press as soon as it is released to the public this week. Be on the lookout for that one to be added on AudioWrestling.com and get ready to see it quoted very often leading into WM25.
Tonight (Monday 3/23) is going to be a busy night besides what is happening in Kansas City on Raw because Debra Marshall (former wife of Steve Austin & Steve McMichael) is scheduled to appear on the Monday Night Mayhem radio show as well as Justin LaRouche who will be making his first interview since being released by WWE (where he was known as Bam Neely). After Raw is over you can hear the live stream of Pro Wrestling Report which will have Booker T on live around 11PM ET (PWR’s interviews with Kevin Nash and Tammy Sytch are now archived and available for podcast download).
A new production by AudioWrestling.com known as the “AW Master Tapes” airs every Friday at 6PM ET and is archived later each weekend. These shows take classic… and in most cases “lost” interviews from the past 13 years and gives them new life. The latest show features an exclusive 2005 interview with the late Andrew Martin. The Martin interview is now archived along with other classics with Chris Benoit, Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Roddy Piper, Sean Waltman, and Christian Cage. The next few weeks will be big with candid interviews with Randy “Macho Man” Savage, Gail Kim, Michael Cole, Jonathan Coachman, Matt Hardy, and Jeff Hardy.
And those were the newsworthy notes from the world of wrestling radio this week, thanks for reading!