Welcome to another edition of the HONOR ROLL. Every year during my "Year End Awards" I give out roughly 15 awards. Of those awards, "the big four" are the Wrestler, Woman, Tag Team & Match of the year. The winners of these awards were generally the most awesome performers of the year and with hundreds of prominent wrestlers worldwide, it's a true honor to be able to snag one of the four. This section of the blog will be dedicated to the winners for every year dating all the way back to 1990 (roughly the time I first began watching wrestling)! Every week I will add another year's winners until the database is up to date. This is just a fun series that will give you an idea of what the best of the best was in any year you may have missed. Any current and/or future winners will also be added to the honor roll and join the most prestigious group in all of blogging!
This week, we're announcing the class of 2007!
Wrestler Of The Year: John Cena
John Cena had what was arguably, the best year of his career in 2007. He spent the majority of it capping off an amazing 380 day reign as WWE Champion that saw him have a spectacular series of matches. He was the consummate fighting champion, defeating the likes of Umaga, Shawn Michaels, Edge, Bobby Lashley, Randy Orton and The Great Khali. Though no matter who he was up against, in or out of the ring Cena was the WWE's workhorse champion and he proved that he belonged in the top spot with his consistent ability to tear the house down with such a wide variety of opponents. It's a run that has gone on to become one of the most underrated in WWE history even though he spent the majority of the year in the spotlight.
Runner Up: Kurt Angle
Woman Of The Year: Gail Kim
Gail Kim is almost single handedly responsible for establishing TNA's Knockouts divsion with her brilliant performances throughout 2007. Backstage, she was the company's most vocal ambassador for women's wrestling and she would finally earn the right to become the promotion's first ever TNA Women's Knockout Champion at Bound For Glory III. After defeating Angelina Love, Roxxi and ODB, she would engage in one of the most essential women's rivalries of the entire decade when she took part in a series of revolutionary matches with the debuting Awesome Kong. Aside from competing in some of the best matches in TNA history (with Kong), Gail Kim was also named TNA's Knockout Of The Year.
Runner Up: Sara Del Rey
Tag Team Of The Year: The Briscoe Brothers
Perhaps the greatest and most famous tag team in ROH history, brothers Jay and Mark Briscoe are one of the most unique and exciting duos ever. In 2007, they would hold on to the ROH World Tag Team Championship for 275 days, pulling in a record 19 successful title defenses and beating many formidable teams such as El Generico and Kevin Steen. The Steenerico rivalry would also result in some of the more popular matches ROH has ever seen. They would also manage to capture NOAH GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship when they beat Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Takashi Sugiura for the gold.
Runner Up: Paul London & Brian Kendrick
Match Of The Year:: ROH Mahattan Mayhem: Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima
This match is one of the best examples of the tried and true "David vs. Goliath" match formula. It's become one of the most common, but always successful match types. What made this match special was the fact that the psychology was far above any other match I've seen in the past decade. Danielson would begin one of his best feuds with ROH's unstoppable monster and even though they would continue afterwards, this match would remain the standout. Morishima's no-selling most of Bryan's offense made the Dragon increasingly frustrated and the two would take the physicality to higher and higher levels until finally, after a series of precisely aimed kicks, Danielson would take the giant off his feet. It was one of those chill worthy moments that only occurs when you've built a match to absolute perfection. A standout match in both men's careers.
Runner Up:: WWE Raw 4/23: John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels
Have an one hour match with hbk. But still cena sucks and can't wrestle. That's the reason I hate internet but love this blog so much cuz it's the only place where everyone gets the praise he deserve.
ReplyDeleteBtw, danielson has many standout match that it's hard to count.wwe is smart enough to sign him. Wish if they could also sign nigel and aries.
Anyone who still raises the "Cena can't wrestle" argument instantly loses much of their opinion's value for me. He deserves credit for performing on such a high level for so long. And Nigel McGuinness would have been a great hand if he were to make it to WWE television. Sad to see things end the way they did for him.
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