We’ll wrap it up here and move on from last year.

Worst Match Of The Year

5. Men’s Royal Rumble – Royal Rumble
4. New Day vs. Brawling Brutes – Wrestlemania XXXVIII
3. Nikkita Lyons vs. Lash Legend – NXT – April 26
2. Vince McMahon vs. Pat McAfee – Wrestlemania XXXVIII
1. Ric Flair/Andrade El Idolo vs. Jay Lethal/Jeff Jarrett – Ric Flair’s Last Match

Like this could be anything else. This wasn’t so much a match as much as it was a horrible embarrassment/a cry for help. There were parts of the match that were acceptable, which you knew would be the case with the other three involved. But then Flair teased a heart attack and had to lay on the apron because he couldn’t stand. This match made me feel wrong to be watching it and you could almost feel Flair and Conrad Thompson counting the money in their heads throughout the whole thing. This is a runaway #1 and nothing is touching it.

Rookie/Newcomer Of The Year (As in rookie/newcomer on a show, not new to wrestling. And no, I won’t be cutting them off if they had a match or two in 2021.)

5. Raquel Rodriguez
4. Roxanne Perez
3. Pretty Deadly
2. Hook
1. Logan Paul

Like this could have been anyone else. I had barely heard of Paul before he showed up in WWE but then he gets announced for a match at Wrestlemania. Then he’s winning there, beating Miz at Summerslam, and blowing it out of the park in a Saudi main event against Roman Reigns. This is something that felt like it should have been a horrible joke and wound up being a massive success. Paul has more than proven himself and it was a blast to watch him more often than not.

Worst Wrestler Of The Year (Not counting people who had one or two matches that is)

5. Shanky
4. Kip Sabian
3. Lash Legend
2. Top Dolla
1. Aliyah

Aliyah debuted in NXT in 2015. Roman Reigns hadn’t even headlined Wrestlemania yet and Aliyah had her first match under the WWE banner. How in the freaking world has she not picked up SOMETHING yet? There are worse wrestlers out there, but how is it possible that she hasn’t gotten at least the basics down at this point? I had to think about this one for a bit and then thought back to what Aliyah had done in her career. Realizing how long it had been was enough to put this one over the edge.

Worst Angle Of The Year

5. Jade Cargill And The Baddies
4. Andrade/Hardy Family Office Contract Nonsense
3. Drew McIntyre vs. Happy Corbin/Madcap Moss
2. Jay Lethal/Jeff Jarrett vs. Ric Flair/Andrade El Idolo (There was a build to that monstrosity.)
1. Kip Sabian Has A Box On His Head

This went on for months and for the life of me I still cannot tell you what in the world the point was supposed to be. Sabian literally sat there for months (without being acknowledged for most of the time), eventually unboxed, and then lost to Pac before the whole thing was dropped and not mentioned again. I have no idea what they were going for here and I don’t think AEW does either.

Title Reign Of The Year

5. Bron Breakker – NXT TItle
4. Josh Alexander – Impact Wrestling World Title
3. Roman Reigns – Undisputed WWE World Title
2. Usos – WWE Tag Team Titles
1. Gunther – Intercontinental Title

This has been the year of the long title reigns and really, some of them are getting boring. We’ve seen the Usos and Reigns hold their titles for so long that you know nothing is going to happen to them for a very long time. The same is true of Alexander and Breakker, as there are only a few people who are going to take the title from him. That left me with Gunther, who has made the title seem so much more important, while also having the longest title reign in over ten years (even if you might not have realized it). Gunther takes this one for me, as I want to see how much longer he can hold the thing.

Surprise Of The Year (In-Ring/Storyline Only)

5. Bray Wyatt Returns
4. Cody Rhodes Returns
3. Bayley/Damage Ctrl Returns
2. Sami Zayn Makes The Bloodline So Much Better
1. Steve Austin Wrestles

This is one of those things that I never thought I would actually see and then it actually happened. That is the kind of wonder that you do not get in wrestling very often but dang is it a special moment. I don’t think there was any doubt that Austin would do something physical, but how many people had “Steve Austin is going to main event Wrestlemania” back in October 2021? This wins by a landslide and it felt special, even to a not very big Austin fan.

Since I have a bad tendency to take forever to do these every year, I’m going to streamline the process a bit. This time, rather than doing individual posts for each award, instead I’ll be posting three groups of six each, randomly chosen awards. Also, and again for the sake of sanity, I’ll be listing some Honorable Mentions/Other Nominees but not going in-depth on anything but the winner. They should get the most attention for being the best/worst in each category, plus I take way more time than necessary to do something like this anyway.  Let’s get to it.

Worst Major Show Of The Year

5. Wrestlemania Backlash
4. Hard To Kill
3. Bound For Glory
2. Revolution

1. Survivor Series

This was the hardest award to do so far as 2021 has to be one of the best years ever for pay per view. I know WWE gets a bad reputation for their TV (and it is 100% earned in some cases), but they can put on a show when it comes to getting in the ring and saying go. That is the case with every other major promotion (or at least the ones I watch). When the lowest overall rating I could give a show all year is a C (or about a 6), you’re in a really, really good place. None of these shows are by any means bad, so we’ll call them the least good.

As for the pick, while I had Revolution rated lower overall (the exploding barbed wire match was not my thing and was never going to be), Survivor Series did not feel important whatsoever coming in and I did not want to watch it. The Battle For Brand Supremacy has become such a chore that even the very good wrestling couldn’t overcome a lot of the problems. It wasn’t a bad show, but it was a show that felt like a chore rather than something I would want to watch, and that’s worse than having bad action.

Tag Team Of The Year

5. New Day
4. Lucha Bros
3. Briscoes
2. Usos

1. FTR

I grew up on 80s wrestling and that’s what you get here. Between the Midnight Express theme song and the old school high waisted trunks, these guys feel like a modern version of Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard. It’s so much fun to watch a team that feels happy with being a tag team instead of two wrestlers who happen to be together. That’s such a rare thing to see these days, at least at this level, and FTR does it so well.

One of the best things about the team is how well they stand out. AEW has a lot of people jumping and flipping and diving all over the place and going completely out of control. FTR feels like a team that has prepared and trained to take their opponents apart in a wrestling match rather than having an acrobatic display. The team feels different and the fact that they do it so well makes them the team of the year.

Major Show Of The Year

5. Double Or Nothing
4. Extreme Rules
3. Full Gear
2. Takeover: Vengeance

1. All Out

I wanted to put Vengeance at the top but the more I thought about it, the more remarkable All Out really is. In addition to the great action, it was the show where Adam Cole debuted for one of the biggest surprises of the year. That was the case for all of two minutes, because Bryan Danielson appeared after, giving us one of the biggest nights in AEW history. Throw in CM Punk’s return to the ring for the first time in seven and a half years for a pretty great match with Darby Allin and Kenny Omega doing an Urkel impression and this wasn’t going to be topped.

Non-Wrestler Of The Year

5. Dan Lambert
4. Scott D’Amore
3. Pat McAfee
2. Taz

1. Paul Heyman

I know it’s a cliched answer, but Heyman somehow manages to improve on the greatness that he has already achieved. There is perhaps nothing more entertaining in wrestling than watching him go out on television and doing or saying whatever it is that needs to be said to make a story work. Heyman and Roman Reigns were a perfect combination for the entire year, with the Reigns/Heyman/Brock Lesnar story being a major highlight.

What makes Heyman work so well is that he feels different. Maybe that’s because he seems to have more freedom with what he says and does, but he comes off as so much more genuine whenever he is out there. It makes his segments something that you can enjoy while also moving the story forward. That has been the case with him for a long time and he did it again here.

Worst Wrestler of The Year

5. Jade Cargill
4. Madcap Moss
3. Eva Marie
2. Commander Azeez

1. Nia Jax

Yes she has been released and no she wasn’t around for a large part of the year, but there were times this year where I was sitting there in awe over her continued employment. She was big, she was stiff, she hasn’t had a good match in the better part of ever and she did not seem to think she was doing anything wrong. This is an easy one for me and it seems to be better that she has moved on to anything else.

Rookie/Newcomer Of The Year (Note that this can mean someone new to a show rather than a pure rookie. I also left Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson off as them coming to AEW as basically the same person didn’t exactly feel new.)

5. Hook
4. Rok-C
2. Rick Boogs
2. Doudrop

1. Bron Breakker

Like it could be anyone else. I know he hasn’t been around long, but to show up as a totally raw rookie and be one of the best stars on all of NXT in literally a few months is more than good enough to be here. There are better stars out there, but Breakker comes off as about as much of a natural as you can get, which is almost impossible to find in this day and age of wrestling.

This is going to be a tricky one as it is going to depend on what you mean by worst. In my eyes, it is either someone who is completely inept in the ring or someone who makes me cringe anytime they come on screen. Usually it tends to be more of the latter, as almost anyone is going to be capable of having at least a passable match these days. However, there were some rather bad choices this year so let’s get to it.

As usual this is in no order until the final choice.

Goldberg

I know he barely wrestles and I know he was gone for a good chunk of the year, but my goodness the amount of apathy I feel when that music hits and it’s time for something important. Goldberg has made a mini career out of popping in, winning a World Title and then going home. That gets really annoying in a hurry and it is probably going to continue for years to come. He can’t even do his old stuff as well anymore, which is quite the trick when you only have two moves.  It’s an easy pick but that is the case for a reason.

Dexter Lumis

I’ve been watching NXT since the beginning and this might be the first time where I just do not get it. Lumis is supposed to be some kind of tortured artist but that hardly makes him interesting. For reasons I don’t understand, WWE feels the need to present him almost as much as anyone else in NXT and it really isn’t working. I can’t say he’s the worst because there are far worse wrestlers out there, but the lack of interest I feel whenever he’s out there is incredible.

Marko Stunt

Yeah I know this is kind of a cheap answer but there comes a point where it isn’t believable. That’s where Stunt comes in, as he is nearly a foot shorter than most of the people he is facing. He can do a few cool things, but seeing him out there makes me cringe every time and I don’t need him on the show in any role other than a glorified mascot. This is far more on AEW than Stunt, but that doesn’t make it any better.

Those people were bad, but I get the point. I don’t get it with this one.

Michael Nakazawa

Nope. He isn’t funny, he doesn’t do anything worthwhile in the ring and there is no reason to have him on camera. His whole deal is the oil and the underwear and it isn’t worth my time or yours. Nakazawa is presumably there because he is Omega’s assistant or whatever it is and that is not enough to warrant time on either a national television show or a web series. This was a complete layup for me and likely will be as long as he is around.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2004 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

This one is usually pretty fun and will likely include some familiar faces. There are a lot of names that come up who drive fans crazy and really, I can’t say I blame them. Some of these people just leave you in awe of how horrendous they can be, either just in the ring or when it comes to putting you to sleep from boredom. This is going to be a combination of that as being uninteresting is a heck of a lot worse than not being able to do a bunch of moves.

Michael Nakazawa

Why does this guy exist? Other than being Omega’s friend, what is the point in having this guy on the roster? He wrestled a handful of times and either got destroyed most of the time, had a nightmarishly bad match at Fyter Fest and then was the damsel in distress over and over again for the sake of Pac tormenting Omega. That’s someone they need to keep around?

My bigger issue here though is how worthless he was in the ring. The baby oil deal got annoying in a hurry and it didn’t help when Nakazawa seemed to be there for little more than comedy/because Omega wants him there. He didn’t do anything important all year and was a glorified prop. When you add in that Fyter Fest match, he deserves at least a mention.

Dolph Ziggler

You’ll see Ziggler’s name come up on lists like this a lot of the time and while I get it, I can’t say he’s the absolute worst. Ziggler can still wrestle a very good match, but he has a lot more going against him than his in-ring work. My issue with Ziggler is that you know exactly what you’re going to get. I can’t remember the last time he changed things up a bit and it feels like everything you see from him is the same thing that you’ve seen from him for years.

The bigger problem though is Ziggler being someone you get thrown in because he has to be there more than anyone that someone might actually want to see. I don’t need to see Ziggler most of the time but he’s ALWAYS there. Maybe it’s more frustration than anything else but whenever Ziggler comes running out, it’s “here we go again” because Ziggler gets thrown into various feuds and stories when it could be a bunch of others getting a shot. Ziggler is certainly good in the ring. The problem is there’s a lot more to it than that.

Dana Brooke

This is a situation where it’s not on the wrestler, at least for the most part. I’m not going to make any suggestion that Brooke is some great in-ring performer or character or anything like that. She isn’t very good in the ring and clearly needs A LOT more training to get to the point where she’s on Raw every week. That being said, I can give her a lot of sympathy for being put in a bad situation.

The problem for Brooke is that she was not ready for this level when she was called up and WWE left her hanging out there to dry. She belongs down in NXT where she can learn a lot more, but instead she’s stuck out there on Raw, losing to everyone in sight and slowly getting better (which she is doing). What matters is she is trying, but it’s a long road to get where she needs to be and she wasn’t given a proper chance.

Baron Corbin

I have said it before and I’ll say it again: Corbin is not that bad. When you put him in the midcard and don’t put him any higher than that, Corbin is perfectly serviceable. The problem is WWE doesn’t know how to hold themselves back with him and he gets one main event run after another, no matter how tired people are of seeing him. They push him to the moon and he winds up all over the show, which kills it every single time.

The King gimmick has helped him out a lot and he was fine beating people up in the midcard. Then it all fell apart because we got to the dog food feud. I can’t stand Corbin most of the time but it’s another case where he doesn’t belong in the spot he’s in. There is a place for Corbin, but WWE doesn’t know what it is and keep pushing him WAY higher than he belongs.

It’s time for an old favorite.

Shane McMahon

Yeah I can’t stand him either. Much like Corbin, it was a case of putting someone in a place where he didn’t belong, but the problem here is Shane has no business being in a ring most of the time. Between the embarrassing punches and some of the reddest faces I’ve ever seen on a wrestler, I don’t want to imagine what would happen if he kept going.

The bigger problem with Shane is how much he won. There was a stretch where he did not lose a match for months, all while beating several former World Champions. We reached the point where he should have been the #1 contender to the World Title and it just never stopped. Kevin Owens FINALLY got rid of him but it took far too long to get there. Shane was all over the shows far too often and it was a disaster far more often than not, putting him on the top of this list.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2004 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also -available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

This one is something that I had to think about a few times. It takes a lot to go from just not very good to one of the worst around and that’s what we have here. This is a shorter list as there are only so many possibilities to choose from, but the ones that are bad really are fairly terrible, at least more often than not.

Shane McMahon

I’m only putting him in the nominees because Shane isn’t around very often and when he’s there, he puts in a pretty solid effort. Now at the same time, when he is around, it’s in a bunch of spots that he REALLY doesn’t deserve because, at the end of the day, Shane is almost 50 years old and takes up a spot that could help someone else’s career. He’s more of an annoyance than anything else and that really never stops.

Curt Hawkins

Losing every match for a year (plus) has to qualify you for something like this. How does he survive the nearly weekly performance reviews that Stephanie loves to have?

Baron Corbin

Now this is one where your definition of wrestler can vary. Corbin is perfectly watchable in the ring. I mean, he’s certainly not good or anything and he goes completely nuts with the arm trap chinlocks, but he can work a match. On the other hand if you go with the character work, Corbin is about as badly written of a character as you can get and one of the worst ideas all year. We’ll get to that one later, but there are worse people for this list.

Dolph Ziggler

This is a name that shows up on these lists a lot and I can see both sides of it. First of all, Ziggler is talented and I don’t think there’s any real argument to be made otherwise. He’s won several titles and can put on an entertaining match. The problem though is he never changes and if you’ve seen one Ziggler match, you’ve seen them all. He hasn’t evolved in years and it’s become a chore to watch him every week. You might get a good match out of him every now and then, but the stuff in between those matches are a near nightmare.

Now you might be wondering why Nia Jax isn’t on here. The thing about Jax is she can do something that no one else can do. She’s a giant and has size that no one else approaches. I get sick of her, but I can see why she’s around so often, at least from WWE’s perspective. That’s not the case with the winner.

Tamina

WHAT IS THE POINT OF TAMINA??? She’s the oldest woman on the roster, she’s the daughter of someone that WWE has basically erased from history, she gets hurt a lot, she’s downright terrible in the ring, and she’s basically a mini Nia Jax. Is she really just on the roster for the sake of giving Nia a lackey? Every time I see her I don’t understand why she’s there as it’s not like she adds a single thing to any match she’s in. This was easy for me and has been the case for a long time.

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:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/11/20/new-paperback-complete-1997-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

What a group of nominees to pick from.

Now this one almost completely depends on your definition of bad. There are some people who don’t belong in a ring no matter what they do and there are some people who just don’t ever change and serve very little purpose other than being a warm body. At the same time, there are people who I just don’t like who will be on here as well. It’ll be a mix of all three as this is really hard to define.

Before we get into this, I’m going to leave Shane McMahon off because I consider him to be someone who wrestles on occasion rather than a wrestler.

We’ll start with Tamina, who has been around forever and yet still has almost no reason to be there. Considering she debuted at the same time as the Usos, you really would expect her to have gotten at least somewhat better now. Her Superfly Splash isn’t terrible but there’s a gaping hole of charisma whenever she’s in the ring and I often forget she’s out there.

Sticking with the women there’s Lana, who is managing to set new standards for bad wrestling. At the end of the day though, I really can’t blame her for this one. She’s been wrestling less than two years now and hasn’t even had 75 matches yet with her first singles match coming about thirteen months ago. I have no idea what WWE was expecting when they threw her in the ring other than hoping people would swoon over her in the outfits (fair enough) but it’s not fair to put her out there like that. Just let her be a full time manager or go train for a LONG time before getting back in the ring because this isn’t fair.

I wouldn’t feel right without including the Young Bucks in here. Yes they’re athletic freaks and can be entertaining a lot of the time, but the superkick parties and almost never selling enough and the lack of any form of psychology to most of their matches puts them near the top. Though they did block me on Twitter so I must be doing something right.

A name that you’ll probably see on a lot of these lists is Jinder Mahal and while I couldn’t stand him for most of the year, there’s a huge difference between someone who is boring, repetitive and in way over his head than someone who is worthless. There’s value in Mahal, but he was being put in a spot he wasn’t ready for. Those are two different things and I’m not going to fault Mahal for the bad booking. I’ll fault him for being a boring promo and a repetitive wrestler though, which is quite bad on its own at such a high level.

Now someone on the other end of the spectrum is Dolph Ziggler, who is more than capable of having a good match but hasn’t changed his style in what feels like years. His meta stuff with the entrances isn’t doing anything for me and I really could go with him being away for a very long time, hopefully to recharge his batteries and change things up a bit as his style got old a long, long time ago.

That brings us to the winner and, in what shouldn’t be a surprise, I’m going with Enzo Amore. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I can’t stand him more than once for a variety of reasons, including he doesn’t change anything. It’s been the same “how you doin” promo and never shutting up, while almost never actually wrestling. When he does it’s not any good and we’re stuck with Enzo as champion while 205 Live dies because he gets so much attention. It’s a bad way to run things and the division has died even more with him on top. Get him out of here already so the division can actually have a chance.

Note that I said wrestler, not annoying heel commentator.For lack of anyone better (or is it worse?) I’m going with Otunga.  The guy is just worthless, although the lawyer character is FAR better than the A-List guy.  This is one of those where there isn’t a clear cut winner so this is widely open for other answers.

Your picks/thoughts?