My NXT Year End Award Picks
So it’s the beginning of the year and that means it’s time to look at some End of the Year Awards. WWE has its own version and since we live in a random and chaotic universe, we don’t have the Slammys anymore. What we do have are the NXT Year End Awards and WWE has their own version of nominees. The nominees are rather lengthy but I’ll take a look at them and see how ridiculous they might be.
Female Competitor Of The Year
Nikki Cross
Shayna Baszler
Kairi Sane
Ember Moon
Bianca Belair
Well they’re starting with an interesting one. As is going to be the case with a lot of these awards, I’m going to go with the person who had the most success. That eliminates Cross and Belair, who didn’t win any titles throughout the year and didn’t make a huge impact in the ring. Moon was Women’s Champion to start the year and was on the main roster before the middle of April.
That leaves you with Sane and Baszler and this might as well be a coin flip. I’m going to go with Baszler though, as I love her character work and can see her doing big things for a long time to come. Sane was awesome too and found her footing, but I think Baszler was just that much better. It’s a case where I’m not going to argue with a pick for Sane though, as they were both that good.
Male Competitor Of The Year
Tommaso Ciampa
Johnny Gargano
Ricochet
Aleister Black
Velveteen Dream
Andrade Cien Almas
Adam Cole
Pete Dunne
…..I’m going to need coffee. Egads this is already a tough one and we’re only on the second award. I’ll eliminate Dunne for the simple fact that he doesn’t wrestle full time. What he does is great, but he doesn’t do enough of it. Dream is out as well as while an incredible performer, he has a bad record in the bigger matches. Almas had a heck of a first quarter of the year, but it’s just a quarter and that’s not enough. If I have to eliminate someone else from here it would be Cole, just because everyone else is that much better.
That leaves you with Ricochet, Black, Ciampa and Gargano and…..egads I have no idea. I think I’ll go with Gargano, who had the in-ring work and the character work to put him ahead of everyone else. Ciampa was a better heel than Gargano was either a face or a heel but Gargano was significantly better in the ring. Ricochet has every bit of star power you could ask for and Black showed range that I never would have bet on from him, but this year goes to Gargano for the overall package.
Overall Competitor Of The Year
Nikki Cross
Shayna Baszler
Kairi Sane
Ember Moon
Bianca Belair
Tommaso Ciampa
Johnny Gargano
Ricochet
Aleister Black
Velveteen Dream
Andrade Cien Almas
Adam Cole
Pete Dunne
So this is a mixture of the men and the woman and it’s still Gargano. I’m not sure why we still have the other nominees when this should just be the male winner vs. the female winner.
Continued on next page.
Tag Team Of The Year
Undisputed Era
War Raiders
Street Profits
Heavy Machinery
Oney Lorcan/Danny Burch
Moustache Mountain
Did we really need the Street Profits on there? Moustache Mountain had a great match in England and a really solid rematch in the States, but it wasn’t enough to make them the team of the year. Lorcan and Burch had a heck of a run but the lack of titles and longevity hold them back. Heavy Machinery is the same, though they were a lot of fun that I wasn’t expecting.
That leaves the War Raiders and the Undisputed Era, which is really just the case because I need two teams here. This is the Undisputed Era’s win by a mile, as they’ve dominated the Tag Team Title scene from the beginning of the year to this day in an absolute landslide. Maybe War Raiders will get there one day, but there’s no competition in this one and I think everyone knows it.
TakeOver Of The Year
Philadelphia
New Orleans
Chicago II
Brooklyn IV
WarGames II
Talk about a pick em. As usual there isn’t a bad one in the bunch but I’ll keep this a little more simple and go with New Orleans. Maybe it was me being in the arena for the show, but this was an incredible night with an amazing opener and an even better main event. I’ll go with this one, but holy flaming corndogs this could go to any of the options and I’m not going to try to point out flaws that don’t exist.
Match Of The Year
WarGames Match (TakeOver: WarGames)
Johnny Gargano vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas (NXT Championship Match, TakeOver: Philadelphia)
Moustache Mountain vs. Undisputed ERA (NXT Tag Team Championship Match, NXT TV, July 11, 2018)
Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa (Unsanctioned Match, TakeOver: New Orleans)
NXT North American Championship Ladder Match (TakeOver: New Orleans)
Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler (NXT Women’s Championship Match, TakeOver: Brooklyn IV)
Ricochet vs. Velveteen Dream (TakeOver: Chicago)
Aleister Black vs. Tommaso Ciampa (NXT Championship Match, NXT TV, July 25)
Pete Dunne vs. Zack Gibson (WWE U.K. Championship Match, NXT TV, Aug. 22)
Aleister Black vs. Adam Cole (Extreme Rules Match, TakeOver: Philadelphia)
Pete Dunne vs. Kyle O’Reilly (WWE U.K. Championship Match, NXT TV, June 13)
Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan vs. Undisputed ERA (TakeOver: Chicago)
Nikki Cross vs. Bianca Belair (NXT TV, Sept. 12)
Ricochet vs. Pete Dunne (North American Champion vs. WWE U.K. Champion Match, NXT TV, Sept. 19)
Ricochet vs. Pete Dunne vs. Adam Cole (North American Championship Triple Threat Match, NXT TV, Oct. 10)
Well that’s quite the list and I’m not going to bother to try and break these things down. Instead I’ll go with the best options, which for me would be Gargano vs. Almas, Gargano vs. Ciampa I, the New Orleans ladder match and Black vs. Ciampa. The others are all great, but you can only have so many options here and you have to go with the best of the best for something like this.
Out of the shortened list, I have to go with Ciampa vs. Gargano from New Orleans. It had the build, it had the interest, it had the hype and it more than delivered in the top spot on the card. The ladder match was an incredible spot fest (a good thing in this case), Gargano vs. Almas was an incredible wrestling spectacle and Black vs. Ciampa was some incredible storytelling (though not as good as Black vs. Gargano in the cage, which should be on the list as well). Gargano vs. Ciampa was the story of the year though and for me, they never topped their first match.
Rivalry Of The Year
Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa
Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler
Aleister Black/Johnny Gargano/Tommaso Ciampa/Nikki Cross
Johnny Gargano vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas
Moustache Mountain vs. Undisputed ERA
Ember Moon vs. Shayna Baszler
Ricochet vs. Velveteen Dream
….are they kidding? Moving on.
Continued on next page.
Breakout Star Of The Year
Bianca Belair
Lacey Evans
Rhea Ripley
Dakota Kai
Lars Sullivan
Ricochet
War Raiders
EC3
When I posted the NXT review on another site, I received the following comment:
“Here are the nominees for Breakout Star of the Year:
Ricochet
Shortened to reflect the real list.”
He was right. The others are all good to great, but Ricochet debuted in April and became one of the top stars in the promotion in his first match. He’s the North American Champion, could win the NXT Title in the new year (tell me him winning the title in New York wouldn’t be incredible) and has apparently been moving tickets at house shows. There were some great newcomers in 2018, but Ricochet is on another planet.
Future Star Of NXT
Matt Riddle
Keith Lee
Mia Yim
Fortunate Sons
Dominik Dijakovic
Io Shirai
Candice LeRae
Marina Shafir/Jessamyn Duke
Kona Reeves
Let it go with Reeves as it’s just not going to happen. I don’t know what they see in that guy but it’s not working. The Fortunate Sons are a great idea but it’s not working at the moment. Unless they fix something, that’s just not happening. It’s a bit too early to tell with Shirai but they could strap a rocket on her back at the drop of a hat. I don’t think LeRae/Yim are going to be top stars, but they can be solid midcard/upper midcard acts for a long time to come. It’s WAY too early to tell with Shafir/Duke/Dijakovic, though you know the plans are there for all of them.
That leaves you with the two best options of Lee and Riddle and I’m going to need a minute here. Riddle is clearly a big deal already and someone that WWE wants to push to the moon and back, though every time I see Lee I don’t know what to think. The guy does things that just shouldn’t be possible and makes them look easy. That’s not normal and he’s one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen, but I have to go with Riddle. He’s the kind of prodigy you never see and it would be insane to not make him a star. This one goes to Riddle, and while Lee is close, it’s not close enough.
Sweet free toasters from a bank it was a heck of a year for NXT. They somehow got better and better over the course of the year. I know we keep saying that they can’t keep it going and then they blow that away. If they come close to that in 2019, I have no idea how good it could actually get. It’s awesome to watch every single week and these awards show you just how good things really were and still are in NXT.
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