Wrestling-Related Awards 2012

[Ronnie]

I wish I could've fit Sid in. I'd spent pretty much the whole three days making jokes about how it was Sid's time to my disinterested missus AND THEN IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED! I lost my shit that night.

 

Along with the three I nominated, there was only 2 or 3 other moments this year which turned me into the 11-year-old mark child that I so dearly want to be when I watch wrestling, so special nominations must go to:

 

Brock Lesnar's return. Even though I knew about it beforehand, it still heightened my anticipation for THAT moment when the music hit. Even as a recap on Superstars, it was brilliant.

 

Brodus' debut, mainly because I was in a pub Friday teatime when the Raw repeat was on and everyone in the pub was glued to the screen in absolute delight at the Funkasaurus.

You may as well replace "getting on Impact for five seconds" with one of the above then, mate, because it's a wasted nomination which won't get through to the vote. The Sid or Lesnar ones should.

[Forrest]

You make a valid point. SID IT IS!

[The Cum Doctor]

Best Moment

Grado "winning" the ICW Title

The big nearfall at Mania's Hell in a Cell

Brock Lesnar returns.

 

Biggest Anticlimax

Aces and Eights.

Pretty much any Rock promo outside of the concert and pre-taped stuff.

 

Funniest Moment

Kane tells us all the woes of his past.

The hand at the big RAW anniversary show.

 

Best Bang for your Buck

Heath Slater

 

Best Non-Wrestler

Not really got one right now actually.

 

GTFO

Chris Jericho

Randy Orton

Davey Richards

[PunkStep]

- Best moment

Brock Lesnar returning on Raw

Brock and Cena's pull-apart brawl the following week

The camera shaking as Ryback clotheslined Punks head off, go home Raw before HITC perhaps?

 

- Biggest anticlimax

Brodus Clay being shit after his act ran it's course

Tensai being even more shit when he returned

Pretty much everything after Extreme Rules

 

- Funniest moment

Anger management skits

Hand Henry (thanks for reminding me, NEWM)

 

- Best bang for your buck

Primo Colon

 

- Best non-wrestler

Paul Heyman

 

- Poster of the year

Brock Lesnar Summerslam poster

TLC Ryback

Wrestlemania Rock VS Cena

 

- GTFO

Zack Ryder

Edited December 11, 2012 by PunkStep

[NEWM]

- Best moment

Sid's Return to Raw

Cena pinning Brock

Ultimate DX on Raw 1000

 

- Biggest anticlimax

Jericho's return

The end of Bully Ray and Sting vs Aces and Eights at Bound For Glory

 

- Funniest moment

Slick at AJ and D-Bry's Wedding

Hand Henry at Raw 1000

Ryback kicking the scooter over

 

- Best bang for your buck *

The Prime Time Players

NXT Redemption era Johnny Curtis

Samoa Joe

 

- Best non-wrestler

Paul Heyman

Hulk Hogan (does he count?)

John Lauranitis

 

- Poster of the year

This is a stupid category designed to bum the AJ/Bryan PPV one. Panderers. She's not reading this you know. Nor is he.

 

- GTFO

Sheamus

Alberto Del Rio

Chris Jericho

[Ronnie]

- Poster of the year

This is a stupid category designed to bum the AJ/Bryan PPV one. Panderers. She's not reading this you know. Nor is he.

No, it was designed to bum this one, which is going on my gym wall in a bit. Shame I'll rarely be in the same room so won't see it.

 

 

Unfortunately it transpires that it was commissioned in 2011 (by Hogan himself) so isn't actually applicable.

 

Anyway, didn't most of you lot love the Sergeant Pepper Attitude DVD cover? I thought it was one of Ian's knock-ups, but there's nothing stopping the rest of you from nominating it.

Edited December 11, 2012 by Ronnie

[NEWM]

Oh yeah, that was a good cover. I'll vote for the Attitude DVD cover. I liked the simplicity of the nWo cover too, that can have one as well. Forgot about DVDs.

[Devon Malcolm]

- Best moment

 

Chris Jericho's silent return

HHH, HBK and Undertaker helping each out of Wrestlemania

Vader returns to Raw

 

- Biggest anticlimax

 

Everything after Jericho's silent return

 

- Funniest moment

 

Chris Jericho's silent return

Brodus Clay's debut

Sheamus meets Beaker

 

- Best bang for your buck *

 

Rosa Mendes

Prime Time Players

 

- Best non-wrestler

 

John Laurinaitis

Paul Heyman

 

- GTFO ***

 

Jack Swagger

Brodus Clay

Edited December 14, 2012 by Gladstone Small

[patiirc]

-Best Moment

Cena getting bloodied within seconds at Extreme Rules

D-Bryan vs Sheamus at WM

Santino in the Smackdown Elimination Chamber

 

- Biggest anticlimax

Jericho's Return

Undertaker/Triple H Feud prior to Mania

Lord Tensai's return

 

- Funniest moment

Heath Slater vs WWE Legends

D Bryan wedding to AJ inc Slick

Kazarian/Daniels

 

- Best bang for your buck *

Heath Slater

Kofi Kingston

Dolph Ziggler

 

 

- Best non-wrestler

John Laurenitiis

Paul Hayman

Slick

 

- Poster of the year **

Wrestlemania

 

- GTFO ***

Alberto Del Rio

Randy Orton

Cody Rhodes

[Arch Stanton]

Best moment

Brock Lesnar returns to WWE

John Cena pins Brock Lesnar / UKFF chatroom loses its shit.

Brodus Clay debuts the Funkasaurus character / UKFF chatroom loses its shit.

 

Biggest anticlimax

Aces & Eights angle

CM Punk defeats Ryback at WWE Hell In A Cell

 

Funniest moment

Brodus Clay debuts the Funkasaurus character

X-Pac pervs over Trish Stratus at Raw 1000

This:

 

Best bang for your buck

Daniel Bryan

Austin Aries

Heath Slater

 

Best non-wrestler

Hulk Hogan

 

Poster of the year

WrestleMania 28

 

GTFO

AJ Lee

Zack Ryder

Vickie Guerrero

Edited December 11, 2012 by Arch Stanton

[niff]

- Best moment : Brock busting Cenas mouth open, Punk's heel turn at the end of Raw 1000, Lawler's return.

- Biggest anticlimax : Jericho, Bryan v Sheamus at Mania, Royal Rumble participants (Cole?!)

- Funniest moment : Drunk Punk, Anger Management with Kane, first Hug it Out.

- Best bang for your buck : Dolph Ziggler, Tyson Kidd, Eve Torres

- Best non-wrestler : Paul Heyman

- Poster of the Year : No Way Out

- GTFO : Vickie Guerrero, Hornswoggle, Tensai

[Up Chuck]

Best moment

- Hallowicked submits Mike Bennett with the Chikara special to win the King of Trios for the Spectral Envoy: The perfectly-pitched finish to my frontrunner for MOTY. I jumped up and down like a child.

 

- Brock Lesnar busts Cena's lip: It was already an epic. This made it white-hot. Like Mayweather on Big Show before him, Lesnar landing a real punch and drawing blood was the massive x factor this one needed, and was the perfect setup for a match that didn't disappoint.

 

- Austin Aires wins the TNA World Championship: Me and former UKFFers Alexander and NBT were round mine to watch the UFC from the night before, and decided to stay up for Destination X on a whim. And man, were we ever glad we did. A fitting peak to a wonderful rise. Aries was the absolute best of TNA for the vast majority of this year, and to see them pull the trigger in front of an unusually rabid Impact Zone crowd and give him the title run he deserved was beautiful. Also, in the grander scheme of things, it was a wonderful antidote to them stalling with Samoa Joe during his initial hot streak a few years back, as well as seeing a guy we'd watched in leisure centres and village halls in Kent main-eventing a PPV in America (it's not quite Daniel Bryan at Wrestlemania, but still).

 

 

Biggest anticlimax

- Devon's unmasking: "This is awkward!" *clap clap clapclapclap*

 

- Brad Maddox costs Ryback the WWE Championship: We knew weeks in advance that whatever they did was going to be disappointing. That doesn't excuse what they did from being disappointing.

 

- The Royal Rumble match: A couple of nice moments, but chronically lacking in star power. Let's hope they bust out Lesnar and Triple H next month, at the very least.

 

 

Funniest moment

- Kane's life story: I must have watched this a hundred times. Funniest thing in forever.

 

- Shawn Michaels & Billy Gunn's fight over whose line it was: So good, I almost didn't mind Shawn Michaels being back on my fucking television, again.

 

- The game of duck-duck-goose during the 8-man tag, Chikara King of Trios night 3:

, but do watch that whole video sometime.

 

 

Best bang for your buck

- Titus O'Neil: Great look, perfectly acceptable in the ring, buckets of charisma, one hundred percent convincing. Darren Young is a fine wingman, but the Big Deal is the best thing in the tag division that isn't Team Hell No.

 

- Dean Ambrose: He hasn't wrestled and has only been around for a few weeks, but man, this guy's selling the whole Shield angle to me. He looks crazed when he jumps on people and his couple of promos so far have been bang on the money. I'm expecting a big 2013.

 

- 3.0: Chikara mainstays Scott Parker and Shane Matthews look, and for the most part wrestle, like your average indy guys. However, they're charismatic, over as fuck and always pull out a fun match wherever they are on the card and whatever they're required to do. Good at serious, good at comedy. Good at meaningless, good at title-chasing. The definition of "solid".

 

 

Best non-wrestler

- Paul Heyman: The only reason anything about CM Punk's heel turn has stayed afloat. Punk himself has lost some major mojo on the mic this year, and having Heyman as a worshipful mouthpiece-cum-evil doings mastermind has done wonders for him. Furthermore, the implied affiliation with Brock made everyone involved feel more big-time by association, and the possibilities for the months leading up to Wrestlemania are intriguing. Heyman's been great for Punk both practically and theoretically. He's a sleazy bastard who delivers his lines well and acts well. It's been great having him back on TV.

 

- Wink Vavasseur: Chikara's diminutive Director of Fun is another guy who, like Heyman, could never be a wrestler, but is just so perfectly suited for an on-screen role. Entirely believable as a smarmy, self-involved boss who just doesn't get the heart and soul of the company. One of his biggest strengths as a character is that he has plausible-but-still-hateable reasons for doing dickish things to the babyfaces (mostly centred around an unexplained mathematical algorithm called "Chikarabametrics"), which is an absolute necessity for a promotion as storyline-driven as Chikara. On top of that (or indeed, perhaps because of that) he has tons of heat. I can't wait to see Eddie Kingston deck him, and I don't even like Eddie Kingston that much.

 

- Ricardo Rodriguez: Another top year as Del Rio's long-suffering underling. Brilliant facial acting, quality bumper when required, and as it happens, pretty great at announcing too. Adds a ton to Del Rio's character, which sorely needs it at times.

 

 

Poster of the year

- Chikara King of Trios artwork, viewable here: Chikara always do some nice stuff with their artwork, and their flagship this year was a fine example of it. It's just so joyful seeing all the wrestlers laid out like that. You can span almost the entire spectrum of the wrestling world looking through that page, and they're all presented as equals. Brings a tear to my eye.

 

- All the stuff on the Comic Wrestling Alliance Facebook page. A variety of stuff for a variety of purpose by a variety of artists, and the one thing they have in common is that they're bloody great.

 

- Wrestlemania XXVIII: It's simple and beautiful, but we all know that, BUT: they're standing in front of the wrong colour thunder. Fucked me right off, that did. I almost considered leaving it off my vote out of principle.

 

 

GTFO

DISCLAIMER: Some of these may not count. I don't care.

- Shawn Michaels: Can't help but be a hammy attention-seeking bellend every time there's a camera in his face. Detracted massively from the build to both Triple H's matches this year. Flair getting straight back into the ring, getting his arse out all round Australia then flapping about in a wheelchair in TNA is still ten times more graceful a retirement than this.

 

- Kaitlin's entrance music: Horrible keyboard mess. Piss off.

 

- The idea of AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels ever wrestling each other again: A million movez, fake illegitimate children, attempted murder by screwdriver, and they end it with one stealing the other's finisher? Not buying it. I know they said it was the last time, but I won't properly relax until one of them dies.

[ShortOrderCook]

Regarding best poster, there was an ROH one that I think I saved but can't seem to find it. It was simply a bunch of animated pictures of members of the roster, looking like it was straight out of a comic book. Made the guys look great and like interesting, larger than life characters i'd be interested in watching and checking out.

 

If anyone knows what one I'm talking about and could stick it in here that would be lovely.

[The Natural]

Biggest anticlimax

- The Royal Rumble match: A couple of nice moments, but chronically lacking in star power. Let's hope they bust out Lesnar and Triple H next month, at the very least.

 

Thanks for mentioning this because I've replaced a Funniest Moment pick with one from that match: Ricardo Rodriguez doing his own impression of Alberto Del Rio in the Royal Rumble match. Like your user name as well.

Edited December 13, 2012 by The Natural

[TheBigBoot]

- 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.

Edited December 17, 2012 by TheBigBoot