Dot Net readers voted on a variety of 2015 awards throughout the month of January. The following are the results of our poll for MVP of Pro Wrestling. Thanks to everyone who took part in the voting.
(1) Seth Rollins (37 percent)
(2) AJ Styles (14 percent)
(3) Ethan Carter III (10 percent)
(4) Brock Lesnar (10 percent)
(5) Bayley (4 percent)
Others: 29 percent
Will Pruett’s Thoughts: In a year where he transitioned out of the full time main event scene, John Cena was wrestling’s most valuable player. He elevated a secondary title in WWE, something no one had done in over a decade. He created a must-watch weekly segment on the three hour Raw show. He had entertaining matches with a bevy of wrestlers, making Kevin Owens and enhancing Cesaro, Neville, Sami Zayn, Rusev, and many others. Cena was a delight in 2015 and easily the most valuable part of the WWE roster.
Jake Barnett’s Thoughts: Without a doubt in my mind, the winner of this year’s MVP award goes to EC3. This may be controversial to some, but I can’t think of another promotion that relied as heavily on one talent as TNA did on EC3. He was involved in almost all of the programming worth watching this year, and I’m not even sure that’s much of an exaggeration.
John Moore’s Thoughts: Without Seth Rollins, what would WWE have done most of the year. We truly understood how important he was when he got injured and his injury threw every single storyline in WWE out of whack. You can count of him for a great match, a 20 minute promo segment, a comedy segment, a serious segment, a PR appearance. You can count on Seth Rollins to carry every single segment and WWE deserves a little credit for making him a top heel. He even had to deal with Stephanie McMahon’s bigfooting him and he still stood strong.
Haydn Gleed’s Thoughts: Not going to be a popular choice but it has to be John Cena. Before you throw stones through my windows let me explain. Aside from the mountains of merchandise he sells which that alone makes him an MVP for any roster he is on, who else has managed to elevate a secondary title so quickly and successfully as John Cena did? Who has wrestled such a wide variety of opponents from Sami Zayn to Wade Barrett to Cesaro to the big guys in Seth Rollins and had good to great matches with them all? If you are honest with yourselves, you knew that one way or another when Cena came out in 2015 for a match or segment, you were likely going to get an entertaining 20 minutes for one reason or another. Despite how you feel about Cena being pushed over everyone else who’s name isn’t Reigns, and I’d probably agree with you, you can’t deny that the man had an amazing 2015 both in the ring and on the mic and was often in the best segment of any wrestling show for the majority of weeks in 2015.
Darren Gutteridge’s Thoughts: Seth Rollins. When WWE was in a cesspool of negativity at the start of the year, which threatened to reach nuclear levels at Wrestlemania 31, they turned to Seth Rollins. And he absolutely smashed his opportunity straight out of the park. A lot of pressure was put on Rollins to end the tailspin, and while he alone couldn’t do it, no one can accuse him of not giving his all every time he was out there. The late in the year injury made it a closer race between him and a few other contenders, but considering the deficit he started at, Rollins was still the only real winner in my eyes.
Jason Powell’s Thoughts: Some may argue that working a part-time schedule is a negative, but WWE made great use of Brock Lesnar when they used him in 2016. Heck, even his match with Kofi Kingston in Japan made many of us get up early or stay up late on July 4. He and the company benefit from his reduced schedule. It felt like a big deal when Lesnar appeared on television and a bigger deal when he actually wrestled. John Cena is still WWE’s day-to-day MVP. He’s still the king of the merchandise and he breathed some new life into his act by working several memorable matches even on regular television. Rollins had a great year and gets my nod for third place.
Be the first to comment