Hello and welcome to my, not so, presitigious End of Year Awards. This is the sixth year these awards have been in operation and I can say without any doubt this is by far the longest this article has ever been so, for that, I apologise. With that said let's get on with the awards, enjoy!
Major End-Year Awards
Promotion of the Year:
This was a really difficult category to award this year.
Ever since I started doing these awards there has always been one promotion
that stood head and shoulders above the others in any given year. This year was
not the case. As per usual there were good and bad in all promotions however
this year the field was a lot tighter. So who won this tight race? Let’s find
out. Right off the bat I’d like to note that for the first time since the
inception of these awards I couldn’t even consider TNA because aside from a
couple of Hardy related things I have not watched TNA this year. So of the
promotions I did see enough of we first go to New Japan Pro Wrestling. It’s
well known that I am not a fan of the way NJPW has booked over the past few
years and this year was no different. Their failure to capitalise on arguably
the most over man in all of wrestling in 2016. There have been some great
matches and the odd great moment, as well as a great G1 but overall it was another
average year for NJPW and it is out of the running. From Japan to Reseda,
California and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. PWG did what PWG always does, put on
great shows with great matches but very little in the way of meaningful
storyline progression. PWG is happy with its place of a Super Indie that puts
together bi-monthly super cards that delivers dream matches but little else.
This year though the match quality was slightly lower than usual and there was
even less storylines than usual so although they once again delivered what I
expect from PWG it wasn’t enough to earn them this year’s Promotion of the Year
award. Onto the biggest and, to most, only game in town the WWE. Despite being
the only wrestling promotion most people know they have only won this award
once – almost by default in 2011 – and they aren’t going to add this year to
their list of accomplishments (not that it matters to them of course). It was a
tough year to watch WWE, there was very little to get excited about in the
first half of the year and although SmackDown became the most consistently
entertaining wrestling show on television post-brand split RAW has remained
awful and the promotion as a whole is average at best. There have been some
good points this year though, as mentioned previously SmackDown has been great
since the brand split and some guys have had career years – AJ Styles I’m
looking at you. NXT has had possibly its weakest year since they exploded from
developmental to legitimate brand with NXT: Arrival but the weekly shows are
still logical and the Takeover’s continue to be brilliant shows. I look forward
to where SmackDown and NXT go in 2017, I look forward to continuing not
watching RAW and reading reviews after the fact confirming that I was right not
to watch because it doesn’t look like either of those things are going to
change soon. On to the promotion that has won this award for the past two years
– ROH. I’m going to go on the record and say that the criticism the company has
come in for this year have been way overblown, the shows have not been nearly
as bad as some have made out. The weekly product is consistently compelling
with excellent matches and good storyline progression. The house shows or
B-events or whatever label you want to attach to them have been generally
excellent. The PPV’s, however, have been largely disappointing despite ending
with a fantastic Final Battle. Make no mistake though, despite my brushing off
how bad ROH has been, they’ve certainly seen a steep decrease in quality from
the past two years and they’ve done nowhere near enough to three-peat. This
year I’ve picked up watching Pro Wrestling NOAH again. After being intrigued by
the goings on in late-2015 I decided to check out the show that saw Naomichi
Marufuji dethrone Minoru Suzuki for the GHC Heavyweight Championship and I was
hooked again. 2016 was a great year for NOAH, a revitalising year that they
badly needed. It wasn’t perfect, the Suzuki-gun invasion angle was dragging
towards its end and they managed to somehow kill a fantastic junior division in
the second half of the year but for the most part it was great. There were some
great angles, the rebuilding of important talent, the elevation of younger
talent and the solidification of the likes of Katsuhiko Nakajima – absolutely
the right man to finally rid NOAH of Suzuki-gun – as permanent main eventers.
They had a great year and although I am questioning some of the booking
decisions at the end of the year (why would you have Atsushi Kotoge hold both
the Junior belt AND the Junior Tag belts when you knew he was going to move up
to the heavyweight division and, more to the point why would you promote Kotoge
to a heavyweight at all?) they were an admirable second place in this category
in 2016 and I look forward to seeing what they do in 2017. They lost however to
the insanity that is Lucha Underground. Like I mentioned right at the start of
this write-up this has not been a perfect year for anyone – and Lucha
Underground were no different. Season Two started in January with a bang and
for the first 15-20 episodes LU were on fire with their storylines and matches.
Sadly, the wheels completely fell off towards the end of Season Two culminating
in an incredibly underwhelming Ultima Lucha Dos. However, towards the end of
the year they have regained all the goodwill they lost with a stellar Season
Three so far and, as we inch closer to the mid-season finale, I have full faith
in the writers to continue their success into 2017. And hopefully they’ll fix
their biggest failing in their history so far – the poor utilisation of
Pentagon. But that is all in the future and for 2016 Lucha Underground are my
‘Promotion of the Year’.
The winner is: Lucha
Underground
Superstar of the Year:
Contrary to our opening award, this award was one of the
easiest to pick as one person did stand head and shoulders above the rest but
we’ll get to that. Before we start I must reinforce the difference between this
award and the next award ‘Wrestler of the Year’. This award is given to the
best all-around performer in professional wrestling over a year-long period,
the ‘Wrestler of the Year’ award is given to the best in-ring performer in
professional wrestling in a calendar year. With that said let me mention that
two people had a real chance of winning this award but bad booking let them
down. Those men were Pentagon Jr./Pentagon Dark who looked on course to be the
MVP of Lucha Underground and possibly all of wrestling only to be derailed by
some spectacularly backwards booking that ruled him out of the running. That,
however, paled in comparison to the booking of Tetsuya Naito. This man is more
over than I’ve seen anyone in Japanese wrestling be for a long, long time.
However, a token IWGP Heavyweight Championship reign aside, he has been
woefully underutilised in favour of the hugely over exposed Kazuchika Okada.
The booking of NJPW has long given me cause to scratch my head but their
booking of Naito has been on an entirely different level of disappointing. So
down to the three men who actually had a chance. Let’s start with last year’s
winner, the Greatest First Generation Wrestler – Jay Lethal. He had another
great year picking up where he left off in 2015. His run as World Champion,
which will go down as legendary, continued all the way until Death Before
Dishonor in August when he dropped the strap to Adam Cole after a great feud.
His interactions with Cole, and by extension Bullet Club, Colt Cabana and Kyle
O’Reilly were some of the highlights of the year. Even after dropping the top
prize in ROH he continued his great feud with Cole and established a nice
mini-feud with Tetsuya Naito that saw him beat Naito on an ROH event before
giving Naito his win back in NJPW. This year though, despite him continuing his
great work of last year albeit to a lesser extent, he was a distant third. Now
on to the man who was a distant second, Samoa Joe. Joe has had a spectacularly
good year. He has been one of the best heels in the business and looks more
motivated than he has in years. He has churned out great match after great
match and decent, if not fantastic, feuds with Finn Balor and Shinsuke
Nakamura. But it is more than that with Joe this year. He has an aura about him
right now. A must-see aura that very few people have and every segment he has
always has my full attention. Joe’s had arguably his best year ever but
certainly his best year since 2006 but he was nowhere near this year’s winner.
The man who won this award can be described only one way – Phenomenal. Yes,
this year’s winner is indisputably AJ Styles. AJ started off the year
challenging Shinsuke Nakamura in a classic match for the IWGP Intercontinental
Championship in New Japan’s signature Dome show and ended it as WWE Champion.
His year was not perfect of course but even the ‘not perfect’ bits had AJ
making them better than they had any right to be. His feud with Chris Jericho
did not produce the level of matches I had expected or hoped – and the feud
itself was underwhelming until Y2J’s heel turn changed everything. His feud
with Roman Reigns was possibly his worst in a couple of year, but that’s
nothing against that feud, which was better than any of us could have dreamed
with some of the best matches of Reigns’ career. If the lowlights weren’t very
low, the highlights were incredibly high. His debut in WWE was a moment to
behold. A spectacular moment that saw the Amway Centre explode as AJ made his
entrance into the Royal Rumble match. I was in a bar that erupted upon AJ’s
entrance (finally) being shown. He gave a great performance in that match but
he was only just getting started. He had a brilliant feud with John Cena that
culminated in a great match at SummerSlam. He was drafted to SmackDown and held
down the fort in the infancy of the brand split producing a great feud with
Dean Ambrose that saw him win the WWE Championship in yet another thrilling
match at Backlash and extend all the way to December’s TLC PPV without once
feeling like it had overstayed its welcome. As expected AJ’s wrestling this
year was fantastic but he really was the total package this year. His character
is on point and really plays to his strengths. His heel work has been fantastic
even if it is becoming increasingly difficult to get him booed. And his mic
work is just on a different level to what it used to be. He really is the
‘Superstar of the Year’ and I’ve got a feeling it is going to take a hell of a
year if anyone else is going to beat him next year, too.
The winner is: AJ
Styles
Wrestler of the Year:
I always find this award difficult to gauge because
wrestling has become increasingly reliant on great matches in recent years,
even in more story driven companies like WWE. That reliance means we arguably
see more great matches than ever before because people are having great matches
on weekly shows and PPV undercards rather than just in big PPV matches. So,
picking one guy as the in-ring king for a year is always difficult. This year I
added a ‘statistics’ portion to my Top 50 Matches of the Year list (which you
can read here) which made it somewhat easier but having the most matches in my Top
50 list doesn’t necessarily make you the best wrestler of the year. That said,
the guy that was tied for first place in terms of having the most matches in my
Top 50 is the guy that has won this award this year so it obviously is a
factor. Let’s start with some of the close contenders though. Shinsuke Nakamura
had a great in-ring year with a constant stream of great matches including two
that made the top ten of my aforementioned Top 50 list. His debut match in NXT
against Sami Zayn came close to winning the whole thing in terms of best match
of the year (you can see which match actually won later in these awards) and
his last big match in NJPW saw him have an absolutely sublime match with AJ
Styles inside the Tokyo Dome. Speaking of AJ he had a tilt at this award too
but came up just short of emulating Daniel Bryan as the only man to win
Superstar of the Year AND Wrestler of the Year in the same year. Although with
his Superstar of the Year win this year and his Wrestler of the Year win in
2014 he does become only the second man to ever win both awards following,
obviously, Bryan. I’ve mentioned most of AJ’s great matches this year with
Cena, Ambrose, Nakamura and others. One match I haven’t mentioned that deserves
some recognition was his Tag Team Championship match with Chris Jericho against
the New Day. An absolute jewel in the rough that was Monday Night RAW this
year. AJ had so many good matches this year it would take me eons to list them
but he still came up short. Adam Cole was in consideration for this award too
with six matches in my Top 50 – the same as the eventual winner. Cole has been
on point in ring this year even if his character and promos have been less
compelling than in recent years. From his clashes with Jay Lethal to his
clashes with Kyle O’Reilly. His work in PWG, his work in ROH, everywhere Cole
showed up he brought his working boots. I’d like to highlight some of his less
fashionable matches this year. His match in Lakeland, FL for the World Title on
a Road to Final Battle Tour Show with Silas Young was one position away from
making the Top 50 and was a truly great match that helped solidify Silas Young
as a main eventer – at least for the few people like me who will have actually
watched the show. He was in multiple great six-man tags with The Young Bucks
and actually, at the start of the year, a great three team tag street fight as
part of the original Kingdom which also involved reDRagon. Finally, another
Cole match that didn’t get enough love was in the build-up to the 14th
Anniversary Show there was a tag match on the weekly show that saw Cole team
with then World Champion Jay Lethal against reDRagon. He had a great in-ring
year but once again it wasn’t enough. We’ve just mentioned him and Jay Lethal
was in consideration for this award too. His World Championship defences were
consistently excellent and his matches after losing the belt remained
fantastic. In fact, thinking back over the past twelve months I can only think
of one Lethal match that was a real let down. That would be his disappointing
outing at Final Battle against the debuting Cody Rhodes. Overall though it was
a fantastic in-ring year for Lethal. His battle with O’Reilly on TV was one of
the best TV matches all year in any company. The storytelling in that match was
on a level you rarely see in wrestling nowadays, a forgotten art almost that
was brilliantly shown in that particular match. His matches with Colt Cabana
are among the best in Cabana’s career and helped revitalise Cabana as a
performer in my eyes. He also, did not do enough. Our final contender that just
came up short is the enigmatic Marty Scurll. I’ve always thought Scurll was a
decent performer but nothing more. That changed in late-2015 and was consigned
to the annals of history by the end of 2016. He had great matches all around
the planet. His matches in PROGRESS with Will Ospreay, in ROH in every match he
has had so far – all of which (three) featured on my Top 50 Matches list, in
PWG – most notably versus Kyle O’Reilly. Every time I see Scurll I know I’m in
for a great match. He won the prestigious Battle of Los Angeles tournament this
year and I can’t think of anyone in that tournament who would have been a more
deserving winner. Scurll has turned into a really special performer and he was
very, very close. But not close enough. The winner of this category is the new
ROH World Champion, Kyle O’Reilly. O’Reilly has had fantastic matches all of
the globe this year. He’s had great matches of every kind, junior matches in
New Japan, heavyweight matches in New Japan, multi-man matches, tag team
matches, technical classics, hardcore brawls. Every type of match he has had
he’s nailed this year. I can’t think of a bad match he has had and he has
featured in some of the best. He had two classic matches with Adam Cole, one
where he won the World Title at Final Battle and the first and arguably best
match ever between the two (which is saying something) at Supercard of Honor.
He had that match on TV against Lethal that I mentioned earlier. His match with
Scurll in PWG and so many more. I could wax lyrical about how good O’Reilly has
been in the ring this year for the rest of this article but there are more
awards to give out so all I’ll say is Kyle O’Reilly is the deserved winner of
this year’s ‘Wrestler of the Year’ award.
The winner is: Kyle
O’Reilly
Female Superstar of the Year:
This one was pretty easy. It has been a mixed year for women’s wrestling from
my point of view. My general life restricts how much wrestling I can consume so
certain promotions that I used to be very current on have fell to the wayside.
SHIMMER, Stardom & SHINE are three of these. They’re not the only
promotions I have stopped watching but they are the three most pertinent to
this particular award given that all three are all-female promotions. I also
feel like, despite the ‘women’s [r]evolution’ being a catchphrase WWE likes to
throw around, WWE and NXT have failed to deliver what they have over previous
years with regards to women’s wrestling. With NXT it is more to do with the
loss of talent. Three of the ‘Four Horsewomen’ that the NXT Women’s Division
was built around were promoted to the main roster last year with the final one
being promoted midway through the year. This loss of talent has hit NXT hard,
forcing them to build up other female performers which – with the exception of
Asuka – they haven’t done well enough. Thankfully this is beginning to change
with Ember Moon obviously set for a huge push and the likes of Billie Kay and
Peyton Royce getting some serious air time and actual feuds. However, for most
of the year the Women’s Division has been Asuka and that’s it. With regards to
the main roster in WWE they failed to push the women properly in the first half
of the year and then had a 50/50 record post-draft. With my feelings on RAW and
SmackDown well known it might be easy for you to guess where each 50 comes
from. SmackDown has used the so-called ‘lesser talents’ of the women’s division
very well since the brand split, more on that later. On the other hand, RAW has
been so obsessed with pushing itself as history-making and progressive that
they forgot to actually be progressive. Somebody, and for the life of me I
can’t remember who, once said – and I’m paraphrasing here – that if you want
the women’s division to be taken seriously just book a feud between men and
then at the end switch those men for women. RAW has been so focused on
promoting the fact that they are giving women main events and giving them match
stipulations they’ve never had before that they forgot to actually build a
feud. And that has really crushed the hopes of one of the early forerunners for
this award – Sasha Banks. Sasha started the year hot, with crowds baying for
her to get involved in the title picture. When she came out at the Royal Rumble
the arena exploded. The build to her match against Becky and Charlotte at
‘Mania was very good and the match delivered but the winner being Charlotte
really sucked the energy out of the story and really stunted Sasha’s year and
more importantly overness. Once she finally got back in the title picture she
and Charlotte traded the belt back and forth like it was going out of business
with no real escalation to the feud and stipulations feeling like they were
just being tacked on so WWE could say “look how progressive we’re being”. With
that tumultuous and end to the year there was never any chance of her really
winning this award. Another person who suffered a somewhat similar fate was her
fellow horsewoman, Bayley. Bayley started off the year as NXT Champion and was
delivering great matches and really elevating her opponents. She gave Carmella
her best match to date and even made a feud with Nia Jax and Eva Marie not
awful. It wasn’t good, but against those two not awful is a massive
achievement. She got a rousing reception when she made her first, at the time
one-off, appearance on the main roster as Sasha’s mystery tag partner to take
on Charlotte and Dana Brooke. She also had two great matches with Asuka but –
and we might be noticing a trend here – following her promotion to the main
roster she really stagnated. Used as a bit part player until pretty much the
end of the year she had her skirmishes with Charlotte but always felt like a
distraction until they got back to the only women’s feud RAW had any time for,
Sasha vs. Charlotte. She had some heatless feuds that I can make little comment
on since I only saw a segment here and there on YouTube and read about in other
people’s reviews given my total lack of time for RAW recently. So despite a
great half a year she’s also not a real contender this year round. I made a
prediction at the start of the year with my fellow ‘Rebooking Series’ co-author
Jonathon that this year this award would go to Ivelisse. I really thought it
would be her year and it really could have been as she is obviously well like
in the Lucha Underground realm, in fact it would have been far preferable to
have her be the first female Lucha Underground Champion as opposed to that
accolade going to the far less talented Sexy Star. However, injuries majorly
impacted her year and she’s not even close to being considered here. I just
thought I’d bring it up to show how talented she is and how next year may well
be different if she can recover from her injuries and continue delivering how
she does when she is fit. I also feel it’s obligatory to mention the only
person to win ‘Female Superstar of the Year’ twice, Cheerleader Melissa. As I
mentioned earlier, my viewership of SHIMMER, and knowledge of the product, has
vastly decreased in recent years – hitting an all-time low this year of roughly
zero, to the point where I don’t even know if Melissa even still wrestles for
the company. Being probably the greatest wrestler SHIMMER has ever had I’d
imagine she still is but, on the other hand, having done pretty much everything
there is to do in SHIMMER it wouldn’t shock me if she was gone either. This has
led to my only exposure to Melissa this year being through Lucha Underground
where she is known as Mariposa. She’s far from one of the most prominent
characters on the show but she still has managed to have a really good year.
Her two biggest highlights being the No Mas match with Sexy Star (which,
despite missing the Top 50, was my highest ranked women’s match of the year)
and the very recent four-way match she was a part of with Jeramiah Crane,
Killshot and Dante Fox where she was undoubtedly the star of the match. I hope
LU have bigger plans in place for Mariposa because despite her character not
being the most compelling right now and her promo skills, as always, being a
bit lacking she is without a doubt one of the best in-ring performers they have
on their roster – male or female. Melissa’s year was, as usual, good but
possibly her weakest ever and not enough to become a three-time winner. So,
that leaves us with two, and despite my earlier dissection of WWE’s booking of
their women this year both of these contenders come from WWE’s roster. Less
surprisingly they both come from SmackDown. Let’s start with a woman I’ve
watched wrestle for a long time, Becky Lynch. Becky has had a great year
starting with challenging for the then Diva’s Championship at the Royal Rumble
in a really underrated match, until the finish, with Charlotte. She was part of
the three-way dance at WrestleMania that I mentioned earlier which was arguably
the best match on the show, sans the finish (noticing a common thread here?).
She did get slightly lost in the wilderness for a while after that but a decent
feud with Natalya took her up to the draft and that’s when things kicked into a
higher gear for Becky. She was the first female drafted to SmackDown and went
on to become the first ever SmackDown Women’s Champion. She had, and is
possibly still having, an amazing feud with Alexa Bliss. The matches have been
a bit of a let-down sadly but the promos and feud itself have been nothing
short of stellar. The booking has been fantastic too and actually has you
invested far more in a singles match between Becky and Alexa with their
simmering heat than RAW does by just going “Charlotte…Sasha…Hell in a Cell…Main
Event of a PPV………HISTORY!” So, who is the other contender? Well it is none
other than the other side to that coin, Alexa Bliss. Alexa has had the hottest
run of any female competitor this year with her run since the draft being, to
steal a phrase from her arch-nemesis, straight fire. It hasn’t been all plain
sailing this year though, despite seeming the obvious opponent for Bayley – at
least until it was time for Asuka to claim the NXT Women’s crown – her feud
with Bayley was seemingly put to one side in favour of feuds with Nia Jax, Eva
Marie and a friendly rivalry with Carmella. She was also part of the elongated
saga that saw Blake & Murphy finally part ways as a tag team (I think, that
did end, right?). However, once the draft happened and she turned up on
SmackDown, everything changed. She was immediately positioned as one of the top
heels in the division and made the most of every opportunity she had. I
initially thought her feud with Becky was a placeholder, a good heel for Becky
to beat at the start of her Championship run. However, as the weeks went by
Alexa delivered great promo after great promo, both on SmackDown and the always
entertaining Talking Smack. Some of her segments with Becky were among the best
WWE have produced all year. Sadly, as I mentioned earlier the matches have been
somewhat lacking so far but it’s hard to argue Bliss has put herself on the map
this year and absolutely deserves to end the year as SmackDown Women’s
Champion. That being said, I have to give Becky the edge this year. No-one had
a perfect year but Becky Lynch proved why she is one of the best in the world
and although I know there is more and better to come from her, she is the
unquestionable winner of this award in my eyes.
The winner is: Becky
Lynch
Tag Team of the Year:
Tag Team wrestling has undergone a real renaissance in
recent years and I absolutely love it. I’ve always though tag team wrestling
was an underrated part of most promotions and I’m so pleased to see more
companies pushing their tag teams to the fore. Look at ROH, whilst none of
their teams are under consideration for this award this year, the depth of
talent in their tag team ranks is unreal. The Addiction, Motor City Machine
Guns, The Pretty Boy Killers, Silas and The Bruiser, The Young Bucks,
occasionally reDRagon – who are possibly my favourite tag team of the 21st
century. I could go on but you get the picture and this incredible depth of tag
team wrestling is not exclusive to ROH. So, let’s get on to the contenders. We
start with the current NXT Tag Team Champions, DIY. DIY – made up of indie
veterans Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano – came into our consciousness as a
tag team last year during the first ever Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. From
what I remember it was supposed to be a one-time deal but Gargano and Ciampa
impressed so much that they’ve turned it into a full-time gig. They’ve been a
stellar team all year building themselves up from the bottom of the NXT Tag
Team ranks. There was a brief moment, both on NXT programming and during the
Cruiserweight Classic, where I feared they were going down the route of
splitting them up as a team which would have been an awful shame. Thankfully
that didn’t happen. They did have a tremendous match against each other in the
Cruiserweight Classic but it ended amicably and their team went from strength
to strength. They engaged in an amazing feud with The Revival, who I’ll come to
later, which culminated in an absolutely super Two out of Three Falls match at
NXT Takeover: Toronto which saw DIY finally claim the gold that had eluded them
for so long. But it’s not just against The Revival, they’ve had great matches
with practically every team in NXT this year. On the last NXT show of the year
– where they showed the entirety of the Osaka show – DIY defended their tag
team titles against the team of Akira Tozawa and Tajiri and boy what a match
that was. It caused some last second editing of my top 50 matches list as I
watched it in the latter stages of New Year’s Eve when the article was all
finished and just waiting to be posted, that’s how good the match was. The only
mark against DIY this year is their name but that is me being extremely
nit-picky and of course will play no part in determining whether or not they
win this award. It only seems natural to come to the team they beat for those
NXT Tag Team Championships next – The Revival. The team of Scott Dawson and
Dash Wilder really came out of nowhere last year to become one of my favourite
teams and 2016 has seen them go from strength to strength. The name is
incredibly fitting as the duo evoke the best memories of the likes of The
Brainbusters and their ilk. That comparison may seem a bit over the top but The
Revival have earned the right to be compared to those legends. Their mantra of
“No flips, just fists” fits them perfectly and they have a case to say they’ve
had the best match on every single Takeover this year. They truly are ‘Top
Guys’ and have just been exceptional in every department this year from their
ring work to their mic work to their character work. Their feuds have been
phenomenal and they have everything it takes to become a Hall of Fame quality
tag team – in fact, barring WWE brainlessly splitting them up any time soon,
I’ll be shocked if they don’t earn that Hall of Fame moniker one day. We know
The Revival had a great feud with DIY but our next contender in this list is
the team they started off the year setting the world on fire with – American
Alpha. Alpha comprises of loveable dork Chad Gable and the suplex machine that
is Jason Jordan. These two complement each other so well both in the ring and
out. Their goofy personas endear them to almost everyone who watches them and
their skills in the ring are beyond question. They started the year off with a
quest to win the NXT Tag Team Championship, something they did on WrestleMania
weekend when they defeated The Revival in a tremendous encounter. All of their
matches with The Revival were brilliant and even though they eventually lost
the straps back to The Revival, that didn’t stop Alpha. They were drafted to
SmackDown this year and were the clear favourites to become the first ever
SmackDown Tag Team Champions. That was not to be as they were side-lined in a
feud that saw the stagnant Usos turn heel and become the reinvigorated and
incredibly entertaining Usos. That feud is far from over and will probably go
on to become quite the historic rivalry if things continue the way they are.
Alpha ended what was a defining year for them as a team by surprisingly
defeating the Wyatt Family to win the Tag Team Championships on the final
SmackDown of 2016. It was a win I didn’t see coming but one that Alpha
definitely deserve. Our final contender is a bit of a dodgy one. Should they
qualify as a tag team? Given the fact that I always consider trios as a tag
team unit (albeit a six-man one) I decided the Worldwide Underground would. PJ
Black, Jack Evans and the heinous Johnny Mundo and their devious cohort Taya
have dominated the Lucha Underground landscape in Season Three. Since coming
together, seemingly through a shared sense of self-importance and showcasing an
inherent ability to be the most loathsome unit on the planet, they have caused
havoc in the LU universe. It is no wonder I find them so entertaining to watch.
Capping off their year in style with Johnny Mundo slithering his way to
becoming Lucha Underground Champion they still found time to be such incredibly
hateful people that they even disgust each other at times with the tensions
simmering between Jack and PJ as well as Johnny and everyone. They have had an
amazing year but was it enough? Well the short answer is no because no team
could touch The Revival this year, they have had a better year than any tag
team has had in a long time and, given the two years reDRagon have had in 2014
and 2015, that is a hugely impressive feat.
The winner is: The
Revival
Match of the Year:
As per usual I won’t go into too much detail of all the different contenders in
this particular category because it would spoil things for those of you who
haven’t read my Top 50 Matches of 2016 list yet (you can read it here, by the
way). So we’ll just stick with the match that won. For the second year in a row
New Japan delivered the best match of the year for me and this year it was the
G1 Climax Final that pitted long suffering Hirooki Goto, sadly world renowned
as a choke artist, against current Bullet Club leader Kenny Omega to determine
who would win the briefcase for an IWGP Heavyweight Championship match at the
January 4th Dome Show (it’s just around the corner folks). I know a
lot of people thought the best match from this year’s G1 Climax was the B Block
finale between Omega and Tetsuya Naito and although that was a fantastic match
I felt this one had the edge. The story these two told was nothing short of
phenomenal and really made me buy into Omega as a legitimate leader of Bullet
Club and, more importantly, a legitimate main event player in New Japan. It’s
not that I’ve ever had anything against Omega – I’ve always really liked the
guy but something just didn’t click with him in New Japan for me. Both his Jr.
Heavyweight Title run and his Intercontinental Title run had left a lot to be
desired and he was stuck with the albatross that Bullet Club has become. But
this G1 was Kenny’s break out party and boy did he save his best performance
for last. This match had everything, great wrestling, great storytelling, great
drama, some really big spots and a ton of really good near falls. The only
criticism I would have is after everything Goto has gone through in the past
few years, he really needed this win. Going to the finals would have been a
break out moment for Omega regardless but this felt like Goto’s last chance to
be a real main eventer in New Japan – something he absolutely deserves. And it
would have actually made Gedo’s weird booking of him (acknowledging his
“choking”, becoming so submissive to Okada, joining CHAOS etc.) make sense
because it would have all built to this and then him defeating Okada in a Tokyo
Dome main event to really cement himself in the upper echelon of NJPW. Sadly
Gedo has no interest in that and instead Omega went over. I was disappointed in
the winner but the match itself was nothing short of outstanding and a well
deserving winner of the Match of the Year accolade.
The winner is: Hirooki
Goto vs. Kenny Omega, G1 Climax Final – G1 Climax: Day Nineteen (NJPW)
Angle/Feud of the Year:
This is another category where nothing really stood out to
me. It’s not that there were no good rivalries this year, there were plenty,
but never was I watching something unfold and thinking “this is going to be
tough to beat”. We’ll start off our contenders in ROH with a feud that spanned
practically the entire year, Kyle O’Reilly vs. Adam Cole. The two had been
feuding since the back half of 2015 and finished off that particular year with
Cole sneaking a win out against O’Reilly at Final Battle before falling victim
to O’Reilly beating him down after the match. Obviously, however, that didn’t
settle it. They came into the New Year immediately establishing themselves as
the two best contenders for Jay Lethal’s ROH World Championship which led to an
excellent three-way dance at the 14th Anniversary Show. After both
came up short, Cole and O’Reilly’s focus returned to being solely fixated on
one another. This led to what everyone assumed was a feud-ending No Holds
Barred Main Event at Supercard of Honor X. O’Reilly won an enthralling
encounter and everyone moved on. Cole took some time off, O’Reilly focused his
attentions on becoming ROH World Champion. When Cole returned he revealed
himself as the newest member of Bullet Club and this is where the feud
reignited. Cole made the claim that O’Reilly would never be ROH World Champion
as long as he was around. Then came a heavily promoted match on ROH Television
when O’Reilly took on World Champion Jay Lethal in a match that was expected to
be given the full television hour. Before the match could start though Cole and
his goons attacked O’Reilly leaving him in no state to compete. He returned
later in the show to compete but he was at an obvious disadvantage, eventually
losing to Lethal after an incredible match that everyone who hasn’t watched it
should check out. Post-match Bullet Club beat him down again and this wrote
Kyle off the shows for a little while. Cole, meanwhile, turned his focus onto
becoming only the third ever two-time ROH World Champion, something he
accomplished by defeating Lethal at Death Before Dishonor XIV. O’Reilly
returned and, along with long-time friend and tag team partner Bobby Fish, took
the fight to Bullet Club. Eventually getting his chance at Cole in a No Disqualification
match for the World Championship at Final Battle. The match never reached the
heights of their Supercard of Honor match from earlier in the year but it was
still phenomenal and O’Reilly finally got the win that mattered over Cole – at
Final Battle, for the belt. This story lasted practically eighteen months with
very little space in between and yet not once was it boring. It was a blast of
a feud which really kept ROH going through an otherwise underwhelming 2016.
Over to Japan and Pro Wrestling NOAH to look at our next feud which saw NOAH,
specifically Katsuhiko Nakajima, versus Suzuki-gun. NOAH did a brilliant job of
building Nakajima up this year through his matches with Minoru Suzuki and his
unsuccessful tilt at Takashi Sugiura’s GHC Heavyweight Championship so, despite
years of underutilisation, by the time we got to October, and Nakajima’s second
title shot of the year, he was more than ready. He defeated Sugiura to become
Champion and went on to successfully defend it against Suzuki-gun leader Minoru
Suzuki in a match that all but sealed the end for Suzuki-gun in NOAH. I’ve been
baying for NOAH to push Nakajima for years and this time around they’ve got it
right, he was the right man to finally end Suzuki-gun’s stranglehold on NOAH
and he’s the right man to take the company forward into 2017 and beyond. This
angle, although overstaying its welcome by the end, did exactly what it needed
to. We’ll stick with NOAH for the next angle which is one of those difficult
angles that actually started in 2015, meaning all the good bits from the
previous year can’t really be taken into account but to give you some
background into this angle I’m going to discuss it briefly. In 2009 Go Shiozaki
was being primed to be the next top star in Pro Wrestling NOAH. He had been
successfully teaming with Puro legend Mitsuharu Misawa and was clearly being
put into a position where he could become the ace of the company and allow
Misawa to slowly retire. Sadly, Misawa died in a tag team match in the middle
of 2009, this threw the whole company into chaos. Losing Misawa was one of my
saddest moments in all my years of watching wrestling and led me to seriously
question my fandom. It was also the catalyst that caused NOAH to almost die as
a company. The day after Misawa’s untimely passing, then GHC Heavyweight
Champion Jun Akiyama announced he would have to vacate the belt due to injury
and nominated Shiozaki to challenge for the now vacant belt. Shiozaki did and
beat Takeshi Rikio to claim his first crown. Unfortunately, this all came far
too soon for Shiozaki and his popularity was seriously hindered. He eventually
dropped the belt to Takashi Sugiura and he was never quite the same thereafter.
He won the title again but it was never the same and he seemed like damaged
goods. He eventually left the company when they were arguably at their lowest
ebb to jump to rival promotion All Japan Pro Wrestling. After things didn’t
work out for him there he came back to NOAH. His return received little fanfare
and he was initially rejected by both the crowd and the locker room. Only one
person accepted him, Yoshinobu Kanemaru who had also recently returned to the
promotion from All Japan. After Sugiura’s shocking betrayal of NOAH to join
Suzuki-gun, Shiozaki offered his services in the fight against Suzuki-gun but
NOAH Ace Naomichi Marufuji turned him down. Switching into the stuff that
counts, i.e. occurred in 2016 Shiozaki’s search for acceptance went on but his
year didn’t start well when his only friend, Kanemaru, also turned on NOAH and
joined Suzuki-gun. However, his old friend Maybach Taniguchi came to his aid.
In the main event of that same show Marufuji dropped the belt to Sugiura and
after the match finally accepted Shiozaki back into the fold with a handshake
and handed he and Taniguchi the NOAH flag, symbolically saying that he had
failed and it was time for them to defend NOAH. Shiozaki’s, and by extension
Taniguchi’s, feud with Suzuki-gun intensified leading to the two unsuccessfully
challenging for the GHC Tag Team Championship. Shiozaki also focused on
attacking Suzuki-gun via the singles route and eventually became the #1
contender. In May Shiozaki defeated Sugiura to reclaim the GHC Title for NOAH.
His reign lasted only for two months and he and Taniguchi eventually won the
Tag Team Championships as NOAH finally saw off the threat of Suzuki-gun but
that moment when he defeated Sugiura to win the Championship was very special.
Sure, it didn’t last very long but Nakajima was the end game, not Shiozaki and
this redemption angle he had played out perfectly. We now travel back to the
States for our final two contenders. First from the land of opportunity in
SmackDown comes the Dolph Ziggler vs. The Miz feud. Dolph has really become
maligned by the hardcore wrestling crowd but I still like him. It may help that
I never watched his feud with Rusev which seemed to be the point where a lot of
fans turned on him. However, this feud did raise his stock, albeit only
slightly. The story started off with Ziggler challenging for Miz’s
Intercontinental Championship after Miz had made some less than complimentary
comments about Ziggler and his penchant for losing big matches. Ziggler’s
challenges were unsuccessful usually down to Miz cheating or his wife Maryse
interfering, or both. Eventually Miz got so far under Dolph’s skin that he
agreed to put his career on the line for one more shot at Miz’s
Intercontinental Championship. Dolph was successful in one of the best WWE
matches of the year and the feud up to that point was probably the leading
contender for this award. Sadly, mainly due to how thin SmackDown’s roster is,
the feud didn’t end there and eventually Miz reclaimed the title which has
blotted the copybook of this feud – especially since it somewhat negated
Ziggler supposedly silencing his critics who said he choked in big matches. It
was still an incredibly well-built, heated feud though and one which saw both
men do their best work in years. Our final contender for this award comes from
the land of NXT and directly correlates to our previous award. It is of course
than fantastic feud between The Revival and DIY. The month of May saw Gargano
and Ciampa score what seemed like a strange win against The Revival since The
Revival were just about to receive their rematch for the NXT Tag Team
Championship against American Alpha. It made perfect sense though as The
Revival won that match as well as Alpha’s rematch which set up DIY as the
obvious next opponents for Dash and Dawson. This match happened at Takeover:
Brooklyn II in a mesmerising match of supreme quality that absolutely stole the
show and saw The Revival just hand onto their Tag Team Titles. That was
probably meant to be the end of it as it seemed obvious WWE were building
towards splitting Ciampa and Gargano up but the reception that match received I
believe changed WWE’s mind and they built to the rematch which took place in
Toronto at the next Takeover event. This match somehow topped their previous
outing, a brilliant Two out of Three Falls match with took the number five
place on my Match of the Year list. The match ended with both Dash and Dawson
tapping simultaneously and DIY getting a moment that was just perfect in the
eyes of many fans. This rivalry was very special and to be honest all five
angles mentioned would all have been worthy winners but in the end I had to
give the edge to the Go Shiozaki redemption angle as I believe it was the most
perfectly written and complete of the lot.
The winner is: Go
Shiozaki’s Redemption
Best One-off Show of the Year:
I feel like I’m repeating myself here but this was another
category that was virtually impossible to decide. There were four shows in
serious consideration for this award and we’ll go in chronological order
meaning we start with Takeover: Dallas. What a tremendous show this was and the
fact that it took place just two days before a shocking WrestleMania only
hammered that point home. The show started off with a fantastic Tag Team
Championship match between The Revival and American Alpha which saw Alpha
finally claim the NXT Tag Team Titles. After that we saw Austin Aries’ in-ring
debut and saw him manage to get the first decent match I’d ever seen out of
Baron Corbin. That being said, this was definitely the low point of the
evening. Next saw the utterly sublime debut of Shinsuke Nakamura in an instant
classic effort with the departing Sami Zayn. A virtually perfect match, how
could you not love this show? Following that effort was Bayley’s unsuccessful
defence of her NXT Women’s Championship against Asuka. This match played out
far differently from how I expected it to with Bayley getting in a lot more
offence than expected and it was all the better for it. Allowing Bayley that
offence did not detract from Asuka’s title win and proved that underdog
babyfaces don’t have to be portrayed as loveable but seriously deficient
wrestlers to get over against a monster heel which – despite her size – Asuka
is booked as. Now we come to the main event, this did not quite live up to the
rest of the card and frankly had the wrong result all because NXT wanted to
shoehorn defending NXT Champion Finn Balor into the record books as the longest
reigning NXT Champion. He really should have dropped the belt to Samoa Joe here
but alas they decided the record was too important and they’d do the title
change on a house show later. The Dallas show also had the first on-screen
appearance of one Mr. Bobby Roode. Next we go to another NXT Takeover event,
Takeover: Brooklyn II. This was another great event and we opened with a
pitch-perfect opening contest between No Way Jose and Austin Aries. Post-match
Aries was confronted by a returning Hideo Itami in a great moment that I was
hoping would lead to the rejuvenation of both of their fledgling NXT careers.
Sadly, we’ve ended the year with both injured but that does not detract from
this show itself as the moment was brilliant. After this we saw the debut of
Ember Moon as she defeated Billie Kay in a short but sweet match which saw her shock
fans with her ‘O-Face’ finishing manoeuvre – I knew they’d have to come up with
a different name for that move, I just wish that they would get on with
choosing one but I digress, again. Next was the much anticipated in-ring debut
of Bobby Roode. This was a truly special moment as Roode literally descended
into the arena whilst the Brooklyn faithful serenaded him with his theme song.
It was one of those moments in wrestling where the hair stands up on your arms
and you realise you are witnessing something magical. The match he had with
Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas wasn’t bad either although it only succeeded in getting
Cien booed more than ever before – something which has worked out to everyone’s
benefit as Almas has turned heel, thankfully. The Tag Team Championship which
came next between The Revival and DIY has been mentioned plenty in this article
already so I won’t spend too long on it, needless to say, it was awesome. Asuka
defeated Bayley in Bayley’s rematch for the Women’s Championship she had lost at
Takeover: Dallas. This was on the level, if not slightly better, than their
bout in Dallas. The main event here was a very good match too as Shinsuke
Nakamura defeated Samoa Joe to win the NXT Championship for the first time.
Also, Shinsuke’s entrance featured a live violin solo lead-in – and it was
utterly amazing. This show was an amazing way to spend two and a bit hours. The
fact that SummerSlam was the next day put into perspective how much better NXT
is than the main roster (there’s a pattern here). We come to early September
and small Legion Hall in Reseda, California for our next contender. The 2016
Battle of Los Angeles was three nights of the best wrestling you would see all
year, the best of which was Night Two and that’s what we will discuss here.
This show was tremendous and saw Cody Rhodes debut for the promotion in a great
match with NXT alumni Sami Callihan. Every match on this card was at worst good
from the opener between Tommaso Ciampa and Dalton Castle to the – in my mind –
overrated but still very good six-man tag outing in the main event that pitted
Mount Rushmore 2.0’s The Young Bucks and Adam Cole against Matt Sydal, Ricochet
and Will Ospreay. The match that stole the show though was the beautiful tag
team match that saw Fenix and Pentagon, Jr. team up to defeat Heroes Eventually
Die (Chris Hero and Tommy End). A superb encounter that showed once again this
year just how good tag team wrestling can be when it is done right. Our final
contender was one of the last big shows of the year with ROH’s Final Battle.
I’ve defended ROH a fair bit in this article but I have no issue saying that
their PPV’s have generally been a let-down. Final Battle, however, was
unequivocally their best outing of the year. We started off with a six-man tag
match that I really had no interest in seeing but ended up thoroughly enjoying
through the efforts of all six competitors. We then came to our first
disappointment of the night in a so-so match between Silas Young and Jushin
Thunder Liger. Things picked up again straight after though as Dalton Castle
and Colt Cabana had a great match showcasing both men’s strengths. The debuting
Cody Rhodes took on Jay Lethal next and while the match itself was
underwhelming the post-match drama was anything but as Cody turned heel in a
brilliantly despicable way. Matt Taven’s New Kingdom won the brand-new Trios
Championship next in a match that was far better than I expected. This was
followed by three tremendous matches that elevated this from a good show to a
great show starting off with a brilliant three-way dance for the ROH World
Television Championship between Champion Marty Scurll, Dragon Lee and Will
Ospreay. It warmed my heart to see Marty get the reaction he did when his music
hit. Second was the Tag Team Championship match that saw The Young Bucks defend
against The Briscoes in a match that I didn’t have high hopes for since these
two teams have never really shown any good chemistry in any of their previous
encounters. However, they delivered in spades here with a fantastic tag title
match. Post-match we saw the emergence of Broken Matt Hardy to challenge the
“Bucks of Youth” in a segment that blew my mind and the mind of everyone in the
Hammerstein Ballroom that night. Finally, we came to the main event and the
piece de resistance as Kyle O’Reilly won the ROH World Championship in an
absolute war against Adam Cole. This was a great show, and a great way to end
the year for ROH but it wasn’t quite enough. For me it came down to the two NXT
shows which were so tightly matches. In the end, I just about gave the edge to
the Brooklyn show but it was a hugely difficult choice. The match quality was
arguably slightly better on the Dallas show – although even that is very tight
– but the overall feel of the show and specifically how the show ended just
gave Brooklyn the edge.
The winner is: Takeover:
Brooklyn II
Worst One-off Show of the Year:
This is the first year this award – for lack of a better
term – has existed. It came last year when I decided to beef up the awards with
some extra categories (as well as making some of the ‘Minor Awards’ into ‘Major
Awards) but the decision came so late in the year I decided not to apply them
to the 2015 awards and instead just ready myself to use them in this year’s
version. As for the winner itself, well it was decided pretty early in the year
and it was always going to be difficult for anyone to beat it. I’m never one to
deliberately seek out bad wrestling to watch for kicks so this award is always
going to go to a show that I actually thought had a chance of being good but
woefully underdelivered and in a massive role reversal having won best show of
the year in both 2014 and 2015, it is WrestleMania 32. There were no other
contenders for the award really. I literally wrote WrestleMania down as a
possibility the day after it aired and then nothing else across the rest of the
year even came close to the absolute disaster that was this WrestleMania. Let’s
get the not terrible bits out of the way first. The Women’s Championship
Three-Way Dance was a good match, and AJ vs. Jericho was not terrible –
although it wasn’t nearly as good as I hoped it would be. There we go, that’s
it. That’s the only good things I could come up with for this year’s effort.
Now to the bad and we’ll start with the length of the show. Now let me preface
this by saying I know WrestleMania is an extravaganza, it is the WWE’s answer
to the Super Bowl and I get that it is going to be longer than your average
PPV. However, this year’s runtime of five hours on the main show and a further
two-hour pre-show made this an absolute slog to get through. It was
particularly hard for me given I live in the UK so the show ended at some time
around 5am if I remember correctly. That would be a hard show to get through
even if it was excellent from top to bottom, sadly, this was not. We opened
with an Intercontinental Championship match starring some of the best talent
WWE has to offer – and Zack Ryder. So, of course, Ryder came out on top. The
bar I was in to watch the show went from a rowdy bunch of wrestling fans
excited to see WrestleMania making a level of noise comparable to that in a
football stadium to a bunch of a wrestling fans making a level of sound that
would not have been out of place in a library. The dreaded League of Nations took
on New Day in a really confusing match where many thought the titles were on
the line and after a dull match most were convinced New Day had lost the belts.
And after the match Stone Cold Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels and Mick Foley came
out to lay waste to everyone for… some reason. This also occurred later in the
show when The Rock came out with a flamethrower, bizarrely, and then used the
flamethrower (figuratively) to torch the credibility of The Wyatt Family
beating Erick Rowan in seconds with some sort of assist from John Cena (this
show was so bad I’d already forgotten). Before that Baron Corbin had won the
Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal in a not terrible match, The Undertaker
had defeated Shane McMahon in an absolutely terrible match and Brock Lesnar had
made Dean Ambrose look like an absolute chump in a match that should have made
Ambrose but instead came close to breaking him irreparably. That leaves us with
the main event and boy did this main event fit this show. An absolute slog to get
through, an undesirable result, a bored and frustrated crowd and a general poor
representation of the company. Roman Reigns defeated Triple H in one of the
worst main events in recent WrestleMania memory. It was turgid, as was the
show. There was no other ‘winner’ this year, it simply had to be WrestleMania
32.
The winner is: WrestleMania
32
Best Moment of the Year:
We’ve had some great moments this year. Let’s start in PWG.
On Night One of All Star Weekend XI we saw the return of Adam Cole to the
promotion in a thoroughly brilliant moment. He was topped, however, the
following night by the return of beloved babyface Kyle O’Reilly. Speaking of
O’Reilly and Cole, we’ve discussed their Final Battle outing earlier in the
article and O’Reilly willing lie in a bed of thumbtacks in order to get Cole to
tap out and win the World Championship was a beautiful and cathartic moment. In
Japan, we had two huge moments for guys finally winning the big one. One of
these moments was capitalised on to full effect, one was completely wasted. So,
we’ll start with the wasted one and look at how great a moment was when Tetsuya
Naito defeated Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. As I said
it was wasted but that doesn’t ruin the moment itself, only what came after and
boy was this a great moment for Naito and the fans. On the flip side Katsuhiko
Nakajima’s defeat of Takashi Sugiura and Suzuki-gun for the GHC Heavyweight
Championship was a massively overdue but really enjoyable moment and NOAH are
looking to use that moment to build for the future with Nakajima at the
spearhead of that movement, and rightfully so. Back to WWE for the final three
contenders and we have to start by talking about how special that moment was
when DIY defeated The Revival for the NXT Tag Team Championship. I love both
teams but I much prefer The Revival of the two and despite that, I was so
engrossed in this match that by the end when Dash and Dawson tapped I cheered
louder than I have for any Championship win since probably Seth Rollins at
WrestleMania 31. Our next moment has also been discussed earlier – the debut of
Shinsuke Nakamura. The atmosphere in Dallas when Nakamura made his entrance can
only be described as electric – and everything that followed was amazing too.
Most year’s this would have been enough to win but this year it was not. There
was only one answer to this category and that answer came very early in the
year when AJ Styles made his debut in the 2016 Royal Rumble. For years, I’ve
wondered what it would be like if AJ ever appeared in the WWE but I never
thought it would actually happen. Rumours had been swirling of this possibility
over the preceding weeks but for some reason I just couldn’t buy into it. When
his music hit I was intrigued and somewhere in the back of my mind a little
voice was going “Could this be AJ?” When he appeared on the screen I lost my
mind. It was a really special moment and realistically the only thing that
could win this award.
The winner is: AJ
Styles debuts in the Royal Rumble
Worst Moment of the Year:
I usually like to award this category to an astoundingly bad
piece of booking or a moment that completely fell on its face because that was
what I created this award for. Unfortunately, this year, I can’t. There is an
elephant in the room that I simply cannot ignore. But first let’s talk about
what would usually would have won this award. To understand that we have to go
all the way back to the night after WrestleMania 28. John Cena is stood in the
ring following a defeat to The Rock and calling him out to shake his hand when
all of a sudden Brock Lesnar’s music hits. Making his return after eight years
away from the company he returns to a thunderous ovation. Over the next four
years Lesnar’s booking, sans weird defeats to John Cena and Triple H, can only
be described as indomitable. WWE sacrificed a lot at the altar of the Beast
Incarnate. Whether you like him or not John Cena has been the standard bearer
in the WWE for a decade but when Summerslam 2014 rolled around Brock Lesnar
defeated him in crushing fashion for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Earlier that year The Undertaker’s almost
mythical undefeated streak at WrestleMania was snapped clean in two by Lesnar.
He was the decimator of legends, the uncontrollable, undefeatable, unstoppable
force of nature that Heyman always claimed he was. This year had been no
different and although a lot of people – myself included – were starting to get
sick of Brock and his ‘matches’ we all knew it would be huge for the man who
would eventually slay the beast. So, when I was watching Survivor Series this
year I had very little interest in Goldberg vs. Lesnar but I’d watched the
whole show, and that was the main event – I wasn’t going to turn off so I
settled down to watch it with my phone at my side so I could keep myself
entertained in the obvious lulls that were going to occur in this match. Then
Goldberg destroyed Lesnar with three moves and beat him in less than two
minutes. It was shocking, it was unexpected, but most of all it was stupid. All
that building up of Lesnar into almost a demi-god was thrown to one side for a 50-odd
year old man who hadn’t wrestled in the better part of a decade and is probably
only going to have two more matches in his entire career. That is spectacularly
short-sighted and downright awful booking. I still, some months later, cannot
comprehend how catastrophically stupid that was. They’ve tried to explain it
away as Lesnar being underprepared and not taking Goldberg seriously enough.
He’ll probably even get his win back at WrestleMania 33. But it’s too late. The
spell is broken. That mythical demi-god beast is now just a man. So, yes, when
he’s beaten in the future it will probably be seen as a big deal for whoever it
is. But they could have created a star. Instead they threw it all away for a
shocking end to a pay-per-view. It was a gargantuan waste of an opportunity.
I’m struggling to find exactly the right words to show just how stupid I think
this was but I’ve exhausted my vocabulary and still can’t find words cutting
enough. That would have been a slam dunk of a winner in 2015, it probably would
have been a slam dunk of a winner in 2017 but not in 2016. This award goes
elsewhere and to one of the most soul-crushing segments I’ve ever seen on a
wrestling show. The moment Daniel Bryan came out to announce his retirement
from active competition. It was a necessary segment, a heart-warming one at
times, and a genuinely lovely speech from Bryan. I know he should not ever
wrestle again and if I had a chance to speak to him I’d tell him that despite
being one of my favourite wrestlers of all-time I never want to see him wrestle
again. But that didn’t take away from the trauma of watching a guy I’d been
watching for nearly fifteen years, more than half my life was having to retire.
It was awful and without a doubt that saddest segment in wrestling this year
for me personally. With that, the worst moment of this pro wrestling year has
to go to Daniel Bryan’s retirement.
The winner is: Daniel
Bryan retires
Breakout Star of the Year:
This award is always a difficult one to quantify in terms of
what actually makes someone a breakout star? I always define it as someone who
has significantly improved their own standing in a promotion or in wrestling as
a whole over the preceding twelve months. So, it is very much a subjective
thing but based on that criteria, there were only two people who stood out as
contenders this year. We start with the current GHC Heavyweight Champion
Katsuhiko Nakajima. Nakajima has been around for a long time now, despite his
still relatively young age. I mean as far back as 2005 he was teaming with his
mentor Kensuke Sasaki in a revered match against Go Shiozaki and the legendary
Kenta Kobashi. Despite this, he has never reached the levels he truly should have.
His relationship with Sasaki has been both a blessing and a curse over his
tenure in pro wrestling but I have to believe that, in recent years, it has
been far more hindrance than help. However, 2016 was possibly his most
important year to date. He started off the year looking like a serious
contender for the GHC Heavyweight Championship and was at the forefront of
NOAH’s fight against Suzuki-gun. He was victorious against their leader Minoru
Suzuki but came up short against Takashi Sugiura as he looked to reclaim the
title for NOAH. After that he took part in New Japan’s prestigious G1 Climax
tournament where he made a huge impression. Naomichi Marufuji may have got the
IWGP Heavyweight Championship match and Go Shiozaki may have got the feud with
Katsuyori Shibata but Nakajima was arguably the NOAH wrestler who left the
biggest impact during that timeframe. Back in NOAH he unseated Sugiura to
finally win the GHC Heavyweight Championship and is looking to become the ace
of the promotion. He has a truly fantastic year and his stock has raised
significantly but he was already a star in NOAH before this year so now we look
at his opponent in this award, somebody who has broken out into new frontiers –
Marty Scurll. I really got on board with Scurll last year when I saw his debut
for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, this year he went from strength to strength.
Having great matches all over the world and becoming one of the best heels on
the planet. His No Disqualification Match with Will Ospreay in PROGRESS this
year really made a lot of people sit up and take notice. He then went onto win
the definitive North American wrestling tournament in PWG’s Battle of Los
Angeles just one year after he debuted for the company in the very same
tournament. He made such a big splash that when ROH came back to the UK for the
first time in a decade he was one of the people brought into the company – on a
permanent deal – to help galvanise attention for their UK events. On that UK
tour he beat fellow Briton Will Ospreay to claim the ROH World Television
Championship which he went on to successfully defend against Ospreay and Dragon
Lee at Final Battle, ROH’s premier event, in his North American debut for the
company. It really was an unbelievable year for The Villain and despite Nakajima
arguably having a better year in terms of what he has achieved, Marty has
improved his standing in the world of pro wrestling more in my opinion and for
that he wins the 2016 Breakout Star of the Year Award.
The winner is: Marty
Scurll
Most Improved Superstar:
Three options stand
out immediately in this category: Jack Evans, Chris Jericho and The Miz. Let’s
take a look at them in alphabetical order, starting with Evans. Jack Evans was
a big part of ROH during the company’s best years and despite being a significant
part of one of my favourite stables of all-time, Generation Next, he was never
somebody I particularly cared for. I’ve never subscribed to the theory that has
been bandied around over the years that indie guys are just spot monkey’s doing
‘MOVEZ’ with no selling or psychology to their game but, to me, Jack Evans has
always fit that bill. Add to that the fact that he’s never really had any
semblance of a character outside of ‘I do flips’ and his promo skills have
always been somewhat terrible, I’ve never rated the guy. This year things
changed though. Evans really took to life in Lucha Underground through his feud
with Drago. Defeating Drago via unscrupulous means he started calling himself
the ‘Dragon Slayer’ and was portraying the most egotistical of characters.
Later joining up with PJ Black to fight off Drago and Aerostar. In one of Dario
Cueto’s great ideas, during a Trios Tournament he teamed the devious PJ and
Evans up with perennial babyface Fenix. The team worked surprisingly well
together and were in line for a Trios Championship match against the Tecnico
Dream Team (Dragon Azteca, Jr., Rey Mysterio and Prince Puma) when Fenix was
taken out backstage by Johnny Mundo. Mundo took Fenix’s place in the match and
what would go on to become known as the Worldwide Underground won the Trios
Championship. They would eventually lose them to the team of Aerostar, Drago
and Fenix but they had a good run on top. After that Evans continued to help
further the major Worldwide Underground goal, Johnny Mundo as Lucha Underground
Champion. Mundo succeeded and continued to put pressure on Evans and the other
members to do his bidding. Evans is currently embroiled in a slight feud with
PJ Black as tensions within the Worldwide Underground continue to simmer but, overall,
he’s just improved his character and mic skills so much that I can almost
forego the flips for no reason and the complete lack of psychology to his
matches just because he’s become so damn entertaining, and that is something I
thought I would never say. Next let’s look at Chris Jericho. Now I can hear
some of you scratching your heads on this one. After all, Chris Jericho is a
legend in this industry and has had one of the most storied careers we’ve ever
seen so how can he, of all people, be the most improved? The answer, to me, is
simple. As much as I love Jericho his last few runs have fallen flat with me. I
didn’t hate them as much as a lot of people – a lot of fans I spoke to never
wanted to see him come back again as his last few runs had been so bad in their
eyes – and I will always want to see Jericho but this year he’s had probably
his best run since serious man Jericho in 2008. Ever since turning heel against
AJ Styles he has been nothing short of masterful to watch. Creating this almost
mid-life crisis character with the scarves and the mannerisms, throwing his
toys out of the pram like a petulant child, Jericho managed to get real heat
for a while – something I never thought I’d see him get again. The reinvention
of ‘The List’ has been a stroke of genius and Jericho is the most over he has
been in a long, long time. Our final contender is The Miz. I’ve always thought
Miz was solid, nothing spectacular, and I certainly had no desire to see him
main event a WrestleMania but he’s always been decent. I was very excited when
he beat Zack Ryder for the Intercontinental Championship on the RAW after
WrestleMania but I was just excited to get the belt off Ryder, I had no idea
what greatness that title switch was going to bring. Refining his movie star
character and adding his wife Maryse as his valet has really made him an
incredible heel. He’s been great all year but, as expected, his year really
took off when he was drafted to SmackDown in the brand split draft. Since then
the game has changed and Miz has clicked into a higher gear than ever before.
His feud with Dolph Ziggler was an amazing one which I’ve detailed in the
angles of the year category but his overall presentation has been fantastic,
regardless of opponent. His ring work has improved marginally, his promos have
been slightly better but really it is his character that has improved
exponentially this year. When I watch SmackDown Live every week he’s one of the
first people I’m excited to see. His feud with General Manager Daniel Bryan led
to an absolutely killer promo on one of the early editions of Talking Smack.
Bryan accused Miz of being a coward because of his style of wrestling which led
to a ferocious blast back from Miz accusing Bryan of being the coward for his
reckless style which led to his retirement and saying if Bryan loved wrestling
so much then why wasn’t he resigning as GM and wrestling on the indies. The
promo had fire I’d never seen from The Miz before and perfectly encapsulated the
improvements he has made over the calendar year, and that is why he is my most
improved performer of 2016.
The winner is: The
Miz
Most Underutilised Superstar of the Year:
This is the first
year this award has been awarded and it came about when I was writing last year’s
awards and realised how frustrating it was to watch so many different companies
fritter away so many potential stars so imagine my surprise when it came to the
end of the year and all three contenders for this award actually came from the
same company, WWE. We start with the Swiss Superman himself, Cesaro. Now much
has been made of the infamous comment Vince McMahon made that Cesaro was “Too
Swiss”. The comment was mindboggling at the time and remains so today. Vince
claimed that Cesaro couldn’t connect with the audience yet he is one of the
most consistently over performers on the roster. I genuinely don’t get why WWE
don’t see him as a top star, it blows my mind. Cesaro spent the first quarter
of the year injured but returned to great fanfare after WrestleMania in a #1
contenders match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. He came up short
in that match but the fact that he was in that four-way gave me hope that WWE
had seen the light and he was now in the main event picture. My hope was
misplaced. Despite a slight slip down in the card he was part of a great
four-way feud for The Miz’s Intercontinental Championship which also involved
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. He was then involved in a never-ending series with
Sheamus which, in a remarkably stupid booking decision, literally never ended
after match seven in their best of seven series ended in a draw. The duo was
then put together as a tag team. At first things really didn’t seem to click
but slowly the chemistry came and Cesaro and Sheamus became a cohesive unit,
teaming to end the New Day’s mammoth record-breaker of a Tag Team Championship
run. For his success towards the end of the year and generally decent feuds he
was a part of I couldn’t justify Cesaro winning this award, but he is still
massively underutilised by the company and it is crazy that he has never been
World Champion. Up next is everyone’s favourite underdog, Sami Zayn. Zayn has
had a tough first year on the main roster. He debuted in the Royal Rumble
attacking long-time rival Kevin Owens. The two would feud for most of the first
half of the year and although the matches were good and the rivalry was good,
Zayn was booked to look like a chump for most of the feud which really hurt him
in the eyes of the fans. WWE attempted to fix that by having Zayn defeat Owens
in a great match to end their feud and it worked to an extent. Unfortunately,
hating Kevin Owens had slowly become Zayn’s only character trait which is far
too one dimensional. He went on to have heatless feuds with the Dudley Boyz and
Chris Jericho. He unsuccessfully challenged for the Intercontinental
Championship at the cross-branded PPV Survivor Series failing, in Stephanie
McMahon’s words, to bring the Championship to RAW. His punishment was a match
with Braun Strowman which, shockingly, was the best thing to happen to Zayn all
year. Involved in a real feud for the first time in six months Zayn took full
advantage bringing the best matches we’ve ever seen out of Strowman and helping
to cultivate a really entertaining storyline that built Strowman as a monster
heel with no remorse against a never-say-die babyface that echoed David vs.
Goliath. Zayn did end up coming up a little short in his final match against
Strowman (which took place in 2017 so is of no consequence to this award anyway)
but that didn’t matter. The feud had done its job and massively inflated the
stock of both performers. So Sami has been utilised poorly, but they’ve done enough
right with him to not “win” this award. That leaves me with the most underutilised
performer of 2016 and it is… Tyler Breeze. An NXT stalwart Breeze was promoted
to the main roster in late-2015. By 2016 he’d already been relegated to
afterthought but that was at the top of his descent. Doing nothing of note in
the first quarter his highlights included being eliminated in mere minutes in
his first Royal Rumble, being eliminated with ease from the Andre the Giant Memorial
Battle Royal at WrestleMania and losing to Zack Ryder on Superstars. He was
then unfortunately dragged into the awful Golden Truth formation angle until a
good thing happened to Breeze for the first time in 2016 when he, and the other
person dragged into that angle – Fandango, grew tired of the Golden Truth and
turned on them forming a tag team that would go on to be known as the Fashion
Police. Breeze and Fandango ended up losing to the feud to Golden Truth after
Goldust burned them by turning up the dial on their tanning machine – I am not
making this up. Thankfully, in the brand split The Fashion Police were drafted
to SmackDown. A sure-fire sign that things were looking up for the team, right?
Wrong. It started well, when they defeated The Usos in a tremendous pre-show
match before Battleground but things were all downhill from there. SmackDown’s
biggest failing since the draft is the massive underutilisation of this tag
team. They have such great potential but remain jobbers. It took place in 2017
so has no effect on the award but this fact is best illustrated by the fact
that Breeze and Fandango faced American Alpha this week and were squashed in
less than sixty seconds. They’re just not seen as anything other than jobbers
which is a shame because they are a great tag team and Breeze is a great
singles star – just look at his NXT run.
The winner is: Tyler
Breeze
Televised Show of the Year (consistency-wise):
Another category,
another time when I felt there were only three options available to me –
although SmackDown made a real run for this award in the post-brand split era
but they just didn’t have enough time to make up the ground from being an
enjoyable show of little to no importance or consequence in the first half of
the year. This award is given as, hopefully, indicated in its longwinded title
for a show that airs throughout the year and produces the most consistently
entertaining product therefore it obviously can’t be a PPV but has to be a
series of shows with the same brand name. I’ll start with Ring of Honor’s
weekly show, ROH Wrestling. I love the way ROH utilise their hour of
programming each week. You get the occasional great match but the show is far
more about building people’s characters and personalities as well as furthering
angles rather than the actual matches themselves and most importantly, since it
is only one hour per week, nobody gets overexposed. You still get great matches
such as the Lethal vs. O’Reilly World Title clash but even then, so much of
that match further storylines from ROH vs. Bullet Club to Lethal’s face turn to
establishing O’Reilly as a never-say-die, main event babyface to Cole vs.
O’Reilly to even Nigel’s loosening grasp on control in the company something
which was written into his departure from ROH. NXT follows a similar style to
this and I’ve heard people describe the weekly shows as boring. I couldn’t
disagree more. I love seeing how NXT are building people up through their
weekly shows rather than just throwing Championship matches out there for no
reason. And when those Championship matches do happen on the weekly show
they’re always well-built and heavily promoted. For how NXT operates the TV
show is utilised perfectly. So, I’ve waxed lyrical about both of those weekly
shows and how they operate but they’re both runners-up in this category. That’s
because there is a company with a different style out there. One without PPVs
or special events to build to. Lucha Underground. LU is different because their
TV show is their only product. I’ve talked about why Lucha Underground has been
so good this year in the Promotion of the Year category so I don’t feel I need
to spend too long explaining why they won this award for the second year in a
row. To put it simply you get amazing stories and matches on a weekly basis.
Even one segment can steal the week of pro wrestling like Vampiro bringing Puma
back-to-life or Pentagon’s encounter with Catrina backstage. LU knows what it
is, and it plays to that and that’s why 99% of the time every show is
enjoyable.
The winner is: Lucha
Underground
Minor End-Year Awards:
Face of the Year: Kyle O’Reilly
Heel of the Year: Johnny Mundo
Best Commentator of the Year: Corey Graves
Worst Commentator of the Year: David
Otunga
Non-Wrestler of the Year: Vampiro
Gimmick/Character of the Year: Mil Muertes
Promo of the Year: The Miz’s “I’m not a coward” promo to Daniel Bryan on
Talking Smack
Finisher of the Year: Marty Scurll’s Chickenwing
Spot/Bump of the Year: Roderick Strong hits End of Heartache on Candice
LeRae through a collection of chairs
Worst Television Show of the Year (consistency-wise): Monday Night RAW
List of Winners:
Promotion of the Year:
2011: WWE
2012: TNA
2013: PWG
2014: ROH
2015: ROH
2016: Lucha
Underground
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)
2016: AJ Styles
(NJPW/WWE)
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)
2016: Kyle O’Reilly
(NJPW/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)
2016: Becky Lynch
(WWE)
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)
2016: The Revival
(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)
2016: Hirooki Goto
vs. Kenny Omega, G1 Climax Final – G1 Climax: Day Nineteen (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)
2016: Go Shiozaki’s
Redemption (Pro Wrestling NOAH)
Best 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)
2016: Takeover:
Brooklyn II (NXT)
Worst One-off Show of the Year (initiated in 2016):
2016: WrestleMania
32 (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 Money in the Bank to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at
WrestleMania 31 (WWE)
2016: AJ Styles
debuts in the Royal Rumble (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)
2016: Daniel Bryan
retires (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 & Seth Rollins) (WWE)
2014: Sami Zayn (NXT)
2015: Dalton Castle
(ROH)
2016: Marty Scurll
(ROH/PROGRESS/PWG)
Most Improved Superstar of the Year (initiated in 2016):
2016: The Miz
(WWE)
Most Underutilised Superstar of the Year (initiated in
2016):
2016: Tyler
Breeze (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)
2016: Lucha
Underground (Lucha Underground)
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)
2016: Kyle O’Reilly
(NJPW/ROH/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)
2016: Johnny Mundo
(Lucha Underground)
Best Commentator of the Year:
2011: Jim Ross (WWE)
2012: Nigel
McGuinness (ROH)
2013: Todd Kenneley
(TNA)
2014: Excalibur (PWG)
2015: Corey Graves
(NXT)
2016: Corey Graves
(NXT/WWE)
Worst Commentator of
the Year (initiated in 2016):
2016: David Otunga
(WWE)
Non-Wrestler of the Year (initiated in 2016):
2016: Vampiro (Lucha
Underground)
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)
2016: Mil Muertes
(Lucha Underground)
Promo of the Year:
2011: CM Punk &
John Cena “Cena is a dynasty” (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” (WWE)
2014: Dean Ambrose:
Post Shield Break-up (WWE)
2015: Sami Zayn &
Kevin Owens’ contract signing (NXT)
2016: The Miz’s “I’m
not a coward” promo to Daniel Bryan on Talking Smack (WWE)
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)
2016: Marty Scurll’s
Chickenwing (ROH/PROGRESS/PWG)
Spot/Bump of the Year (initiated in 2012):
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)
2016: Roderick Strong
hits End of Heartache on Candice LeRae through a collection of chairs (PWG)
Worst Television Show
of the Year (consistency-wise) (initiated in 2016):
2016: Monday Night
RAW (WWE)
