End of Year Awards - The 2013 Edition

Major End-Year Awards

Company of the Year:

This was easily the most difficult year to decide this category since I started doing these awards. We’ll start with last year’s winners: TNA. TNA could not in any way follow up what they managed in 2012. They had a very poor 2013, mainly due to Ace’s and Eight’s clogging up the television and the under-utilisation of stars such as Austin Aries and Bobby Roode. They had given themselves hope of rectifying their year somewhat when they starting pushing AJ Styles back towards the main event. Taking inspiration from 96/97 WCW the direction they took AJ’s character was an interesting one (down the ‘Crow’ Sting path for those who haven’t been watching) but they didn’t quite execute it right. Him facing Bully Ray at Bound For Glory felt a lot less like Sting vs. Hollywood Hogan than it should have because they got the details of the story wrong. At the end of the day it was all for nought anyway as they weirdly attempted to turn AJ into a poor man’s CM Punk (something that is not his forte) and then completely botched the whole thing by allowing the best thing they’ve ever produced to leave the company. I know wherever he goes he will be a massive success, whether he manages to get signed to WWE (I’m not sure he’d want to go to NXT), goes back to the likes of ROH or even maybe goes to Mexico or Japan. This was a dark year for TNA and I think it may be a while, if ever, before the promotion recovers. WWE haven’t had a great year but they have had a very good one. They started off poorly, I still believe ending CM Punk’s title reign at the Royal Rumble and doing John Cena vs. The Rock at WrestleMania for the second year running were mistakes. They did improve as the year went on though helped by the fantastic work done by the upper midcard desperate to insert themselves into the upper echelons of the division. The likes of Dolph Ziggler, whose cash in and subsequent feud with Alberto Del Rio was one of the highlights; The Shield, who have shown that all three will be massive stars (providing WWE don’t attempt to shove Reigns down the fans’ throats) and in particular, Daniel Bryan. I’m not sure what the line of thinking was by putting him in The Wyatt Family but thankfully that particular storyline has already come to an abrupt end and the moment he fights back against Bray could be a great contender for next year’s ‘Best Moment of the Year’ award. Scrolling back to 2013 though Bryan was fantastic, the weak link storyline is one of the best bits of subtle storytelling WWE have done in a while and it truly made Bryan a star. His victory at Summerslam was amazing and although it was cut short and he was soon after taken out of the title picture I have to think he will be headed back there soon. Actually, alongside Batista I think he’s one of the favourites for the Royal Rumble. I think WWE would be smart to go with Bryan because we’re getting to the point where he is so over that the fans may well reject anybody else winning, even if it is Batista. In terms of pure wrestling this was probably the best year WWE has had since 2000. Overall though it still wasn’t quite enough to claim promotion of the year. ROH had a very good year as they continue their recovery from the unfortunate Jim Cornette era. They delivered some great shows such as The Anniversary Show, Supercard of Honor VII and All Star Extravaganza V which we’ll come on to later. There were plenty of highs such as the culmination of Kevin Steen’s brilliant World Title reign, the evolution and eventual destruction of SCUM, the crowning of a new World Champion in Adam Cole and the beginning of his reign. We also saw the emergence of reDRagon as a real force in the tag team division I think they have a very bright future in Ring of Honor and O’Reilly is definitely a future world champion in both ROH and PWG. That brings me nicely on to PWG who had a landmark year. Apart from DDT4, which at least had the emotional send off for PWG legend El Generico, every show this year was fantastic. The Battle of Los Angeles was probably the best edition of the tournament yet and Night Two was absolutely phenomenal, but we’ll get to that later too. As well as Generico they also have had to deal with the departure of the uber popular Sami Callihan and the lucha sensation Samuray Del Sol but as they always do PWG merely adapted to the departures and carried on producing amazing shows. Adam Cole’s title reign has been fantastic and the formation of Mount Rushmore is one of the greatest things I’ve seen in a while. Overall, due to the quality of matches, great moments and stories such as the Mount Rushmore one, which could seriously go anywhere in 2014, PWG just gets the nod over some stiff competition.

The winner is: PWG

Superstar of the Year:

I would like to give a special mention to Adam Cole and The Shield here as I feel they have both had career years but they will both be discussed more in other categories later so I don’t want to take up all the material, but The Shield as a trio and Cole were the closest anyone got to the man who won this award. At the end of the day though there was no real competition this year for this award, it was always going to Daniel Bryan. His evolution from the start of the year in an, albeit successful, comedy team with Kane to the man who ended The Shield’s undefeated streak to the man who beat John Cena and won the biggest prize in the industry. He’s had a stellar year but he’s more than delivered on the entertainment front too. Even from the start with some of his comedy segments with Kane he’s always been one of the better parts of every RAW, SmackDown and PPV he’s been on. He really hit top form when the weak link storyline took hold. He became more aggressive and intense in the ring which led to some of his best matches since his ROH days, his mic work continues to improve and he’s just a well-rounded professional wrestler right now. I hope WWE realise what a star they have on their hands right now because this guy could and should main event WrestleMania, he’s that good and he’s that popular. The reaction to him everywhere they go whether it be when Cena announced Bryan was the man he was picking to face himself at Summerslam, or during the ascension ceremony supposedly about Cena and Randy Orton. I could go on and on, but he is so over right now that they would be fools not to capitalise on it. The way The Authority have continually screwed him is a perfect set up for him as well, the story is there, just use it!

The winner is: Daniel Bryan

Wrestler of the Year:

It’s hard to believe I am saying this but somehow, despite being in the three best matches of the year (spoiler alert for my Top 50 Matches which will be up once PWG releases All Star Weekend X and I can finish my list off), CM Punk didn’t quite do enough to win this award. The three matches in question against John Cena on RAW in February, The Undertaker at WrestleMania and Brock Lesnar at Summerslam were all amazing encounters but the rest of the year did not see many amazing matches from him. Post-Summerslam he was stuck in some awful feuds that didn’t really allow him good matches and he did miss part of the year through injury so despite those three incredible encounters he didn’t quite do enough to win ‘Wrestler of the Year’ this time round.  Kevin Steen also had a magnificent year. He somehow dragged an absolutely unbelievable match out of Michael Bennett at Final Battle, he had a – what stands as now with shows still to be watched – top 5 match of the year against Jay Lethal at The Anniversary Show and he’s had some incredible matches in PWG against the likes of Johnny Gargano at the Battle of Los Angeles and Adam Cole and Drake Younger in a three-way Guerrilla Warfare match at TEN. He didn’t do quite enough either though. I try to make a point whenever I am writing this award to distinguish between Superstar and Wrestler of the Year. The former is based on the whole package whereas the latter is purely based on in-ring performance. So it’s not a given that the same performer will win both, in fact, this year is the first year that it has ever happened. Yes, this year wrestler of the year goes to Daniel Bryan, his performances in numerous six man tags against The Shield, pretty much every PPV match he’s taken part in, specifically against Cena at Summerslam, his matches against Orton both on PPV and on RAW, his singles matches with separate members of The Shield, specifically one from June against Rollins, his incredible match with Cesaro – who was great in the ring in his own right this year – in the gauntlet on RAW. Everything he’s done in the ring this year has been nothing short of amazing.

The winner is: Daniel Bryan

Female Wrestler of the Year:

It wasn’t a banner year for women’s wrestling by any stretch of the imagination but it was far from the worst either. At the end of the year for me it came down to three women. 2011 winner Cheerleader Melissa, WWE’s most prominent diva AJ Lee and Candice LeRae. Candice only really entered the race towards the back end of the year and that’s maybe why she came up short. My obsessive watching of every WWE, TNA, ROH and PWG show and as many SHIMMER shows as I possibly can leaves little room for anything else so I didn’t catch anything Candice did outside of PWG. However, what she did do in the three shows (it will be five when they release All Star Weekend) of 2013 was mightily impressive. She’d been gone for quite a while before her return at TEN but she showed the entire audience what they’d been missing with some great performances the best of which was most definitely on Night Two of the Battle of Los Angeles when she teamed up with Rich Swann and AR Fox to take on the Mount Rushmore team of Adam Cole and The Young Bucks. This match was one of the best matches of the year and I would be surprised if it slipped out of my top ten (there would have to be a lot of good matches at All Star Weekend). I’d go so far to say as it’s one of the best six-man tag team matches in PWG history, just a tremendous match. But in reality Candice was never going to win, her performances on three shows are nowhere near enough for me to even consider her for this award but I have mentioned her because I feel her work deserved an honourable mention. Next up is the representative from WWE. I’ve had a big turnaround on this particular lady. I always quite liked AJ and thought she performed admirably at every role she was given, up until RAW1000 in 2012. She was appointed RAW General Manager and from then (July) until she was relieved of her duties for the purposes of the John Cena/Dolph Ziggler storyline (December) she was the most insufferable person on WWE television (quite the challenge in the latter half of 2012). However, how she performed in her on-screen relationship with Dolph and subsequent venture into the diva’s division full-time won back my favour. This year she participated in the first WWE produced female storyline I’ve cared about in years. The story, and match at Payback, she had with Kaitlyn was absolutely phenomenal. It was so well crafted and played to the strengths of both performers. In the ring her performances weren’t always great but the aforementioned match with Kaitlyn at Payback was very, very good and she had an equally good match – from a technical standpoint, it didn’t have the emotion or story behind it – with Natalya on Main Event in November. She has led the diva’s division to a position higher on the totem pole than it has been probably since the days of Trish and Lita. Although it hasn’t reached those heights and still isn’t taken seriously by the majority of people both within WWE and consuming it they are still in a far better position at the start of 2014 than they were at the start of 2013 and AJ deserves a lot of credit for that. The winner though, for the second time in three years, is Cheerleader Melissa. It astounds me that WWE don’t want to sign this girl. They’re threatening to create a half decent division in their developmental territory, NXT, with the likes of Emma and Paige at the forefront and the main roster has improved, as mentioned previously, Melissa would be perfect to lead either division. Alas, for whatever reason, they don’t seem to want to sign her but the only two-time SHIMMER Champion in history had a great year nonetheless with some great matches against the likes of Mercedes Martinez and Courtney Rush. The best match she had this year though took place over WrestleMania weekend in SHIMMER’s first ever iPPV where she defeated Saraya Knight inside of a steel cage to reclaim the SHIMMER Championship. The match was outstanding and showcased both women’s great skills. Melissa is a deserving two-time SHIMMER and now she’s a deserving two-time winner of my Female Wrestler of the Year award.

The winner is: Cheerleader Melissa

Match of the Year:

This year’s matches were among the highest quality I have ever seen, it was a fantastic year but as per usual with this award I don’t like to divulge too much about the other candidates as I will be releasing my Top 50 Matches of the Year in the not too distant future – hopefully. The match that won took place in Dallas in February on Monday Night RAW and it featured John Cena putting his Championship match against The Rock at WrestleMania he’d earned by winning the Royal Rumble on the line against the man who lost the WWE Championship to The Rock at the same pay-per-view, CM Punk. It was an encounter that in reality should have been quite dull, we’d see Cena and Punk face off multiple times in the last eighteen months and the result was a foregone conclusion, it was difficult so see how this match could be compelling. These two are so good though that they delivered a compelling match and then some. A back and forth encounter with great psychology showing how each man had learned from their mistakes in previous matches that even had the most ardent and jaded wrestling fan jumping out of their seats. At one point Punk hit Cena with a regular piledriver, a move that hasn’t been seen in a long, long time and I – despite being one hundred percent certain before the match that Cena was winning – was halfway through cheering a Punk victory when Cena kicked out. It was an awesome match, one that was perhaps even better than their encounter at Money in the Bank in July 2011. Truly phenomenal and an absolute cinch to win this award.

The winner is: CM Punk vs. John Cena – RAW (25^th February)

Angle/Feud of the Year:

There were several good candidates for angle of the year this year. We start with the company of the year, PWG, and their fantastically entertaining new faction Mount Rushmore who formed at the end of this year. The stable consisting of Young Bucks, Adam Cole and Kevin Steen came together at the end of this year’s Battle of Los Angeles and made an immediate impact. They’ve wreaked havoc since but as this angle is very much in its infancy I feel it’s likely one that will be considered for next year’s award rather than this one. Moving on to TNA, they didn’t do much right this year – and even this one had flaws were it could have been massively improved – but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t extremely hooked by the evolution of AJ Styles over 2013. He returned as a dark, silent heel and morphed into more of a lone wolf tweener character before he turned face by helping the Main Event Mafia defeat Ace’s and Eight’s in a heavily promoted tag match on Impact. Unfortunately, TNA didn’t even execute this right by having it occur on a taped show rather than the live(ish) one and by doing it in an arena from a part of a country with very little knowledge of the product. This meant the audience didn’t react the way that they would have done in more of a TNA stronghold lessening the impact of the moment. Over to WWE and the star of the year Daniel Bryan. In the latter part of the year, before the weird transition away from the main event and into the feud with the Wyatt’s, Bryan feuded with The Authority, Vince McMahon and their handpicked corporate champion Randy Orton. Bryan raging against the machine was fun to watch for a little while but seeing him beaten down at the end of what seemed like every RAW soured it a little bit. There’s making someone look like an underdog and then there’s making them look like a chump. Unfortunately they veered awfully close to the latter quite often. Nevertheless this angle had its moments and, hopefully, once he wraps up his feud with Bray Wyatt this angle can come back to the forefront and be an angle for WrestleMania? If it is, and they pull the trigger on Bryan on the grandest stage of them all, I could definitely see this being in contention for next year’s award. Onto the next candidate. The RAW after WrestleMania is becoming a staple as one of the best RAW’s of any given year and this year’s was no different. The best moment of a top to bottom great show, for me at least, was Dolph Ziggler cashing in his Money in the Bank contract and winning the World Heavyweight Championship from Alberto Del Rio. Ziggler, who was a heel, got a massive reaction upon winning the belt and for once WWE seemed to listen. Fast forward through a concussion for Dolph to the Payback PPV and he defended his Championship against Del Rio. WWE decided to execute the lesser seen double turn with Alberto going heel and Ziggler going babyface. Boy, did it work. It worked gangbusters. The fans were on board and WWE had one of their hottest angles of the year. Sadly, they couldn’t finish it off properly. They never gave Dolph the Championship back and all of the excitement faded. All of the above was amazing to watch, the Payback match in particular where the crowd actually turned during the match was phenomenal. But their inability to follow it up with any kind of meaningful push for Dolph – which was what the fans really wanted to see ruled it out of contention. And so we come to the winner. The winner was an absolute goldmine of an angle. Not only was it richly entertaining to watch unfold but it also produced some of the greatest matches of this year and it turned an upper midcarder to occasional main eventer into a bonafide star. The angle was, of course, Daniel Bryan’s “weak link” angle. The story started with Bryan partially believing he was the weak link, partially believing the fans saw him as the weak link and one hundred and ten percent Bryan trying everything to prove he wasn’t. Bryan, and his tag team partner Kane, were at odds with the trio known as The Shield (I’ll get to them later) for the majority of the spring and summer. They regularly wrestled six man tags against them with different partners and they almost always came up short. With Bryan’s inferiority complex getting the better of him at times. Particularly when Randy Orton was their tag team partner or, in one case, Bryan’s only partner in a Tag Team Championship match against Rollins and Reigns. Bryan’s character was a major point of conflict between himself and Orton in particular. People have different ideas of when this particular angle came to an end, some say it stretched as far as when Bryan finally “proved himself, to himself” by beating John Cena at Summerslam. Either way, despite its weird positioning on SmackDown I’d say the defining moment of the angle came when Bryan scored the first ever victory (not counting disqualifications) against The Shield in the almost seven months since they debuted. Bryan forced Rollins to tap out to hand himself, Kane and Orton the victory and it was a massive moment (although, again, why it was on SmackDown and not PPV or at least RAW was baffling). It really cemented Bryan as a major player. The whole journey watching Bryan evolve as a character and in the ring (he really upped his intensity during this time) was amazing and led to some great moments and some great matches. Overall it was a truly phenomenal angle with a wonderful outcome and was nothing but pure entertainment from start to finish. Plus, it got Daniel Bryan to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

The winner is: Daniel Bryan’s “Weak Link” Storyline

One-off Show of the Year:

This year saw some extremely good shows. Two stood above the rest of the pack but I do feel I have to give a special mention to two other shows which in any other year would have been majorly in the running for the show of the year but unfortunately could not compete with the two contenders here. First, we head to ROH and their fifth offering of All Star Extravaganza. This was just a really well paced show that flew over. It took part during the World Championship tournament ROH had running last year. There were no blow-away matches on the card but almost every match was a really fun offering. From the World Title tournament matches such as Michael Elgin vs. Paul London, Matt Taven vs. Roderick Strong and Silas Young vs. Tommaso Ciampa to the triple threat tag team match between The Young Bucks, C&C Wrestle Factory and Adrenaline Rush. The best match of the night was probably Adam Cole vs. Jay Lethal though. Cole is a revelation and was a deserving choice to be Champion at the end of the tournament and despite Lethal’s utter blandness he can’t half put on a good match. If he was able to showcase an ounce of charisma when he wasn’t impersonating someone he’d be amazing. Maybe he needs a heel turn? Who knows whether it would do any good but hell, it can’t hurt. What let down this show in the end though was the fact that although every match was good or even very good, no one match was amazing and the main event between The American Wolves and The Forever Hooligans was very average – one of the weakest matches on the show. Onto the next show that just missed the cut – Payback. WWE’s June offering looked extremely average on paper but it delivered more than I think anyone ever expected. The surprise of the Del Rio/Ziggler double turn added a little something to that, CM Punk and Chris Jericho had a very good match even the triple threat opener between The Miz, Wade Barrett and Curtis Axel was better than it had any right to be. AJ Lee and Kaitlyn had one of the best women’s matches in WWE in recent memory and The Shield vs. Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton was great too. Once again though, the main event let this show down with a very poor Three Stages of Hell match between John Cena and Ryback. That and a poorer than expected Kane vs. Dean Ambrose meant this show just didn’t quite do enough. So now, we come onto the two real contenders: PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles: Night Two and WWE’s Summerslam. Ironically both shows took place in Southern California and were separated by less than 25 miles and 13 days. PWG’s annual Battle of Los Angeles tournament got off to a great start on Night One but Night Two was where they truly blew everyone’s socks off. We opened up with the four quarter-final matches: Drake Younger and Brian Cage had a short but crazy opener to get us off to a hot start, Kevin Steen and Johnny Gargano put on an absolute classic, Michael Elgin and Roderick Strong had a nice match and then Kyle O’Reilly and ACH blew everyone away with a phenomenal, hard hitting, athletic, psychology heavy match. Truly a great four matches. A fun six man tag followed and then the Semi-Final’s with Elgin and Gargano having another terrific match before an good but somewhat underwhelming – compared to the rest of the show – match between Drake and O’Reilly. What followed was one of the best matches of the year as the new relationship between über heel’s Adam Cole and The Young Bucks continued as they took on AR Fox, Rich Swann and Candice LeRae. The match was absolutely insane and had the crowd on the edge of their seats every step of the way. Both teams worked so well in tandem and Candice was an absolute star in the match. There was a near fall near the end of the match which was among the best near fall’s I’ve ever seen when Candice hit a suicide dive DDT on Cole on the outside followed immediately by Rich Swann hitting a standing 450 splash on one Jackson brother while AR Fox hit a regular 450 on the other. It was truly amazing and the whole match was like that. It’s the most fun I’ve had watching wrestling in a long time, magnificent match. Then came the main event as Elgin took on O’Reilly in the main event. It struggled to follow the craziness that was the six person tag but they did well and had a good match all things considered. After the match though Adam Cole came back out and started taunting the winner O’Reilly, he received a kick to the head for his troubles but the Bucks came out and beat Kyle down. A clearly hurt Candice came out to try and make the save but was beat down herself. Next out was Joey Ryan, infamously Candice’s arch nemesis. He seemed happy with proceedings but then said “Guys, nobody beats this girl up but me” and superkicked Cole. He too was beat down though as was Drake when he tried to make the save. Then referee and professional Young Bucks hater Rick Knox got in the ring with a chair as did Kevin Steen. Steen shocked the world though by attacking Knox and hitting him with a package piledriver. He then hugged three men everyone thought he hated. He hit a package piledriver on Candice and snapped the Battle of Los Angeles trophy in half for good measure too (watch the video here). It was an amazing show from every viewpoint you could have: story wise, wrestling wise, this had everything. WWE’s Summerslam was their best offering of the annual show in eons. The show actually started off badly with a horrific match between Bray Wyatt and Kane but once that was done the show started to take off. Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow had a good outing and then Christian and Alberto Del Rio took it to another level in their World Heavyweight Championship match putting on a sublime performance that would have been match of the night on any other show. When CM Punk and Brock Lesnar came out for their No Disqualification match the intensity ramped up another notch and the match was almost perfect. This was definitely Punk’s best match since his return and one of the best of his career. Everything about this match was great and both men came out of it looking like machines, truly brilliant. The main event was a thing of beauty as well as Daniel Bryan finally won the biggest title in the wrestling world by unseating John Cena to win the WWE Championship. It was an amazing match with an amazing ending and a truly ‘feel good’ moment. The fact that Randy Orton cashed in to beat him for the Championship actually made the show even better because of the intrigue of where they were going to go with this story next. Of course we haven’t had a satisfactory ending… yet. After a lot of deliberation I decided to give the victory to the Night 2 offering of this year’s Battle of Los Angeles though, simply because it was a slightly more consistent show and the ending segment being among the best I’ve ever seen.

The winner is: Battle of Los Angeles: Night Two

Best Moment of the Year:

There were so many great moments this year it is unfair to make pick. Going in chronological order we start the day after WrestleMania with a moment we’ve already touched on when Dolph Ziggler cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win the World Heavyweight Championship. Dolph’s cash-in was amazing to see and will go down in history as one of the all-time great moments. Next up was the moment when John Cena announced he was picking Daniel Bryan as his opponent for Summerslam. The moment was long and drawn out but the pure joy I, and the entire arena who were lucky enough to be in attendance, felt when we heard that name was immeasurable. The disbelief was pretty big too because although I hoped they would pick him I didn’t actually believe it could happen. Next up is a moment we’ve already discussed, the moment where Daniel Bryan beat John Cena in that subsequent match for the WWE Championship. I was out of town on holiday in the middle of nowhere when Summerslam aired so for a week I went without a phone and didn’t touch a computer to make sure I avoided spoilers. Coming back and watching it on the Friday night almost a week after Summerslam took place and seeing that moment made it worth everything. Amazing. Next up is AJ Styles returning to his ‘Phenomenal’ self. The moment where AJ turned back face by helping the Main Event Mafia defeat Ace’s and Eight’s. Now in true TNA fashion they made a bungle of what could have been a huge moment but nevertheless as an ardent AJ fan I thought it was brilliant. It gave me goosebumps when he was stood halfway down the ramp and Evil Ways stopped playing and Get Ready To Fly started. Then came the infamous Mount Rushmore of Wrestling formation. This moment is the one mentioned in detail when I was talking about Battle of Los Angeles: Night Two earlier. Steen, Cole and The Bucks refer to themselves as Mount Rushmore and I can’t say enough good things about that moment when the group came together. It was amazing. Finally, we come to December and Monday Night RAW in Seattle. The ascension ceremony for the unification of the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship was meant to be all about John Cena and Randy Orton but it turned into a Seattle loves Daniel Bryan segment – and it was brilliant. In the end though, nothing quite topped Daniel Bryan lifting that WWE Championship in August at Summerslam. I’ve been watching Bryan since 2004 and after nearly a decade of watching him claw and scrap, knowing he was one of the best in the world, it was amazing to see him finally win the Championship he so richly deserved. It may have only lasted for a few minutes but it filled me with so much pride to see him finally “make it” on the big stage. I can only hope it is not the last time we see Daniel Bryan holding the WWE Championship, hopefully we will see him win it back at WrestleMania this year – it would be too perfect.

The winner is: Daniel Bryan wins WWE Title

Breakout Star of the Year:

There have been plenty of people who have had good years and risen up the ranks in 2013 but there are three men, all of whom win tonight because this year’s breakout star had to go to a faction – The Shield. The Shield debuted late last year with a shocking and memorable attack on John Cena and Ryback at Survivor Series. They followed that up with a hellacious and fantastic first match on the roster, a six man tag TLC match. They only went from strength to strength in 2013 with great matches such as vs. John Cena and friends at Elimination Chamber, Team Hell No and Kofi Kingston on RAW (as well as numerous other matches against Hell No plus a partner) and played a great part in a very good 5-on-5 Elimination match at Survivor Series a year after their debut. The Shield also held gold this year as Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns held the Tag Team Championships from May to October whilst Dean Ambrose won the United States Championship in May and still holds it as of this writing. The Shield actually helped to form three distinct parts of the year. The first part of the year they seemed to be facing the all-star’s and giving them something to do in the lead up to WrestleMania. After that they started to feud with Team Hell No and played a pretty integral role in Daniel Bryan’s weak link storyline. And for the latter part of the year they feuded with The Rhodes Family which led to some memorable matches including a phenomenal match at an otherwise abysmal show called Battleground which saw the Rhodes Family win their jobs back. It was a truly amazing year for these three and I’d be very surprised if all three aren’t main eventers when The Shield goes their separate ways. It seems like they’re grooming Roman to be the star, I just hope they don’t force it. Ambrose is the one that will get over organically but they may be reluctant to push. Whereas Rollins is the one most likely to be lost in the shuffle but as a babyface – although his mic skills aren’t great – he has this innate Jeff Hardy like in ring charisma that will get him over. I can’t put over these guys any more than this: if we get to WrestleMania 33 and any one of these three haven't main evented the grandest show of them all I will be utterly shocked.

The winner is: The Shield

Minor End-Year Awards:

Face of the Year: Daniel Bryan

Heel of the Year: Adam Cole

Commentator of the Year: Todd Kenneley

Gimmick/Character of the Year: Daniel Bryan’s inferiority complex character (weak link storyline)

Tag Team of the Year: The Young Bucks

Promo of the Year: Mark Henry’s retirement speech

Finisher of the Year: Bryan’s Baisuku Knee

Spot/Bump of the Year: CM Punk piledrives John Cena

Worst Moment of the Year: John Cena’s performance on the 14^th January edition of Monday Night RAW in the Steel Cage match with Dolph Ziggler which made Pierce Brosnan laugh at its lack of realism

Televised Show of the Year (consistency-wise): RAW

TNA Genesis 2013 Review

A very cool video package airs highlighting all three of the World Heavyweight Championship competitors for this evening. The announcers then introduce us to the action and we get under way with a Championship match.

Match One - World Tag Team Championship Match: Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez (c) vs. Joey Ryan and Matt Morgan

Crowd seems quite loud early on which is a good sign for me because I love hot crowds. The momentum switches between both teams early on where either Ryan or Chavo was isolated from their partner for a period of time. Eventually Morgan and Ryan start to methodically pick apart Hernandez keeping him away from Guerrero. Hernandez starts to fight out and tries to make his way to Guerrero but is caught with a big discus clothesline from Morgan. Hernandez battles out and tags Chavo in but the referee didn’t see the tag because Morgan had him distracted. They may be overused and a little cliché but I love to see classic heel tricks like that used. Finally Hernandez does get the tag and this time the referee sees it. Chavo gets in the ring and annihilates Ryan busting out the three amigos along the way. He heads top to go for the Frog Splash but Morgan gets in the way. He goes for a double chokeslam but instead receives a double dropkick. Hernandez hits a sick powerbomb on Ryan, hope he’s okay after that. A frog splash later and the Tag Champions retain their gold.

Winners: Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez

Time: 11:31

Rating: **1/2

We go backstage where Jeremy Borash is standing by with Mr. Anderson. Standard Anderson interview, he says he doesn’t understand why he has to hate Aces and 8’s in order to be friends with Angle & co.

Match Two – Mr. Anderson vs. Samoa Joe

Anderson gets the upper hand after throwing his t-shirt in Joe’s face but that doesn’t last very long as Joe soon establishes a firm grip on the match. The pace of the match is very slow early as Joe systematically destroys Anderson. Anderson finally musters up some offence after throwing Joe knee first into the steel steps. He focuses on Joe’s bad wheel and every time Joe attempts to get back into the encounter he just goes right back to the knee. Joe fights back by throwing Anderson out of the ring though and follows it up with an elbow suicida. This allows Joe to get back into the match hitting a number of big power moves before Anderson attacks the knee again. Joe goes for the Coquina Clutch and Anderson counters with a jawbreaker but then gets caught in the corner with the STJoe! Joe is setting up for the Muscle Buster when Mike Knox makes an appearance at ringside, he distracts Joe long enough for Anderson to recover and hit the Mic Check for the three count.

Winner: Mr. Anderson

Time: 10:44

Rating: **1/2

Jeremy Borash is again backstage this time with Kenny King. He says by the end of the night he’ll be the new emperor of the X-Division because he is putting Rob Van Dam out to pasture. There was a production mess up during the promo and you could hear somebody saying something, it was a little distracting from an otherwise excellent promo.

Match Three - #1 Contender Match for the X-Division Championship: Christian York vs. Kenny King

Neither man can get the advantage early on as they trade moves and holds. York starts to dominate but then King sends him to the outside but misses the corkscrew dive and York catches him with a nice hurricanrana. Back in the ring and York continues to be in control until King catches him with a kick that sends him to the outside. York then hits a leg hook back suplex which looks very sweet and follows it up with clotheslines and leg sweeps before a vicious knee to the face which only gets a two count. Both guys end up on the apron attempting to exchange kicks before York makes the connection. York goes top rope and hits a double stomp on King’s back but Kenny kicks out at two and seven eighths. King fights back hitting a lovely spinning leg lariat and hits the Royal Flush but York kicks out! King tries to use the ropes for a pin but the referee catches him. York hits a nice half nelson suplex but his attempt to follow it up with a cannonball fails. King hits the double knees in the corner which elicits another two count from the referee, he goes for a roll-up but York counters into one of his own and wins it.

Winner: Christian York

Time: 10:12

Rating: ***

Post-match King attacks York and nails him with The Coronation. I really hope he starts to use that as his finisher since I much prefer it to the Royal Flush he uses in TNA. King calls Rob Van Dam out and he walks down to the ring. RVD tries to convince York that he is in no shape to compete and tries to help him up but York repeatedly pushes him away and eventually punches Van Dam in the face.

Match Four – X-Division Championship Match: Rob Van Dam (c) vs. Christian York

Van Dam hits a kick and then the Rolling Thunder which almost puts York away. He locks in a Mexican Surfboard but York won’t quit. RVD keeps telling him to stay down but he won’t so he starts to focus on the neck in order to finish York off. York starts to reverse a couple of moves and then hits a knee from the top rope which catches RVD flush in the jaw. RVD gets back in control and is setting up for a standing moonsault but York rolls him up and gets the closest of two counts you will ever likely see. I completely bit on the false finish, thought we had a new X-Division Champion. Another kick from Van Dam and it is Five-Star Frog Splash time but York moves and gets another roll-up for two. He goes for the Frog Splash again and this time nails it to retain his Championship.

Winner: Rob Van Dam

Time: 5:31

Rating: **1/4

That was a very good match considering the match was more to further the storyline than to put on the clinic and thus they only got five and a half minutes. Good storytelling from both wrestlers though and a lot of fun to watch. After the match RVD helps York up and applauds his efforts.

Jeremy Borash is backstage with Joseph Park who looks a little nervous and he ends up asking JB if he thinks Park is ready. He doesn’t give the most convincing of answers but it seems to perk Park up.

Match Five – Devon vs. Joseph Park

The Impact Zone is massively behind Joseph, they love him. Devon starts off by wrestling circles around Park, simply embarrassing him and calling him an amateur. Devon goes down to the floor and allows Park to try and put a move on him. Park does some chain wrestling and then slams Devon to the mat, the crowd goes nuts and Devon looks shocked. Devon gets the upper hand again but once more Park hits a succession of moves and the crowd eat it up again. Devon throws Park to the outside though and thoroughly dominates him. He tries to throw Park into the exposed top turnbuckle but Joseph fights out. Devon regains control once more but misses a diving headbutt. Park gets more offence in and, after a short fight with the turnbuckles, hits a frog splash from the second rope but Devon kicks out – the crowd is devastated. Devon fights back and throws Park into the exposed turnbuckle which busts his nose open and sees him switch personalities. He hits a few power moves before crushing Devon with the Black Hole Slam. He’s setting up for the chokeslam when another change of demeanour strikes with Park left looking rather confused and Devon takes advantage, rolling Park up for the win.

Winner: Devon

Time: 11:15

Rating: **

Not a good wrestling match by any stretch but it told the storyline that they wanted and the crowd adored it. They were behind Park completely and very upset to see him lose. After the match Devon attacks Park from behind before posing with the Television Championship.

Back to Borash we go and he has Austin Aries with him. Aries says it’s funny that Park was unsuccessful in his first wrestling match tonight because later Hardy is going to be unsuccessful in his last wrestling match. He says he and Roode will take out their common problem then settle things between themselves. He states that he will walk out once again the World Heavyweight Champion.

Match Six – Gauntlet Match for #1 Contendership to the Knockout’s Championhip: Gail Kim vs. Mickie James vs. Miss Tessmacher vs. ODB vs. Velvet Sky

We start off with Gail and Tessmacher, the latter of which doesn’t waste any time and attacks Kim as soon as she enters the ring. Kim turns things around and starts to dominate with a succession of kicks and clotheslines. Tessmacher regains the advantage though and hits a second rope facebuster for a two count. Kim catches Tessmacher with Eat Defeat though and she is eliminated after 2:41. ODB rushes down to the ring as the next participant and gets the upper hand straight away after Gail completely failed in an attempted early attack on the ramp. ODB exerts her power and Gail is in dominated for a while. She hits a fallaway slam and kips up before going for the TKO which Kim reverses. ODB goes top rope but Gail pulls her down and she lands hard on her back. Gail rolls her up and, with a fistful of tights, has the pin after 5:52. Next up is Mickie James who is attacked by Kim as she slides into the ring. Mickie fights back and lands a nice dropkick, she goes for the Mickie-DT but Gail fights out again. They trade holds and shots until Mickie catches Gail with a lovely enzuigiri. Kim rolls out of the ring but Mickie continues asserting her dominance with a hurricanrana on the outside. Gail grabs the referee to protect herself but gets rolled up by Mickie which Gail turns into a roll-up of her own for another elimination at the 9:00 mark despite Mickie’s arm being under the rope. Finally we have Velvet Sky come down to face Kim who has been in this from the beginning, wow I wonder who is going to win this contest? (Sarcasm intended). Gail hides and then attacks Velvet from behind, throwing her into the steps and telling the referee to count Sky out. Velvet recovers slowly and makes it into the ring at nine. A very awkward inside cradle from Velvet gets a two. Gail gets a roll-up of her own for two but this time the referee sees her using the ropes and doesn’t count the three. Kim argues with the referee which allows Velvet to hit her finishing manoeuvre (I refuse to type its name out) for the three count which should never have been counted as Gail had her foot under the rope. I assume that will be referenced later on Impact.

Winner: Velvet Sky

Time: 12:45

Rating: **1/4

It was a very hit and miss match depending on who was in the ring with Gail Kim. The Mickie vs. Gail segment was very enjoyable but I have less than zero time for Velvet Sky so I was not impressed with the final section nor her eventual victory. Hopefully it will be an easy retention for Tara when the match eventually occurs.

We once again go backstage to Borash and he is joined by two of the most entertaining men in TNA today Kazarian and, more notably, Christopher Daniels. Daniels comes armed with an appletini in this interview and delivers yet another great promo basically stating that he is great and Storm is a hillbilly.

Match Seven - #1 Contender Match for the World Heavyweight Championship: Christopher Daniels vs. James Storm

Storm dominates early on both inside and outside the ring. He stays in control until Kazarian gets involved providing a distraction which allowed Daniels to attack Storm’s arm. He follows that up by sending Storm into the guard rail on the outside. Daniels distracts the referee and Kazarian beats Storm down on the outside. Daniels continues to focus on the arm he initially attacked. Daniels in-ring mannerisms are nothing short of hilarious whether it be his disrespectful salutes or his strut – he is on top of his game right now. Storm starts to fight back and hits a nice leg sweep to turn the tables a little bit. They trade shots in the centre of the ring and Storm ends up getting the best of it completely taking control which results in a top rope elbow drop which gets him a long two count. Storm goes for the Closing Time but Daniels reverses and goes straight back to the arm. Daniels gets caught on the top rope though and Storm manages to then hit the Eye of the Storm but it only gets two. Storm hits what Todd Kennelly refers to as the “Tennessee Slam” and then nails Daniels with the Closing Time. He sets up for the Last Call but Daniels reverses it and hits the Angels Wings for possibly the closest two count of the evening which had me in almost celebration. Daniels then goes for the B.M.E but Storm gets the boot up then hits the lung blower and the Closing Time once more. He sets up the Last Call again but Kazarian gets up on the apron only to get struck with the Superkick. Daniels hits Storm with the running STO though and that’s it! He used the ropes for leverage but Daniels picks up the victory and is the number one contender!

Winner: Christopher Daniels

Time: 13:24

Rating: ***1/2

I realise they want to get Daniels over as the sleaziest heel in the business but surely the distraction of Kazarian was enough? He should’ve just hit the Angels Wings into the Best Moonsault Ever for the three count but otherwise it was a good match. I love Daniels and am delighted to see him get the title shot though. I’d be ecstatic if he managed to beat Hardy for the title on Impact next week.

They air a replay of the segment which closed Thursday’s Impact with Bully Ray proposing to Brooke Hogan and then we are joined by the couple live. Bully says he so happy but they have a lot of people to invite: The Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga, oh yeah and everyone in the Impact Zone. Everyone cheers and he records a video on his “fire breathing Twitter machine!” He thanks everyone for always having their back and thanks Brooke for making him happy.

Match Eight – The D.O.C vs. Sting

Sting wastes no time going after the D.O.C repeatedly throwing him into the steel steps and then the guardrail. They fight towards the back before two members of Aces and 8’s attack Sting. The referee chases them off but the damage has been done. The D.O.C brings Sting back towards the ring and we officially get this match underway. The D.O.C  carefully and precisely starts to destroy Sting on the outside. Sting tries to mount several comebacks but every time he gets some offence in the D.O.C stops him in his tracks. Sting finally manages to get on the offensive but sees his attempt at a Scorpion Death Drop blocked, he kicks the D.O.C’s legs out from underneath him though and hits a Scorpion Death Drop from there instead but only gets the two count. Sting really starts throwing everything at him before hitting a regular Scorpion Death Drop which gets the win!

Winner: Sting

Time: 5:54

Rating: *3/4

I have to admit, I didn’t see the match ending that quickly. I really don’t enjoy this Aces and 8’s storyline but if TNA are going to continue with it surely the gang should be made to seem like some kind of a threat? They just look weak every single time they fight somebody.

The Aces and 8’s surround the ring after the match and are about to attack Sting when Bully Ray’s music hits and he comes down to chase off the Aces and 8’s despite them outnumbering him and Sting by at least six people to two.

It’s time for the main event now. World Heavyweight Championship on the line. This should be a great match, especially since it is being contested under elimination rules. It is the match I’ve been most looking forward to on this show.

We go backstage where Bobby Roode is Jeremy Borash’s last interviewee of the evening. Roode says he and Aries absolutely will work together to eliminate each other before two of the greatest wrestlers in the world collide and Roode will go home with the World Heavyweight Championship.

A video package highlighting the three-way feud airs and all three men make their entrances. Say what you like about TNA and their pay-per-views but they manage to make their main event’s seem like epic, must-see matches with the way they build up to the match. The World Heavyweight Championship really feels like the most important thing in the world.

Match Nine – World Heavyweight Championship Three-Way Elimination Match: Jeff Hardy (c) vs. Austin Aries vs. Bobby Roode

Aries and Roode team up to take out Hardy early on in the contest but Jeff fights back to take both guys down. Eventually Roode and Hardy are the two men in the ring and Roode takes control before hitting a Double R Spinebuster but that only gets him a two count. Hardy fights back and looks like he’s going for the Whisper in the Wind but Aries pushes him off the ropes which leads to Aries beating Hardy down in the ring. After a period of success for Aries it happens again as Hardy starts to fight back eventually leaving Aries in the corner. Roode attempts to help but Hardy sends him into Aries and Roode drops to the floor. Hardy uses a prone Roode as a springboard to hit Poetry in Motion on Aries. Hardy sets up both men for the Swanton Bomb but they combine to knock him off the top rope. This leads to both Aries and Roode dominating Hardy again. Aries and Roode continuen to try and one-up each other until Roode hits a superplex for two. It looks like dissension is starting to grow between the two as they both tell the other to stop telling them what do. It is short lived however as Roode hoists Aries onto his shoulders and they attempt to hit Hardy with what Todd describes as a “super duper” back suplex from the top. It backfires though as Hardy fights them off then hits a massive Whisper in the Wind on Aries who was still atop Roode’s shoulders. All three men recover but Hardy gets the upper hand and sends Roode to the floor. He goes to fly over the top rope but Aries is back up and thwarts his plan causing Jeff himself to fall to the floor. Aries then gets Roode to hold Hardy so he can hit his patented Heat Seeking Missile on Jeff but once again it backfires as Aries ends up hitting the move on Roode instead. Hardy then sets about destroying Aries on the outside before turning his attention back to Roode. He sets him up for the Swanton Bomb but Aries interrupts, Hardy fights back and then drops him on top of Roode with an inverted suplex slam. He then sends Aries into Roode again and looks set to use Aries this time as his launching pad for Poetry in Motion but instead Roode uses Aries as a launchpad to hit a huge spear on Hardy for a two count. The crowd chants “This is awesome” and it is hard to disagree. Aries and Roode continue to try to eliminate Hardy and become increasingly frustrated with each Hardy kick out. Roode holds Hardy’s ankles and Aries hits the I.E.D. What a huge dropkick that was. He then picks him up and hits the brainbuster but again Hardy kicks out. Aries and Roode can’t believe it. Roode tells Aries to go top for the 450 splash but for some reason moves Hardy out of the way which sees Aries crash and burn. He then hits the Payoff on Aries but Austin kicks out at two. It then descends into a proper three-way match as Aries and Roode now fight it out. Roode goes for a spear but gets caught in the Last Chancery. A finger to the eyes of Aries sees Roode get free and then he locks on a crossface, Aries reverses it into a roll-up for two. Roode goes for a superplex but gets shpoved off that top rope and caught with a missile dropkick. Aries then hits the I.E.D once more but Roode then fights out of the brainbuster attempt. Aries gets the backslide and then Hardy returns to the ring and helps Aries’ pin attempt which sees Roode eliminated after 18:49. Aries is furious that he wasn’t given credit for the pin which gives Jeff a chance to recover. Hardy hits the Twist of Fate on Aries and goes for another but Aries pushes him off. Jeff ends up on the apron and then hits the Twist of Fate on Aries there! Hardy climbs to the top and hits the Swanton Bomb on Aries for the three count.

Winner: Jeff Hardy

Time: 22:21

Rating: ****

Post-match Aries rolled from the middle of the ring and put his foot on the bottom rope seemingly claiming he had it there when Hardy pinned him which was rather humorous. I was disappointed to see Hardy retain again but I saw it coming so I was prepared for it. It was still an excellent match though by all involved. If one of Aries or Roode were going to turn on the other I would have preferred if they had done it successfully but that is my only real gripe with how the main event went. Some very good wrestling spliced with some extremely entertaining moments between the three men. Hopefully Hardy’s reign is coming to the end though and we see Daniels crowned new World Heavyweight Champion come the 24^th.

Overall, this was a good pay-per-view. It had some flaws like the Sting match but most shows do. Everything else was at worst acceptable. Both the main event and Daniels vs. Storm were excellent matches plus the X-Division brought some entertaining midcard matches. TNA are picking up in 2013 where they left off in 2012 by producing some excellent wrestling shows.

Thanks for reading, comments and feedback are much appreciated.

End of Year Awards - The 2012 Edition

I tried to keep these as short and sweet as possible. It didn’t work so some of these awards are a bit of a long read. Hope you all enjoy it though, any feedback is appreciated.

Major End-Year Awards

Company of the Year:

Interestingly this was probably the easiest award to give out this year. You’d imagine I’d have to weigh up the pros and cons but to me, this was easy. This year has seen TNA be comfortably the most entertaining wrestling company. They had a decent start to the year which was slightly undermined by a poor Lockdown show, which was compounded by the fact that Lockdown is one of TNA’s signature shows. However, this did not deter TNA and they went on to have a great summer with great pay-per-view after great pay-per-view. Slammiversary was probably the best of the lot, more on that later. It also saw a relatively simple build towards Destination X culminate in an explosion of popularity for Austin Aries. TNA, in very un-TNA like move, capitalised on his growing popularity and made the decision to have him end the longest TNA World Heavyweight Championship run of Bobby Roode. These were just some of the highlights of a great summer. The end of the year could not keep to the same standard with the seemingly never-ending ‘Aces and Eights’ storyline consuming Impact and even the Pay-Per-Views at times. That being said though this year has seen TNA provide consistent and entertaining programming with almost no bum notes being hit. On the other hand you have the likes of WWE and Ring of Honor, neither of which impressed at all this year. WWE have had their worst year since I re-joined the ‘WWE Universe’ following a four year hiatus. The writing has been appalling this year and the change to three hours RAW has to be one of the worst decisions they’ve ever made (from an entertainment standpoint, not a financial perspective). On the flip side, the pay-per-view’s have been consistently good for the most part. Extreme Rules, in particular, was a fantastic pay-per-view - comfortably WWE’s best of the year. Plus RAW 1000 was probably the best of any company’s weekly television show across the year. None of that could make up for how indescribably boring WWE, and RAW specifically, have been across the last calendar year though. Ring of Honor didn’t have a much better year. The company I once looked to as my favourite throughout the middle of the last decade muddled its way through a turgid 2012. Many blamed the old fashioned style of Jim Cornette’s booking, others point towards the perceived lack of charisma from many of their top stars. I think it was a combination of factors. I thought they’d possibly turned a corner when Kevin Steen won the World Title at Border Wars but they still managed to disappoint for the rest of the calendar year. At Glory By Honor it was noticeable that changes had been made backstage, and it led to somewhat of a revival. A solid Glory By Honor iPPV, which was even more notable for its lack of streaming issues, something which had dogged the company all year, was followed by an even better Final Battle. These were all steps in the right direction and that’s hopefully something the company can build on in 2013 but for 2012 it was too little, too late. Other companies I simply didn’t see enough of to give them any consideration for this award so congratulations to TNA.

The winner is: TNA

Superstar of the Year:

This was a difficult category to narrow down to a winner. A lot of people have impressed me this year. The Superstar of the Year award is to be given to the person I feel has been the best overall package across the year. Merely excelling in the ring is not good enough to earn you the award, neither is delivering the occasional stellar promo. You have to be consistently good at everything across the whole year. So after some consternation I narrowed the list down to four: Austin Aries, Christopher Daniels, Daniel Bryan and Kevin Steen. Austin Aries had an amazing year, both kayfabe-wise and from a non-kayfabe perspective. He was truly fantastic this year – as he is every year and he provided so many entertaining moments across the year, some even included wine and popcorn. On top of that I can’t think of a bad match he had across the year. That being said, he didn’t do as well as the rest and therefore had to be eliminated. Kevin Steen was another standout performer of 2012. He has been Ring of Honor World Champion for the majority of 2012 and at times was the only reason I tuned in to watch ROH shows. His promos this year were top notch, even above his usual excellent standard and he had some great matches too. Some have seen fit to complain about his weight and even his style of wrestling but he’s proven them wrong time and time again putting in great performances in a myriad of different wrestling matches throughout 2012. That being said he was just a step behind the top two. Speaking of which, I changed my mind on the top two so many times that it even happened as I wrote this paragraph. In the end I decided that Daniel Bryan, for all his greatness over the past year, just hadn’t quite done enough to win the award. From his slow-burning heel turn which was on-going as the year began to his comedic antics as a member of Team Hell No as the year rounded off he was sublime in everything he did. He put on amazing matches every time he was in the ring and delivered some of the promos that his detractors had claimed he wasn’t capable of because his supposed lack of charisma. That all sounds so ludicrous now since he has proven time and again that he has charisma in abundance. The one man that managed to trump him in the entertainment stakes was Christopher Daniels and his appletini’s. From being the World Tag Team Champions of the World (not redundant, they’re two planets worth of greatness) alongside a vastly improved Frankie Kazarian to beating the Spanish announce team to forever tormenting AJ Styles. Daniels has excelled at everything he’s been given this year. The fact that he is my Superstar of the Year speaks volumes about him given he was involved in the worst angle this year not involving AJ Lee. The Claire Lynch angle has become infamous amongst TNA’s fans and detractors – trust me the latter has far greater numbers sadly. It was an angle that swerved from helping a drug addict to AJ Styles effectively being raped to it just being a setup with Lynch not even being pregnant. If that doesn’t make your head spin then nothing will. It was a truly horrific angle that saw the talent of Kazarian and particularly Daniels shine through. The pair threw a hilarious baby shower for Lynch, continued to deliver great promos that combined vitriol and humour ridiculously well and repeatedly provoked Styles and his oddly well-matched partner Kurt Angle - which brought about an absolutely outstanding tag team match at Slammiversary. I’ve long been a fan of Christopher Daniels and think he has at one point or another deserved a World Title in both TNA and Ring of Honor but this year he surprised me, he took it up a notch and proved to everyone that he is World Championship material. Maybe this has happened too late in his career or maybe he’ll achieve that goal in 2013 since he seems to be garnering quite a push given his victory over Styles at Final Resolution and the fact that he’s developed a rivalry with former World Champion James Storm. Personally, I hope it’s the latter.

The winner is: Christopher Daniels

Wrestler of the Year:

This was another award that required close examination. The Wrestler of the Year award is based purely on who has put on the best matches between the ropes, nothing else matters only the quality of matches put on. So many wrestlers put in consistently amazing performances in 2012 that it took me quite a while to narrow it down. Michael Elgin had quite an amazing year which saw him quickly rise up the ranks in ROH and made his debut in PWG which went over rather well. He spent most of the year as part of Truth Martini’s ‘House of Truth’ which led to some rather entertaining tag matches with him and Roderick Strong, the most notable probably being the very exciting match against Amazing Red and TJ Perkins at the 10th Anniversary Show. Elgin went on to break out as an upper-card singles wrestler in his own right following one match with then ROH World Champion Davey Richards. It was a match that was raved about by fans and critics alike and my third favourite match of the year. That wasn’t the high point of the year though; Elgin continued to make waves in every organisation he wrestled for. At ROH’s Glory By Honor XI event Elgin challenged for the World Championship again, this time against Kevin Steen. The two put on an absolute classic that spanned half an hour and topped off one of ROH’s best shows of the year, it was behind only the epic Undertaker versus Triple H match from Wrestlemania on my match of the year list. Elgin capped the year with a very good match against Roderick Strong in the opening match of Final Battle 2012. Elgin had an extremely good year in the squared circle, but it wasn’t quite enough to earn him the award. Daniel Bryan is considered for this award too. I think this is a testament to how good a year Bryan had because he was in the final few for a lot of these awards. The wrestling ability of Daniel Bryan has never been in question; he’s been putting on absolute classics since I first saw him wrestle in ROH. He has been one of my favourite wrestlers ever since, I’ve noted on this blog before my fondness for Bryan and his clashes with another favourite of mine, Nigel McGuinness in particular. His series of matches with CM Punk was a major highlight of 2012 for Bryan. It’s no surprise I enjoyed this having seen these two face off sparingly on the independent scene and it was heart-warming to see them plying their trade at the very top of the wrestling business. Their first few encounters were on the weekly shows and they were fantastic. Then they met at Over The Limit in a match for the WWE Championship, a sentence I never thought I’d say or write about these two, and it was a great match. Bryan and Punk had another great match at Money In The Bank and Bryan excelled in other matches later in the year with Kane as his tag partner. To my recollection I can only recall one Bryan match that was a bit of a let-down this year and that was his Wrestlemania match with Sheamus and lets face it, that was more to do with the length of the match – eighteen seconds for anyone who blinked and missed it – than any failing on Bryan’s part. Ironically enough, Bryan’s opponent in his worst match of 2012 was the same opponent in his best match. When Bryan and Sheamus were finally given time to go out there and show what they could do in a Two out of Three Falls match at Extreme Rules they surpassed all expectations. They had a match so good that it was the best match on a card that contained an epic clash between John Cena and Brock Lesnar as well as a brutal and emotional street fight that saw CM Punk defend his WWE Championship against Chris Jericho. I find it hard to give a good reason why Bryan isn’t winning this award but quite simply, just as the previous award, as amazing as Bryan was, he just wasn’t quite amazing enough. Kevin Steen is another man who had a thoroughly remarkable year. He won the ROH World Championship for the first time and was PWG World Heavyweight Champion for the majority of the year. The matches Steen had this year were off the chart, from a gruelling fight with Willie Mack to a Last Man Standing match with El Generico to a bloody war with Jimmy Jacobs and the aforementioned epic battle with Michael Elgin. He also faced Davey Richards in an Anything Goes match which tore the house down at Best in the World. His Ladder War with long-time foe El Generico was a great match too which, despite not reaching the levels of their Final Battle 2010 match or their Steen Wolf Ladder match, was still one of the best matches of 2012. Steen had such a great year in-ring that I would have no problem crowning him my Wrestler of the Year for 2012 if it wasn’t for Austin Aries. Aries was launched into the TNA stratosphere this year when he relinquished his X-Division Title and went on to beat Bobby Roode in another amazing match at Destination X. His match at Against All Odds with Alex Shelley was so good that it roused the most quiet Impact Zone audience I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something. He had a couple of great matches against Bully Ray, specifically the Sacrifice match which was the launch pad for his road to the World Championship. He had a couple of great matches with Jeff Hardy including a brutal ladder match. One of my favourite Aries matches of 2012 was his fight against Samoa Joe at Slammiversary. It didn’t quite reach the levels of their Final Battle 2004 match but that was due to it being a shorter match and not having the same level of importance attached to it. That being said it was a tremendous match. Aries didn’t have a bad match in 2012 and is one hundred percent a deserving winner of Wrestler of the Year.

The winner is: Austin Aries

Female Wrestler of the Year:

Sadly I found this award difficult to justify as I feel the women in mainstream companies have, for the most part, had a torrid 2012 and I just haven’t seen enough of any female independent wrestling to justify this award. I considered giving it to one of the two women I believe to be the best female wrestlers in the world today: Sara Del Rey or Cheerleader Melissa but I realised I’d only seen two Del Rey matches in 2012 and only one of Melissa’s matches. That meant it had to be a female wrestler from one of the big two companies. A friend of mine suggested AJ Lee but she has been such a big part of what has made RAW unwatchable for the majority of 2012 that I burst into hysterics when he recommended I do so. I narrowed it down to two women: Paige from NXT (formerly Britani Knight on the independent scene) and Gail Kim. Paige has shown doubters why independent wrestling fans raved about her so much when they heard WWE were interested in signing her. She has continued to have fantastic matches and develop her character in NXT whilst seemingly not being restricted too much. Whether she will continue to be given freedom to express herself when she makes it to the main roster remains to be seen but so far her efforts in WWE deserve a lot of praise. Gail Kim is a strange choice for me because she was Champion up until June but since then she’s barely been featured because of the strange, cyclical way women are booked in wrestling. The reason I’ve chose her is because whilst she was really only relevant for half of 2012 she made that half count. She constantly put on decent matches which often featured, in my opinion, less talented girls as her opponents but this didn’t perturb her as she continued to put on the best matches she possibly could.

The winner is: Gail Kim

Match of the Year:

There is not much to say about this award other than it goes to The Undertaker vs. Triple H for their match at Wrestlemania XVIII. The Undertaker has had some amazing matches at Wrestlemania since the streak became a noteworthy thing, this may not have lived up to the Wrestlemania XXV match between Undertaker and Shawn Michaels but it was still absolutely brilliant. This was the third meeting between these two at Wrestlemania and it was, in my opinion, the best. I never really though anything could top their meeting at Wrestlemania X-7 which shone, even on the greatest wrestling show of all-time, it still stood out. Their Wrestlemania XXVII match came close, which surprised me and showed that they still had what it took but their match at Wrestlemania XXVIII was on a different level. The Hell in a Cell may not have been used as much as I would have liked but that is literally the only complaint I could have about this match. I watched it with a few people who aren’t wrestling fans but just decided to come along and join the party. They all loved the match, some of them even started following wrestling as a result of how engrossed they were in the match between these two heavyweights of the WWE. I’m not going to go through the other matches that came close since I’ve already done a list of my Top 50 Favourite Matches of 2012 but lets just say that there were several matches that on most other years would have probably won this award, they were just unfortunate that The Undertaker and Triple H had a match that will go down in history as one of the all-time great matches.

The winner is: The Undertaker vs. Triple H, Wrestlemania XVIII

Angle/Feud of the Year:

This was another award that I struggled with for all the wrong reasons. Whilst the in-ring quality over the past twelve months has been immense, the stories that link these matches haven’t been up to the same level. Last year we had the amazing tale of CM Punk and his road to the WWE Championship at Money in the Bank which was one of the best storylines WWE had put together in the past decade. This year, we didn’t see the same level of creation from any company. With that being said, the Bound For Glory series was done very well this year, I liked the concept last year but it suffered from major holes in logic, even by wrestling standards. This year they refined it, everyone wrestled each other once and there were four bonus matches. The top four went on to compete in the semi-finals and final plus the prize for finishing first in the league standing was that you got to choose your semi-final opponent. It was a simple but effective format that meant there was always a reason to tune into Impact Wrestling and watch their pay-per-view’s even if you didn’t like some of the storylines – which for once with TNA, wasn’t actually a problem. It suffered a little bit from a nonsensical ending though, and I don’t say this as someone who is not a Jeff Hardy fan, I merely say it because it is the truth. Jeff Hardy winning the tournament came way out of left field. He hadn’t been built up at all and throughout the tournament. In fact his most promoted part was a feud with the man who earned the wooden spoon – Robbie E. All of a sudden he’s in the final four, then he’s in the final, then he is the winner and then he’s winning the World Championship at the biggest show of the year. It made very little sense and made most of his opponents look like chumps in the process. The battle for control of Ring of Honor was another interesting storyline this year. Kevin Steen, Jimmy Jacobs and Steve Corino, known collectively as S.C.U.M wreaked havoc in RoH much to the dismay of on-screen authority figure Jim Cornette. It wasn’t always the perfect storyline and often S.C.U.M’s ideals were changed in accordance with how the company wished to portray them and at times it made it hard to know who was being presented as the sympathetic heroes in the storyline. It was intriguing for the most part though and provided us with some priceless moments, usually when Steen was confronted or was confronting an always irate Cornette. With him gone and Nigel McGuinness in his place the feud has somewhat simmered and I’m not even sure if S.C.U.M still want to ‘burn ROH to the ground and rebuild it in their own image’. Regardless though it provided quite a bit of entertainment in a rather dull year in ROH and for storylines in wrestling as a whole. The debut of The Shield in WWE is another storyline which grabbed my attention. Attacking other wrestlers to right the injustice that they perceive to be occurring is all they really did in 2012. The group is made up of Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. The reason this doesn’t win the award is because as much as I’ve enjoyed the storyline thus far, it hasn’t gone far enough for me to decide how good it is yet. Only 2013 can tell us that, and these are the 2012 awards. However, I have a feeling that this trio are going to make waves next year. Eventually, Dean Ambrose (because of his unbelievable talent) and Roman Reigns (because you can tell that he's the kind of guy that management love) will go on to be main event stars. I just hope Seth Rollins doesn't fall to the wayside as I expect him to because he has improved so much on the mic since his RoH days and remains a tremendous in-ring talent. The award, in the end, had to go to the Austin Aries/Bobby Roode rivalry. To be completely specific it goes to the build of Austin Aries as a legitimate threat by showcasing his talents throughout the early part of the year as X-Division Champion before his well-timed face turn and subsequent important victories over Bully Ray and Samoa Joe. The lead-up to their match at Destination X was where we were reaching the crest of the wave of popularity for Aries. The build-up to the match was fantastic and left me desperately wanting Aries to win the title. The follow-up never really capitalised on the popularity Aries had built-up or how much the fans were actually buying into him which meant his title reign ended up not really working. That was TNA’s fault for having him play second fiddle to the Bound For Glory series and the woeful Ace's and Eight’s angle before sacrificing him to Jeff Hardy at Bound For Glory instead of giving him a real run with the ball. It reminded me of CM Punk’s first World Heavyweight Championship reign in WWE, the parallels between the two are remarkable. That period in the lead up to Destination X was still fantastic though.

The winner is: Austin Aries’ journey to the World Heavyweight Championship

One-off Show of the Year:

This was possibly the hardest category to pick with every company I follow putting on some great shows across the year. Ring of Honor gave us Glory By Honor XI and Final Battle 2012, TNA gave us Sacrifice and Bound For Glory plus WWE gave us TLC. Neither of them made the final four though. Destination X did and it was quite an amazing show. The X-Division centric PPV showcased that division in a good way even if the Ultimate X match did flatter to deceive in the end. Away from the X-Division action Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle put on a terrific match which was for all important Bound For Glory Series points. AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels faced off once again and had a great Last Man Standing match which saw them tear the house down. Then came the main event which saw Austin Aries and Bobby Roode rebuild the house just so they could tear it down again in what was the match of the night. Destination X was in the end though only enough to be the fourth best show of the year. The top three were incredibly difficult to separate but third place went to Extreme Rules. An amazing show in its own right Extreme Rules boasted not one, not two, but three match of the year contenders with Sheamus and Daniel Bryan meeting in a Two out of Three falls match, a No Disqualification match to settle the uncontrollable feud between Brock Lesnar and John Cena as well as a Chicago Street Fight for the WWE Championship between CM Punk and Chris Jericho. The thing that knocked this PPV down to third was that the undercard let it down somewhat. Kane and Randy Orton had a very good match and The Big Show versus Cody Rhodes match was solid but the Diva’s Championship match, Ryback’s match and the Dolph Ziggler versus Brodus Clay match were all poor matches. Threemendous III, PWG’s Ninth Anniversary show, was an amazing card. Headlined by one of the greatest ladder matches in history which saw three tag teams vying for gold in what was comparable to the TLC matches the WWE had in the early 2000’s. It was defined by Nick Jackson being pushed off a ladder but managing to land on the ropes and turn it seamlessly into a Swanton Bomb to the outside which was nothing short of astounding. The undercard supported it really well with great matches between TJ Perkins and Roderick Strong, Brian Cage and Eddie Edwards and particularly Kevin Steen and Willie Mack. In fact this card might actually have suffered from being too amazing for its own good because by the third from last match I was completely burned out which meant I didn’t really enjoy the next two and it took the absolute insanity of the ladder match main event to re-engage me. That’s why this award goes to Slammiversary for being such a good show. It provided some amazing matches with Austin Aries defeating Samoa Joe and the Tag Team Championship match with the team of Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian taking on the team of AJ Styles and Kurt Angle. It provided some surprisingly good matches such as the Knockout’s Championship match, Joseph Park versus Bully Ray, the three-way dance to become number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship and Bobby Roode versus Sting in the main event. Even the surprise match between Hernandez and Kid Kash as well as a shockingly non-abysmal match involving Garret Bischoff, Devon and the Two Robbie’s didn’t detract from the show. It just flowed so well and included a touching announcement that Sting would be the first inductee into the TNA Hall of Fame. Therefore I have no qualms in awarding Slammiversary the 2012 Show of the Year Award.

The winner is: Slammiversary X

Best Moment of the Year:

This award was purely taken on a kayfabe basis, had it been considered on a real life basis then the return of Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler would have won the award by a landslide. There were a few things I considered for this including the raucous crowds at both the RAW after Wrestlemania and RAW 1000. In the end it came down to two Championship wins provided by two different companies. Austin Aries’ victory at Destination X was a fantastic moment for all involved and it happened in front of a decent Impact Zone crowd, if it had happened in front of the crowd at Slammiversary the response would have been good enough to win Aries' title win the award. However the award ended up going to Kevin Steen’s ROH World Championship victory at Border Wars. It felt like such a momentous moment with Steen winning the World Championship and with it playing out in front of his fellow Canadians who revelled in their new World Champion. I watched it on iPPV with a good friend of mine who is almost as big a Steen fan as I am and we both exploded when he won the title. It was a good match capped off with a fantastic ending and the commentary of Nigel McGuinness just added to the brilliance of the moment making it feel even more epic than it already did. Steve Corino hugging Steen after the match was just the icing on the cake. It was a great moment.

The winner is: Kevin Steen wins the Ring of Honor World Championship at Border Wars

Breakout Star of the Year:

So many stars have had breakout moments across 2012 for a variety of different reasons. Austin Aries was one of these men, some people claim he can’t be a breakout star this late into his career and being the only man to hold the ROH World Championship on more than one occasion. I disagree with that because I define breaking out as moving up in a dramatic fashion and Aries has done that in 2012. He exponentially increased his worth in the wrestling business. He cemented himself as a main eventer in the second biggest wrestling organisation in North America. He has proved that he belongs with the cream of the crop in Impact Wrestling and rocketed from a lowly midcarder to a main eventer over the calendar year. Michael Elgin has been another man who has had a spectacular year. I'm still far from his biggest fan but he's developing at a rapid rate and has had some great matches this year so whilst I may not be as on board as many ROH fans I do see potential - but Elgin has to fulfill that potential going forward. Having won ROH’s prestigious ‘Survival of the Fittest’ competition in 2011 it was obvious that ROH had big plans for him but Elgin himself was the catalyst for his rise in 2012. It’s completely plausible that Ring of Honor had plans for this year that would have seen Elgin rise up the card but on the night of Wrestlemania, at ROH’s Showdown in the Sun: Night Two event, he put on one of the matches of the year against World Champion Davey Richards. That match convinced the ROH audience that Elgin was the real deal, and he hasn’t looked back since. He’s a major player now and it’s obvious to everyone associated with the product that he is destined to have a big 2013. Adam Cole was really unlucky not to win this award. He has had an astounding 2012, the perfect ingredients to be the winner of an award like this. He was part of the first high profile ROH feud in 2012 which ended with him pinning Davey Richards who at that point in time was World Champion. He feuded with his former tag partner Kyle O’Reilly leading to an absolute war at the Best in the World iPPV which is probably the defining match of his short career so far. The match put him majorly over with the ROH audience. Cole went on to win the ROH Television Title from Roderick Strong and is currently embroiled in a feud with Matt Hardy. He’ll definitely be an ROH World Champion at some point and it wouldn’t surprise me if WWE picked him up at some point. It isn’t just in ROH that Cole has excelled in 2012 though, other companies have benefited from his continuous improvement, most notably PWG where he made a huge impact across the whole year. He was involved in that amazing ladder match at Threemendous III before he went onto win the prestigious Battle of Los Angeles after which he stole the PWG World Heavyweight Championship from Kevin Steen. He challenged Steen to a match at the final PWG show of the year and won the coveted Championship. His heel persona is only just in its early stages but already it seems to be something he is comfortable with. Throughout the year I've felt Cole's promo ability has been evident. His content may not always have been good but his delivery has been. And that's great because content can be worked on, delivery can't. I expect him to take his PWG heel run and ROH face run to the next level in 2013. I hope I'm not wrong because Adam Cole appears one for the future. But lets not downplay Cole's 2012 by talking about his potential, he's been great already but I just felt that Daniel Bryan had a slightly better year. Again people may not consider this a breakout year for Bryan because of what he had already accomplished in his career: one of the longest reigning ROH World champions, a multiple-time midcard champion in WWE and a World Heavyweight Champion in the WWE. That being said though, at the start of the year many casual fans felt he was tarnishing the legacy of the World Heavyweight Championship which, lets face it, is a secondary tier title in WWE’s eyes. He’s had such a good year that many now feel he’s qualified enough to win the WWE Championship, the top belt in the industry today. Although there have been plenty of highs the most important point in 2012 for Daniel Bryan actually had more to do with the fans love of his work than anything else. Wrestlemania 28 was supposed to be just a routine night, most people had accepted that Bryan was going to lose his World Title to Sheamus but we weren’t quite prepared for the way in which that blow was delivered. Put in the opening match of the night Bryan lost his World Championship in just eighteen seconds. This should have been the death knell for his career, the move that lost him all credibility with the mystical casual fanbase, the thing that relegated him to midcard mediocrity for the rest of his time in the WWE, but that didn’t happen. So annoyed with how Bryan had been treated the audience chanted his name and his catchphrase “YES!” throughout the next hour. It got even more feverous the next night on RAW. That night is remembered for the “YES!” chants that were present. This was a show that featured The Rock, John Cena, CM Punk and the return of Brock Lesnar but the “YES!” chants were of such a magnitude that everything else faded to insignificance. That night cemented Bryan as a bona fide main eventer and led to a terrific rematch with Sheamus and a series of excellent WWE Title matches with CM Punk.

The winner is: Daniel Bryan

Minor End-Year Awards:

Face of the Year: CM Punk (by default due to there being no outstanding faces in 2012)

Heel of the Year: Bobby Roode

Commentator of the Year: Nigel McGuinness

Gimmick/Character of the Year: Christopher Daniels’ Appletini sipping evil mastermind gimmick

Tag Team of the Year: #WTTCOTW/Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian)

Promo of the Year: CM Punk and John Cena’s go-home promo on the RAW before Night of Champions with Bret Hart

Finisher of the Year: Kevin Steen’s Package Piledriver

Spot of the Year: Nick Jackson’s Ladder Fall Turned Into a Swanton Bomb to the outside at PWG’s Threemendous III

Worst Moment of the Year: Hornswoggle is revealed as Anonymous RAW GM by Santino “Sherlock” Marella.

Televised Show of the Year (consistency-wise): Impact Wrestling

Top 50 Matches - The 2012 Edition

We are finally into the new year and it's time to take a look at my personal favourite matches of 2012. It may not have been the most entertaining year in wrestling history on the whole but the match quality has been undisputably great. This year I've probably watched more wrestling than ever before. That being said I've neglected the indies a lot this year, even PWG who were so brilliant last year. Therefore I can't obviously rank those matches, I did see Threemendous III though so some of the matches from that card do feature. I'll be posting my 'End of the Year Awards' tomorrow so keep an eye out for that too. So with that said, lets have a look at the list:

1) Triple H vs. The Undertaker, Hell in a Cell (Special Guest Referee: Shawn Michaels) – Wrestlemania XXVIII
2) Kevin Steen vs. Michael Elgin, ROH World Championship – Glory By Honor XI
3) Davey Richards vs. Michael Elgin, ROH World Championship – Showdown in the Sun – Night Two
4) Super Smash Bros. (Player Uno and Player Dos) vs. Future Shock (Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly) vs. The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson), PWG World Tag Team Championships, Ladder Match – Threemendous III
5) Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan, World Heavyweight Championship, Best 2 out of 3 Falls – Extreme Rules
6) Ryback and Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane) vs. The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins), TLC Match - TLC
7) Bobby Roode vs. James Storm, Street Fight – Bound For Glory
8) Kevin Steen vs. Davey Richards, ROH World Championship, Anything Goes – Best in the World
9) Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena, No Disqualification – Extreme Rules
10) Bobby Roode vs. Austin Aries, TNA World Heavyweight Championship – Destination X
11) Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian vs. AJ Styles and Kurt Angle, TNA Tag Team Championships – Slammiversary X
12) CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan, WWE Championship – Over The Limit
13) Kevin Steen vs. El Generico, ROH World Championship, Ladder War IV – Final Battle 2012
14) AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe, 4-Way Ladder Bound For Glory Series Match – Hardcore Justice
15) Austin Aries vs. Alex Shelley, X-Division Championship – Against All Odds
16) Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles – Sacrifice
17) Austin Aries vs. Samoa Joe, X-Division Championship – Slammiversary X
18) CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho, WWE Championship, Chicago Street Fight – Extreme Rules
19) Dolph Ziggler vs. John Cena, Money In The Bank Contract, Ladder Match – TLC
20) CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan, WWE Championship, No Disqualification (Special Guest Referee: AJ Lee) – Money in the Bank
21) CM Punk vs. John Cena, WWE Championship – Night of Champions
22) Austin Aries vs. Bobby Roode, World Heavyweight Championship – Hardcore Justice
23) Austin Aries vs. Bully Ray – Sacrifice
24) Bobby Roode vs. James Storm, TNA World Heavyweight Championship, Steel Cage Match – Lockdown
25) CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho – Wrestlemania XXVIII
26) AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels, Last Man Standing – Destination X
27) El Generico vs. Kevin Steen, Last Man Standing – Showdown in the Sun - Night One
28) #WTTCOTW (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian) vs. AJ Styles and Kurt Angle vs. Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez, TNA World Tag Team Championships, Triple Threat Match – Bound For Glory
29) AJ Styles vs. Bobby Roode vs. James Storm, Triple Threat – Turning Point
30) AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels – Final Resolution
31) Kevin Steen vs. Willie Mack, PWG World Championship – Threemendous III
32) Jeff Hardy vs. Austin Aries, TNA World Heavyweight Championship, Ladder Match – Turning Point
33) Jimmy Jacobs vs. Kevin Steen, No Holds Barred – 10th Anniversary Show
34) Michael Elgin vs. Roderick Strong, Final Battle 2012
35) Davey Richards vs. Kevin Steen, ROH World Championship – Border Wars
36) The American Wolves (Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards) vs. Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly – Final Battle 2012
37) Dolph Ziggler vs. Randy Orton – Night of Champions
38) Austin Aries vs. Jeff Hardy, TNA World Heavyweight Championship – Bound For Glory
39) Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly, Hybrid Fighting Rules – Best in the World
40) Samoa Joe vs. Magnus, Television Championship, No Disqualification – Turning Point
41) Amazing Red and TJ Perkins vs. The House of Truth (Michael Elgin and Roderick Strong) – 10th Anniversary Show
42) Kevin Steen vs. Rhino, ROH World Championship, Anything Goes – Death Before Dishonor X
43) CM Punk vs. Dolph Ziggler, WWE Championship (Special Guest Referee: John Laurinaitis)– Royal Rumble
44) #WTTCOTW (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian) vs. AJ Styles and Kurt Angle, TNA World Tag Team Championships – No Surrender
45) Sheamus vs. Dolph Ziggler, World Heavyweight Championship - No Way Out
46) CM Punk vs. Mark Henry, WWE Championship, No Disqualification – RAW (16th April 2012)
47) Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe, Bound For Glory Series Match – Destination X
48) AJ Styles vs. Frankie Kazarian – Against All Odds
49) Roderick Strong vs. TJ Perkins – Threemendous III
50) BJ Whitmer and Rhett Titus vs. Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin), Street Fight – Final Battle 2012

As always, feel free to leave comments and thoughts below. Any feedback is appreciated. Lets all hope 2013 provides us with more fantastic matches and moments. Happy New Year everyone!

Danielson vs. McGuinness: The Complete Collection

Let me just preface this short article by saying this is not a review. This is more just a bit of a personal ramble than anything else.

I received the Danielson vs. McGuinness set yesterday as part of an order from Ring of Honor. I ripped the parcel open like a rabid animal. I should not be this excited for a DVD nevermind one where I've seen all of the matches before. That and the fact that I felt like the world was against me yesterday as the flu I've been struggling with for the past three weeks rendered me bed-ridden (and at times unconscious) for the great majority of the day meant my excitement should have been quelled somewhat. It was not.

The feud that Bryan Danielson (WWE's Daniel Bryan) and Nigel McGuinness had in Ring of Honor is second only to Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock as my favourite feud of all-time. It was a feud that sprawled across three epic years of RoH. From their first meeting at 'Weekend of Champions: Night Two' all the way through to their mutual final match in RoH at 'Glory By Honor VIII: The Final Countdown' everything they did was amazing. In fact when I was watching this DVD back I was acutely aware that the worst singles match they had was probably the 60 minute time-limit draw at Epic Encounter II and even that was a good match that bordered on a great one.

As I watched the DVD every single match was as good as I remember it being. From matches I've seen many, many times such as their unification clash at 'Unified' and their match at 'Rising Above 2008' to matches I was seeing for only the second time like the match-up at 'Generation Now' and the breathtaking battle from 'Driven' everything was still amazing. It actually shocks me that these two could have so many big matches that are different enough and exciting enough that each match on its own is legitimately amazing.

Another thing that amazes me about their matches is that if I was to compile a list of my favourite matches of all-time I know their matches would feature on numerous occasions throughout the list. To this day their unification bout from Unified remains my favourite match of all-time, it's hardly ever been under threat since I first saw that match in late 2006. They themselves threatened it at Driven in 2007 and then again at the 6th Anniversary Show. They even managed to hold off the efforts of two bona fide wrestling legends when Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker had one of the greatest matches of all-time at Wrestlemania XXV. That in itself is testament to the greatness that ensued whenever Danielson and McGuinness clashed. I've been watching wrestling avidly since the first show I ever watched (Wrestlemania 13). That means I've been watching for just over fifteen and a half years now and it's not even as if my experience of wrestling matches is limited to things that occurred after I started watching wrestling. I've watched a lot of matches that preceded my introduction to wrestling, from Sting vs. Flair to Steamboat vs. Savage I've seen my fair share of amazing matches. So despite the fact that I am just one no-name wrestling fan in England, I still like to think that my opinion means something. You can call it naivety, you can call it arrogance but it's how I feel. So I think the fact that I am praising their matches and their feud so highly speaks volumes about how amazing it actually was.

Danielson vs. McGuinness is not a feud many wrestling fans would put up their with the greatest of all-time. Hell, it's not even a feud a lot of wrestling fans actually know about. There are a lot of people out there who think that WWE is the only wrestling company in the world or at the very least the only one worth watching. That's great for them but it kind of makes me sad that more people won't be able to appreciate this feud in all of its glory. One criticism that a friend of mine, who is also a huge wrestling fan, levied at the McGuinness vs. Danielson rivalry is they didn't have the, as he described it, "end of the world" feel that a Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant did or a Hulk Hogan vs. Sting had or The Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin had. I'd argue that point but to an outsider I kind of understand, if he'd been swept up in the emotion RoH fans were at that time though I think he'd see that "end of world" feeling. When you're wrestling a match that the majority of fans of this sport, or whatever you wish to label it as, will never see it's hard to have that "end of the world" feel. What their encounters did have though, and this is undeniable was a "this will be amazing" feel to them. You knew if a card featured a match between Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness that they were going to tear the house down, and you were never disappointed. That to me is unbelievable.

This ramble turned out to be a lot longer than I had initially planned but there is another interesting point I want to make before we conclude this not-so-brief musing of mine. Danielson and McGuinness had that unique spark that you only glimpse every so often in wrestling. Hogan and Sting had it, Rock and Austin had it, Joe and Punk had it, Styles and Daniels had it. What all of those feuds had in common is no matter what the situation if you put those two together you knew you'd get something special. You could put them in singles matches, multi-man matches, tag team matches against each other or tag team matches with each other and no matter what, they would deliver - in spades. The reason I bring up this point is when I was watching the DVD I was astonished at how well Danielson and McGuinness worked together in the tag team match against Takeshi Morishima and Naomichi Marufuji. That's what led me to thinking about how if two wrestlers have such an exciting connection it doesn't matter what situation you put them both in, they will make it mind-blowing.

Anyway I've babbled for long enough. However, I would like to end just by saying this DVD is nothing short of tremendous. If you are a long time RoH fan you should really purchase this set and relive the glory days that were the Danielson vs. McGuinness clashes. Even if you are someone who is new to Ring of Honor or a wrestling fan that had never even heard of the company before I would definitely suggest getting this DVD. It shows off great match after great match and wouldn't be out of place in any wrestling fan's collection.

If you do want to buy the DVD you can get it and any other Ring of Honor merchandise from their shop.