The 2019 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.
2019 Southern California Wrestler of the Year
Jake Atlas
2019 Southern California Women’s Wrestler of the Year
Heather Monroe
2019 Southern California Tag-Team of the Year
PPRay (Peter Avalon & Ray Rosas)
2019 Paul T. Memorial Award for the Most Outstanding Wrestler
Jake Atlas
2019 Southern California Rookie of the Year
Slice Boogie – Santino Bros. Wrestling Academy
2019 Southern California Promotion of the Year
Bar Wrestling
2019 Southern California Match of the Year
Bandido, Flamita, & Rey Horus over Puma King, Laredo Kid, & Black
Taurus – PWG – July 26
For the complete awards history, click here.
Jake Atlas was named the 2019 Southern California Wrestler of the Year. In 2019 he held the Santino Bros. Heavyweight Championship and PCW Ultra Light Championship for the majority of the year. He also wrestled regularly for PWG, where he took part in the 2019 Battle of Los Angeles, making it to the second round. He also was a major part of Bar Wrestling. Two of his matches finished in the top five in the Match of the Year voting. He won the web poll with 39.29% of the vote and received 12 first-place votes from the voting panel. Atlas had previously won the Southern California Rookie of the Year Award in 2017. He is now signed with WWE and part of their NXT brand. Ray Rosas was the runner-up for the Southern California Wrestler of the Year Award. In 2019 he wrestled AWS, Bar Wrestling, Championship Wrestling from Hollywood, Ground Zero, and MPW among others. Rosas is also the head trainer at MPW’s wrestling school. He finished second in the web poll with 27.55% and received four second-place votes.
Heather Monroe was named the 2019 Southern California Women’s Wrestler of the Year. In 2019 she was a major part of Bar Wrestling and Championship Wrestling from Hollywood and also wrestled for PCW Ultra, Santino Bros., among others. She challenged for the NWA Women’s World Championship in February, marking the first time that title was defended in the area in years. She finished third in the web poll with 21.68% of the vote and received eight first place votes from the panel. Ruby Raze was the runner-up for the 2019 Southern California Women’s Wrestler of the Year award. She won the AWS Women’s Championship in 2019 and wrestled regularly for AWS, Bar Wrestling, Ground Zero, and Santino Bros. among others. She won the web poll portion of the vote with 36.57% and received four first-place votes from the panel.
PPRay became the fifth tag-team to have won the Southern California Tag-Team of the Year award at least twice. They join The Young Bucks, Aerial Express, The Ballard Brothers, and RockNES Monsters. Prior to Peter Avalon being exclusive to AEW, PPRay was featured heavily in Bar Wrestling, AWS, and Ground Zero among other places. They finished second in the web poll with 22.96% and received six first place votes. Wolf Zaddies were the runners-up for the 2019 Southern California Tag-Team of the Year award. They held the tag team championships in AWS, EWF, SoCal Pro, and FIST Combat at the same time in 2019. They received six first place votes on the ballots but came in fourth in the web poll with 8.15%.
The 2019 Paul T. Memorial Award for the Most Outstanding Wrestler in Southern California went to Jake Atlas. He becomes the first wrestler since 2008 to win the Wrestler of the Year and Most Outstanding Wrestler awards in the same year, and third wrestler overall to accomplish that (El Generico 2007, Scott Lost 2008). He won the web poll with 29.45% and received four first-place votes. Ray Rosas was the runner-up. He received five first-place votes and 12.93% in the web poll.
Slice Boogie was named the 2019 Southern California Rookie of the Year. He is the seventh wrestler from the Santino Bros. Wrestling Academy to win the award. Slice Boogie received nine first-place votes and 6.91% of the web poll. The runner-up for the 2019 Southern California Rookie of the Year, Viva Van, was also trained at the Santino Bros. Wrestling Academy. She won the web poll with 27.79% and received two first place votes.
Bar Wrestling was the 2019 Southern California Promotion of the Year. In 2019 they ran 23 total events, and sold out each of their events at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles. This is only the second time since 2003 that a promotion other than Pro Wrestling Guerrilla has won the award. PWG was named the runner-up.
The top-two matches for the 2019 Southern California Match of the Year award took place in PWG. The winner was the six-man lucha match from July 26 where Bandido, Flamita, and Rey Horus defeated Puma King, Laredo Kid, and Black Taurus. This is the first Southern California Match of the Year award for all six wrestlers. Jake Atlas defeating Jungle Boy in the opening round of the 2019 Battle of Los Angeles was the runner-up.
Voting results:
2019 Southern California Wrestler of the Year
- Jake Atlas 90.503
- Ray Rosas 36.285
- Andy Brown 35.497
- Tyler Bateman 18.466
- Brian Cage 13.568
- Watts 5.681
2019 Southern California Women’s Wrestler of the Year
- Heather Monroe 64.176
- Ruby Raze 62.599
- Tessa Blanchard 33.257
- Taya Valkyrie 24.663
- Delilah Doom 15.305
2019 Southern California Tag-Team of the Year
- PPRay (Peter Avalon & Ray Rosas) 62.072
- Wolf Zaddies (Tito Escondido & Che Cabrera) 47.705
- Lucha Homies (Mariachi Loco & Lil’ Cholo) 24.566
- True Grit (Jesse James & Hoss Hogg) 17.602
- DoomFly (Eli Everfly & Delilah Doom) 10.283
- Jake Atlas & Heather Monroe 9.012
- Los Luchas (Zokre & Phoenix Star) 8.247
- RockNES Monsters (Yuma & BHK) 7.729
- The Millennials (Danny Divine & Brendan Divine) 7.012
- Double Platinum (Suede Thompson & Chris Bey) 5.765
2019 Most Outstanding Wrestler in Southern California
- Jake Atlas 49.615
- Ray Rosas 38.051
- Andy Brown 33.017
- Danny Limelight 20.085
- Adrian Quest 19.034
- Eli Everfly 9.22
- Ryan Kidd 8.822
- Douglas James 7.618
- Tessa Blanchard 6.529
- Brian Cage 4.309
- Daga 2.707
2019 Southern California Rookie of the Year
- Slice Boogie 52.837
- Viva Van 42.453
- Vinny Wasco 23.808
- RJ Santos 17.206
- Tanner Black 11.324
- Hyde 10.086
- Sarah Wolfe / Razor 9.326
- Simone Sherie / Princess Aussie 8.658
- Honest John 6.337
- Baron Rotza 5.653
Only top-ten are listed.
2019 Southern California Promotion of the Year
- Bar Wrestling 49.734
- Pro Wrestling Guerrilla 41.5
- Ground Zero 25.883
- PCW Ultra 14.695
- Lucha VaVoom 8.344
- Empire Wrestling Federation 7.422
- Championship Wrestling from Hollywood 6.078
- Santino Bros. Wrestling 5.5
- Suburban Fight Pro Wrestling 5
- Destination 6 4.844
Only top-ten are listed.
2019 Southern California Match of the Year
- Bandido, Flamita, & Rey Horus over Puma King, Laredo Kid, & Black Taurus – PWG – July 26 42.467
- Jake Atlas over Jungle Boy – PWG – September 20 29.3
- El Phantasmo over Dragon Lee – NJPW – August 25 26.59
- Bandido over Dragon Lee – PWG – September 22 23.6
- Dragon Lee over Jake Atlas – PWG – September 22 23.5
Only top-five are listed.
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.
Kinda curious how 3 of the 5 top matches of the year feature Dragon Lee, and yet he is not anywhere near the top of the WOTY or OWOTY lists.
He only wrestled 5 total matches in SoCal for the year.