5 Takeaways from WWE Backstage (December 24th, 2019)
Since this week's show took place on Christmas Eve, not much happened in terms of news on the latest episode of WWE Backstage. While both Maria Menounos and Richard Jewell actor Paul Walter Hauser joined the show as guests, the lack of a usual WWE Superstar guest that provides some insight hurt things this week.
Instead, this edition's focus was handing out awards in various categories including 'Male and Female Performers of the Year' as well as 'Moment of the Year'. Each category had four nominees and the winners had obviously been revealed in advance due to them having pre-taped thank you videos.
RAW was also pre-taped this week but was barely discussed. New angles were added to the Seth Rollins/AOP partnership storyline like Samoa Joe standing up to the AOP and getting put through a table for his efforts. It was strange not to have it addressed. One of the award categories was 'Breakthrough Superstar of the Year' with Ricochet, Nikki Cross, the Viking Raiders, and the Street Profits as the nominees.
In a slight surprise, the award was won by Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford. It felt odd since they've been on the main roster the shortest and have not won titles like the rest of the nominees. But I wasn't picking the winners, so I guess it's a moot point. Nevertheless, here are five takeaways from the December 24th episode of WWE Backstage that mainly center around the awards that were handed out.
#5 Tag Team of the Year - the New Day
One of the categories was 'Tag Team of the Year' and it wasn't really a shocker regarding the winner. The nominees were the New Day, the Revival, the Viking Raiders, and the OC. While each team won gold this year, the New Day winning was a slam dunk and the closest to a surety among these awards. During the acceptance video, Big E tried to eat the award but was luckily unsuccessful.
Booker T said that when the trio initially debuted years ago, things "could have gone south really, really quick." But due to their run as seven-time Champions and as one of the most entertaining acts in wrestling history, he felt that they were already the greatest tag team in WWE history.
Various versions of the team have held gold this year as Big E and Xavier Woods were once the Champions but E and Kofi Kingston are the current title holders on SmackDown. It's going to be hard to pick some other team for this award in 2020 unless a different duo has a completely mesmerizing year.