The Japan Indie Awards (日本インディー大賞 Nihon Indī Taishō) are Japanese professional wrestling, or puroresu, awards that have been handed out annually since 2007. Unlike the Tokyo Sports Awards that are awarded to all promotions in Japan, the Japan Indie Awards are exclusive to independent and smaller promotions in Japan including Big Japan Pro Wrestling, DDT Pro-Wrestling and Michinoku Pro Wrestling. The awards are usually broadcasted and awarded by Fighting TV Samurai on their program Indī no Oshigoto (インディーのお仕事; English for the "Indie Work").
The awards are voted by fans who may vote online on the Samurai TV website. After the winners are announced in the New Year Shuffle Tag Tournament, an award ceremony is held before the start of the tournament. The awards sections are divided in MVP Award, Best Bout Award, Best Show Award (renamed in 2014 to Best Box Award but returned to Best Show Award the following year), Best Unit Award and Newcomer Award.
Voting takes place in rounds. In landslide cases, the winner can be determined in a single round of voting, however, if no wrestler gets enough votes, the award can be left blank and not given out that year. Most notably, the Special Award of the year was not given out in 2008 and again between 2010 and 2016 and 2018.
Active awards[]
MVP Award[]
| Year | Winner | Promotion |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Kota Ibushi | DDT Pro-Wrestling |
| 2008 | The Great Sasuke | Michinoku Pro Wrestling |
| 2009 | Kota Ibushi | DDT-Pro Wrestling |
| 2010 | Daisuke Sekimoto | Big Japan Pro Wrestling |
| 2011 | Munenori Sawa | Battlarts |
| 2012 | Abdullah Kobayashi | Big Japan Pro Wrestling |
| 2013 | Isami Kodaka | Union Pro Wrestling |
| 2014 | HARASHIMA | DDT Pro-Wrestling |
| 2015 | Yuji Okabayashi | Big Japan Pro Wrestling |
| 2016 | Shuji Ishikawa | DDT Pro-Wrestling Big Japan Pro Wrestling |
| 2017 | Hideki Suzuki | Pro Wrestling Zero1 Big Japan Pro Wrestling |
| 2018 | Masashi Takeda | Big Japan Pro Wrestling |
| 2019 | Isami Kodaka | Pro Wrestling Basara |
| 2020 | Minoru Fujita | Big Japan Pro Wrestling |
| 2021 | Konosuke Takeshita | DDT Pro-Wrestling |
| 2022 | Kazusada Higuchi |
Best Bout Award (ベストバウト Besutobauto)[]
| Year | Winner | Promotion |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Takashi Sasaki vs. Yuko Miyamoto (March 14) | Big Japan Pro Wrestling |
| 2008 | Kota Ibushi vs. Kenny Omega (August 6) | DDT Pro-Wrestling |
| 2009 | Ryuji Ito vs. Jun Kasai (November 20) | Big Japan Pro-Wrestling |
| 2010 | Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Masa Takanashi (April 4) | DDT Pro-Wrestling |
| 2011 | Dick Togo vs. Kota Ibushi (March 27) | |
| 2012 | Kota Ibushi vs. Kenny Omega (August 18) | |
| 2013 | Shuji Ishikawa vs. Isami Kodaka (November 4) | Big Japan Pro-Wrestling |
| 2014 | Kota Ibushi and Kenny Omega vs. Konosuke Takeshita and Tetsuya Endo (September 28) | DDT Pro-Wrestling |
| 2015 | Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Yuji Okabayashi (July 20) | Big Japan Pro-Wrestling |
| 2016 | Ryuji Ito vs. Kankuro Hoshino (July 24) | |
| 2017 | Masashi Takeda vs. Masaya Takahashi (December 17) | |
| 2018 | Masashi Takeda vs. Isami Kodaka (June 20) | |
| 2019 | Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Michael Elgin (August 24) | |
| 2020 | Tetsuya Endo vs. Daisuke Sasaki (November 3) | DDT Pro-Wrestling |
| 2021 | Takuya Nomura vs. Daisuke Sekimoto (October 10) | Big Japan Pro-Wrestling |
| 2022 | MUSASHI vs. Fujita Hayato (July 1) | Michinoku Pro Wrestling |
Best Unit Award (ベストユニット賞 Besuto yunitto-shō)[]
| Year | Winner | Promotion |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | New Men's Club | Big Japan Pro Wrestling |
| 2008 | The Brahman Brothers | El Dorado Wrestling Michinoku Pro Wrestling |
| 2009 | ||
| 2010 | Oga Army Corps | Pro Wrestling Freedoms |
| 2011 | The Brahman Brothers | Big Japan Pro Wrestling Pro Wrestling Freedoms Michinoku Pro Wrestling |
| 2012 | ||
| 2013 | Yankii Nicho Kenju | Big Japan Pro Wrestling DDT Pro-Wrestling |
| 2014 | Mu no Taiyo | Michinoku Pro Wrestling |
| 2015 | #OhkaEmpire | DDT Pro-Wrestling |
| 2016 | DAMNATION | |
| 2017 | ||
| 2018 | Strong Hearts | DDT Pro-Wrestling |
| 2019 | Wrestle-1 | |
| 2020 | Astronauts | Big Japan Pro Wrestling |
| 2021 | Pheromones | DDT Pro-Wrestling |
| 2022 |
Best Show Award (ベスト興行賞 Besuto kōgyō-shō)[]
The award was renamed in 2014 to renamed in 2014 to Best Box Award (ベストボックス賞 Besuto bokkusu-shō), but returned to Best Show Award the following year.
| Year | Winner | Promotion |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Muscle May 4 Korakuen Hall Show | MUSCLE |
| 2008 | September 7 Yamanashi Nature Home Land Show | DDT Pro-Wrestling |
| 2009 | Ryogoku Peter Pan 2009 | |
| 2010 | Muscle House 10 | |
| 2011 | Into The Fight 2011 | |
| 2012 | Nippon Budokan Peter Pan 2012 | |
| 2013 | Ryogoku Peter Pan 2013 | |
| 2014 | Ryogoku Peter Pan 2014 | |
| 2015 | Ryōgokutan 2015 | Big Japan Pro Wrestling |
| 2016 | Bad Communication | Ganbare☆Puroresu |
| 2017 | Death Vegas 2017 | Big Japan Pro-Wrestling |
| 2018 | Ryōgokutan 2018 | |
| 2019 | Ryōgokutan 2019 / DDT Ultimate Party 2019 | |
| DDT Pro-Wrestling Big Japan Pro-Wrestling | ||
| 2020 | Last Buntai at BJW | Big Japan Pro-Wrestling |
| 2021 | Muscle 5 | DDT Pro-Wrestling |
| 2002 | Yokohama Budokan | Big Japan Pro-Wrestling |
Newcomer Award (新人賞 Shinjin-shō)[]
| Year | Winner | Promotion |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Masashi Takeda | Style-E |
| 2009 | ||
| 2010 | Tsuyoshi Kikuchi | Big Japan Pro Wrestling |
| 2011 | Mio Shirai | Pro Wrestling Wave Osaka Pro Wrestling SMASH |
| 2012 | Takumi Tsukamoto | Big Japan Pro Wrestling |
| 2013 | Masaya Takahashi | Wrestling New Classic |
| 2014 | Takayuki Ueki | Big Japan Pro Wrestling |
| 2015 | Kazusada Higuchi | DDT Pro-Wrestling |
| 2016 | Takuya Nomura | Big Japan Pro Wrestling |
| 2017 | Andre The Giant Panda | |
| 2018 | Syuuou Fujiwara | Pro Wrestling HEAT UP |
| 2019 | Keigo Nakamura | DDT Pro-Wrestling |
| 2020 | Rina Yamashita | Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling |
| 2021 | Drew Parker | Big Japan Pro Wrestling |
| 2022 | Daiju Wakamatsu | Active Adavance Pro Wrestling |
Inactive awards[]
Comeback Award (カムバック賞 Kamubakku-shō)[]
| Year | Winner | Promotion |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Mr. Pogo | Freelancer |
Special Award (特別賞 Tokubetsu-shō)[]
| Year | Winner | Promotion or Status |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Cho-un Shiryu | DDT Pro-Wrestling |
| 2009 | GENTARO | Pro Wrestling Freedoms |
| 2010 | Hikaru Sato | DDT Pro-Wrestling Pro Wrestling Zero1 |
| 2017 | Mr. Pogo | Decease |
Gallery[]
