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QUESTION OF THE DAY: We've seen several wrestlers spend considerable amounts of time on the shelf in 2015 - Rollins, Cena, Lesnar (obviously), Orton, Ziggler, and Rusev to name a few higher profile talents. Whose absence has been most glaring? The end of each year offers a unique challenge for wrestling enthusiasts, one certainly worthy of our time. Wrestling being such a flowing, week-to-week entertainment entity puts us all in a position to overreact to what happens in the immediacy of a storyline or match. The end of the year gives us a chance to contextualize what has happened and, though I am a firm believer that the greatest context is shaped (and often re-shaped) by the passage of time, awards given at the turn of the calendar for the best of the previous 365 days become a linchpin for historical reference for many years to come. We begin our celebratory look back at 2015 with the most important distinction: WWE Wrestler of the Year. Candidates were identified largely through the monthly awards given out through the Doctor’s Orders Month-in-Review columns over the course of the year, in addition to reader voting and WWE accolades (Championships, Money in the Bank, and Royal Rumble). Dean Ambrose, John Cena, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins emerged as the four viable choices. If you were wondering why this award was being given several weeks before the actual last day of 2015, then the reason is because Seth Rollins can do nothing in his currently injured state to undo his overwhelming victory in this category. The Architect was the reader’s choice by a landslide, he was the only wrestler through November to have won multiple Wrestler of the Month awards (March, August, and September), and while he did not have as many Matches of the Month as Cena or Reigns, he did win three (the Rumble and WrestleMania triple threats and the US Title match against Cena at Night of Champions). He also held the WWE Championship between WrestleMania 31 at the end of March until being forced to vacate the title at the beginning of November and was, at least in my humble opinion, the very best Money in the Bank contract holder since Edge in 2005/2006. I view the Wrestler of the Year, much like the Wrestler of the Month, as a composite of a superstar’s in-ring performances and character work. If based solely on his efforts between the ropes, Rollins was obviously not the clear winner. Many readers pointed out in their votes that Cena got their nod because of his competitive consistency; one suggested that we “give Cena his due.” I concur. We should give Cena a lot of credit for having essentially revamped his game and brought back an approach in the ring that was very popular in his rookie year (2002/2003). Matches circa the early Brand Extension Era were packed with ridiculous amounts of content; it was spots and near falls galore and was incredibly entertaining. Cena’s US Open Challenge and PPV matches with Rusev, Kevin Owens, and Rollins showcased the value of that performance style. The Golden Boy led the pack with five Match of the Month awards. For all his critics, Roman Reigns had an outstanding year in terms of match quality too. Some still find reasons to hate on him and he does, indeed, have plenty of room for improvement, but only Cena performed more consistently in PPV singles matches than Reigns. He takes home four Match of the Month awards as of November, including three straight during what is generally regarded as the most competitive third of the wrestling calendar. He also won wrestling’s modern jackpot, winning the Royal Rumble and the WWE Title, as well as main-eventing WrestleMania. His character is what continues to hold him back from the highest of critical honors (and, for the record, Cena’s personic holding pattern prevented him from winning WOTY as well). The consensus on Reigns is that he’s just not a very convincing babyface beyond his natural, Diesel 1995-type traits. One of the biggest stories to follow into 2016 is whether or not he can turn the corner as an on-camera personality. Dean Ambrose was obviously #4. His character peaked last year and, while he might well be able to do more as a babyface if WWE would give him the ball to run with, he mostly seemed to fall into the classic, non-Attitude Era protagonist trap of his persona running in place without much development. The Lunatic remains on the Fringe of the main-event, though, and none of his fans should lose sight of the fact that – up and down year aside – he still main-evented four PPVs in 2015 (and the fact that the third and fourth were separated by five months demonstrated consistency). He won the WOTM award once (May). He took home zero MOTM awards through November, but he challenged on numerous occasions and has one match that is a prime contender for TV Match of the Year (when he surprisingly beat Rollins to earn his way into the title picture in mid-May). Of all the candidates, Seth Rollins had the most complete 2015. He delivered some real gems on the 20'X20' canvas. In addition to his three Match of the Month wins, he's got two matches up for the year's best on TV, including the aforementioned bout against Ambrose and his WWE Championship defense against Neville. You could probably add a few more to that list. His matches at WrestleMania (against Orton) and Night of Champions (against Cena) should hold up as the types that you can pull up on the Network when you need 15-minutes of awesomeness; the finish to the Mania match with Orton could go down as one of those all-time caliber moments. Kevin Owens vs. John Cena overshadowed the work that Rollins did with Ambrose this year. There were more critical comments for the Rollins-Ambrose series than I would've anticipated, but both the Elimination Chamber title bout and the Ladder match at Money in the Bank were clearly outstanding and just as good of examples of the style in which they were wrestled as Cena vs. Owens was in its faster paced, near fall heavy approach. The Rollins-Ambrose series may well prove to stand the test of time better than Cena vs. Owens, in fact. The reason why The Architect is the 2015 Wrestler of the Year, though, is primarily because of what he accomplished as a character. In a weak creative year in WWE, Rollins carried Raw and gave people a good reason to watch every Monday. The shortcomings of the writing team put him in some questionable situations, but he continually responded and essentially talked himself (and in-ring worked himself) out of harm's way. He was by no means Teflon and there were a few angles that left fans wondering how in the world Rollins would manage to survive the ineptitude, so credit to him for keeping it together on camera, fully buying into his persona, and portraying as well as anyone in WWE history the sniveling little weasel World Champion. Rollins came away from the whole ordeal as perhaps the most well-rounded character on the roster, equally capable of being conniving, convincing, conspiratorial, and cocky. I thought it spoke volumes about how well he had performed that, when he was at his heelish best, he could make everyone jeer him; and that, just as impressively, when he went down with injury, he almost instantaneously became sympathetic and got pegged as a potential conquering hero upon his return next year. Cases can be made for the other wrestlers mentioned, but The Architect's defense rests. 2015 ends the same way that did 2014: with Seth Rollins as the WWE Wrestler of the Year.
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