Lo-Down Wrestling Awards 2012

Happy new year, everyone (belatedly!) It's time for the 2nd annual Lo-Down Wrestling Awards. Sorry I haven't been updating the blog as much as I would like. I'm still into wrestling as I still listen to podcasts as well as read about it; but I rarely get to watch RAW, Smackdown and Impact and I've been in no major hurry to watch and review the Pay-Per-Views over the last few months. Hopefully, I will get to watch more wrestling in 2013 and get round to watching the PPVs a lot sooner after they take place.

Anyway, back to the awards. I decided not to publish an article with the nominations this year, so I decided to just publish the winners with a few honorable mentions for people that I thought came close to winning that  particular award. This year, there are 14 awards including 2 new ones.

Male Wrestler of the Year
CM Punk

2012 was been the year of Punk. He has been involved in feuds with Chris Jericho and Daniel Bryan then, after attacking The Rock and turning heel, feuds with John Cena and Ryback. Punk has been a joy to watch over 2012, especially since Paul Heyman became an associate of his, and he will be facing the Rock at the Royal Rumble. I feel that 2013 will be better than ever for Punk as he has proven that he can be one of the faces of the WWE.

Female Wrestler of the Year
Eve Torres

It's been a good year for Eve. She was involved in the feud with Kane, John Cena and Zack Ryder at the beginning of the year. Ignoring the way that her role ended (which was probably the worst moment of the year for WWE), she still had TV time throughout the year, being part of the staff for first John Lauriniatis (did you know he used to be the General Manager of both RAW and Smackdown?) then Booker T. Eve, through allegedly nefarious means, defeated Layla to become Divas Champion and has improved her wrestling ability to look like someone who deserves to be Champion. I'm gutted that Eve has now left the WWE just as her character was getting so much more interesting.
Honorable Mention - AJ Lee
AJ Lee has been fun to watch over the year, being Daniel Bryan's long suffering girlfriend and being a thorn in the side of CM Punk and Kane. I like crazy AJ and I'm happy that she has returned to that at the end of the year, aligning herself with Dolph Ziggler and I will be forever grateful to stopping John Cena winning the MITB briefcase at TLC. However, I just found her reign as RAW General Manager as a missed opportunity ; instead it was just...generic.

Fav 5 Wrestler of the Year
This award goes to the person who was the most consistent in the Fav 5 table over the last year and the winner is...
Daniel Bryan

Daniel Bryan came very close to winning the Male Wrestler of the Year. Bryan had a brilliantly subtle heel turn as World Heavyweight Champion and had a great feud with Big Show, Mark Henry then Sheamus. He then had amazing matches with CM Punk in the summer. Bryan then had a feud with Kane and then reluctantly joined forces with him to become the Tag Team Champions. Bryan has had amazing character development over the year and I hope it continues into 2013.

Most Improved Wrestler of the Year
Joseph Parks

While Joseph Parks (brother of Chris? You know, Abyss?) is a new character, it is done by the same guy who does Abyss (Chris Parks). I found it weird to begin with but I slowly got into it and I started to love his character more and more to the point that along with Austin Aries and Christopher Daniels and Kazarian, probably one of the best things going on in TNA right now, and certainly one of the funniest. It is a testament to Chris Parks to go from a man who is a psoychpathic loner to someone who is the complete polar opposite.

Feud of the Year
Chris Jericho vs CM Punk February - May

This was a great feud over who was the best in the world. Jericho used Punk's family history of alcoholism and drug abuse against him and the matches that they had at Wrestlemania and Extreme Rules were some of the best matches of the year.

Moment of the Year
Punk attacking the Rock at RAW 1000

This moment was the culmination of months of frustration for CM Punk. Punk was WWE Champion for almost 9 months, yet he was only in 1 PPV main event and that was at TLC 2011. Since then, John Cena was been involved in every main event bar the Royal Rumble. The Rock comes in at RAW 1000 and says that he will be getting a WWE title shot at the next Royal Rumble based on what? Old times sake? When the Big Show then Rock interfere in the match between Cena and Punk, he snapped. All the focus was on the Rock when it should be (deservedly) on the WWE Champion, and that made Punk turn heel and attack the Rock.

Surprising Moment of the Year
Devon being revealed as a member of Aces and Eights

This wins the award thanks to the way that TNA did it. In the age of social media, it is hard to do something like this without it being revealed as kayfabe. TNA actually announced that Devon had left the company and subsequently, was stripped of the Television Championship. It was a quite ingenious way to doing it and TNA should be applauded for the way they did it.

Best Newcomer
Antonio Cesaro

Antonio Cesaro has been such a joy to watch since he debuted after Wrestlemania. First, he was revealed as Askana's boyfriend. He soon dumped her and became United States Champion. His matches have been fun to watch and I'm impressed with his wrestling ability and his mic skills.

Best Returnee
Paul Heyman

Paul Heyman returned as an associate to Brock Lesnar, which was exactly what Brock needed as he is not the best person on the mic. When Paul was revealed to be allied with CM Punk, I didn't think it was necessary for Punk's character, although I loved the way that it was revealed. However, it seemed to make Punk's character so much better and that is a testament to Paul Heyman. Plus, I love it when he holds up the WWE Championship when Punk is doing a promo.

This year, I will be awarding two douchebags of the year; one for kayfabe and one for real-life.

Douchebag of the Year (kayfabe)
John Cena

2012 is the year that I became a Cena hater. Cena kisses Eve, the object of Zack Ryder's affection, then degrades her and calls her "a hoeski" the next week; is featured in every fucking main event on PPV that year, sometimes undeserving so; gets to wrestle for Ziggler for the MITB briefcase for no justifiable reason; then "cockblocks" Ziggler from cashing it in the next night. What a fucking douchebag!

Douchebag of the Year (Real-Life)
Kenneth Cameron

For those of you who are unfamiliar with FCW and NXT, Kenneth Cameron was part of the tag team Ascension, along with Conor O'Brien. The rumours going round is that they were ready to sent to the main roster during 2013. Unfortunately, Cameron got arrested for driving under the influence and battery against a police officer. WWE didn't take kindly to that and wished him well in his future endeavours. These actions not only affected his chances but O'Brien's as well. Now we won't get to see their cool entrance on the big stage.

Match of the Year
Undertaker vs Triple H, Wrestlemania XXVIII

When this match was first announced, I wasn't really into it; although I liked the way that you had the Undertaker forcing Triple H to accept the challenge instead of the other way round. It wasn't until it became a hell in a cell match and Shawn Michaels was the special guest referee that I got interested in the match. The match itself was awesome. The majority of us knew that Undertaker was going to win but there were moments that made you think otherwise, especially when Undertaker got hit with the Sweet Chin Music followed by the Pedigree. I also loved Shawn's role as referee. I think that he just wanted to be there because it is a big match. However, he didn't expect the brutality of the match and the lengths that Undertaker and Triple H were willing to go to win. When Undertaker has a match at Wrestlemania, you have the problem of making people believe that there is a chance that Undertaker could lose. The match really delivered on that and it should be applauded.

Worst Match of the Year
Sheamus vs Daniel Bryan, Wrestlemania XXVIII

While there have been some really bad matches this year, none had made me as angry as this match did. I was really looking forward to this match, especially as they got screwed out of the main card last year and that match degenerated into  a clusterfuck battle royal. Although I was surprised that the match was on first, I didn't expect to see what happened next. The bell rang, AJ kissed Bryan luck, Bryan turns round and gets his head brogue kicked off by Sheamus, and he gets the win. It lasted EIGHTEEEN FUCKING SECONDS(!!!) Even though, both guys have developed since then (especially Daniel Bryan), it still makes me angry that the WWE almost ruined the whole event with that match to open their biggest event of the year.

PPV of the Year
WWE Extreme Rules, April 2012

Extreme Rules was a fun PPV that had a lot of good matches. Even though the main event had Cena beating Brock, it felt ok and it kinda made sense.
Honorable Mention- TNA Slammiversary X, June 2012
Even though I have only watched TNA for just over a year, I think this is the best PPV that I have ever seen by TNA. The matches were good and I thought that the first match between Samoa Joe and Austin Aries (the best thing in TNA right now) was probably the best match TNA had in 2012. TNA set a high standard with that event and even though the following PPVs have not been as good, you know what TNA are capable of doing.