Award Description:

To be given to the wrestler you like the most, regardless of the reason.

Previous Winners:

  1991: Ric Flair
  1992: Ric Flair
  1993: Ric Flair
  1994: Ric Flair
  1995: Shawn Michaels
  1996: Stone Cold Steve Austin
  1997: Stone Cold Steve Austin
  1998: Mankind (Cactus Jack / Dude Love / Mick Foley)
  1999: Chris Jericho
  2000: Triple H

**2001**: Stone Cold Steve Austin

302 first place votes
299 second place votes
295 third place votes

 54 31 23  409   Steve Austin
 37 32 26  333   Chris Benoit
 33 25 21  282   Triple H
 25 27 24  254   Kurt Angle
 22 28 28  250   Rob van Dam
 28 19 19  235   Chris Jericho
 14 11  9  121   Tajiri
 12 12 12  120   Rock
  9  4 12   81   Christian
  7  6 14   81   Booker T
  6  8  6   66   Ric Flair
  3  4  8   43   Hurricane
  2  6  6   40   Edge
  2  2  8   32   Lance Storm
  2  2  5   26   Undertaker
  3  3  0   24   Jeff Hardy
  1  3  5   24   William Regal
  1  4  3   23   Raven
  2  1  3   19   Keiji Muto
  1  4  0   17   Momoe Nakanishi
  1  2  3   17   Eddie Guerrero
  1  3  1   16   Hayabusa
  1  3  1   16   Dean Malenko
  1  2  2   15   Rhyno
  1  2  2   15   La Parka
  2  1  0   13   Toshiaki Kawada
  2  1  0   13   Super Dragon
  0  2  3   12   Yuji Nagata
  0  2  3   12   Riot
  0  2  3   12   Billy Kidman
  1  2  0   11   Scott Steiner
  1  0  3   11   Big Show
  2  0  0   10   Lexie Fyfe
  1  1  1   10   SUWA
  1  0  2    9   Tommy Dreamer
  0  3  0    9   Kanyon
  1  1  0    8   Steve Blackman
  1  1  0    8   Michael Modest
  0  2  1    8   American Dragon
  1  0  1    7   Satoshi Kojima
  1  0  1    7   Magnum Tokyo
  1  0  1    7   Curt Hennig
  0  2  0    6   Test
  0  2  0    6   Shinjiro Otani
  0  2  0    6   Lady Victoria
  0  0  3    6   Chavo Guerrero Jr.
  1  0  0    5   Spanky
  1  0  0    5   Silver King
  1  0  0    5   Sandman
  1  0  0    5   Mike Enos
  1  0  0    5   Mighty Molly
  1  0  0    5   Kazunari Murakami
  1  0  0    5   Kaoru Ito
  1  0  0    5   Jerry Lynn
  1  0  0    5   Hardcore Holly
  1  0  0    5   Gedo
  1  0  0    5   El Samurai
  1  0  0    5   Dr. Wagner Jr.
  1  0  0    5   Bradshaw
  1  0  0    5   Beckie the Farmer's Daughter
  1  0  0    5   B-Boy
  1  0  0    5   Angle
  1  0  0    5   Albert
  1  0  0    5   Akira Hokuto
  0  1  1    5   X-Pac
  0  1  1    5   Taiyo Kea
  0  1  1    5   Minoru Tanaka
  0  1  1    5   Matt Hardy
  0  1  1    5   Great Sasuke
  0  1  1    5   Essa Rios
  0  1  1    5   Blue Panther
  0  0  2    4   Shane McMahon
  0  1  0    3   Yuu Yamagata
  0  1  0    3   Val Venis
  0  1  0    3   Vader
  0  1  0    3   TAKA Michinoku
  0  1  0    3   Survival Tobita
  0  1  0    3   Spike Dudley
  0  1  0    3   Shocker
  0  1  0    3   Shawn Michaels
  0  1  0    3   Shane Douglas
  0  1  0    3   Scott Hall
  0  1  0    3   Ricky Fuji
  0  1  0    3   Naohiro Hoshikawa
  0  1  0    3   Meiko Satomura
  0  1  0    3   Low Ki
  0  1  0    3   Kid Kash
  0  1  0    3   Kane
  0  1  0    3   Jade
  0  1  0    3   Haku
  0  1  0    3   El Hijo del Santo
  0  1  0    3   Doug Williams
  0  1  0    3   Devon Storm
  0  1  0    3   CIMA
  0  1  0    3   Buh-Buh Ray Dudley
  0  1  0    3   Black Warrior
  0  0  1    2   Tony Kozina
  0  0  1    2   Takehiro Murahama
  0  0  1    2   Summer
  0  0  1    2   Sting
  0  0  1    2   Selina Majors
  0  0  1    2   Sean O'Haire
  0  0  1    2   Ruckus
  0  0  1    2   Riptide
  0  0  1    2   Mr. Gannosuke
  0  0  1    2   Mike Sanders
  0  0  1    2   Masato Tanaka
  0  0  1    2   Lioness Asuka
  0  0  1    2   Kidman
  0  0  1    2   Kenta Kobashi
  0  0  1    2   Kaz Hayashi
  0  0  1    2   Jungle Grrrl
  0  0  1    2   Jun Akiyama
  0  0  1    2   Jason Jett
  0  0  1    2   Goldberg
  0  0  1    2   Dick Togo
  0  0  1    2   D-Lo Brown
  0  0  1    2   Amanda Storm

REJECTED

  0  0  1        Duplicate votes

RYAN HALL: Austin, HHH, Christian.  How can anyone not laugh out loud at
Christian?

EDDIE BURKETT: Triple H is gone for six months, and I STILL think he's the
game.  Its because he's THAT DAMN GOOD!!!  Austin has been PHENOMENAL as a
heel this year, and its a shame he hasn't been doing the same ratings,
because his character is SO much better than his babyface.  Booker T has
transitioned well to the WWF, and I like it.

PAUL ZOROVICH:  These are the people I wait for every week.  Chris Jericho
is finally growing into his spot in the WWF as a real dickish heel.  Rob
Van Dam has that indefinable "something" that I haven't felt since
Goldberg's heyday.  William Regal is just an old-school kinda guy all
around.

JESSE HARALDSON: Christian always struck me as the funny guy of Edge and
Christian and that has been proven out since he maintains a personality
while Edge is reverting to his boring self.

NATE GURNETT: Christian is a GOD as a heel.  Okay, maybe not.  But he's
the guy who's match I want to see.  Booker's been a favorite for a long
while.  Hey, maybe the WWF can have him and Benoit feud over the
meaningless Euro title!  I miss wcw booking sometimes.  And why don't we
see more Chavo!

TEDB512: Benoit, Austin, and Sugar Shane made 2001 for me. Too bad we lost
two of them (sorta) halfway through...

VIKRAM BIRRING: Steve Austin. What? What? I said Steve Austin is my most
fauvorite wrestler.

SCOTT CRAWFORD: The only person the WWF needs more than Goldberg and Flair
is La Parka. He alone has the power to save wrestling! Bow to him, FOOLS!

KEN DREILING: Hey these are my three guys I like the most face it.  
Christian's shoulder rolls are the bombshell.  Tajiri is my mark-out god.  
And Devon fat pooping rocks.  Deal with it, it's the mark-out category.

CHIP BOOTS: Tajiri has done nothing but impress me since he showed up in
the WWF.

MARKUS: I'm you typical Benoit uberfan, heh. La Parka needs to be back on
my TV, dammit. HHH needs to come back.

SCOTT WORDEN: Kurt Angle is our god now that Foley has retired..

DVDVR.COM LATIN LOVER: Stand Back, there's a Hurricane a-coming thru!

SEAN FLYNN: I miss Benoit so much.  No matter how bad the WWF got at
points in late 2000 and into 2001, I would watch just to see him wrestle.  
Tajiri was like that in the middle of the year, and as the voting year
drew to a close, that mantle was picked up by RVD.

CANZ: Dr Wagner Jr. is so awesome. From choking kittens to dragging
Lazymark Jr.'s ass to nigh-excellence to poking the Giant Silva in the
eyes to break a bearhug, he always makes this fan happy to watch lucha.

KEVIN WONG: What?  A vote for Riot?  Hey, I'm a mark for her, dammit.

ERIC ZIENGS: Y2J would have won, if his creative direction had been
better.

DONNY L: Austin had me laughing and into his character all year long,
still have a soft spot for Chris Jericho who comes in second, RVD is just
too cool for third.

SIMON GRIER: A patriotic vote for William Regal, who is totally overrated
in the ring but hilarious on the mic. Rock and Van Dam always make me
laugh and then put on a great match.

JOHN C.: I know this sounds redundant but Steve Austin wins again. Before
this year he was one of my five favourite wrestlers ever. After all the
awesome work he has done, he has become my favourite of all-time. He can
work, he can talk, he can act and he can make 20,000 people say a regular
word like "What?" and make it sound cool. Is there anything he can't do?
Second choice is Christian because he entertains me in a lot of ways. He
is the future of wrestling and clearly the best of the young guys in the
WWF. Booker T.  follows even though the WWF made him look like a pansy.
Still, he works his ass off and is a great company guy so it's hard not to
like him.

CHRIS GRIMM: Kurt Angle is a hilarious interview, made a truly
inspirational babyface, is probably the best damn wrestler in the sport
today and is from the greatest damn city in the world.  That's reason
enough for a number one.  Heel Austin was equally awesome in virtually
every respect, although he's probably here mostly for the time he sang "We
Are The Champions" to Vince McMahon, the time he circulated a petition to
cancel his King of the Ring main event, the time he needed Debra to go
into his lockerroom and get his stuff and the time he screamed "I'm in!"
when Vince McMahon was giving a pre-Invasion pep-talk.  Tajiri...  well,
you tell me how anyone could not be a fan of Tajiri's.

SCOTT CHRIST: BRADSHAWWWWWWW.

JOE GENTILE: Jericho has it all: Ability, talent, and great mic skills. I
love Tajiri, and I will miss his great material with Regal. Its real easy
to admire a guy like Van Damn who got so over so quickly when no one gave
him a chance.

PIEMAN: I am prolly the only one that's gonna vote for Steve Blackman
here, so here goes:  Hi, my name is pieman.  Steve Blackman is my most
favourite wrestler.  I guess I am the only one at this meeting.

BLAZEJ SZPAKOWICZ: I seem to be repeating my choices from last year a
lot... As it was last year, Jericho, Benoit and HHH get my votes. Y2J was
around longer than the other two, and his winning the WCW title was my
personal markout moment of the year, so he gets the nod over Benoit. They
may well switch back when Benoit returns though; it's that close. Triple H
was still awesome while he was around, and he easily gets third.
Honourable mentions go to Austin, RVD, Edge, Christian, Angle, the Hardyz,
Hurricane, Regal, Tajiri, and numerous others.

CHRIS LENING: Steve Austin never stopped being entertaining, until after
the voting deadline. He maybe had a handful of bad segments all year, and
a truckload of great ones. Shocker wears Pink Pants and does Buff
Bagwell-esque taunts, and yet in spite of this, he rules, so much so that
I found myself addicted to lucha libre after watching for a few weeks to
see his stuff. The fact that he was introduced at the Juicio Final PPV to
the "Ladies and Finer Ladies", and that it was announced there his goal
was to procreate with all the attractive women, makes him somehow even
more awesome. Kurt Angle is a Dangerous Dork who knows nothing else but
winning, and that is something I can appreciate. Honorable mention to
Satanico for being the World's Greatest Grandpa.

YNAE316: I'm a huge Y2J, RVD, Hurricane mark

JEREMY SORIA: I've always moaned that I can only choose three.  Instead of
that, I want to explain why I choose some wrestlers over others as my
favorites, considering that a lot of people would think my choices for
favorites would be non-traditional. The first thing that gets my attention
is how these wrestlers look, physically. Sprite is wrong - image IS
EVERYTHING. I want a man who actually looks impressive, a man that can
actually look like he can kick some serious ass. Muscles on a man get that
point across to me a lot more than the way they talk or the way they
wrestle. The other things that make my opinion of a wrestler go higher is
their other characteristics - their interviews, their wrestling style,
that invisible characteristic called "charisma" that some people have.
These things put together basically are the things that help make these
wrestlers icons in the sport. That's why I still have a lot of Austin
Pride, I still babble over Buff Bagwell, I went woofy over Bill Goldberg,
I barked over Rick Steiner, and I fawned and swooned over other wrestlers
who would make others retch. But come on, give some of them a chance.

SHANE SPEAR: I was glued to the television anytime Booker came out this
year.  First of all, he has one of the best entrances in either
federation.  Secondly, his transformation from super-face to heel has to
be one of the best of all time.  I didn't believe the man could be booed
mercilessly.  The Hurricane quickly became another favorite of mine with
his super catch-phrase and sidekick Molly.  Too bad the WWF didn't believe
in him.  Steve Austin is just below these two, and it would be a crime to
pass him up as he not only has the crowd eating out of his hand heel or
face, but turned it up to 11 in the way of wrestling this year.

ROB EVANS: Finally RVD gets to display his talents on a national stage and
the fans love him.

THE CUBS FAN: Spanky unjustly ended up under the shadow of American
Dragon. I love Dragon too, but Spanky is a great US Crusierweight (maybe
not as good as Dragon, or maybe Dragon just uses the prefered style), a
good talker (slightly better than Dragon) and great ring presence (better
than Dragon.) I'd probably pick Dragon if I was doing one of those one
night cruiserweight tournaments that seem in high fashion this year, but
if I wanted to someone long term, I'd go with Spanky. In unrelated
weirdness, Essa Rios is my hero and will continue to be for some time, I'm
sure. I do an ode to my third person elsewhere.

SHAWN MULLIN: I love Steve Austin!  There was a time where I was kind of
getting bored of him, but the re-invention of his character just made me
realize why I have a big ol' Steve Austin poster in my room.  The man is
amazing, he always gives it his all, and he is one of the best overall
performers of all time.  I cheer for Chris Jericho to suceed more than
anyone else in the company, and it's hard to explain why I (and many
others) get so wrapped up in the hope that he'll be elevated to the next
level.  RVD won my favour very quickly this year, to the point where I
would look forward to his match more than almost anything else on each
show.