Male Wrestler Of The Year - Kenny Omega
Honourable Mentions:
Tomohiro Ishii
His G1 was incredible, his UK matches were incredible and his New Japan matches were incredible. Ishii had a run with RevPro's British Heavyweight Championship this year while feuding in both RevPro and New Japan with Minoru Suzuki, (who could've easily have made this list too) and I was lucky enough to see most of these matches LIVE, so completely bias there. But again Ishii's G1 was stunning, with matches with Goto and Omega were standouts. I really want him to be IWGP Heavyweight Champion now.
Johnny Gargano
What a fucking ride Gargano's year has been. Stellar match after Stellar match on NXT Takeover's, as well as an absolutely enthralling feud with former DIY partner Tommaso Ciampa, a great babyface performance into a great heel performance. I hope Gargano keeps the ball rolling.
Female Wrestler Of The Year - Becky Lynch
To be quite frank, I haven't been watching much WWE, but Becky Lynch is my favourite horsewomen, and everyone went shit crazy about her heel stuff, I did watch her Raw invasion segment where she had the iconic image of her standing in the crowd with blood streaming down her face. Then her tweets afterwards completely destroying Ronda were really great. Basically I think she is one of the best characters in wrestling and I wanna see what she's doing at WrestleMania.
Honourable Mentions:
Toni Storm
Last Years Breakout Woman, this years runner up to the BEST. Toni Storm feels like she continually grows as a wrestler every time we see her and it is great, this year she won the Mae Young Classic beating Io Shirai and has been a prominent feature on NXT UK.
Kairi Sane
Kairi had another great year in wrestling, Mae Young Classic as well as winning (and then losing) the NXT Women's Championship with some pretty good matches with Shayna Baszler.
Tag Team Of The Year - The Young Bucks
Yes, again for a second year running The Young Bucks make it here. We all know they are the pinnacle of Tag Team wrestling but again, same as last year, Being The Elite has done some absolutely INSANE things this year, All In, and the announcement of AEW, which I guess technically happened on 2019. Regardless they are truly CHANGING THE WORLD.
Honourable Mentions:
The Undisputed Era (Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong)
Well at the tail end of 2017 they were really great and making themselves known. This year however, they added Roderick Strong and decided to pair up KOR with him due to O'Reilly's former reDRagon member Bobby Fish being out injured. and this team is absolutely incredible. They won the NXT Tag Team Championship late 2017 but carried them pretty much all through this year, with one hiccup against Moustache Mountain in a great match.
Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL & SANADA)
Just a great team, I love this duo a whole lot and I think they are consistently New Japan's best Heavyweight Tag Team around.
Male Breakout Year - Hangman Page
Between Hangman and Number two on the list it was pretty fucking hard call to make. And although in kayfabe the runner-up definitely had a better year, I think Hangman Page is just a slightly better wrestler. Hangman has really impressed me this year, his G1 was great (even though he lost a lot) and he had two really great matches with Joey Janela and Jay White. AEW looks like it will give Hangman a chance to shine brighter.
Honourable Mentions:
Jay White
Speaking of. Yes, Jay White was the very very close second here, but man oh man has he had a great year, I didn't think much of his New Japan debut match with Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom 12, but since that point he has had some great matches and moments, his formerly mentioned match with Hangman, his match with Okada in the G1, and his whole G1 to be quite honest, and then he took leadership over Bullet Club. He is sure to have his biggest year yet in 2019.
Juice Robinson
I fucking love Juice Robinson, I feel like he is so close to being talked about everywhere and being the most hot commodity. His G1 with his cast and hand injury, his feud with Jay White and then Cody. Just some great stuff can't wait for more.
Female Breakout Year - Ronda Rousey
I mean I don't think there is any question here, even me, the one who hasn't been watching much WWE this year knows that Ronda is a Kurt Angle or a Chad Gable, just understanding the sport and being a natural immediately. I fucking loved her debut match at WrestleMania, and I have it on good authority that she has kept up the good work too.
Honourable Mentions:
Jordynne Grace
This was my first exposure to Jordynne Grace this year, but she absolutely blew me away in the All In Battle Royal and then later in PROGRESS wrestling. She is truly a one of a kind women's wrestler and I want to see her more.
Rhea Ripley
WOWOW. What a good surprise Rhea Ripley has been, she is probably one of the most convincing wrestlers I've ever seen, what a great young talent and the first ever NXT UK Women's Champion!
Tag Team Breakout Year - Undisputed Era (Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong)
Before you chant cheater, Let's be clear, this is the first time these two have been a consistent tag team. If this was reDRagon then you would've had a fair point. But it isn't. See tag team of the year honourable mentions for more info.
Honourable Mentions:
Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori & Robbie Eagles)
No one else would put these two here, but I fucking loved these two as a team. Purely formed because Taiji needed a partner for the Juniors Tag Tournament, these two have a really incredible chemistry which I found being magnetised to watch. Maybe because this was the first time I had seen Robbie Eagles in action as well but I really loved this team and I hope we see more of it soon.
Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch
These guys are here because they had a great match at a Takeover after I had wanted them to tea for a long time, and then they kinda subsided again afterwards. I love these two and I want them to be used more consistently, I kinda hope they turn up on NXT UK TV.
Top 15 Matches Of The Year
Well, there was so many matches I wanted to praise, that I've turned this from Top 10 to Top 15, god knows if it'll be 15 again next year or not.
15. Jay White vs Hangman Page - NJPW Strong Style Evolved
14. Johnny Gargano vs Andrade Almas - NXT Takeover: Philadelphia
13. Kenny Omega vs Pentagon Jr - All In
12. Minoru Suzuki vs Tomohiro Ishii - RevPro Global Wars UK
11. Hangman Page vs Joey Janela - All In
10. Adam Cole vs EC3 vs Killian Dain vs Lars Sullivan vs Ricochet vs Velveteen Dream - NXT Takeover: New Orleans
9. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr vs Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii - NJPW Strong Style Evolved UK: Milton Keynes
8. Minoru Suzuki vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - NJPW The New Beginning in Sapparo
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7. Kurt Angle & Ronda Rousey vs Triple H & Stephanie McMahon - WWE WrestleMania 34
6. Minoru Suzuki vs Tomohiro Ishii - NJPW Power Struggle
5. Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa - NXT Takeover: Chicago
4. Kazuchika Okada vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - NJPW G1 Climax 28: Night 17
3. Kenny Omega vs Tomohiro Ishii - NJPW G1 Climax 28: Night 14
2. Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa - NXT Takeover: New Orleans
1. Kazuchika Okada vs Kenny Omega IV - NJPW Dominion
Honourable Mentions:
Hiromu Takahashi vs KUSHIDA vs Marty Scurll vs Will Ospreay - NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12, Kenny Omega vs Chris Jericho - NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12, Adam Cole vs Aleister Black - NXT Takeover: Philadelphia, Men's Royal Rumble - WWE Royal Rumble, Women's Royal Rumble - WWE Royal Rumble, SANADA vs Kazuchika Okada - NJPW The New Beginning in Osaka, Golden Lovers vs The Young Bucks - NJPW Strong Style Evolved, Buddy Murphy vs Kalisto - WWE 205 Live, Tetsuya Naito vs Chris Jericho - NJPW Dominion, The Young Bucks vs SANADA & EVIL - NJPW G1 Special in San Francisco, Jay White vs Juice Robinson - NJPW G1 Special in San Francisco, Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Minoru Suzuki - NJPW G1 Climax 28: Night 1, Zack Sabre Jr vs SANADA - NJPW G1 Climax 28: Night 6, Juice Robinson vs Tetsuya Naito - NJPW G1 Climax 28: Night 6, Kenny Omega vs Kota Ibushi - NJPW G1 Climax 28: Night 18, Kota Ibushi vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - NJPW G1 Climax 28 Final, Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa - NXT Takeover: Brooklyn 4, Chris Jericho vs EVIL - NJPW Power Struggle.
Top 5 Feuds Of The Year
5. Kenny Omega vs Cody
This was the biggest story in wrestling for a brief period this year, and it is all down to BTE's mastery story telling at work.
4. The Elite vs Bullet Club
But I preferred this second civil war that happened immediately after the first. Watching The Elite bond as a band of brothers while the Guerillas Of Destiny with Haku lay them to waste and then watching as Bullet Club OGs garned some of the best talent in the world while The Elite got broken down was a great watch.
3. Kenny Omega vs Hiroshi Tanahashi
Unfortunately we didn't get the pay off this year, but it has happened as of writing and I can say this whole lead up about whos wrestling styles are better, who's the ace etc etc, have been a really cool way of building a match between two of the absolute best wrestlers.
2. Minoru Suzuki vs Tomohiro Ishii
These are two of my favourite wrestlers right now just because of this series alone, I just love watching two big brutal old guys forearming each other. It fucking rules.
1. Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa
I mean, it couldn't be anything else, just the most interesting storyline to happen in wrestling all year. coupled with an amazing trilogy. This is a culmination of teasing from even before they won the tag team championships, during the CWC and from there. Just a great story.
Event Of The Year - All In
The most refreshing feeling variety show of great fucking wrestling throughout, it completely changed the way us fans look at wrestling, this felt completely different and exciting. I cannot wait to see where AEW goes all because of this one show.
Promotion Of The Year: New Japan Pro Wrestling
Second year running but not particularly surprising, New Japan are just a wonderful company that continue to put on the best that wrestling has to offer.
That was it! Hope you enjoyed the awards, check out some of those matches and see you all next year!
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