wrestling / Columns

A Look at The Real MVP of the WWE

October 22, 2016 | Posted by RSarnecky
AJ Styles Image Credit: WWE

M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P! It’s a chant that you hear in baseball stadiums around the country during this time of the year when fans are rooting on the best player from the home town team in the playoffs. With a little more than two months left in the calendar year of 2016, it’s almost time to start contemplating who is the MVP this year in professional wrestling.

Normally, it’s pretty clear who the top wrestler in the business is, especially on the WWE side of the ledger. Every year, the WWE presents their version of the year end awards called the Slammys. In 2008, the WWE started featuring a Superstar of the Year award as one of their categories to the now annual award show. In 2008, Chris Jericho won the top honor. In 2009, the WWE had a four-man tournament to crown John Cena as the Superstar of the Year. In 2010, John Cena picked up his second Superstar of the Year award. CM Punk won the honor thanks to the WWE’s version of the “Summer of Punk.” John Cena won his third Superstar of the Year award in 2012, despite CM Punk holding the WWE title for the whole year. In 2013, Daniel Bryan won his only Superstar of the Year award. In 2014, the honor went to Roman Reigns. Last year’s winner was Seth Rollins. As you can see, sometimes the WWE’s kayfabe award gets it right, like they did with Chris Jericho, CM Punk, and Daniel Bryan. Other times, they get it wrong, as was the obvious cases in 2012 and 2014.

THE CONTENDERS


Looking at the WWE landscape in 2016, it will be interesting to see, not who wins the Superstar of the Year award, but who deserves to win the award. While the WWE may want their fans to believe that Roman Reigns is the new face of the company, and probably the favorite to win their award, the real question is who should win the award? Several WWE wrestlers have had breakout years in 2016. Finn Balor went from NXT champion to becoming the first WWE Universal champion following his debut on the main roster a few short weeks before the title match. Kevin Owens, while always hovering around the upper mid-card/lower main event level, broke through to become the top wrestler on the WWE’s top brand. Dean Ambrose had a high profile match at WrestleMania with Brock Lesnar, and followed that up this summer with a run as the WWE World champion. Since then, he has cemented himself as one of the main event players on SmackDown. Rusev was the United States champion throughout most of the spring and summer. More importantly, he is arguably the WWE’s top heel, as he gets routinely booed unlike most of the heels that the fans cheer.

MISSING FROM THE LIST


Absent on this list are the men that won three of the last four Superstar of the Year awards. John Cena was out for most of the year. Whether it was due to his shoulder injury or Hollywood commitments, John Cena became a part time player in 2016. If part-time performers deserved the award, than Brock Lesnar should have been named the WWE’s Superstar of the year in 2014 after ending the Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak, destroying John Cena at SummerSlam, and holding the WWE title throughout the last quarter of the year.

Roman Reigns shouldn’t win the award, whether it be the kayfabe or shoot version. Reigns had a very up and down year. From a kayfabe standpoint, he won the WWE World, and later, United States championships. However, he did a number of high profile jobs throughout the year. He got pinned by Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Finn Balor all within a one-month time frame. From a shoot perspective, although he has been the top star for most of the year, he has dropped to the number two babyface position on RAW after Seth Rollins. He has worked some really good matches this year, but his booking for the third year in a row has killed him. Like last year, and the later half of 2014, Reigns still isn’t clicking with the majority of the audience. His wellness failure didn’t do him any favors either.

If not for a knee injury suffered last November, Seth Rollins would probably be a strong contender to repeat as the WWE’s Superstar of the Year for both the kayfabe Slammy award and the general public opinion if there was a shoot version of the award. When Seth Rollins returned from injury, he was immediately inserted as the company’s top heel. That was odd, because he was booked as a total babyface leading up to his return date. After his short heel return, he was then positioned as RAW’s top babyface. Since returning, he has been either in the main event or the exclusive RAW brand main event of every pay per view. Unfortunately, the knee injury kept him out of action for most of the first half of the year, so he is eliminated from the conversation of the best of the year in the WWE.

THE TOP THREE


After thinking long and hard regarding who should be the WWE’s Superstar of the Year, both from a kayfabe and shoot standpoint, three names kept popping up. They are The Miz, Chris Jericho, and AJ Styles. The Miz won the Intercontinental championship the night after WrestleMania, and held the belt until October 8th’s No Mercy pay per view event. However, his six-month title reign just tells a small part of the picture. Ever since the WWE brought Maryse in to be paired with her real life husband, The Miz has been performing on a different level. His WWE championship run from November 2010 until May 2011 was considered as the best run of The Miz’s career thus far. However, that run fails in comparison to the present day Miz. His character is much more serious. His promos are more hit than miss. His rant against Daniel Bryan after the August 23rd Talking Smack show had everyone talking the next day. The Miz has also improved greatly in the ring. Do you need proof? All you need to do is watch his match at No Mercy against Dolph Ziggler. Their match beat out the triple threat WWE title match as the match of the night. That’s not an easy task when you consider that John Cena and arguably the greatest worker over the last two years, AJ Styles, were in that match. While The Miz probably will not even be a candidate for the WWE’s version of Superstar of the Year, he is more than worthy of receiving a nomination.

If you asked me in February or March whether Chris Jericho would be a serious nominee for the best performer in the WWE in 2016, I would have thought that you were crazy. However, fast forward eight months later, and not only is he in the conversation, but he is a very strong candidate to win the award. Chris Jericho is amazing. At this point in his career, Jericho should be winding down his career. He should be in the “former star who now puts every one over” position. While Chris Jericho does put over his share of people, he is far from the mid-nineties version of Sgt. Slaughter or Jim Duggan. Chris Jericho is the Madonna of professional wrestling. This comparison is because throughout Madonna’s career, she was always reinventing herself in order to not get stale. Jericho does the same thing. When he returned earlier this year, he quickly became stale. However, once he turned heel, the light went off, and Jericho reinvented himself yet again. From the “$700 scarf” to the facial hair to the “Stupid idiot” comments, and putting people on “The List,” Chris Jericho is the best that he has been since his last heel run when he feuded with Shawn Michaels. Add Kevin Owens to the mix, and Chris Jericho seems rejuvenated. Jericho is “must see TV,” and the main reason to tune into RAW in 2016. Does he have the hardware in 2016 that other performers obtained this year? No, but Chris Jericho is at the point in his career where he doesn’t need a championship belt to prove that he is still amongst the best in the company.

While The Miz is the second runner-up, and Jericho is the first runner-up, the WWE Superstar of the Year for me by a close margin is AJ Styles. A year ago, I would have never thought that he would be in the WWE. If you told me that he would be the company’s MVP as the “face that runs the place,” I would have been even more stunned. However, that’s exactly what he is. Styles has had four to four and three quarter star matches on a daily basis. That is not a surprise. It’s his promo ability that has really pushed him over the top. When did he get this good at delivering promos? AJ Styles in 2016 is light years ahead of the TNA version of AJ Styles on the mic. Let’s not forget that, according to reports, AJ was just brought in to “be a good hand” in the midcard. Styles quickly rose above the glass ceiling that he was to be placed in, and proved that he was not only better than that, but that he was the best. Since debuting in January, AJ Styles went from feuding with the new face of the WWE, Roman Reigns, to having a rivalry with John Cena, to winning the WWE championship before the leaves on the trees started to change colors. Not bad for a ten-month run. While fans may argue who will be the MVP in the American and National Leagues in Major League Baseball this year, there is no doubting that AJ Styles is the MVP in the WWE, if not all of professional wrestling.