2017's Best Of The Year - Wrestling (The Fluffies)

Yknow, I'm a big wrestling nerd, and when I wanna do wrestling awards I wanna make it as goofy as wrestling can be, so let me introduce you to the first ever 'Fluffies' (You get it right!?). This'll be similar to my WWE Season Awards, except I'm involving all the wrestling I saw this year. Sadly I'm no Meltzer, so I haven't seen everything, I've just watched what I could.



Male Wrestler Of The Year - Kazuchika Okada

I think there is absolutely no doubt that Kazuchika Okada has one of the best, if not thee best, year in pro wrestling, every major championship match he had this year was a Match Of The Year contender, along with the greatest wrestling trilogy with Kenny Omega and being the longest reigning IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. This couldn't go to anyone else this year.


Honourable Mentions:

Kenny Omega

Well, maybe it could've gone to this man. Omega has had an incredible 2017, not only the trilogy but he has just as many stand out matches as Okada, as well as winning the IWGP US Championship and being the main reason New Japan has started getting a lot of western fans attention.

AJ Styles

In a year of WWE where has been lack luster to say the least, AJ Styles was a consistent in having the best matches in the company. Sadly it was hindered by being an undervalued US Champion and having a slightly disappointing series with Kevin Owens.



Female Wrestler Of The Year - Asuka

Asuka has had another stellar year in pro wrestling, starting in NXT with her bouts with Ruby Riot, Nikki Cross, Billie Kay, Peyton Royce and Ember Moon, then later moving to the main roster on Raw. Admittedly her main roster run so far has not as good as her NXT run, but that aside she is the greatest female wrestler today.


Honourable Mentions:

Kairi Sane

Although my lack in eastern women's wrestling is obvious, Kairi Sane since turning up in WWE has been phenomenal. Winning the Mae Young Classic, and being featured prominently on NXT afterwards she is one of the best pro wrestlers in the world and it is obvious to see.

Shayna Baszler

When Shayna Baszler had her first match in the Mae Young Classic, I was absolutely in shock. She was an incredible story teller and athlete. Even from a MMA background you can tell that the love for pro wrestling runs deep in Shayna's DNA.



Tag Team Of The Year - The Young Bucks

It has to go the other two thirds of The Elite, The Young Bucks. I think at this point in their careers it's hard to put anyone else on the top of this list. I think their successful series Being The Elite puts them up their alone, using modern platforms to change the way Pro Wrestling tells stories is truly groundbreaking for the industry, but not only that but they produce some of the best matches on the planet.


Honourable Mentions:

The Usos

In the past couple of years WWE's Tag division has been dominated by The New Day, but The Usos took a risk to try and become more prominent again and it worked far better than anyone could have ever imagined. The twins have had a gimmick change and a heel turn that has only allowed them to come out of their shell more, they've upped their game when it came to tag matches, allowing their new heel personas to allow them to update their movesets and use dirtier tactics. A great year uce.

DIY

Before their split, DIY was probably the greatest WWE orientated tag team, they were the constant factor to all the great NXT tag matches this year, matches with The Revival and Authors Of Pain really elevated the whole NXT brand where most of the NXT Title matches were getting predictable.



Male Breakout Year - Braun Strowman

This was a pretty hard category out of the three mentioned here, but I think I truly need to praise Braun Strowman. His initial debut was not good at all, but since then he has absolutely become my favourite part of every WWE program he is included in. So entertaining along with being able to play the best Big Man since early Undertaker. I hope he rockets from here.


Honourable Mentions:

Travis Banks

Travis Banks has been on my radar for a little while, but his most recent run in Progress (also I heard some stuff from Fight Club Pro?) has added a new entire level to him as a performer and really shone everything he is capable of.

EVIL

Although been amazing for a while, EVIL this year has become my guy to root for in NJPW, not only a goofy but really cool gimmick, just an insanely talented performer. All his G1 matches were must watch, the one with SANADA and Okada immediately come to mind, plus his matches in the New Japan Cup and winning the World Tag League. Don't forget his firt shot at IWGP World gold at Kings Of Pro Wrestling.



Female Breakout Year - Toni Storm

Toni Storm this year has shown to be one of the most charismatic and enjoyable wrestlers in the world, this year saw her get the best notoriety from WWE's Mae Young Classic, getting to the semi-finals. But Toni also went through every other women's division this year, in Stardom she won two tournaments and their World Of Stardom championship, along with still holding their SWA World Championship that she won in July 2016. In Progress she became the first Progress Women's Champion too, and has been defending the belt in great matches ever since.


Honourable Mentions:

Shayna Baszler

See female wrestler of the year honourable mentions

Peyton Royce

At the beginning this year Peyton was entertaining but not reached her full potential, throughout this year with her iconic partner by her side, Peyton Royce has shown herself to be one of the best women's wrestlers in the WWE, not just that, but a character that has fully shown her potential.



Tag Team Breakout Year - Authors Of Pain

You may feel like Authors of Pain were on top a long time ago, but although debuting in 2016, AOP didn't win the Tag belts till 2017, which means their whole dominant reign and great matches that connected with it happened this year. Authors Of Pain are the most surprising team, there were a lot of doubters to their ability in the ring but they have proven time and time again that they are


Honourable Mentions:

Benjamin & Gable

Although only forming recently after the WWE decided to push Jason Jordan as a singles competitor, Benjamin and Gable have completely taken everything in their stride, although at first they were a little rough around the edges and their baby face personas weren't garnering as much traction as they liked, they come out of the wood work as heels putting on spectacular matches.

CCK

Almost completely unknown until recently where they had taken on British Strong Style in Progress, the team of CCK is so over in the UK that it's hard not to mention their rise to success over this past year.



Top 10 Matches Of The Year

There will be less writing here, just take these as the best matches to watch from the year if you missed out or you wanna rewatch it all again!

10. Aleister Black vs Velveteen Dream - NXT Takeover War Games

9. Roman Reigns vs Samoa Joe vs Braun Strowman vs Brock Lesnar - Summerslam

8. Kenny Omega vs Tomohiro Ishii - G1 Special In USA (Day 2)

7. The Usos vs The New Day - Hell In A Cell

6. Kazuchika Okada vs Kenny Omega III - G1 Climax (Day 18)

5. Tyler Bate vs Pete Dunne - NXT Takeover Chicago

4. Kazuchika Okada vs Katsuyori Shibata - Sakura Genesis

3. Kenny Omega vs Tesuya Naito - G1 Finals

2. Kazuchika Okada vs Kenny Omega I - Wrestle Kingdom 11

1. Kazuchika Okada vs Kenny Omega II - Dominion

Honourable Mentions:
As long, maybe even longer than the actual list. Please go check out all of these as well!

Travis Banks vs Pete Dunne - Progress Chapter 55, Johnny Gargano vs Andrade 'Cien' Almas - NXT Takeover Brooklyn, DIY vs The Revival vs Authors Of Pain - NXT Takeover Orlando, Kazuchika Okada vs EVIL - G1 Climax (Day 14), Kenny Omega vs Juice Robinson - Destruction in Kobe, AJ Styles vs John Cena - Royal Rumble, AJ Styles vs Shane McMahon - WrestleMania 33, AJ Styles vs Finn Balor - TLC, Triple H vs Seth Rollins - WrestleMania 33, Undisputed Era vs SAnitY vs Authors Of Pain & Roderick Strong - NXT Takeover War Games, The Young Bucks vs The Hardys - Supercard Of Honour XI.



Top 5 Feuds Of The Year

5. The Usos vs The New Day

The Usos and The New Day absolutely reinvigorated the WWE tag division this year with several of their great matches and amazing promos. This whole program has really brought The Usos out of their shells and allowed them to become even more popular faces than they were before. Meanwhile The New Day continue to be WWE greatest asset.

4. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn vs Shane McMahon

This is an on going story as of writing this but it's prominance from 2017 has to give it a space here. Unlike most I don't mind Shane McMahon wrestling matches as I find he's entertaing outside the ring and he is willing enough to try anything in a match to get a reaction, it also helps being paired with the best performers around today with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, who for the most part this really shows off. Sami Zayn's perfect baby face persona has vanished and now we've gotten a even better heel. This is also made even better when you add teh real life and on screen chemistry he has with best friend Kevin Owens, who has been the best consistent character in WWE since his debut.

3. Travis Banks vs Pete Dunne

Progress have been one for great storytelling and there is no exception here, realising the popularity of Pete Dunne and how amazing he is as a heel called for a underdog babyface to counteract, and they found it in the most unlikely place, great heel Travis Banks. The story is maybe a little by the numbers but it doesn't matter when the performers and the company they are in are so good.

2. Aleister Black vs Velveteen Dream

Aleister Black and Velveteen have created a very subtle and extremely curious feud that plays with sexuality but also character study that is hardly ever seen in professional wrestling, all based around the idea that Aleister Black won't say Velveteen's name. If you can grab the network to watch the progression of this in NXT I highly recommend you do.

1. Kazuchika Okada vs Kenny Omega

I don't think this is very surprising to many. After having the best trilogy in wrestling history with each match jammed to the rim with beautiful story telling there is not much more you can say. You just have to watch the matches to understand.



Event Of The Year - Wrestle Kingdom 11

Just an amzing show from top to bottom, the last four matches of the show were all immediate match of the year contenders in all wrestling review companies. It couldn't be any better than this.



Promotion Of The Year - New Japan Pro Wrestling

Due to the Omega/Okada trilogy, the abundance in popularity of The Bullet Club, and the G1 Special in USA it has allowed New Japan to reach the western audience it was always lacking, especially in a year where WWE have been the dullest it has been in the past 3 years. New Japan's 2017 was a year of growth and showcase, their isn't anything better than that.


Thank you all for getting this far and reading my first annual Fluffies. Hopefully many more in the future. Don't forget if you like these kind of award posts that I'll have one for my annual WWE Season Awards the day after WrestleMania, looking at the ups and downs of their Mania to Mania season. Thanks!

New Japan Pro Wrestling: Dominion 2017 - The Plus and The Minus

I'm back again with another Plus and Minus, this time we're talking about this mornings NJPW Dominion show, I didn't get up early enough so I only saw the last 4 matches. But they were long and great and enough to talk about for a post, but that also means there wasn't a minus here.. well maybe.

The Plus

+ Kushida vs Hiromu Takahashi: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship

These two have had a collection of great matches now and to no big shock they had another great one, compared to the next matches we saw this one was a shorter one but still entertaining. Some highlights of this match have to be Kushida's Sabu-esque dropkick from the chair into Takahashi. The two started the match with some back and forth stiff slaps to each others chest and near the end of the match the same spot was revisited with both exhausted on their knees. Some great story telling and in the end we see Kushida take the victory and he poses with his Super Juniors shield, the ROH TV Title and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight belt. While Kushida celebrates we saw BUSHI attack him from behind spraying mist into his face. Assuming this is the next feud for Long Beach it should be fun. If I'm going to guess, I would say the WK 12 match-up may be Kushida vs Marty Scurll for both ROH and IWGP belts. This is a good way to intertwine a ROH storyline into New Japan especially since Marty is a newly debuted Junior to Japan and former TV champ.

+ Hirooki Goto vs Minoru Suzuki: NEVER Openweight Championship

New Japan never usually do gimmick type matches and on paper the Lumberjack match, even with Goto and Suzuki, you can't help but feel the match would be lack-luster. But surprisingly it wasn't that way at all. The match showed Suzuki in the best light however, as a 49 Year Old, who recently got much much leaner, it's crazy to see him move so quick, hit so hard and look unfazed and undamaged by the end of the match. Goto is my favourite underdog in New Japan and it is sad to see his shot at the NEVER Openweight gone for a while but hopefully he will be implemented into a new string of storylines soon, maybe he is even in the G1 tournament. The match itself did have a little too much interference for me but overall it did add a lot, especially sections between Suzuki and Liger, which is something I would like to see at WK12, or Suzuki vs Yoshi-hashi, which is the next feud for the belt. I also saw our own English resident Zack Sabre Jr take a lot of shots at Tomohiro Ishii. I'm unsure if this was intentional or not but I'd love to see some kind of match up between those two. Overall fun match.

+ Tetsuya Naito vs Hiroshi Tanahashi: IWGP Intercontinental Championship

The story here was really cool. Naito is one of the biggest wrestling stars in the world today and his LIJ gimmick of being 'Tranquillo' has allowed him to create a story that hasn't been seen like this before. IWGP Championship has been broken and destroyed to the point where the side plates had fell off the strap had been worn and the main plate of the belt had actually snapped. Not only that but Naito insisted that he would retire the belt if he won. Sadly I know that means he definitely isn't winning especially when the belt is the second biggest in New Japan. Either way it was very worthy of being the second to last match on the card and eventually saw Tanahashi take the belt away from Naito. Hopefully we see a new design or restoration of the IC belt cause it is horrible looking right now.

+ Kenny Omega vs Kazuchika Okada: IWGP World Heavyweight Championship

Okada has had the best year in Pro Wrestling this year. 6 Stars at WK, other great 5 star matchups with Suzuki and Shibata and now the rematch from WK with Kenny Omega. Guess what? It is better than the last on, at least I thought so. If Dave Meltzer agrees then he is gonna have to give this match a 7 Star rating. The match was the perfect blend of story telling, and amazing technical and flashy wrestling. The biggest part for me was when Omega finally hit the One Winged Angel on Okada something he couldn't do last match and has been shown as a finisher that FINISHES a match. Once that move is executed you've lost, Kenny hit the move and Okada luckily had his leg on the rope right next to him. Keeping the move sacred and still hitting it within the match. I also loved how New Japan handled The Young Bucks throughout the match, knowing that in Long Beach in a couple of weeks they will be debuting in USA, they want their biggest USA stars looking at least like faces to the fans of them. So The Young Bucks spent the match calling tips to Kenny, encouraging Kenny and seeing if he was ok when he took a big bump. To fans of Okada this could have been seen as the Young Bucks constantly getting involved but to the ones supporting Kenny we saw The Young Bucks being good friends and not interfering in the match at all. Especially when Okada put Kenny on the table and The Bucks went mental to the ref shouting "What the hell, why are you allowing this" which is a valid point. We also saw the rest of The Bullet Club especially Cody Rhodes look concerned for Kenny and coming out and making it clear that they didn't want Kenny to get hurt anymore. This could sprout some divide in The Bullet Club which will also be a great storyline. The match ended in a draw which is a crazy thought especially when you could consider this match probably the best Professional Wrestling match ever had. Afterwards we saw Cody again, this time interrupting Okada's press conference and issuing a challenge at Long Beach, I'm looking forward to what Cody can do with the best wrestler in the world.

The Minus

- KENNY SHOULD'VE WON DAMMIT

Personally I want Kenny Omega to have that belt, like a lot. And because of the draw, I think New Japan should have the belt in a limbo state until they can have a rematch, I think that would be an interesting storyline to have and they could have the rematch during Long Beach, but they might not want to waste Omega/Okada III a month later after the last one. But that's just my opinion.

I hope you enjoyed this wrestling addition of The Plus and The Minus. I will probably do these for the WWE PPVs that I watch and for the NJPW events that I get the chance to watch. I'll see you next time!