Welcome To The First Brass Ring Post Awards For WWE!!

 

2020 was perhaps the strangest year of professional wrestling ever. The pandemic ushered in a new era of shows without crowds, WWE finally had actual competition to go up against & test their limits to put out a good product, & cinematic matches became all the rage or to very much rage against. We decided to sift through all of WWE from this past year (jealous?) & come up with what we determined to be the best of the best. And don’t worry. Because WWE gave us plenty to work with, we are absolutely awarding the worst of the worst as well.

Be sure to check out The AEW 2020 Awards once you’re done here & be on the lookout for our awards for the indie scene as well coming soon.

 

A Few Notes Before We Get Started

 

How Did We Pick The Winners?

AddMayne, HGR & myself all voted for our top three in each category. Anything receiving two first place votes automatically won. From there on, anything with a first place vote that also got second or third place elsewhere was tallied accordingly until we arrived at our winners.

We’ll be sure to point our individual picks for each winner & mention why we thought they deserved the number one spot. We’ll throw in a few honorable mentions for good measure as well.

What’s Up With Your Categories?

Unlike other promotions, WWE has A LOT going on. Between three prime time shows, pay per views & network exclusives, we had literally weeks worth of content to sift through. We expanded our categories just a bit to accommodate that. Everything from RAW, SmackDown, NXT, 205 Live (LOL), NXT UK & all pay per views were up for consideration.

We’ll get in depth more as to what each category is about as we go, but we figured these ten awards best suited how WWE presented itself this year. We did decide to omit Tag Team & Faction Of The Year like The AEW Awards did frankly because, well, nobody deserved it. Spend more time in 2021 making tag wrestling awesome again & not breaking up dozens of teams instead, WWE.

 

With all that said, let’s get to The Winners already!!

 

 

Breakout Star

Some wrestlers make an impact right away on the big stage, while there are those that can take a few years to find their footing. Others are just the Jaxson Rykers of the world & we’re not sure why WWE keeps wasting our time. This award is not necessarily The Rookie Of The Year, but anyone within WWE who was given the spotlight for the first time & took full advantage of that opportunity.

Honorable Mentions

 

• Otis – The big fella had a solid year highlighted by dating Mandy Rose & winning Money In The Bank. Unfortunately, The Miz ruined both of those things & the tail end of Otis’ year fizzled out hard.
• Sonya Deville – Sonya really broke out during The Fire & Desire split this summer, looking like she’d become a main event player until unseemly events took place outside of the ring caused her to take a brief hiatus. Hopefully in 2021 she can continue the momentum she started months ago.
• Jey Uso – The Jey Uso singles push came from left field but worked incredibly well. The only knock against him is it came a little late in the year & he’s kind of been relegated to henchman status, but if we can get more of the guy who feuded with Roman for a couple months, we’d all very much be into it.
• Pat McAfee – If you thought McAfee was going to show up & make an impact like he did, you’re a lying liar. From his first promo, Pat became the best person on the mic in NXT hands down. Combine that with his absurdly impressive debut match against Adam Cole & he looks like he’ll be main event material in no time.
• Dexter Lumis – The Silent Psycho came into full form this year & had several solid matches under his belt. Not quit the spotlight yet though as far as NXT’s concerned, but we’re assuming he’ll get there sooner than later.

Winner

Cameron Grimes is proof positive that sometimes wrestlers don’t need a complete overall when they’re not doing well with fans & just a minor tweak will do to get them over. Grimes’ debut was essentially “Mean Guy from The South who also wears a hat” & was boring as all hell. A quick redirect into comedic territory with his lunar obsession & a few backstage promos with “Muh-kin-zee Mitchell” & here we are. Even with the dip into comedy, Grimes still had solid match after solid match against a lot of NXT’s heavy hitters this year & should be a fixture on The Yellow Brand heading into 2021.

 

Birdman’s Pick: There’s only one place to send this award & that’s TOOOOO DAAAA MOOOOOOOON. I liked everything I saw this year from Jey, Sonya & McAfee but there wasn’t enough of it to justify giving them the nod. Otis was close as he got a major spotlight with the Mandy storyline & winning Money in The Bank, but the way they ended both for him left a sour taste in my mouth. That left everybody’s favorite aspiring astronaut in Cameron Grimes. The slight pivot from serious midcard heel to silly yokel significantly turned the whole gimmick around & endeared him to the fans almost immediately. The Haunted House Match was one of the most fun of the year & that was 100% due to Grimes.

HGR’s Pick: With all due respect to all nominees, there were really only two choices for me, both from NXT. Surprise, surprise, Main Roster WWE and Breakout star don’t go together very well. In the end it came down to not only the great character work but also the in-ring talent that Cameron Grimes gave us last year. Personally seeing Pat McAfee come through with the amazing performance he did in the ring and the amazing work he does on the mic wasn’t that big of a surprise to me. He’s an athlete and has a great personality after all. The formation of his Brand on NXT was a great moment for the year, but I have to give the overall award to Grimes who basically carried his feud with Dexter Lumis (no offense to the silent murderer) on top of his amazing interactions with William Regal.

AddMayne’s Pick: Now you guys know I have all the love in the world for Cameron Grimes, along with my fellow writers above. But Main Event Jey Uso really shocked every fan this year. The Usos have long been established as a solid tag team act and without question one of the best tag teams of their generation. When Jimmy Uso got sidelined with an injury earlier in 2020, instead of the usual thing that happens in WWE where one member of a team gets put out of action, the other basically gets left off of TV (or in recent years, winds up chasing R-Truth for the 24/7 Championship), the folks running SmackDown strapped the… rocket (sorry Grimey) to Jey’s back and he did not let them down. He was able to shine in singles matches time and time again, culminating with his heart-wrenching performances against his newly sociopathic cousin Roman Reigns. I don’t know what the future holds for Main Event Uso, but it looks to be bright.

 

Rivalry Of The Year

It’s the feuds that make wrestling compelling. WWE had dozens throughout this past year & some were fantastic while others not so much (*Side eyes Rollins & Mysterio with one eye dangling from head*). This award went to the one that had us invested the most during its entire run & left us wanting to see the big payoff in the ring.

Honorable Mentions

 

• Roman Reigns & Kevin Owens – While still ongoing, Reigns & Owens gets praise simply for giving KO an edge again after most of his year was completely forgettable. That also works against it however as the year ended with them still at each other’s throats.
• Randy Orton & Edge – Edge hit the ground running after his shocking Rumble return & began feuding with Orton. Their 2020 rivalry did well referencing history & led to “The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever” nearly living up to the hype. Sadly, an injury to Edge cut this short just when it looked like it was kicking into high gear.
• Adam Cole & Pat McAfee – What everybody assumed would be a joke feud with Cole destroying Pat turned into possibly NXT’s most memorable rivalry of the year. McAfee shocked Cole’s system & showed never to underestimate a podcaster who’s willing to fight.
• Roman Reigns & Jey Uso – A feud nobody saw coming once Reigns returned, Jey Uso came out white hot going up against his cousin & put on two extremely great matches. Jey ultimately ended up siding with Roman, but had they kept going into the end of the year, they may have had a real shot at winning this category.
• Rhea Ripley & Io Shirai – The matches these two had against each other were great, but their rivalry felt incomplete. Their title matches were so far apart that there’s an odd disconnect that shouldn’t exist because they put on show stopper after show stopper when they faced off.

Winner

A rivalry a year in the making with Bayley being SmackDown Women’s Champion for almost the entirety of 2020. Sasha would end up by her side & Bayley smartly knew that Banks’ lust for gold would eventually lead her to go after her title, so pointed them after The Women’s Tag Team Titles & The RAW Women’s Title, successfully capturing both. The two held all gold in WWE, so of course there was nowhere to go but down & they would drop three out of the four belts within a month. Bayley then chose to take out Sasha before the inevitable Banks turn & that led them to the satisfying conclusion at Hell In A Cell. From the beginning to the end, nobody was more entertaining both in & out of the ring combined than these two. They took on all comers, had several great matches & pretty much were SmackDown until Roman Reigns returned in late summer, at which point they shared the spotlight rather than let it be taken away.

 

Birdman’s Pick: Long term rivalries are extremely dicey when it comes to professional wrestling. The threat of things getting stale can hit real quick & once it does, it’s almost impossible to suck fans back in. It’s why AEW constantly pivots from one feud to the next almost right away. When you look at other more recent long term feuds like Reigns & Corbin or Rollins & The Mysterios, the point is driven home even further. However, with Sasha & Bayley, WWE absolutely nailed it. Just when you thought they’d turn on each other, they’d go ahead & win more & more gold to push their insufferableness to peak heights. The ending was a little bit rushed, but they absolutely earned the Hell In A Cell match given their history not only through the year, but dating all the way back to NXT as well. It’s these two & honestly there’s nothing all year that comes close.

HGR’s Pick: There’s really no choice other than the rivalry between The Golden Wives. It was a story we were waiting for, the eventual turn and feud between the two. WWE did the actual smart thing and flipped the script and had Bayley be the one who attacked Sasha. My only complaint about the feud is how rushed it was towards the end. We had an entire year basically of build up and then within a month it was all over. Reigns and Owens if started sooner could have possibly given it a run but in the end this was far and away the best of the year.

AddMayne’s Pick: SmackDown has been very good TV for most of the COVID Era and a big part of that reason has been because of Bayley & Sasha Banks. The women’s division needed someone to hold them down after their biggest star had to unexpectedly leave due to wonderful news and Charlotte had to take a break, so the other half of WWE’s Four Horsewomen stepped up and kept everyone entertained as both a tag team and eventual enemies. The matches they had were for the most part solid and even though the end was a bit rushed, it didn’t put a damper on the rest of the story they told. Now with one being SmackDown Women’s Champion and the other being put in a spot to elevate the other talent on the show, these two NXT Icons have shown how important they’ve become to the DNA of SmackDown.

 

Show Of The Year

Not the winner of the weekly shows (it’s SmackDown for the record), but any pay per views, network specials or NXT gimmick shows that took place throughout the year. It was difficult to find a card that was great top to bottom as few of them are, but there were definitely a handful of shows that were able to deliver when feuds came to a head at these big events.

Honorable Mentions

 

• TakeOver: Portland – Highlighted by insane North American & Tag Team Championship matches, Portland might be the best show from top to bottom. The main event admittedly drags it down a lot, but even then, Portland excelled with a fantastic undercard that delivered more than enough to make up for it.
• WrestleMania Night Two – Taking Mania as a whole felt unfair, so we broke them into two separate shows, which they technically were. The main take away from this show is & will forever be The Firefly Funhouse Match between Wyatt & Cena, but don’t sleep on Charlotte vs. Rhea Ripley. The coronation of Drew McIntyre was also great & well deserved even if it was in an empty arena (and that Big Show almost ruined it).
• Royal Rumble – The Men’s Rumble was one of the most fun ever with Brock Lesnar dominating the first half & Drew McIntyre getting his earned main event push. Edge also returned, Charlotte won an alright Women’s Rumble, Corbin & Reigns had a fun Falls Count Anywhere Match (if you forget why the feud exists), & Becky vs. Asuka was Becky vs. Asuka.
• TakeOver: XXX – Like Portland, TakeOver 30 had an awesome undercard, but a big time let down for the main event with Keith Lee vs. Karrion Kross. Even with that, we got the bananas NA Title Ladder Match, Balor vs. Thatcher & the stunning debut of Pat McAfee in a performance nobody saw coming.
• Clash Of Champions – Maybe the most slept on show in contention, CoC had three extremely good matches in an Ambulance Match between Orton & McIntyre, the wildly entertaining triple threat Ladder Match with Zayn, Hardy & Styles, & Roman Reigns beating the mess out of Jey Uso.

Winner

Halloween Havoc just goes to show how much a gimmick can work as long as you’re willing to lean into it. That holds true for wrestler’s & their gimmicks, but for shows as well. Shotzi Blackheart led the way as costumed hostess & nearly everything was Halloween themed like The Devil’s Playground & Haunted House Matches. The things that weren’t made up for it by being great wrestling matches with the likes of Io vs. Candace & Rhea vs. Raquel. This show was not just great as a gimmick one, but as a wrestling show overall & earns our top spot.

 

Birdman’s Pick: This is tougher than you’d think as every WWE PPV has a couple good matches but can be dragged down by clunkers around them. I loved this year’s Royal Rumble as the men’s match & Becky vs. Asuka were both great. If you combined Mania as one show, that could get a nod, but we decided to rate the nights separately. I had admittedly forgotten about my pick because 2020 was the longest recorded year in history, but TakeOver: Portland was easily one of the best shows of the year. This blog made me go back & do a rewatch, which solidified my pick as it definitely holds up. Keith Lee vs. Dominic Dijakovic & The BroserWeights vs. UE were legit match of the year contenders. They didn’t stick the landing with Ciampa & Cole, but the card is rounded out nicely with Gargano vs. Balor, Ripley vs. Belair & the debut of Raquel Gonzalez.

HGR’s Pick: My dark horse for Show of the Year was Clash Of Champions. Roman vs. Jey, Drew vs. Orton in the fun Ambulance match, MULTIPLE Asuka matches, and one of the best finishes to a ladder match in my opinion with Sami Zayn and his handcuffs beating Styles and Hardy. Day Two of WrestleMania also gets props with the great Ripley vs. Flair opener, Drew getting his moment, and of course, Firefly Funhouse. TakeOver: Portland is probably better than Halloween Havoc in match quality, but who am I to vote against a show hosted by Shotzi Blackheart dressed as Elvira?

AddMayne’s Pick: What can I say? It was fun as hell. Halloween Havoc making a return itself was cool enough, but to then they had a great card on top of it. The NXT Championship wasn’t even defended that night and it was still a great show. Rhea Ripley and Raquel Gonzalez hossing the hell out of each other, Io Shirai and Candice LeRae having an absolutely insane ladder match for the Women’s Title in the main event, and oh, The Haunted House of Terror match which wound up being everything I wanted it to be. I mean it had zombie refs, haunted tricycles, and Grimey being so thirsty he temporarily forgot he was in a match with a probable serial killer. Not to mention the return of The Bruiserweight who immediately aligned himself with the guys who had beef with the Undisputed Era because WHY WOULDN’T HE, THE ERA WERE JERKS AND THEY JUST WANT US TO FORGET THAT, HOW IS PETE THE BAD GUY??

But, I digress. It was a great show.

Come on.

COME ON.

 

Wrestler Of The Year

Given that WWE has three television shows, a few more on their network & approximately nine hundred superstars, we decided to go a little outside the box given all the content they provide & do three separate individual awards. Wrestler Of The Year was determined by who not only had several high profile matches, but delivered most consistently in those big spots time & time again.

Honorable Mentions

 

• Keith Lee – You can certainly bask in most of Lee’s 2020, holding both major singles titles in NXT. However his run there petered out pretty hard at the end & his time on RAW up to this point hasn’t exactly been noteworthy.
• Rhea Ripley – Despite being “buried” after losing to Charlotte at WrestleMania, Rhea Ripley had several bangers throughout the year with all the key players in NXT’s Women’s Division. I think it’s safe to say that Mania loss hasn’t slowed her down even a little bit.
• Io Shirai – The NXT Women’s Champion finally got her due at TakeOver: In Your House & hasn’t looked back. Nearly all her matches have delivered & she can easily anchor a show when asked. Now if only NXT would ask her more often, we might’ve had a winner here.
• Drew McIntyre – Drew did the best he could with the bad hand he was dealt with the pandemic & being asked to be the face of WWE for the year. He’s had a lot of solid matches during that time, but some terrible opponents & a few stinkers sprinkled in kept him just out of the top spot.
• Roman Reigns – Let’s get this clear: Every Roman Reigns match since his return has been amazing & the only thing keeping him from sweeping all awards is that he showed up for only half the year.

Winner

Asuka absolutely dominated 2020. Money In The Bank winner, Women’s Tag Champion & RAW Women’s Champion. Nobody’s number was called more often & nobody answered the call time & again like Asuka did. She faced off with the best the women’s divisions had to offer & routinely came out on top. Honestly, if all her feuds weren’t just “Nobody’s ready for Asuka” & she was fluent in English, she’d probably sweep every category. She’s delightful & there looks to be more of the same heading into next year. We are certainly not complaining.

 

Birdman’s Pick: While Drew McIntyre should get an award for almost single handedly carrying RAW on his back all year, his matches were either fantastic or complete whiffs. It didn’t help that some of his opponent choices were not great as well. To me, this one goes to Asuka in a runaway. She was constantly in title contention & had high profile matches with Becky Lynch, Bayley, Sasha Banks & Bliss-Cross. Sometimes the booking wasn’t ideal, but one thing remained constant & that was Asuka delivering in the ring.

HGR’s Pick: When it comes specifically to Wrestler of the Year, there were two real choices for me. Drew McIntyre has had a great year carrying the big prize. Sadly, he isn’t going to get a lot of credit for it due to the lack of crowds. However, while Asuka may have lacked in credible challengers throughout the year, you have to give her even more credit because of that, never putting in a bad performance. Including pulling double duty against Sasha and Bayley and working two good matches that stringed themselves together.

AddMayne’s Pick: Man, it really came close between Keith Lee and Asuka for me, and if it weren’t for my man Keith having a rough time on RAW this year, I might’ve gone with him, but ultimately Asuka had the better overall year. She was constantly featured, always in the main event scene, never really had a match that was bad and during a time of empty arenas had enough screen presence for three arenas.

 

Sports Entertainer Of The Year

While being a great worker in the ring is a solid skill to have, there’s a whole other aspect to being a great professional wrestler outside of it. The matches rarely work if there’s no hype going into them, so this was awarded to the person that did the best at building intrigue all year through promos, vignettes or character development.

Honorable Mentions

 

• MVP – What was thought to be just a surprise Legend return spot at The Royal Rumble turned into MVP leading the only stable on RAW or SmackDown worth talking about in 2020. MVP referenced history, had clear character motivations & reacted accordingly to his surroundings making The Hurt Business a formidable force for the second half of the year & with them currently holding three titles, into next year too.
• Alexa Bliss – Bliss had a fun thing with Nikki Cross early on, but really rounded into form once The Fiend came into play. Her addition to The Funhouse revitalized the skit & she’s added layers to feuds that Wyatt has been apart of. It also helps that she puts on a phenomenal performance as a deranged children’s show host.
• Randy Orton – Orton had been & could’ve continued coasting on name alone this year, but the return of Edge really sparked something in him that turned him into a violent maniac & one of the few things that made RAW worth watching. Some matches hit & some didn’t, but it couldn’t be said that Orton didn’t build hype on the way to them.
• Pat McAfee – McAfee burst onto the scene & put on a tutorial in heel promos right from the jump. Without ever seeing him wrestle, we really wanted to see it happen due to how good he was on the microphone. That’s an incredibly special skill. That performance landed him his own stable & main event heel Pete Dunne, so we thank him for it.
• Roman Reigns – This friggin’ asshole. What a turn around from the guy getting booed out of the building for years on end. Every week Reigns one upped himself in terms of being an insufferable prick & every week we’re glued to the television praising him for it. The Tribal Chief rules.

Winner

It’s everybody’s favorite Demon Clown/Kid’s Television Host. Bray Wyatt was clearly given creative freedom with his new gimmick & has absolutely made the most of it. He should win this award alone just for The Firefly Funhouse Match at WrestleMania. Luckily, there was way more this year to support this win on top of that. Everyone was intrigued by adding Alexa Bliss to the fold & Bray was able to get the best feud out of Braun Strowman to date. If nothing else, it’s clear that Bray is a wrestling fan just like all of us & the material he puts out there confirms that. If he has half the year he did in 2020, 2021 will still be a stellar year for him.

 

Birdman’s Pick: You can pick Bray Wyatt or Alexa Bliss & I definitely will not be arguing with you. However, the shocker of the year for me was Randy Orton coming out of nowhere (boom) with how outstanding he was for all the builds to his big matches. He brought back the punt, attacked Legend after Legend & was willing to literally kill a man to win. The actual matches themselves varied considerably, but Orton was absolutely able to build intrigue heading into them like few else this year.

HGR’s Pick: I could spend days talking about everything Bray Wyatt has been able to do over the past year, let alone his entire career. It finally seemed like WWE was behind him and then he got DadBerg’d to seemingly death early on in the year, only to bounce back with the Funhouse match against Cena, bringing us all back in. The Fiend character may eventually some day have an expiration date on it, but not yet. The addition of Alexa Bliss, who also needs to be given a lot of credit for its success, was a nice change of pace that’s kept it fresh. My only real complaint may be an actual overuse of The Fiend himself and a lack of sweater clad Bray trucking people.

AddMayne’s Pick: So who knew Alexa Bliss was such a dope actor? She managed to take a role where she’s The Harley Quinn to The Fiend’s Joker and somehow it has yet to jump the shark. That’s pretty impressive. She’s pretty believable in the role too. This material would fall flat on its face in the hands of a less capable performer and Alexa has been able to rejuvenate her career with it. Just look at her appearance on The Firefly Funhouse. It’s like she’s been there since the beginning. I’m excited for what 2021 holds for Miss Fiend.

 

WWE MVP 2020

There are few & far between that can put together the merits of the two previous awards to make it all work. The MVP of 2020 had to not only have great matches all year, but make us believe that they deserved to be there both through their work inside the ring & out.

Honorable Mentions

 

• Sasha Banks – Winner of all three women’s titles this year, Sasha probably has the most impressive win of 2020 unseating Bayley’s historic run as SmackDown Women’s Champion. The Boss’ in-ring work never let us down & now she has a well deserved run as the top champion on SmackDown.
• Roman Reigns – Reigns has been appointment television since his surprise return at SummerSlam. Joining up with Paul Heyman was a genius idea as well as beating Jey Uso into becoming his right hand man. Second half of 2020 Roman Reigns is everything we’ve every wanted from him & it’s confusing that it took so long to get there.
• Drew McIntyre – McIntyre probably has the biggest moments overall in 2020 with his Rumble win, dethroning Brock Lesnar for The WWE Championship & a high profile feud with Randy Orton. He’s carried RAW all year & finally lived up to The Chosen One hype given to him all those years ago.
• Bray Wyatt – The Fiend had an up & down year, losing to Goldberg early on & thankfully building himself back up afterward into the exciting Firefly stuff we’re seeing now. They’ve also found a style in the ring that works best now too & his matches were much better in 2020 than the year prior.
• Randy Orton – The resurgence of Orton in 2020 was definitely unexpected, but very much welcome. He had top tier feuds with Edge, McIntyre & Wyatt, all of which delivered. At a time when he could easily coast, Orton instead put the work in & became one of the best fixtures on RAW all year.

Winner

As if it could be anybody else. Bayley was SmackDown this year. Reigns came in late & even with his amazing repackaging, Bayley still could not be denied as the main attraction during her feud with Sasha. She won all the gold she could & was entertaining as all hell while doing it. She took on all comers & was able to get matches ranging from good to five-star out of every single one of them. Bayley is the MVP of 2020 & nobody else really should be in the conversation.

 

Birdman’s Pick: Ding Dong. Hello? It’s Bayley by a fucking mile.

HGR’s Pick: Bayley did nothing wrong.

AddMayne’s Pick:  NEWS FLASH LOSERS, BAYLEY IS THE ONLY CHOICE HERE.

 

POP Of The Year

POP Of The Year is essentially the best thing that took place during 2020 in WWE that wasn’t a match itself. It could be a moment, a story or anything else that made us feel like fans again instead of smarks. As much as we deride it sometimes, WWE still has the pedigree to put out some of the best things professional wrestling has to offer & this category highlights when they got things right.

Honorable Mentions

 

• Keith Lee Wins NXT Championship – After flying under the radar for far too long, Keith Lee dominated NXT in 2020 & finally got his just due capturing The NXT Championship at Great American Bash, unseating one of NXT’s top champions ever in Adam Cole.
• McIntyre Eliminates Lesnar – Fans were losing their minds as Brock Lesnar tore through the first half of The Royal Rumble. McIntyre entered & (with a little help from Ricochet) Claymore’d him out of the match & the roof was nearly blown off the place.
• Alexa Bliss Joins The Fiend – Maybe the most shocking moment of the year. Looking like a Bliss-Cross breakup ending a random episode of SmackDown resulted instead with The Fiend teleporting to the ring & abducting Bliss, indoctrinating her into following him & joining The Firefly Team.
• Sasha & Bayley Win All The Gold – Just when you thought they’d drop their titles, Sasha & Bayley were able to take The RAW Championship from Asuka & hold all four titles at once. Eat your heart out, Undisputed Era.
• Drew McIntyre Wins WWE Championship – A win years in the making, McIntyre finally reached the mountain top we figured he would since returning to WWE. It was a nice moment, but hampered by the onset of the pandemic. We’re hoping he gets a proper Mania reaction this year as he deserves it.
• Big E Wins IC Title – A welcome Christmas gift to us all. After years of clamoring for a Big E singles run, fans were finally rewarded with his big title win over Sami Zayn.
• Pat McAfee: Wrestler – McAfee overdelivered in his debut match against Adam Cole at TakeOver: XXX, shocking all viewers in the process. He proved it wasn’t a fluke either with his War Games performance, but nobody saw that match with Cole coming & he stole the show.
• Boneyard Match – Completely silly & over the top, but a lot of fun too, this was a WWE cinematic match done right & a great use of The Undertaker in his twilight years.
• Edge’s Rumble Return – Talk about a truly shocking moment. Everybody & I mean everybody assumed Edge would never wrestle again with his neck issues & then his music hit at The Royal Rumble, bringing several individuals to cry tears of happiness.
• Roman Reigns’ Heel Turn – Reigns returned at SummerSlam & bulldozed his way into winning The Universal Championship. Paul Heyman showed up out of nowhere & fans finally realized what we were getting with a heel Roman Reigns they’d been waiting for all these years.

Winner

There has been nothing we’ve seen in the history of professional wrestling quite like The Firefly Funhouse Match between Bray Wyatt & John Cena at WrestleMania. We’re not sure we can even call it a match as it’s more just a love letter to the genre. The more you’ve watched wrestling over the years, the more & more this match is for you as it references the early Hogan Years, WCW, Ruthless Aggression, all the way through present day. The entirety of it felt like a prize for being a fan since you were a little kid. Bray Wyatt put together a masterpiece that will be talked about for years to come. We could write thousands of words on it, but we won’t. Just know that if you haven’t seen it, you need to check it out immediately.

 

Birdman’s Pick: I’ve been clamoring for a Roman Reigns heel turn since The Shield broke up. I still think Roman swinging that chair into Seth’s back instead of vice versa would’ve been the better move in hindsight considering how crowds ate Reigns alive for the past five years. Him coming back at SummerSlam & murdering The Fiend & Braun Strowman is probably tied for the most shocking moment of the year right next to The Fiend abducting Alexa Bliss. That being said, it’s The Firefly Funhouse at WrestleMania in a runaway. That thing is Easter Egg after Easter Egg & I’ve never felt more rewarded for being a wrestling fan than watching that unfold.

HGR’s Pick: I can’t watch Edge’s entrance during the Royal Rumble without tears welling up once he clears the smoke, his face, it’s just so much emotion all at once. However, not only does it feel like it happened three years ago thanks to the wonder that was 2020, Firefly Funhouse is just such an amazing thing that it’s still crazy it happened in WWE. It’s one of those things where you can tell who it was made for by how much you had to explain it to who was in the room with you when you saw it. It was sheer perfection and honestly I’m just so happy Cena was willing to do it for Bray.

AddMayne’s Pick: On that day, I couldn’t see clearly, because of the tears of joy falling down my face from hearing that oh so familiar “You think you know me” and actually seeing Edge in a big ass leather duster and seeing the emotion on his face as he realizes that he’s actually returned, and the audience actually remembers him. Man, that’s a feeling you just can’t recreate.

BOTCH Of The Year

Conversely, WWE can fumble the ball BIG TIME. The doldrums of RAW & SmackDown throughout the year can be unbearable at times & lucky for all of you, we’re here to help you relive some of these terrible moments. Like POP, BOTCH is a moment or story rather than a match that made us either shake our heads, throw our hands up, or change the channel while questioning why we didn’t get into another art form to get frustrated with over the internet.

Honorable Mentions

 

• Jeff Hardy’s “DUI” – Hardy’s real life issues have been used before & nobody liked it then, so how about we try it again only this time he’s framed for vehicular manslaughter? Then we can have him throw a glass or “urine” in Sheamus’ face? No thanks.
• Men’s MITB – Poor Otis. It became apparent after his Money In The Bank win that WWE had no actual plans for him & just saw him as comedic relief. He then lost the briefcase after Tucker (remember Tucker?) turned on him, resulting in no follow up match & Miz becoming The MitB holder. Miz proceeded to have one of the worst cash-ins ever, but was given the case back on a technicality. Brutal stuff all around.
• Lana vs. Tables – Lana was put through a table a dozen times by Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler over the course of months. Thankfully, she got her revenge on both of them in a Tables Match at TLC & became Tag Team Champion with Asuka. Just kidding. They wrote Lana out of the story completely & Charlotte showed up & won with Asuka in her place.
• SmackDown Karaoke – No.
• The WWE Draft – The Draft is always kind of a bust, but this one gets extra points for taking place directly before Survivor Series & asking us to believe that newcomers would all of a sudden be brand loyal to a show they’ve been on for barely any time at all. It also split up New Day after they just reunited from injury to add another gut punch to everything on top it.
• IIconics Breakup – One of the most nonsensical moves of the year. A match was made to determine #1 contenders for The Women’s Tag Team Titles & also had a stipulation that whoever lost couldn’t tag anymore for… reasons. The worst part is it was done in service to give Peyton Royce a singles push that never came. Royce is now saddled with Lacey Evans as a partner & Billie Kay is flourishing on SmackDown. RIIP IIconics.
• Reigns & Corbin Dog Food – While this started in 2019, Reigns got his revenge in early 2020, covering Corbin in dog food after defeating him on SmackDown. It was awful.
• The Rollins vs. Mysterios Saga – This friggin’ thing. A feud that started with a guy congratulating the other on becoming a dad spiraled into eye removals, kendo stick beatings & a love story between a nineteen year old girl & a thirty-two year old man. Not to mention it lasted for a little over six months total & the heel ultimately came out on top winning more matches overall against the faces.
• The Street Profits & Viking Raiders Decathlon – You could honestly just put the entirety of these guys’ feud here & it’d be acceptable. Rather than, you know, wrestling to see which team was superior, the two teams partook in a series of real sports challenges with painfully bad returns. It was WWE’s idea of “comedy”, which we don’t need to tell you is anything but.
• RAW Underground – Shane McMahon’s fight club had promise until there was the quick realization that it was going nowhere & they were wasting everybody’s time. Winners were determined at random by Shane just shouting on a microphone & were awarded nothing for their troubles. Even the likes of Shayna Baszler, Kevin Owens & The IIconics showing up couldn’t save this utter debacle.

Winner

On August 3rd, hooded figures began attacking WWE’s Performance Center from the outside, smashing windows & throwing a molotov cocktail at a generator. A few weeks later, they made their way inside, attacking PC recruits at ringside & destroying the ring while their numbers swelled to dozens. This went on for weeks & through two ppvs where they could’ve debuted properly, instead they opted for a random RAW on September 21st, revealing themselves as T-Bar, Mace, SLAPJACK, Reckoning & Retaliation. It was then revealed that the group who were trying to destroy WWE were granted contracts by the company. Mustafa Ali was found out to be the true leader of the group as well as The SmackDown Hacker, a loose end everybody had already forgotten about. The group then became RAW exclusive after being drafted to that brand because a general manager there thought an anarchist group trying to end their show was a good call. To date, the group has lost nearly every match they’ve been apart of, only gaining victories recently over Ricochet, who they want to join them because we assume his silly name fits in with theirs.

Please notice that all we did was recap what actually happened with zero commentary & how much you didn’t like what we wrote.

 

Birdman’s Pick: Holy hell, look at that list of pure garbage. A Duke Droese return feels imminent. SmackDown Karaoke still keeps me up at night & RAW Underground was borderline offensive with how big of a waste of time it was every week. At least Karaoke was a one time deal & I can give them some credit for trying something new with RU. What I can’t get behind is RETRIBUTION. Not even a little bit. They are the poorest or the poor man’s Nexus with absolutely nothing redeeming to say about them. The fact WWE has soldiered on with this train wreck makes me think they have a personal vendetta against all five of these wrestlers. Mercedes Martinez should count her lucky stars every day she was able to avoid this steaming pile.

HGR’s Pick: Between RAW Underground and Retribution, there’s no wonder why my earlier columns were chock full of angry gifs. Underground for its sheer pointlessness while also being generally an insult to the exact program it was on. RETRIBUTION however was a real pro wrassling angle that for a split second had potential. Then the masks came out. Then the names were released. And then they just kept losing, and losing, and losing. I feel so bad for all involved mostly because they are doing mostly amazing character stuff on twitter and would be better off if they were just allowed to come up with their own stuff.

AddMayne’s Pick: While I fully respect why Birdman & HGR went with Retribution for BOTCH of the year, those of you who are part of the SRP discord know that I saved all my hatred and bile during RAW for RAW Underground. Say what you will about Retribution, at least they had moments where they were entertaining and intriguing (and not for nothing, they’re hilarious on Twitter). RAW Underground was a dumb waste of time from day one to whenever they decided to quietly stop doing it. Thanks to Shane O’Mac, we found out that worked MMA fights somehow look faker than worked wrestling matches. There were dancing girls in cages like it was the early days of TNA that only lasted for one episode and a never ending house beat playing in the background. People would just show up from RAW or SmackDown or NXT just to fight someone for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON. People diss AEW Dark for just having matches for “no reason” (despite Dark actually having more low key story telling), but these fake ass MMA fights were legitimately happening for no reason. Not even a title shot. It appears the whole point of this thing was to put over *quick Google search* Dabba-Kato who then immediately disappeared after one match losing to Braun Strowman on RAW. The biggest star to come from this time suck was the door guy. I think that says enough.

 

Worst Match Of The Year

Without the bad matches, we would not be able to determine the good ones & for that, we salute the matches that completely stunk out the joint in 2020. For this category, the matches under consideration had to either be for a championship, #1 contendership or a blow off to a long standing feud. Otherwise, it’d just be a forty way tie for winner with a bunch of distraction roll-ups from RAW & SmackDown.

Honorable Mentions

 

• Bayley vs. Tamina (Money In The Bank) – WWE decides Tamina is a serious threat every nine months or so & this was her main event shot. Bayley tried her best, but it’s clear Tamina is not a big time player in the women’s division despite how much they insist she is.
• Randy Orton vs. Edge Last Man Standing Match (WrestleMania) – This is more WWE not understanding how to present wrestling during the pandemic than anything else. Far too long at almost forty minutes & not nearly as important as they believed it to be, Edge & Orton put on one of those old school Mania matches that thinks more is more & probably would’ve gotten away with a great match if they cut the thing in half.
• Women’s Elimination Chamber Match – Horribly booked throughout & terribly paced, The Women’s EC took an easy story going in & ruined it. The Riott Squad implosion they teased for weeks never came to a head & Shayna Baszler ran through the competition so easily that it made them look like a bunch of goobers more than made her look dominant.
• Keith Lee vs. Karrion Kross (Takeover XXX) – We’re still not sure how this was so bad. Kross & Lee had both been dominant forces going in & they just didn’t click at all. Kross got injured at some point during the match, which didn’t help, but the whole thing just completely fell flat.
• Last Chance Backlot Brawl (TakeOver: In Your House) – Another cinematic match that underdelivered. Dream vs. Cole was underwhelming in every sense of the word. The match is highlighted by Dexter Lumis driving away with UE in his trunk to give an idea of how well Cole & Dream did.
• Brock Lesnar vs. Ricochet (Super Showdown) – Ricochet somehow earned a WWE Championship shot for kicking Lesnar in the crotch at The Royal Rumble & got absolutely demolished in ninety seconds by Brock. They could’ve at least made Ricochet look good in defeat but rather decided he should get squashed & embarrassed.
• Seth Rollins vs. Rey Mysterio Eye For An Eye Match (Extreme Rules) – This match is actually pretty solid as a hardcore bout, but the ridiculous stipulation hinders it considerably. The fake eye prop is hilariously bad as well as Rollins throwing up at the sight of it in the aftermath.
• Money In The Bank Match – Some people like this match & it is different, so points for trying to do something creative. However, there’s more bad than good. They ran both the men & women at the same time, but they hardly interacted. Stephanie literally phoned in a cameo. Baron Corbin threw two guys off the roof & it wasn’t even addressed. Then there’s the men’s finish & everything that happened with the briefcase after that takes away from the match.
• Goldberg vs. Braun Strowman (WrestleMania) – Your typical old man Goldberg match that’s just spamming finishers & over in minutes & boring as shit. There’s at least the saving grace that Strowman wins & gets The Universal Championship off of Goldberg that he never should’ve had in the first place.
• One Final Beat (TakeOver USA) – Talk about ending with a whimper & not a bang. The Ciampa & Gargano final match was years in the making, but underwhelmed in the strongest sense of the word. Another cinematic match that didn’t capitalize on what made that match style great & instead used all the things that make that style bad in its place. Arguably NXT’s biggest rivalry ever ended with The Road Dogg cup spot. Get out of here.

Winner

The Fiend vs. Goldberg was WWE’s chance to finally do the right thing & put over one of their hottest acts at the time over an established big name veteran, but went ahead & had Goldberg truck The Fiend in under three minutes, crowning him new Universal Champion. Nobody enjoyed it & was just another time they spat in our faces after several othe times over the years that left everybody feeling deflated. It took Wyatt literally months to recover & be taken seriously as a threat again, which thankfully he was able to. Goldberg’s reign lasted all of two months where he lost to Strowman, making everybody wonder aloud why they even put the belt on him in the first place.

 

Birdman’s Pick: The Fiend vs. Goldberg is utter trash, don’t get me wrong, but at least it’s over & done with in minutes on a show barely anybody watched. I had a sleeper pick in mind with The Women’s Elimination Chamber Match & how badly that was booked from start to finish, but it was saved by Shayna Baszler choking out the field. No, my pick had everything that makes a match bad all rolled into one & that’s One Final Beat. Too long, poorly shot, schmozz finish, & wildly unsatisfying. That match took all the good will Ciampa & Gargano had built over the years & dumped all over it. Whoever decided it should take place in dead silence should be fired & whoever decided it should’ve ended with a kick in the nuts should be fired twice. Candace LeRae might as well kicked every viewer at home in the nuts while she was at it.

HGR’s Pick:  

(He picked The Fiend vs. Goldberg for the record)

AddMayne’s Pick: Well, every match that happened on RAW Underground wasn’t nominated, so yeah, I had to pick Braun vs. Goldberg. Now you may have been expecting The Fiend vs. Goldberg, and I almost did choose that match. But at least The Fiend was actually able to come back from that loss and still maintain an important presence on any show he’s on. Braun being squashed by Goldberg on The Emptiest Stage of Them All really hurt him for the rest of the year and he never really got a solid footing to come back from it. That loss really took some of the shine off of The Monster Among Men.

Edit: Ok so turns out I misremembered how that match went and Braun actually beat Goldberg, but I still keep my choice because the win did nothing for him 🤷🏾‍♂️

 

Match Of The Year 

Here we are. Arguably the most divisive & talked about thing in wrestling at the end of every year is which match took the cake as best of the best. As much as we insult WWE at times, don’t ever let it be said that they can’t deliver a big match when it counts. Going back & looking over the past year, there was a surprising amount of viable contenders for this award, with all types of matches ranging from mens, womens, singles, tag team, ladders, cages, etc. While there exists more consistent wrestling shows in terms of quality elsewhere, it is hard to compete with WWE when they are on their A game & 2020 once again showed that they can hang in there with the best of them.

Honorable Mentions

 

• Keith Lee vs. Dominic Dijakovic (TakeOver: Portland) – Maybe the most forgotten about match on this list, Lee vs. Dijakovic went all out & arguably stole the show at Portland with this match being possibly the best the two have ever had with each other.
• Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso (Clash Of Champions) – The first match that really drove the point home just how evil Roman Reigns had become. Reigns refused to pin Jey after he would not declare him Tribal Chief & continued to wail on him until Jimmy Uso had to throw in the towel. It was at that point we knew were dealing with something beyond just a regular heel champion & The Head Of The Table was born.
• Charlotte vs. Rhea Ripley (WrestleMania) – Big Match Charlotte of course has to be on here & her NXT Championship with Rhea Ripley was probably the best actual match on the second night of WrestleMania.
• The Fiend vs. Braun Strowman (SummerSlam) – Two monsters just bashing each other all over the place was super fun to watch. The two went at it heavily & the surprise return of Roman Reigns was a nice cherry on top of their hoss battle.
• Men’s Royal Rumble (Royal Rumble) – A tale of two Rumbles with Lesnar dominating & a proper Rumble Match after his elimination, the 2020 affair was enjoyable from start to finish & established McIntyre as a force to be reckoned with for months to come.
• Undisputed Era vs. The BroserWeights (TakeOver: Portland) – Perhaps the best match at Portland, The NXT Tag Team Championship bout was fantastic. Undisputed Era had been running roughshod over NXT for a while & it looked like more of the same would happened with the slapped together team of Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne, but the two pulled it out in one of, if not the best tag team match of the year.
• Finn Balor vs. Kyle O’Riley (TakeOver 31) – O’Riley had been known strictly as a tag team specialist at this point, but proved without a shadow of a doubt he can main event on his own merits. Balor vs. KOR was an absolutely brutal contest with both guys shining in the process.
• “The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever” (BackLash) – Of course it wasn’t that, but it was arguably Randy Orton’s greatest match ever. Edge & Orton had an outstanding back & forth, mixing in other superstars’ finishers throughout the years into the match & made us wonder where that Randy Orton has been all our lives.
• Io Shirai vs. Rhea Ripley (NXT 11/18) – There should’ve been more of these matches in 2020 because Ripley & Shirai work insanely well together. The two made the most of it, however & had one of the best women’s matches all year.
• NA Championship Ladder Match (TakeOver XXX) – Big year for ladder matches & this one was a great watch. Anchored by NXT all-stars Gargano, Grimes, Priest, Dream & a coming out party for Bronson Reed, The North American Title Ladder Match flies under the radar on a stacked TakeOver XXX card.
• Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles (IC Tournament Final – SmackDown) – The best television match between RAW & Smackdown goes to Styles vs. Bryan in the tournament finals for The Intercontinental Championship. This easily could’ve been a high profile pay per view match & these two veterans showed they still have the ability to remain mainstays in WWE.
• Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens TLC Match (TLC) – One of the most intense TLC Matches in recent memory, Owens & Reigns came out firing on all cylinders & never looked back. Owens fought valiantly & made us actually believe at times he’d put an end to Reigns’ reign of terror. Nothing better than Owens with a chip on his shoulder & this was a welcome return to form for him.
• Jeff Hardy vs. AJ Styles vs. Sami Zayn Ladder Match (Clash Of Champions) – Probably the best ladder match of the year, this one was high on action & had the ridiculous finish that was so over the top that it was very enjoyable. Styles had a great year anyway, but Zayn & Hardy proved they can still put on a show.
• Imperium vs. Undisputed Era (Worlds Collide) – The top two heel factions in WWE brought the fight to each other with one of the very best matches of the year. Every guy in this match shined & the only thing you can even nitpick is it becomes four on three early on. Imperium still battled through & were able to take it to UE, giving us a bout for the ages.
• WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov (NXT UK) – A lot of people’s pick for Match Of The Year, WALTER vs. Dragunov was a visceral, brutal match between two heavy hitters. The two took the old Revival slogan of “No flips. Just fists.” quite literally & beat the ever loving hell out of each other. Feeling more like an actual fight than a wrestling match, this one was more about surviving your opponent than defeating them. One of the hardest hitting matches you’ll ever see & on a random episode of NXT UK no less, you need to find this match & watch it if you haven’t seen it yet, probably with an ice pack on your chest.

Winner

You can complain about them rushing to get to this match, which is fair, but what you cannot complain about is how good it was when they got there. Sasha vs. Bayley at Hell In A Cell brought months of conflict, really years, to a head, culminating in the best match of the year. The reverse angle with the “1-0” chair, the callbacks to their TakeOver matches, combined with the wrestling from this match itself, was a masterclass in paying off a rivalry that anchored one of your shows all year. Both women looked great & proved that women’s wrestling deserves to stay at the forefront of WWE for years to come.

 

Birdman’s Pick: With all due respect to WALTER vs. Dragunov, that match, while fantastic, is basically an exhibition. I understand it was for The NXT UK Championship, but there was practically zero build or story going in & for me personally, I need to be invested going in for my match of the year. The best story of the year was Sasha vs. Bayley. Some would call this pick an upset & I think that’s crazy talk. Did they rush a little bit getting to it? They did. But was the match amazing? It was. Between the call backs to the feud going into the match & the ones from their time in NXT, this match was the best at showing how these two’s rivalry has evolved over the years while simultaneously showing how nothing’s changed. These two are still as great as they were back then & delivered the finale to their story the best they could have.

HGR’s Pick: The votes came down to Sasha and Bayley at HIAC winning. It’s a great match, but my main issue with it is how rushed the story going into it was. On the flip side of that, WALTER vs Ilja Dragunov is a match with no build up at all. Yet somehow that is THE match I am going to remember from this year. When it comes to the high profile matches that NXT usually put out, there are moments when they go a bit too long, or people are kicking out of things that they just shouldn’t. So let me tell you when you replace Canadian Destroyers off the top rope with a very large man just SLAPPING THE EVER LIVING SHIT out of a much smaller man, there is no “selling” needed. There is no suspension of disbelief. There is just straight guts and determination to keep going. The only other match I can think of that kept me that enthralled would have been Undisputed Era defending their belts against The BroserWeights at TakeOver: Portland. That match is put together so well, with an audience predisposition to assume Riddle and Dunne would break up and feud. There about two or three separate moments where my expectations were perfectly subverted on the way to them actually winning the match. Bravo all around.

AddMayne’s Pick: IMPERIUM vs. Undisputed Era forever please. Holy shit was this a hell of a dream match. This is the kind of match you do on like, 2K or something for fun and WWE/NXT really decided to do it. Now usually, I’m not a fan of heel vs. heel matches because they tend to not really give you a person to root for, and this in particular is heel stable vs. heel stable so times that by 4, but even The UE look like Babyfaces next to Euro Wrestling Fascists, so it worked. Also, if we’re being real, it’s not like The UE have ever really been booed despite being heels for 95% of their NXT Careers. Even if the only reason this was happening was because of an arbitrary NXT vs. NXT UK “war”, I didn’t even care because I was on the edge of my seat as soon as the bell rung. Go watch this match now.

 

 

 

And there’s your 2020 WWE SRP Awards, everybody. More than anything we’d like to thank all of you who have made this site what’s in been in our first six months. The response had been more than we every thought it’d be & that’s all because of you. Hopefully you’ll spread the word & we can continue to grow with your support.

More importantly, what do you think? Agree with our picks? Anything we missed? Please drop a comment below or hop on our Discord & let your picks be known. We look forward to hearing from you on this & going forward as our WWE coverage continues. Thanks again & we’ll hopefully see you again this time next year for the 2021 edition!