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Ok hiatus is over let's do our

BIG THREE

First off we have our Promotion of the Year

There were a number of challenges to running during covid. Some companies handled this well. Some handled it like total crap!

Let's see which was which!

5.) AAA
Triplemania was a hell of a show capping off a chaotic year. Covid in Mexico has been somehow even less well-contained than it has been in the US. They adjusted first by doing warehouse shows with no crowd and then Auto-Luchas - a series of drive-in shows during the summer when things weren't quite as bad. But then even those got shut down. Their storylines got badly interrupted and botched. Doesn't matter. Still did their biggest show of the year and had Pagano and Chessman burn the house down in a fun show that included Chessman breaking a guitar over a Hugo Savinovich who bladed (poorly). They went with the philosophy that if they couldn't do dramatic shows, they may as well do fun shows, which is valid.

4.) Stardom
This was Stardom's first year under Bushiroad (the same parent company as NJPW). They brought in new talent and made new stars in Giulia and several of the Oedo Tai girls. Moreover, they gave Mayu Iwatani the ball and let her run with it. The result? Even though there was a pandemic on this was Stardom's most profitable year ever. By a shit load. During a pandemic.

3.) New Japan Pro Wrestling - NJPW
The first time New Japan has fallen this far since they began their climb in popularity on this board. What can we say? The storylines weren't great this year. EVIL and Dick Togo had a stranglehold on the main event scene all summer. Okada spent all summer fucking around with Yujiro and Yano.

2.) Dragon Gate
Dragon Gate basically decided to operate as though there wasn't a pandemic on. They've been in the midst of a long term rebuilding project attempting to create a new generation of stars to replace the ones they'd lost in CIMA and Shingo and finally were going to pull the trigger this year. Would the ascension of Eita and Shun Skywalker been better in front of fans? Sure. But Dragon Gate knew that they needed to move forward anyway and to make the most of their opportunity and they did it, bursting onto the scene.

1.) All Elite Wrestling - AEW
AEW won by a ton and for good reason - the reign of Jon Moxley and the slow burn build of Kenny Omega were the backbone of a promotion who managed to turn the pandemic into an opportunity to develop and master a specific house style under Tony Khan. Prior to the pandemic this promotion was on fire and looked ready to have a brand new mega-star in Hangman Page. And while covid did badly damage him it remains AEW feels like the fun promotion much like peak WCW. They have shows on cruise ships and beaches. They have specials where it snows in Florida. They didn't do everything right, but the show is pretty solid right now.

Dishonorable Mention - WWE
WWE got 1 5th place vote. It finished DEAD last in this vote. Even a completely dysfunctional CMLL got more love. On a board that was once WWE-centric or WWE-only.

What a fucking disgrace. And while WWE's problems aren't new covid related covid really made them stand out in new and exciting ways. The two most well-received wrestling matches they put on were two pre-recorded segments that really didn't feature any actual wrestling. The 2020 Royal Rumble and Sasha vs Bayley HIAC got fewer votes than the Boneyard match and I didn't even have it on the ballot. That's reflective of the hard truth - WWE doesn't do wrestling anymore. Or they do but it's just not the point. It's a thing they do to fill time between Bray Wyatt evil murder pedophile clown wizard variety hour time. There wasn't a single compelling wrestling angle they did all year. When covid happened they made the decision to do sterile no-crowd shows. Eventually they moved into Vinces's wet dream. The Thunderdome. a Fake crowd with fake crowd noise that he could control to tell HIS stories without having to adjust.

And they decided to mostly enter a holding pattern for MONTHS. When they did finally decide to move things forward there was no sense of drama, no milking the angle for what its worth. They teased Sasha and Bayley for like 5 years and blew it off with 3 matches in a one month span. No one is satisfied with what they're presenting. Even now with the Roman stuff, even people giving them a chance like Steiner were like "it's less shitty". Worst of all - now that Vince controls the crowd reactions why would he ever go back? They turned the fiend from heel to babyface. With a big heroic angle? A big change in his character? No. They just changed his piped in boos to piped in cheers. This is why this company fucking sucks now and I don't know what they can ever do to change.

Look at their performance up and down this award show. They had ONE positive placement - most improved for Roman Reigns. His second time placing in that category by the way.

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Board 8's Voice of Reason
https://imgur.com/AWY4xHy