Thursday, December 31, 2015

2015 Year End Awards


As another year ends for the world of Pro Wrestling its time to look back. Which Wrestlers stood above the rest? What events became classics? Some of the awards from last year will return others won't and new awards might be done.



Wrestler Of The Year Ethan Carter The Third- Ok this was an easy pick. For this award I'm not just looking at who the best in ring performer is. Because being a pro wrestler means you need to be good in the ring. Able to connect with the fans make them love you or make them hate you. Able to cut good promos that make your match more interesting. No one does that better than EC3. The man is amazingly underrated in the ring. He works a perfect heel style willing to sell enough to make any opponent look good rather it be Drew Galloway and Matt Hardy or someone like DJ Z or Spud. But never so much he looks bad. The man gets how to get people hate him a tough test in the modern wrestling world. He worked with a wide variety of foes during the year and had amazing matches with Spud, Kurt Angle, Matt Hardy, and Lashley. He cuts great promos that make you hate him. But he's also able to read a crowd and adapt. If the fans do something he picks up on it and uses it to make you hate him all the more.



Tag Team Of the Year The Wolves Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards- Yep for the second straight year I'm giving these guys the award. I can't name a team out there that works as well together as the Wolves do. They started the year feuding with the Revolution over the Tag Title and working with Matt Hardy in some good six mans. While Eddie was out for a while he came back strong. We got give amazing MOTYC with the Dirty Heels. They also had some awesome matches with Brian Meyers and Trevor Lee along with being involved in the GFW feud. Davey and Eddie would fit right in with any era and they work together as well as any great team. They read each other minds like the Midnight Express or Rockers used to. If want to learn the art of team team wrestling check out the Wolves.



Female Wrestler of the Year Taryn Terrell- When the year started Taryn was playing the underdog baby face champion. During the year she morphed into the insane head of the doll house. And I think she played both roles perfect. I would actually say her heel promos gave her a shot at best talker. She was played crazy perfect like someone living in there own warped world would really be. With just that right hint of danger. That danger that in the real world would make you real nervious about pissing her off. Taryn is one of the most underrated wrestlers in the world she loves to take big risks but has shown the ability to not screw up dangerous spots while always improving in the basics.



Match of the Year EC3 vs. Rockstar Spud Hair vs. Hair- This was my early favorite for match of the year and it held up all year. The story of this match was classic. EC3 a bully through and through. Spud the smaller man who was easy to pick on that finally snapped. This match was about as perfectly wrestled as you can get. The use of blood was well done with Spud letting out buckets but refusing to stay down. Even as you know there was no way going into match that Spud would win you found yourself falling for the false finishes. Plus remember this was before EC3 was a world champion and Spud remains a mid carder but it had more emotion than many world title matches had this year.



Gimmick of the Year The Demon Finn Balor- When the than Prince Devitt signed with WWE NXT some wondered if that would end the costumes and paint he would often wear on the indy scene. Instead WWE embraced it. I really enjoying this gimmick because Balor only breaks it out for big matches. And that makes it have more impact when we do see Balor come out in the paint. The gimmick is clearly influenced by Japan's legendary Great Muta. And like Balor Muta didn't always wear the paint. It's a great gimmick gets you excited to see the match happen. And to be honest it's the kind of thing I would have liked to have done as wrestler. Be a normal guy most of the time but than for the big events come out with something like this.



Event of the Year TNA Bound For Glory- With several MOTYC alone on this card such as Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong and Lashley vs. Roode I could award this event on that alone. But the whole show was awesome and really there wasn't even average match much less bad match. The Ultimate X was thrilling and gave the smaller guys a chance to shine with Tigre Uno retaining his title. The Bound For Gold match was a fun rumble style match. And again fun moments with Dreamer playing tribute to Dusty Rhodes and Pope entering only for “Josh” to cost him. Plus getting see Tyrus and Abyss go one on one as excellent. The Wolves torn down the house again with Lee and Myers. Kurt Angle gave a great final performance stateside and the 3 way was a perfect mix of 3 wrestlers working together and not just having guys circle in and out.



Best Talker Ethan Carter The Third- Everything that comes out of this guys mouth is gold. He never gets in over his head with a promo. He understands how to play with the crowd and even knows to acknowledge them but never turn himself face in the process. He makes you want to see him destroyed before the bell ever rings. But of course he reminds you he's never been pinned. Most guys can do one kind of promo and that's it. But Carter can mix it up. He can intense he can be goofy, he can change make it seem like nothing matter more and he can make you think this all just a pit stop for him.



Best in Ring Worker Kurt Angle- Ok part of me is doing thing knowing Kurt might be at the end of the road. But Angle had a very strong year as always in the ring and wrestling different styles. Good series of brawls with guys like Eric Young and MVP. But still as always getting onto the mat and wrestling with people such as Lashley. Kurt always trying to steal the show and I think 2015 he pulled off quite a few. With the end of his career coming up he's leaving us strong.



Comeback Wrestler of The Year Awesome Kong- With her departure from TNA involving attacking another employee and WWE not interested in bringing her back after a short run it looked as thought Kong was done. She would still pop up from time to time but not on a major level. That all changed in January during TNA first tapings of the year. She was back in TNA and had awesome matches with Havoc, Terrell, and Gail Kim along with Brooke and Madison Rayne during the World Title Series.



Most Misused The Wyatt Family- It amazes and saddens me how much WWE blows it with these guys. Bray, Harper, and Rowan are all very talented and Strowman has shown good potential. The fans are clearly behind them and still pop when ever they show up. Yet for some reason WWE never gets behind them. They always wind up losing the feuds they are in. And than look at that feud with they had with Kane and Undertaker. It was all about “rebuilding” the old monsters. They stable has never had a championship while together. (Luke Harper's IC title run was during his being free period) Hopefully 2016 we finally start pushing these guys to the top and not just go “Oh the fans react we don't need to make them look good.”



Worse Event of the Year WWE SummerSlam- The build up to the main event was awful and time and again Taker and Brock sent the message they don't care since they missed weeks on end. The match is self was a fucking disaster. Brock his usual lazy suplex heavy style with Taker not able to even move at times. The finish was a complicated mess with Taker pulling a heel move to win it. Rest of the card wasn't any better. Sheamus vs. Orton same paint by numbers match they always have, a mess of a tag team four way with the worse team ever winning. Ruseve who can't work vs. Ziggler who stopped trying fight to a count out, Stephen Amell had the usual celeb match problems. Ryback Big Show and Miz have the usual WWE three way. We did get an ok tag match with The Wyatts vs. Reigns and Ambrose but it wasn't enough. Than we move onto Cena vs. Rollins where Rollins the world champion looks like a weakling who needs fucking Jon Stewart to retain his title. That's all I have to say Rollins can only beat the golden boy because a 50 something comic saved him.



Worst Wrestler of The Year Jay Lethal- As Alan Shore used to say “I know I'll get letters.” I know people are going to tell me how great Lethal is... And Lethal is great but this year he was awful! This year Lethal turned into a paint by numbers wrestler. Everyone of his matches plays out the same way. He hits the same moves in the same sequence and has the rest of the House of Truth get involved. What's sad is we know how good Lethal can be but this year he sucked.



Worst Tag Team of the Year Tie War Machine- I hate this team. They are big sloppy and dangerous. They don't do anything well. And I don't want to hear anyone bring up there “flying” as a reason to praise them. Because there flying is awful and sloppy as well. They are the classic example of big men who think they can just do sloppy power moves and get away it to look “powerful.” The promos are awful as well. Over the years we have seen a lot attempts to be the Road Warriors and War Machine Hanson and Rowe are the all time worse.



Worst Gimmick New Day Lets Just Be Annoying- You guys remember that South Park about Bikers and when people ignored them they started adding a bunch of extra crap to make more noise. Well that is what New Day reminds me of. They just do all they can to be annoying clapping, dancing, unicorn stuff, playing the trombone. Yeah people boo them but it's not wanting to see them get beat up heel heat it's turn the channel heat.



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