[Nominations] Breakout Star of 2011

[craig3:16]

Akira Tozawa

James Storm

Willie Mack

[gadge]

The two Zacks, Ryder for obvious reasons and Sabre Jr for going to various promotions on a tour in the US and then NOAH in Japan.

 

EDIT: Johnny Gargano is my third choice

Edited December 26, 2011 by gadge

[TheBigBoot]

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.

Edited December 26, 2011 by TheBigBoot