2014 PWI Awards

[Jack-Hammer]

Pro Wrestling Illustrated has announced the winners of its annual awards.

Wrestler of the Year - Brock Lesnar
1st Runner Up - Daniel Bryan
2nd Runner Up - AJ Styles
3rd Runner Up - John Cena

Tag Team of the Year - The Usos
1st Runner Up - reDragon
2nd Runner Up - The Wolves
3rd Runner Up - Goldust & Stardust

Match of the Year - John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt in a Last Man Standing match at WWE Payback

Feud of the Year - Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins
1st Runner Up - The Shield vs. The Wyatt Family
2nd Runner Up - John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar
3rd Runner Up - Bully Ray vs. Dixie Carter

Most Popular Wrestler of the Year - Dean Ambrose
1st Runner Up - Daniel Bryan
2nd Runner Up - John Cena
3rd Runner Up - The Usos

Most Hated Wrestler of the Year - The Authority
1st Runner Up - Seth Rollins
2nd Runner Up - Dixie Carter
3rd Runner Up - Batista

Most Improved Wrestler of the Year - Rusev
1st Runner Up - Ethan Carter III
2nd Runner Up - Luke Harper
3rd Runner Up - Eric Young

Most Inspirational Wrestler of the Year - Daniel Bryan
1st Runner Up - Eric Young
2nd Runner Up - Chris Melendez
3rd Runner Up - Ashley Sixx

Rookie of the Year - Charlotte
1st Runner Up - Enzo Amore
2nd Runner Up - Mojo Rawley
3rd Runner Up - Chad Gable

Stanley Weston Award - Dory Funk, Jr.

Comeback of the Year - Sting
1st Runner Up - Bobby Lashley
2nd Runner Up - Batista
3rd Runner Up - The New Age Outlaws

Woman of the Year - AJ Lee
1st Runner Up - Paige
2nd Runner Up - Stephanie McMahon
3rd Runner Up - Jessicka Havok

Of the awards that I disagree with the most, it'd be Wrestler & Match of the Year. While I do agree that Lesnar has had a hugely impactful year, I just can't agree that the guy who's the top wrestler of the year is someone that's wrestled a total of 4 times. As for Match of the Year, while Cena vs. Wyatt at Payback was good, there were some other matches that were just as good or better in my opinion. Off the top of my head, a few are Bryan vs. Wyatt at the Royal Rumble, John Cena vs. Cesaro on Raw, Bryan vs. Orton vs. Batista at WrestleMania XXX, The Shield vs. Evolution at Extreme Rules & Payback, The Usos vs. Luke Harper & Erick Rowan at Money in the Bank & Battleground, Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins at Hell in a Cell.

As for Most Popular Wrestler of the Year, I can only guess it went to Ambrose due mostly to Daniel Bryan being out for the 2nd half of 2014. I like Ambrose a lot, but he's nowhere near as over as Bryan is.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

I don't have a problem with Brock Lesnar winning Wrestler Of The Year.

I can understand using his limited/sporadic appearances schedule and four matches against him, but the simple fact of the matter is, from a kayfabe standpoint, nobody can touch Brock Lesnar's dominance in 2014. He broke The Streak, he won the WWE WHC, and he completely annihilated John Cena at Summerslam.

We're talking about John Cena, the face of the company, and WWE's resident Superman. Think about all the hard-fought and competitive high profiled main events and Wrestlemania main events against Triple H, CM Punk, Michaels, Batista (co-main event, but still), and The Rock. I know a lot of people quickly soured on Lesnar's strategy to suplex Cena into oblivion, but when you consider the elite level of Cena's past opponents, and how they couldn't simply man handle Cena in a match, Lesnar's lopsided victory at Summerslam is something to remember.

 

[ABMorales787]

How the hell did Dixie Carter end up 2nd Runner Up for Hated Wrestler of the Year? When did she work a match?

How did Sting win Comeback of the Year with a cameo?

I guess I can agree with everything else. Though I'm blown away by Mojo Rawley being 3rd place for Rookie Of The Year.

 

[MrHashasheen]

Match of the Year, Most Improved, Comeback are bullshit, IMO.

Most Improved would definitely go to EC3, Comeback to Lashley and Match is a toss-up for me.

 

[Rayne]

Did anyone else even remotely have the year that Brock Lesnar had? Wrestler of the Year for 2014 was a race for second place. Forget all the 'but he's part-time' nonsense; if Brock had performed full-time, he wouldn't have had as nearly as good a year. With Brock Lesnar, the WWE was forced to remember the mid-90's- not the "he just said ass on TV!" part that people remember, but in how professional wrestling companies used to make you pay to see the spectacle, instead of giving you a spectacle on Monday, then promising a slightly bigger spectacle on Sunday. When Brock Lesnar performs, people pay attention to a degree that no one else in professional wrestling gets right now.

On that note, if Michael Elgin had his paperwork in order earlier this year, the dozen people that watch ROH on these boards would be pushing him pretty hard for that #2 position.

This does seem to be a pretty WWE-heavy list this year, even for PWI. Please explain to me how there is anyone active in professional wrestling today that is more universally disliked by fans than Dixie Carter.

 

[Bone For Tuna]

Love them or hate them, where the fuck are the Young Bucks? 3 out of 4 of those teams I could see being there, but the Wolves? Really? Besides actually debuting with TNA what have they done? Sure they might have had an ok match or two, but does anyone really give a shit? I mean, I'm not trying to bury TNA but the Wolves came in with so much hype and what was the first thing TNA did? Release Daniels & Kazarian. Since then other than the Hardys, I can't think of one match they have had that I even remember hearing about. I know Richards, or I think he had a broken leg for a good while and maybe that killed some of their momentum but still. TNA hasn't really done as much with them as they could have. I get they're going through a rebuilding phase and don't want to sign too many new guys, but the Wolves need some better competition if if they want to be fantasy on par with the likes of reDragon, The Bucks, The Usos, Kaz & Daniels, Time Splitters, Joey & Candice. All the other teams are making serious waves, the Wolves, yeah, THEY are awesome, but their are no dream matches currently TNA could put together involving them with anybody they have on the current roster. A Beer Money Reunion maybe but I dunno. The Wolves vs. Low Ki & Kenny King could be great, but still TNA needs more, not just randomly thrown together tag teams.

 

[rmp0012002]

PWI is a pretty heavy WWE mag so it explains a lot but some of the category winners and placings are just really out there. I guess Bubba putting Dixie through a table makes her a wrestler. Comeback of the year to a wrestler that never wrestled. The Uso's aren't even in the Young Bucks class or the Briscos who havent teamed much. Bryan was totally over with the fans until he got injured and Ambrose hasn't won a match since then. I don't care for Bryan and Ambrose is one of the few reasons I'll turn into Raw occasionally but Bryan is easily the most popular.

 

[stingray11214]

PWI is written for the tweens and teens. The vast majority of them watch the crap VKM puts out there. Did you really expect AJ Styles, EC3 and Bobby Lashley to actually win this?

 

[The Brain]

Match of the Year is always the one I look forward to. I'm very surprised to see Cena vs. Wyatt win that. I'll have to pull that one up on the Network and take another look but I didn't think I was watching match of the year when I first saw it. Triple H vs. Daniel Bryan from mania probably would have gotten my vote. Does anyone know what the runners up were?

 

[ヒュー　G.　レックション]

PWI is written in kayfabe, that's why a good portion of this list is bullshit.

 

[rmp0012002]

I preferred the use of Kayfabe as a fan but no one was more over than Bryan by the overwhelming crowd response he got every time he got in the ring as the constant underdog. Even though he wrestled less than half a year he still deserved the MPW award.