WWE Season Awards 2017-18

Well well well, what a weird figurative year for WWE. We've had some great stuff and we've had some down right terrible stuff. But I guess it's the time of the year I try and condense the WWE main roster from Raw after Mania 33 to Mania 34 via awards. Let's go.


Best Moment Of The Year - Daniel Bryan announces he's medically cleared to wrestle

Bryan is my favourite wrestler of all time, and it was felt among most that Bryan would leave WWE as soon as his contract was up to try and wrestle once again on the independant scene. Well we needn't have worried as WWE doctors finally cleared Bryan for in-ring competition again and it was the happiest moment of the year for me. On that Smackdown where Bryan took bumps and started attacking Owens and Sami gave me goosebumps. Welcome back!


Worst Moment Of The Year - Jinder Mahal wins the WWE Championship at Backlash

I have no idea what WWE were thinking this year. Jinder Mahal was, and still is, very plainly a mediocre to bad wrestler. Not only that, but he has no charisma, he cannot talk on the mic, to the point where you can tell how scripted his promos are. To me it's unforgivable that the WWE chose to put the WWE Title on him and keep it on him for the majority of the year. I stopped watching WWE apart from PPVs because of this, after several years of being a loyal weekly viewer as the product kept getting better, this was a horrid realisation that the company is still out of touch. It didn't helo that the Orton/Mahal feud was agony to watch as well.


Best PPV Of The Year - Royal Rumble

It had to be. These awards usually almost always go to WrestleMania, that usually has recency bias towards it, but not this year, Royal Rumble knocked it out of the park this year, with the first ever Women;s Royal Rumble and the Men's Royal Rumble being such a blast too, the show came back to the standard it should have always been at. Although the other matches around the rumble matches weren't anything amazing, the rumbles really made the whole show shine.


Worst PPV Of The Year - Battleground

God almighty, the card sounded horrendous and the matches were even worse, the return of the Punjabi Prison match was the worst offender along with the return of The Great Khali for a one night appearance. So bad it wasn't even worth watching.


Best Debut Year - Elias

Elias came to screens on Main Roster during the Superstar Shake-up, the second week into the figurative year, and although initially a little lack luster in NXT, Elias has really made a name for himself on Main Roster. Unlike all previous musical gimmicks, Elias actually has some great musical talent. The work he puts in to make his segments on each Raw memorable is astounding, recently on a Edge and Christian podcast he said that he sits and writes a song for every town they go to, that along with the extent he will go to continue his character outside the ring, like going to open mic spots, which was seen in New Orleans for WrestleMania 34. Another staning out point for Elias is the fact that he doesn't use the guitar as a gimmick weapon like most guitar wielding superstars. Elias is mainly a segment and entertainment character for TV, but he is good in-ring, he just needs some more chances to show that.


Superstar Of The Year - Braun Strowman

Let's just think about the year Strowman has had. At last Mania he was only in the Andre Battle Royal, not even winning. In between that time Strowman feuded with Reigns several times, with some of the best segments such as tipping over the ambulance and other amazing goofy feats of strength. He was in the Summerslam Main Event and shone. Turned face and was cheered unanimously, made it to the end of the Survivor Series Match and took out Triple H. Was in the Universal Title match at Royal Rumble. Completely slaughtered in the Elimination Chamber Match. Paired with Alexa Bliss in the Mixed Match Challenge, not only being comedic and making a fun storyline, but adding another layer to his character, softening it slightly, so when in came to WrestleMania, he could pick a 10 year old boy from the crowd to be his tag partner and win the tag team championships with him to 'Awww's. It almost sounds like this guy is the perfect person to be your figurehead. Everyone loves Braun Strowman.


Underutilised Star Of The Year - Rusev

It's just starting to get some traction behind it but Rusev has been a superb performer for years, and this year he fell off majorly. If it wasn't for his talent he would be in a hole right now, but the later part of this year has been a god send for Rusev. With 'Happy Rusev Day' getting majorly over and being paired with the entertaining Aiden English, it seems Rusev may be on the up again. Sadly he was pinned by Jinder Mahal at this years WrestleMania, but hopefully this can be rectified in the coming year. Oh and HAPPY RUSEV DAY!


Woman Of The Year - Asuka

It is about time Asuka got to Main Roster. To be plainly honest if she wasn't in NXT for the previous years Asuka would've been winning this award every year. She debuted around midway through the year but Asuka has been great. She won the first ever Women's Royal Rumble and she had an amazing match with Charlotte at WrestleMania (even if I don't fully agree with the way her streak has ended). Definitely deserving of this award.


Team Of The Year - The Usos

The Usos have had a phenomenal year. Although their heel turn and thug-ish gimmick change weren't done this year, the Smackdown Tag Team Championship title reign that happened this year along with their amazing feud with The New Day has properly made The Usos stand out more than any other team in the WWE this year. The Usos solidfy themselves as one of the best teams in the industry today and prove the doubters wrong.


Heel Of The Year - Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn

Yes, I'm cheating, but these are my damn awards. They get a joint award because they spent most of their heel runs this year together, and although Owens has been a superb heel since debuting in WWE, Sami Zayn has really broken his character mold by being the ying to Owen's yang on screen. It's hard to imagine that either of these two being as successful as they were this year, as heels, without the other one their, so I'm making the executive decision to have joint winners this year.


Face Of The Year - AJ Styles

AJ has been face all year and he hasn't lost a beat from his heel run from last year. It was a seamless transition from heel persona to his face persona and has been consistently great since. Overall faces have been very lack luster this year, Finn and Seth both were fun babyface but the booking for all these guys have been a little under par, but after this WrestleMania it looks like it is on the up.

Shock Of The Year - Jinder Mahal winning the WWE Championship at Backlash

Shock the year isn't mutually exclusive to being a positive thing. Read Worst Moment Of The Year for more.


Match Of The Year - Ronda Rousey & Kurt Angle vs Triple H & Stephanie McMahon at WrestleMania 34

Wow, just an amazing match from start to finish, not a beat was missed when it came to this match, completely enthralling the whole time. It was more on the 'sports entertaining' side of WWE but it didn't hinder the quality at all. This is where Triple H shines in my opinion and it's clear that Ronda worked her ass of to make her match super memorable. Don't forget that Angle and Steph brought out surprising performances too. But the highlight of the match was the short inter-gender section between Triple H and Ronda. This match did not have any right to be this good but it was. Match of the night, and match of the year.


Feud Of The Year - The Usos vs The New Day

In my Fluffie Awards from the end of 2017 I had Owens and Zayn vs Shane McMahon above this feud between The Usos and The New Day. But since that point the feud has become infuriating. Shane McMahon acted like a heel consistently and expected to be cheered, and the feud only came around when Bryan was cleared to compete again. Here with The Usos and The New Day, the teams have had several classic matches with each other back-to-back. Not forgetting the amazing promos between the teams. Truly career defining for both teams, something to be remembered for years to come.

So that's it for this year, let's quickly shout-out a couple of things, The Usos vs New Day at Hell In A Cell and Summerslam were very close to winning MOTY, most of Smackdown's tag division matches were all very stellar. 205 Live got no mentions here, because the division had been in the toilet for the majority of the year. But ever since the Cruiserweight Championship Tournament started on the lead-up to WrestleMania the show has been absolutely amazing. Buddy Murphy has been an amazing stand-out that would've gotten Best Debut Year if he didn't debut so late. As such Murphy and Kalisto put on an amazing match on 205 Live that was nearly a MOTY contender. Rollins and Balor had a fairly decent year, Rollins and Ambrose had a great run as The Shield again, such a shame that Ambrose got injured, Rollins vs Ambrose would've been a great Mania match-up. Balor hasn't been pushed back to the heights of the Universal Champion yet and this year since returning at the beginning of last year has kinda been floating around the upper midcard of the Raw roster. Sadly I think this year was extremely weak for WWE Main Roster, for the majority of the year we had Lesnar as Universal Champion, who hardly ever appeared, an idea that worked a number of years ago with the WWE championship, but not anymore, and the WWE Title on the most boring and incompetent wrestler in the company. Couple that with AJ and Owens' feud being surprisingly mediocre and the IC belt being round the waist of Miz who didn't get to have many stand-out feuds and matches, meant the tag division shined the brightest, but didn't wipe the bitter taste in our mouths that we didn't get enjoyable singles runs from our favourite wrestlers.

WWE Season Awards 2016-17

It's that time of year again, yes it is time for me to give my own personal opinion about WWE figurative year, from the Raw after Wrestlemania 32 to Wrestlemania 33. Now I started doing these back in the years where NXT was growing and now it is a much more substanial brand with it showing up Main Roster most of the time, it has been a debate of mine about if I want to start including NXT in the WWE awards, but I think my conclusion has come to that this will stay as Main Roster only and I will probably start a new award blog for an actual End Of Year Awards as my viewership of wrestling has extended a huge amount over these past few years.

But let's get on with the 2016-17 Season Awards:

Best Moment Of The Year - The Hardy Boys Return at Wrestlemania 33

I think the biggest pop from me this year was the surprising and amazing return of Matt and Jeff Hardy, off the back of their best run since Wrestlemania 25 the little boy in me wept with joy as I watched two of my all-time favourite wrestlers take to the ring. The return is even more surprising when you realise the two had been in another ladder match for ROH Tag Team Titles the night before against best team in the world The Young Bucks. Truly WONDERFUL!

Worst Moment Of The Year - Roman Reigns entering at number 30 in the Royal Rumble

"Could it be Finn Balor!? He is back! He returned on a house show last week! Maybe it's Samoa Joe, I'm ok with that too, he isn't on the card and he needs to look more like a monster. Maybe it's someone INSANE like Kurt Angle or something, he is gonna be in the Hall Of Fame. Oh..oh here we goo! 5..4..3..2..1...

For fuck's sake."

Best PPV Of The Year - Wrestlemania 33

This year I was adamant that we would get another PPV which would be better than Wrestlemania but alas the instant classic that was 33 has blown everything else out of the water, maybe it was the fact that 32 was a lack luster and disappointing event but this years card was stacked to the brim with great bouts including Styles/Shane, Rollins/Triple H, Tag Team Ladder Match and even the heart breaking Reigns/Undertaker all made the event what it was. Though I do think it would be unfair if I didn't shoutout some of the runners up which all would've won the award by themselves if it wasn't for the year being so stacked of great PPVs, Battleground and Survivor Series, as well as most of the Smackdown Live exclusive PPVs.

Worst PPV Of The Year - Roadblock

A PPV where nothing was good and everything was mediocre, and overall most of the RAW exclusive PPVs were the same, but they all had one good match, Hell in a Cell had Owens/Rollins, Clash Of Champions had Roman/Rusev, Fastlane had Neville/Gallagher, sadly Roadblock didn't have one of these.

Best Debut Year (formerly Rookie Of The Year) - Alexa Bliss

Looking back at this award, especially last years winner Kevin Owens, it felt unfair to be calling these already pre-made stars 'rookies' so I thought a better way to state it was the Best Debut Year, someone who debuted on Main Roster in this year and has made the biggest impact and the best run.

There were a couple no-brainers you could've put here but all of it unfair to me, Finn Balor should have had this award but his shoulder injury that took him out for the rest of the year after his debut a month before made it impossible for me in good conscience give it to him. We had Baron Corbin who had a good year but not great, he also debuted at Mania 32, and if we're sticking by the rules that I have for this (which we should) that means he debuted last year. So the only person left I feel is worthy of having this award is Alexa Bliss. Someone who's potential was so obvious in NXT but never capitalised on enough, here on Main Roster though, she made the Smackdown Live Women's Division worth watch every week. Her matches with Becky Lynch, Mickie James and Naomi have all been good, entertaining matches and she has been the most entertaining women on the whole Main Roster. I think she will be known to be cornerstone of this resurgence in women's wrestling in a decades time.

Superstar Of The Year - AJ Styles

It's har to put anyone else in this spot and it might be hard for AJ to be toppled of this award in the future too. His debut last year was my shock of the year but because he was only around for 3 months I didn't feel it fair to give him a shot here, but thi year he has proven and cemented himself as the best wrestler in the world period. Some may argue that his Bullet Club replacement Kenny Omega is better in-ring but I don't believe there is anyone better overall as a wrestling performer than AJ Styles right now. Sone od his highlights this year include, some stellar matches like Roman Reigns at Payback and Extreme Rules, Having one of the best feuds of the year with John Cena, winning the WWE Championship etc. It couldn't go to anyone better.

Underutilised Star Of The Year (formerly Superstar who needs a push) - Luke Harper

I've decided to change the name of this award because I think the previous name was just a bad name, and this new name more correctly describes what I'm looking at, someone with potential who is getting little to no air time and has potential to do something great.

So there is a couple of obvious choices like Cesaro, but his teaming with Sheamus and before that the Best Of 7 series aloud him to have some kind of push and be on Raw every week. I'm more looking for some one who had opportunities, pulled it out of the bag and then didn't get a push because the company decided not to take it further. I think the best example of this has been Luke Harper, he was always considered the best out of the 3 other members of The Wyatt Family and this year has shown it once again. His feud with Orton and Wyatt has allowed him to look like a major contender in the WWE Championship, and in my personal opinion he should've been in the Mania match making it a triple threat and probably not a bad match. I think in the next year Harper should get the IC or US belt once again, hell give him the Money In The Bank! I think he is 100% worth it.

Woman Of The Year - Alexa Bliss

Let's be honest here, I'm sure some of you think any of the Four Horsewomen, especially Charlotte maybe deserves this more this year, and I think you could have an argument their, but Charlotte has never stuck out to me as the best of the four, Sasha has been in a dull maze of booking and Bayley had poor handling since debuting on Main Roster, the closest to winning this is Becky Lynch who is a great face but not as good as Alexa is Heel. Alexa has completely blown the rest of the women out of the water.

See Best Debut Year for more

Team Of The Year - The New Day

For a second year running I have to give this award to The New Day, this year however it is kind of a sad reason why. In a company where we have some of the most gifted wrestlers and teams in the world, no team really had a stand out year in my opinion. Even with teams like Cesaro & Sheamus, The Club, American Alpha, The Usos and Breezango, none of them got a chance to shine more than The New Day who's year was fairly dull also. They did break the all time Tag Championship record and that is truly commendable especially as they didn't get boring throughout. But with the Smackdown Tag division basically being non-existent and Raw's being mediocre it's hard to be excited about anyone winning this award. Let's hope this next year is a bit better.

Heel Of The Year - AJ Styles

AJ Styles had been known for not being a good talker back in the glory days of TNA, and even though that was such a long time ago it was still an opinion lots of people had. But if it wasn't for his microphone work AJ Styles would not have been the best heel this year. AJ had a subtle gimmick of just being 'Best in the World' he never really needed to stoop low to underhanded tactics like Seth Rollins did a year earlier, the subtle nature of the gimmick with the attitude of 'No one can dispute I'm the best because I am' made the whole character convincing and layered.

See Superstar Of The Year for more

Face Of The Year - Chris Jericho

This was a hard one for me, I always seem to gravitate towards heel superstars as some of my favourites, but of the short period that Chris Jericho was face this year he did a superb job. He was mainly heel throughout the year and it was probably his best run for a long time, but I had to give the award to AJ, but he was also a great face considering how short a time period he was one, the feud with Kevin Owens was probably the second best this year and it wouldn't have been half feud it was if it wasn't for Chris Jericho. Seth Rollins was a close competitor for this but his face run had been dull and full of dick and poop jokes until the build for his Mania match which was one of my favourite feuds of the year also.

Shock Of The Year - Goldberg defeating Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series

I went into this match with no enthusiasm, I didn't hate Goldberg I actually quite enjoyed him on Raw, but I didn't think he was going to be very good in-ring, especially against Brock Lesnar, someone who I haven't really enjoyed since Mania 32 when he had a bad match against Dean Ambrose which should've been a barn-burner. But when I watched Goldberg beat Lesnar is such quick and cpnvincing fashion I completely lost my mind, the idea that WWE would book this match the way they did was an insane concept and it was one of the best parts of this past year

Match Of The Year - AJ Styles vs John Cena at Summerslam

This year was full of amazing matches, most have been over looked due to the sheer amount of amazing matches from other companies as well. My personal favourite coming from NXT and their tag division. But as main roster goes my favourite had to be AJ Styles vs John Cena at Summerslam, a purely amazing match that made the long show into something truly enjoyable. Some other matches that deserve a shoutout, Owens/Zayn at Battleground, Men's Survivor Series Match, Balor/Rollins at Summerslam, Both Styles/Reigns Matches, Styles/Cena at Rumble, Styles/Shane at Mania, HHH/Rollins at Mania and Ziggler/Miz at No Mercy.

Feud Of The Year - AJ Styles vs John Cena

It is kind of hard not to give this feud the award as it basically span the whole year and will probably continue into next year. The subtle story of 'TNA guy' vs 'WWE guy' has been a dream match among many for a long time and unlike previous 'dream matches' where they never lived up to expectations, this match did exactly that and on more than one occasion. Promo wars every week on Smackdown and matches every other month allowed it to be the most compelling feud of this year.

See Match Of The Year for more

And that's it for this year, something I think need shouting out from this year but I didn't get a chance too, The Miz's Talking Smack promo on Daniel Bryan, Miz has had a great year including the Dolph Ziggler feud he had. Chris Jericho has had the best run of his career this year and his pairing and subsequent feud with Kevin Owens has been another highlight of this year.

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