TheBigBoot

The Daniel Bryan and Kane skits, particularly all the ones with Dr Shelby. Like Jaffa said they could easily have been standard Raw comedy filler but they made the most out of their time, turned it into some of the best WWE comedy in years and used it to get themselves over/stay over in the process.

"Cena's 'I should say I respect The Rock - I don't'"

I liked that as well. Thought it was interesting that promo led to his "Dwayne Johnson has earned my respect" one the night after WrestleMania. All that "I want The Rock to know that I consider him an inspiration", "he was the better man at WrestleMania" stuff makes me think they will have to do a totally different build up this year.

From the ones I've seen Sheamus vs Show stood out the most and is the one I'm most likely to rewatch in the future. It didn't have the amount hype surrounding it that some of the others did but it stole the show it was on and actually made the title and the feud itself seem bigger than it was built as. I'd call that good work. Like Big Show's matches with Henry a year earlier it felt like a proper heavyweight battle with two big men who can certainly work 'big' but are not afraid to bump and take power moves. Only thing that could have made it better was to have it actually inside Hell in a Cell.

Sheamus.

Enjoyed Ryback from the start and Bryan was great fun throughout but was a heel half the time. I also don't think he was put in position to carry a show the way Sheamus was clearly booked as 'The Man' on the B-Show all year from winning the Rumble onwards and did it all as a face.

Also credit where it's due, Santino has become a really good working babyface over the past couple of years. The closing moments of the Elimination Chamber had me hoping they'd give him a mini-feud over the World title at some point.

Wasn't as keen on Cena and The Rock as in other years but they clearly deserve to be up there and I wouldn't argue with someone who did pick them.

- Best event

1. WWE SummerSlam: Because it probably won't get any other votes. Just a really solid card top-to-bottom. Nothing overly fancy and but the matches and booking were solid. The opener and triple-threat matches were very good, Bryan/Kane was lots of fun and Triple H/Lesnar surpassed my expectations (wasn't expecting those two to gel at all). Everything else was decent-to 'pretty good'.

2. WWE WrestleMania: A card I need to rewatch. It'll get through to the poll stage anyway but I'll try and give it a shot before then. Reading the results it doesn't sound great match-wise on paper but at the time, I really enjoyed it. Wasn't as high on HIAC as some but still enjoyed it, thought Rock/Cena was good and enjoyed 90% of the undercard (Rhodes/Show was a disappointment for me unfortunately) plus it had that 'Big Show' feel to it.

3. Raw (02/04/12): See below.

- Worst event

I'm sure there have been several godawful episodes of RAW this year but I couldn't say which individual ones...

There certainly have been.

WWE Raw: Three Hour Special (23/04/12) - Almost certainly not the "worst" but this (the go-home show before Extreme Rules if that helps) was the show that ruined the momentum Raw was building at the time. After a surprisingly disappointing build to WrestleMania, I thought WWE had redeemed themselves with a strong showing at WrestleMania, one of the most talked about episodes in ages with the next night's Raw, many would argue the week afterwards was even better and even a surprisingly strong show by the standard of UK Raws this was the one where I fully realised the three hour gimmick was going to suck because the angles they had going at the time were as hot as anything they'd had in ages but this show still felt like a chore. It wasn't even that the matches were 'better' in that period than any other time before since it was that for a few weeks there they just seemed to have a 'flow' back to their shows, throw in some great wrestling (Henry/Punk mini-feud) and intense brawling (Cena/Lesnar), Goldust in business attire, some excellent promo work, some cool vidoe modern-looking packages (the ones they used for Lesnar, first shown at the Raw in London), Daniel Bryan being great in reacting to his big WM loss, some surprisingly good commentary and a bit of People Power and Raw seemed 'fresh' for two or three weeks. Funny how quickly they can ruin a good thing.

- Best wrestling TV show

1. WWE SmackDown (thanks mostly to Sheamus. Bryan, Henry, Show, Otunga, Santino, Orton and more recently JBL I just find it easier to pay attention to than Raw for some reason).

2. WWE Saturday Morning Slam (a great concept).

3. WWE Superstars (not quite the level of a couple of years ago perhaps, but still a lot of fun)

Need to find time to start watching Main Event at some point.

- Best promo

1. The Rock's promo the night after WrestleMania promising to be WWE Champion again (02/04/12).

2. Daniel Bryan the same night as the above (02/04/12).

3. Seconding the one where The Big Show reminded Punk it will only take one week for the entire audience to forget he existed (16/07/12).

Honourable Mention: Daniel Bryan rants at The Rock (Raw 1000)

Best DVD/documentary... Watched more wrestling DVDs/online/VHS this year than any other but I've only just realised none of them are from this year. Glad I read this thread because I didn't know the British wrestling documentary had been on yet.

- Best heel

CM Punk

Vickie Guerrero

John Laurinaitis

It's been a bad year for in-ring heels. Ziggler does absolutely nothing effective that's heelish. Bryan was too much fun.

It really has, although I think the problem goes back around fifteen years at this point, but now more than ever there are so few heels whose characters carry across to their matches. Other than Kane, Henry, Big Show, Vickie (in her odd matches) and Barrett it seems noone in WWE really seems to 'work like a heel' in-ring anymore.

Jericho did as well but it seemed awkward and like too much of a rerun because we'd seen it so many times before and because the crowd clearly wanted him as a face. Punk and Bryan both tried but it seemed a bit "knowing" for lack of a better term. There was just something a bit artificial about it. Not as much as AJ Styles in TNA a few years back but it is still there.

Much as I rate Ziggler there is very little in ring that differentiates himself from how he would work as a babyface. Same with Miz, Del Rio, Rhodes, Primo, Epico or Swagger you could turn any of them babyface and they could keep working basically the same match. In the case of Miz they actually did. It was the same with Jackson, Morrison, DiBiase and Kidd before they turned as well. It's not a lack of talent thing - I've enjoyed all those people to varying degrees but it just doesn't seem that heel characters translate over to actual matches as much as they used to. I mean, I think Eve is a good heel character but I've seen her work matches that were pretty much identical to the ones she was having as a face.

In 2012 it seems the only difference between being a face and a heel (other than the odd taunt/gesture) is that as the heel you obviously control more of the flow of the match, but even then we've seen (the babyface versions of) Punk, Orton and Bryan dominate large portions with limb-work not that different to heel Del Rio or heel Ziggler.

- Best moment

1. Undertaker Return/confrontation with Triple H

2. Jerry Lawler's Return

3.Brock Lesnar's Surprise Return the night after WrestleMania

Honourable Mention: Chris Jericho's comeback; The Rock's promo the night after WrestleMania promising to be WWE Champion again

- Biggest anticlimax

1. Punk beating Ryback at HIAC

2. CM Punk's lengthy title reign

3. John Laurinaitis character development. Was really enjoying the character (and even looking forward to his match with Cena) but the payoff to that and later the conclusion in general were disappointing.

- Funniest moment

1.Brodus Clay's debut

2.Reverend Slick returns for Daniel Bryan and AJ's wedding (Raw, #1000)

3.Daniel Bryan and Kane in the skits with Dr Shelby

- Best bang for your buck

1. Tyson Kidd

2. Hunico

3. Dolph Ziggler

WWE has a talented lower card and Kidd and Hunico (before he got hurt) are two of the better guys. Kidd getting the best possible matches out of Sin Cara last year as well as the very good matches with Hunico, Gabriel, McGuilicutty and Bryan deserves credit. If they'd have been around a few years earlier I'm sure they'd have gotten a token run with the Cruiserweight belt or something. Which isn't really much higher than the spot they are in now but it would have likely gotten them a few more B-PPV undercard matches. Ziggler really shouldn't be on there but he is. Hope I'm wrong about that one and he gets the push he's worked for but right now he feels like he belongs.

Honourable Mention: Primo & Epico; Dean Ambrose; William Regal (he's brought loads to the little things he's involved in); Drew McIntyre; Heath Slater; Ted DiBiase (yeah, I'm one of his four fans)

- Best non-wrestler

1. Paul Heyman

2. Dr. Shelby

3. JBL

Honourable Mention: Ricardo Rodriguez; Slick; Vince McMahon

- Poster of the year

1. No Way Out 2012

2. Wrestlemania XXVIII

- GTFO

1. CM Punk as WWE Champion

2. Alberto Del Rio

Noone else (with talent) actually bothers me, not even Shawn (anymore).

EDIT: After watching the last couple of weeks of SmackDown I'm adding

3. Josh Matthews

to the last one. Between claiming Daniel Bryan trains in MMA for "eight to ten hours a day" (on WWE's travel schedule) and that the audience would have to "Google" who Freddie Mercury is after the show, it almost seems like he's deliberately trying to accomplish the impossible and drag JBL down by making the commentary impossible to listen to.

- Wrestler of the year

1. Sheamus

2. The Big Show

3. Daniel Bryan

Like everyone else I can only rate what I've seen (or at least I hope so) so I might as well preface this by saying I haven't seen Extreme Rules and won't before the end of the year since that is the event which seems to be dominating these awards. Watched more Japan than I have since 2008, little bit of lucha and even some indies for the first time in forever but very little stands out.

That said, if Sheamus isn't most consistent guy on TV this year I have no idea who is. The gap between one and the two below is actually pretty big this year.

I'm sure this isn't the first time I've nominated Big Show for one of these but it is well deserved: he had another good one. Consistently good on the stick, in the ring and at getting his character over as both a heel and a babyface.

Bryan is probably the most consistently entertaining guy out of the ring not named

Haven't had time to rewatch but liked all the WWE matches first time around although Undertaker vs Triple H was the least of the four for me.

Not sure about the TNA ones being amongst the six best of 2011.

Watched the Destination X X Division match last night. It's entertaining enough for what it is, features a couple of guys I really rate and is a pretty good example of the style. Call me old fashioned but I still find it hard to compare that with top matches from WWE this past year.

Same with Hogan/Sting which was an incredible performance in terms of working the crowd. In some ways that's the aim of all wrestling - getting people to buy into what you're selling them. I agree it doesn't all have to be about bumping (Edge/Ziggler), big moves (Taker/HHH; X Division match), over finishers (Cena/Punk; Orton/Christian; Taker/HHH), cool reversal spots (Orton/Christian; Edge/Ziggler) or feeling like an 'epic' (Cena/Punk; Taker/HHH) to be a good match. So I can see why people like it but again find it hard to compare to the very best WWE matches.

I just feel the best match of the year should have something more.

Mysterio was more consistent in 2011, IMO.

Ziggler is great but he went through a period where he wasn't really doing anything. I also found some of his early Raw matches versus Kingston, Orton, etc. seemed like a letdown compared to the stuff he was doing against the same opponents last winter.

One of the funniest lines of the year came from William Regal on "Z True Long Island Story".

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzFYuYc59yQ

Yeah, Regal needs a regular gig on Raw/SmackDown. Entertaining as he might be on NXT, youtube shows, etc. his talents are being wasted when he could be used to give us a laugh on the big shows.

Tough one.

I think all the candidates have something to offer. Vickie has had another good year and actually improved her ringside work. I like the way she's constantly doing something outside the ring/reacting to the action in the style of an old school manager depending on whether Ziggler or Swagger is in control of the match or not.

I always thought he had potential as an onscreen character, going back to that first appearance where it seemed he was going to be booked as Vince's new 'stooge', but since becoming a focal point/main character himself Laurinaitis has really grown into the role after a so-so start.

Ricardo Rodriguez is a big part of Del Rio's act and his bumps are cool as well.

Haven't seen much TNA but Karen Angle has been a good character from the start and Bischoff is normally good value his later WWE days excepted, so I can see why the TNA fans love those two.

Booker's a laugh most of the time and I'm in the camp that thinks Cole is a good heel, if a bit too overbearing at times.

Went for Mister Excitement himself. Lets hope he can keep it up through 2012 and doesn't become another one of those good gimmicks they manage to overexpose too quickly.

There's something strange about seeing a discussion on whether UKFF has improved now there is less puro/indie elitism in a thread on Best Off-Topic Poster although I suppose the argument is that said style of elitism also followed over to Off-Topic "back in the day" as well. So maybe it does make sense in the sense of looking down on mainstream music/entertainment/politics/etc.

If that's true then I'd be inclined to agree that it's good people can admit to liking the stuff they like, even if it is popular with the general public. However...

PunkStep - Reading this, I first discovered UKFF around the same time as you did back in Spring 2002 - IIRC after Mo mentioned it in PowerSlam. Although I didn't start reading it regularly until a year later (the week of WrestleMania XIX) and didn't start posting until a few months after that.

It's funny because, not that you are 'wrong' but its just interesting to me, one of the reasons I started posting here was the opposite. That it didn't look like it had that "ROH is the best thing ever" vibe that other forums did.

Or at least what I imagined other forums might look like.

Never was a big forum guy before - always stuck to the news sites - a few years before back when I was at uni the only ones I knew were Wrestling Classics, DVDVR and Kayfabe Memories but didn't really post much/at all at any of them. Oh, and teletext and the comments section on WWF.com as well. No idea what any of those places are like now but they didn't really see that many people who fit that stereotype either. Maybe the truth is the super smarky smark never actually existed?

Who says it's on its arse? Some of the bitter old guard, upset that SiMania & Terje Rindal aren't populating the thread with posts about how superior Puro is?

 

I'm pretty sure Terje's favourite wrestler is Bret Hart, and I don't think Simania has ever made any kind of puro elitist post ever.

It's Randy Savage. Wouldn't normally like to speak on behalf of someone else, especially when said person doesn't seem to post here much/at all anymore but Terje might be the only person I've come across who loves the Macho Man more than I do.

He did make a great case for Bret Hart being the "Best Wrestler of All Time" a few years back which is still one of the better posts I've read. Know he wrote a big defense for Steve Austin in that which someone on here saved (unless it's in Gold?) because I've seen people quote him on it years later and was a fan/defender Kevin Nash as well. That said, I do remember him translating a few things from Japanese (something Carbomb later did).

Despite the face I must have read a bunch of his posts over the years I honestly couldn't tell you anything Simania said about puro. All I remember is that he plays rugby and likes Hardcore Holly and was pimping Bradshaw before it was 'cool'. Or as cool as it can be to support any wrestler.

I'm also surprised anyone hates JLM.

Oh, and I don't think the forum's on it's arse or dying or whatever. People have always said stuff like that and it's always silliness. I just felt those digs at Terje and Simania were very wide of the mark. I think there's too much emphasis on trying to stamp out elitism that doesn't actually exist.

I remember people saying it in 2003, so yeah for something that's "dying" UKFF is doing pretty well for itself.

I voted Gladstone but there are a number of worthy people on here.

 

2011 has probably been my favourite year on the UKFF by far. Both On and Off Topic have had their share of great threads and there are so many good posters that make this place part of my everyday routine.

 

Cheers, Mu'fuckas.

Can't speak about Off-Topic but On has had some good stuff this year, yeah.

This place is cracking, I think the decent posters spilling over from TWCF helped.

Agree with that bit. There were a few times around 2004-05 where it seemed like there were hundreds of people coming over from The Wrestling Channel. As much moaning as there was on here at the time it did give the forum a different 'feel'.

Just loads and loads of new posters, a lot of them from TWC's forum. Some of them stuck around and became some of the more prominent posters on here. Some of them were never heard from again. By 2006 there was a really good mix between them and 'UKFF Originals' from the 97-03 days.

You know Dearly Devoted Dexter? Well when I first came on here, everyone was like that. The feeling was that WWE was bad, Triple H was a massive cunt and RoH was the best thing since a 'Jerry Brisco/Dory Funk classic'.

Re. WWE being 'bad' - The main criticism of WWE I saw on here (at least in 2003-04) was the booking, rather than the quality of talent. I think even back then even the smarkiest of fans would have admitted that they had some quality names on the roster.

Funnily enough, one of the criticisms of ROH I remember from the time was that it was a "fake" version of Old School wrestling. Not saying that applies to current ROH (which I haven't seen) but at the time it was indeed compared to old school territories/World of Sport and that comparison was as often used as a knock on it / that they'd "missed the point" of those things as it was a compliment.

And you shit on people who used to love ROH but then Punk and Danielson are two of the most high profile wrestlers in the World right now and AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Paul London all went on to do really well for themselves in WWE/TNA so surely they must have been decent. I don't like the Indy stuff much myself but ROH was always a cut above.

Christopher Daniels, Brian Kendrick, Evan Bourne and Low-Ki as well. All did or are doing well in the Big Two or the major Japanese companies. Even if I'm not an indie wrestling fan nowadays or wasn't even a fan of the way ROH was booked back when I did watch it, I agree they had some incredible talent over the years.

I agree re. the 'throwaway lines'. Wouldn't say it was a 'bad' year but nothing really stands out. In WWE at least we've had some legit funny but ultimately forgettable one-liners from guys like 'Big Johnny', Big Show, Henry, Miz, Ryder, Truth, Cole, Booker, Sheamus, Triple H, Punk, Cena, Rock, Ziggler, Vince McMahon, even Lawler occasionally - but not much that was memorable.

I blame them not using Regal on the main shows more frequently.

Need to watch more TNA/Indie stuff in 2012 to compare what the comedy standard is like there at the moment.

Even though I didn't nominate him I voted Henry.

Bit of a confusing award since there are two or three ways of looking at it: guys who 'broke out' and became established on the big stage for the first time (Ryder), ones who already had momentum/a good push from the last few years and used 2011 to build on that (Ziggler, Sheamus, Miz - although all of them also had a few very noticeable setbacks); and then people who had been around for a while but were a 'surprise' choice to be given a big push (Henry, Truth) yet ran with the ball.

Henry's been good for years - in a lot of ways I enjoyed his 2008 in a similar role as much as 2011 - and has mainevented before in short feuds but this is the first real chance he's had to prove himself at the top of the card for an extended period.

All credit to those others for making the most of their chances, as well. This may have been the toughest one to pick.

Went for SmackDown as its the best of the ones I watch regularly but I may have swayed towards Superstars if I watched it every week - shame its only got two votes.

Don't get me wrong Vintage is great as well. I just harder time voting for old footage when 2011 was a pretty great year in its own right.

Or at least WWE had a really strong year on TV, in my book. Raw was better than some other recent years but it was very hit and miss and what I saw of Impact seemed even more so.

Torn between Punk and Roode since both seemed like good chances to create new longterm top stars and, for different reasons, both ended up as a colossal letdown.

Didn't have high expectations for most of the others (or think it was going to be Sting) so they didn't disappoint me as much.

Oh, and whilst I'm probably alone on this I actually like the idea of a Wrestlemania Main Event ending in count out. Although its probably best left as an idea. The way it happened made it obvious it wasn't the actual finish and we were going to get a restart.

Easiest one for me since I think Mysterio is by far the best pure babyface going. His run in 2011 really did confirm his place as one of the greatest babyfaces of alltime if there was any doubt left.

Credit to Sheamus, Ryder and Roode as well who in fairness were able to carry it over to promos better than Mysterio does, but I'd still put Rey ahead of them.

I normally like Cena but thought he came across as a bit of a whinger during the summer. Seemed really out of character to how he's normally booked.

Henry.

If I'd seen more TNA Bully Ray might have gotten it. Credit where it is due: Miz and Truth were both good heels in their own ways but I'd rank them below not only Henry but also Wade Barrett and Alberto Del Rio in terms of WWE alone.

Not sold on the others. I like Michael Cole more than some but as good as his heel work was at times he was overexposed.

TNN boss Punk was very good on the stick during the Cena/Orton feuds but the Cult Leader gimmick has been overdone and then he turned tweener then all out babyface with the second Cena feud. Not convinced turning Roode heel was a great idea. We'll see.

Ziggler is good at what he does but I find it distracting when a heel feels the need to have #Heel on the rear of his trunks to identify his role.

1. Edge's Retirement Speech (Raw, 11th April)

2. Michael 'P.S.' Hayes left jab (Superstars, 19th May)

3. Randy Savage tribute video (Raw, 23rd May)

It was all happening this past Spring.

Three definitely isn't enough here. There's loads of worthy nominations for me and that's just from WWE. The in-ring, bell to bell portion of WWEs product has been tremendous this year.

Agreed. In fact you could quite easily argue it was one of the best (right up there with 1992-1997 and the Super Cena Era). Really hard to pick and didn't have time to rewatch (m)any so I just went for the three I enjoyed the most first time round.

My nominations are...

1. Edge vs Rey Mysterio vs The Big Show vs Kane vs Drew McIntyre vs Wade Barrett - SmackDown! Elimination Chamber Match (WWE Elimination Chamber)

2. Randy Orton vs (WWE Smackdown, 6th May)

3. Randy Orton vs Christian (WWE Over The Limit)

Honourable Mentions:

Winter:

The Miz vs John Morrison - Falls Count Anywhere 1st Match of the Year (WWE Raw, 3rd January); Dolph Ziggler vs Cody Rhodes vs Drew McIntyre vs Big Show (WWE SmackDown!, 7th January); Rey Mysterio vs Alberto Del Rio - 2/3 Falls (WWE SmackDown!, 7th January); John Morrison vs Sheamus (Raw, 10th January); John Morrison vs Daniel Bryan (Raw, 17th January); Edge vs Dolph Ziggler (WWE Royal Rumble); Royal Rumble Match (WWE Royal Rumble); R-Truth vs Jerry Lawler vs John Cena vs Randy Orton vs CM Punk vs John Morrison vs Sheamus - Raw Rumble (WWE Raw, 31st January); John Cena, Edge, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, John Morrison, & R-Truth vs CM Punk, Dolph Ziggler, Kane, Drew McIntyre, Wade Barrett, & Sheamus (WWE SmackDown!, 15th February); The Miz vs Jerry Lawler (WWE Elimination Chamber)

Spring:

AJ Styles vs Matt Hardy (TNA Victory Road); Christian vs Alberto Del Rio - Cage Match (WWE SmackDown!, 18th March); Edge vs Alberto Del Rio (WWE WrestleMania); Triple H vs The Undertaker (WWE WrestleMania); AJ Styles v Bully Ray - Last Man Standing (TNA Slammiversary); CM Punk vs Alberto Del Rio vs Rey Mysterio (WWE Raw, 20th June)

Summer:

R-Truth vs Rey Mysterio vs Alberto Del Rio (Raw, 4th July); Daniel Bryan vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Sheamus vs. Sin Cara vs. Kane vs. Wade Barrett vs. Heath Slater vs. Justin Gabriel - SmackDown! Money in the Bank Ladder Match (WWE Money in the Bank); Randy Orton vs Christian (WWE Money in the Bank); CM Punk vs John Cena (WWE Money in the Bank); Rey Mysterio vs John Cena (Raw, 25 July); Mark Henry vs. Sheamus (WWE SummerSlam); Randy Orton v Christian - No Holds Barred (WWE Summerslam); CM Punk vs John Cena (WWE SummerSlam); Randy Orton vs Dolph Ziggler (WWE Raw, 29th August)

Autumn:

Randy Orton vs Mark Henry (WWE Night of Champions); John Cena vs Alberto Del Rio (WWE Night of Champions); Triple H vs CM Punk (WWE Night of Champions); Mark Henry vs The Big Show (WWE Vengeance); John Cena vs Alberto Del Rio - Last Man Standing (WWE Vengeance); Jerry Lawler vs Terry Funk (NEW One Last Time); Randy Orton vs Dolph Ziggler (WWE Raw, 28th November); Mark Henry vs Daniel Bryan - Cage Match (WWE Smackdown! Christmas Special, 29th November)

Christian vs Del Rio- Extreme Rules

Need to see that show still. Have it on DVD and has a couple of matches on it that look great.

WWE has been great all year with the multi-man matches. Also a really strong in-ring year for Edge, Christian, Del Rio, Truth, Lawler, Styles, Orton, Mysterio, Henry, Punk, Morrison, Cena, Big Show and Ziggler.

No real standouts in that the quality of a lot of them was pretty much the same but it is a level of consistency that's likely going to be impossible to beat in 2012. I'm not sure they can.

1. Rey Mysterio

2. Mark Henry

3. Jerry Lawler

Honouable mentions: Christian, Dolph Ziggler, Randy Orton, Bobby Roode

You could make the argument that while Punk was World Champion before, he wasn't a true main eventer until this year.

 

Nah, his breakout was the Hardy fued, without question, and they main evented a couple of PPVs in that time.

I agree. Even though he'd been World Champion before and winning MITB a second time seemed like a big sign that things were going well for him, it was that heel turn and feud with Hardy that really established that he was "here to stay", would be a guy who would hold the title again and again, etc. By the time he beat Hardy in the Cage he was the most hated heel in the company. After that he headlined against Undertaker which was given a lot of time/build-up on TV for both their PPV and big TV matches.

After that he did drop down the card a bit for a while with the R-Truth feud and you could argue that the way Taker beat him so convincingly damaged him a bit. Admittedly it was a bit of a letdown but realistically I don't think he was "buried" because I think once Batista turned heel he was always going to struggle to keep that top heel spot. Those two months or however long it was didn't matter in the long run whether he was in the doghouse or just they didn't have much for him to do for a few months he bounced back strong with the whole SES thing which was given loads of TV time on not only SmackDown! but (unusually for an SD! heel) also Raw and NXT, the feuds with DX and Rey Mysterio and a feature role in the 2010 Rumble and Elimination Chamber all of which made him arguably the top heel on SmackDown! again (technically, in kayfabe terms it was 'supposed' to be Jericho but Punk was a close Number Two). Hard to think of a heel other than Batista (who had moved to Raw) that was pushed harder in that period. Can't remember if the DX feud ever made it to PPV (I'm thinking no) but it was treated as a headline miniseries for Michaels and Triple H post-JeriShow and whilst they were waiting for Michaels/Taker similar to some of Hogan or Bret's feuds and (in stark contrast to how it would have been in those eras) Punk was definitely as the top heel in that stable.

Again he did drop down the card a bit after the Mysterio feud finished but then he finished 2010 with a bang when he got to be a commentator on Raw, had the surprise attack on Cena, took over leadership of the Nexuse to become the top heel on Raw, had several episodes of Raw built around him and his new faction, feuded with Cena and Orton before doing the current 'pipebomb' angle.

He may be a bigger deal with live audiences now than he was when feuding with Cena this time last year although in terms of position on the card it's pretty similar. I'm not 100% convinced beating Miz, Del Rio, Jericho (presuming it happens next year) or Ziggler on PPV is that much different than feuding with Orton, DX, Undertaker or Cena even if you mostly lose to the latter group.

Being the Number 3 Face (behind Cena and Orton) in 2011 isn't really that different from being the Number 2-3 Heel for much of 2009-11. It just seems it because other people have left (Edge, Jericho, Batista, Michaels, Hardy, JBL)/aren't around as much (Triple H, Undertaker, Mysterio) over that period Punk has been at/near the top.

1. The Usos - A 'proper' tag team in an era where that no longer matters. Went from "might have potential" to "boring/look like they'll be Wished Well in the Future Endeavors" to "these guys are getting better" to being a weekly highlight from their debut to now.

2. The Corre (Justin Gabriel & Heath Slater) - Showed some good chemistry last year as Nexus's resident tag team specialists. Improved on that in the Corre. Given that they haven't done much with either since here's hoping they reform in 2012.

3. ZigSwag

WWE SmackDown! 07/01/2011

WWE Royal Rumble

WWE SummerSlam

Cole

Vickie Guerrero

Cena at MITB

 

How sad that 2 of them arent even wrestlers

I don't know about that. Albano/Wizard/Blassie in the WWWF, Memphis-era Jimmy Hart in the early 80s, Gary Hart in World Class, Vince McMahon in the late 90s, Bobby Heenan a bunch of different years - I think there are a load of times you could make a case for a non-wrestler being one of the Top Three heels in the business.

My Nominations:

1. Wade Barrett

2. Alberto Del Rio

3. Mark Henry

Honourable mentions:- Cody Rhodes, Christian

Definitely.