The 411 Wrestling Year-End Awards: Part Eight – The Most Outstanding Performer of 2017: Styles, Okada, Ishii, More

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.

a.k.a. who was the best in-ring, bell-to-bell performer of the year?

Kevin Pantoja
5. Tomohiro Ishii
4. Kazuchika Okada
3. Tyler Bate
2. Pete Dunne

1. Tetsuya Naito – I raved about Tetsuya Naito in 2016 for his great performances. He still remained behind AJ Styles last year, though. In 2017, he was somehow even better and with AJ not being as good as 2016, Naito kicked in the door for this award. Go through his year and you’ll see ton of great wrestling. He started by having the best match at Wrestle Kingdom 11 against Hiroshi Tanahashi. Their Dominion rematch was another great outing and then they bested both with their best match ever in the G1 Climax. Let’s not forget his other ****+ trilogy this year against Tomohiro Ishii (G1 Special, G1 Climax, KOPW). At the New Beginning in Osaka event, he put on one hell of a match with Michael Elgin. At Wrestling Toyonokuni, he gave Juice Robinson his first main event and first standout match, setting the tone for the rest of Juice’s breakout year. He had some top notch matches during the G1, including an incredible finals with Kenny Omega. Throw in a ton of fun multi-man tags and Naito was too damn good this year.

Mike Chin
5. Kairi Sane
4. Sami Zayn
3. Kevin Owens
2. Kenny Omega

1. AJ Styles – Not to beat a dead horse here, but Jinder Mahal was an absolutely terrible WWE Champion. AJ Styles? He’s the guy who not only unseated Mahal for the title, but actually succeeded in making the Modern Day Maharaja look like world champion material for two televised matches. While Styles did show some limitations in 2017—particularly a strange absence of chemistry opposite the similarly talented Kevin Owens—he put on excellent bouts with the likes of John Cena, Finn Balor, Shane McMahon, and Brock Lesnar. While it’s reductive and doesn’t do the Phenomenal One justice, I liken him to a modern day Bret Hart. He’s not WWE’s first pick to be the face of the company, but he’s the kind of performer who is so excellent at what he does between the ropes that he ultimately can’t be denied.

Rob Stewart
5. Tetsuta Naito
4. The New Day
3. AJ Styles
2. Kenny Omega

1. Kazuchika Okada – I feel like Okada gets overshadowed a lot by the ascension of Kenny Omega as one of the most talked about wrestlers on the planet, but Kaz had a great string of title defenses in 2017 to push his record-breaking IWGP Heavyweight title run into 2018 without interruption, and most of those matches were superb. Obviously, there was the hat trick against Kenny, but even his “time killing” title bouts against the likes of Bad Luck Fale and EVIL were up to Kaz’ typical standards in terms of drama and story-telling. Okada sets his sights on being the best performer in all of wrestling every time he enters the ring, and far more often than not, he succeeds.

JUSTIN WATRY
5. Brock Lesnar
4. The Miz
3. Braun Strowman
2. AJ Styles

1. Roman Reigns – Calm down everybody. Wait for the rest of the awards to be handed out before you send me any hate mail. You will get the full picture in a week or so. Until then, go ahead and jump to conclusions. Here are my top five and why; Brock Lesnar may be part-time but is the Universal Champion and likely will be for a full year. Maybe more. In that time, he has been treated as The Beast and beaten everybody in his path. There’s a reason he commands all the money and attention, while others don’t. Bell to bell, he proved to still have “it” and just may not be done with WWE in 2018. The Mi, The Miz, The Miz. While I think it was a blunder in moving him over to Raw, like he usually does, the man made the best of a bad situation. Still makes you wonder what could have been had he stayed on Smackdown LIVE. Maybe even gotten the Jinder Mahal WWE Championship run? Braun Strowman busting out of his shell and becoming a player stunned a lot of people and shut up all his “fans” who bashed him for most of 2016. Interested to see what he does in the new year. My early prediction: Smackdown LIVE is in his future as the top face. AJ Styles, most will have him as number one. Like I said, wait for my full award selections before judging. As phenomenal as advertised and SHOULD be WWE Champ heading into Mania. The Big Dog gets my top spot. No doubt about it. Roman Reigns has brought inside the ring and outside the ring for years now. Seems he may FINALLY be getting his proper due from fans. He went nearly all of 2017 without a title (again shutting up his critics), lost more than his fair share of times and never faltered. The reunion with The Shield was great, and he has victories over The Undertaker AND John Cena this year. Clean. Nobody else can say that.

Jack Stevenson
5. KUSHIDA
4. Naruki Doi
3. Will Ospreay
2. Masato Yoshino

1. Hiromu Takahashi – There’s no one wrestler I enjoyed watching more in 2017 than Hiromu Takahashi. His run as Jr. Heavyweight Champion was rather overshadowed, as a lot of wonderful things in pro wrestling were this year, by the unrelenting tidal wave of epic main events Kazuchika Okada was putting on at the same time. But, for my personal tastes, the pulsating, reckless sprints that Takahashi turned in over the course of the year were the matches I was most excited to watch and most keen to rewatch and most desperate for other people to love too. In particular, I think his defence against Dragon Lee from The New Beginning in Osaka is one of the most unfairly overlooked bouts of modern history; it got a lot of appreciation at the time but how many are discussing it as a serious Match of the Year contender? And yet, the pace of it was electrifying, the spots were gloriously dangerous, the intensity was incredible, there were high stakes and brilliant near falls and it all eventually got to the point where you couldn’t believe what these two were putting themselves through for our entertainment, and also how nasty yet completely graceful and sublime all their moves were. What’s more, that’s just one highlight from a glittering year for Hiromu; his series with Kushida constitutes one of the great rivalries of modern times, he had sneaky great defences against Ricochet and Ryusuke Taguchi, and even once he lost his belt there were some great tag matches with BUSHI. I love Hiromu, he is my favourite wrestler, he is, in my eyes, the most outstanding wrestler.

Ken Hill
5. Tyler Bate
4. Hiromu Takahashi
3. Pete Dunne
2. AJ Styles

1. Kazuchika Okada – If I’m throwing NJPW into the mix for Promotion of the Year, I’d be remiss to mention the man who has been responsible for a large number of those high-end quality matches New Japan produced in 2017. From the severe ground-and-pound physicality of Shibata and the almost ridiculous breakneck speed and athleticism of Kota Ibushi, i.e. Tiger Mask W, to the flawless blend of showmanship and classic in-ring savvy of Kenny Omega, Okada has matched up against a wide variety of opponents in 2017 and proceeds to hit a home run every time he steps into the ring. What makes “The Rainmaker” truly unique is his ability to have a different psychology for each and every opponent he faces, regardless of their in-ring style, never falling into a formulaic style like some of the Western greats, such as Ric Flair, Triple H or HBK, are wont to do.

Jake Chambers
5. Hideki Suzuki
4. Kazuchika Okada
3. Tomohiro Ishii
2. Zack Sabre Jr.

1. Hiroshi Tanahashi – I gave Tanahashi this award last year, and he’ll likely deserve it for as long as he’s actively competing (unless, of course, Cena comes back full-time). For all the praise being heaped on Okada and Omega this year, it shouldn’t be forgotten that Tanahashi developed the format and structure for the style of wrestling they’re doing, built up the audience that’s embraced them, and still basically maintains the creative backbone of the company by working one match below them or main event-ing every other NJPW show. Those two, along with guys like Ibushi and Sabre Jr (who both had fantastic G1 and PPV main events against Tanahashi this year) came up through the ranks in Japan when Tanahashi was the undeniable “ace” of the industry, and for him to be able to still match wits and stamina with them in the ring at 40 is Tom Brady-esque, AKA the greatest of all time. His clean, patient and passionate performances allowed the 8-month storyline with contrastingly lethargic Tetsuya Naito to rile up the fans so viscerally it effectively set the stage for one of the biggest Tokyo Dome main events in recent history. If you have a baby, then by god, rush to the railing after a Tanahashi match and have this sweaty man touch its head and maybe some magic will pass along, otherwise just keep watching and be glad you’re alive to witness one of the best ever wrestle in his prime.

Larry Csonka
5. Pete Dunne
4. Will Ospreay
3. Johnny Gargano
2. Kazuchika Okada

1. Tomohiro Ishii – While others will go for the sexy top star names, Tomohiro Ishii is my top pick. His four MOTY caliber matches with Omega & Shibata are more than worth your time, just amazing work, and then you add in all of he regular work, making so many useless undercard tags so much fun. The guys is an amazing performer, NJPW’s iron man, with more in ring time (at age 41) than pretty much anyone on the NJPW roster, and always putting on high caliber matches. He can work on any level from opener to main event, he can believably beat any main eventer, and also put over others. Ishii is a great brawler, but also a technician when he needs to be, and in what may be the most overlooked part of his game, his selling is absolutely magnificent. But because he’s not Tanahashi, Okada, Shibata, Omega or Naito (who have all been really great for the last few years) so he has been not only overlooked, but in a way he’s almost been disrespected. Ishii is my spirit animal, and there is no one who makes me look forward to his matches more than he does.

AND 411’s The most outstanding performers of 2017 ARE…

T-4. Kenny Omega – 8 points

T-4. Pete Dunne – 8 points

3. Tomohiro Ishii – 9 points

2. AJ Styles – 16 points

1. Kazuchika Okada – 18 points

THE 2017 411 WRESTLING AWARDS:
* 1. The Biggest Disappointment of The Year: >Katsuyori Shibata’s Injury & Retirement – 14points
* 2. The Best Non-Wrestler: Dario Cueto – 17points
* 3. The Best Tag Team of The Year: The Usos – 31points
* 4. The Worst Major Shows/PPV of 2017: WWE Battleground 2017 – 16points
* 5. The Best Female Wrestler of 2017: Asuka – 24points
* 6. The Best PPV/Major Show of 2017: NJPW Wrestlekingdom 11 – 11points
* 7. The Best Promotion of 2017: New Japan Pro Wrestling – 35points