2015-16 WWE MVP

[The Fabulous Rougeau's]

I ran a bunch of these in the old school thread that lead to one for 14-15 which can be seen in the following link.

http://forums.wrestlezone.com/showthread.php?t=293147&highlight=wwe+mvp

Now on to 15-16. Like all the other threads in this series the MVP for 15-16 would consist of the timeframe from the night after WrestleMania XXXI-WrestleMania XXXII.

Seth Rollins was well on his way to being the MVP. He won the title at Mania XXXI and held the title for the first 7+ months of the year. Then of course he tears his knee and misses the last 5 months. As good as the first 7 months were they cannot make up for being absent for the last 5 so I cannot name Rollins the MVP.

Before I get to my MVP I would say a close 2nd would be Dean Ambrose. He benifited the most from Rollins injury as it forced WWE to elevate him past the upper mid card and we have seen the results as he has become a legit main eventer in the time Rollins has been out. However, as I can't overlook Rollins last 5 months, I can't do the same for Ambrose who was sort of in wrestling purgatory without much meaning for the first half of the year.

With the my MVP for 15-16 has to be Roman Reigns. He is vilified by a majority of crowds on a weekly basis but the fact remains that he was a major player in 15-16 at or near the top of all the major stories of the year. Rollins continued time on top really coincided with the story of Reigns return to the top and it was a shame that Rollins went down with injury as it would have been interesting to see the direction WWE would have went in for that match at Survivor Series.

So there's my MVP. Who is your's?

 

[King Patrick Star]

Between WrestleMania 31 and WrestleMania 32, I believe Seth Rollins is the 2015 – 2016 WWE MVP. He went from Mr. Money In The Bank to WWE World Heavyweight Champion on day 1 of teh WWE's 2015-2016 calendar. For 60% of the WWE year, or 7 months, from the end of March to the beginning of November, he was the Man.

First he defeated the WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Brock Lesnar and the 2015 Royal Rumble winner, Roman Reigns by cashing in his Money In The Bank contract. Next he defeated Randy Orton in a Steel Cage match. Then he defeated Randy Orton, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose in a Fatal 4-Way match. Shortly after that, he hit a slight bump in the road by losing to Dean Ambrose, but retained the Big W due to losing by disqualification. Subsequently, he defeated Dean Ambrose in a Ladder match. Afterwards, thanks to Undertaker, he lost to Brock Lesnar by disqualification again, but again, retained the Big W.

Winning the Championship Title for the first time is great. Successful Championship Title defenses are better. Winning a Championship Title while defending a Championship Title, has to be the best. Not only did he accomplish this, but he did it at the Pay Per View “too big for WrestleMania”, “the biggest event of the summer”, against the Face of the WWE.

With Championships Title Belts comes Championship Title defenses, and since he had the Big W and the Big Flag, he had to defend both in one Night…Of Champions. Batting .500, or shooting 50% from the floor / ice, or throwing a TD and an interception in the same game isn’t bad. Hitting the game winning home-run, shooting the game winning shot, or throwing the game winning TD is exactly what he did. He may have lost the first match for the lower tiered Championship Title Belt, back to Superman, but when it came to the “Big One”, he came through, and of all SuperStars, he did it against the Icon.

Lastly, he defeated the Devil’s Favorite Big Red Machine Monster Demon. If it wasn’t for his injury, I think that Future of the WWE was on his way to having, at the very least, a reign lasting for 371 days. It would have been a WrestleMania to WrestleMania year long reign that both of the Mega Powers would have been proud of. Without the unfortunate event in November, I believe the Architect wasn’t going to drop the Richest Prize in Professional Sports Wrestling Entertainment until WrestleMania 32 to Roman Reigns.

A wise Horsemen once said, “To be the Man, you have to beat the Man!!” Nobody ever beat the Man. He beat himself. HAHA!! When he comes back, he will have his side plates with him, and he will screw them back on his Championship Title Belt. Funny how he'll have to go through the one SuperStar he held the WWE World Tag Team Championship Title Belts with. Believe that.

 

[sMark]

On screen only? Seth Rollins.

Overall - HHH. On screen he was the evil force to beat, won WWE title in RR match, made Reigns' win somewhat important, defeated Sting. Behind the screen - NXT success and roster

 

[midgensa]

The only answer to this that works is Seth Rollins.

He sold PPV after PPV against a ton of great opponents. He was believable as champ. Had enough to make you believe he COULD win without cheating, but why would he?

If he had not gotten hurt, I don't see when they would have logically taken the title off of him.

His seven months or so as champ is better than anyone else's 12 months.

 

[dsotm5150]

Definitely Rollins its a shame he blew his knee out hopefully it won't have killed his momentum when he comes back. Hopefully that knee damage won't limit his style too much, I remember back in the '90s when Rey Mysterio Jr. Blew his knee out it really restricted his style for a long time, Sting lost alot of his high flying after he blew his knee out so hopefully Rollins will be able to adapt because he's got a bright future.

 

[S.J. Maximus]

I understand why the OP is disqualifying Seth Rollins from the discussion, but I have to agree with everyone else and name him the 2015-16 MVP anyway. Despite his 5 months on the shelf there is no star who grew more than Seth Rollins from WrestleMania 31 to WrestleMania 32. Ambrose has grown, KO has grown, Reigns has stayed the same overpushed commodity, but Seth Rollins went from "one of the top heels" to simply the the guy. From Summerslam on, Seth Rollins basically was WWE programming. He simultaneously held the top title and the midcard title and defended them both against separate opponents, it doesn't get more dominant than that. I would say a majority of the WWE Universe believes he's the single best wrestler in the company and I don't think they're wrong for believing that. He gave us one of the better WWE Championship runs in recent memory and some of the best matches of that same time.

My biggest issue with voting Reigns is that he has never shown he's as valuable as Seth Rollins. He's not that workhorse, the five-star match spewing machine that can put on classics and good feuds with anybody. They've tried so hard with Roman, and on paper he's become a 3-time World Champion in that time period but is he really the man? Is there anyone besides Vince who thinks this guy is the best wrestler on the planet? Good look, has trouble with the scripted promo, and I don't think he's had a good match since his battle with Bray inside the Cell.

As a matter of fact, I would go as far to say that my 2nd choice would probably be Sasha Banks. She was the NXT Women's Champion at the time of WrestleMania 31 and had a great run that ended in a match that many call the best match of any kind WWE had in 2015: Sasha vs Bayley at Takeover Brooklyn. Then look at their rematch later that IMO topped Brooklyn with the first ever female Ironman match! They brought her up to the main roster and most recently they let her shine on the big stage of WrestleMania 32 where although she lost, 100,000+ fans pretty much confirmed she's the most popular female performer in the WWE today.

1. Seth Rollins
2. Sasha Banks
3. Dean Ambrose
4. Charlotte
5. Roman Reigns

 

[Burritocover]

I've gotta go with Sash Banks. She was really the one who made the divas revolution happen. Charlotte got to be the first champ on the main roster but Sasha is the one that really made people take notice of the women's division in NXT and was the most consistently good. I think she was the best part of NXT while she was there. She basically stole the show every time she was in a high profile match. PWI gave her and Bayley the number one and two matches of the year which I totally agree with. Her Takeover matches with Charlotte and Becky also really brought the division to another level. I also thought the triple threat at Wrestlemania was match of the night. Rollins was great and so was Reigns and some other guys but Sasha was a driving force behind a major change in the company. I can't remember anyone ever elevating a division or a title or anything the way she did in such a short time. Not that she did it on her own but I think she was more responsible for it than anyone else. Also just being in Dallas over Wrestlemania weekend it seemed like I saw more Sasha shirts on people than anyone else. That's probably not totally accurate, I probably just paid more attention to her shirts but they were everywhere so besides being as great as she's been the last year she's incredibly over with the fans.

 

[Un-Bo-Lievable Jeff]

I've got to put Kevin Owens. Although not right at the top, everything he has done has been golden.

The Rollins storyline was getting stale with the authority. I think Kevin Owens has been above Rollins for this year.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

It's been a horrible year for picking this type of award based on the timing given. I would say Cena deserves it for the time he put in but the injuries and time off were too significant to award him with this. Similar story for Rollins. He wasn't always the best (i.e. winning) champion but he did give us some good to great matches and could be entertaining in his heel role. But still he only worked a little more than half the year. So who is left? Lesnar? Had worked more than usual but mostly just been coasting on his 2014-2015 heat. Owens? I enjoy him and I am probably being unfair by not being familiar with his NXT work but he didn't seem to have that much impact. Banks? Still waiting to figure out what the neck everyone is so excited about. Charlotte? She's been terrific as a heel but seemed so out of place in her role in the Diva's Revolution. Becky? She is my favorite character right now but she hasn't been all that successful. Ambrose? He has been there all year and done a decent job being entetaining but there just feels like he wouldn't be that missed if he was part of injured reserve. HHH? Nah, he does his job well but he doesn't deserve an MVP type award. Reigns? No, I'm not the type to boo but it just didn't work for him.

So I'm going to go out of the box and say New Day. They have consistently entertained and won quite a bit on top of that. They also sort of act like they are one person so I don't feel like I'm breaking the rules of an MVP by giving it to a group.

 

[manstis1804]

I don't know if this is necessarily my pick, but collectively, the New Day is in the mix. Consistently over and entertaining, at one point the most over act on the roster. They're probably going to cool off as babyfaces now, though.

Dean Ambrose is the only top guy who's been healthy and over the whole time, so I think I'll go with him. Even that one is tough, because I feel like a lot has been left on the table with him, creatively.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

i know that this will not be a popular pick but my pick for www mvp 2015-2016 would have to be John Cena. The fact is yes seth rollins had a great year until he got injured, but if he didn't have all those major stars like Cena, lesnar, Kane & sting to make him look like a main event star that he deserve to be, the guy would have been just another heel on the roster.

Cena probably had one of the best year of his career. The guy took a championship, that meant nothing and pretty much made it relevent again. He pretty much had the match of the night on every raw and ppv until he got injured with guys that normally, WWE wouldn'T give the time of day to even less give 3 minutes on raw. He help start the wwe career of Kevin owens by giving him three awesome match back to back. Neville,zayn,stardust even zack ryder where all able to showcase what they actually can do in the ring because of Cena's open challenge. Too bad he got injured just before 2016 arrive because i would have love to see him get the us title back and continuing is great work with the mid carders and even seeing what he could have done with the undertaker at mania.

 

[Sean Valjean]

The injuries make this tough, but here are my top five in no particular order:

New Day - These three went from being a genuinely reviled, horribly bland stable by the time Wrestlemania 31 aired to becoming the most entertaining and popular act in the entire company by Wrestlemania 32. They captured the tag titles twice, and their second reign has been going for months now. That is an incredible turn-around.

John Cena - He spent the majority of the year making the US title seem like the most important prize in the world. The US open challenges guaranteed a good to great match every Raw and featured its share of great moments (Neville nearly winning, the Sami Zayn surprise, KO's debut, Del Rio's return). Cena accomplished the remarkable feat of making a midcard belt seem like the holy grail in modern WWE.

Bayley - She started the year as a goofy fangirl you didn't take too seriously to slowly climbing the ranks and winning the NXT Women's Title in what many considered the 2015 Match of the Year against Sasha Banks. Bayley's first title defense was the first women's match to main event a WWE pay-per-view (or "special"). She then had some sweet title defenses against Nia Jax and Asuka. Now, Bayley is the face of the NXT women's division and easily the most purely beloved babyface in the entire promotion – a very rare feat for the ladies.

Sasha Banks - Sasha won the NXT Women's Champion in a killer four-way at Takeover:Rival and was having a slew of great matches (including a fantastic, yet somewhat forgotten bout against Becky Lynch at Takeover: Unstoppable) before losing it to Bayley in the 2015 Match of the Year. She went to Raw, got over with the main roster fans, and has apparently yet to be beaten (which I hadn't realized until she pointed it out). Sasha is probably the most over woman on the main roster, which says a lot considering Becky is popular in her own right.

Kevin Owens - Less than 3 months after his debut, Owens destroyed Sami Zayn to win the NXT title. He was a dominant champ and even made his main roster debut while champion to feud with John Cena, defeating him clean in a MOTY candidate. Since then, he's consistently been one of the best heels (if not, THE best) on the roster. KO has also been one of the most consistent performers, with some great bouts against the likes of Zayn, Balor, and Cena. Not to mention he captured the IC title twice.

 

[Prince Vee]

Seth Rollins

He is The Man, I mean the real man of WWE. Undoubtedly he is the 2015-16 MVP. He had main evented multiple PPVs and also cashed in his MITB at the grandest stage of'em all!! Won the United Stated championship from John Cena to become the first ever WWE superstar to hold both WWE World Heavyweight title and US title at the same time. No one could've touched him in that prime time and he's the MVP for me.

 

[yourdamnluck]

Seth Rollins no doubt about that. Everytime he was on tv you wanted him to stay there longer than he actually did.
His matches were awesome.

Next i'd say is Charlotte. She, I believe, led the women's revolution. Not that Becky and Shasha were any less part of it but Charlotte was the one for me.

 

[Navi]

It's a toss up between New Day and Rollins. Both entertained the hell out of me all year, and New Day has come a long way since their beginnings. Rollins well what he managed to do speaks for itself.

He shed his Shield demeanor and old chums, completely changed his attitude and was the first to cash in the MITB at Wrestlemania. The major storyline of the year was him and the Authority against almost everyone else on the roster, and for a while it worked. Shame he got injured, and he will get one hell of a pop when he comes back if his appearance at the Slammy's were any indication of how the fans feel. They hated him but they miss him.

New Day took a horrible gimmick and turned it into gold. Woods and that trombone combined with Kofi skipping and Big E gyrating, made me look forward to RAW each week. They've worked great at being heelish faces, yes that is now an expression, and I hope they hold the titles for a while longer.