Board 8 > All Purpose Wrestling Awards Show - PRESENTING THE BEST AND WORST

(+) Yeah! (+)

Boo all of you for skipping the phenomenal Shawn Spears theme. Best new theme of the year.

---

Let's get another positive category in here.

Best New Character

Every year we get introduced to new characters and old favorites get repackaged as something new and exciting.

Best New Character
2018: New Daniel Bryan
2017: Hiromu Takahashi
2016: <inactive>
2015: Asuka
2014: Bray Wyatt

HM Kabuki Warrior Io Shirai
Io Shirai got repackaged this year as an old school Japanese sneaky heel and apparently some of you really enjoyed it

3rd Place Maxwell Jacob Friedman
While not strictly speaking a new character many people got introduced to him en masse with Double or Nothing and the following shows leading to and including dynamite. While his matches leave something to be desired his character is phenomenal and his turn on Cody one of the more memorable moments of the year.

2nd Jon Moxley
After years of languishing as a goofy Lunatic Fringe Dean Ambrose the Death Rider debuted in New Japan with a compelling angle with Juice Robinson and a near legendary G1 run with his protege shooter. Then he debuted at Double or Nothing with AEW and has been one of their most exciting characters now that he is more back to his own personal basics.

1st Le Champion Chris Jericho
Jericho reinvented himself once again from Painmaker to Le Champion and with it the new over the top weasel character who has had some amazing promo segments and his now iconic "a little bit of the bubbly" moment. As a man who just wants his Thank You.


---

Man, Jericho does not deserve first place for being the same character he's been the last two years.

---

Yeah, I agree that one's a stretch. He didn't even cross my mind as being eligible.

---

I should have voted then Cult Leader/Herald Ophidian could have been on there.

---

Best theme is Kenny Omega using Megalovania.

---

Yeah I will say given the voters who went that way it's exclusively people who are aware of AEW but not New Japan so its sort of hard to say the votes were in bad faith just sort of what it is.

---

Le Champion has nothing on the dentist

---

Eddv posted...

HM Kabuki Warrior Io Shirai
Io Shirai got repackaged this year as an old school Japanese sneaky heel and apparently some of you really enjoyed it

Ed doesn't watch WWE.

---

Eddv posted...

Yeah I will say given the voters who went that way it's exclusively people who are aware of AEW but not New Japan so its sort of hard to say the votes were in bad faith just sort of what it is.

incorrect
---

scarletspeed7 posted...

Ed doesn't watch WWE.

It's true

---

Moving on from embarassing myself lets do another category.

MOST IMPROVED WRESTLER OF THE YEAR
There is in some ways a fairly steady upper echelon of wrestlers and then there are guy who break the mold from lower card to looking legit impressive over the course of a year.

Who improved the most in 2019?

Past Winners
Most Improved
2018: PCO
2017: Braun Strowman
2016: Matt Hardy
2015: Roman Reigns
2014: Bobby Lashley
2013: Jack Swagger
2012: Bobby Roode

HM1 Shota Umino
Jon Moxleys protege from New Japan, Shooter, started the year as a fairly unremarkable Young Lion and ended the year with an actual personality and some display of his skill in tag matches with Juice.

HM2 Jake Christ
Some would argue that this should have been more of a new character vote but Jake was given some time away from the rest of OvE this year where he was able to really display his potential as a singles starred and he delivered strongly

3rd Cody Rhodes
The supposed 3 star ring general this year absolutely stepped up his game into having some incredible emotional affairs and saw himself truly take the step midcard attraction to legit star

2nd Jon Moxley
It is somewhat hard to overstate just HOW shitty the Dean Ambrose character was and had become and what a tour de force Moxleys return to the scene was. His AEW Debut and subsequent run through New Japan were amazing.

1st Lance Archer
The former Lance Hoyt who was once most well known for his tramp stamp has now positioned himself as a major star and with his big win over Juice Robinson to become US Champion is positioned to be the spearhead for New Japans American efforts which is potentially the biggest story in wrestling waiting to unfold in 2020.


---

Lance was pretty much the expected winner so I didn't expect much commentary

Let's move on to something a bit more spicy like say....

Angle of the Year
Angles are really what pro wrestling is best able to do over real sports and to the frustration of many seems to too often waste it on stories about cuckolding and romantic drama.

However for every 10 bad wedding angles....there was Macho and Liz. So what were the best angles this year?

Past Winners
2018: Becky Lynch turns heel on Charlotte
2017: Festival of Friendship
2016: The Broken Hardyz Saga
2015: The John Cena US Title Open Challenge
2014: Sami Zayns Yearlong chase of the NXT title
2013: Brock Lesnar Ends The Streak
2012: CM Punk vs the World

HM1 : Ligers Retirement Tour/Last business Suzuki
Liger is an all time great and the nature of his retirement announcement allowed to travel the globe one last time to be hailed as the retiring hero he is. Suzuki however took exception as you might expect and we were off the races. Thank You, Liger.

3rd Place Kofi-Mania
WWE managed to bumble into the audiences great hunger for Kofi to finally have a moment at the top of the card. That Daniel Bryan was his foe served to juxtapose Kofis underdog story with Bryans from years prior and resulted in the feel good moment of Wrestlemania.

2nd Place TIE Moxleys Debut at Double or Nothing

It was one of the more hotly anticipated debuts in wrestling anywhere in recent memory and thr resulting iconic moment where Moxley dumped Omega off of the giant pile of Poker Chips has become desperately needed instant legend lore for AEW.

2nd Place TIE Cody's Pursuit of Chris Jericho and his Betrayal by MJF.
AEWs first really big angle showed Cody cut probably the best promo of his career where he emotionally declared that if he failed to beat Jericho he would never again challenge for the title. During the matches critical moment MJF betrayed Cody for the crime of overshadowing him and the weasely Jericho managed to live another day.

1st Place KENTA debuts in New Japan, joins Bullet Club and beats down Shibata
The years other major debut by a WWE defector was every bit as memorable as KENTA came in and showed his true colors as a member of the bullet club paying off a long running angle at the expense of Shibata.

Congrats KENTA


---

Eddv posted...

1st Place KENTA debuts in New Japan, joins Bullet Club and beats down Shibata

hey this is two different angles

---

The Shibata beat down still beat the other two even without the pts from the BC vote so it's OKAY

---

no, shibata angle was when he joined BC but it was not when he debuted in new japan <_<

---

Shibata was the only angle worth mentioning this year, really.

---

The other side of the coin from Angle....

Feud of the Year

A series of matches. Classically like the Benoit/Booker series when two wrestlers have a real chemistry you can stand watching them fight over and over.

PAST WINNERS
2018: Gargano vs Ciampa
2017: Okada vs Omega
2016: Miz vs Dolph Ziggler
2015: Kevin Owens vs John Cena
2014: Kazuchika Okada vs Tetsuya Naito
2013: The Shield vs Team Hell No
2012: Bobby Roode vs James Storm

HM1 Suzuki/Liger
Apparently I shouldn't riff too hard on stuff I didn't really watch but it's nice to see Liger back on the list one last time. His retirement tour saw Suzuki not want him to retire on his own terms and produced some good matched

HM2 Kofi Kingston vs Daniel Bryan
Kofi and Bryan strikes me as an odd choice for this list given that the rivalry had just two singles matches but all the tags and gauntlets and everything else taken as a whole the Kofi to mania story ending with his epic win over Bryan was a great sequence of matches

3rd Johnny Gargano vs Adam Cole
This year's big NXT feud in the absence of Tommaso Ciampa and despite Vince attempting to call Gargano up to the main roster these two had a very long NXT style feud with a large number of matches that got time and were apparently quality.

2nd Young Bucks vs Lucha Bros
The only thing holding this feud back is that it was only a small number of matches many of which took place in AAA where very few people watched. Their Ladder of Death match at All Out was amazing and their earlier clashes that saw the Bucks win and retain the AAA tag titles were also instant classics.

1st David Starr/Jordan Devlin
BritWres may be basically dead but that hasn't stopped David Starr from becoming an almost transcendent star anyway. Their blowoff clash at OTT was built up to be huge and drove many fans to go back and dig into the rivalry backwards giving this Feud a bit of extra help getting over to American audiences.

This is the first win by a true independent in these awards since CHIKARAs run in 2013 so congrats David!

---

Eddv posted...

1st David Starr/Jordan Devlin
BritWres may be basically dead but that hasn't stopped David Starr from becoming an almost transcendent star anyway. Their blowoff clash at OTT was built up to be huge and drove many fans to go back and dig into the rivalry backwards giving this Feud a bit of extra help getting over to American audiences.

wow i've never been more proud of b8 i hope my spamming every hype video all year helped (btw, it would really be unfair to paint this feud as just "Starr vs. Devlin", as the true story revolves around WALTER too, but that's a minor point i suppose)

---

I am fairly certain that hype video is the ONLY reason that feud got over on board 8.

---

Oops skipped a category so lets do

Best Personality

Who had the best personality? Usually most fun or most interesting maybe most spooky if you're a big Fiend fan.

Past Winners
2018: Becky Lynch
2017: Takahashi
2016: Matt Hardy
2015: <inactive>
2014: Bray Wyatt

HM2 Cody Rhodes
Codys old school heel turned genuine babyface gimmick as the lead babyface of AEW had been a revelation this year
HM1 Becky Lynch
She's still Becky Lynch albeit less fresh and punchy than last year.
3RD David Starr
The Independent David Starr has taken Zack Labour Jr's gimmick to all new heights as he seemlessly blends wrestlepolitics and irl politics
2ND Jon Moxley
Mox is likely here primarily based off his work in new Japan where his death rider gimmick was fucking awesome.
1ST Chris Jericho
Le Champion strikes again

---

Eddv posted...

I am fairly certain that hype video is the ONLY reason that feud got over on board 8.

hey there were like, 3 this year alone!

---

These awards are going terribly

---

The Paul Heyman Non-Wrestler of the Year

NonWrestlers can add quite a lot to the product. Just look at the awards namesake.

Who added the most this year?
Past Winners
2018: <inactive>
2017: <inactive>
2016: Daniel Bryan
2015: Dario Cueto
2014: Paul Heyman
2013: Paul Heyman/Ultramantis Black
2012: Paul Heyman/JBL
2011: Paul Heyman

HM Aubrey Edwards
The rare referee to make the list, Aubreys role as AEWs 'top-rated' official has led to some iconic moments dealing with the weasely Jericho already.

HM Kevin Kelly
New Japan's play by play man who has been instrumental to New Japan's American push his commentary was clear and concise and got over the angles well.

3RD Excalibur
AEWs take on the nerdy play by play man Excalibur has been an AEW highlight

2ND Tully Blanchard
Tully Blanchard is a hell of a comeback story. He's been out of wrestling for a long time and had a troubled history prior to that and has come back to lend instant credibility to Shawn Spears. He has been a revelation in that role and I look forward to seeing more

1ST Tony Schiavone
Another great comeback story. When Tony came back to MLW it was a revelation that he still had it. Within a year he was with AEW serving as the missing puzzle piece to their media strategy and announce team instantly lending the product its signature air and bringing a gravitas to the product effortlessly.

---

Damn, me and scarlet going 1st for shibata wasn't enough for an hm
---

Oh wait shit it was he was just waaaaay over to the right.

He actually finished 3rd over Excalibur.

---

Tully and Shibata yay

No Pharaoh boo

---

We voted Shibata in large because the angle where he got physical with Kenta was so awesome, but I'll also give him a big nod for churning out such great talent from the LA dojo last year
---

Shouldn't Orange Cassidy have won it?

---

I saw a whole lot of orange cassidy wrestling matches
---

"Wrestling"

---

TheRock1525 posted...

"Posting"

---

Sorry I made a joke, this is clearly a super serious award ceremony.

---

Lol look at me I'm the rock
---

See Steiner gets it.

---

As someone who watches very little wrestling anymore, I find the Orange Cassidy matches to be entertaining in a very silly way

---

I still feel blessed that my first indy wrestling show had David Starr vs. Keith Lee.

---

o ya go my tony

---

Honestly the more of these awards I see the less I'm upset I didn't vote. Good voting block this year!

---

Tag Team of the Year

Lots of good tagging this year lets see which team won hearts and minds

Tag Team of the Year
2018: LAX
2017: The Usos
2016: The Revival
2015: New Day
2014: The Bullet Club
2013: Team Hell No
2012: The Shield

HMs: Private Party, Young Bucks, Proud n Powerful, SCU, Roppongi 3k
We had a ton of teams recieve multiple votes and basically tie and I lost all my writeups for them.
But AEWs tag division is so healthy they got 4 teams tied here. And Roppongi 3k are always good.

4TH Aussie Open
Their ladder match with Birds of Prey was really fun and in general this team banged this year.

2ND (tied) Undisputed Era
I made the executive decision to combine votes for the 2 different pairings that got voted for. Undisputed Era had a dominant year with a lot of good matches supposedly.

2ND (tied) Birds of Prey
I'll be honest - Will Ospreays is my 2nd favorite member of Birds of Prey. Just incredible dickhead heels whose styles compliment each other amazingly well

1ST Lucha Bros
As Jim Ross is fond of saying this is perhaps the most talented tag team on the planet. Fenix and Pentagon have style, finesse and have an incredible Arsenal of moves. Their styles are similar to Birds of Prey with one more of tough brawler and Fenix one of the best flyers on the planet. Their chemistry is amazing and their feuds with LAX and the Young Bucks provided them an amazing resume.


---

Eddv posted...

4TH Aussie Open
Their ladder match with Birds of Prey was really fun and in general this team banged this year.

2ND (tied) Birds of Prey
I'll be honest - Will Ospreays is my 2nd favorite member of Birds of Prey. Just incredible dickhead heels whose styles compliment each other amazingly well

you have confused birds of prey with swords of essex here

---

So I have.

But Paul Robinson rules so whatever

---

Cero Miedo!

---

Woman of the Year

Much like the wrestling companies themselves we segregate our awards in men and women's categories. Which women do we like? Becky Lynch that's who. Did she win this year too?

2018: Becky Lynch
2017: Asuka
2016: Becky Lynch
2015: Sasha Banks
2014: Nikki Bella

HM: Kris Statlander
Even aliens are eligible for this list.

3rd Hikaru Shida
Shida is super cool. Her cool samurai warrior aesthetic combined with her very fun twitter vlog of her exploits and her sharp and exciting moveset has made her an instant favorite.


2nd Becky Lynch
Vince learning who you are and writing material for you can be a death sentence for an act that is legitimately cool and awesome like The Man. Her Royal Rumble win and three way Wrestlemania main event were both great but consensus is that much of the potential was squandered by bad booking. She then made her relationship with Seth Rollins public which then murdered her momentum. Still she's been head and shoulders over everyone else WWE has even in spite of this.

1st Tessa Blanchard
I suppose it's notable that we voted prior to her getting canceled - after being featured in a prominent role at All In last year she had a stellar 2019 working prominent matches in Impact against the likes of Taya and Jordynne Grace and worked her way into the mens scene most notably an extended feud with OvE and a friendly rivalry with Brian Cage. She was also featured in just about every indie in the country and killed it the entire year.

---

Thank goodness Becky didn't win this year.

Nothing against her but since Wrestlemania she's done basically nothing in terms of good matches, storylines, or relevance.

Kinda surprised no one on NXT got any mention? Shayna Baszler or a few others probably have a better case for winning than Becky among the WWE voting contingent.

---

Generally speaking votes were all over the god damn place for the non Becky non Tessa votes

---

Was I the only one that voted joshi at all or were there a couple other scattered ones?

---

There was one other joshi only voter and another joshi vote scattered in there they were just for 7 different people.

---

Interesting.

---

....Did I actually send a vote in? I thought I did but honestly don't remember.

---