PWI Rookie of the Year

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The PWI Rookie of the Year Award, given yearly since 1972 by professional wrestling magazine Pro Wrestling Illustrated, recognizes the best professional wrestler of the year who, in that year, had their first year in the business, as voted by readers of the magazine. As it is a rookie award, wrestlers can qualify only once.

[edit] Award winners and runners-up

Year	Winner	First runner-up	Second runner-up	Third runner-up
1972	Mike Graham
1973	Bob Orton, Jr. / Tony Garea
1974	Larry Zbyzsko
1975	Ric Flair
1976	Bob Backlund	Chavo Guerrero	Steve Keirn	Johnny Rivera
1977	Ricky Steamboat	Jimmy Snuka	Big John Studd	Skip Young
1978	Tommy Rich	Jay Youngblood	David Von Erich	Tully Blanchard
1979	Sweet Brown Sugar (Koko B. Ware)	Steve Travis	Bryan St. John	Eddie Gilbert
1980	Terry Taylor	Barry Windham	Rick McGraw	Tom Prichard
1981	David Sammartino	Brad Rheingans	Curt Hennig	Ron Richie
1982	Brad Armstrong	Tiger Mask	Mike Rotunda	Kamala
1983	Angelo Mosca, Jr.	King Kong Bundy	Scott Armstrong	Arn Anderson
1984	Mike Von Erich	Nikita Koloff	Krusher Khruschev (Barry Darsow)	Kevin Kelly
1985	Nord the Barbarian	Kendall Windham	Dan Spivey	Sam Houston
1986	Lex Luger	Bam Bam Bigelow	Sting	Tom Magee
1987	Owen Hart	Big Bubba Rogers	Shane Douglas	Doug Furnas
1988	Madusa Miceli	Chris Benoit	Maxx Payne	Scott Steiner
1989	The Destruction Crew (Mike Enos and Wayne Bloom)	Dustin Rhodes	Scotty the Body (Raven)	Johnathan Holliday
1990	Steve Austin	El Gigante	Brad Anderson	Chris Chavis
1991	Johnny B. Badd	The Patriot	Terri Power	The Lightning Kid (Sean Waltman)
1992	Erik Watts	Diamond Dallas Page	Vladimir Koloff	Chaz
1993	Vampire Warrior	Robbie Eagle	Kent and Keith Cole	The Headhunters
1994	911	Bob Holly	Abbuddah Singh (Balls Mahoney)	Mikey Whipwreck
1995	Alex Wright	Craig Pittman	Lawrence Taylor	Madd Maxxine
1996	The Giant	Steve McMichael	Rocky Maivia	Joe Gomez
1997	Prince Iaukea	Ernest Miller	Chris Chetti	Brakkus
1998	Goldberg	Sable	Droz	Mark Henry
1999	Shane McMahon	Evan Karagias	Vince McMahon	Lash LeRoux
2000	Kurt Angle	Lita	Mark Jindrak and Sean O'Haire	Chuck Palumbo
2001	Randy Orton	Brock Lesnar	K-Kwik (Ron Killings)	The Prototype (John Cena)
2002	Maven	Christopher Nowinski	Nidia	Taylor Matheny
2003	Zach Gowen	Sylvain Grenier	Trinity	Matt Morgan
2004	Monty Brown	Petey Williams	Johnny Nitro	Matt Cappotelli
2005	Bobby Lashley	Christy Hemme	Mikey Batts	Ken Doane (Kenny)
2006	Boogeyman	Charles Evans	Akebono	Cody Runnels

[edit] See also

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

PWI Awards

Current Awards
Wrestler of the Year \| Tag Team of the Year \| Match of the Year \| Feud of the Year \| Most Popular Wrestler \| Most Hated Wrestler \| Most Improved Wrestler \| Most Inspirational Wrestler \| Rookie of the Year \| Stanley Weston Award \| Comeback of the Year \| Woman of the Year
Discontinued Awards
Manager of the Year \| Girl Wrestler of the Year \| Midget Wrestler of the Year \| Announcer of the Year