This might be the trickiest of all as you could say Sting is a rookie as he had his first WWE match in 2015. Since that could make things really complicated though, we’ll go with people I consider rookies, meaning I might not consider some of your choices.
We’ll start with someone outside WWE because I’m a WWE mark or something. ROH’s Dalton Castle had debuted a few years earlier but changed his gimmick and debuted in the Top Prospect Tournament in the early part of the year. This turned into a great run for him as he became one of the more entertaining guys on the roster with a surprisingly strong offense and a great character. He’s one of the people I enjoy most when watching ROH and his charisma alone will take him a long way.
Asuka is really kind of cheating as she’s been wrestling for over ten years. However, she debuted in NXT and was instantly the second (at worst) woman on the roster. It’s pretty clear Asuka vs. Bayley is coming at Takeover in Dallas and it should be one of the most awesome matches they’ve had…..well since the last time Bayley had a big showdown match. This is a stretch but she’s a rookie in WWE at least and that’s close enough.
Speaking of rookie women in NXT, we have Nia Jax, who actually did debut in 2015. I know her character is limited and I still don’t get why she and Eva Marie are teaming, but she played a perfect Vader to Bayley’s Sting, which is really impressive given that she was debuting six months prior to that. I don’t know how far she can go, but Nia is a great monster with a great look.
However, we finally have the runaway winner in Chad Gable. This is a guy who just gets it and was ready for the main roster about ten seconds after he debuted. Gable is the closest thing to another version of Kurt Angle as he went from the Olympics to the WWE where he’s a comedic goon who was capable of out wrestling anyone. This guy could be something very special in the future and he’s just fun to watch, especially when he’s with Jason Jordan.
Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of the Complete Monday Nitro Reviews Volume IV at Amazon for just $3.99 at:
This is another one that doesn’t have a lot of options this year but the top choices are good.
As usual, we’ll knock out the honorable mentions first.
Brock vs. Undertaker had two good to awesome matches with a Match of the Year candidate inside the Cell. My big problem with this one is how it started up again. The Undertaker coming out and costing Brock the title didn’t work for me as it took him a year and a half to come back and go after Brock with the World Champion getting sacrificed to set it up. That and the messy ending to their Summerslam match. It was such a disaster.
That’s about it for the honorable mentions actually. Like I said, it’s not the best year.
One of the two big ones is of course Kevin Owens vs. John Cena with the whole battle of different roads to get to the top level. This one was carried by the promos but Owens winning made the whole thing a huge success. I know a lot of people say that Owens losing the last two matches killed it, but Owens would win the Intercontinental Title later in the year and could easily be a main event player by the time Summerslam rolls around. How much of that do you think is due to the first win over Cena?
The other option is Sasha Banks vs. Bayley, which just worked on every level. You had the perfect good vs. bad style with two awesome matches (I still swoon over that Bank Statement reversal) and it main evented a Takeover. That alone is remarkable and the fact that they brought Izzy into it and MADE HER CRY was one of the best heel moves I’ve seen in years.
Picking a winner here is splitting hairs, but I have to go with Owens vs. Cena, just due to the shock of that first win. Bayley winning was an amazing moment but it was also obvious from the second she got the title shot. The surprise of Owens pinning Cena in a great match on pay per view was such a stunning moment and is enough to pull this forward.
That being said, it’s rather sad that there are so few feuds these days. Everything is about setting up a rubber match or for a title. It’s so rare to see a good personal feud but when they work, they’re as entertaining as anything wrestling can produce. Now why can’t WWE produce more of them?
Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of the Complete Monday Nitro Reviews Volume IV at Amazon for just $3.99 at:
They’re out for the year and as usual I’ll be taking a look at each one and giving my take on whether or not I think Meltzer (yes I know the fans vote on them and if you think most of them aren’t just repeating what he says, you’re missing the point) got it right. I’ll just be listing the winners and any other names in the top three that merit a vote. Also keep in mind that I don’t watch a ton of puro so my knowledge is limited. Also, this is a wrestling site, not an MMA site, even though some people seem to think they’re the same thing. There are a lot of these so I’m just going to give a quick response to each.
Wrestler of the Year – AJ Styles
Uh……yeah I can go with that I guess. I’d have taken Cena due to how great the US Open Challenge was but Styles didn’t get a bad review all year and wrestled almost EVERYWHERE.
Most Outstanding Wrestler – AJ Styles
It’s another year and again I ask: what’s the difference between this and Wrestler of the Year?
Feud of the Year – Conor McGregor vs. Jose Aldo
Well at least they’re not wasting time this year, though can you imagine a wrestling match that ended in 13 seconds being considered a great blowoff to a feud? The top wrestling feud was Bayley vs. Sasha Banks, which is either my first or second pick as well.
Tag Team of the Year – Young Bucks
Of course. Next.
Most Improved – Bayley
This isn’t the easiest year to argue against. I don’t think anyone can argue that Bayley isn’t better than she was last year as she’s now the biggest star in NXT. I can go with this one again, even though it’s not one I would have thought of.
Best on Interviews – Conor McGregor
Heyman was second and again that’s fine, though I would have given it to Owens, who came in third.
Most Charismatic – Shinsuke Nakamura
Yep. No argument on that actually. The dude is a machine.
Best Technical Wrestler – Zack Sabre Jr.
I haven’t seen him actually but I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews for him so this isn’t surprising.
Best Brawler – Tomohiro Ishii
I saw his match at Wrestle Kingdom and it really wasn’t brawling. Then again it was barely professional wrestling either so I’ll go with a headscratch here. Brawling isn’t really a thing these days in mainstream wrestling so this is a hard one to pick.
Best Flyer – Riccochet
Neville didn’t even make the top three. Seriously?
Most Overrated – Kane
Who rates Kane highly in the first place? Reigns is second. This should of course be the Young Bucks.
Most Underrated – Cesaro
For years I’ve thought underrated and overrated should be changed to under/over utilized as it always seems like what they’re going for. Cesaro is considered awesome but he’s never pushed. That’s not the same as being underrated, which would also seem to be the case with Kane being overrated.
Promotion of the Year – New Japan
If you didn’t see this coming, you haven’t been paying close enough attention. NXT isn’t in the top three, though that could be considered part of WWE (also not in the top three).
Best Weekly TV Show – NXT
Yep, with Lucha Underground second. Dang it Meltzer give me something to get mad at you over!
Match of the Year – Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi
You knew it would be something from New Japan, though to be fair I gave this an A. Bayley vs. Sasha from Brooklyn was third.
Rookie of the Year – Chad Gable
That’s fine.
Best Non-Wrestler – Dario Cueto
Second is Paul Heyman and third is Xavier Woods. As in the guy that has already wrestled multiple times this year alone and is a Tag Team Champion. I get what they’re going for here though.
Best Announcer – Mauro Ranallo
Again, no surprise here.
Worst Announcer – John Layfield
Second is Cole and third is Lawler. I’m fine with this…..again.
Best Major Wrestling Show – Wrestle Kingdom IX
I didn’t even have to look at the results. Wrestlemania was third, after UFC 189.
Worst Major Wrestling Show – TripleMania XXIII
This has been the running answer all year and I’m not surprised. Third though was TLC, which really took me by surprise. If nothing else the three way ladder match alone would have carried it higher than third worst of the year.
Best Wrestling Maneuver – Styles Clash
Second was the Rainmaker (IT’S A FREAKING CLOTHESLINE!) and third is the Meltzer Driver, which has to be a joke instead of a real pick. The Clash is good but move of the year? As in the move that broke Yoshi Tatsu’s neck? That’s the best there is? Really?
Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic – WWE Using Reid Flair’s Death in An Angle
Yeah this isn’t surprising again. What is surprising is the Divas Revolution in second. Yeah it was stupid but disgusting?
Worst Match of the Year – Psycho Clowns vs. Villanos
Yep. Second is the Royal Rumble (which I rewatched a few days ago and yep) but third is Erick Rowan vs. Big Show in a stairs match…..from 2014. Come on now man that’s my thing.
Worst Feud of the Year – Team PCB vs. Team Bella vs. Team BAD
Yeah I think I can go with this. It’s not so much that it was bad but more that it kept going for months and never went anywhere.
Worst Promotion of the Year – TNA
Can we just rename this the TNA Award? You would think after a nine year run it might be time.
Best Booker – Paul Levesque/Ryan Ward
As in the NXT bookers. I’m so glad that that promotion is getting the credit it deserves this year.
Promoter of the Year – Dana White
The first wrestling promoter is Takaaki Kidani of New Japan.
Worst Gimmick – Stardust
Well yeah, though I’m not sure how to define his gimmick. I’d have gone with Mex-America, which came in second.
This is more proof that this is a really weak year for awards. Everything has been pretty easy and there really isn’t a lot that jumps off the page at me. It’s really just been one predictable category after another and that can make for a lame awards season. At least NXT got the respect it deserves here which had me a bit worried coming in.
2015 Awards: News Story of the Year
Again, this one could depend on your definition of “news”.
We’ll get the two annual ones that still seem to surprise people out of the way first.
First of all, the Raw ratings bombed in the fall. I know they always do and yeah they were even worse this year, but then football season ended and the company started trying again, meaning the ratings went back up. This happens every year and I’m right there with you by saying it was never this bad, but this really does happen every year.
Second, TNA got thrown off another network and the audience continues to be dismal. This is what TNA is these days and until something major changes, it’s not going to get any better no matter what happens.
Next up we have an actual surprise as Seth Rollins shredded every single piece of his knee and had to vacate the WWE World Title. This changed quite a few things depending on whose original plans you believe. Either way, Rollins being out changed quite a few things and potentially fast tracked Reigns toward the title. It was certainly shocking and changed a lot and that’s how news works in wrestling.
Now we get to the big theme of the year: it’s a bad time for 80s legends.
We’ll start with the surprise deaths of both Dusty Rhodes and Roddy Piper. These two were giants of wrestling and passed away less than two months apart. On their own these two are much more sad than anything else but back to back like that was quite the big hit.
We also have Jimmy Snuka’s potential murder trial, but given that Snuka is 72 years old and potentially mentally unfit to stand trial, this might not lead anywhere. Still though, it’s quite the surprise to actually see this story come up again after all these years.
Finally in this group, we have Hulk Hogan’s racist rant. Now here’s the thing: it was several years ago and came at one of the lowest points of Hogan’s life. Most people, including myself, thinks this comes off like Hogan venting off a lot of steam rather than the way he actually thinks. That seems to be the general consensus from his co-workers over the years so it’s something I can believe.
The thing to remember with Hogan though is he said something. He didn’t break a law, he didn’t hurt anyone physically and he didn’t do anything other than sound stupid. People say this kind of nonsense every day and Hogan happens to be a celebrity who got caught on camera. It’s stupid for sure, but not the worst thing in the world.
Overall though, there’s something else that comes off as a major news story to me, which shouldn’t surprise a lot of you: the continued expansion of NXT. Between the wild extension of the house shows, breaking boundaries with Bayley and Sasha Banks main eventing a Network special, bringing in a bunch of new talent and the sellouts almost everywhere they go, NXT has turned into something special that we haven’t seen before. It’s ROH all stars under the WWE banner and this looks like the future. If so, we’re in for a very good time in the coming years.
Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of the History of Wrestlemania at Amazon for just $3.99 at:
We’ll start with the usual leader in Paul Heyman, who has two options here. These weren’t exactly his best efforts, especially compared to last year, but they’re still both soild options.
First up we have the post Wrestlemania promo with Heyman saying Brock will be getting his rematch that night instead of waiting any amount of time. This was all about the delivery that only Heyman can bring.
Second was GLORY GLORY BROCK LESNAR with Heyman breaking into song. There isn’t much else to say about this one but sweet goodness it was catchy.
Since this is going to be a short list, I’ll throw in Bray Wyatt bragging about being the new demon of WWE after kidnapping Undertaker and stealing his soul or whatever it was he did. Now of course this didn’t lead anywhere but it was cool at the time with the thunder and lightning helping a lot.
With those out of the way, we’re up to the real winner: Kevin Owens’ debut promo against John Cena. I mean…..dang man. Owens looked more comfortable in front of a main roster audience than anyone in years. His line of “You don’t get to give me advice. I’ve been doing this longer than you.” set the tone for his entire run and there was no looking back. The fact that he actually beat Cena in their showdown made this even better. Owens was instantly a player with this promo though and it was the best all year.
Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of the History of Wrestlemania at Amazon for just $3.99 at:
Again, we’ll get through some of the easier ones first.
The Salida Del Sol through the ladder at TLC was amazing and one of the biggest high spots in a LONG time. Just….dang. It doesn’t really have a long lasting impact but it was really cool and definitely deserves mentioning.
For a quick one, Brock Lesnar sitting up next to Undertaker and laughing at him, only to have Undertaker do the same. Again, didn’t mean much but it was awesome at the time.
The Ronda Rousey appearance at Wrestlemania was great as well with the great line of “She’s going to reach down your throat and play jump rope with your Fallopian tubes.” This would be a nearly runaway winner if Rousey had really hurt Stephanie but pesky contracts prevented it.
Shield reunited for all of thirty seconds. That’s more of a preview than an awesome moment though.
Now we’ll get down to the actual top choices.
First up was the Divas Revolution, which would have been even better had Stephanie not been involved. I get that she wanted to be involved because she’s Stephanie and has to be involved in something cool every time, but it was Paige’s story and should have gotten the moment to make the whole thing work.
Another major one is Seth Rollins cashing in Money in the Bank. This was a legitimate shocking moment and the big story that people remember from Wrestlemania. I don’t know if I’d put it at number one but it worked very well at the time, before WWE decided to make Rollins a worthless champion.
From the same show, there’s the NWO vs. DX. This was the Monday Night Wars in the span of fifteen minutes and I had a blast with it. Points off for the complete lack of continuity and HHH winning, but this was so much fun.
Then Bayley did a reverse super hurricanrana, gave Sasha Banks a Bayley to Belly and won the Women’s Title, followed by the Four Horsewomen posing in the ring one last time. Wrestling is all about emotion and that’s what you got here. This was as good as it got in 2015 and it’s going to be a long time before anything tops this.
Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of the History of Wrestlemania at Amazon for just $3.99 at:
Let’s get some of the easier ones out of the way first.
Renee Young is adorable. Like, too adorable. She’s going to wind up at ESPN at some point and WWE will lose one of their most versatile backstage people they’ve had in a long time. She’s gorgeous, she’s smart, she’s witty and she knows she is. That’s a very powerful combination and she makes it work.
Lana…..dang how could they screw her up this badly? If there has ever been someone who seemed ready to explode on the Divas division and be one of the most over acts in years (not named Bayley or Sasha that is), this should have been it. Instead though, they put her with Dolph Ziggler where she disappears and then back with Rusev because all hail TMZ and now she’s disappeared even more. They had something here and then just completely overthought it and screwed the whole thing up.
Corey Graves is growing on me a lot in recent months but he’s not quite there yet.
Maria Kanellis was on fire in ROH this year as she was nailing the “yeah I know I’m gorgeous” characters and running with it as the Queen of the Kingdom. Unfortunately ROH didn’t really do much with her, though she was always awesome on screen.
William Regal is still the best GM in years, though he wasn’t around much this year.
Now we’ll get to the big ones.
Stephanie McMahon. To save myself from a rant, we’ll go with she’s awesome and if she actually got what was coming to her a few times (and learned how to speak like a human), she would run away with this almost every year. Oh and stop dancing. It’s not funny and doesn’t make us relate to you.
HHH…..can you really call him a non-wrestler? I mean, he wrestles every now and then. HHH is what an authority figure should be: he speaks very well, can go on some power mad rampages, but knows how to take a GREAT beating to make up for it. Unless you’re from WCW and then he must destroy you, after having a Terminator themed entrance with an Arnold Schwarzenegger cameo of course. Seriously what was that?
That leaves us with two, including Heyman himself. Here’s the thing though: he really hasn’t been around this year. When he’s there he’s great, but there’s no other Paul Heyman Guy to fill in time until Brock comes back from his multiple sabbaticals. Heyman can talk very well, but I can only hear him talk about knowing Roman Reigns’ family and how Undertaker is the last gunslinger or whatever so many times before I just stop caring. This was an off year for Heyman, and that’s probably due to ring rust.
Finally though, we have a concept you don’t often see in wrestling: an actor portraying a character to make it all the more awesome. That brings us to our winner: Dario Cueto of Lucha Underground. Dario has some of the most entertaining appearances and best speaking skills you’ll ever see. Above all else though, he makes you believe what he’s saying. It’s just fun to watch the guy and he’s evil for the sake of being evil. What more can you ask for than that? Cueto wins here and he more than earned it.
Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of the History of Wrestlemania at Amazon for just $3.99 at:
Let’s get the usual male suspects out of the way first: Big Show is old and boring, Kane is more old and boring, but at least Kane had some funny moments during the Corporate days to put him firmly ahead. It’s still bad and the Demon character continues to fail as he’s unstoppable until the bell rings when a few finishing moves can put him away. These two have to be in the running every year though so we’ll get them out of the way here.
Oddly enough you hear about two members of the Wyatt Family this year. I understand the dislike for Rowan as he’s the designated jobber of the team and has to lose more often than not, but ever since that stairs match (egads what a horrible thing that is to think about) with Big Show, his career has been spiraling down further and further every single day. This one is easy to understand though and I can get the idea here.
On the other hand though, I don’t get the hatred for Braun Strowman. This comes off as a case of people missing the point of a character. Strowman is supposed to be the unstoppable monster. Why would he do much besides big power moves, including the choke? This is an old school character and the way he’s booked makes sense. I really don’t know what people are expecting here but he’s been used properly so far and is far from the worst.
Now we get to the most obvious choices with the Divas. We’ll start with the developmental version in Eva Marie. Now I’ve gone on a rant or two about her, but the key difference is she knows how to get people to HATE her. Yeah she’s terrible in the ring, but she’s capable of driving fans into losing their minds. Watch her match with Bayley on NXT and see how freaked out people are over the idea of Eva winning the title. She looks great in her attire and knows how to get people to hate her. That’s more than a lot of Divas have ever accomplished so I can’t quite call her the worst.
However, I can call Brie Bella the worst. Brie is a fascinating case as she has a gorgeous face, is in great shape, is married to one of the most popular wrestlers in years and I absolutely do not care about her. She can do basic moves well enough (and has a decent missile dropkick) but the idea of knowing whether she’s good or bad seems WAY too complicated for her. Just watch her throw the YES Kicks completely out of time whether she’s a face or a heel. It’s almost fascinating to watch at times as she just misses every beat, not even factoring in BRIE MODDDDDDE!
So yeah, as usual the Diva wins this.
Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of the History of Wrestlemania at Amazon for just $3.99 at:
This is actually a tricky one as it depends more on your definition of the word “worst”. So often, a match that is described as the worst is really more boring than anything else. It’s kind of rare to have a match that really is horrible, but often times boring is a lot worse than bad. Therefore, your mileage might vary here.
We’ll start with a match that actually was bad, at least in its booking: Seth Rollins vs. Brock Lesnar from Night of Champions. This was a nine minute squash with Brock squashing the champ and then a screwy finish as Undertaker came back to get revenge for a match he lost clean a year and a half ago. The story made sense, but I see no need to have the World Champion get DESTROYED to get there. At least have Seth cheat to get in some offense or something, but don’t have him get beaten down that badly. He’s the World Champion for a reason.
Then we have a match that might take this one running away: TNA’s Gauntlet for the Gold at Bound For Glory. No matter how you look at this, it was a twenty four minute Royal Rumble with 12 names (one of which was Pope, who eliminated himself), including Mahabali Shera, Chris Melendez, Tommy Dreamer, Aiden O’Shea and the winner, earning a World Title shot at some point in the future, Tyrus. This was stupid booking (setting up Tyrus as a title contender), stupid planning (the show never recovered after this mess) and just bad in general. We’ll come back to this idea in a bit.
We’ll go back to the mess at TripleMania XXIII with Los Villanos vs. Los Psycho Circus. This was the Villanos’ (youngest member: 50) retirement match as a trio and the match made them look older than their ages. The match was a disaster and the technical issues weren’t any help either. However, I can put this one lower on the bad list because what was supposed to happen here? One team is over 150 years old combined so what are they supposed to really do out there? Yeah it’s a disaster, but it’s a disaster that I feel sorry for.
One more thing before we get to the worst match: I’ve seen a lot of loathing for the Intercontinental Title Elimination Chamber match. I really don’t get this as I found the match to be totally watchable. It’s completely forgettable and was boring at times, but one of the worst matches of the year? Really? The right guy won, the lineup was decent enough and the match wasn’t horrible. I really don’t get the hate for this as it’s really more middle of the road than bad.
Then there’s the match that I think you know is coming: the Royal Rumble. This was the 1993 version all over again as everyone in the arena knew Reigns (Yokozuna) was winning and Daniel Bryan (Undertaker), the only person with a prayer of eliminating him, was taken out early, leaving the crowd to be bored for the rest of the match.
On top of that, you had what looked like a hot finish with a bunch of promising talent in there near the end. Here’s the final ten in the match: Reigns, Rusev, Big Show, Kane, Ambrose, Wyatt, Ziggler, Cesaro, Barrett and Swagger. Save for Big Show and Kane, that could be one heck of a hot finish as the new generation shows that they can take this thing over.
And never mind as Big Show and Kane took out Swagger, Ziggler, Wyatt and Ambrose before being dumped by Reigns at the same time in a moment that was done way better when Shawn Michaels eliminated Yokozuna and Vader in 1996 (a good way to do a Rumble where everyone knew who was winning).
This was a complete disaster with the Rock not even able to save it. Unfortunately this continued Reigns’ push to the main event of Wrestlemania WAY before people wanted to see it (though at least they were smart enough to not pull the trigger just yet). The match was just boring throughout and saves the Gauntlet for the Gold by having so many of the same problems but at over double the time. This one wins and I’m almost scared to look at it again for the redo.
Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of the History of Wrestlemania at Amazon for just $3.99 at:
Yeah it’s New Day. These guys went from nothing to the most entertaining team since maybe Edge and Christian. WWE clearly just lets them do whatever they find funny and the goofier they get the more entertaining they are. It helps that they can have good matches if they need to, but the entertainment value more than makes up for any in ring deficiencies.
Let’s knock out some of the teams fighting for second place.
Getting it out of the way quickly: I do not like the Young Bucks and that’s the end of their discussion.
ReDRagon still isn’t my style in the ring but they’re still entertaining enough to last for a few more years. I know they’re a sought after team and I hope they get a spot on a bigger stage. I’m much higher on them as a unit than individually though so hopefully they’re not split permanently anytime soon.
Then there’s Enzo and Cass, whose pop in Brooklyn speaks for itself. These guys keep getting more and more over as the ultimate underdogs and when they finally win the NXT Tag Team Titles (say, in Texas?), the reaction is going to rival Bayley’s title win.
Finally there’s Jason Jordan/Chad Gable. These guys are clearly something special and are going to be a huge deal once they’ve gotten some more experience under their belts but their time isn’t quite here yet. Keep an eye on them though.
That’s about it really. The other main WWE teams (because there are really only about four or five at any given moment), meaning the Usos and Cesaro/Kidd, were too split up due to injuries and the Lucha Dragons were ok at best. This was ALL about the New Day and it’s just not even close.
Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of the History of Wrestlemania at Amazon for just $3.99 at: