The Best And Worst Of Wrestling In 2016
2016 will go down as a year of spectacular highs and devastating lows for the wrestling industry. Throughout the year fans were treated to excellent matches and spectacular performances from promotions all over the world. New Japan Pro Wrestling stood tallest by year’s end, producing some of the best wrestling imaginable throughout the year.
WWE performed well in its own right, with the company putting on several great matches despite many unusual creative decisions.
Ring of Honor wasn’t far behind, as their partnership with NJPW and other promotions introduced their top stars to an international audience. Names like Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks, the Bullet Club, and Michael Elgin, are now household names to a new generation of wrestling fans.
Then there’s TNA. The promotion spent most of the year on life support, barely surviving or making enough money to produce its own TV show (reports still circulate that many employees are still unpaid or are owed mass sums of money).
Then Matt Hardy came along, became a nutcase, and breathed new life into the promotion with the most absurd and gimmickiest wrestling seen in many years.
Since most people view WWE more than other promotions, we’ll try to focus on them. On one hand, they got an influx of incredible new talent on all three major brands, which led to several unbelievable matches that most fans could only dream of the year prior.
On the other hand, not only has the company let go of several top Superstars, but they have also made several booking decisions that could be described as bizarre at best, and abysmal at worst.
So when you look at the wrestling landscape at the end of 2016, it was indeed an interesting year, where the best (and worst) things done by different promotions and wrestlers deserve to be recognised.
Here, we’ll be looking at the best and worst of wrestling in 2016. We’ll see which wrestlers stood out and carried their promotions on their shoulders, and which ones failed miserably in trying to catch the fans’ attention…
Best Wrestler: AJ Styles
Styles had some of the best matches in WWE throughout 2016.
Runners-Up: Shinsuke Nakamura, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Cesaro, Kazuchika Okada
There’s no question that Styles’ debut at the 2016 Royal Rumble was one of the biggest shocks of 2016.
Many thought that Styles, a man who had made his name on the independent scene and in Japan, was signed by WWE solely to take a big name that the promotion thought made its competition in New Japan too powerful and wanted him to be brought to WWE in order to ‘weaken’ him.
That didn’t happen, as Styles reached the top of WWE in very short order, putting on some of the best matches of the entire year. Moreover, he has been consistent in his match quality, becoming the highlight of every show he was on. His matches against John Cena at SummerSlam and Dean Ambrose at TLC were some of the best WWE had to offer.
Given his tendency for good matches on a regular basis, there’s no question that Styles wins this award.
In choosing runners-up for this award, I had to look at their overall performance throughout the year, taking booking into consideration. Shinsuke Nakamura delivered an outstanding performance against AJ Styles at Wrestle Kingdom 10 and put on several spectacular performances at NXT TakeOver events.
However, those matches were so few and far between that it prevented him from winning the award.
Kevin Owens was outstanding this year in most of his matches, showing surprising versatility and athleticism. Sami Zayn had excellent matches with both Nakamura and Owens throughout the year and managed to make even a throwaway RAW match with the latter into something special.
Cesaro also deserves credit for being arguably the most underrated and world-title-worthy wrestler on the RAW roster; given his superhuman blend of strength and athleticism.
Finally, a special consideration should go to the new Ace of New Japan, Kazuchika Okada, who solidified that status with several breathtaking performances. I know most people don’t watch NJPW enough, but I strongly urge you to at least watch a handful of Okada’s matches to see how insanely good this man is.