Just like last year, I’ll be trying to do this over three days.  I have 18 awards this year and I’ll be doing six a day, with the top five in each category.

Major Show Of The Year

5. Wrestlemania XXXVIII Night One
4. Death Before Dishonor
3. Survivor Series
2. Revolution
1. Forbidden Door

It might be a cliché, but there is something special about having all of these dream matches leading up to a big time title match main event. This is the kind of show that you only get to see every so often and that made for some of the best action of the year. It isn’t something I would want to see every week, but for a one off special event, it was good enough to make for the best show of the year.

Non-Wrestler Of The Year

5. Shawn Michaels
4. Ian Riccaboni
3. MVP
2. Stokely Hathaway
1. Paul Heyman

Can we just name it after Heyman at this point? The guy has dominated so many similar awards for so long and it’s not fair to see how much better he is than almost anyone else. Heyman doesn’t do as much as he used to, but he can get more out of a look than almost anyone else in wrestling. He has done so much for the Bloodline and that isn’t even counting the time he jumped back to Brock Lesnar for a bit. Heyman is incredible in this role and that isn’t changing anytime soon.

Group/Tag Team Of The Year

5. Briscoes
4. Young Bucks
3. RKBro
2. Usos
1. FTR

While they somehow didn’t win the AEW Tag Team Titles this year, FTR became one of the most respected and popular teams in recent memory. The reactions they were getting were off the charts and it was one classic after another almost every time they were in the ring. Things have started to turn the other way a bit near the end of the year, but sweet goodness they did some incredible stuff for most of the time.

7. Worst Major Show Of The Year

5. In Your House
4. Summerslam
3. Wrestlemania Night Two
2. Elimination Chamber
1. Royal Rumble

This show was bad. The fact that I was in the stadium for the show and had to spend four hours holding my hand over my eyes because the spotlights caused approximately 37 TURN THE LIGHTS OFF chants has nothing to do with this. The Royal Rumbles were next to worthless as they had few interesting returns or good surprises. Throw in a few other fairly meh matches and this show just did not work.

Most Improved Of The Year

5. Matt Menard/Angelo Parker
4. Carmelo Hayes
3. Ricky Starks
2. Jamie Hayter
1. Andre Chase

This might not be a common pick but Chase has turned what should be an absolutely nothing, one note idea into one of the funniest, most entertaining and complete characters in NXT. The Chase U segments have become a highlight for me with Chase being handed something and running with it as far as he can. I know he probably won’t get many votes but Chase has gone from nothing to something very fun and that is a big improvement.

Promo Of The Year

5. Kevin Owens vs. Steve Austin – Wrestlemania XXXVIII
4. CM Punk’s All Out Rant
3. “No filter, I ain’t Instagram. We make the A** Boys retire like Vince McMahon.” – Max Caster – Dynamite – August 3

I can’t pick a #1 so here’s a tie:

1. William Regal vs. MJF – Dynamite – August 16

I was in the arena for this one and it is one of the only times I can remember being hooked on every word. This is the kind of promo that makes you realize just how incredible MJF can be and he sold the heck out of the whole thing. I wanted to see these two fight, but Regal no selling the whole thing and ruining MJF’s moment that he had built up in his head for years made the segment. MJF was good, but he was in over his head and Regal knew it.

1. Jey Uso Hasn’t Been Very Ucey – Smackdown – October 28

I don’t watch a lot of stuff back again but I’ve probably seen this ten times now. There is SO MUCH in this and it goes in so many great directions.

• Jey Uso yelling at Sami Zayn and saying he doesn’t care what Roman Reigns thinks, causing Reigns’ head to snap up and everyone to realize that Jey is about to die.
• Sami trying to calm Reigns down by saying Jey hasn’t been very Ucey, causing Jey to give Sami a double take that says “you did not just say that on national TV” and Reigns to realize he has Jey dead to rites.
• Reigns saying “you’re not feeling very……ucey?” and Jey having to be held in place (Reigns: “No stay right here, stay right here.”) because he knows he’s about to crack on live TV. Then Reigns gets them again by saying Jey needs to find his “inner Ucey” (you can see the huge smile under his hands and Jimmy trying to hide his grin in the background).
• Then to top it off, Reigns gets it back on track by saying if Jey can’t figure this out, Sami Zayn is going to become Sami Uso, leaving Sami looking like a three year old on Christmas morning.

This was serious, hilarious, serious again and then sold thousands of shirts. You don’t get that kind of a segment often and it beats anything (save for one) all year.

I can’t pick. Flip a coin.

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Now we get to some big ones.

Surprise Of The Year

5. NXT Concedes Wednesday Night Wars
4. The Ending Of All Out
3. Bron Breakker Is Good
2. Hook Is Good

1. CM Punk Returns

This is the one that got me. Punk had been away from wrestling for seven and a half years, which might as well be an eternity in the business. You just do not see wrestlers leaving for this long and then coming back but Punk returned and with a bang. AEW let you know it was coming, but until the guitar riff hit in the United Center, I wasn’t completely sure it was going to happen. Granted if it hadn’t, the building was going to go up in smoke, but they did what they needed to do and it was incredible, to put it mildly. And now I want some ice cream.

Match Of The Year

5. Finn Balor vs. Pete Dunne – Takeover: Vengeance
4. Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan – Smackdown, April 30
3. Thunder Rosa vs. Britt Baker – St. Patrick’s Day Slam
2. Kenny Omega vs. Bryan Danielson – AEW Grand Slam

1. Ilja Dragunov vs. Walter – Takeover 36

The original match between these two were one of the best things I have seen in wrestling in a long time and that was the case again here. These two beat the living daylights out of each other and it was everything I was hoping it would be. It was a physical struggle and felt like only one of them was going to be able to survive. Walter’s incredible United Kingdom Title reign finally ends, and my goodness what a way to wrap it up.

Promo Of The Year

5. Chris Jericho Might Be Saying Goodbye – Dynamite, August 25
4. Edge vs. Miz – Raw – November 29
3. CM Punk vs. Eddie Kingston – Rampage – November 5
2. CM Punk’s Return Speech – Rampage – August 20

1. CM Punk vs. MJF – Dynamite – November 24

In what was the year of Punk in the world of promos, this one topped everything else. I know the First Dance has the emotion, but this was the night where they took the gloves off and went at it. These guys were throwing bombs at each other, such as MJF being a less Famous Miz and MJF calling Punk out for always having an excuse for not being the big star. This is the one that had me taking in every word and I don’t know if it is being topped for a long time.

Most Improved Of The Year

5. Tay Conti
4. W. Morrissey
3. Bobby Lashley
2. Britt Baker

1. Josh Alexander

I know Baker is the easy one here, but Alexander has a case not just for most improved but also the best wrestler of the year. Alexander was THE guy in Impact as the company got bigger and bigger. It was awesome watching him climb the ladder and I wanted to see what he could do when he finally got his chance in the main event. Then he won the World Title in the main event of the biggest show of the year, which he had certainly earned. This was an easy one for me and you should watch more of Alexander’s stuff.

Wrestler Of The Year

5. Roman Reigns
4. Serena Deeb
3. Josh Alexander
2. Jonathan Gresham

1. Daniel Bryan/Bryan Danielson

I don’t think this is much of a surprise, as Danielson is about as complete of a worker as you will find in the world today. The guy can do just about anything asked of him and that never seems to change. His AEW run will get the most praise, but don’t forget his first four months of the year where he had at least two classics, including the main event of Wrestlemania. Danielson is rapidly reaching that all time elite of the elite level and he was easily the best of the year.

Moment Of The Year

5. Hangman Page/Dark Order’s Entrance For Ten Man Tag
4. Becky Lynch Returns
3. John Cena Returns
2. The Fans Are Back

1. CM Punk Returns

This is one of those moments that AEW built up to perfection by more or less guaranteeing that Punk would be at First Dance. Then the show started and here he was, with the music, the pose, the dive into the crowd and everything else. They turned this into an event and I don’t think there is anything that AEW has done that tops this so far. Then there was the ice cream deal to make it even better. I loved this way more than I would have expected and it was as close to perfect as it could have been.

It’s nice to have a few positive ones included here and having some people move up the ladder is nice to see. There are some people who had a great year in 2020 and showed more of what they can do. These people were hired to these companies for a reason and it’s great to see what they can do when they are given something better to do and a chance. Let’s get to it.

As usual, in no particular order until the winner at the end.

Bobby Lashley

How in the world do you screw up someone like Lashley? It should be the easiest booking ever but for some reason it took WWE YEARS to figure it out. Believe it or not, the idea was just to have him be the big, unstoppable monster who runs over everyone and destroys them like there is nothing that can stop them. That’s what Impact Wrestling showed Lashley can do and for some reason it took WWE this long to make it work.

Apollo Crews

Who knew that the solution to Crews was to let him win something? I know he might not be a top star or anything like that, but he is certainly someone who should be a star of some sort with all of the natural tools that he has. Crews had a nice US Title reign and I could go with seeing more of him in some big spots. Just let him actually win a few matches and he gets better because he has all of the tools in the first place. Again: how can it be this complicated?

Bianca Belair

I mentioned this in the Rookie/Newcomer section but this was an amazing year for Belair, who went from being a rather irritating heel that I didn’t want to watch to being one of the better women on the roster. She fits in perfectly well on Raw and I would be surprised if she isn’t Women’s Champion at some point in the year. Something has clicked in her and I’m seeing why people spoke so highly of her for so long.

Bayley

As I have asked about her several times in the last year, who knew she had this in her? Bayley was one of the best characters ever in NXT, came up to the main roster and did well(ish) there and then changed absolutely everything to become the longest reigning Smackdown Women’s Champion ever. This was a huge shock for me and while I know Bayley isn’t everyone’s taste, she is such an awesome heel and I’m amazed by how great she is as so many things.

Roman Reigns

What else is there to say? Reigns coming back was one heck of an eye roll inducing moment and then he shocked us all by becoming the best heel in years. It says a lot when Paul Heyman is there as little more than a background character because Reigns is just that awesome at what he does. Reigns is going to be the top star for a LONG time on Smackdown as he’s even raising the viewership, but my goodness how frustrating is it to know what he could have done all these years?

That leaves one person and say it with me.

Jey Uso

Let me say that again.

Jey Uso

What in the world man? I mean……it’s JEY USO main eventing pay per views in singles matches and having some of the best matches in the company all year. I know a lot of it had to do with Reigns but Uso came out of nowhere and stole a lot of shows with the most improbably singles run in a very long time. This isn’t just the most improved but there’s a case for it being the most shocking, so this was one of the easier layups all year.

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IMG Credit: WWE

This one is going to be open to a simple question: how good was the person coming into 2018? If you were that good already, it’s kind of hard to see top level improvement. It’s not impossible, but it’s going to be a lot more difficult to pull off. At the same time though, there are some people who went from good to great or even higher than that, which is why some of these people might feel all over the map.

Elias

While Elias is far from perfect, he had a remarkable 2018 with the singing/guitar playing going further than it had any right to. He’s getting bigger spots and feuds on the card, while also putting out an album and getting sponsored by Fender. That’s not bad at all considering his whole deal is singing stupid songs about other wrestlers. He wasn’t exactly great down in NXT but now he’s a mainstay on the Raw roster. That’s pretty good, and I could see him lasting with this for a long time.

Nikki Cross

There’s an old Chris Rock line that says “whatever happened to crazy”. Well it turns out that it’s become a Scottish wrestler named Nikki Cross. You often hear wrestlers described as crazy or a lunatic, but what exactly does Dean Ambrose do that’s crazy? It’s really a lame gimmick most of the time because it’s often in name only. Cross on the other hand seems completely insane at times and makes it work to perfection. A lot of that happened this year, with the HE’S COMING stuff working wonders.

Dakota Kai

Despite not having a Team Kick to captain, Kai has turned what sounds like a fairly simple and goofy name into something that works. Kai is downright adorable and yet still makes the kicks look great. I know she’s down with an injury at the moment, but there are very few who can make what she does work. Give her a few big wins and she could be ready for a title run down the line.

Shayna Baszler

Dang it’s been a good year for developmental women. Baszler is a little older than most of the people on this list but she’s become one of the most consistent performers in NXT or WWE for that matter. The submission stuff works and she has an ability with her promos that just makes her sound dangerous. She was ready for the main roster six months ago, which didn’t seem likely just a year ago. Not bad for twelve months.

Johnny Gargano

This would fall under the category of “used to be great, now incredible”. I don’t think anyone really doubted that Gargano was going to be someone who would go from a successful tag wrestler to one of the best in the world, but I don’t think anyone thought it would come that fast. Gargano is in the running for Wrestler of the Year and that wasn’t looking likely a year ago. There’s a big difference between good and outstanding, which is what this year did.

Tommaso Ciampa

Everything I said about Gargano? Replace it with Ciampa.

Since I can’t pick between those two though, I’ll go with a different choice and someone that I think you see coming.

Becky Lynch

Yeah of course it’s Becky, because she went from one of the run of the mill women on the roster (as in talented but not getting anywhere) to the most popular person on the roster. Lynch is someone who could be a huge star for years to come and the star that the division has been looking for for years now. She has all the tools and has started to put them together, which seemed to happen overnight. That’s an improvement of the year if I’ve ever heard one.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 1997 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

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