By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Dot Net readers were allowed a single vote per day for each of the 2020 awards categories. The following are the results of our poll for Best Male Pro Wrestler along with our staff comments. Thanks to everyone who took part in the voting.
1. Drew McIntyre (27 percent)
2. Jon Moxley (20 percent)
3. Roman Reigns (10 percent)
4. Kenny Omega (6 percent)
5. Kota Ibushi (5 percent)
Others (32 percent)
Colin McGuire’s Thoughts: There are definite arguments to be made for Drew McIntyre, Randy Orton, and Jon Moxley, as the first two were the most consistent in WWE in 2020 while the latter held the AEW Title for nearly the entire year. I would have a tough time giving this to anyone in NJPW only because they shut everything down for a good chunk of the year. And so while it was a tough choice, I always found myself coming back to Kenny Omega. He was in arguably the best tag team match of the year at Revolution, and then to cap it off, he ended the year as the AEW Champion. It felt like he finally kicked into the next gear after feeling somewhat wasted on the roster during the early days of the company, and where he goes from here ought to be something to watch. I’m still not entirely sold on his heel persona, but it felt like this guy worked his ass off in 2020, and his match with Hangman Page at Full Gear was a low-key classic. It only felt right for him to walk away with this.
Anish V’s Thoughts: This man started 2020 as AEW Tag Team Champion and completely evolved over the course of the year, going through some of the best feuds and matches on Dynamite while doing so, and eventually ending up as the AEW World Champion in a well told, cross company storyline. If there’s one guy who came back up to full power in these times it was Kenny Omega and, boy, did he do so in fantastic fashion.
Nick Perkins’ Thoughts: It was a relatively strong year for all three former members of The Shield. Seth Rollins developed a Messiah complex but put on some great matches (he also had his first child). Roman Reigns sat out of WrestleMania due to his convictions and health concerns but came back at SummerSlam literally than better than ever, and has been the best part of Smackdown ever since. But Jon Moxley had the best year of the three, and arguably the best year of any other wrestler. Moxley challenged Chris Jericho for the AEW Championship in February of 2020. He won the match, and the title, and defended it for the rest of the year against some very solid contenders, including Eddie Kingston, Brian Cage, MJF, the late Brodie Lee, and many others. Though he lost the title to Kenny Omega in January, he’s poised to have another great year, as he takes on the newly-reunited Bullet Club (ish). If 2020 was any indication, Moxley is going to be a fixture of AEW for years to come.
Jason Powell’s Thoughts: It’s interesting that of the six men who made our 2019 top five (there was a tie for one spot), Jon Moxley is the only wrestler who made it back to the 2020 top five. Yet while Moxley had a very good year, he failed to crack our best match candidate’s list. Meanwhile, four Drew McIntyre matches made the list. None of those matches will end up winning match of the year, but they help tell the story of McIntyre’s in-ring consistency. The readers got it right by going with McIntyre as the best male pro wrestler.
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