As we continue to wind down the year 2015, we continue our look at the year with some more of our awards for the best (and possibly the worst) of the year.These awards come from a year where the vast majority of my wrestling viewership has been based off of WWE and NXT (with the odd TNA show here and there). So don’t shout too loudly if you disagree with these picks, and feel free to chime in with your picks.
Finishing Move Of the Year: Schoolboy
Okay, that’s extremely tongue-in-cheek, but given how many matches have been won by a simple roll-up this year, that should be the winner!
Honourable Mentions (and Probably the true Finishing Moves of the Year): Neville’s Red Arrow; the Young Bucks’ Meltzer Driver; Brock Lesnar’s F5, Chad Gable/Jason Jordan’s assisted back suplex
All of these honourable mentions have been used to win matches more often than not, unlike – say – Roman Reigns; Superman Punch, which has been used as a set-up move and hasn’t decisively won that many matches this year.
Tag Team of the Year: The New Day
(Honourable Mentions: Tyson Kidd/Cesaro, Jason Jordan/Chad Gable)
It’s been a weird year for tag teams, with the main roster starting out with Tyson Kidd and Cesaro on top, before the New Day took over on their path of being overexposed to the masses. 2015 hasn’t been a banner year for tag teams, but neither has it been as barren as years gone by where the entire division has been made up of guys without anything better to do.
Women’s Wrestler of the Year: Sasha Banks
(Honourable Mentions: Bayley, Charlotte)
With the majority of 2015 on the main roster being centred around the fulfilled threat of Nikki Bella overtaking AJ Lee’s record Diva’s title reign, unless you’ve been willing to look at groups like SHIMMER and Shine, NXT has been your go-to place for women’s wrestling this year, and thankfully the black and yellow group has delivered.
Any of the three picks here could have won, but throughout 2015 Banks has been the most consistent up until her WWE call-up, whereas Charlotte was pretty much MIA in NXT between losing the title and getting her call-up. Also, Charlotte’s feud with Paige has to knock her down a few pegs for involvement of Reid Flair alone. That’s not counting the inconsistent main roster matches and her seeming inability to apply her own finishing move correctly!
Coming up next week, I’ll wrap up the awards including my pick for match and show of the year, as well as a few of the more “Marmite” picks revolving around storyline and commentary of the year. Looking further ahead, look forward to a new series of articles: Groundwork – going in depth at the beginnings of characters, turns and storylines in the history of wrestling.