The 2018 Southern California Pro-Wrestling Year End Awards winners have been announced. Click to see the list of this year’s winners and full voting results from each category.
2018 Southern California Wrestler of the Year
Brody King
2018 Southern California Women’s Wrestler of the Year
Delilah Doom
2018 Southern California Tag-Team of the Year
DoomFly (Eli Everfly & Delilah Doom)
2018 Paul T. Memorial Award for the Most Outstanding Wrestler
Andy Brown
2018 Southern California Rookie of the Year
Dom Kubrick – Santino Bros. Wrestling Academy
2018 Southern California Promotion of the Year
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
2018 Southern California Match of the Year
Golden Lovers (Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi) over The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) – NJPW – March 25
For the complete awards history, click here.
Brody King was named the 2018 Southern California Wrestler of the Year. In 2018 he held the Santino Bros. Heavyweight Championship for the majority of the year and was part of Warbeast in PCW Ultra. He also wrestled regularly for PWG, where he took part in the 2018 Battle of Los Angeles and challenged Walter for the PWG World Championship. He also was a major part of Bar Wrestling and AWS. He won the web poll with 41.02% of the vote and received four first-place votes from the voting panel. King had previously won the Southern California Rookie of the Year Award in 2016. Jeff Cobb was the runner-up for the Southern California Wrestler of the Year Award. In 2018 he wrestled for every major promotion in Southern California, won the 2018 Battle of Los Angeles, and is the current PWG World Champion. He finished second in the web poll with 16.41% and received seven first-place votes.
Delilah Doom ran away with the 2018 Southern California Women’s Wrestler of the Year Award. She finished first in the web poll with 29.28% of the vote and received nine first-place votes. In 2018, Doom wrestled throughout Southern California including for Bar Wrestling, AWS, PCW Ultra, and Ground Zero. Tessa Blanchard was the Southern California Women’s Wrestler of the Year runner-up. Blanchard is the current PCW Ultra Women’s Champion and wrestles regularly for Bar Wrestling and Women of Wrestling. Blanchard only received one first-place vote but she did receive five second place votes.
DoomFly became the first intergender tag-team, and Delilah Doom became the first female to win the Southern California Tag Team of the Year Award. They finished first on the web poll with 38.83% of the vote and received three first-place votes from the panel. With this award, Eli Everfly joins Scott Lost and El Generico as the only wrestlers to have won Wrestler of the Year, Most Outstanding Wrestler, and a Tag Team of the Year award. PPRay finished second in the voting. They received ten first-place votes from the panel, but finished fourth in the web poll.
The 2018 Paul T. Memorial Award for the Most Outstanding Wrestler in Southern California went to Andy Brown. In what was one of the most spread out votes, with five different wrestlers receiving a first-place vote, Brown received four first-place votes. Jake Atlas was the runner up, and he received three first-place votes.
Dom Kubrick continues the Santino Bros. Wrestling Academy’s dominance in the Southern California Rookie of the Year category, becoming the sixth winner from the school since 2012. Kubrick finished second in the web poll with 25.66% and received five first-place votes. Another Santino Bros. student, Matt Vandagriff, was runner up. Vandagriff received the other eight first-place votes and finished third in the web poll with 13.74%.
For the fifteenth time in sixteen years, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla was named the Southern California Promotion of the Year. This year’s vote, however, was the second closest in history for any award, with PWG beating out Bar Wrestling by less than a point. PWG received four first-place votes and eight second-place votes to go along with 15.45% on the web poll. Bar Wrestling finished as the runner up. Bar Wrestling received five first-place votes and finished with 13.18% on the web poll.
For the second straight a year, a match from New Japan Pro Wrestling involving Kenny Omega was named the Southern California Match of the Year. The Golden Lovers victory over The Young Bucks at the March 25, 2018 NJPW event in Long Beach won this year’s award. The finals of the 2018 Battle of Los Angeles between Jeff Cobb, Bandido, and Shingo Takagi was the runner up.
Full Voting Results:
Southern California Wrestler of the Year
- Brody King 70.714
- Jeff Cobb 57.487
- Andy Brown 25.941
- Brian Cage 12.911
- Eli Everfly 11.467
- Douglas James 10.921
- Penta El Zero M 10.566
Southern California Women’s Wrestler of the Year
- Delilah Doom 77.496
- Tessa Blanchard 33.445
- Ruby Raze 29.701
- Heather Monroe 29.105
- Taya Valkyrie 25.125
- Katarina Leigh 5.128
Southern California Tag-Team of the Year
- DoomFly (Eli Everfly & Delilah Doom) 70.181
- PPRay (Peter Avalon & Ray Rosas) 67.54
- Violence Unlimited (Tyler Bateman & Brody King) 28.429
- True Grit (Jesse James & Hoss Hogg) 19.314
- Reno Scum (Adam Thornstowe & Luster the Legend) 6.657
- RockNES Monsters (Yuma & Kevin Martenson) 4.883
- Warbeast (Fatu & Josef) 2.107
- Rico Dynamite & Che Cabrera 0.0889
Most Outstanding Wrestler in Southern California
- Andy Brown 39.924
- Jake Atlas 35.582
- Tyler Bateman 21.825
- Bandido 21.266
- Douglas James 19.86
- Shane Strickland 17.422
- Brian Cage 15.179
- Eli Everfly 11.464
- Penta El Zero M 8.806
- Adrian Quest 7.639
Southern California Rookie of the Year
- Dom Kubrick 66.962
- Matt Vandagriff 64.618
- Cameron Gates 31.277
- Dylan Kyle Cox 12.342
- B-Minus 7.579
- Davion Foreman 6.352
- Lois Grain 2.863
Southern California Promotion of the Year
- PWG – Pro Wrestling Guerrilla 54.815
- Bar Wrestling 54.226
- PCW Ultra 18.411
- Ground Zero 15.185
- AWS – Alternative Wrestling Show 14.548
- EWF – Empire Wrestling Federation 12.411
- MPW – Millennium Pro Wrestling 11.137
- Wrestling Pro Wrestling 7.315
- Santino Bros. Wrestling Academy 1.589
- Championship Wrestling from Hollywood 1.274
- SoCal Pro Wrestling 1.274
Southern California Match of the Year
- Golden Lovers (Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi) over Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) – NJPW – March 25 58.131
- Jeff Cobb over Bandido and Shingo Takagi – PWG – Sept. 16 37.191
- Douglas James over Ray Rosas – AWS – Sept. 22 22.554
- Lucha Brothers (Penta El Zero M & Rey Fenix) over LAX (Ortiz & Santana) – Bar Wrestling – March 8 20.269
- Gym Nasty Boys (White Mike & Timmy Lou Retton) over Workhorsemen (Anthony Henry & James Drake) – Mav Pro – May 5 20.076
- Aleister Black over Johnny Gargano – NXT – Nov. 17 12.949
- Bandido over Rey Fenix – PWG – October 19 11.535
- Nick Gage over David Arquette – GCW – Nov. 16 363
- The Golden Lovers (Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi) over Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii – NJPW – Sept. 30 8.949
- Ring Kampf (Walter & Timothy Thatcher) over Violence Unlimited (Brody King & Tyler Bateman) – PWG – April 20 8.869
*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.
