At this point, it’s all but confirmed that AJ Styles is heading to WWE sooner rather than later. And as if he couldn’t possibly handle any more good news, he just landed himself a pair of huge year-end accolades. Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer and the readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter have finalized the winners of the publication’s 2015 awards, and Styles is the man on top, winning both Wrestler of the Year and Most Outstanding Wrestler. I personally think 2014 was the better year for him, but this is far from a bad call. Shout-out to Sasha Banks for landing in eighth place in the Wrestler of the Year voting! The Observer has a ton of categories, so here are a few of the big ones.
– The Wrestling Observer covers both pro wrestling and mixed martial arts, so Irish phenom Conor McGregor ended up taking Best on Interviews and Feud of the Year for his much-hyped (yet short-lived) battle with Jose Aldo.
– The New Day somehow lost Tag Team of the Year, albeit to the very worthy Young Bucks. They did manage to take home Best Gimmick, so Francesca’s death was not entirely in vain.
– Bayley wins the award for Most Improved, making her the first woman to claim that honor.
– Zack Sabre, Jr., Tomohiro Ishii, Ricochet, Kane, and Cesaro all claimed repeat victories in their respective categories: Best Technical Wrestler, Best Brawler, Best Flying Wrestler, Most Overrated, and Most Underrated. Cesaro’s win is actually a three-peat.
– New Japan Pro Wrestling is your Promotion of the Year for the fourth year running, while NXT on the WWE Network three-peats as Best Weekly TV Show.
– Shinsuke Nakamura and Kota Ibushi’s clash at Wrestle Kingdom 9 happened only four days into the year, but that didn’t stop it from setting an impossibly high bar and taking home Match of the Year honors. Sasha Banks versus Bayley from Takeover: Brooklyn secured enough votes for third place in this category, a mark that probably hasn’t gone to women since mid-90’s AJW. Manami Toyota should be very proud.
– Rookie of the Year is Chad Gable, because HECK YEAH HE IS.
– And in two very encouraging first-time wins, Mauro Ranallo is the Best Television Announcer while Dario Cueto takes home the honor for Best Non-Wrestler. If they actually give out trophies for these awards, I want to see Dario’s right next to his lucky bull statue.
What do you think? There are certainly some nitpicks to be made (Roppongi Vice is a WAY better tag team than The Kingdom ever was), but for the most part, these all look pretty solid. Although I’m not sure how 100% of Wrestling Observer readers managed to fall in the shower, bump their heads, and subsequently give Stardust the award for Worst Gimmick. Crazy coincidence, right? I mean, there’s no way that happened on purpose. He looks like Kefka Palazzo and he tried to steal Christmas.
