Major End-Year Awards
Promotion of the Year:
It was a tough one this year. TNA had a horrendous year and
I actually stopped watching them full-time for the first time since I started
watching sometime in 2005. WWE had a pretty appalling year too and RAW’s have
become impossible to sit through, now I just read the review of the show and
anything that appeals to me I track down and watch, still catch the PPV’s
though. And New Japan’s over reliance on Okada and Tanahashi combined with the
undercard not impressing as much as usual meant they weren’t in the running
either. So that left it down to three promotions who did have a good 2015: Ring
of Honor, Lucha Underground and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. Starting with PWG they
really picked up as the year went on and produced some stellar shows
culminating in the fantastic three-night event, the 2015 Battle of Los Angeles.
The tournament was booked fantastically and Stage Two was one of the best shows
of the year. They look like they’re carrying it on into 2016 too with both All
Star Weekend 11 shows (they’re released in 2016 so I’m counting them as 2016
shows) look amazing, and I’m sure that will continue with Lëmmy and Bowie. But
they didn’t quite do enough to win the award this year. Lucha Underground had a
magnificent first season, and honestly I can’t wait for season two to kick off
on Wednesday. I was a bit of a latecomer to Lucha Underground, watching Ultima
Lucha at the insistence of a good friend of mine and I never looked back. I
blasted through the rest of the first season in chronological order and it was
truly great stuff. A bit of a slow start that really picked up once we got to
Aztec Warfare and after that it was just great show after great show. With
stars like Pentagon, Jr., Mil Muertes and Johnny Mundo I know they can carry it
on into season two but season one just wasn’t quite enough to beat ROH to
promotion of the year. ROH had an incredible 2015 from top to bottom. The
company introduced new stars such as Donovan Dijak and the infamous Dalton
Castle, they built further on the likes of Moose and Silas Young, they made
changes where necessary like for Cedric Alexander and they made stars of the
likes of Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly. It truly felt like they did something
fantastic in 2015. It helped that they had somebody like Jay Lethal who had a career
year on top of the company for the best part of the year. Not everything was
perfect but it was pretty damn close and they unequivocally win promotion of
the year, let’s just hope they can carry it on 2016.
The winner is: ROH
Superstar of the Year:
This one is usually the hardest category to decide but this
year it was rather easy. There were two other contenders for this award but
they were fairly distant runners-up, they have had fantastic years though and
they both deserve a mention. We’ll start with someone I never, ever thought I’d
consider for this award – Roderick Strong. I’ve always loved Roddy, in between
the ropes there are few more fluid competitors but his character, or lack
thereof, and less than passable mic skills have always been his kryptonite.
Something changed this year though, particularly in PWG, Roddy has developed
this “douche-bro” character of his and taken it to another level. Aside from
having great match after great match he’s one of the most over heels in 2015.
The formation of Mount Rushmore 2.0 only served to elevate his character
further and he’s actually cutting good promos too. I wouldn’t rely on him to go
out there and deliver a twenty-minute Punk-esque soliloquy but he can cut a
good promo. The story PWG put him on was perfect as well, they delivered the
classic “Always the bridesmaid” story perfectly and him winning the belt and
his subsequent title run has been all the better for it. Speaking of stories
that brings me to our second runner up, and marks a first for me – the first
time I’ve ever considered a female performer for the ‘Superstar of the Year’
award. However, NXT has helped to raise the profile of so many female athletes
over the past eighteen months or so it has been fantastic. Finally, a somewhat
mainstream wrestling programme that takes its female athletes seriously!
Honestly, in June I’d have been hard pressed to take this award away from Sasha
Banks but toiling in obscurity for the past five to six months has really hurt
her cause. And in the end she was surpassed by the one member of the Horsewomen
not to make it to the main roster – isn’t that ironic – Bayley. Bayley has had
a fantastic year, she has developed more in the ring and the story that was
told, chronicling her rise from still a little naïve in the Fatal-4-Way for the
title at NXT Takeover: RIVAL and in her encounters with Emma to the girl who,
whilst still lovable and little sister-like, was a more grizzled competitor
that led her to victories over Emma, over Charlotte, over Becky Lynch and
culminated in that triumphant, tremendous encounter between her and then NXT
Women’s Champion Sasha Banks in Brooklyn that saw Bayley finally win the big
one. It even extended further and showed the ruthless side of Bayley when she
beat Sasha in the first ever female Ironman match at the next Takeover as she
stomped on the back of Sasha’s head in the dying seconds to get the final and
decisive fall. They still showed the lovable, pure babyface side of Bayley too
though as evidenced by her defence against Nia Jax in London. I was there live
and the pure, raw emotion every time Bayley re-cinched in that guillotine choke
was palpable. It’s been one hell of a journey and in any other year Bayley
might have done enough to win this award. This year however, there was only one
winner, the man who single handedly dominated ROH throughout 2015, Jay Lethal.
To put into context how surprised I am to be writing Jay Lethal as Superstar of
the Year I’ll tell you a little bit about what I’ve thought of him throughout
his career. He was a forgettable member of a forgettable stable in my early
days of watching ROH, he grew into Samoa Joe’s protégé but was still not all
that interesting. In TNA he was just another X-Division guy, good in the ring
but pretty bland otherwise. When he returned to ROH I was pretty upset when he
beat El Generico for the Television Title. He was still bland but inoffensive.
When he started getting his push towards Kevin Steen and the World Title I was
so against it. Here’s this bland, nothing babyface, and at the Anniversary
Show, I was convinced he was going to beat Steen for the belt. Thankfully he didn’t,
although it was an amazing match. Then in April 2014 something changed, Lethal turned
heel and joined the greatest manager in the business today not named Paul
Heyman – Truth Martini. At first I was intrigued – at least it was something fresh
– after a while though Lethal became the most entertaining thing on most shows
and by the time April 2015 rolled around and he celebrated a year as ROH
Television Champion I was baying for him to be the next World Champion. In June
of 2015 he did just that becoming the Undisputed Champion of ROH for a while,
until he dropped the Television Championship to Roderick Strong. Jay Lethal was
pretty much the perfect performer in 2015, his promos were fantastic, his
character work was amazing, his relationship with Truth Martini, Donovan Dijak
and later Taeler Hendrix are all top notch and he was in some of the best
matches of the year to boot. ROH had a good year and the promotion didn’t need
to be carried by anyone man but Jay Lethal did that anyway.
The winner is: Jay
Lethal
Wrestler of the Year:
This category
differs from the Superstar of the Year award in that it is not based on the “total
package” but purely on in-ring performance. This was a tough award with the
likes of Bayley and Jay Lethal once again good contenders. This time though
there were three main contenders. AJ Styles had tremendous matches across the
globe in 2015 whether it be in New Japan, Ring of Honor or any other of the
independent promotions he appeared for in 2015. His best match was probably
with Hiroshi Tanahashi in the deciding match for the A Block in the G1 Climax
which ranked very highly in my Match of the Year list (which you can see here).
But he had tremendous matches throughout with the likes of Adam Cole, Kota
Ibushi and several great 6-Man Tag matches in ROH. His year ended well when,
despite a niggling back injury, he put in a magnificent performance when
challenging Jay Lethal for the ROH World Championship at Final Battle. AJ has
always been one of my favourites but the way he’s adapted his style since 2013
has been magnificent and I hope he’ll make a big splash in WWE over the coming
years, he deserves it. Talking about people going to the WWE brings me neatly
onto my next candidate – Shinsuke Nakamura. Nakamura struggled with injuries
for a considerable portion of 2015 yet he still managed to appear three times
in my top ten of 2015. His charisma is well discussed but his in ring prowess
is not discussed nearly as much as it should be. Whether it be in New Japan or
his handful of appearances in ROH he delivered in spades including two
fantastic matches in a G1 Climax where his appearance was in doubt much less
delivering performances of that quality. This year however the award had to go
to a certain Roderick Strong. I talked earlier about how much he has improved
on the mic and as a character but his in-ring quality has never been in doubt
and he showed that once again this delivering a string of absolute classics in
both PWG and ROH. His feud with Jay Lethal in ROH produced some outstanding
matches, his clashes with the likes of Zack Sabre, Jr. and Mike Bailey in PWG
were utterly mesmerising. He has earned the accolade of wrestler of the year
and I have no doubt he will produce similar levels in 2016, the question is
will anybody be able to topple him.
The winner is: Roderick
Strong
Female Superstar of the Year:
This was a pretty simple one this year. It came down to
three contenders: Candice LeRae, Sasha Banks and Bayley. Candice had a pretty
good year but not quite to the standard that she set the year previously. Her
team with Joey wasn’t as prominent in PWG as it had been but she still managed
to make more of her year than most. She also looks well set up for 2016 as a perennial
opponent for Mount Rushmore once again. Sasha Banks carried on where she left
off at the end of 2014 by being the star in a star studded NXT Women’s
division. She took the title from Charlotte in a Fatal-4-Way in February and
held it until August in a great Championship run that saw her have great
matches from start to finish including a particularly special one against Becky
Lynch that arguably made Becky in the eyes of the NXT fans. She was terrific
throughout but, as I mentioned earlier, her main roster promotion hurt her and
therefore for all the reasons I specified about her being a contender for
overall superstar of the year Bayley wins this one. She had an amazing 2015 and
honestly if my awards had a category for most improved she’d win that too. She
came on leaps and bounds both in character development and particularly in the
ring. In the end she was comfortably the best all-round female performer in
2015.
The winner is:
Bayley
Match of the Year:
As per usual I will not embellish too much on the contenders for this award as
it would rather spoil my match of the year list which, once again, you can read
here. This year saw the award sewn up by end of play on the 4
th day
of the year. In the Tokyo Dome on January 4
th New Japan presented
their annual extravaganza known as Wrestle Kingdom. The event was headlined by
what many consider to be the defining rivalry of the current generation (I
would disagree but I digress) with Hiroshi Tanahashi defending his IWGP
Heavyweight Championship against Kazuchika Okada yet the show was well and
truly stolen by the match that preceded it. Shinsuke Nakamura, the most over
man in the promotion, defending his coveted – if somewhat dirty – IWGP Intercontinental
Championship against up and coming sensation Kota Ibushi. Ibushi pushed
Nakamura to the limit in a twenty-minute match that felt like it lasted seconds
because of how good it was. The match was so good that you could feel Jim Ross,
who was the play-by-play commentator for the English Language broadcast of the
event, being utterly blown away by these two athletes. People were calling it
the match of the year back then. I’m always reticent to crown something best of
anything only four days into a 365-day year but nevertheless the quality withstood
and though there were some amazing matches over the past year, nothing quite came
close to Nakamura vs. Ibushi.
The winner is: Shinsuke
Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi, IWGP Intercontinental Championship – Wrestle Kingdom
9
Angle/Feud of the Year:
This was another
difficult award and I feel like I could have separated this award into three
parts of the year. First up we had the amazing feud that everyone had wanted
from the day that Kevin Owens signed his WWE contract. At NXT Takeover: [R]Evolution
in December of 2014 Owens made his debut, later that night Sami Zayn defeated
Adrian Neville to win the NXT Championship and after the match Owens turned on
his long-time friend setting up a bitter feud that left fans like me watering
at the mouth. Two months after his debut Owens crushed Zayn in similar fashion
to Brock Lesnar defeating John Cena at Summerslam 2014. It was a type of match
the WWE audience are not generally exposed to and it was brilliantly executed.
In the build up to this match we’d seen one of the best contract signings in
recent memory as General Manager William Regal brought both men out and they
delivered two tremendous promos, Zayn’s probably being the best of his career.
The feud was somewhat cut short when Zayn injured himself on his Monday Night
RAW debut and although he managed to make it to the rematch against Owens less
than a month later it was clearly a match designed around Sami’s injury, I feel
the feud still had legs when Zayn got injured but to me it was still the
defining feud of the first part of the year. Onto the middle part of the year
and we find a feud that had been cleverly building up since the start of the
year but didn’t really pick up pace till we were on the road to Best in the
World, ROH’s annual summer spectacular. This feud was of course the battle of
then ROH World Champion Jay Briscoe and then ROH World Television Champion Jay
Lethal. Lethal had been crowing for months about how his title was now the most
prestigious in all of Ring of Honor, going so far at one point as to even
remove the Television name plate from the title belt so that it just read ROH
World Champion. This somewhat irked Jay Briscoe and these men battled back and
forth in the ring, as unfortunate, unlikely and unhappy tag team partners and
on the microphone, it led to one of the most anticipated ROH matches in recent
memory when at Best in the World both men put their respective Championships on
the line in one match – winner takes all style. And at the end of the match it
was Jay Lethal who was the victor. The match was perfect, the build-up was
perfect, and the long-term potentially even accidental build up was perfect.
The idea of just going in with a man who hadn’t been pinned or submitted in
over two years defending the most important belt in the promotion against the
man who had held the supposed secondary Championship for over a year and was
now claiming that he’d made that Championship more important than the first man’s
sells the match on its own. The rest was just icing. And finally as we got into
the final part of the year it was the battle of Mount Rushmore 2.0 against the
rest of PWG. Since forming at Mystery Vortex III the new and improved
(questionable but we’ll roll with it) Mount Rushmore has done everything humanly
possible to make everyone else in PWG’s life a living hell. And for the most
part they’ve succeeded. The combination of original members The Young Bucks,
PWG World Champion Roderick Strong and bonafide legend of the independent scene
Super Dragon caused mayhem across the rest of 2015 culminating in some amazing
and brutal matches, particularly the six-man tag Guerrilla Warfare match from
Stage Two of this year’s Battle of Los Angeles. The only problem with this
story is PWG didn’t have that many shows following Mystery Vortex III with only
the anniversary show and the Battle of Los Angeles weekend following. The two
nights of All Star Weekend were technically in 2015 but will form consideration
for 2016 awards as the DVD will be released in 2016 rather than 2015. There are
three major contenders for this award but none of the came quite reached the
level of the eventual victor. In a story that ended up spanning well in excess
of a year it was the rivalry between Bayley and Sasha Banks that is 2015’s feud
of the year. I’m not going to talk in particularly great length about this
particular feud as I have already talked at great length about it in previous
categories but specifically the build-up to NXT Takeover: Brooklyn were Bayley
eventually toppled Sasha and became NXT Women’s Champion was a thing of beauty.
These two should go on to dominate the main roster women’s division for years
to come. They should be the defining generational rivalry. They did have one
final match in NXT that marked the first time a women’s match had main evented
an NXT Takeover event and the first to properly main event a WWE show since
Trish Stratus and Lita main evented Monday Night RAW almost eleven years
previously. These two, along with Becky Lynch and Charlotte, helped massively
to redefine what it meant to be a woman in the WWE. And although that may not
have translated across to the main roster there is no questioning that these
two had the best rivalry of 2015
The winner is: Bayley
vs. Sasha Banks
One-off Show of the Year:
This was a difficult category this year. There wasn’t one
event that jumped out at me and screamed ‘show of the year’. However, there
were a lot of very, very good shows. I managed to narrow them down to five: ROH’s
Final Battle, New Japan’s Wrestle Kingdom 9, PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles: Stage
Two, NXT’s Takeover: Brooklyn and WWE’s WrestleMania 31. After much
deliberation I eliminated Final Battle and Wrestle Kingdom 9 from the running
leaving me with three to choose from. The second night of the Battle of Los
Angeles was fantastic featuring first round matches in the tournament such as
the hard hitting Chris Hero/Timothy Thatcher encounter, the fantastic big
man/little man match between Drew Galloway and Mike Bailey, the technical work
of art that was Ricochet vs. Zack Sabre, Jr. and the borderline insane main
event which was a six-man Guerrilla Warfare encounter featuring Super Dragon
who was making his first appearance since 2011. Now as good as those parts of
the show were there were still a few disappointments the tag team match between
the Lucha Underground guys was very sloppy and I just didn’t get into it the
way others did, Drew Gulak vs. Tommy End did not deliver and Angelico vs. Jack
Evans flat out sucked. For those reasons I can’t give this show of the year. On
to the NXT offering, Takeover: Brooklyn. This was a great show, the opener featured
Jushin Thunder Liger taking on Tyler Breeze which was mind blowing, it was
followed by The Vaudevillians and the BAM Factor tangling over the NXT Tag Team
Championships which was phenomenal and Bayley vs. Sasha Banks was a piece of
wrestling magic. They were some downers on this show though too, the main event
between Finn Balor and Kevin Owens suffered from having to follow Bayley/Sasha which
should have main evented and Samoa Joe and Baron Corbin did not deliver to the
level I expected, or to any level at all really. This leaves us with our final
contender and winner: WrestleMania 31. I will say, when you break it down match
by match this year’s ‘Mania does not look like a classic. The Intercontinental
Championship Ladder match was good but not great, John Cena vs. Rusev was a bit
of a let-down, Bray Wyatt vs. The Undertaker was awful and you had Triple H
beat Sting when not a single person on the planet wanted to see that. I was
watching that show with about eighty other wrestling fans and the sentiment of
it post-match was basically “They’re still so pathetically self-involved that
they have to hammer in the fact that they were better than WCW every chance
they get”. And that’s what it felt like, WWE didn’t book that match thinking of
what made the best story or what do the fans want, they booked it just to say
they were better than WCW one last time, you know, until the next chance they
get. Despite all of this though, WrestleMania was a well-rounded show that flew
over, an achievement for something that runs four hours in length. There were
some really good moments, Rollins and Orton delivered a cracking match with an
amazing spot that saw Orton reverse a Curb Stomp into an RKO, the
Intercontinental Match was very good, as was the main event and the cash-in was
a moment to savour. It was a really good show that left me feeling very
positive about the company following the event, that feeling has not returned
since.
The winner is: WrestleMania
31
Best Moment of the Year:
This one wasn’t even close. The best and biggest moment of
the year is the one I ever so briefly touched upon in my previous category:
Seth Rollins cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase in the middle of the
main event of WrestleMania 31 to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
This was a truly astounding moment. It ticked all the boxes, it was somewhat
unexpected, it was a situation we’d never seen before and weren’t sure if it
was even possible. And best of all it gave you that feeling of amazement that
only wrestling can give you. Packed into a bar in Middlesbrough amongst eighty
or so other rabid wrestling fans, to hear the roar when Rollins music hit and
everybody losing their minds when they thought he was going to be beaten. It
was amazing. I remember not actually being able to stand up because I was
shaking so much, that’s how excited I was. It was an unbelievable moment and
the clear, undisputed winner of moment of the year.
The winner is: Seth
Rollins wins the WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Breakout Star of the Year:
So, to the final major category. Usually a hotly contested
award this one came down to just two people this year: Dalton Castle and Chad Gable.
Gable has got over in NXT so quickly with his loveably dork-ish persona and his
unbelievable wrestling skills, in that way he’s got over in a similar way to
Dalton Castle. Castle came into ROH at the start of the year via the Top
Prospect tournament and his quirky personality and, again, his in-ring
abilities. The first time you see Dalton Castle you’re immediately attracted to
his persona and charisma. It’s his mannerisms that get people, that’s why so
many people like this guy. Then you see him in the ring and see that he’s a
brilliant mat technician and see why he appeals to such a plethora of fans
because he has more than one facet to his game. Gable’s team with Jason Jordan
is so over with the fans that they have to be the team to take the Championship’s
away from Dash and Dawson and I would be surprised to see either man in NXT
come the end of 2016. Castle on the other hand has won over management in my
opinion. I think they initially brought him in as a body to fill out the Top
Prospect tournament. They saw how fans gravitated towards him and brought him
back to be used as a lower card entertainment attraction but he surpassed that
level too and now they treat him seriously as a valuable member of the roster
who needs to be nurtured and protected. It was a tough call choosing between
these two who have made such an impact in their first year in their respective
companies but simply because Castle has been doing it all year, I have to give
it to him.
The winner is: Dalton
Castle
Minor End-Year Awards:
Face of the Year: Mike Bailey
Heel of the Year: Roderick Strong
Commentator of the Year: Corey Graves
Gimmick/Character of the Year: Dalton Castle
Tag Team of the Year: reDRagon
Promo of the Year: Sami Zayn/Kevin Owens contract signing on NXT
Finisher of the Year: Boma Ye (Shinsuke Nakamura)
Spot/Bump of the Year: Seth Rollins hits the Phoenix Splash for the
first time in WWE
Worst Moment of the Year: Roman Reigns wins the 2015 Royal Rumble
Televised Show of the Year (consistency-wise): Lucha Underground
List of Winners:
Promotion of the Year:
2011: WWE
2012: TNA
2013: PWG
2014: ROH
2015: ROH
Superstar of the Year:
2011: CM Punk (WWE)
2012: Christopher
Daniels (TNA)
2013: Daniel Bryan
(WWE)
2014: Adam Cole
(ROH/PWG)
2015: Jay Lethal
(ROH)
Wrestler of the Year:
2011: El Generico
(ROH/PWG)
2012: Austin Aries
(TNA)
2013: Daniel Bryan
(WWE)
2014: AJ Styles
(NJPW/ROH)
2015: Roderick Strong
(ROH/PWG)
Female Superstar of the Year:
2011: Cheerleader Melissa (SHIMMER)
2012: Gail Kim (TNA)
2013: Cheerleader
Melissa (SHIMMER)
2014: Candice LeRae
(PWG)
2015: Bayley (NXT)
Match of the Year:
2011: John Cena vs. CM Punk, WWE
Championship – Money in the Bank (WWE)
2012: The Undertaker
vs. Triple H, Hell in a Cell (Special Guest Referee: Shawn Michaels) –
Wrestlemania XXVIII (WWE)
2013: CM Punk vs.
John Cena – RAW (25th February) (WWE)
2014: The Shield vs.
The Wyatt Family – Elimination Chamber (WWE)
2015: Shinsuke
Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi, IWGP Intercontinental Championship – Wrestle Kingdom
9 (NJPW)
Angle/Feud of the Year:
2011: CM Punk vs.
John Cena/Vince McMahon/WWE (build-up to Money in the Bank) (WWE)
2012: Austin Aries
vs. Bobby Roode (Aries’ rise to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship) (TNA)
2013: Daniel Bryan
“The Weak Link” (WWE)
2014: Daniel Bryan
vs. The Authority (build-up to WrestleMania XXX) (WWE)
2015: Bayley vs.
Sasha Banks (Bayley’s rise to the NXT Women’s Championship) (NXT)
One-off Show of the Year:
2011: Money in the
Bank (WWE)
2012: Slammiversary X
(TNA)
2013: Battle of Los
Angeles: Night Two (PWG)
2014: WrestleMania
XXX (WWE)
2015: WrestleMania 31
(WWE)
Best Moment of the Year:
2011: Christian wins
the World Heavyweight Championship at Extreme Rules (WWE)
2012: Kevin Steen
wins the ROH World Championship at Border Wars (ROH)
2013: Daniel Bryan
wins the WWE Championship at Summerslam (WWE)
2014: Daniel Bryan
wins the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XXX (WWE)
2015: Seth Rollins
cashes in to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 31
(WWE)
Breakout Star of the Year:
2011: Beer Money
(Bobby Roode & James Storm) (TNA)
2012: Daniel Bryan
(WWE)
2013: The Shield
(Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins) (WWE)
2014: Sami Zayn (NXT)
2015: Dalton Castle
(ROH)
Minor End-Year Awards:
Face of the Year:
2011: El Generico (ROH/PWG)
2012: CM Punk (WWE)
2013: Daniel Bryan
(WWE)
2014: Candice LeRae
(PWG)
2015: Mike Bailey
(PWG)
Heel of the Year:
2011: Bully Ray (TNA)
2012: Bobby Roode
(TNA)
2013: Adam Cole
(ROH/PWG)
2014: Adam Cole
(ROH/PWG)
2015: Roderick Strong
(PWG)
Commentator of the Year:
2011: Jim Ross (WWE)
2012: Nigel
McGuinness (ROH)
2013: Todd Kenneley
(TNA)
2014: Excalibur (PWG)
2015: Corey Graves
(NXT)
Gimmick/Character of the Year:
2011: Christopher Daniels’ “Face of the
Company” Character (TNA)
2012: Christopher
Daniels’ Apple-tini sipping, evil mastermind character (TNA)
2013: Daniel Bryan’s
inferiority complex (weak link storyline) character (WWE)
2014: The Young
Bucks’ overly self-aware characters (PWG/ROH)
2015: Dalton Castle
(ROH)
Tag Team of the Year:
2011: The All Night
Express (ROH)
2012: Bad Influence
(TNA)
2013: The Young Bucks
(PWG/ROH)
2014: reDRagon (ROH)
2015: reDRagon
(ROH/NJPW)
Promo of the Year:
2011: CM Punk’s “Cena
is a dynasty” promo (WWE)
2012: CM Punk &
John Cena’s promo on the go-home show before Night of Champions with Bret Hart
(WWE)
2013: Mark Henry’s
‘retirement’ promo (WWE)
2014: Dean Ambrose’s
promo the week after Seth Rollins turned on The Shield (WWE)
2015: Sami Zayn &
Kevin Owens’ contract signing (NXT)
Finisher of the Year:
2011: El Generico’s
BRAINBUSTAHH! (ROH/PWG)
2012: Kevin Steen’s
Package Piledriver (ROH/PWG)
2013: Daniel Bryan’s
Baisuku Knee (WWE)
2014: The Young
Bucks’ Meltzer Driver (PWG/ROH)
2015: Shinsuke
Nakamura’s Boma Ye (NJPW/ROH)
Spot/Bump of the Year:
2011: N/A
2012: Nick Jackson’s
Ladder fall turned into a springboard Swanton Bomb to the outside at
Threemendous III (PWG)
2013: CM Punk hits a
piledriver on John Cena in their #1 Contenders Match on RAW (WWE)
2014: The Young Bucks
superkick Candice LeRae with a thumbtacked boot (PWG)
2015: Seth Rollins
hits the Phoenix Splash for the first time in WWE (WWE)
Worst Moment of the Year:
2011: Jim Ross and
Michael Cole’s “rap-off” (WWE)
2012: Hornswoggle is
revealed to be the Anonymous RAW GM by Santino “Sherlock” Marella (WWE)
2013: John Cena’s
performance on the 14th January edition of Monday Night RAW in the
Steel Cage match with Dolph Ziggler which made Pierce Brosnan laugh at its lack
of realism (WWE)
2014: Daniel Bryan
not being in the Royal Rumble (WWE)
2015: Roman Reigns
wins the Royal Rumble (WWE)
Televised Show of the Year (consistency-wise):
2011: SmackDown (WWE)
2012: Impact
Wrestling (TNA)
2013: RAW (WWE)
2014: NXT (NXT)
2015: Lucha
Underground (Lucha Underground)
