Best Gimmick:
Toni Storm: Toni Storm has always been a very good wrestler in the ring. Her matches with Shida, Jamie Hayter and others have proved that but in 2023, Toni finally broke through with her promo and character work with her wild and crazed Hollywood starlet character. Her promos are fantastic and entertaining now. She sells the gimmick perfectly in the ring. Even her commentary is better and the fans are invested the whole time. And what really makes the whole thing work for me is that she is acting weird and bizzare and everyone else acknowledges that she is acting weird. Perfect! If Toni is able to keep up her wrestling while bringing this character to the ring, she will be gold for a long time to come.-Alex Kalil
Christian Cage, Father of the Year-Justin Bailey
Best Commentator:
Kevin Kelly: There were several good commentators this year but for me, Kevin was the best. It was sad to see his time in NJPW come to an end but he has been a welcomed addition to AEW Collision and continues to be fantastic.-Alex Kalil
Taz-Justin Bailey
Breakout Star of the Year:
Swerve Strickland: Is there any question whose house it is? Swerve has been a great worker for a long time. He had an amazing short run in EVOLVE before going to NXT and you could always tell he was right on the cusp of breaking out. In 2023, he did just that. Swerve has found the It Factor needed to be a top star. He carries himself like a star, he looks like one, he talks like one and he has great matches. It's a matter of when and how soon AEW puts the belt on him, not if.-Alex Kalil
Swerve Strickland-Justin Bailey
Most Overrated:
Austin Theory: Maybe Austin doesn't deserve to win this after the back half of 2023 settled him into a tag team with Grayson Waller but the fact remains, Austin Theory got booked in a match with John Cena at Wrestlemania and I don't remember a moment of the match outside the low blow finish. I think it was a low blow. Point is, Theory got a massive Mania match and did nothing with it. Overrated. Next.-Alex Kalil
Roman Reigns-Justin Bailey
Most Underrated:
Konosuke Takeshita: Got a solid babyface run early in the year including really good matches against Danielson and MJF, turns heel on Omega, beats him twice on PPV in a week and still feels like he is just floating there. Bad booking for Takeshita, who honestly should be the next up and coming heel and doing something more meaningful.-Alex Kalil
Daniel Garcia-Justin Bailey
Most Improved:
Swerve Strickland: As said in the Breakout Star of the Year section, Swerve really elevated himself this year and filled in any and all holes in his package as a top star. Now, it is just up to the booking to look after him and give him a chance to show what he can do more.-Alex Kalil
Big Bill-Justin Bailey
Female Wrestle of the Year:
Athena: A lot of people will be picking Rhea Ripley for this spot and I don't blame them. Rhea had the best women's match of the year and is on quite a nice run as champion right now. Problem is: what has she done with that title run? Athena has taken the ROH Women's division, which many, including myself, had little to no interest in to being the best part of the weekly ROH shows. Athena had great TV matches with Skye Blue and Leyla Hirsch plus main evented two ROH PPVs with matches against Willow Nightingale and Billie Starkz, both which were fantastic matches. Hell, the feud with Starkz is in the running for Feud of the Year. Rhea maybe Mami but Athena was a Goddess this year in wrestling.-Alex Kalil
Athena-Justin Bailey
Worst TV Show:
NXT: Honestly a tough call between this and the 3 hour chore that is Raw but NXT still has too much crap on it. Bad comedy angles and skits, crap feuds and a lot of people not ready for TV. This is still all the things wrong with WWE TV without the star power.-Alex Kalil
ROH TV-Justin Bailey
Best TV Show:
AEW Dynamite: So on the one hand, Dynamite was not a perfect show this year. There were some bad shows, no question. Smackdown and Collision were good shows for different reasons but Dynamite continues to be my favorite wrestling TV show right now. Even on bad weeks, you are guaranteed to have something worth watching and enjoying.-Alex Kalil
AEW Dynamite-Justin Bailey
Best Talker:
MJF: No question or debate here. Whether it was getting people to want to see him get his ass kicked or cutting up a fired up babyface promo, MJF was the best talker this year. He effortlessly turned from the biggest heel to the biggest babyface in AEW like it was nothing and yet still felt like the same person. MJF is the best and I will not hear otherwise.-Alex Kalil
LA Knight-Justin Bailey
Promo of the Year:
Adam Page on Swerve Strickland from AEW Dynamite 11/15/2023: There were several good and even great promos this year but once again, The Hangman pulled off the best one. In the lead up to these two's legendary Texas Deathmatch, Adam Page reminded me and a lot of people why he is THE babyface of AEW. He was fired up, emotional and threatening. You knew that something big was going to happen in their match and you knew you had to see what it was. Plus, Page saying he was going to beat up Nana and steal his weed is just the cherry on top of this promo. More promos like this from Page in 2024, please.-Alex Kalil
Alex Coughlin’s G1 promo-Justin Bailey
Worst Feud of the Year:
Ronda Rousey vs. Shayna Baszler: Honestly, this feud is here for one reason and one reason only: their Summerslam match was the worst match of the year. I was there live for Summerslam and I never knew it was possible for a wrestling match to cause 50,000+ people to be silent but then this match happened. It was awful, bad and just sad. On top of all this, watch these two's feud and let me know who the babyface and heel is. I rest my case.-Alex Kalil
Bully Ray vs. IMPACT Management-Justin Bailey
Best Feud of the Year:
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Eddie Kingston: A feud that has been brewing under the surface since these two's days in CHIKARA in 2008-2011. The feud was touched upon when Claudio showed up in AEW but in 2023, we finally got to see these two go at it one on one. From the promos to all three of their matches through AEW and ROH along with any tag matches they were in were all increible matches and these two always did a great job selling the pure hatred the two share. Even after Claudio was dethroned as ROH champion by Kingston and showed him the slightest respect with a handshake, it was more out of duty as the beaten champion and not as true respect between foes. Their final match as part of the Continental Classic was a great finish to the feud for now with Kingston beating Claudio with the same pin that Claudio beat Kingston with a Supercard of Honor to bring the feud full circle for now.-Alex Kalil
Swerve Strickland vs. "Hangman" Adam Page-Justin Bailey
Worst Major Show:
WWE Crown Jewel 2023: I will be honest: there were not any Major Shows in 2023 that I would flat out call terrible. Double or Nothing and Worlds End were underwhelming shows capped off with fantastic main event matches but the shows as a whole were not horrible. Crown Jewel, overall, isn't a completely awful show but very lacking compared to the rest of the year. Rollins vs. Drew was a good match and the match of the night but the rest of the card featured two forgettable women's match, Cena getting squashed by Solo (who went right back into his role as the mute enforcer of the Bloodline after this), Logan Paul winning the US title in a good TV match and Roman having another Roman match with the super hot LA Knight, which did neither men any favors. This card and show could have elevated a few people and instead just wasted a series of moments that could've been meaningful on other nights for a cheap pop.-Alex Kalil
WWE Crown Jewel 2023-Justin Bailey
Best Major Show:
AEW All Out 2023: A week before this show, AEW had All In London, which was my easy pick for show of the year. The scale, the matches, the atmosphere. It all clicked that night. And then All Out happened and somehow topped it. Going into this show, it was announced Punk was fired from AEW and this show was taking place IN Chicago. This could have been a disaster. Instead, AEW did what AEW does best when the odds are against them: deliver! MJF and Joe start their feud in fantastic fashion. Luchasaur and Darby had an incredible match. Miro and Hobbs had a match of two meaty men slapping meat. Danielson and Stark gave us the greatest modern day Strap match. Takeshita beat Omega clean as a whistle in a great match and Moxley dethroned Cassidy as International Champion after a legendary reign with the belt. This was a wrestling PPV for wrestling fans. What a show!-Alex Kalil
AEW Revolution 2023-Justin Bailey
Stable of the Year-Bullet Club Gold: This award could have gone a lot of different ways. The year started with The Bloodline easily being the best stable, only to fizzle out by the mid-point of the year. Bullet Club War Dogs had a great start this year and looked hot but again fizzled out and were background players. And Judgement Day did a lot to stand out but I just ain't feeling it personally. Meanwhile, Bullet Club Gold started off as an afterthought and grew into one of the best and most popular acts in AEW. White and Robinson had an all time classic 2 Out of 3 Falls match with FTR and White also had a great PPV match with MJF (at least in my opinion). The future looks really bright for this stable and clearly the fans are behind them.-Alex Kalil
The Blackpool Combat Club-Justin Bailey
Tag Team of the Year:
FTR: Another year of FTR being the best tag team around. From their matches with White and Robinson, a third classic match with The Young Bucks, and a few trios matches with Punk, FTR was amazing all year. What more is there to say? Honorable mention to the Usos and Owens/Zayn for being so good that they got the Mania main event. Well deserved.-Alex Kalil
FTR-Justin Bailey
Best Promotion of the Year:
AEW: In 2023, AEW had several of the best PPVs, the two best TV shows, the best matches of the year, the best wrestler of the year, best tag team, best gimmick, best everything. Is there really a question as to why I would pick them for my promotion of the year?-Alex Kalil
AEW-Justin Bailey
Most Outstanding Wrestler:
Will Ospreay: Ospreay may very well be THE Billy GOAT after 2023. The amount of MOTY candidates this man had is insane. Matches with Omega, Okada, Naito, Shingo, Maurfuji, Umino, Tsuji, Sabre, Bailey, Alexander. The man was literally near the top of every promotions MOTY list that he worked for. Just an insane year for Ospreay and the fact that he will be on AEW TV in 2024 makes me very excited.-Alex Kalil
Bryan Danielson-Justin Bailey
Match of the Year:
60 Minute Ironman Match for the AEW World Championship: MJF vs. Bryan Danielson at AEW Revolution 2023: There were a lot of incredible matches this year but for my money: this was the greatest one. For 60 minutes MJF and Danielson told an amazing story of MJF, the cowardly champion doing everything to defeat the better, veteran babyface Danielson. And for the entire 60 minutes plus, we the fans were hooked to every second. This was a perfect pro wrestling match in every measurable way. It was the Greatest Iron Man Match of all time. And it very well could be one of the greatest 60 minute matches of all time but it is easily the 2023 Match of the Year-Alex Kalil
60 Minute Ironman Match for the AEW World Championship: MJF vs. Bryan Danielson at AEW Revolution 2023-Justin Bailey
Wrestler of the Year:
Bryan Danielson: For me, there is a lot that goes into being the wrestler of the year. Great matches and promos are naturally a big part, things that made Will Ospreay and even MJF possible candidates. However, the biggest factor is their importance to their promotion and its continued success, something Roman Reigns did very much in 2023 but his lack of screen time hurt him for me. My pick is Bryan Danielson. Danielson had incredible matches with everyone he stepped into the ring with including Takeshita, Rush, Bandito, MJF, The Elite, Okada, Starks, Sabre before going on to have one of the best tournament runs of all time in the Continental Classic. And during this whole time, Danielson effortlessly transitioned from babyface or heel (sometimes in back to back nights) to fit in whatever role he needed to be in for his match and it never felt forced. Danielson isn't a babyface or heel. He is Bryan Fucking Danielson. He is the American Dragon. And he is the 2023 Wrestler of the Year.-Alex Kalil
MJF-Justin Bailey
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