10 Shocking Winners Of Wrestling Observer Awards
5. New Japan Pro Wrestling - Worst Promotion Of The Year 2004/2005
WWE has won the Observer's Promotion Of The Year award twice. New Japan Pro Wrestling has won it sixteen times, including in every single year between 2012 and 2019. This is why it's so shocking that the company has also won their Worst Promotion award not once, but twice.
To be fair, even the most hardened of New Japan fans would struggle to defend the company in 2004 and 2005. The company was struggling following the departure of founder, Antonio Inoki, and endured such hardships as the disastrous incorporation of MMA into their style and the tumultuous IWGP Championship reign of Brock Lesnar.
What's worse is that the company that won Promotion Of The Year in 2004 and 2005 was Pro Wrestling Noah, one of New Japan's biggest rivals. This would have been an additional slap in the face for a company already in turmoil.
Considering how adored the promotion became years later, seeing that it won the publication's worst promotion award two years on the trot is incredibly surprising. Thankfully the King of Sports managed to bounce back, but that wasn't always a certainty.