At this time we would like to announce the winners of the 2017 Southern California Pro-Wrestling Year End Awards. Click to see the 2017 award winners.
2017 Southern California Wrestler of the Year
Eli Everfly
2017 Southern California Women’s Wrestler of the Year
Ruby Raze
2017 Southern California Tag-Team of the Year
True Grit (Jesse James & Hoss Hogg)
2017 Paul T. Memorial Award for the Most Outstanding Wrestler
B-Boy
2017 Southern California Rookie of the Year
Jake Atlas – Santino Bros. Wrestling Academy
2017 Southern California Promotion of the Year
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
2017 Southern California Match of the Year
Kenny Omega over Tomohiro Ishii – New Japan – July 2
For the complete awards history click here.
Eli Everfly was named the 2017 Southern California Wrestler of the Year. In 2017 he held the FCW XRT, FCW Lightweight, and Santino Bros. Submission titles. He also had a total of six matches nominated for the Match of the Year award. Everfly tied for the lead in the webpoll with 24.28% of the vote and received three first place votes from the voting committee. He finished one point over runner up Tito Escondido, making this the closest voting in the 19 year history of the award. Tito Escondido tied for first in the webpoll and received five first place votes from the voting committee. This is Eli Everfly’s first Wrestler of the Year award. He won the Southern California Rookie of the Year award in 2013 and the Paul T. award in 2016.
Ruby Raze was named the 2017 Southern California Women’s Wrestler of the Year in a landside vote. She easily won the webpoll with 28.64% and received 10 out of 13 first place votes from the voting committee. During 2017 she held the FIST Combat Championship, OWA Women’s Championship, and won the AWS Women’s Tournament. She was also named Women’s Wrestler of the Month five times. Her match with Taya Valkyrie from the July 29 AWS show finished tenth in the Match of the Year voting. This is her first Southern California Year End Award. Heather Monroe finished as the runner up for the Women’s Wrestler of the Year. She held the Sabotage Championship and was also nominated for Tag-Team of the Year along with Laura James, as a member of The Killer Baes.
True Grit was named the 2017 Southern California Tag-Team of the Year. They held the FIST Combat Tag-Team titles. The team of Jesse James and Hoss Hogg finished first in the webpoll with 27.23% of the vote and they received six first place votes from the committee. This is True Grit’s first Southern California Year End award. The Young Bucks were the runners up. Already considered by most to be the greatest tag-team in Southern California history, this was the ninth time they finished first or second in the Tag-Team of the Year award.
The 2017 Paul T. Memorial Award for the Most Outstanding Wrestler in Southern California was awarded to B-Boy. Already known as a SoCal Legend, B-Boy has earned a reputation as bringing out the best in his opponents. He had three matches nominated for the 2017 Match of the Year Award. He finished third in the webpoll with 15.57% of the vote and received three first place votes from the voting committee. With this award he joins Sami Zayn and Scott Lost as the only wrestlers to have won four different Southern California Year End Awards. He also has the 3rd most awards all time, having previously won the Wrestler of the Year award twice (2002 and 2015), Match of the Year award three times (2001, 2002, and 2014), and the Rookie of the Year award (1999). Eli Everfly finished as runner up. Everfly finished second in the webpoll with 19.76% of the vote and received two first place votes. He won this award last year and finished as runner up in 2015.
Jake Atlas was named the 2017 Southern California Rookie of the Year. Trained by the Santino Bros. Wrestling Academy, he is the fifth wrestler from the school to be named Rookie of the Year in the last six years. He also had two matches nominated for the Southern California Match of the Year. He finished third in the webpoll with 15.71% of the vote and received 12 out of 13 first place votes from the voting committee. Chris Bey was the Rookie of the Year runner up. Trained in Las Vegas he was a regular fixture in Southern California in 2017. He received the other first place vote.
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla was named the Southern California Promotion of the Year for the 14th time in the last 15 years. PWG is considered by some to have the best wrestling in North America and tickets famously sell out in minutes. In 2017 they had two matches rated five stars by wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer, which were the first two singles matches to be given that rating in North America in half a decade. PWG received 9.15% of the webpoll and 10 first place votes from the voting committee. Alternative Wrestling Show was the runner up and received the other three first place votes. AWS also won the webpoll with 22.71% of the vote.
The 2017 Southern California Match of the Year was awarded to Kenny Omega defeating Tomohiro Ishii at New Japan Pro Wrestling’s July 2 show in Long Beach. The match received four first place votes and finished with 24.53% in the webpoll. The runner up was Keith Lee defeating Donovan Dijak at Night 3 of PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles on September 3.
Full Results:
Southern California Wrestler of the Year
- Eli Everfly 48.996
- Tito Escondido 47.996
- B-Boy 23.846
- Jeff Cobb 20.801
- Zack Sabre Jr. 19.549
- Tyler Bateman 14.564
- Joey Ryan 13.342
- Fidel Bravo / Espiritu 10.906
Southern California Women’s Wrestler of the Year
- Ruby Raze 75.048
- Heather Monroe 27.092
- Delilah Doom 26.685
- Shotzi Blackheart 23.149
- Taya Valkyrie 22.499
- Katarina Leigh 14.906
- Sage Sin 6.057
- Buggy Nova 4.571
Southern California Tag-Team of the Year
- True Grit (Jesse James & Hoss Hogg) 61.061
- Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) 44.573
- PPRay / H.A.T.E (Peter Avalon & Ray Rosas) 28.27
- FeeLyons (Osiris Mittens & Senor Buttons) 22.745
- A.T.E (Rico Dynamite & Che Cabrera) 13.283
- Pac 3 (Dan Joseph & Dylan Bostic) 9.303
- Killer Baes (Laura James & Heather Monroe) 9.27
- Sour Charm (Donnie Suarez & Biagio Crescenzo) 8.218
- Midnight Delight (Billy Blade & Richie Slade) 3.283
- Adrian Quest & “Uptown” Andy Brown 0.987
Paul T. Award for the Most Outstanding Wrestler
- B-Boy 35.899
- Eli Everfly 30.832
- Douglas James 30.538
- Keith Lee 21.773
- Brody King 15.033
- Scorpio Sky 14.613
- Rey Fenix 13.84
- Zack Sabre Jr. 13.513
- Jeff Cobb 12.513
- Andy Brown 11.446
Southern California Rookie of the Year
- Jake Atlas 73.997
- Chris Bey 40.623
- Daniel Moon 26.495
- Koto Hiro 17.591
- Alonzo Alvarez 17.316
- Lucas Riley 10.035
- Michael Hopkins 4.364
- KC Douglas 3.521
- Brendan Divine 3.029
- Maritza Janett 3.029
Southern California Promotion of the Year
- PWG – Pro Wrestling Guerrilla 58.405
- AWS – Alternative Wrestling Show 50.897
- PCW – Pacific Coast Wrestling 18.556
- Bar Wrestling 13.897
- VWE – Venue Wrestling Entertainment 13.048
- FCW – Finest City Wrestling 10.357
- SoCal Pro Wrestling 6.135
- Santino Bros. 5.325
- Lucha VaVoom 5
- Maverick Pro 4.984
Southern California Match of the Year
- Kenny Omega over Tomohiro Ishii – New Japan – July 2 57.171
- Keith Lee over Donovan Dijak – PWG – Sept. 3 41
- WALTER over Zack Sabre Jr. – PWG – October 21 40.095
- Eli Everfly over Delilah Doom – Sabotage – August 5 36.001
- Penta El 0M & Rey Fenix over The Young Bucks and Ricochet & Matt Sydal – PWG – March 18 22.38
- Jake Atlas over B-Boy – AWS – December 2 19.998
- Douglas James over Lio Rush and Joey Janela – PCW – Jan. 20 19.362
- B-Boy over Suede Thompson, Andy Brown, and Jake Atlas – AWS – Jan. 28 13.19
- Josh Barnett over Jeff Cobb – QPW/AWS – April 29 12.999
- Ruby Raze over Taya Valkyrie – AWS – July 29 10.266
*Only the top ten is listed for matches and promotions.
The awards are decided by a combination of a webpoll that is open to everyone and worth 35% of the vote and a panel of voters that make up the other 65% of the total. A wrestler can earn up to a total of 100 points.
