I tried to keep these as short and sweet as possible. It didn’t work so some of these awards are a bit of a long read. Hope you all enjoy it though, any feedback is appreciated.
Major End-Year Awards
Company of the Year:
Interestingly this was probably the easiest award to give out this year. You’d imagine I’d have to weigh up the pros and cons but to me, this was easy. This year has seen TNA be comfortably the most entertaining wrestling company. They had a decent start to the year which was slightly undermined by a poor Lockdown show, which was compounded by the fact that Lockdown is one of TNA’s signature shows. However, this did not deter TNA and they went on to have a great summer with great pay-per-view after great pay-per-view. Slammiversary was probably the best of the lot, more on that later. It also saw a relatively simple build towards Destination X culminate in an explosion of popularity for Austin Aries. TNA, in very un-TNA like move, capitalised on his growing popularity and made the decision to have him end the longest TNA World Heavyweight Championship run of Bobby Roode. These were just some of the highlights of a great summer. The end of the year could not keep to the same standard with the seemingly never-ending ‘Aces and Eights’ storyline consuming Impact and even the Pay-Per-Views at times. That being said though this year has seen TNA provide consistent and entertaining programming with almost no bum notes being hit. On the other hand you have the likes of WWE and Ring of Honor, neither of which impressed at all this year. WWE have had their worst year since I re-joined the ‘WWE Universe’ following a four year hiatus. The writing has been appalling this year and the change to three hours RAW has to be one of the worst decisions they’ve ever made (from an entertainment standpoint, not a financial perspective). On the flip side, the pay-per-view’s have been consistently good for the most part. Extreme Rules, in particular, was a fantastic pay-per-view - comfortably WWE’s best of the year. Plus RAW 1000 was probably the best of any company’s weekly television show across the year. None of that could make up for how indescribably boring WWE, and RAW specifically, have been across the last calendar year though. Ring of Honor didn’t have a much better year. The company I once looked to as my favourite throughout the middle of the last decade muddled its way through a turgid 2012. Many blamed the old fashioned style of Jim Cornette’s booking, others point towards the perceived lack of charisma from many of their top stars. I think it was a combination of factors. I thought they’d possibly turned a corner when Kevin Steen won the World Title at Border Wars but they still managed to disappoint for the rest of the calendar year. At Glory By Honor it was noticeable that changes had been made backstage, and it led to somewhat of a revival. A solid Glory By Honor iPPV, which was even more notable for its lack of streaming issues, something which had dogged the company all year, was followed by an even better Final Battle. These were all steps in the right direction and that’s hopefully something the company can build on in 2013 but for 2012 it was too little, too late. Other companies I simply didn’t see enough of to give them any consideration for this award so congratulations to TNA.
The winner is: TNA
Superstar of the Year:
This was a difficult category to narrow down to a winner. A lot of people have impressed me this year. The Superstar of the Year award is to be given to the person I feel has been the best overall package across the year. Merely excelling in the ring is not good enough to earn you the award, neither is delivering the occasional stellar promo. You have to be consistently good at everything across the whole year. So after some consternation I narrowed the list down to four: Austin Aries, Christopher Daniels, Daniel Bryan and Kevin Steen. Austin Aries had an amazing year, both kayfabe-wise and from a non-kayfabe perspective. He was truly fantastic this year – as he is every year and he provided so many entertaining moments across the year, some even included wine and popcorn. On top of that I can’t think of a bad match he had across the year. That being said, he didn’t do as well as the rest and therefore had to be eliminated. Kevin Steen was another standout performer of 2012. He has been Ring of Honor World Champion for the majority of 2012 and at times was the only reason I tuned in to watch ROH shows. His promos this year were top notch, even above his usual excellent standard and he had some great matches too. Some have seen fit to complain about his weight and even his style of wrestling but he’s proven them wrong time and time again putting in great performances in a myriad of different wrestling matches throughout 2012. That being said he was just a step behind the top two. Speaking of which, I changed my mind on the top two so many times that it even happened as I wrote this paragraph. In the end I decided that Daniel Bryan, for all his greatness over the past year, just hadn’t quite done enough to win the award. From his slow-burning heel turn which was on-going as the year began to his comedic antics as a member of Team Hell No as the year rounded off he was sublime in everything he did. He put on amazing matches every time he was in the ring and delivered some of the promos that his detractors had claimed he wasn’t capable of because his supposed lack of charisma. That all sounds so ludicrous now since he has proven time and again that he has charisma in abundance. The one man that managed to trump him in the entertainment stakes was Christopher Daniels and his appletini’s. From being the World Tag Team Champions of the World (not redundant, they’re two planets worth of greatness) alongside a vastly improved Frankie Kazarian to beating the Spanish announce team to forever tormenting AJ Styles. Daniels has excelled at everything he’s been given this year. The fact that he is my Superstar of the Year speaks volumes about him given he was involved in the worst angle this year not involving AJ Lee. The Claire Lynch angle has become infamous amongst TNA’s fans and detractors – trust me the latter has far greater numbers sadly. It was an angle that swerved from helping a drug addict to AJ Styles effectively being raped to it just being a setup with Lynch not even being pregnant. If that doesn’t make your head spin then nothing will. It was a truly horrific angle that saw the talent of Kazarian and particularly Daniels shine through. The pair threw a hilarious baby shower for Lynch, continued to deliver great promos that combined vitriol and humour ridiculously well and repeatedly provoked Styles and his oddly well-matched partner Kurt Angle - which brought about an absolutely outstanding tag team match at Slammiversary. I’ve long been a fan of Christopher Daniels and think he has at one point or another deserved a World Title in both TNA and Ring of Honor but this year he surprised me, he took it up a notch and proved to everyone that he is World Championship material. Maybe this has happened too late in his career or maybe he’ll achieve that goal in 2013 since he seems to be garnering quite a push given his victory over Styles at Final Resolution and the fact that he’s developed a rivalry with former World Champion James Storm. Personally, I hope it’s the latter.
The winner is: Christopher Daniels
Wrestler of the Year:
This was another award that required close examination. The Wrestler of the Year award is based purely on who has put on the best matches between the ropes, nothing else matters only the quality of matches put on. So many wrestlers put in consistently amazing performances in 2012 that it took me quite a while to narrow it down. Michael Elgin had quite an amazing year which saw him quickly rise up the ranks in ROH and made his debut in PWG which went over rather well. He spent most of the year as part of Truth Martini’s ‘House of Truth’ which led to some rather entertaining tag matches with him and Roderick Strong, the most notable probably being the very exciting match against Amazing Red and TJ Perkins at the 10th Anniversary Show. Elgin went on to break out as an upper-card singles wrestler in his own right following one match with then ROH World Champion Davey Richards. It was a match that was raved about by fans and critics alike and my third favourite match of the year. That wasn’t the high point of the year though; Elgin continued to make waves in every organisation he wrestled for. At ROH’s Glory By Honor XI event Elgin challenged for the World Championship again, this time against Kevin Steen. The two put on an absolute classic that spanned half an hour and topped off one of ROH’s best shows of the year, it was behind only the epic Undertaker versus Triple H match from Wrestlemania on my match of the year list. Elgin capped the year with a very good match against Roderick Strong in the opening match of Final Battle 2012. Elgin had an extremely good year in the squared circle, but it wasn’t quite enough to earn him the award. Daniel Bryan is considered for this award too. I think this is a testament to how good a year Bryan had because he was in the final few for a lot of these awards. The wrestling ability of Daniel Bryan has never been in question; he’s been putting on absolute classics since I first saw him wrestle in ROH. He has been one of my favourite wrestlers ever since, I’ve noted on this blog before my fondness for Bryan and his clashes with another favourite of mine, Nigel McGuinness in particular. His series of matches with CM Punk was a major highlight of 2012 for Bryan. It’s no surprise I enjoyed this having seen these two face off sparingly on the independent scene and it was heart-warming to see them plying their trade at the very top of the wrestling business. Their first few encounters were on the weekly shows and they were fantastic. Then they met at Over The Limit in a match for the WWE Championship, a sentence I never thought I’d say or write about these two, and it was a great match. Bryan and Punk had another great match at Money In The Bank and Bryan excelled in other matches later in the year with Kane as his tag partner. To my recollection I can only recall one Bryan match that was a bit of a let-down this year and that was his Wrestlemania match with Sheamus and lets face it, that was more to do with the length of the match – eighteen seconds for anyone who blinked and missed it – than any failing on Bryan’s part. Ironically enough, Bryan’s opponent in his worst match of 2012 was the same opponent in his best match. When Bryan and Sheamus were finally given time to go out there and show what they could do in a Two out of Three Falls match at Extreme Rules they surpassed all expectations. They had a match so good that it was the best match on a card that contained an epic clash between John Cena and Brock Lesnar as well as a brutal and emotional street fight that saw CM Punk defend his WWE Championship against Chris Jericho. I find it hard to give a good reason why Bryan isn’t winning this award but quite simply, just as the previous award, as amazing as Bryan was, he just wasn’t quite amazing enough. Kevin Steen is another man who had a thoroughly remarkable year. He won the ROH World Championship for the first time and was PWG World Heavyweight Champion for the majority of the year. The matches Steen had this year were off the chart, from a gruelling fight with Willie Mack to a Last Man Standing match with El Generico to a bloody war with Jimmy Jacobs and the aforementioned epic battle with Michael Elgin. He also faced Davey Richards in an Anything Goes match which tore the house down at Best in the World. His Ladder War with long-time foe El Generico was a great match too which, despite not reaching the levels of their Final Battle 2010 match or their Steen Wolf Ladder match, was still one of the best matches of 2012. Steen had such a great year in-ring that I would have no problem crowning him my Wrestler of the Year for 2012 if it wasn’t for Austin Aries. Aries was launched into the TNA stratosphere this year when he relinquished his X-Division Title and went on to beat Bobby Roode in another amazing match at Destination X. His match at Against All Odds with Alex Shelley was so good that it roused the most quiet Impact Zone audience I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something. He had a couple of great matches against Bully Ray, specifically the Sacrifice match which was the launch pad for his road to the World Championship. He had a couple of great matches with Jeff Hardy including a brutal ladder match. One of my favourite Aries matches of 2012 was his fight against Samoa Joe at Slammiversary. It didn’t quite reach the levels of their Final Battle 2004 match but that was due to it being a shorter match and not having the same level of importance attached to it. That being said it was a tremendous match. Aries didn’t have a bad match in 2012 and is one hundred percent a deserving winner of Wrestler of the Year.
The winner is: Austin Aries
Female Wrestler of the Year:
Sadly I found this award difficult to justify as I feel the women in mainstream companies have, for the most part, had a torrid 2012 and I just haven’t seen enough of any female independent wrestling to justify this award. I considered giving it to one of the two women I believe to be the best female wrestlers in the world today: Sara Del Rey or Cheerleader Melissa but I realised I’d only seen two Del Rey matches in 2012 and only one of Melissa’s matches. That meant it had to be a female wrestler from one of the big two companies. A friend of mine suggested AJ Lee but she has been such a big part of what has made RAW unwatchable for the majority of 2012 that I burst into hysterics when he recommended I do so. I narrowed it down to two women: Paige from NXT (formerly Britani Knight on the independent scene) and Gail Kim. Paige has shown doubters why independent wrestling fans raved about her so much when they heard WWE were interested in signing her. She has continued to have fantastic matches and develop her character in NXT whilst seemingly not being restricted too much. Whether she will continue to be given freedom to express herself when she makes it to the main roster remains to be seen but so far her efforts in WWE deserve a lot of praise. Gail Kim is a strange choice for me because she was Champion up until June but since then she’s barely been featured because of the strange, cyclical way women are booked in wrestling. The reason I’ve chose her is because whilst she was really only relevant for half of 2012 she made that half count. She constantly put on decent matches which often featured, in my opinion, less talented girls as her opponents but this didn’t perturb her as she continued to put on the best matches she possibly could.
The winner is: Gail Kim
Match of the Year:
There is not much to say about this award other than it goes to The Undertaker vs. Triple H for their match at Wrestlemania XVIII. The Undertaker has had some amazing matches at Wrestlemania since the streak became a noteworthy thing, this may not have lived up to the Wrestlemania XXV match between Undertaker and Shawn Michaels but it was still absolutely brilliant. This was the third meeting between these two at Wrestlemania and it was, in my opinion, the best. I never really though anything could top their meeting at Wrestlemania X-7 which shone, even on the greatest wrestling show of all-time, it still stood out. Their Wrestlemania XXVII match came close, which surprised me and showed that they still had what it took but their match at Wrestlemania XXVIII was on a different level. The Hell in a Cell may not have been used as much as I would have liked but that is literally the only complaint I could have about this match. I watched it with a few people who aren’t wrestling fans but just decided to come along and join the party. They all loved the match, some of them even started following wrestling as a result of how engrossed they were in the match between these two heavyweights of the WWE. I’m not going to go through the other matches that came close since I’ve already done a list of my Top 50 Favourite Matches of 2012 but lets just say that there were several matches that on most other years would have probably won this award, they were just unfortunate that The Undertaker and Triple H had a match that will go down in history as one of the all-time great matches.
The winner is: The Undertaker vs. Triple H, Wrestlemania XVIII
Angle/Feud of the Year:
This was another award that I struggled with for all the wrong reasons. Whilst the in-ring quality over the past twelve months has been immense, the stories that link these matches haven’t been up to the same level. Last year we had the amazing tale of CM Punk and his road to the WWE Championship at Money in the Bank which was one of the best storylines WWE had put together in the past decade. This year, we didn’t see the same level of creation from any company. With that being said, the Bound For Glory series was done very well this year, I liked the concept last year but it suffered from major holes in logic, even by wrestling standards. This year they refined it, everyone wrestled each other once and there were four bonus matches. The top four went on to compete in the semi-finals and final plus the prize for finishing first in the league standing was that you got to choose your semi-final opponent. It was a simple but effective format that meant there was always a reason to tune into Impact Wrestling and watch their pay-per-view’s even if you didn’t like some of the storylines – which for once with TNA, wasn’t actually a problem. It suffered a little bit from a nonsensical ending though, and I don’t say this as someone who is not a Jeff Hardy fan, I merely say it because it is the truth. Jeff Hardy winning the tournament came way out of left field. He hadn’t been built up at all and throughout the tournament. In fact his most promoted part was a feud with the man who earned the wooden spoon – Robbie E. All of a sudden he’s in the final four, then he’s in the final, then he is the winner and then he’s winning the World Championship at the biggest show of the year. It made very little sense and made most of his opponents look like chumps in the process. The battle for control of Ring of Honor was another interesting storyline this year. Kevin Steen, Jimmy Jacobs and Steve Corino, known collectively as S.C.U.M wreaked havoc in RoH much to the dismay of on-screen authority figure Jim Cornette. It wasn’t always the perfect storyline and often S.C.U.M’s ideals were changed in accordance with how the company wished to portray them and at times it made it hard to know who was being presented as the sympathetic heroes in the storyline. It was intriguing for the most part though and provided us with some priceless moments, usually when Steen was confronted or was confronting an always irate Cornette. With him gone and Nigel McGuinness in his place the feud has somewhat simmered and I’m not even sure if S.C.U.M still want to ‘burn ROH to the ground and rebuild it in their own image’. Regardless though it provided quite a bit of entertainment in a rather dull year in ROH and for storylines in wrestling as a whole. The debut of The Shield in WWE is another storyline which grabbed my attention. Attacking other wrestlers to right the injustice that they perceive to be occurring is all they really did in 2012. The group is made up of Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. The reason this doesn’t win the award is because as much as I’ve enjoyed the storyline thus far, it hasn’t gone far enough for me to decide how good it is yet. Only 2013 can tell us that, and these are the 2012 awards. However, I have a feeling that this trio are going to make waves next year. Eventually, Dean Ambrose (because of his unbelievable talent) and Roman Reigns (because you can tell that he's the kind of guy that management love) will go on to be main event stars. I just hope Seth Rollins doesn't fall to the wayside as I expect him to because he has improved so much on the mic since his RoH days and remains a tremendous in-ring talent. The award, in the end, had to go to the Austin Aries/Bobby Roode rivalry. To be completely specific it goes to the build of Austin Aries as a legitimate threat by showcasing his talents throughout the early part of the year as X-Division Champion before his well-timed face turn and subsequent important victories over Bully Ray and Samoa Joe. The lead-up to their match at Destination X was where we were reaching the crest of the wave of popularity for Aries. The build-up to the match was fantastic and left me desperately wanting Aries to win the title. The follow-up never really capitalised on the popularity Aries had built-up or how much the fans were actually buying into him which meant his title reign ended up not really working. That was TNA’s fault for having him play second fiddle to the Bound For Glory series and the woeful Ace's and Eight’s angle before sacrificing him to Jeff Hardy at Bound For Glory instead of giving him a real run with the ball. It reminded me of CM Punk’s first World Heavyweight Championship reign in WWE, the parallels between the two are remarkable. That period in the lead up to Destination X was still fantastic though.
The winner is: Austin Aries’ journey to the World Heavyweight Championship
One-off Show of the Year:
This was possibly the hardest category to pick with every company I follow putting on some great shows across the year. Ring of Honor gave us Glory By Honor XI and Final Battle 2012, TNA gave us Sacrifice and Bound For Glory plus WWE gave us TLC. Neither of them made the final four though. Destination X did and it was quite an amazing show. The X-Division centric PPV showcased that division in a good way even if the Ultimate X match did flatter to deceive in the end. Away from the X-Division action Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle put on a terrific match which was for all important Bound For Glory Series points. AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels faced off once again and had a great Last Man Standing match which saw them tear the house down. Then came the main event which saw Austin Aries and Bobby Roode rebuild the house just so they could tear it down again in what was the match of the night. Destination X was in the end though only enough to be the fourth best show of the year. The top three were incredibly difficult to separate but third place went to Extreme Rules. An amazing show in its own right Extreme Rules boasted not one, not two, but three match of the year contenders with Sheamus and Daniel Bryan meeting in a Two out of Three falls match, a No Disqualification match to settle the uncontrollable feud between Brock Lesnar and John Cena as well as a Chicago Street Fight for the WWE Championship between CM Punk and Chris Jericho. The thing that knocked this PPV down to third was that the undercard let it down somewhat. Kane and Randy Orton had a very good match and The Big Show versus Cody Rhodes match was solid but the Diva’s Championship match, Ryback’s match and the Dolph Ziggler versus Brodus Clay match were all poor matches. Threemendous III, PWG’s Ninth Anniversary show, was an amazing card. Headlined by one of the greatest ladder matches in history which saw three tag teams vying for gold in what was comparable to the TLC matches the WWE had in the early 2000’s. It was defined by Nick Jackson being pushed off a ladder but managing to land on the ropes and turn it seamlessly into a Swanton Bomb to the outside which was nothing short of astounding. The undercard supported it really well with great matches between TJ Perkins and Roderick Strong, Brian Cage and Eddie Edwards and particularly Kevin Steen and Willie Mack. In fact this card might actually have suffered from being too amazing for its own good because by the third from last match I was completely burned out which meant I didn’t really enjoy the next two and it took the absolute insanity of the ladder match main event to re-engage me. That’s why this award goes to Slammiversary for being such a good show. It provided some amazing matches with Austin Aries defeating Samoa Joe and the Tag Team Championship match with the team of Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian taking on the team of AJ Styles and Kurt Angle. It provided some surprisingly good matches such as the Knockout’s Championship match, Joseph Park versus Bully Ray, the three-way dance to become number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship and Bobby Roode versus Sting in the main event. Even the surprise match between Hernandez and Kid Kash as well as a shockingly non-abysmal match involving Garret Bischoff, Devon and the Two Robbie’s didn’t detract from the show. It just flowed so well and included a touching announcement that Sting would be the first inductee into the TNA Hall of Fame. Therefore I have no qualms in awarding Slammiversary the 2012 Show of the Year Award.
The winner is: Slammiversary X
Best Moment of the Year:
This award was purely taken on a kayfabe basis, had it been considered on a real life basis then the return of Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler would have won the award by a landslide. There were a few things I considered for this including the raucous crowds at both the RAW after Wrestlemania and RAW 1000. In the end it came down to two Championship wins provided by two different companies. Austin Aries’ victory at Destination X was a fantastic moment for all involved and it happened in front of a decent Impact Zone crowd, if it had happened in front of the crowd at Slammiversary the response would have been good enough to win Aries' title win the award. However the award ended up going to Kevin Steen’s ROH World Championship victory at Border Wars. It felt like such a momentous moment with Steen winning the World Championship and with it playing out in front of his fellow Canadians who revelled in their new World Champion. I watched it on iPPV with a good friend of mine who is almost as big a Steen fan as I am and we both exploded when he won the title. It was a good match capped off with a fantastic ending and the commentary of Nigel McGuinness just added to the brilliance of the moment making it feel even more epic than it already did. Steve Corino hugging Steen after the match was just the icing on the cake. It was a great moment.
The winner is: Kevin Steen wins the Ring of Honor World Championship at Border Wars
Breakout Star of the Year:
So many stars have had breakout moments across 2012 for a variety of different reasons. Austin Aries was one of these men, some people claim he can’t be a breakout star this late into his career and being the only man to hold the ROH World Championship on more than one occasion. I disagree with that because I define breaking out as moving up in a dramatic fashion and Aries has done that in 2012. He exponentially increased his worth in the wrestling business. He cemented himself as a main eventer in the second biggest wrestling organisation in North America. He has proved that he belongs with the cream of the crop in Impact Wrestling and rocketed from a lowly midcarder to a main eventer over the calendar year. Michael Elgin has been another man who has had a spectacular year. I'm still far from his biggest fan but he's developing at a rapid rate and has had some great matches this year so whilst I may not be as on board as many ROH fans I do see potential - but Elgin has to fulfill that potential going forward. Having won ROH’s prestigious ‘Survival of the Fittest’ competition in 2011 it was obvious that ROH had big plans for him but Elgin himself was the catalyst for his rise in 2012. It’s completely plausible that Ring of Honor had plans for this year that would have seen Elgin rise up the card but on the night of Wrestlemania, at ROH’s Showdown in the Sun: Night Two event, he put on one of the matches of the year against World Champion Davey Richards. That match convinced the ROH audience that Elgin was the real deal, and he hasn’t looked back since. He’s a major player now and it’s obvious to everyone associated with the product that he is destined to have a big 2013. Adam Cole was really unlucky not to win this award. He has had an astounding 2012, the perfect ingredients to be the winner of an award like this. He was part of the first high profile ROH feud in 2012 which ended with him pinning Davey Richards who at that point in time was World Champion. He feuded with his former tag partner Kyle O’Reilly leading to an absolute war at the Best in the World iPPV which is probably the defining match of his short career so far. The match put him majorly over with the ROH audience. Cole went on to win the ROH Television Title from Roderick Strong and is currently embroiled in a feud with Matt Hardy. He’ll definitely be an ROH World Champion at some point and it wouldn’t surprise me if WWE picked him up at some point. It isn’t just in ROH that Cole has excelled in 2012 though, other companies have benefited from his continuous improvement, most notably PWG where he made a huge impact across the whole year. He was involved in that amazing ladder match at Threemendous III before he went onto win the prestigious Battle of Los Angeles after which he stole the PWG World Heavyweight Championship from Kevin Steen. He challenged Steen to a match at the final PWG show of the year and won the coveted Championship. His heel persona is only just in its early stages but already it seems to be something he is comfortable with. Throughout the year I've felt Cole's promo ability has been evident. His content may not always have been good but his delivery has been. And that's great because content can be worked on, delivery can't. I expect him to take his PWG heel run and ROH face run to the next level in 2013. I hope I'm not wrong because Adam Cole appears one for the future. But lets not downplay Cole's 2012 by talking about his potential, he's been great already but I just felt that Daniel Bryan had a slightly better year. Again people may not consider this a breakout year for Bryan because of what he had already accomplished in his career: one of the longest reigning ROH World champions, a multiple-time midcard champion in WWE and a World Heavyweight Champion in the WWE. That being said though, at the start of the year many casual fans felt he was tarnishing the legacy of the World Heavyweight Championship which, lets face it, is a secondary tier title in WWE’s eyes. He’s had such a good year that many now feel he’s qualified enough to win the WWE Championship, the top belt in the industry today. Although there have been plenty of highs the most important point in 2012 for Daniel Bryan actually had more to do with the fans love of his work than anything else. Wrestlemania 28 was supposed to be just a routine night, most people had accepted that Bryan was going to lose his World Title to Sheamus but we weren’t quite prepared for the way in which that blow was delivered. Put in the opening match of the night Bryan lost his World Championship in just eighteen seconds. This should have been the death knell for his career, the move that lost him all credibility with the mystical casual fanbase, the thing that relegated him to midcard mediocrity for the rest of his time in the WWE, but that didn’t happen. So annoyed with how Bryan had been treated the audience chanted his name and his catchphrase “YES!” throughout the next hour. It got even more feverous the next night on RAW. That night is remembered for the “YES!” chants that were present. This was a show that featured The Rock, John Cena, CM Punk and the return of Brock Lesnar but the “YES!” chants were of such a magnitude that everything else faded to insignificance. That night cemented Bryan as a bona fide main eventer and led to a terrific rematch with Sheamus and a series of excellent WWE Title matches with CM Punk.
The winner is: Daniel Bryan
Minor End-Year Awards:
Face of the Year: CM Punk (by default due to there being no outstanding faces in 2012)
Heel of the Year: Bobby Roode
Commentator of the Year: Nigel McGuinness
Gimmick/Character of the Year: Christopher Daniels’ Appletini sipping evil mastermind gimmick
Tag Team of the Year: #WTTCOTW/Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian)
Promo of the Year: CM Punk and John Cena’s go-home promo on the RAW before Night of Champions with Bret Hart
Finisher of the Year: Kevin Steen’s Package Piledriver
Spot of the Year: Nick Jackson’s Ladder Fall Turned Into a Swanton Bomb to the outside at PWG’s Threemendous III
Worst Moment of the Year: Hornswoggle is revealed as Anonymous RAW GM by Santino “Sherlock” Marella.
Televised Show of the Year (consistency-wise): Impact Wrestling
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