ProWresBlog 2013 Awards

ProWresBlog 2013 Awards

This won't be as lengthy as years past.

Wrestler of the Year(based on wrestling only) - Antonio Cesaro
I think it is really hard to give it to anyone but Cesaro. Cesaro was indeed the Swiss Superman in 2013. He carried Khali and Kane, he had a great series with Sami Zayn and Kofi and he even made Jack Swagger relevant. He excelled in every possible way and was in his own league on consistent quality. No one was better than him week to week, though Daniel Bryan was close for a while.

Match of the Year - Katsuyori Shibata vs Tomohiro Ishii NJPW G1 Climax 8/4/2013
This match is the Frye/Takayama of our generation and was a classic. It was heated, stiff, aggressive and short. This was a total shoot out and they put it all on the line. I was amazed at this match and my jaw dropped. This was something special and I don't think we will see something like this for a long time.

Feud of the Year - Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada
This was easily the feud of the year. Every match of theirs was good and they are the best rivals going today. These two will only get better together and every match of there's is always going to be must see.

Tag Team of the Year - The Shield
The Shield won this award handily and I don't think there is any other way you can argue it. The Shield became the best thing in the WWE and made so many shows. They've produced so many great tags and been in many memorable matches. I know it's kind of not fair as there are three people in their team but there is no one else in their league.

Most Improved - Roman Reigns
Things are looking good for Roman Reigns. He went from a prospect in NXT with great mic skills and awful wrestling ability to finding out his strengths and becoming an up and coming star. 2014 is slated to be his year and he has grown leaps and bounds. A main event title run could even be in his future. Hopefully he will improve even more.

Best on Interviews - Paul Heyman
I thought this was another easy win for Paul. Paul remains the best manager in the world and one of the best on the mic. Week in and week out he produced some great things and really is just perfect in his role.

Best Technical Wrestler - Antonio Cesaro
This one was between Cesaro and Daniel Bryan. Cesaro took this one mostly due to having a strong year all year while DB's year had a big peak and a big valley. I thought Cesaro worked smarter and safer and had more technically sound matches to get this award.

Most Overrated - Randy Orton
Sorry, but Orton blew it this year. He had some good stuff with DB and RVD in the first half but he blew everything in the second half of the year. He was involved in lackluster main events and really didn't show any improvements from the last time he was WWE's champ.

Most Underrated - Antonio Cesaro
Again, another Cesaro award. He barely makes TV or gets in relevant storylines but yet he is the best worker in the world. Due to having the majority of his good stuff on B shows, few people have seen how good he actually was this year.

Promotion of the Year - NJPW
NJPW had a very nice year. The G1 was a legendary tournament that produced my Match of the Year plus some great PPV's and a classic dome show. For top quality level matches, it doesn't get any better than NJPW.

Best Weekly Television Show - WWE NXT
I really love WWE's NXT. The fans are great, the characters are great and they have produced some very good matches this year. This show has everything you could want and I wish the rest of WWE was as good as this.

Rookie of the Year - Summer Rae
I didn't see as many rookies as I wanted to but Summer Rae is the complete package. Decent in the ring, great as a character and good on promo's. I'm not sure how much she will be able to do going forward but I think she gets it and I hope she gets the chance to show her stuff.

Manager of the Year - Paul Heyman
This is Paul's 2nd straight Manager of the Year award and if he is on television in 2014, I think he will have a 3rd easily. There's no one better than Heyman.

Best Television Announcer - William Regal
Regal is great. He provides the veteran presence, has an amazing knowledge of moves and really adds to NXT. While most announcers are horrible, he gets better and better.

Worst Television Announcer - Tie - The Raw Announce Team
The trio of Michael Cole, JBL and Jerry Lawler are pretty awful. Cole is the most generic WWE product ever, JBL is an insecure bully who used to be good and Lawler, well, if he is paying attention it's a step in the right direction. This trio needs blown up and needs a reality check.

Best Major Show - G1 Climax Day 4
This show produced two great matches with Nakamura/Ibushi and Shibata/Ishii. Both have been nominated for MOTY awards and they topped off a very good show. This show was excellent and only the Dome could compare.

Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic - WWE's misuse of Daniel Bryan
I feel so bad for DB. He had the best matches of his career and got jobbed out so WWE could confirm, that yes, he is too small to be a star. WWE screwed his career and just turned him heel, which guarantees he will never be over like he was before. I thought we had seen the new face of the WWE but WWE doesn't like new, they like Cena or Orton.

Worst TV Show - ROH TV
In light of the recent allegations by Jim Cornette, it is easy to see why this show is so bad. There's no direction, no characters and it feels like a giant collection of matches. Shows are advertised after they happen, matches are re-shown from PPV's  and they do nothing to hype future matches. This is bizarro world NXT.

Worst Match of the Year - Jun Kasai vs MASADA
This match was bad, heatless and people got hurt during it. There may have been worse matches but those people didn't get messed up during it.

Worst Feud of the Year - The Authority vs WWE faces
This was an awful storyline that killed my interest in the WWE and destroyed DB. It gave use more Triple H and more Randy Orton who are both people I could go without seeing again. This storyline just confirmed what the WWE really is like in the back and I'm still waiting for that great payoff.

Worst Promotion of the Year - TNA
ROH was pretty bad but TNA had more money, better TV and their choice of wrestlers but still had a bad year. Then, they got cheap and ran endlessly with Ace's. They had a nice run for a month or two but that was it.

Best Booker - The NXT writing crew
NXT is a great show and the minds behind it did a great job this year.

Best Gimmick - Emma
Emma made wrestling fun and did a great job of going from a nobody to a superstar. She's fun to watch, fun to dance with and just hit a big home run.

Worst Gimmick - The Authority
See my Worst Feud of the Year

Best Face - Daniel Bryan
DB was the most over face in 2013 with huge babyface heat behind him. He was rewarded by jobbing to Randy Orton and getting embarrassed by Triple H. DB had a great run though up until that point and even beat out Cena on reactions.

Worst Wrestler - The Great Khali
As usual, it came down to Khali and Brodus Clay and Khali won. Some of it is Khali's fault and some of it is just his body's fault. Khali still doesn't understand the basic concepts of wrestling and with his size, injuries and clumsiness, his body does him no favors.  Look for Khali to go for 3 in a row in 2014.