It has been a rollercoaster year for some - namely CM Punk. While Punk was on course to be the wrestler of the year for a few weeks back in the breezy summer of 2011, or the "summer of Punk", his stock has plummeted since his disastrous face-turn. So, with Punk out of the way (lets just say he was 11 for the sake of it) - just who will be named the wrestler of the year for 2011? Let the countdown commence..
10. StingSting over CM Punk, you ask already.. Sure - why not? Sting main evented a plentitude of PPVs this year, and though many of those matches stunk, it was his presence as the Insane Icon on Impact that helps him land at number 10 in the Superstar Of The Year Award. Though the critics panned the idea of a Sting-Hogan match from the moment it was implied back at Lockdown, the two veterans put on their boots and showed the rest of the TNA locker room how to work a match. X Division take note - slow down, tell a story. The crowd ate out of Hogan and Sting's collective hand that night at Bound For Glory as the culmination of an almost two year long angle came to a glorious end. Of course, Hulk was the biggest part of this spectacle, but Sting was the guy who was getting the best out of him week in and week out on Impact. The Dark Knight Joker rip-off gimmick, mixed with a random, camp accent was gold and one of the reasons to watch Impact over the last year. His rumoured match with The Undertaker at the beginning of the year also proved how much of a presence Sting still has in the wrestling industry, in a year where young stars are beginning to make a name for themselves..
9. Dolph Ziggler..such as Dolph Ziggler. Dolph started the year feuding with Edge for the World Heavyweight Title and ended it feuding with CM Punk for the WWE title. Despite this, you could hardly look back at 2011 as a time Dolph Ziggler got a main event push. He barely had any notable feuds on TV and his only in-depth storyline played out on Zack Ryder's Youtube show. But it was on this Youtube show, and on Twitter, where Ziggler finally found the panache he had been missing to turn him from just a great worker to a great wrestler. Regularly he outshone Ryder on his own show, with his unique promo style and assortment of smark-baiting catchphrases, #HEEL and "later... marks". And if Ziggler was a good worker at the start of the year, he had become one of the best by the end of the year, with many arguing that he is the best on the current WWE roster. Look for 2012 to be a big year for the #HEEL.
8. Kurt AngleWhen Kurt Angle says he is the best wrestler in the world right now, it's pretty much an accurate statement. There is nobody better in the ring than Kurt right now, but Randy Orton could make a claim to that in a year or two if he keeps progressing. One of the funnier feuds of the year was Orton vs. Angle, starting with Orton stealing Angle's Olympic Slam move as one of his signatures. After Angle went on a drunken rant on Twitter about the lack of respect Orton shown and then blamed it on a hacker, or his dog or something, he went and scored even - so he thought - by RKO'ing Jeff Jarrett in one of their great matches. And how great those matches were, as Angle and Jarrett became THE feud of 2011 in TNA. A feud that deep rooted in personal issues that dated back years and spread out over half a year, every match of theirs, every promo, regularly stole the show..
7. Jeff Jarrett..but Jeff Jarrett just tips Angle in this countdown. He came into the year strong on the back of his Double J Double M A gimmick, reintroducing the great Karen Jarrett who became one of the promo masters of the year. But Jeff's promos were sublime too - regularly funny, if not hilarious, but when he needed to go serious he did so. Everything about Jarrett and Angle just clicked - their wrestling skills, their promo styles, their size and weight and their whole history together. Jarrett's vignettes at home as "Big Daddy" were gold, and surely a Youtube favourite for many years to come. They also fought one of the best matches of the year, at Lockdown in the "Ultra Male Rules" match, which Jarrett won in his typically cowardly heel fashion. Though many smarks had been calling for Jarrett to step down in recent years and give the young guys a chance, Double J went and proved himself to still be one of the best wrestlers in the business today.
6. ChristianChristian was one of the most successful heels in 2011, most notably for his extended feud with Randy Orton. But let us not forget how joyous the moment of his first title win was at Extreme Rules, defeating Alberto Del Rio in an excellent ladder match. That all came crashing down two days later, as Orton went over Christian for the gold on Smackdown - to the outrage of thousands of fans who went to Twitter in protest. But how short-sighted and stupid they were, as Christian went on to become one of the best heels of 2011. He evolved first into a character you actually wanted to see get the shit kicked out of by Randy Orton because of his genuinely annoying demeanor. They went on to have some of the best matches of the year and regularly stole the card together, turning mediocre PPVs into good ones. Then Christian became one of the funnier heels on the roster, starring in such classic segments as "Randy! Riley! Jimmy!!!" and frequently begging for "one more match". Sadly getting injured at the end of the year, he still managed to milk that for all it was worth, sporting a comical neckbrace after suffering a "devastating" choke slam from the Big Show. It remains to be seen if Christian can capitalise on his new found character and take it into the next year.
5. Bully RayIt would seem bizzarre this time last year to say that Bully Ray would be one of the top 5 wrestlers of the year - and the best in TNA - but that is how far the former Team 3D star has come since his split with D-Von. Not only has he got in the best shape of his life, not only is he cutting the best promos of his life, but he is working some of the best matches of his life since his TLC days in the WWE. Great matches such as his Last Man Standing match with AJ Styles, or his hardcore bout with Mr. Anderson. True, his better matches have come in the form of gimmick matches - but he is still one of the best right now when it comes to telling a story in the ring. Which has been one of his greatest successes this year and has set him apart from his former tag team partner D-Von. His promo work deserves an article all of its own though, how good it has been. So good, in fact, he managed to turn the Philadelphia crowd against him with a masterful heel promo at Bound For Glory - essentially his homecoming crowd from his ECW days. He rose up through the ranks and became the mouthpiece for Immortal, directing the likes of Jarrett, Steiner and others. He even helped get over the unconvincing Robert Roode at the end of the year, losing to him in the finals of the BFG series as well as becoming his mouthpiece during his dodgy title run. He goes into 2012 as one of TNA's golden assets, with rumoured WWE interest - so strong has his singles rise been in the last year.
4. Mark HenryJust like it would seem bizarre to cite Bully Ray as one of the top 5 wrestlers of the year this time last year, that would be the case even more so when it came to Mark Henry. Floundering around the mid-card in his big red kool-aid suit, Mark Henry was surely on the brink of being future endeavored. Boring matches, no promo style to speak of and out of shape, Henry was 10 years past his prime. But somebody saw something in Mark Henry and drafting him to Smackdown and turning him heel, he became one of the best draws of the year for WWE. It is undeniable that the Smackdown ratings went up as Henry became the World Champ, in what was probably the best title run of the year. Henry's in-ring work became good and he even had exciting matches with Big Show, in what could have easily been thought of as a nightmare feud before we got to see it in action. Of course, Big Show deserves credit for his role and is also one of the more improved wrestlers of the year - but the fact Mark Henry came from nothing all the way to the top is the real success story. His ad-libs during his entrance and his matches were the icing on the cake, as was his Hall of Pain. Anyone else that would have sounded cheesy as hell, but for Henry it worked. Watching Henry shatter the ankle of wrestler after wrestler was amazing, and taking out random members of WWE staff was also hilarious - such as throwing the sound guy over his desk, or laying out a cameraman with a chair. Hopefully now Henry will go on to have one of the big matches at WrestleMania, perhaps a final match with Big Show to end the feud once and for all - he deserves it.
3. Cody RhodesMaybe not one year ago, but if you told me two years ago that Cody Rhodes would be were he is at now, again I would have laughed. I remember when Cody first came to the WWE, getting slapped by Randy Orton on Raw, wearing yellow trunks. His generic rock music entrance and tagging with Hardcore Holly - I thought, this kid sucks and the only reason he's got a job is because he's the son of Dusty Rhodes. How wrong I was though, as Cody has gone on to become a legit main eventer. I've talked about how well his character development has been already in prior award articles, from "Dashing" to "Undashing" to his current borderline-psycho thing he's got going on now. His in-ring work has blossomed too, and his Beautiful Disaster kick/knee move is one of my favourites in wrestling right now. His feud with Rey Mysterio held some of the better matches of the year, including one of the top 2 or 3 matches at WrestleMania and a brilliant falls count anywhere bout with Rey Mysterio at Extreme Rules. Rhodes is in the process of bringing prestige back to the Intercontinental title, and after he is done with that he is bound to be ready for a main event push for the World Heavyweight title or the WWE title. A feud with Randy Orton over either belt would be great...
2. Randy Orton..because despite the fact it has been a relatively quiet year for the Apex Predator, Orton has cemented himself as perhaps the best worker in the world right now. Even Bret Hart - a man all about the wrestling - came out to say Orton was the best in the business at the moment. And he proved it time after time, putting on fantastic matches with seemingly everyone on the Smackdown roster - Christian, Cody Rhodes, Sheamus, Mark Henry and even one of the TV matches of the year with Kane in a long Smackdown main event. He may not have the charisma or the energy that he did during his main event heel run on Raw a few years ago, but his reserved and cold style is a refreshing change to all the tag-hands smiling happy-go-lucky babyfaces in the WWE. Of course, the smarks turned on him - especially during his feud with Christian - but regularly the boos in those matches turned to cheers as he regularly kept on working the best matches on the card, and so no "Lets go Randy, Randy sucks" chants broke out...
...which was really the story of the year for the undisputed wrestler of the year, John Cena. Since The Rock returned in February and buried Cena in his comeback promo, the boos that were once eminating from 25-35% of the crowd became more in the region of 50-80% and occasionally 100% as we saw in Chicago at Money In The Bank. Despite being the ultimate babyface in wrestling, Cena was getting the most heel heat in the business - an amount of heat even Michael Cole would be proud of. But still, he was getting bigger babyface pops than anyone else too. I attended a Raw TV taping this year and despite the fact half the crowd was wearing CM Punk shirts, everyone had come to chant "Lets go Cena, Cena sucks" before the show had even started, and long on into the night.
This whole reaction from the crowd from the moment Rock buried Cena was the catalyst for the paradigm shift we see in the WWE today. The rise of CM Punk would not have come about if not for Cena to be the guy for him to play off, and how little credit does Cena get when it comes to talking about that feud. His in-ring work has been brilliant and despite chants of "you can't wrestle" on the night of Money in the Bank, Cena and Punk together put on a clinic in what was the undisputed match of the year. And how many other great matches there were too - Cena-Punk II at Summerslam, Cena-Mysterio for the WWE title on Raw and Cena-Miz for the WWE title on Raw. But admittedly, Cena's PPV matches with Miz were all terrible. His WrestleMania match was poorly booked and overshadowed by The Rock's presence, the I Quit match with The Miz was overshadowed by the fact that Cena is never going to say "I Quit", especially on a secondary PPV, and the triple threat cage match with Miz and Morrison was overshadowed by Bin Laden being captured and killed halfway through the event, taking the world's attention away from the match. But Miz and Cena had their final great title match at last on Raw - one that does not get any of the credit it deserves.
Which is the main problem with Cena - he gets no credit for how good he is in the ring, how good his promo work is and just how important he is to wrestling as a whole. Sure, he isn't perfect and sometimes his promo work sucks, his matches are not at the level of Orton's - but the problem is people want to hate him now. People are sick of SuperCena and The Rock's promos only emphasised that. But don't forget this is Vince Mcmahon's TV show and it is all by design - he wouldn't let The Rock say half the things he did if he didn't have an agenda, and what we have seen throughout the year has all been part of the Cena agenda. The feud with Rock, the feud with Punk and now the feud with Kane - all have been a long story arc with the ultimate goal of who knows what, but there are subtle hints as to what is to come. Ultimately, we are expecting a Cena heel turn, and all the clues are there - and that is one of the best things about wrestling. Like Jericho's recent return, we were still all guessing who it could be until the last minute and we are still guessing what his motives are - even if he is heel or face. That is the success of the angle, and it will be the success of this whole Cena angle when it is all played out.
The fact Cena is wrestler of the year, is because everything the WWE has done this year has revolved around Cena, even if he wasn't in the picture. Even though it looked like the "Summer of Punk" and many people would say he was the star of the year, that whole angle came back to the ultimate nexus of the WWE, John Cena. With Cena vs. Rock undoubtedly set to be the biggest match in wrestling since, perhaps, Hogan vs. Andre, this year had to be about John Cena - and it was. He is the wrestler of the year.
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