Dot Net Awards: 2012 Best Pro Wrestler

Dot Net readers voted on a variety of 2012 awards throughout the month of January. The following are the results of our poll for Best Pro Wrestler. Thanks to everyone who took part in the voting. You can check out the past winners in our Awards section.

(1) C.M. Punk: 55 percent
(2) Dolph Ziggler: 8 percent
(3) Daniel Bryan: 8 percent
(4) John Cena: 6 percent
(5) Austin Aries: 5 percent
Others: 19 percent

Ryan Kester's Thoughts: It’s important to distinguish that I view this award purely based on the technical skills of wrestlers, keeping the MVP award more for the best overall package. For me, Daniel Bryan was the best wrestler of 2012. His in-ring style and the way he has completely incorporated the live crowds into how he wrestles make for consistently entertaining and enjoyable outings. That being said, I cannot fault someone for leaning towards CM Punk with this award. For me it comes down to a personal preference, and Bryan edges out Punk slightly in that regard.

Will Pruett's Thoughts: Who was the best wrestler in the world this year? How does one even choose the winner of this award. Picking a WWE wrestler or an indie wrestler is complicated. The indies allow a wrestler to go as far as they wish during a match. WWE places limits on their talent, in order to get the most cohesive show. Some would say the bet has to be on the biggest stage, but the indies definitely deserve some credit. I'm going to choose the cop-out answer and pick two separate wrestlers. On the indies, I don't believe the work of El Generico has been matched. What may be his final year on the indie scene was also one of his best, with memorable efforts against Kevin Steen, Samuray Del Sol, Sami Calihan, and many others. From the mainstream wrestling scene, the best professional wrestler this year has to go to Sheamus. He produced great matches with Daniel Bryan, Alberto Del Rio, Big Show, Dolph Ziggler, and carried Smackdown. While his out of the ring speeches left something to be desired, Sheamus had an amazing year of in-ring work. Is it weird to pick two foreign red heads as the best wrestlers of the year?

Jake Barnett’s Thoughts: I have to give the nod for Best Wrestler to CM Punk. Not only did he have one hell of a title run, but he also managed to have a variety of different matches and styles with a host of different opponents throughout. I think the measure of a good wrestler is continuing to have good matches despite the adaptation that is forced upon them by different opponents and styles. No one in Pro Wrestling embodied that more this year than CM Punk.

Chris Shore's Thoughts: The best pro wrestler of the year is CM Punk, but he is nowhere near the runaway winner that our readers have him as. CM Punk had a great year in the ring, taking John Cena to a great match at Night of Champions and Daniel Bryan to another great match at Over the Limit. SO there is no question he deserves to win. But Austin Aries also had a great year in the ring. His matches with Bobby Roode and Jeff Hardy for the TNA title make his worthy of an honorable mention here, and he really gave Punk a run for his money.

Jason Powell's Thoughts: I would love to see all of the wrestlers who are considered among the best in the world get together and cast private votes to determine the outcome. I'm sure there are years when it would be very different from the fan voting. This is the year of Punk in the awards and he worked his ass off in every televised title defense he had and was involved in some of the best matches of the year. Cena's appearance on this list will rile up some fans. He's not as consistent as the other wrestlers in the top five, but there's only so many times he can be nominated for best matches and have fans give all the credit to his opponent. Cena is a big game performer and wise enough to know that he can get by with the Five Moves of Doom more often than not. I wouldn't go as far as Will did in giving Sheamus the top mainstream wrestler award, but he is in my top five.