The 411 Wrestling Year-End Awards: Part Six – The Best PPV/Major Show of The Year

Welcome back to the Wrestling Top 5, year-end awards edition! What we are going to is take a topic, and all the writers here on 411 will have the ability to give us their Top 5 on said topic, and the end, based on where all of these topics rank on people’s list, we will create an overall Top 5 list. It looks a little like this…

1st – 5
2nd – 4
3rd – 3
4th – 2
5th – 1

It’s similar to how we do the WOTW voting. At the end we tally the scores and get our overall top 5! It’s highly non-official and final, like WWE’s old power rankings. From some of the best and worst, the 411 staff is ready to break down the awards! Thanks for joining us, and lets get down to work.

Mike Chin
5. WWE SummerSlam
4. NXT Takeover
3. WWE Extreme Rules
2. NXT R Evolution

1. WWE WrestleMania 30 – WrestleMania 30 wasn’t flawless, but it did have some outstanding moments. The show featured two legitimately great Daniel Bryan matches (that weren’t only strongly executed in-ring bouts, but featured the most satisfying finishes of the year), the shock of Brock Lesnar breaking the streak, the true WrestleMania moment of Cesaro body slamming The Big Show out of the ring, and, of course, the lead off promo in which Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, and The Rock riffed off of one another. Yes, I would have loved for The Shield to have gotten more time, and for John Cena-Bray Wyatt to have had a better pay off, but just the same, I’d argue that we got a borderline top five all-time WrestleMania, which is not too shabby.

Mike Hammerlock
5. NXT Takeover
4. Chikara Tomorrow Never Dies
3. WWE WrestleMania XXX
2. NXT Takeover: R Evolution

1. NJPW G1 Climax Tournament – I suppose we could have an endless argument over which night from the G1 Climax tournament was the best. I can’t sort it out. I watch NJPW piecemeal as it is. What I do know was that the G1 Climax Tournament was a 12-day wrestling orgy that collectively blew away all other contenders. I’m taking the field pick here. AJ Styles and Kazuchika Okada faced off on the opening night in a MOTY contender and then both guys tore it up for the next week-and-a-half. Okada beat Shinsuke Nakamura in the final, also in a MOTY contender. The event produced dozens of quality matches. Not only was it an amazing amount of good stuff, it was the best stuff NJPW produced all year. I can’t even imagine watching all 12 days in a row. It must be exhausting. As for my other votes, NXT produced some great events. I hated the build to WrestleMania, but the talent delivered on the night. And I’ve got a weak spot for Chikara.

Scott Rutherford
5. NJPW G1 Climax – Day 6
4. PWG BOLA Night 2
3. NJPW G1 Climax – Day 7
2. NXT Takeover: R Evolution

1. NJPW G1 Climax – Day 8 – There is very little in the history of wrestling that can touch this night in terms of pure wrestling awesomeness. Mileage may vary depending on the viewer but I counted six ****+ matches on this show and two more that were in the ***+ range. The great thing was a) you didn’t need to be a puro fan to enjoy it and b) all the matches were different. It’s funny because the two nights leading to this was some of the best wrestling you will ever see and you would never think that a crew that was as beat up as these guys could have managed to go out and completely top themselves. Simply an amazing night of wrestling dominating a G1 Climax that boasted around 35 ****+ matches over an amazing 12 days of action.

Kevin P
5. Final Battle 2014
4. WWE Extreme Rules
3. NXT ArRival
2. WrestleMania 30

1. NXT TakeOver: R Evolution – This was the perfect show to me. It opened with the highly anticipated debut of Kevin Owens, who impressed. Things slowed with a solid little tag match before moving into a squash. Then, everything picked up. Finn Balor had an entrance that would make special WrestleMania entrances jealous before putting a damn good tag match with Hideo Itami and the Ascension. Charlotte and Sasha Banks next set the bar for women’s wrestling, putting on the best women’s match of the year. Hell, maybe even of the decade. In the main event, Sami Zayn capped off a near yearlong angle in which he finally won the big one. They put on a great main event full of storytelling before we got the feel good celebration. It was then cut short by Kevin Owens turning on his best friend. Not only was this the best show of the year but it gave me reason to tune in the following week.

Justin Watry
5. WWE Survivor Series
4. WWE Royal Rumble
3. WWE Summerslam
2. NXT Takeover: R Evolution

1. WrestleMania XXX – The recent NXT live special was just off the charts amazing, with an incredible main event. For the first time in years, a non-WrestleMania event gave WrestleMania a run for its money. Even though I looooooved NXT Takeover: R Evolution last week, nothing can top Mania. Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold, and The Rock shared a beer in the middle of the ring. Daniel Bryan defeated Triple H in maybe the best PPV opener of all-time. Cesaro got a cool moment by winning the first Andre the Giant battle royal by eliminating Big Show. John Cena and Bray Wyatt was good with a lively crowd. The FREAKIN’ Streak came to an end. The Shield made their presence known in a nice ‘passing of the torch’ match from on era to the next. So many great things happened I am likely forgetting some stuff. With how the night ended though for Daniel Bryan winning the top prize, WWE hit a home run with WrestleMania XXX.

Paul Leazar
5. RoH Final Battle
4. CHIKARA You Only Live Twice
3. WWE Summerslam
2. WrestleMania XXX

1. NXT Takeover: [R]Evolution – An absolutely stacked line-up this year for Best PPV of the Year. New Japan’s G-1 Tournament was unbelievable this year (and if I could group all 8 nights into one show, it would probably have won), WWE had some stellar PPV’s this year with both WrestleMania and Summerslam delivering some very special moments, and indies like RoH and CHIKARA putting in some fantastic performances made this very close. [R]Evolution takes the cake. Not only was this only show I considered giving a perfect 10 out of 10 for, but from top to bottom, their wasn’t a bad thing to say about it. The wrestling was top notch, the storytelling, while simple, was beautifully told. WrestleMania XXX came close, but even D-Bry’s feel good moment couldn’t come close to how invested I was in Sami Zayn’s year long journey.

Arnold Furious
5. Dragon Gate Dead or Alive
4. AJPW Dynamite Series
3. NJPW Wrestle Kingdom
2. NOAH Great Voyage in Tokyo Vol. 2

1. NJPW G1 Climax Tournament – Like Mike Hammerlock, I find it hard to pick out just one show from this year’s G1 to single out as the best show of the year and if I did, it’d probably be followed by four other nights from the G1 and render the category useless. Every night was a feast of wrestling wonderment and contained tremendous stories for an array of talent. The final day alone had Okada-Nakamura in a MOTYC, AJ-Tanahashi in one of AJ’s best matches since he went to New Japan, reDRagon’s big New Japan arrival party and Shibata beating the crap out of Goto, again. Naito had a tournament of redemption, AJ Styles introduced himself properly to the New Japan crowd and Ishii destroyed himself for our amusement. And Honma lost, a lot. It was glorious. NOAH’s Great Voyage shows have been seriously great this year but the second Tokyo one had Marufuji’s big title win over Nagata, Harada-Kenou and Dangan Yankees-TMDK. Plus Meiyu Tag and junior tag stuff. Wrestle Kingdom is obviously the big Dome show and while some people weren’t thrilled with the order of the card the big matches all delivered. Dynamite Series was All Japan’s first major show after the change in management and Akiyama busted his ass to get the main event over.

Alex Crowder
5. NXT Takeover
4. WWE Summerslam
3. NXT Takeover: R Evolution
2. WWE WrestleMania 30

1. NJPW G1 Climax Tournament – If I separated this event into each night, it might take up all of the top 5! I think it is best to treat its own event and I don’t think anything else even comes close. AJ Styles and Minoru Suzuki had an amazing match. You had Kazuchika Okada and AJ Styles. Hiroshi Tanahashi putting on great performances reminding people that he is still one of the best if not the best. I’m not sure anyone can even describe how incredible this event was in words. This was a once in a lifetime wrestling event.

LEN ARCHIBALD
5. NXT Arrival
4. NJPW Wrestle Kingdom
3. NJPW G1 Climax Tournament
2. NXT Takeover: [R]Evolution

1. WrestleMania XXX – To be perfectly honest, when it has come to major PPV events, we were pretty spoiled in 2014. ROH Final Battle delivered the goods. Each night of the entire New Japan G1 Climax Tournament could have been listed here; each of the NXT specials, culminating in [R]Evolution were supercards that pretty much showed the WWE roster how to fire on all cylinders. With the exception of WrestleMania. After a somewhat disappointing WrestleMania 29 and on the cusp of a year where the promotion had been bleeding away goodwill of their fanbase, WWE HAD to deliver at their show of shows – especially since WM was the main selling point of the launch of the WWE Network…and WrestleMania delivered in spades. If the opening with The Rock, Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan in the same ring wasn’t enough to soften the hardest of wrestling cynics, the first match between Daniel Bryan and Triple H (DRAGON SUPLEX) should have. Cesaro had what should have been his coming out party winning the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Bray Wyatt had a serviceable match with John Cena that was all about spectacle and THE STREAK ENDED. Daniel Bryan, Batista and Randy Orton then had the near impossible task of waking the 70,000 fans in New Orleans back up after that devastating shock and each of the three brought their work boots to the occasion that climaxed with one of the most satisfactory endings as D-Bry won the WWE World Heavyweight Title. As time passes, I believe WrestleMania XXX will be considered as one of the best of all time, right up there with WrestleMania III, VI, X, X-7, 19 and 24. It is already in my Top 5.

Larry Csonka
5. ROH-NJPW War of the Worlds
4. Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s BOLA 2014 (Night Two)
3. EVOLVE 35
2. Dragon Gate Dead or Alive 2014

1. NJPW G1 Climax Tournament – 12 shows. I had nothing below a 7.0 for a show on my scale. There were 40 **** matches, including at the very least 5 match of the year candidates. The tournament was considered my many, including myself, the greatest wrestling tournament in the history of the business. The majority of the staff wanted to make this one entry, so be it, because nothing can top it.

Ryan Byers
5. NXT R Evolution
4. WrestleMania XXX
3. Dragon Gate Dead or Alive
2. NJPW WrestleKingdom VIII

1. NJPW G1 Climax Tournament – Were I to be casting this ballot individually, I probably would have attempted to single out one night of the G1 as being deserving of the nod, but others are already voting for the tournament as a whole, so I may as well go with the prevailing sentiment. Honestly, if you are voting for the tournament as a whole, I don’t know how you can reasonably pick any one wrestling show from any one promotion to outrank it unless you just didn’t see the tournament. There were so many excellent performances in so many styles of match that this thing is essentially a pure wrestling fan’s dream, living up to the almost impossibly high standards that were set by the last two years of G1 Climaxes. Okada vs. Nakamura. Shibata vs. Honma. Styles vs. Suzuki. Nakamura vs. Ishii. Ishii vs. Nagata. Okada vs. Suzuki. Goto vs. Okada. Nakamura vs. Tanahashi. Nagata vs. Shibata. Tenzan vs. Goto. Tanahashi vs. Ishii. Shibata vs. Tanahashi. Naito vs. Styles. Nakamura vs. Nagata. Styles vs. Okada. Shibata vs. Nakamura. I just reeled off SIXTEEN matches that are worth going out of your way to see. If you can point me to another professional wrestling event that has that many matches of that caliber, plus numerous others that are highly entertaining even if they’re not excellent, I’d like to see it. Go buy yourselves a month’s subscription to New Japan World and, if you’re not hooked at the end of thirty days, I don’t know what to tell you.

Wyatt Beougher
5. NXT ArRIVAL
4. NJPW Wrestle Kingdom VIII
3. WrestleMania XXX
2. NJPW G1 Climax

1. NXT Takeover: “R”Evolution – Why did WWE’s developmental promotion end up at the top of my list, over the fantastic wrestling of the NJPW shows and one-two punch of the feel good moment of Daniel Bryan winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and the shock of Brock Lesnar ending the Streak? Because as optimistic as I felt about the WWE main roster coming out of WrestleMania and the post-WM RAW, nearly everything since then has been either dull or disappointing, whereas NXT has remained one of the most consistently entertaining promotions week in and week out. And as good as the in-ring content consistently is in NJPW, I just feel like NXT has the better overall blend of in-ring action and storylines, specifically the culmination of an 18-month storyline at “R”Evolution that saw Sami Zayn capture the NXT championship while still retaining the traits that make him such a compelling character in the modern WWE. Also, over the course of that show, we saw the debut of Kevin Owens, as well as his elevation into the main event of the promotion. No small feat, and that fact that it tied in weeks of pre-debut vignettes, the opening match, and even a brief backstage video segment mid-show, was simply the icing on what was already a delicious cake. I would not begrudge anyone else their personal choice of any of the shows that make this list, but for me, NXT “R”Evolution was the show of the year.

Robert S. Leighty Jr
5. WWE Elimination Chamber
4. WWE Extreme Rules
3. NXT Arrival
2. NXT Takeover R Evolution

1. WrestleMania XXX – The NXT shows were better in ring wise from top to bottom, but it is very hard to top everything that goes in WrestleMania. WM XXX delivered in spades this year with 2 great matches in the opener and closer that should have launched Daniel Bryan into the stratosphere. It also produced the Lesnar ending the Streak and the insane reaction from those in the crowd and at home that followed. Toss in the greatest opening to a show ever with the Hogan/Austin/Rock goosebump fest and Mania hit a homerun this year.

Jack Stevenson
5. WWE Elimination Chamber
4. WWE Money in the Bank
3. WWE Payback
2. EVOLVE 35

1. WrestleMania XXX – I only really watched PPV from WWE and a handful of independents this year, but there’s still a wealth of strong candidates for this award. Ultimately though, it’s going to be very hard to dislodge a good WrestleMania from the peak of the pile, and this year’s WrestleMania was very, very good. There were certainly better PPVs in terms of pure match quality; two accomplished Daniel Bryan matches bookended the show, but the five matches in between ranged from middling to ineffectual. The way that this show shone was by just hurling WrestleMania moment after WrestleMania moment at our eyeballs- Hogan, Austin and the Rock opening the show together, Cesaro smashing spectacularly through the glass ceiling in the Andre the Giant Battle Royal (let’s all ignore the fact that the shards of the now broken ceiling ended up going in his eyes and blinding him for the rest of 2014), Bray Wyatt adding approximately 75,000 new members to his Wyatt Family, and Daniel Bryan, the hardest working, most deserving human in the whole of professional wrestling, finally, unbelievably, reaching the top of the mountain. Oh and also the Undertaker lost a moderately shit match and it made me so sad and confused. The Undertaker has lost many moderately shit matches in his career and I have shrugged those defeats off, but seeing the streak shatter with such startling finality elicited genuine emotion, and I’m definitely not alone in that. I’m glad it happened though, it’s good to be reminded about how much you care about wrestling, deep down. It’s good that sometimes things don’t conclude all neatly and nicely and it’s good that sometimes we don’t get to say goodbye to things like we want to. When upsetting things can happen so spontaneously and without warning, it makes the good things that much sweeter and more satisfying, and it definitely had a hand in making Daniel Bryan’s title win feel so momentous and important. WrestleMania 30 was a show packed with real emotion in a company that tries so hard to manufacture and micromanage everything, and it’s a show that will stay with me as long as my brain is capable of remembering pro wrestling events. It was a rollercoaster ride of sheer feelings, from joy to dismay and back again, and as fun as many other PPVs were this year, I can’t say that about any of them.

AND 411’s TOP 5 Best PPV/Major Shows of 2014 ARE…

5. WWE Summerslam 2014 – 9 points

4. NJPW Wrestle Kingdom VIII – 11 points

3. NJPW G1 Climax Tournament – 32 points

2. NXT Takeover: R Evolution – 43 points

1. WrestleMania 30 – 45 points

THE 2014 411 WRESTLING AWARDS:
* The Biggest Disappointments of The Year: Daniel Bryan Achieves His Dream – Then Has to Miss The Rest of The Year – 40 points
* The Best Promo Person of The Year: Paul Heyman – 58 points
* The Best Tag Team of The Year: The Usos – 52 points
* The Worst PPV/Major Show of The Year: WWE TLC – 37 points
* The Best Female of The Year: Charlotte – 32 points

* The Best PPV/Major Show of The Year: WrestleMania 30 – 45 points
* The Best Promotion of The Year: TO BE DETERMINED (January 13th)
* The Best Match of The Year: TO BE DETERMINED (January 14th)
* The Best Wrestler of The Year: TO BE DETERMINED (January 15th)