Dot Net Awards: 2009 Best Broadcaster

Dot Net readers voted on a variety of 2009 awards throughout January and February. We will be revealing the winners throughout the weekend. The following are the poll results of the Best Broadcaster category.

(1) Jim Ross: 35 percent
(2) Matt Striker: 33 percent
(3) Taz: 9 percent
(4) Jerry Lawler: 8 percent
(5) Mike Tenay: 5 percent
Others: 10 percent

Rich Twilling's thoughts: This was not a good year for this category. The announcing really suffered at times in all three major companies. Of course, Jim Ross is the runaway winner here. Regardless of how part time his schedule is or will be, until someone comes along to unseat him, JR is the absolute best. I think it is a very big deal for WWE to get him back for WrestleMania 26. For his work in TNA, I will go with Taz second and I still have Matt Striker as a solid third. After that, everyone else is in the same group.

Jason Powell's thoughts: There's Jim Ross and then there's everybody else. WWE wasted Ross's talent by keeping him on the No. 2 show. Worse yet, they came up with a strange hybrid role for him as part play-by-play and part color commentator. They have the best play-by-play voice in the history of the industry, but they have him play second fiddle more often than not. Are you kidding me? Here's hoping Ross's time away helped Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn appreciate everything Ross brings to the table.

Striker was a breath of fresh air initially. He started the year much stronger than he finished. He's a student of the game and his passion for the product shines through, but he also seemed to become too concerned with catering to Vince McMahon as the year went on.

Taz brought credibility to the color commentator's role in TNA. Now if only they could find him the right play-by-play voice to work with. Tenay doesn't do it for me. His main event calls sound the same as his opening match calls, and he lost credibility over the years by being the voice of what at times was a poor product. Meanwhile, Lawler exposes that he's going through the motions every time he calls a match that doesn't involve a Raw wrestler.