Wrestling: 2019 End of the Year Awards

2019 has been a great year for professional wrestling. We have seen All Elite Wrestling and NWA enter the landscape. Impact Wrestling found a new home on AXS TV. MLW continued to make wrestling complex. NXT went from being one hour on the Network to being two hours on the USA Network. Smackdown would end up debuting on FOX. Ring of Honor and NJPW held a sold out show at Madison Square Garden.

While there many good things, there were also some bad things that happened. 2019 saw a fair share of wrestlers pass away. Some of them would include “Mean” Gene Okerlund, Pedro Morles, King Kong Bundy, Lionheart, Harley Race, and many others. Jim Cornette ended up resigning from NWA Powerrr after making some non PC comments. While 2019 had it’s up and downs, we still need to present some awards.

These awards are more of if I had the pencil and this is the way I wanted to go.

Male Wrestler of the Year: Chris Jericho of AEW. This one was a no-brainier for several reasons. You have a wrestler in Chris Jericho who continues to reinvent himself. He made his debut on October 2,1990 and is still going strong today. He is the most over wrestler in the industry right now and it’s remarkable. AEW put the belt on him at All Out and it was the right choice. In this title reign, Chris Jericho has put over guys like Jungle Boy, Scorpio Sky, and others who are going to be the future of this industry.

Female Wrestler of the Year: Tessa Blanchard of Impact. She has done it all in Impact. It’s worth noting that Tessa has only been with Impact Wrestling since 2018. In that short time, she has won the Knockouts title, elevated the entire Impact women’s division, began a feud with Sami Callahan. Now she is vying for the Impact Heavyweight title at Impact’s next PPV. She has done more with Impact than anyone expected. 2020 will be a major year for her.

Tag Team/Faction of the Year: Undisputed Era of NXT. Yes I am aware they are a faction, but they fit for this category. Since they came together, they have dominated the NXT landscape. Adam Cole is in the main event scene of NXT. Rodrick Strong has been the NXT North American Champion for some time. Fish and O’Reily have dominated the tag team division. I’m also a believer that with the move to USA Network, the Undisputed Era are being kept in NXT a bit longer.

Promotion of the Year: All Elite Wrestling . This was another no-brainier. They started on New Years Day 2019 and have changed the wrestling world around. They sold out MGM Grands in Las Vegas for Double or Nothing and didn’t have anything before hand. AEW have made stars out of guys like MJF, Darby Allin, Jungle Boy, Marko Stunt, Luchasaurus, Hangman Adam Page, and so on. The women’s division has been great as well with Riho, Britt Baker and others. The AEW Tag team division is the best one around with teams like SCU, The Young Bucks, Best Friends, Pride N Powerful, and others. There seems to be the AEW Effect that has swept the wrestling world.

Match of the Year: Dustin Rhodes vs. Cody Rhodes at Double or Nothing. This one was the toughest because it seemed that every promotion at one point had a MOTY candidate. This match felt very different. Let’s look at the build first. For weeks, we didn’t know who Cody would face at Double or Nothing. Then it was reveled to be Dustin Rhodes, Cody’s older brother. The story that Cody was telling in the lead was this was Dustin’s last ride. Then we get to the match itself.

As someone who was in the venue on that night and I can tell you that the emotion was high for this match. Despite it being a 22 minute match, it didn’t feel that long. But what did it for me was the ending. After Cody defeated Dustin, everyone thought that would be it for him. Then Cody came out and cut the promo of the year. After talking about their next event called Fight for the Fallen, Cody then had the line of the night. He said, “But Dustin, I don’t need a partner. I don’t need a friend. I need my older brother.”

There you go. The first ever end of the year awards for wrestling in 2019. 2020 should be a promising year and Caveman Radio show will be there for it all.