Welcome to The Wrestling Media Nation Awards! Over the course of this piece we will be looking at the good and the great from the year of 2013 in professional wrestling.
Unlike other awards of this type ALL of our voting, from our nominees to our deciding of the winners themselves is fan voted. During this article you'll be reading my opinions on YOUR choices.
All of this years voting took place on The Wrestling Forum, home of all of the discussion on and about Pro Wrestling Planet. If you're not already a member head on over and claim your free sign up!
Runner-Up: Bray Wyatt
Okada started off 2013 by being one half of our Match Of The Year by standing across the ring from Hiroshi Tanahashi. He didn't win that match and the story New Japan then told of him having to win the New Japan Cup to earn another title shot (which climaxed in him lifting the title at Aprils Invasion Attack) was one of the better redemption storylines in recent memory.
Okada has held the IWGP Heavyweight Championship ever since that show and has put on exceptional matches with everybody that's stepped into a ring with him, but that's only half of the reason he took this award.
New Japan have been traditionally hard to follow. Tape trading and then hunting down individual matches on Youtube were the norm for Westerners trying to follow the promotion. Up until October 2012 that is. King Of Pro Wrestling 2012 was the first New Japan show to be broadcast around the world on iPPV. Their shows were instantly more accessable and as a result we got to follow them from week to week all the way through 2013. Which in turn meant that we got to follow Kazuchikas rise from a solid mid-card talent to probably one of the biggest wrestling attractions in the world.
Runner-Up: The Length of Daniel Bryans Title Reigns
Without any shadow of a doubt THE single most interesting character development and angle heading into this years Wrestlemania was the addition of Zeb Colter to Jack Swagger and his re-branding as a racist.
Sure, WWE didn't use that word to describe him, but that's essentially what the character was and it was easily THE most edgy character on television. Almost from nowhere Swagger started getting heat, thanks in no small part to Dutch Mantells (what did I just say about Smark Fans?) brilliance on the microphone.
Unfortunately WWE then seemed to run scared of the media they were trying to court with this controversial character, going so far as to have Colter and Swagger break character to explain the storyline to the likes of Glenn Beck who had rallied against the character.
But that's an aside, because Swagger was doing a spectacular job of dismantling the best opportunity he's ever had all by himself by being stupid enough to get arrested for DUI and carrying Marujana.
Runners-Up: Magnus, Sami Zayne.
This is the category for people we think could be the potential breakout stars of 2014. Wyatt has also taken our Gimmick of the Year award and in WWE presentation is as important as substance - not that Wyatt lacks in promo ability or wrestling ability - He may well turn out to be the perfect choice as the one to watch on our part. If it turns out that he isn't though, then Magnus is clearly set to main event TNA for the next year at least and all Sami Zayne needs is a call up to the main roster to trigger the Daniel Bryan comparisons.
Runner-Up: Wrestlemania
Wrestle Kingdom is New Japans biggest PPV of the year, their Wrestlemania. 2013s card was outstanding and featured the likes of Low-Ki vs Prince Devitt vs Kota Ibushi for the Junior Heavyweight title, Shinsuke Nakamura vs Kazushi Sakuraba for the IWGP Intercontinental Title and our Match Of The Year Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. It was just one of several OUTSTANDING shows from New Japan this year and you owe it to yourself to check it out alongside Invasion Attack and Day 4 of the G1 Climax to name but two.
Wrestlemania is Wrestlemania, it holds a nostalgic place in all of our hearts so even when the build up is terrible and there's only one match of interest on the card we're still going to watch.
Runners-Up: Y2J Returns At The Royal Rumble, John Cena Promo (Raw Dec 9)
Timing is everything in pro wrestling. Whether Dolph Ziggler was scheduled to cash-in his Money In The Bank briefcase on the night he did or whether it was a decision made once they realized what they had in the Izod Center on April 8th, WWE couldn't have picked a better crowd for him to do it in front of. The internet wrestling community's favorite finally winning the big one in front of the Smarkest crowd all year was a thing of beauty and the moment his music hit was the nearest thing we've heard to a Road Warriors pop in a long time.
Here, take a look and see for yourself: VIDEO
Runner-Up: CM Punk vs Paul Heyman
Sometimes the best storylines are born out of necessity. Cody Rhodes was engaged to be married back in September and WWE needed a way to write him off TV for his honeymoon so they had Triple H fire him. What followed was a series of fantastic promos and matches featuring Dusty Rhodes and the returning Goldust. Cody earned his job back when he and Goldust teamed up to defeat the Shield at Battleground in a none-title match against the Tag-Team Champions. On October 14th the team beat The Shield again, this time for the tag-titles and earned themselves not only this award, but a place in the TWF50 in the process.
Female Wrestler Of The Year goes to the highest placed female in the TWF50. This year the reigning WWE Divas Champion has secured THE highest placed female entry for any TWF50 EVER. She's achieved this lofty position not only because she's the most featured female in the most prominent wrestling promotion in America (which in itself has to be considered a career high), but also because she's just so damned good at every thing she does!
After co-winning The Wrestling Media Nations Breakout Performer Award for 2012, AJ was not only the driving force behind Dolph Zigglers rise up the card, but has also carried the Divas division since the beginning of 2013 - let alone June when she won the Divas Championship. It's probably no coincidence that Zigglers free-fall began shortly after he and AJ split.
Ranking in as the highest placed tag-team in the TWF50 once more, Bad Influence are crowned our Tag-Team of the year for the second consecutive year! Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian have that "it" factor that means that every segment they're in is must watch. Of course with the addition of Bobby Roode to the Extraordinary Gentlemens Organisation they have the literal It Factor too.
Its interesting to see that a team with no significant titles or victories during 2013 are still the highest ranked in the TWF50. Its undoubtedly a testament to just how entertaining the team is whether wrestling or not.
Runners Up: John Cena, The Great Khali
You've probably realized by now that I'm writing the majority of these pieces as an analysis of the award itself based on my own personal opinion. So it should also come as no surprise to any of you when I say HOW HAPPY I AM THAT THE MIZ WAS VOTED OUR WORST WRESTLER OF THE YEAR!!!
He earned this prestigious honor by becoming the highest ranked wrestler in the 2013 Terrible25 and to steal my opinion of him from that very same listing: "No personality, no charisma, no ability to regurgitate a script with any semblance of realism, no wrestling ability... why is this guy still employed, let alone on TV?" Yeah, that just about covers it.
Runners-Up: John Cena vs CM Punk (WWE Raw - Feb 25), Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada (NJPW Invasion Attack -April 6)
Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada faced each other in singles competition four times in 2013 (with a further two in 2012) and you could make an argument for each of those matches winning this award. Dave Meltzer compared the series of matches between the two to the Flair vs Steamboat trilogy. Personally I think the Tanahashi/Okada matches are better.
The winner of this award is their bout from Wrestle Kingdom and sees Kazuchika Okada using the title shot he got by winning the 2012 G1 Climax to challenge Hiroshi Tanahashi for his IWGP Heavyweight Championship in the main event of New Japans biggest show of the year.
The two runners up matches are also exceptional, the match from Invasion Attack being my personal Match of the Year. I've our top three matches of 2013 OVER HERE for you to watch.
Sure, WWE didn't use that word to describe him, but that's essentially what the character was and it was easily THE most edgy character on television. Almost from nowhere Swagger started getting heat, thanks in no small part to Dutch Mantells (what did I just say about Smark Fans?) brilliance on the microphone.
Unfortunately WWE then seemed to run scared of the media they were trying to court with this controversial character, going so far as to have Colter and Swagger break character to explain the storyline to the likes of Glenn Beck who had rallied against the character.
But that's an aside, because Swagger was doing a spectacular job of dismantling the best opportunity he's ever had all by himself by being stupid enough to get arrested for DUI and carrying Marujana.
Runners-Up: Magnus, Sami Zayne.
This is the category for people we think could be the potential breakout stars of 2014. Wyatt has also taken our Gimmick of the Year award and in WWE presentation is as important as substance - not that Wyatt lacks in promo ability or wrestling ability - He may well turn out to be the perfect choice as the one to watch on our part. If it turns out that he isn't though, then Magnus is clearly set to main event TNA for the next year at least and all Sami Zayne needs is a call up to the main roster to trigger the Daniel Bryan comparisons.
Wrestle Kingdom is New Japans biggest PPV of the year, their Wrestlemania. 2013s card was outstanding and featured the likes of Low-Ki vs Prince Devitt vs Kota Ibushi for the Junior Heavyweight title, Shinsuke Nakamura vs Kazushi Sakuraba for the IWGP Intercontinental Title and our Match Of The Year Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. It was just one of several OUTSTANDING shows from New Japan this year and you owe it to yourself to check it out alongside Invasion Attack and Day 4 of the G1 Climax to name but two.
Wrestlemania is Wrestlemania, it holds a nostalgic place in all of our hearts so even when the build up is terrible and there's only one match of interest on the card we're still going to watch.
Runners-Up: Y2J Returns At The Royal Rumble, John Cena Promo (Raw Dec 9)
Timing is everything in pro wrestling. Whether Dolph Ziggler was scheduled to cash-in his Money In The Bank briefcase on the night he did or whether it was a decision made once they realized what they had in the Izod Center on April 8th, WWE couldn't have picked a better crowd for him to do it in front of. The internet wrestling community's favorite finally winning the big one in front of the Smarkest crowd all year was a thing of beauty and the moment his music hit was the nearest thing we've heard to a Road Warriors pop in a long time.
Here, take a look and see for yourself: VIDEO
Runner-Up: CM Punk vs Paul Heyman
Sometimes the best storylines are born out of necessity. Cody Rhodes was engaged to be married back in September and WWE needed a way to write him off TV for his honeymoon so they had Triple H fire him. What followed was a series of fantastic promos and matches featuring Dusty Rhodes and the returning Goldust. Cody earned his job back when he and Goldust teamed up to defeat the Shield at Battleground in a none-title match against the Tag-Team Champions. On October 14th the team beat The Shield again, this time for the tag-titles and earned themselves not only this award, but a place in the TWF50 in the process.
Female Wrestler Of The Year goes to the highest placed female in the TWF50. This year the reigning WWE Divas Champion has secured THE highest placed female entry for any TWF50 EVER. She's achieved this lofty position not only because she's the most featured female in the most prominent wrestling promotion in America (which in itself has to be considered a career high), but also because she's just so damned good at every thing she does!
After co-winning The Wrestling Media Nations Breakout Performer Award for 2012, AJ was not only the driving force behind Dolph Zigglers rise up the card, but has also carried the Divas division since the beginning of 2013 - let alone June when she won the Divas Championship. It's probably no coincidence that Zigglers free-fall began shortly after he and AJ split.
Ranking in as the highest placed tag-team in the TWF50 once more, Bad Influence are crowned our Tag-Team of the year for the second consecutive year! Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian have that "it" factor that means that every segment they're in is must watch. Of course with the addition of Bobby Roode to the Extraordinary Gentlemens Organisation they have the literal It Factor too.
Its interesting to see that a team with no significant titles or victories during 2013 are still the highest ranked in the TWF50. Its undoubtedly a testament to just how entertaining the team is whether wrestling or not.
Runners Up: John Cena, The Great Khali
You've probably realized by now that I'm writing the majority of these pieces as an analysis of the award itself based on my own personal opinion. So it should also come as no surprise to any of you when I say HOW HAPPY I AM THAT THE MIZ WAS VOTED OUR WORST WRESTLER OF THE YEAR!!!
He earned this prestigious honor by becoming the highest ranked wrestler in the 2013 Terrible25 and to steal my opinion of him from that very same listing: "No personality, no charisma, no ability to regurgitate a script with any semblance of realism, no wrestling ability... why is this guy still employed, let alone on TV?" Yeah, that just about covers it.
Runners-Up: John Cena vs CM Punk (WWE Raw - Feb 25), Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada (NJPW Invasion Attack -April 6)
Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada faced each other in singles competition four times in 2013 (with a further two in 2012) and you could make an argument for each of those matches winning this award. Dave Meltzer compared the series of matches between the two to the Flair vs Steamboat trilogy. Personally I think the Tanahashi/Okada matches are better.
The winner of this award is their bout from Wrestle Kingdom and sees Kazuchika Okada using the title shot he got by winning the 2012 G1 Climax to challenge Hiroshi Tanahashi for his IWGP Heavyweight Championship in the main event of New Japans biggest show of the year.
The two runners up matches are also exceptional, the match from Invasion Attack being my personal Match of the Year. I've our top three matches of 2013 OVER HERE for you to watch.
YES! YES! YES!
Across the course of 2013, according to YOU, Daniel Bryan was THE best wrestler on the planet. And honestly, it's hard to argue against that point. He is easily THE most over performer in WWE and in truth was for the entire year. He may have started off 2013 weighed down with the baggage of having Kane as his tag-team partner, and WWE may have done their very best to make a mockery of the very thought that Bryan could be the WWE champion (by having Orton cash-in his Money In The Bank briefcase just moments after he won the title for the first time and then having Triple H strip him of the title less than twenty-four hours after winning it for the second time) but the paying fans in attendance just don't care.
After his 245 day tag-title reign with Kane ended, Brian floated from a brief feud with the Shield to being hand picked by John Cena to be the challenger for Cenas title at Summerslam. Bryan won that match, cleanly, in the center of the ring to win his first WWE Championship. Within ten minutes he'd been pedigreed by Triple H (the guest referee for the title bout) and Randy Orton had cashed in his Money in the Bank contract, pinned Bryan and taken the title from him.
After regaining the title at Night of Champions in September Bryan again won the title. This time he got to keep it until Raw the very next day when Triple H stripped him of the title siting a referee fast count as the reason. After another title match at Hell in a Cell was ended by a Shawn Michaels SuperKick to Bryan, the WWE briefly teased a feud between the two that, as of writing, has yet to amount to anything tangible.
Bryan closed his 2013 out by first feuding with and then apparantly joining the Wyatt Family. A far call from the main event status he earned from the fans but typical of the way WWE like to treat potential main event megastars.
Second Place: TNA, Third-Place: WWE
This year we introduced a new way to decide our promotion of the year. It makes sense that people would vote for the promotion they are most familiar with in an award of this type and we needed away to address the balance.
Instead of allowing people to cast votes on this award, we instead took into account peoples voting across the other awards that we felt were most important to enjoying a promotion.
We decided that the winners of the following awards would each recieve two points for their home promotions and that the runners up would recieve one point a piece for their home promotions. An addition was that numbers 2-10 in the TWF would be considered runners-up spots.
The awards we considered were: Match of the Year, Pay-Per-View of the Year, The "I'm Markin Out Bro" Award, The Angle of the Year, and two points were at stake for the Tag-Team of the year.
We also took into account this years Terrible25. Each time a promotion was entered into that, be it a wrestler an incident or storyline etc, that promotion would have a point deducted from its score.
We had three promotions that were clearly in the running and in the end all three were clearly seperated. Despite being the most watched promotion (or maybe because they were) WWE could only manage a third place finish because of their domination of the Terrible25. TNA, despite making several appearances in that list, took the middle spot and New Japan, by virtue of taking no negative appearances whilst also putting out some stellar matches and shows, became our Promotion of the Year.
In reality, they're the one promotion that really stood out from the pack in 2013. Their ppvs were almost all spectacular and they dominated our Match of the Year nominations. Their only weekness is the language barrier which saw them entirely excluded from our Angle of the Year voting.
And the minor awards...
I Can't Believe You Haven't Been Future Endevoured Yet
Winner: JTG
Runners-Up: Sting, The Miz
When somebody picks up this award and then spends the next twelve months in exactly the same promotion still not appearing on TV, or being involved in anything of note, it's not really suprising that they'd take the honors the very next year too. That's exactly what happened here to the former Cryme Tyme member JTG. He's spent yet another year, to all intents and purposes, doing nothing except appear on house shows. WWE tend to make a roster cull of about ten to twelve names once a year, with the advent of the Performance Center I expect that number to rise AND I expect that JTG won't be around to take this award at the end of 2014.
What has to be said though is that the names that took our runners up spots don't really fulfill the criteria. Both Sting and The Miz have been on TV regularly and, in Stings case at least, have been main event performers during 2013. Sting is TNAs "Legend" his primary purpose is to "pass the torch" and he's done the job for younger talent on more than one occasion. Sting spent his 2013 in the top of the card angle feuding with the Aces and Eights and even got a World Heavyweight title shot at Slammiversary - Truly the only thing anybody can have against him being employed is his age, isn't it? The Miz on the other hand is WWEs media guy and main-evented Wrestlemania just a few short years ago. Unfortunately for him, his stock as a wrestler has long since dropped and ability to schmooze with the press has had no baring on his ability to wrestle or cut a promo... or be interesting in any tangible way. His highlights of 2013 include Ric Flair passing the torch to him by allowing him to use the figure four and a Intercontinental Championship reign which spanned from Sunday April 7ths Wrestlemania pre-show to April 8ths Monday Night Raw.
Best Gimmick
Winner: Bray Wyatt
Runner-Up: Yujiro Takahashi
This award is a celebration of the people that stand out from the crowd because they offer something unique. That word definitely describes this years winner, Bray Wyatt. The vignettes WWE ran before the arrival of the Wyatt family were intreguing to say the least. Dark and erie they suggested a cult leader status for Wyatt himself and we all wanted to see him make his debut. He hasn't disapointed, from the lamp blowing ring entrance, too the cool and creepy entrance music to the Exorcist style walking backwards on his hands with his head upside down, he's done weird exceptionally well and is a worthy winner.
Words will never do those vignettes justice, so here, check one out for yourself: HERE
Yujiro Takahashi is far from weird, but he's taken the Val Venis gimmick and added Japanese porn stars & glamour models to his entrance. A no-brainer for runner up there then.
Best Heel
Winner: Smark Fans
Runners-Up: Bully Ray, Paul Heyman
Have smark fans become so smark that they're now self aware? Somehow we've splintered off into two separate entities - maybe one group is just smark and the second group has evolved to become super-smark? I don't know, what I do know is that a group of fans used an award they voted on, to point out how much they hate another group of the same fans, by decreeing them the best heels in wrestling... Or maybe that's a compliment? Given that they also made an appearance in this years TERRIBLE25 I doubt it. My head hurts. Either way the credentials for the two runners up are indisputable. Both Bully Ray and Paul Heyman played perfect villains in 2013, turning everything they touched (including for a short time Ryback) into gold. It's a shame one of them didn't win this award.
Best None Wrestling Personality
Winner: Paul Heyman
Runners-Up: Brad Maddox, William Regal
He took the runners up spot in our Heel of the Year award and this year Paul Heyman has made both Ryback and Curtis Axel seem relevant. Surely that's worthy of an award in itself? The real meat of the Paul Heyman promo lunch this year though was his feud with CM Punk - once Heyman turned on the man he once proclaimed as "The Best In The World" and the son he never had, the two greatest promo men in wrestling today stole every show in which they were handed a microphone.
The Zack Ryder Award For Under-Utilised Talent
Winner: Antonio Cesaro
Runners-Up: Wade Barrett, Tyson Kidd
This one's self explanatory isn't it? These are the people that deserve waaaaaaay more airtime than they're getting right now.
Best Babyface:
Winner: Daniel Bryan
There were no runners up for this award because Daniel Bryan took 100% of all votes cast.
Best Homages:
A fun little thing that seemed to start happening in 2013 was people dressing up as a homage to someone or something else. We've seen it before of course, it just seems to be gaining popularity. These are the three that made us smile the most in 2013.
Low Ki as Agent 47, Bad Influence as Legion of Boom, CM Punk as Undertaker.
Don't forget to also check out are best and worst of lists for 2013: The TWF50 and theTerrible25 - AND, if you have an opinion on our award winners, tell us about it on the forum thread HERE
Thanks for reading!
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