Can’t Knock The Hustle: The 2021 Pro Wrestling Year-End Hussy Awards

Folks, we have officially made it to the end of another year.

There were tons of highs and tons of lows, not just in pro wrestling, but everywhere you turn. With 2021 just about to come to an end, it is time for me to, once again, deliver the #BlackTwitter Hussy Awards, looking back at the year that was.

If you’re new to my work, you’re probably wondering what the hell #BlackTwitter has to do with things. Allow me to explain.

Years and years ago, I was a member of the Lords Of Podcast Roundtable, the official podcast of this very site back in the days when it was known as Lords Of Pain. I did a podcast episode, and an accompanying column, called the #BlackTwitter Hussy Awards. Shout-out to John Laurinaitis for dropping by to deliver an award on the show.

I connected #BlackTwitter to the awards because I wanted to stand out and be different. Everybody does year-end awards of some kind, and you always see the same categories. Wrestler Of The Year, Match Of The Year, and so on. This was back when Twitter was first starting to blow up in popularity, largely due to the #BlackTwitter subset. Black Twitter was a unique space, featuring its own style of tweeting, its own conversations, hashtags and everything else that was needed to “trend” on Twitter. They were ahead of the curve using Twitter as a worldwide chat room, of sorts, allowing for full-fledged audience participation to bring people in. To pay tribute to Black Twitter, I took some of the hashtags that they made famous, and I used them as the names of the awards I was giving out.

All these years later, the Hussy Awards are still around, and I’m still sticking with the format. There are seven awards to give out, so let me take this time to introduce them and what they mean.

 

• #TheStruggle: Given to the wrestler who saw the biggest decline in their situation/position from the year before
• #Swag: Given to the wrestler who saw the biggest improvement in their situation/position from the year before
• #TheThirst: Given to the wrestler or personality that craved attention so much that it seemed like they were thirsty for it
• #NobodyCaresB: Given to the storyline that was so bad, people just wanted it to go away, even if that means there was no proper conclusion
• #Cryin: Given to the best promo, moment or segment of the year
• #Craftmaster: Given to the wrestler of the year
• #!!!: Given to the match of the year

 

Simple enough, no? If there’s no need to explain things any further, then it’s time to hand out our first award.

That first award is #TheStruggle. The nominees here have probably already turned their calendars to 2022 because they’re sick and tired of what 2021 has done to them. They saw some sort of success in 2020, but then saw all of that come crashing down this year. Maybe the struggle is their own fault, and maybe it isn’t, but it’s a struggle nonetheless. Here are the nominees, in no particular order:

• Bray Wyatt: It could be argued that nobody in the history of WWE is a bigger “missed opportunity” than Bray Wyatt. He’s someone who has had multiple iterations of an all-time classic character through the years, but spent most of those years losing nearly every big match he competed in. Then, when the company finally got behind him and pushed him to the top, he was either sacrificed to people who didn’t need the wins (Randy Orton and Goldberg) or lost after only a week as champion (Roman Reigns). 2020 saw him have that brief one-week reign as the Universal Champion, but hey, at least he was the champ. He would close out 2020 by being SET ON MOTHERFUCKING FIRE in a Firefly Inferno Match, and then wouldn’t wrestle again until WrestleMania, where he lost to Randy Orton, putting an end to an awful feud that helped nobody. That was the man’s last match for WWE, as he would be released three months later. Then, to make matters worse, he would have his Twitter account hacked by someone who was trying to scam people into trying to buy PS5s on social media. Yikes. Oh, what could have been.
• Dark Side Of The Ring: For me, Dark Side Of The Ring is still appointment viewing. I record every episode on my DVR and make sure to watch them at my earliest convenience. Even the episodes that cover stories I feel I know a ton about get watched right away. Apparently, I’m part of an ever-shrinking group of people who feel that way. DSOTR’s second season aired from March 24th to May 19th of 2020, with almost every episode seeing higher numbers than the show’s first season. The hype for the third season, premiering on May 6th of this year, was astronomical. What happened? Not only did we get an episode that saw the show’s lowest viewership ever, but then that number got even lower two weeks later, and then even lower three weeks after that. In all, eight of the season’s 14 episodes rank in the bottom ten of total viewers for the entire series. For the channel it airs on, the show’s numbers were still really good, but overall, they have to be considered a disappointment. There’s no word if we’ll get another season of the show, but it will be interesting to see if they can rebound from the big drop in numbers if they do come back.
• Shelton Benjamin & Cedric Alexander: Damn. Remember when it could be argued that The Hurt Business was the best thing going in WWE, if not all of wrestling? Bobby Lashley, MVP, Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander were all on fire, each playing a very important role within the group. Benjamin and Alexander ended 2020 with a lot of momentum, defeating Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods at TLC to become the new Raw Tag Team Champions. Things were looking up. Then, they dropped the titles. Two weeks later, they were attacked by Lashley, who kicked them out of the group. For the next six months, Shelton would go 1-7 in televised matches, with his only win coming against… Cedric Alexander. Cedric would go 2-10 in that same span, with his only wins coming against… Shelton Benjamin. Then, out of bumfuck nowhere, they reunited with Lashley, reforming the Hurt Business stable. Hooray, right? Wrong. Cedric is 2-6 since the group reformed, while Shelton is 1-3, but hey, Cedric won the 24/7 Title last month, so pencil him in for the WWE Hall Of Fame, I guess. They had so much going for them, then had their stable broken up for absolutely no reason, and they have yet to recover from it.
• Keith Lee: Here’s a guy who spent his time in NXT looking like a real “can’t miss” star. He was presented as such, and crowds received him as such. Then, Vince McMahon got his grubby little hands on him. You’ve seen the rumors. Change this, fix that, update this… Keith Lee never seemed to really get started on the main roster upon his debut. It seemed as if it would be successful. In only his second main roster match, he pinned Randy Orton at Payback 2020, followed by a pinfall victory over Dolph Ziggler on Raw the following night. He seemed to float around for the rest of 2020, but he worked his way up the card, earning a shot at Drew McIntyre’s WWE Title on the first episode of Raw in 2021. He would lose the match, but people were happy that it seemed like he was going to be a major player on Raw. Yeah… about that. Within weeks, he was off the road after being diagnosed with COVID and then dealt with life-threatening heart issues that came from it. He was gone for five months, then returned for three matches (losing two) before not wrestling on television for nearly two months. That “return” lasted for one match, and then he was away from television for another month before coming back for one match and then being released a week later. He went from “this guy is a future WWE/Universal Champion” to “this guy isn’t even working for WWE anymore” in near-record time.
• Ring Of Honor: There was a time when many people considered Ring Of Honor the second-biggest wrestling promotion in North America, behind only WWE. This was when TNA/Impact was having their issues, and when RoH was thriving in their own “lane” that they perfected. Even at their biggest and brightest, they were never going to compete with WWE, but as long as there were young, talented independent stars in the business, RoH would always have people they could place a spotlight on, even after losing their own top stars to larger companies. As the years went on, RoH made moves that people assumed would propel them to greater heights, but that propulsion never really happened for one reason or another. Moving to pay-per-view? A weekly television program on HDNet? Sinclair Broadcasting Group buying the company? Switching from taped pay-per-views to a live model? They didn’t make the promotion a household name, but they were still making moves. Their inclusion on this list is a little different than the other nominees, as their 2020 wasn’t wildly successful, but at least they were in business and didn’t have everyone speculating that they were finished. This is the company that helped introduce the likes of Bryan Danielson, CM Punk, Samoa Joe, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, and so on to the world, and now, they might be done forever. It’s a sad story.
• Karrion Kross: Like Keith Lee, Karrion Kross was built and pushed in NXT as an absolute “can’t miss” star. He was given an entrance that immediately captured your attention, from the lighting to the theme to the super hot manager lip syncing said theme. Once the bell rang, he would mow through opponents, moving his way up the card at a record pace. Four months after making his debut in NXT, in only his seventh match, he would defeat Keith Lee to become the NXT Champion. It didn’t look like anybody would be able to stop him. Unfortunately for him, he suffered a shoulder injury during the match and had to vacate the title mere days after winning it. He returned to the ring before 2020 came to a close, and it looked like 2021 would be his year. It sure started off that way. He continued mowing through opponents in NXT, and ended up winning the NXT Title again in April. Then… say it with me… Vince McMahon got his grubby little hands on him. Just like that, Kross’ entrance and look were changed, and that super hot manager was nowhere to be found. Kross would lose his first match on Raw, being pinned by Jeff Hardy, all while still being the NXT Champion. He was dead on arrival from there, and after three months of getting little-to-no reaction from live crowds all over the country, he would be released.
• Braun Strowman: While it didn’t happen at the peak of his popularity and level of over-ness, 2020 looked to be one amazing year for Braun. He won his first singles title, defeating Shinsuke Nakamura in January to become the Intercontinental Champion. He would only hold the title for about five weeks before dropping it to Sami Zayn. People wouldn’t cry for him very long, though. A couple weeks after losing the Intercontinental Title, he would be chosen to replace Roman Reigns at WrestleMania. Reigns decided to pull himself off the road, citing concerns about COVID-19 after battling leukemia again in late-2018, and WWE needed a challenger for Goldberg’s Universal Title. Seemingly out of nowhere, Braun Strowman was the brand new Universal Champion. He was finally at the top of the WWE mountain, and it was well-deserved. After dropping the title to the returning Reigns at SummerSlam, Braun would have some success in whatever the fuck those Raw Underground “matches” were, but then he just floated around a bit. When the calendar turned to 2021, he found himself in the middle of an awful feud with Shane McMahon (more on that later), then moving to a feud with Retribution members Mace and T-Bar that nobody cared about. Weeks after the Mace and T-Bar feud ended, news of Braun’s WWE release would shock the pro wrestling world. Even with the titles won in 2020, you could say that Braun was one of the biggest whiffs by WWE in recent years. He got over organically, getting crazy face pops even though he was a heel, but the company repeatedly failed to pull the trigger on pushing him to the top. It’s hard to say if he would’ve ever reached the top if COVID didn’t show up. Now, none of it matters, as he isn’t even with the company anymore.
• The Velveteen Dream: Like some of the other nominees here, The Velveteen Dream was someone who looked like a future World Champion once upon a time. At the age of 21, he debuted the Dream character, and he was putting on a weekly masterclass on how to make a unique character work. As time went on, his in-ring work was really starting to match up with his character work. After holding the NXT North American title for nearly eight months in 2019, he had a lot of momentum going into 2020. Then he hurt his back and needed to miss some time. After getting into a car accident, he would be forced to miss some more time. It was around this time when the accusations of inappropriate behavior started to pop up, causing people to think that the car accident never really happened, and it was just the kayfabe excuse so that he could serve a suspension, or at least sit on the shelf while the company looked into the accusations. Even with the wild out-of-the-ring stuff going on, he was still involved in a feud for the NXT Title in 2020. Do you know how Dream’s 2021 has been? He had zero matches, and was then released from his contract in May. Whether it’s because of the accusations or not, I don’t think the man has even wrestled anywhere since being released. Not for any other major promotion, and not for some small-time company that performs in a grocery store parking lot in front of 20 fans.

The winner of our first award is… Ring Of Honor! Shelton and Cedric could very well bounce back at some point. Wyatt, Strowman, Lee, Dream and Kross could pop up (and in Strowman’s case, already has popped up) elsewhere and be successful. Dark Side Of The Ring will always have material to do shows about, and they have time to make changes that might be needed to draw more fans in. Ring Of Honor might be able to bounce back, but right now, they look like they’re DONE. It’s an insane fall for a company with such an incredible history.

The first award looked at those who fell off from 2020, so why don’t we head in the opposite direction for our next award? The #Swag award is a positive look at things. These nominees didn’t have a whole lot going for them in 2020, but rebounded better than Dennis Rodman could ever dream of. In no particular order, here are the nominees…

• Omos: This is a guy that had been popping up here and there on WWE programming before being repackaged to what we recognize him as today. He was a ninja during the brief period of time when Akira Tozawa randomly had a crew of them at his disposal. After that, he was the bouncer for Raw Underground, where he was best known for always looking sweaty while just standing there. Once Raw Underground went the way of the Dodo, we got the Omos we know today. He closed out 2020 working alongside AJ Styles as a bodyguard of sorts, but when WrestleMania rolled around this year, he was booked to team with AJ and compete for the Raw Tag Team Titles. Not only did he win them in his first match on the main roster, but he looked great in doing so. He wasn’t booked to look like Dean Malenko in his prime, but he didn’t have to be. The man is a legitimate, non-gimmicked 7’3″ tall. He’s a monster, and he should look like a monster. After a four-month title reign, it now appears that we’re going to get a singles run for the guy. He is already drawing comparisons to “special attraction” wrestlers of the past. To go from a lot of nothing in 2020 to being a champion in 2021 with a possible eye on something special for the future? He’s moving on up.
• CM Punk: I don’t think the story really needs to be told, because everyone knows it already. In 2020, what was CM Punk doing? Nothing. That’s not a knock on him. It’s just the truth. He was already done with his UFC career, and there was nothing but pipe dreams (not bombs) of him returning to the world of pro wrestling. Then… it happened. Sean Ross Sapp broke the news that Punk was talking to AEW about returning to the wrestling ring, and that news nearly broke the internet. There was no way it would actually happen, right? Right?!? Obviously, it did happen, and it became one of the biggest stories of the year. Whether or not you’ve enjoyed his time with AEW is irrelevant. It really is. The fact that he’s even back at all is still pretty amazing.
• Carmelo Hayes: For the first few years of his career, the artist-formerly-known-as Christian Casanova was putting in work on the independent scene in the New England area. He built his career, brick-by-brick, leading to him signing a WWE contract in February of this year. Three-and-a-half months after signing his deal, he made his television debut for NXT, and he hasn’t looked back since. Five matches into his NXT run, he would win the Breakout Tournament, earning himself a title shot, Money In The Bank-style. Less than two months later, he cashed in to defeat Isaiah “Swerve” Scott and become the new NXT North American Champion. It was only his eighth match in NXT, but he was looking like a bigger and bigger piece of the future all the time. He hasn’t even been the champion for three months, but he has already elevated the title a ton. The fact that he came out of nowhere to do it, and did it in such a short amount of time, is why he’s nominated here.
• Keiji Muto: The man best known as The Great Muta made his debut 37 years ago, and has been a champion almost everywhere he has been since. There is no doubting that he’s one of the all-time greats in the world of puroresu. He spent 2020 working mostly as a tag team performer. Of the 14 matches he worked last year, only two of them were of the singles variety. In fact, you have to go all the way back to 2010 to find when he last wrestled more than two singles matches in a calendar year. He’s supposed to be in the twilight of his career, if not outright retired. The man just celebrated his 59th birthday, after all. Then… February 12th, 2021 happened. On that date, Muto pinned Go Shiozaki at Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Destination 2021 – Back To Budokan show to become the new GHC Heavyweight Champion. Just like that, he was elevated back to being in one of the top spots in all of Japan. He had a perfectly respectable four-month reign as champion, but that wasn’t it for him. Last month, he teamed with Naomichi Marufuji to win the GHC Tag Team Titles from Kaito Kiyomiya and Masa Kitamiya. You’d have to go back to 2008 if you wanted to see the last time the man won two titles of any kind in the same year. Just an incredible out-of-nowhere success story.
• Miro: When Miro debuted for AEW in September 2020, there was a significant amount of buzz surrounding his arrival. His fans felt that he would finally be able to overcome the years of misuse that he endured in WWE, and he would achieve great things. Instead, AEW made him infinitely worse than he ever was in WWE, putting him in the middle of the wedding angle between Kip Sabian and Penelope Ford and then making him a character that was more focused on playing video games than doing anything else. Just when it looked like all was lost, he finally broke free from the Sabian and Ford hellhole and had a bit of a gimmick change, winning the TNT Title in May and becoming “God’s Favorite Champion.” He would become one of the most consistent promo guys on the AEW roster, talking to God before and after his matches. In his four-and-a-half month reign as the TNT Champion, he looked unstoppable almost every step of the way. It saved him, if we’re being honest. Now, he is rightly viewed as someone who can be a monster heel for the company, even as a main event player.
• Matt Cardona: When Zack Ryder was released from his WWE contract in April 2020, most people weren’t sure what to expect from him. He was good enough, and damn sure charismatic enough, to shine outside of the WWE umbrella, but would it happen? Going by his real name, he had an extremely brief run in AEW before joining Impact Wrestling and floating around there for a while. He was doing okay, but being a mid-level guy in Impact compared to being a mid-level (in the good times) guy in WWE? He wasn’t moving up in the world. That’s when he decided to switch everything up. He made a shocking appearance for Game Changer Wrestling, getting involved in the world of deathmatch wrestling, and would go on to defeat Nick Gage to become the GCW Heavyweight Champion in July. That reign only lasted six weeks, but Cardona had made himself more relevant and talked-about than he had been in years. October saw him win a match for Absolute Intense Wrestling, one of the top independent promotions in America, giving him the AIW Absolute Title and the AIW Intense Title. Like always, he has found a way to achieve success on his own terms, no matter what anyone else thinks or expects.
• Mandy Rose: What a weird 2020. She was stuck in a go-nowhere story with Otis for a while, but then she won a high profile Loser Leaves WWE match at SummerSlam against Sonya Deville. Yes, it was done to give Sonya the time away that she needed after the personal issues she went through, but that doesn’t change the attention that was on her. After that, she was stuck in a tag team with the human anchor, Dana Brooke. Dana did what anchors do, and she dragged Mandy further and further down. Just as she was about to drown, Mandy would be rescued with an NXT life preserver. With a new look and a new attitude, Mandy would win the NXT Women’s Title in just her fourth match back for the brand. She took what many initially viewed as a demotion and has made it work well for her.
• Britt Baker: It’s not that Britt Baker was really struggling in 2020. She was just… there. Her only AEW Women’s Title shot of 2020 came on January 1st, and it was a losing effort in a Fatal Four-Way. She won some matches, and she lost some matches. You knew she was going to be big for the company at some point, but you just didn’t know when. She started her 2021 with some momentum, winning a string of matches, but it was a loss that really helped put her on the map. On the St. Patrick’s Day Slam episode of Dynamite, she would lose a Match Of The Year candidate to Thunder Rosa. It was a stiff, violent, bloody Unsanctioned “Lights Out” Match. Even in the loss, she came out of the match looking like a mega star. If you can take momentum from a loss, she did, and she would win the Women’s Title less than three months later. As champion, she has put on a string of good matches and entertaining defenses. She has risen to the point that many feel she’s one of the “pillars” of the company, in or out of storyline. Things just “clicked” for her, from the way AEW booked her to her promos to her facial expressions, and everything in between.

The winner of the #Swag award is… CM Punk! Yes, the other nominees made great strides from 2020 to 2021, but nobody did what Punk did. He’s the only nominee that was completely out of the wrestling business in 2020, and he was able to turn in one of the most memorable returns that the sport has seen in a long, long time. It’s nearly impossible to beat that.

Moving on, it’s time to hand out the next award. #Cryin is given to the year’s best promo, segment or moment. It can be something that happened during a match, but it isn’t for the entire match itself. These are the moments in time that had me talking, for sure. In no particular order, here are the nominees…

• InDex Wedding (NXT, September 14th): It was silly… and stupid… and somehow, it worked. The entire storyline with Indi Hartwell and Dexter Lumis falling in love with each other was something that shouldn’t have worked at all. Kudos to both of them, as well as to Johnny Gargano, Candice LeRae and Austin Theory. Everyone played their roles to perfection. As far as the wedding itself goes, kudos are also deserved for Beth Phoenix, Ikemen Jiro, William Regal, Andre Chase and the rest of the cast and crew. Just good, clean, harmless fun.
• Big E Wins The WWE Title (WWE Raw, September 13th): E has been one of the more popular members of the WWE roster for a long time. After KofiMania saw Kofi Kingston win the WWE Title in 2019, all eyes turned to E, with people saying that he was up next. Money In The Bank 2019? Big E was predicted by a ton of people to win, but he ended up not even being in the match. 2020 Royal Rumble? He was a favorite of early predictors, but he ended up lasting less than a minute in the Rumble before being eliminated. Elimination Chamber 2020? Once again, he was a favorite of early predictors, and while he did compete inside the Chamber that night, it was with Kofi Kingston as they competed for the Smackdown Tag Team Titles. Money In The Bank 2020? Same story… early favorite, but ended up teaming with Kofi to defend the Smackdown Tag Team Titles. 2021 Royal Rumble? As usual, he was an early favorite, and although he had a very respectable 30-minute showing, he was still eliminated. Elimination Chamber 2020? Yet again, he was an early favorite, but he didn’t end up wrestling on the card at all. Then the 2021 edition of Money In The Bank rolled around. E qualified for the Money In The Bank match early, and the speculation and predictions went into high gear. When he pulled that briefcase down to win the match, it was only a matter of time. After getting through a stupid and pointless mini-feud with Baron Corbin over “possession” of the briefcase, E would cash in and finally make everyone that kept calling for him to win “right.” It was a beautiful moment, and was what MITB should be… an opportunity to help create a new main event player.
• CM Punk’s Return To Pro Wrestling (AEW Rampage, August 20th): As the years went on, I grew more and more certain we would never see Punk in a wrestling ring again. He wasn’t getting any younger, and there were chances for it to happen that came and went. Even when the news broke that Punk and AEW had been in talks about possibly having him come in, I didn’t think anything would come of it. Shit, even after it was reported that he was going to show up on Rampage, I, like many others, thought there would be some sort of swerve. MJF coming out to Punk’s music, etc. When Punk walked out on stage on that August night, though, to one of the loudest face pops you’re going to hear, it was something that I won’t forget.
• Bobby Lashley Wins The WWE Title (WWE Raw, March 1st): This is definitely one of the strangest paths to winning a World Title that I can remember. Lashley came into 2021 as a dominant United States Champion, but he would go on to drop the title to Riddle at Elimination Chamber. John Morrison, who was also in the match, got pinned to end it, so many assumed Lashley would be able to pull the “I never got pinned to lose my title” bit and go on to feud with Riddle some more. Instead, Lashley had other things on his mind. At the end of the same show, Lashley would attack Drew McIntyre, who had just successfully defended the WWE Title inside the Elimination Chamber. Lashley’s attack would allow The Miz to cash in his Money In The Bank title shot to become the new champion. The next night, Lashley would demand a title shot against The Miz, saying that Miz “owed” him after what he did to McIntyre. Lashley would be given his WWE Title shot, but on the following episode of Raw. This was, of course, when Miz claimed he was having stomach issues, pushing his title shot back by an hour. Then, Miz thought he pulled one over on everybody by getting himself counted out, only for it to be announced that Miz would be forced to legitimately defend the title in the show’s main event or be stripped of the belt. In the three-minute squash that it should’ve been, Lashley would finally go on to beat Miz and win the title. It was a well-deserved reward for someone who had been on an insane roll for a long time.
• CM Punk & Eddie Kingston Go To War On The Mic (AEW Rampage, November 5th): Everybody knows that the best promos in wrestling are at least partly based on the truth. When a wrestler is really speaking their mind, it shows. It’s the easiest path to connecting with live crowds and viewers. When Eddie Kingston and CM Punk were setting up their match at AEW Full Gear, that’s the type of realism and honesty we got to witness. Kingston would talk about how Punk used to be one of his wrestling heroes, but that Punk would prove to be a “lowlife, scumbag, two-faced narcissistic bitch” by judging him and talking shit about him in the locker room back in their independent days. Punk’s response was that everyone… himself, Bryan Danielson, Homicide, Samoa Joe, and so on… held Kingston to a high standard because of the potential he had, but that Eddie had failed to reach that potential. They would continue taking shots at each other until a headbutt by Punk triggered an all-out brawl that was as intense as it gets. It was a far cry from the usual overly scripted promos that WWE gives us and the usual “two guys randomly cutting promos on each other because there aren’t enough actual feuds” that AEW had given far too often.
• “Hangman” Adam Page Wins The AEW World Title (AEW Full Gear, November 13th): I just mentioned that AEW, far too often, has given us randomly thrown together matches without attaching real feuds to them. This was certainly not one of those instances. The story involving Adam Page and The Elite stretched way back. It was so layered, playing out in multiple avenues, that it seemed like it went back years and years. You just knew “Hangman” was going to be the AEW World Champion. The only question was exactly when it would happen. We got that answer last month. After an incredible back-and-forth contest between Page and Kenny Omega, the title change happened. The crowd at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota went banana pancake. Finally, “their” guy had won. We’ve seen that type of thing time and time again in wrestling, from small independent companies to the biggest promotions on the planet. It works. Fans put their support behind someone, and they patiently (sometimes, not-so-patiently) wait for that someone to reach the top of the mountain.
• John Cena Returns (WWE Money In The Bank, July 18th): I’ve said it before, but I don’t think John Cena is really appreciated until he’s gone for a lengthy period of time. I don’t think he’ll be TRULY appreciated until his career is officially wrapped up and he’s inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame. You can see that by how much of a face reaction he gets when he returns. This was one of those times. We had seen and heard rumors that WWE wanted to see if they could put Roman Reigns vs Cena together at SummerSlam this year, or even at WrestleMania next year. Even with those rumors floating around, it was really shocking to hear Cena’s music hit at the end of Money In The Bank. After Reigns successfully defended his Universal Title against Edge in the show’s main event, he started to cut a promo about how the whole world should acknowledge him, and that’s when Cena made his return. It was Cena’s first time on WWE programming in 15 months, but there he was, and the crowd in Fort Worth, Texas went ballistic. To paraphrase the great philosopher James William Ross, business always picks up when Cena is around, and you just knew it was happening then, even if it would only be temporary.
• Numerous Debuts (AEW All Out, September 5th): When all is said and done, this year’s All Out pay-per-view could go down as the most important show in company history. Two weeks prior, AEW brought CM Punk back to wrestling, and it gave the company a ton of momentum. This was Punk’s return to the ring, but it wasn’t just that. It got started with Minoru Suzuki’s surprise debut to confront Jon Moxley and continue Moxley’s rivalry with the entire New Japan roster. Ruby Riott, now known as Ruby Soho, made her debut in the Casino Battle Royal, going on to win the match and earning herself a future shot at the AEW Women’s Title. Following the show’s main event, Adam Cole made his debut, looking like he might save Christian Cage and Jurassic Express from Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, only to attack Jungle Boy. Was that enough? Apparently not, because mere minutes later, Bryan Danielson made his debut for the company. Danielson came to the ring and it led to a huge kerfuffle between the faces and the heels. Big name after big name showed up to make their AEW debut on the same night. The company really took advantage of the attention they were getting because of Punk’s return.
• Becky Lynch Returns (WWE SummerSlam, August 21st): A surprise that was a surprise, but not a surprise, surprising people that shouldn’t have been surprised, but ended up being surprised. Becky Lynch had been teasing her return to WWE for a while. It seemed like she would post something cryptically before every big WWE event for months. SummerSlam was supposed to see a mega rematch between Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair, but at the last minute, Sasha was pulled from the show due to “unforeseen circumstances.” Rumors of injuries, COVID, contractual disputes and so much more began to float around. Once it was announced Sasha wouldn’t be there, the Becky fans started going nuts. Here we go! This is the perfect chance for her to return! Then Carmella came out, and you could almost feel the air being taken out of Allegiant Stadium. People were upset. They were right in the middle of typing out some angry tweets, but then it happened… Becky Lynch’s music hit, and the pop was insane. “The Man” had come back around. Everybody had worked themselves up into thinking she would appear, and then worked themselves up into thinking she wouldn’t appear, only to have her appear, after all.
• Sasha Banks & Bianca Belair Get Emotional Before The Bell (WWE WrestleMania, April 10th): To say that representation matters would be an understatement of epic proportions. Night one of WrestleMania was main evented by Sasha Banks vs Bianca Belair for the Smackdown Women’s Title. It was the second time (after Ronda Rousey vs Charlotte Flair vs Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 35) women had been the final match on a Mania card, and the first time that the main eventers were both black. Sasha and Bianca clearly understand how important it was that they were in this spot. Before the match had even gotten underway, both women had tears in their eyes as they stood face-to-face and soaked in the crowd reaction and the full weight of what they were accomplishing by even being there. They would look at each other and nod while they tried to catch their breath and gather themselves, as if in agreement that all this was great, but that it was time to get down to business, and then they went out and had one of the better matches of the year. Even if the match would’ve been a complete stinker, the pre-match moment they were able to share would still be special.

The winner is… CM Punk’s Return To Pro Wrestling! I know that there’s a lot of criticism that people have about Punk. Trust me… I get it. I’ve had some things to say about him through the years myself. None of that could take away just how insane this moment truly was. Never say never, but damn, this was something millions of wrestling fans never thought they would see. The fact that it happened somewhere other than WWE only made it crazier.

Time to keep it moving. Let’s hand out the #NobodyCaresB award. This goes out to the storyline/event/general thing that was so bad and so nonsensical that people just wanted it to end. Usually, fans want some sort of finality for storylines, whether it results in a title change, a turn, a decisive victory or what have you. With these nominees, people didn’t care about that whatsoever. Here they are, in no particular order…

• Eva Marie & Doudrop: The only people that give one iota of a fuck about Eva Marie’s wrestling career are those who are related to her, those who think she’s super hot, those who are trolls, and those who are some weird combination of those things. Attaching Piper Niven, one of NXT UK’s top women, to the act did nothing to garner interest, especially once the stupid fucking name of Doudrop was given to Niven (poet and I didn’t even know it). No, it doesn’t matter who chose the name. It’s dumb, no matter who is behind it. Doudrop can actually “go” in the ring, as evidenced by some of the work she’s been able to turn in since the story with Eva Marie was scrapped, but there wasn’t an opportunity for her to do any of that here. I don’t know if the point was to use Eva’s “heat” to get Doudrop over when the newcomer turned on her “mentor” or something, but that wasn’t working. As the name of the award indicates, nobody cared.
• WWE’s Cleopatra Eggs: We’ve seen wrestling matches, segments and shows get sponsored for decades now. They’re usually pretty painless, outside of having to see some awkward backstage segments with strategically placed products facing the camera. WWE doing a promotional tie-in with Netflix’s Red Notice at Survivor Series made sense at face value. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is one of the movie’s stars, and Survivor Series was celebrating the 25th anniversary of his debut for the company. The Rock was hyped and hyped and hyped and hyped and hyped on the show, and leading up to it. He never showed up. There wasn’t even a video package from the guy. No, he was never advertised. I get that. It was still a weird thing to do. The main connection we got from Red Notice was a lame “whodunnit” angle involving a prop from the movie being given to Vince McMahon, and then stolen from right under his nose. A WWE Title shot for Austin Theory was the main thing to come from this. Huh?
• Happy Corbin & Madcap Moss: Heels are supposed to be hated. That’s the point. A heel is designed to make you not like them, and a great heel is designed to make you want to spend your time and money to see them get their comeuppance. There are a million heels who fall into those categories. With Happy Corbin and Madcap Moss, they’re going TOO far into the heel category. People don’t want to see them get their comeuppance, because they don’t want to see them at all. Those two are written to be so mind-blowingly annoying that I can’t watch anything they’re involved in. I’ve said it before, but I literally fast forward or mute everything they participate in. I just can’t deal with all the over-the-top laughter and goofiness. It sucks. A lot.
• QT Marshall: Look, we all know that being friends and family with the right people goes a long way in the wrestling business. Having the right connections can get you a job, a push, a title reign, and so on. Really, it’s like a lot of other jobs out there. QT Marshall is someone that has greatly benefitted from being friends with Cody Rhodes. Along with Ray Lloyd (aka Glacier from WCW), they’re co-owners and coachers at The Nightmare Factory training school. Marshall has parlayed that into being a wrestler and a producer for AEW, even though he has the natural charisma of potato gnocchi. He’s not a bad wrestler or anything. His style just isn’t exciting. I’ve seen guys more excited to have hemorrhoids burst than they are to watch QT Marshall wrestle. There he is, though, wrestling on national television for one of the biggest promotions on the planet. He has 71 matches under his belt for the company, and 23 of them have been on television or pay-per-view. Those 23 matches are 35 too many! He turned heel on Cody Rhodes on television, taking Nightmare Factory wrestlers Anthony Ogogo, Nick Comoroto and Aaron Solow with him and making a heel stable. Did it get them over? No, it actually did the opposite. Those three have combined for a whopping total of four wins on television since the turn. It happened nine months ago! Four wins… half of which were by Ogogo to try and build him for his match against Cody at Double Or Nothing, where he had every single bit of his momentum snuffed out by losing… is sad.
• Karrion Kross: You see it a lot, especially in the world of WWE… the company sees someone as a huge deal, so they decide to push them as such, but the audience disagrees from the beginning and doesn’t buy it at all. Sometimes the audience is right, and sometimes the audience is wrong. The point I’m making is that WWE doesn’t always care. Karrion Kross is an example of that. He had a ton of hype in NXT, where he was pushed as an unstoppable gladiator, but the NXT audience never truly bought into him. The main problem that he had there is that he was a “main roster guy” in the wrong spot. NXT fans were looking forward to guys who wrestled like Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano, Finn Balor, Tommaso Ciampa, Kyle O’Reilly and people like that. Kross had a different, much slower style than those guys did. He never truly fit in on the NXT roster, even though he was pushed to win the NXT Title twice. Okay, fine… he got called to the main roster, where his style was a much better fit. Problem solved, right? Well, when you have certain things about an act that people actually dig, and you screw with them from the start, you’re going to have problems. Kross’ entrance was a large part of his overall presentation in NXT, and he didn’t have that on Raw. Him losing his first match on Raw, albeit to a six-time World Champion in Jeff Hardy, ruined him. Any possible reason for fans to care evaporated right away.
• Hardy Family Office: Matt Hardy is 47 years old. His body causes him to perform like he’s 67 years old. These are facts. He still has a great mind for wrestling, and has a lot he can offer to the business. Unfortunately, none of that is coming in the ring. The Hardy Family Office has a ton of people involved in it, but none of them are getting any real “rub” from being involved with Matt right now. Private Party have been criminally underutilized, as have TH2. The Butcher & The Blade have also gotten lost in the shuffle since aligning with the group. It’s a mess. All three of those tag teams would be better off without the stable. To make it worse for them, what does everyone keep talking about now? Matt reuniting with his brother, now that Jeff is no longer employed by WWE. You can say whatever you want about whether or not AEW should sign Jeff, but do you think having a big name tag team like the Hardyz on the roster does anything for the teams currently in HFO? Nope.
• Shane McMahon Bullying Braun Strowman: First and foremost, people can be bullied for just about any reason. They’re too tall, too short, too fat, too skinny, too smart, too stupid, too this, too that. The list goes on and on. There are a lot of stories you can tell, and tell believably, when it comes to bullying in wrestling. 51-year-old human ball of sweat Shane McMahon bullying the younger, taller, faster, stronger Braun Strowman isn’t one of those stories. From day one, Braun has been presented as a character that would enjoy ripping your head off and using it for softball practice. Then, along comes Shane-O-Mac calling Braun 28 types of moron, and suddenly, the big guy reverts to a manchild, one step short of screaming “STOP MAKING FUN OF ME, POOPIE HEAD” on live television. Why? What fucking purpose did this serve, outside of allowing Shane to have another WrestleMania paycheck? It didn’t benefit Strowman, who repeatedly did look like an idiot for falling for everything Shane said and did for weeks on end. Shane didn’t benefit, outside of the aforementioned WrestleMania paycheck. The fans certainly didn’t benefit.
• Jaxson Ryker: Here’s a guy that fans didn’t care about as a heel. Solo or in a stable, he just wasn’t able to do much of anything. He decided to speak up about politics on Twitter, and it alienated himself from a lot of his coworkers. Whether or not you agree with his political views is irrelevant here, because he has every right to support who he supports, just as much as you or I do, or anyone that sits in the same locker rooms that he does. He was taken off of television for a while, but then had a weird face run after a brief alliance with Elias. When you think about Ryker’s political views, and then remember who is in charge of WWE, it’s honestly a surprise he wasn’t pushed as a face sooner. Either way, nobody cared about his face run, just like nobody cared about his heel run. It has nothing to do with who he voted for, didn’t vote for, or anything along those lines. It’s because he sucks. He sucked as Gunner in TNA, and he sucked as Jaxson Ryker in WWE. There has never been a reason for fans to care about him, heel or face, so… they just didn’t.

Aaaaand the winner is… Happy Corbin & Madcap Moss! I’m 10000% serious… I can’t stand them. Look at someone like Austin Theory for a moment. He’s a heel, and I think he has one of the more punchable looking faces in all of wrestling. It’s satisfying to see him get beat up. That means he’s doing a good job. It’s the reaction he’s supposed to be getting. I don’t want to see Corbin and Moss get beat up, because I don’t want to see them, period. Crank the dial back down a few notches, WWE.

Are you ready for the next award? Let’s get it poppin’. Time for #TheThirst, which is dedicated to the wrestler, personality or general entity that couldn’t help themselves and just had to try and stay relevant. Sure, it might mean they pissed people off, but they didn’t care. In no particular order, here are the nominees…

• Drake Wuertz: I’m not going to get into any political debates, so if you’re looking for one, find another target. All I’ll say is that Drake Wuertz is clearly dealing with some sort of head trauma from all the punishment he put himself through as a wrestler. The man is clearly not fit for anything, but because he lives in Florida, he’ll probably be elected as a State Representative in November 2022. It’s a very Florida thing to do.
• Alberto Del Rio: Del Rio was last employed by WWE in September 2016. In the five-plus years since he last appeared for the company, he has mentioned returning approximately 274 times. He has talked about all the interest that promotions like AEW and Impact have in him, as well. Impact cut ties with him nearly four years ago after he no-showed an event. If there’s so much interest… where the fuck is he? If WWE, Impact, WWE, or any other company wants him so badly, he would be there… but he’s not. Could it be that he’s full of shit? He also seems oddly obsessed with Paige, who he once dated. They broke up four years ago, and yet, here we are, continually seeing him in interviews talking about her. He has repeatedly threatened to “expose” her about things he says happened during their relationship. My question is… why? Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that everything ADR says about Paige is completely true. So what? It was four years ago. Move on. She’s in a new relationship. He’s been in at least one new relationship. Go do something else with your life already.
• Brad Shepard: This fucking loser continues to try to be “edgy” on Twitter, but everyone with half a brain knows that he’s completely worthless, both in and out of the business. He continues to hold crazy levels of jealousy towards anyone who has ever broke any news stories. Time and time and time again, wrestlers from promotions big and small dunk on him for the complete bullshit that he tried to report as fact. It’s hilarious to watch. He has never been relevant, and he never will be, but he’s darn sure going to keep trying. If you’re reading these words and you’re a fan of Brad Shepard, know that I don’t need, nor want, you as a reader and don’t care what you have to say about that. Fuck Brad Shepard.
• Tony Khan: Apparently, he was born to run a wrestling promotion. He has been in the news about six million times in 2021, constantly going over-the-top with his praise for what AEW has done, is doing, will do, and so on. He has caught shit from all sides because of the twisting and turning of narratives he does when it comes to talking about AEW’s ratings, attendance and viewership numbers. The thing is… he’s like those players in sports that get under the skin of their opponents, but are always loved by their teammates. If you’re an AEW fan, you’re ready to run through a brick wall when you hear Tony Khan speak about the company. It’s very similar to Paul Heyman when he was running ECW. Heyman would do the same twisting and turning of the facts to fit his narrative, and he had ECW wrestlers and fans alike ready to juggle samurai swords for him and the brand. Meanwhile, anyone outside of ECW didn’t exactly place Heyman on the same pedestal. Do I think Khan needs to ease up a bit? Yes, I do. Do I think Khan is some terrible asshole for doing what he does? No, I don’t. He is promoting his company, and he is putting them over. It makes sense. He’s still pretty thirsty for that attention, though.
• WWE/NXT Dorks vs AEW Dorks: Hey, back-to-back years for these guys to get nominated in this category. You know the ones. I’ve talked about them in my columns before. If you have “WWE” or “NXT” or “AEW” in your Twitter handle, but you don’t work for said company, I’m talking about you. Same goes for you doofuses that do what you do and then claim it’s all a part of some “heel” persona on the internet. Just like what you like. Ideally, you would like at least some of everything. It’s a lot more fun that way. If you’re an AEW fan, stop getting your panties bunched up your ass when you see someone say Roman Reigns is the best in the business. You WWE fans should lighten the fuck up if someone says Kenny Omega is the best heel going today. Impact fans, all 12 of you should just be happy your show is still around. There isn’t a day that goes by where you don’t find some dumb fuck saying something stupid about the “opposing” company. Maybe it’s because their fathers didn’t love them, so they require the extra attention. Who knows? The best part is that the actual people involved with both promotions are all friends. Do you think Xavier Woods told Adam Cole to choke on a dick when Cole went to AEW? Should we think Ruby Soho wants Liv Morgan to get hit by a bus because she works for the “other” company? Of course not. They’re laughing at you nerds. We all are.

The winner is… Alberto Del Rio! Lying is one thing. Repeatedly lying, for years on end, is one thing. Repeatedly lying, for years on end, with no benefit to yourself? That says everything we need to know about you as a person. I have no idea why the man does what he does.

It’s time for the big awards to be handed out, starting off with #!!!. This is my choice for Match Of The Year. I haven’t watched every match that every promotion has put out, but then again, if you have… get a fucking life. I’ve watched a lot of stuff, though, and these are the matches I feel deserve some special recognition. The nominees, in no particular order, are…

• The Young Bucks vs Lucha Brothers (AEW All Out, September 5th): With these four involved, you know you’re going to get a fast-paced match, full of spot after spot. This match was a lot more than that, though. Both teams stepped their violence games up, including using the steel cage as a weapon. There were tons of double-team moves that you’re only going to see when two pairs of brothers are involved. Take the high-flying action, mix in increased levels of violence, sprinkle a couple dashes of emotion, add a red-hot crowd and finish it off with an amount of time that wasn’t too short or too long… what does that give you? It gives you the best tag team match in pro wrestling for 2021.
• WALTER vs Ilja Dragunov (NXT Takeover 36, August 22nd): Their previous match won my #!!! award for 2020. I said it was like watching someone try to fight the villain in a horror movie. Dragunov gave everything he had, but WALTER kept moving forward and attacking with offense of his own. It was a phenomenal match. This rematch, though, was even better. A red-hot crowd added so much to this, as the last match was done in an empty arena. This match followed the “Shawn Michaels vs Monster” formula that I’ve mentioned a lot in the past. If you go back and watch Michaels face the likes of The Undertaker, Kane, Sid, Diesel, Vader and other wrestlers of that size, one thing he was great at was not wrestling scared. Even as a heel, he wrestled those much larger opponents like a rabid dog, taking the fight to them. Ilja Dragunov has a similar style, especially against WALTER. He’s giving up a lot of size to his opponent, but he keeps taking the fight to WALTER. This was simply 22 minutes of two men beating the shit out of each other.
• Bryan Danielson vs Kenny Omega (AEW Dynamite, September 22nd): Even before rumors came out that Bryan Danielson could be headed to AEW, this was a match that a ton of people were calling for. The last time Danielson and Omega faced each other was 2009, and needless to say, both men are completely different than they were 12 years ago. Once Danielson arrived in AEW, the hype for this was off the charts, and for good reason. These are two of the best technical wrestlers on the planet today, and they went out there with chips on their shoulder to try and prove that. If the match took place on pay-per-view, I think it would be my runaway choice for the best match of the year. Having it take place on AEW television, complete with multiple commercial breaks, evens the playing field out a bit.
• Utami Hayashishita vs Syuri (Stardom Tokyo Dream Cinderella Special Edition, June 12th): For years, Stardom has delivered some of the best women’s action in all of wrestling. Actually, let me be fair and honest… they’ve delivered some of the best action, period, in all of wrestling. If you’ve never seen matches from the promotion, you’re going to be blown away. This match was a 45-minute sprint with ridiculous pacing and hard-hitting offense that will remind you of the glory days of Pro Wrestling NOAH and All Japan Pro Wrestling. Hayashishita looks to be one of the next huge stars in Japan, if she isn’t already. She was only 22 years old when this match took place, but was already smack dab in the middle of an impressive reign as the World Of Stardom Champion, putting her at the top of the company. Please keep your eyes and ears open for her moving ahead.
• Will Ospreay vs Shingo Takagi (NJPW Wrestling Dontaku Day 2, May 4th): To me, the story going into this one was Shingo’s rise to the top of New Japan. He came over from Dragon Gate and had been very successful in all areas of the New Japan card, but this was him getting a chance to compete for the company’s top title. Styles make fights, and this was a prime example of that, with Shingo’s power game competing against Ospreay’s otherworldly speed and athleticism. Could Shingo “hang” in the main event scene? It wouldn’t take long to see that he could. He put quite the beating on Ospreay, while taking one in return. I know that the New Japan “style” isn’t for everyone, but the same can be said about any promotion in the business, big or small. If you’re looking for stiff, brutal wars, this is your jam. Shingo had that chip on his shoulder, trying to prove himself, but you can’t take too much away from Ospreay. Let’s not forget that this was Ospreay’s first IWGP World Heavyweight Title defense after he, too, broke through to the main event after years of spending time in the Junior Heavyweight division.
• Thunder Rosa vs Britt Baker (AEW Dynamite, March 17th): This match came out of nowhere to be one of the best of the year. Thunder Rosa was still a bit of an unknown in AEW, and Britt Baker was someone people knew would be a top player one day, but she just wasn’t there yet. In one night… one match… both women became huge stars for the company. It was a violent, bloody battle that was full of tremendous visuals. Even though she didn’t come out of the match with a win, you just knew Britt Baker was “made” here. Sure enough, she would go on to win the AEW Women’s Title two months later, and she hasn’t looked back since.
• Shingo Takagi vs Jeff Cobb (NJPW Wrestle Kingdom Day 2, January 5th): A battle between my 2020 Shingo Takagi and my 2021 Shingo Takagi. This was, in my opinion, the official coming out party for Cobb in New Japan, as he became a major player after his effort here. The match was everything you should want, and expect, from these two. They’re dropping bombs, pretty much from the opening bell. My favorite part of the match is that Shingo was initially trying to go with his power game, but when he realized he wasn’t going to win that battle against Cobb, he incorporated more of a Dragon Gate-friendly speed game into his offense, while not completely straying from what has worked for him in New Japan. Quite the hoss battle.
• Sasha Banks vs Bianca Belair (WWE WrestleMania 37 Day 1, April 10th): Talk about having a ton of pressure on you. The main event of WrestleMania brings a lot of pressure to begin with. When women get the main event spot at WrestleMania, it brings a different level of pressure. Black women in the main event spot at WrestleMania? Insane. They have an entire section of the fan base who has been pushing for WWE to do more with its black wrestlers, so can you imagine if Sasha and Bianca went out there and stunk the joint up? Luckily, that didn’t happen. From the moment the match began, you could tell it was going to be something special, and the live crowd sensed it, as well. Lots of drama, big spots, and the hardest motherfucking hair whip you’re ever going to witness. Bianca proved that she belonged at the top of the women’s division here.
• Kazuchika Okada vs Jeff Cobb (NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam Day 1, September 4th): You generally know what you’re going to get with New Japan matches, especially with the heavyweights. While this didn’t completely stray from that formula, it was still a noticeably different match. A lot slower, with more deliberate pacing and selling. Obviously, since I have this match listed here, that didn’t bother me much. Cobb had to switch things up a bit, as he was going for his first singles victory over Okada, after losing his previous two attempts. A singles victory over Okada still means a ton in New Japan, whether it’s for a title or not, and it shows in how wrestlers step their games up against him. This was a nice change of pace for New Japan.
• “Hangman” Adam Page vs Bryan Danielson (AEW Dynamite, December 15th): Take what I said about the Danielson/Omega match being on television, and magnify it for a match that went twice as long here. The quality of the match itself is not hurt by commercial breaks, but it sure takes a lot of the viewing experience. Apparently it isn’t a thing when you watch Dynamite on FITE, but the rest of us have to deal with it for the time being. As good as Adam Page is, this was a real test for him and whether or not he could really “go” in a big-time pressure match. It’s not like he has a ton of 60-minute matches in his career, while Danielson wrestled a million of them in his pre-WWE days. Needless to say, he passed whatever test was out there for him. If you’re going to find a “problem” here, it’s that you’ve set the bar insanely high for Page’s title defenses. His first defense is a 60-minute Match Of The Year instant classic? Sheesh.
• Kenny Omega vs “Hangman” Adam Page (AEW Full Gear, November 13th): It was the moment that AEW fans have been looking forward to for a couple years now. The crowning of “their” guy, Adam Page, as AEW World Champion. There have been some bumps in the road along the way, but the journey has been an entertaining one. This match was the drama-filled fight that it needed to be, with an insanely hot crowd that was looking to will “Hangman” to the win. Finding out that Kenny Omega worked the match with a torn labrum, knee issues, an abdominal hernia and bouts of vertigo only make this match more special. There’s no reason he should’ve even been able to wrestle, let alone wrestle at a world class level again. He was dedicated to finishing the story with Page, and he did it, so kudos to him.

The winner is… WALTER vs Ilja Dragunov! My 2020 Match Of The Year, and now, my 2021 Match Of The Year. If they get booked for another match in 2022, the pressure is on, I guess. I just enjoyed the hell out of the physicality here, and I appreciate what these maniacs put their bodies through for our entertainment.

We have come to our final award, folks. It is time to hand out the #Craftmaster award, given to the wrestler of the year. For this, I look at everything, from their in-ring work to titles won/kept to promo work to how big their spotlight was, and every aspect in between. The nominees, once again in no particular order, are…

• Kota Ibushi: He started 2021 by winning the IWGP Heavyweight Title and the IWGP Intercontinental Title at Wrestle Kingdom, and he would go on to unify the titles to create the IWGP World Heavyweight Title. On my own personal grading scale, I have him participating in 14 singles matches that rated at four stars or higher, as well as a tag match that did the same. He was a very important part of New Japan in a very turbulent year for the company, as they had to continue battling issues with COVID, from travel bans to positive tests to lack of fans in attendance.
• Shingo Takagi: Shingo entered 2021 as the NEVER Openweight Champion before losing it and moving on to the main event scene. He would go on to win the IWGP Heavyweight Title, and is now over 200 days deep into his title reign. I have him working 18 singles matches in 2021 that I rated at four stars or higher, to go with two tag matches. If Kota Ibushi was a very important part of helping get New Japan through the year, then Shingo was the MOST important part. Putting in consistently great performances, he was able to be counted on when plans needed to change due to Will Ospreay’s injury.
• Kenny Omega: The “Belt Collector” was doing just that. He came into the year as the AEW World Champion and the AAA Mega Champion, and would go on to win the Impact World Title, giving him three major titles at the same time. It was an incredible run that you, obviously, don’t see often anymore. He wrestled in 12 singles matches that I had rated at four stars or higher, and incredibly, he also wrestled in seven tag matches that rated the same. Just a consistently great year all around.
• Roman Reigns: You already know the most important stat. As of today, Roman has been the Universal Champion for 486 days, beating any and everyone that has been placed in front of him. I have him wrestling in ten singles matches rated at four stars or higher. He has become such an important part of the WWE product, moving closer to a record-breaking title reign and putting in some of the best character work in the business while doing so.
• Utami Hayashishita: I will be completely transparent here. I’ve only seen a handful of her matches in full this year. Sure, I’ve seen highlight packages and things of that nature, but if we’re talking full bell-to-bell matches, I’ve seen four of them. I do feel I’ve seen enough to place her here, though. She came into the year as the World Of Stardom Champion, only losing the title earlier today in a rematch against Syuri. A 409-day reign as champion, a Match Of The Year candidate, and three other matches that rated four stars or higher? That’s a helluva year.
• Bryan Danielson: If you’re strictly looking at titles, Danielson wouldn’t be listed here. He didn’t hold any title during the year, going 0-4-1 in his title matches. What he did do, though, was prove that he is the very best in-ring performer in the business today. He wrestled in 18 singles matches that I have rated at four stars or higher, as well as three tag matches that can say the same. Multiple companies, a wide variety of opponents, main events, opening matches… it didn’t matter where he was, you knew you were getting high quality when he was involved.
• Zack Sabre Jr: With Taichi, ZSJ came into the year as one-half of the IWGP World Tag Team Champions, but they would lose the belts at Wrestle Kingdom to start 2021. They would go on to win the titles two more times, and are the current champions. He had a great year as a singles wrestler, too, participating in ten matches that I rated four stars or higher. Throw in three tag matches with the same ratings and you have someone who New Japan could count on to excel in all areas.
• Jeff Cobb: Like Danielson, Cobb didn’t hold any titles in 2021, but don’t let that distract you from a phenomenal year. As I’ve mentioned several times, he transitioned from more of a midcard guy to being a main event player in New Japan, and did so by putting in tremendous performances at every turn. He has 11 singles and six tag matches that I have rated at four stars or higher. 2021 was a really big year for him, setting up what could/should be a great year in 2022 where he has a chance to become THE guy for New Japan.
• Drew McIntyre: He came into 2021 as the WWE Champion, but that didn’t last long, as he would lose the title at Elimination Chamber in February. From there, he was 0-5 in any sort of title matches. The thing about McIntyre’s year is consistency. Perhaps more than anyone else on the WWE roster, he can be counted on to have a really good match night in and night out. It doesn’t matter who he’s facing, what’s on the line, and what else is going on. He wrestled in 16 matches that I gave four or more stars to this year, and it was against a wildly varying group of opponents.
• Adam Page: He didn’t hold a title in 2021 until he won the AEW World Title on November 13th, but that doesn’t matter. He had ten singles matches that I gave four or more stars to. If Roman Reigns doesn’t have the best character work in wrestling right now, Adam Page probably holds that title. Everything he did worked, and it made sense.

The winner is… Bryan Danielson! I don’t care that he didn’t win any titles. He went out there and delivered every single week. Nothing against the likes of John Silver, Evil Uno, Anthony Bowens and people like that, but they were able to step into the ring with Danielson and come out of it participating in Match Of The Week contenders every single time. Danielson is one of the best runs of his career, and think about the ground that covers.

Well, it was a lengthy journey, but we’ve made it. 2021 was wild, and full of ups and downs, but we’ve made it, and we got to see some pretty kick ass wrestling while we’re at it. Now it’s time to hear from you. I want to know what your winners of these categories would be. As always, hit me up in the comments section below, or on Twitter (@HustleTheSavage), and let me know what’s on your mind.

 

 

Weekly Power Rankings (Due to time constraints, I won’t be giving any thoughts on anything listed here this week.)

• Sammy Guevara vs Cody Rhodes
• Malcolm Bivens Getting To Shine In His Promo Work
• Charlotte Flair vs Toni Storm
• Kyle O’Reilly Debuts
• The Announcement Of Riddle & MSK vs Imperium
• The Street Profits vs The Mysterios
• Sting, CM Punk & Darby Allin vs MJF & FTR
• AJ Styles vs Apollo Crews
• Solo Sikoa vs Santos Escobar
• Ruby Soho vs Nyla Rose

 

 

This Week’s Playlist: “Speechless” by Nas… “Meet Joe Black” by Nas… “Ugly” by Nas… “Wave Gods” by Nas, A$AP Rocky & DJ Premier… “EPMD 2” by Nas, Eminem & EPMD… “Rare” by Nas… “Nobody” by Nas & Ms. Lauryn Hill… “Accident Murderers” by Nas & Rick Ross… “The Don” by Nas… “As We Enter” by Nas & Damian Marley… “Patience” by Nas & Damian Marley… “Hip Hop Is Dead” by Nas & will.i.am… “Black Republican” by Nas & Jay-Z… “Just A Moment” by Nas & Quan… “Bridging The Gap” by Nas & Olu Dara… “Made You Look” by Nas… “I Can” by Nas… “Thugz Mansion (N.Y.)” by Nas, 2Pac & J. Phoenix… “Ether” by Nas… “Rewind” by Nas… “One Mic” by Nas… “Shoot ’em Up” by Nas… “Hate Me Now” by Nas & Diddy… “Nas Is Like” by Nas… “The Message” by Nas… “Street Dreams” by Nas… “Affirmative Action” by Nas, AZ, Foxy Brown & Cormega… “If I Ruled The World (Imagine That)” by Nas & Lauryn Hill… “N.Y. State Of Mind” by Nas… “It Ain’t Hard To Tell” by Nas