Sportskeeda WWE Awards 2016: Indie Superstar of the Year
WWE may be the biggest wrestling promotion in the world, but there are many promotions outside the company, that have been delivering quality wrestling matches, one after the other.
TNA, Ring Of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling and Lucha Underground are just some of the promotions with quality wrestlers who’ve dominated the year 2016 with exceptional matches, gimmicks and storylines.
In this countdown, we bring you the top five Superstars from the independent wrestling world from the past year. Before that, let’s look at some honourable mentions.
Honorable Mention 1- Will Ospreay
Let’s begin this countdown with a Superstar Vader isn't too fond of! Will Ospreay, in 2016, wrestled for NJPW fighting for the stable ‘Chaos’. At present, he's signed a deal with Ring of Honor, where he became World Television Champion in his debut match.
This year, he was part of the most talked about match outside of WWE, garnering both criticism and acclaim, against Ricochet! One thing is clear, Ospreay has a very bright future ahead of him.
Honourable Mention 2: Kazuchika Okada
Love him or hate him, you cannot argue with Okada's stats. From main eventing Wrestle Kingdom 10 to being the featured attraction for Wrestle Kingdom 11, Okada is the face of New Japan Pro Wrestling!
This year he became only the second Superstar in history to win three consecutive Match of the Year awards from Tokyo Sports for his match against Naomichi Marufuji.
Honourable Mention 3: Cody Rhodes
Cody Rhodes, formerly known as Stardust, is now more in the news than he was during his WWE run. Having been released in May, Rhodes has taken the independent world by storm. He has made quite an impact, becoming the current WCPW Internet Champion as well as the current GFW NEX*GEN Champion.
With runs in ROH and TNA, Cody is now the newest member of the Bullet Club. 2017 looks like a good year for the man!
Honourable Mention 4: Adam Cole
Adam Cole is the backbone of ROH, and also perhaps the most shocking entrant into the Bullet Club in the year 2016. At Global Wars, he joined the faction and soon enough defeated Jay Lethal to become ROH World Champion. He hung on to the title until December, when he was defeated by Kyle O’Reilly. Cole remains on WWE's radar at all times.
Honourable Mention 5: Tetsuya Naito
Naito has probably had the best year of his life in 2016. After winning the 2016 New Japan Cup, he defeated Okada to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the first time in April. Later in the year, he defeated Michael Elgin to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Little wonder then, Tokyo Sports called him the 2016 MVP in Japanese pro-wrestling.
And now our countdown begins...