Okay, we promise we’re going to bring some professional decorum to this list of winners. But first, let’s just go ahead and get this out of the way because it’s the big, shiny elephant in the room. You guys…
THANK YOU. This is every bit as cool as it was last year, probably even more so, considering that we were up against UpUpDownDown. We somehow beat Goldust playing Battletoads, that’s going to take forever to sink in. To everyone who voted, thank you so much for the support. This machine doesn’t run without you. Now, on to the more professional part of this post.
In case it isn’t blatantly obvious already, the results for the RSPW Awards covering the best and worst of pro wrestling in 2015 are official. As the oldest fan-voted wrestling awards on the internet, it probably deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the Wrestling Observer’s year-end awards. Here’s what you need to know.
Seth Rollins Wins The Big One
The Architect was unstoppable for the majority of 2015, and deservedly took home the Best Wrestler award. Who knows, if it hadn’t been for that scary knee injury he suffered, he might be cruising towards WrestleMania as the defending champ. Sasha Banks received enough votes for second place, which is probably a high-water mark for a female competitor. Speaking of which…
2015 Was The Year of Bayley and The Boss
It’s almost as if a well-told feud between two great wrestlers with memorable characters is something that resonates with an audience. Crazy, right? Sasha/Bayley ran away with Feud of the Year, Match of the Year, and Angle of the Year honors. Additionally, Sasha won Favorite Wrestler and finished in the top five for not only the aforementioned Best Wrestler category, but also Best Heel, Best Worker, Best Move (Bank Statement) and Best Gimmick. Bayley won the Best Babyface award, while also finishing in the top five for Best Gimmick, Most Improved Wrestler, and Favorite Wrestler.
New. Day Rocks.
Kofi, Xavier, and Big E take home the awards for Tag Team of the Year (viva la Freebird Rule) and Gimmick of the Year. Can we really call it a gimmick at this point, though? They truly are Sarcasm Unicorns, there’s no false pretense there.
All Red Nothing
Not only does Eva Marie repeat her win in the Worst Wrestler category, she also broke The Great Khali’s nine-year streak as Worst Worker and scored top five finishes in Worst Heel, Least Favorite, Worst Move (Sliced Red #2), and Worst Promos. Brian Kendrick can only do so much, okay?
The complete list of winners, both best and worst, is pretty much dominated by WWE personnel. Talent from Lucha Underground and New Japan Pro Wrestling make some appearances, but it’s mostly a case of “Monday Night Raw is bad and NXT is good.” Frankly, the moral of the story here is that Sasha Banks deserves awards. All of them. If we can find a Nobel Prize to nominate her for, we should get on that.
