Anyway, with yet another desperately unfunny intro out of the way, let’s get on with business!
Yeah, Mr. America. Like him or not, you can’t deny he can work a crowd like nobody else can. Amazing to think he’s doing so well in his *cough* debut year *cough* as well... you really would think he’s a 20 year veteran... Whatever you think about the amount of TV time being given to him and the seemingly endless feud with Vince McMahon, the fact is that he is incredibly over with the crowd, and the lie detector skit was genuinely entertaining.
Rey Rey and his array of high flying moves and seemingly endless wardrobe springboards his way into the #2 slot. His size and style make him an instant favourite with the crowd, and when he has been called on to do an interview, he’s been on the money. Fact is, everyone loves an underdog, and Rey is the perfect guy to fill that role. Plus, he can wrestle too, which is always a bonus.
Everyone’s favourite wrestler claims the #1 spot - it seems that no matter what happens to RVD, no matter what angle or what feud he’s pushed into, he remains over with the fans. And hey, that’s no bad thing. If ever the WWE need to get a huge pop from the fans, then putting the belt on RVD is the sure-fire way to go. I guess everything IS cool when you’re Rob Van Dam...
Christian may not have had the same breaks as his “brother” Edge, but he’s always had the charisma to make up for it. Since he’s been given the returning IC title, Christian has become the textbook cowardly heel - using DQs, count-outs and flat out cheating to hang on to his title by any means necessary. His elimination of partner Chris Jericho in the IC Battle Royal at Judgment Day was a thing of beauty... and his dancing isn’t bad either...
John Cena is the revelation of the year for me - I’d read that he was much better as the heel than as the bland rookie babyface, and that’s certainly how it’s panned out. He’s even managed to recover from failed alliances with B Squared (remember him?) and Rodney Mack before stepping into the light. He stole the show at WrestleMania with a rap on Heat, and who wouldn’t bet on his chances of headlining WrestleMania XX?
At the end of the day, when it comes sheer out and out heel-dom, only one man deserves this award - and that man is Chris Jericho. Never shy to use cheap heat, or promote his own achievements, the Hi Lite Reel is fast becoming just that - a highlight of Raw. His mic work at the recent UK only PPV Insurrextion was genius - no other word for it. At the top of his game right now.
Let me holla at ya, playa - Theodore Long earns his spot in here at number 3 - ya feel me? Who would have thought that Theodore’s one man crusade to stop the haterisin’ would ever turn out to be as entertaining? His weekly journey to the commentary table to yack with The King and JR are the only thing worth watching Rodney Mack matches for. Here’s to you, Theodore - keep on thuggin’ and buggin’
Austin’s return to the WWE hasn’t exactly set the world alight, but it has proven that his mic skills haven’t vanished. While the Redneck Triathlon and beer bashes might not be everyone’s ideal way to fill up TV time, but damn, if Austin doesn’t make me laugh. Austin on the mic is like a man possessed right now, but part of his credit has to go to his “straight man” Eric Bischoff.
Good as Austin is, he ain’t no Chris Jericho right now. Jericho is on fire. With his Hi Lite Reel, he’s getting more mic time than ever, and he’s making the most of it by being constantly entertaining. His habit of calling the production crew monkeys, and his insistence that his set contains to Dali artpieces, right down to the Jeritron 5000 - class. Jericho is the best mic worker in the business right now.
See, I feel sorry for Brock. When he was a evil heel, he had Heyman to speak for him, and learn from. As soon as he was turned face, all the lessons he learnt were useless... and we were presented with a madman running about smiling like he’d been injected with laughing gas. Add to that his delivery is just a tad on the wooden side, and it’s not the best mix - hopefully, he’ll be able to pick up a few tips from Kurt Angle in his current run as a face.
Test works his way in here for... well, being Test. Marked out as one to watch by many - well, probably just me actually, but never mind - his cockiness in the ring as a heel hasn’t been matched out of the ring - his mic work is old, and just not very entertaining. You’d think there would be some chemistry with Test and his real life squeeze, Stacy, but nothing. Reminds me of a taller Billy Kidman...
Big Show. What can you say about the Big Show? Well, he’s Big... and that’s about it. Good job he has that size, because that’s the only interesting thing about him. Big Show was at his best when he was a face, and doing all the impressions. His heel work just doesn’t cut it for me, unless you count staring intently and drooling more than the average walrus as quality. I don’t.
RVD and Kane prove that you can be thrown together as a team, and make the most out of it. The most unlikely tag team in the history of the WWE, as JR keeps insisting on calling them, made the most of some bad booking by claiming the Tag Titles and making them their own. It’s a shame that they had to be sacrificed for the sake of unmasking Kane and putting the belts on La Resistance.
Injuries took Chavo out of the game, and it’s a real shame - as it looked like they were set to get the Tag Titles and get a decent run as champions, proven by the fact that Eddie and his replacement Tajiri still have them. Tajiri is a good replacement, and the promos between he and Eddie have been priceless. I love the way Tajiri has been edited into the entrance video as well, just thought I’d mention that too!
Benjamin and Haas came into the WWE with a lot to prove, as they were instantly labelled Team Angle... they lived up to that burden and thrived on it. Benjamin is perhaps the best long term singles bet of the two, but I don’t see any reason for them to be split up - they work so well as a tag team that they could easily go on to be the (no pun intended) Kurt Angle of the tag division.
Nowinski and Mack seem to have been thrown together for a few matches and then, quite rightfully, forgot about. Nowinski could do with a run in a tag team, but with a veteran to help him find his feet, as he is talented. Sadly, Rodney Mack is not that veteran. Only Theodore Long could redeem this tag team, or they would have been in at #1.
Poor, poor Sylvain Grenier and Rene Dupree - just watching them you can tell that they are nowhere near ready to be called up to the big leagues, let alone be carrying the tag belts. At times, they both look like they have a fair bit of potential about them, then at other times it looks like they can barely walk in a straight line without screwing it up.
But they were by no means the worst - Jamal has gone already, just to prove how bad 3 Minute Warning were. They could have been huge, as they had a great gimmick going for them, but they just couldn’t follow it through. There was just no interest in them as they became just another tag team.
The build to the Mysterio vs. Hardy title match was great - it really did push the Cruiserweight belt as something special, not least the fact that it ended up being the main event of Smackdown one week. Of course, the next week, they opened the show with the rematch, but hey, can’t have everything I suppose. That one match did more for the Cruiserweight division than anything that happened in the entire Billy Kidman era.
The build up to the WrestleMania match between Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels was excellent - well worked from before the Royal Rumble right up to WrestleMania itself - it helped that a great match ended the feud and left it without a bitter taste in the mouth as well. The footage they pulled of a young Jericho and Michaels just showed what can be done with archives...
Yes, I’m saying this was the best angle of the year, even though it only really lasted one night. Why? Because it was everything that a classic feud should be - it had the beginning (Triple H picking Flair to be the fall guy), a middle (Flair wondering if he could still do it, and the Michaels pep-talk) and an end (Flair putting in the best match he’d had since WrestleMania X8 and nearly giving the crowd the pay-off they wanted. Brilliant, simple booking, and well executed by everyone involved.
Gyah! Nathan Jones... ooo he’s tall and has been in prison - doesn’t matter that he can’t actually work in the ring, let’s just slot him into a high profile match at WrestleMania, then realise that he can’t actually do anything worth a damn, and write him out again. Genius!
Vince and Mr. America... it was fun at first, for about 3 weeks - from then, it’s just seemed to drag on and on and on and on... and it still rumbles on, encompassing Roddy Piper and Zach Gowen along the way as well. Will it never end? Probably not.
Even Mr. A and Vince pale into insignificance when compared to the crap that is the Sable and Torrie “angle” that seemed to die without any resolution. Thankfully. It was one of those things that once it was dead, then that was fine - it didn’t need to be explained, just killed. Sable quit because of stuff like this, but I guess the almighty dollar speaks a bit louder than her morals... Pointless, badly acted, and annoying. Not good TV.
Jim Ross gets this by default for a) not being Lawler b) not being The Cat and c) not being The Coach.
Last year, I couldn’t split Michael Cole and Tazz for joint second - this time, I can’t split them for joint first place. They just work well together, and Michael Cole has improved tenfold in the past year. Look at his building up of Ultimo Dragon on last week’s Smackdown - he did what any commentator should do and made you even more interested in the talent. Tazz has become the best colour man on TV, but his interplay with Cole is what makes them a team, and why I can’t split them.
Just mentioning the Coach’s name makes me want to rip my ears off. He actually made me miss JR. He got kicked back to Heat, but I watch that, so I suffer anyway. Paaaaaaaaaayce.
The Cat is just flat out annoying. If he’s not trying to score points off Josh (and failing miserably) it’s ridiculing the guy in the ring - I remember him laughing at a cruiserweight try-out for being too damn small. Great way to make people care about the guy in the ring...
As for Lawler, well his act was old last year, and it hasn’t got any better. The “whoo hoo! puppies!” schtick wasn’t that funny at first, and it’s downright irritating now. The seeming hatred he has towards Booker is embarrassing too - I know colour commentators are supposed to act like a heel, but some of Lawler’s comments were verging on evil. Surely Vince can see his time is up?
Triple H’s finest match this year - not hard considering some of the clunkers he’s had previous to this, and also Ric Flair’s finest match in a long time - the two of them put on a great show, that had people in the crowd and at home believing that Flair could pull it off, and take home the gold one more time. Flair hit all of his spots, even managing the fabled axe handle from the top rope. A great match, and even the ending made sense - yes, Triple H winning was the right thing to do.
Shawn Michaels always seemed to lift his game a notch for WrestleMania, and this one was no exception. A great match that both men put everything into, right down to entrances and after match shenanigans - Jericho’s parting shot to Michaels fitted in perfectly. Michaels winning didn’t make much sense at the time, but now that he’s stuck about a bit longer, it’s not as pointless as it seemed. Best match at WrestleMania this year.
Not the best match of the year so far, however - that honour goes instead to Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle’s masterclass at the Royal Rumble. I thought at the time that it would take a lot to top that as match of the year, and I still stand by that. Angle and Benoit have the best in-ring chemistry of anyone I’ve seen since Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart, and this is probably the best match that the two of them have ever had... possibly ever will have. If you only see one match this year, it has to be this one.
Sorry Triple H fans, but yes, he gets three nominations in this category - but not all of them are totally his fault. The Judgment Day match with Nash was badly booked, and poorly thought out - they got rid of Michaels and Flair in less than 2 minutes, when those two getting involved could have saved it from being as dull as it was. Not even the hot after-match shenanigans with Nash dropping Trips through the Raw announce table was enough to save this one.
Trips’ second entry comes thanks to Scott Steiner. Having seen how bad the first match between the two was, you’d think the WWE would have pulled the plug on the rematch, but no, on it went. And it was bad. I mean, turn the TV off, go and read a book bad. Not just a sandwich match, but a full blown three course meal match. It also spelled the end of Steiner’s involvement at the top of the card, perhaps forever. Steiner’s now settled into a midcard role where he can work a 5 minute match and not stink the joint out, like this did. Even the finish, a DQ in a main event, was terrible.
Bad as that match was, this one took everyone by surprise. Steiner was thought to still be capable of putting in a good performance, and Triple H must have thought he was onto a winner here. How wrong was he! This is easily one of the worst matches I have ever seen in my life - so bad, that the crowd started to cheer Triple H - in fact, Earl Hebner got more heat than Steiner did when he stood up to Trips in the middle of the match. The “boring” chants were deafening, and Steiner eventually lost by nefarious means to set up a rematch nobody wanted.
One image stood out above all at WrestleMania - and that was when Vince McMahon, blood covering his face, poked his head above the ring apron at WrestleMania, with a maniacal grin on his face - the kind of grin that Vince does best. The rest of the match wasn’t up to much, but that one camera shot made it for me.
Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels - easily two of the greatest of all time - and there they were - in the ring together setting up a feud. Michaels proclaimed Flair as his hero, and Flair looked humble - you knew the big turn would happen sooner or later - later in the same show, Flair turned on Michaels and the feud was on. Over the next few weeks, Flair and Michaels would cut promo after promo on each other and just make the camera their own property. It’s a shame that the eventual match wouldn’t live up to the hype of the feud, but the build up alone was memorable.
Even though the demasking of Kane was eventually an anti climax, with poor make-up and a dodgy half shaved head meant to symbolise severe burns, the actual moment that Kane took the mask off was still momentous - since October 1997, people had wondered what the mask hid; it was one of the great unanswered questions of the WWE - and they did it. On Raw - what was easily a PPV quality moment happened on TV. Maybe not as memorable as it should have been, but still huge.
Here’s the quick awards, just to give everyone (and my fingers) a breather :
Cena’s rapper gimmick has come into it’s own this year - he can draw heat just by standing there in a jersey, and then builds on it with clever raps. His only problem is he might just get too clever and turn himself face in the process.
Well it would have been had they stuck to it, and not shoved him together with Roddy Piper. The “I’m not telling you anything that you don’t already know” gimmick looked as if it could have been huge, and O’Haire was the next star in the making... then Piper happened. I just hope O’Haire can move on from it.
The gimmick has helped Matt step out of his brother’s shadow and prove himself to be a solid wrestler. The cruiserweight title run he had showed he could take a belt and elevate it, and solid matches against practically everyone thrown his way have must have done him the power of good. Possible US Champion?
No contest for me - still the better brand of the two.
I love the Halloween style intro to it - and that’s all that matters. I like it.
On THAT Raw, before THAT match, after Shawn Michaels had spoken to Flair and convinced him that he was indeed still “The Man”, Flair sought out Trips - and delivered the sweetest promo of the year. When given good stuff to work with, and enough time, there’s still nobody better than Flair.
Don’t even need to explain this one - it was just nasty. How his neck wasn’t broken is beyond me.
The beginning of Operation “Get Goldberg Over” - and what a move - looked cool, sounded cool, and dammit, it was cool. Goldberg’s most telling contribution to the WWE so far, besides the long awaited Goldberg/Gillberg meeting...
And with those out of the way, those of you still awake will be happy to see the last pair of awards :
Piper’s gone and will hopefully put his in-ring career to bed. Piper’s strong point has been his mouth, not his wrestling. His showings this year proved that.
Steiner came in with a huge hype and a blaze of glory - and hasn’t shown anything near the quality needed to justify that. His quick trip to the midcard following his flopped feud with Triple H is proof of that. He has looked better sin tag matches and quick 6 minute matches, but that’s hardly what the WWE were hoping for when they signed him, and certainly not what the public were expecting.
Why Nathan Jones? Well, the hype surrounding the guy would have us believe that he was the second coming of Ric Flair. He's not. He can barely walk in a straight line. Even the WWE realised this and wrote him out of a match at WrestleMania, leaving the Undertaker in a handicap match. His one match that has been on TV was against Bill DeMott, and was abysmal, so bad rumour is he will released soon. Sorry, mate...
Kurt keeps his top 3 spot, despite a short break for spinal surgery, and is worth it. It’s a real shame that he wasn’t as fit as he would have liked to be at WrestleMania - a fully fit Angle would have loved the occasion and put on a hell of a show with Brock Lesnar. He’s come back from the injury and plugged straight back in as if he’s never been away. Hopefully the second six months will be better for Kurt than the first six.
Benoit just keeps on rolling along, putting on match after match, and never really getting anywhere. Much as I like watching Benoit, I’m beginning to think that the WWE perhaps isn’t the place for him anymore - the guy is good enough to have had a world title by now, and the crowd appreciate him, the standing ovation at the Rumble proved that... in the meantime, I’ll carry on enjoying what he does best - wrestle.
Eddie has been on a roll since he returned - he’s been putting in performances on an incredible level, and some would feel he deserves his shot at the World Title. That may be, but he’s found his niche in the tag division - a string of top notch matches with practically everyone have earned him his spot here. He’s always been there or thereabouts - but now Eddie earns top spot at last.
There’s the half year awards for this year - come back in December and see who hangs on to their awards by the end of the year.Until next time, have fun, go mad.
