Award Description:

To be given to the colour commentator who provides the most insightful and
entertaining comments.

Previous Winners:

  1991: Bobby Heenan
  1992: Bobby Heenan
  1993: Jesse Ventura
  1994: Bobby Heenan
  1995: Bobby Heenan
  1996: Bobby Heenan
  1997: Jerry Lawler
  1998: Jerry Lawler
  1999: Jerry Lawler
  2000: Jerry Lawler

**2001**: Paul Heyman

280 first place votes
260 second place votes
239 third place votes

164 51 10  993   Paul Heyman
 58 70 19  538   Jerry Lawler
  4 33 40  199   Tazz
 14 21 30  193   Bobby Heenan
  7 12 26  123   Stevie Ray
  1 17 25  106   Al Snow
  6 15 12   99   Cyrus
  2  6 23   74   Tajiri
  2  7 18   67   Joel Gertner
  3  4  6   39   Crowbar
  2  4  4   30   Steve Austin
  2  4  4   30   Mike Tenay
  1  3  5   24   Mark Madden
  4  0  1   22   Leobardo Magadan
  0  5  2   19   Juventud Guerrera
  1  1  3   14   Scott Hudson
  1  2  0   11   Jim Cornette
  2  0  0   10   Ron Niemi
  1  1  1   10   Larry Rivera
  0  1  3    9   Konnan
  1  1  0    8   Jim Ross
  1  0  1    7   Hugo Savinovich
  1  0  0    5   Michael Hayes
  0  0  2    4   William Regal
  0  1  0    3   Miguel Linares
  0  0  1    2   Steve Blackman
  0  0  1    2   Kurt Angle
  0  0  1    2   Bruno Sammartino (?)

REJECTED

  2  0  0        Joey Styles
  0  1  1        Duplicated votes

RYAN HALL: Lawler, Heyman, Tazz.  Quickly drops off after the first two.  
Lawler the best ever.

TEDB512: Lawler's much missed, but nobody puts over the angles themselves
better than Paul Heyman.

MPWG: Anyone that votes for Madden needs to be shot, or forced to watch
one of his Nitro broadcasts.

STEPHEN TISZENKEL: If Paul Heyman really hates doing color commentary, why
is he so good at it? I remember renting an old WCW tape years ago --
mostly because I wanted to see Oz, who was sadly cut from the commercial
release -- and seeing JR and Heyman doing the announcing. I really only
knew Heyman as the ECW guy, and I was taken aback by how good he was on
color. In 10 years, he hasn't lost a step.

KHENYIAN CHEUNG: Why is Tajiri better than Tazz?  "OH MY GOD! ROCKET
BUSTA~!"

CHIP BOOTS: Paul Heyman is one of the best color commentators ever.

SCOTT WORDEN: Sorry, but I have to go with Lawler..  So glad he is back..
I give Heyman his credit to.  He did a great job when he was there.

CHRIS BIRD: It's a pity Paul E and JR hate each other because god, Paul's
one of the best colour commentators to come along in ages. Now that
Lawler's back, I miss Paul E more than ever.

SEAN FLYNN: Stevie Ray on color commentary was one of the only bright
spots of the end of WCW.  His surreal commentary, inane ramblings, and use
of "fruit booty" made it almost bearable to watch them.  I'd much rather
have him on Smackdown than Tazz or Lawler.

MARK POLISHUK: Heyman was such a welcome breath of a fresh air from
Lawler.  Paul E.  called the moves, talked up the wrestlers, was cognizant
about storylines, and managed to act excited yet not obsessed in the
presence of puppies.  Hopefully Lawler's hiatus gave him time to freshen
up his material.

MIKE JOHNSON: 1. At first I thought Lawler would be missed greatly.  But
Heyman was so good I thought he was better than Lawler after a month.  
Imagine, a color man getting over the matches and wrestling instead of
endless screams of "puppies!!"  He always at least three good lines a
show, and his attempt to plug the Divas video was classic.  Too bad he and
Ross don't get along.  Hopefully Heyman can do Smackdown and get the
mediocre Tazz (whose idea of insightful commentary during the 4-way TLC
was "I'm speechless Cole!") off the air.  3.  Juvi gets this for being so
damn funny even though he made virtually no sense.

DONNY L: Heyman was amazing this year, he and Ross was some of the best
play by play team I've heard in 10 years. Cyrus is like Heyman jr. love
his commentaring. Lawler is 3rd and decent but not even close to Heyman.

PETER HAZLETT: Heyman did whatever he could to promote the angle.  Nice to
see the King back, too.

SIMON GRIER: Heyman actually got the matches over rather than screaming
PUPPIES and I wish the King hadn't returned. Tazz was solid on colour but
deteriorated through the year. His banter with Cole on UK Heat is awful.
Regal was hilarious when he guested a couple of times on Raw. "You can't
do that, that's cheating!"

ESTRAGAND: Heyman was great as a full-on HEEL announcer. Calling Kurt
Angle "MY Olypmpic Hero", etc. Following in the mold of pro-heel
announcers like Jesse Ventura and Heenan... just not as funny. Stevie Ray
gets a point for introducing the phrase "YAKS" into our smark vocab.

JOHN C.: Heyman and Lawler are both funny. However, Heyman did a better
job of putting wrestlers and angles over. Heenan was great at 'Mania and I
miss him a lot.

JOE GENTILE: I am glad the King is back, but Heyman had better year. I
LOVED his JR impersonations!

BLAZEJ SZPAKOWICZ: Okay, blasphemy time. Paul Heyman was a better colour
commentator than Jerry Lawler. Yes, really. I like Lawler as much as the
next guy, but it was refreshing to get a colour man who actually, you
know, *called matches*, rather than drooling over attractive women. Not
that there's anything wrong with drooling over attractive women, mind you.
Tazz and Al Snow get second and third. Yeah, I like them better than
Lawler too.

CHRIS LENING: I was unsure if Stevie Ray had actually called any shows
within the time period, but once I discovered he did, he automatically
took first, despite fine years from Tazz and Leobardo Magadan. Except for
those two, all other color commentatrs are nothing but fruit booties in
comparison to Stevie Ray.

YNAE316: I love Lawler, but admittedly, Heyman brought a lot more
CREDIBILITY to thetable in terms of getting over the matches, wrestler,
stories, etc.  Plus, I LOVED Heyman's shoot comments during the broadcast
like about backing up his broadcast partner, the Ross Report, etc.

SHANE SPEAR: Hehe, Tajiri is the best.  I wonder how he didn't get that
Smackdown gig.

ROB EVANS: Heymen has to win here.  Why?  He's a good heel and brings
wrestling tradition, history, and knowledge to the table.

WILL SCHLICKENMAIER: I was lucky enough to be at Paul Heyman's first RAW
on color.  But I don't think I truly appreciated his skills until we got
the King back.  Yes, Heyman was in a GODAWFUL angle.  Yes, he had to say
stuff he didn't want to.  But he sold the angle.  He always sold the
angle.

THE CUBS FAN: I'm voting Stevie Ray here because I might not get another
chance. You COULD make some "he acted generally intersted in WCW
programming long after the other announcers seemed to care less and were
working their own stuff - not that Stevie wasn't doing that a little
himself" case but I don't need to because it's my vote. I don't why
Michael Hayes isn't on Jakked any more but I do miss him - he was more
subtle in his hype and his act made whoever was sitting next to him tone
down their shilling a little bit, if that makes any sense.