by Daniel Johnson
Time to let the cat out of the bag! The surprise I mentioned on Thursday is here!
It is with great excitement and some uncertainty that I introduce The Johnson Transcript Surging Star Award! This will be an annual award that will be given to a wresting personality 25-years-old or younger who has never been signed to one of the top two promotions in the United States.
I’m sure a lot, if not all of you are saying, “So what? Another pointless wrestling award.” The thing is that if this award was given by me today you would be exactly right!
One quality that distinguishes this award is that the winner will not be chosen by the staff of this website. Instead the winner is completely up to the readers aka you! The award is only as important as you, the reader, make it. This is where my uncertainty comes in. If the award receives a lot of votes and attention then great, but if not then it falls back into “pointless” territory.
Staying positive, there is also what I at least hope can be considered noble reasons behind this award being established.
There are a bunch of reasons I wanted to start an annual award, but most significant are the following two. First, if the award gets enough support behind it (aka votes and attention), it could arguably give a bump to one young wrestler. I’m not saying it would make WWE or TNA sign them, but the bump could be as simple as picking up some new fans. Second, this award ideally should encourage more wrestlers and wrestling companies to share free matches online. This is part of the reason why the award is given exclusively to those who have been featured on The Johnson Transcript. Some have solely been featured in the “Wrestling Clips” section thus far. Yet, it is difficult to feature a wrestler in this section when none of their matches are online and accessible.
The Johnson Transcript Surging Star Award will also have a physical trophy to represent it. A thorough attempt will be made to have a member of The Johnson Transcript staff present this award in person to the winner. Ideally, the winner will cherish the award like Owen Hart cherished his two Slammy Awards or at least melt the award down and wear it as a chain like Mabel did to The Undertaker’s urn. I can only hope that the wrestler will not just dump it in a trashcan like Scott Hall did to the WCW World Television Championship.
The trophy will be known as “The Crown J” (I’m sure you can guess what inspired that name). Speaking of which as you can see by the official criteria laid out nice and neat below, foreign stars are eligible no matter how big the company they work for outside of the United States is. This was a tricky call to make, but considering most of the traffic this website gets is from the United States whoever the winner is should still get some exposure to new fans.
The criteria are as follows:
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*A performer must be 25-years-old or younger on December 31 of the year that the award has been designated for. For example, the performer who is given the award for 2012 must be born no later than December 30, 1986. If the age of a performer cannot be determined beyond a reasonable doubt by members of The Johnson Transcript staff then that performer is not eligible.
*The winner should have an outstanding performance in the year that the award has been designated for. Votes should be cast based on what a performer did in the year that the award has been designated for and should not be based on a performer’s overall contributions to the professional wrestling industry. The award is voted on by readers of The Johnson Transcript. Staff may also vote. Each person should only vote once and a thorough attempt will be made to limit each person to one vote. Votes are cast between January 1 and January 31 in the year following the year that the award has been designated for.
*The performer must have been featured at least once on The Johnson Transcript from January 1 to December 31 in the year that the award has been designated for. Being featured is defined as being mentioned or included in some form of media in a piece authored by a member of The Johnson Transcript staff. Readers are encouraged to nominate wrestlers who have not been featured and meet all other criteria. Provided that the nominee meets all other criteria they will receive a mention. All reader nominations must be made prior to December 31 in the year that the award has been designated for.
*The performer who wins this award must never have been under contract to a company commonly understood as one of the top two promotions in the United States in the year that the award has been designated for. If a company falls out of what are commonly understood as the top two spots then a signed performer of that company could be eligible for the award in subsequent years, but not in a year where the company was a top two company. For example, if one company becomes the number three company in 2012 then a performer signed to that company would not be eligible to earn an award for 2012. However, if the company stays at the number three spot throughout 2013 then a performer signed to that company who meets the other criteria would be eligible to win the award for 2013.
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If a wrestler is not yet eligible for the award because they have not been featured in The Johnson Transcript then you can nominate them for consideration by dropping me a line here or by commenting. To keep track of who is already eligible go to the new “Crown J” section.
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