We would like to announce the nominees for the 2017 Paul T. Memorial Award for Most Outstanding Wrestler in Southern California. This award has been given annually since 2006, and was first won by El Generico (Sami Zayn). After his death in 2013, the award was renamed to honor the memory of Paul Tokunaga, who was better known to the Southern California wrestling community as Paul T.
This year’s nominees include two wrestlers who have previously won the award: last year’s winner, Eli Everfly, and Scorpio Sky, who won the award in both 2011 and 2013.This year’s ballot will also include four first time nominees: Andy Brown, Brody King, Keith Lee, and Zack Sabre Jr.
Returning to the ballot are B-Boy, Douglas James, Jeff Cobb, and Rey Fenix. This will be the second nomination for all except B-Boy, who is on the ballot for the fifth time.
This award is based solely on a wrestler’s in-ring work and match quality. With that said, here is the full list of nominees for the 2017 Paul T. Memorial Award for Most Outstanding Wrestler in Southern California:
- Andy Brown
- B-Boy
- Brody King
- Douglas James
- Eli Everfly
- Jeff Cobb
- Keith Lee
- Rey Fenix
- Scorpio Sky
- Zack Sabre Jr.
The Southern California Year End Awards started in 1999 on SoCal-Wrestling.com and was taken over by SoCalUncensored.com starting in 2001. The awards are largely recognized as one of the most prestigious awards in independent wrestling and have been referenced in national and international wrestling media. The voting for the awards consists of two parts: a public webpoll worth 35% of the total vote and balloting by a committee of voters, which is worth 65% of the total.
Paul T., who started in wrestling working for Antonio Inoki, became known to Southern California wrestling fans as the manager for Tokyo Gurentai in Revolution Pro and XPW and later as the first commissioner of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. He was also very instrumental behind the scenes in bringing Japanese talent to Southern California such as NOSAWA, Kikutaro, and the first United States tour by the Joshi promotion ARSION. He helped numerous Southern California wrestlers get bookings with Japanese wrestling promotions. Paul was also a huge supporter of SoCalUncensored.com and was a frequenter poster on our message boards and occasional columnist. More than anything (outside of surfing and Japanese women) he also liked good wrestling and it was felt to be a fitting tribute to rename this award in his honor.
The webpoll voting for the 2017 Paul T. Memorial Award for Most Outstanding Wrestler in Southern California will last until January 11, 2018. All 2017 award winners will be announced on January 25, 2018.
Previous winners:
Paul T. Memorial Award for the Most Outstanding Wrestler
