wrestling / Columns

The 2008 411 Year End Wrestling Awards (Part 2)

January 6, 2009 | Posted by James Thomlison

Welcome to Part 2 of the 411Mania.com 2008 Year End Wrestling Awards. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Part 1!

REVIEW: Before we get to it, let’s take a look at the winners we’ve already announced to this point:

Announcer of the Year: Jim Ross – WWE (57 points)

Rookie of the Year: The Osirian Portal (Ophidian & Amasis) – CHIKARA (38)

Breakout of the Year: Tyler Black – ROH/FIP (38)

Comeback Wrestler of the Year: Chris Jericho – WWE RAW (86)

Disappointment of the Year: Hardy’s again suffers Wellness issues – WWE (50)

Best Indy Show of the Year: Supercard of Honor III – ROH (21)

Free TV Match of the Year: Jeff Hardy vs. Umaga – Steel Cage Match – WWE (42)

And now that we have that out of the way…

Today’s Dark Match Award:

Quote of the Year: “I’m sorry, I love you” – Shawn Michaels to Ric Flair at WrestleMania 24 (WWE) – 65 points

Honorable Mentions: WWE runs fake Jeff Hardy story in bad taste (WWE – 7 points), Kurt Angle refers to Jeff Jarrett’s dead wife in a promo (TNA – 1 point), PWG’s continued bad luck and management, in pushing back of the Battle of Los Angeles weekend to losing three champions due to injuries and no shows (PWG – 6 points)

3rd Place: The Death of Walter “Killer” Kowalski19 points

2nd Place: Gabe Sapolsky ousted as ROH Booker (ROH) – 25 points

And your winner is…:

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Jeff Hardy fails his second wellness test, loses his Intercontinental title, gets pulled from WrestleMania 24; subsequently, his house burns down and his dog dies (WWE) – 61 points

Michael O: Did anybody have a worse week than the one in March Jeff Hardy had this year? Sure, he wasn’t raped or killed at war or trampled to death at Wal-Mart or shot in the face by Santa or…actually, nevermind. Plenty of people had worse weeks than the one Jeff Hardy had this past March. Still, getting suspended for a second wellness violation and missing out on a presumed M.I.T.B. win at Wrestlemania had to hurt. Having your house burn down and your dog die in the fire had to hurt a lot more. I mean, as far as shitty weeks go, that has to rank right up there.

In fact, I’d say that Jeff didn’t O.D. his brains out in the following weeks is a testament to his inner fortitude and that is something some of you need to think about before you continue with your shitty comments about Jeff’s “inevitable” fall from grace. Maybe you should also think about whether it’s more important that the man succeeds or whether you’re proven right. ‘Cause, really, that was one HELL of a week. But he did finish the year off pretty good, didn’t he?

Jarrod Westerfeld: Congratulations Jeff, you managed to strain your fans support some, effortlessly proved that you’re much like Scott Hall and Jake Roberts only somewhat cleaner, and managed to have your trailer burn down with your dog inside. What need be said about this beyond that it’s tragic that it befell upon your head just because of your refusal to take time out and clean yourself up? That you tested the patience of some of your fans and put pressure upon them to continue their support of you as you bumbled and failed through drug tests and recently put them into a bit of a scare by showing up to an airport drunk enough to cause concern. For some this was the worst thing to happen in a year, and we may have to be thankful that there wasn’t anything worse to come along much like last year’s tragedy.

Matthew Sforcina: Do you know a guy who just never catches a break? You know, a guy you knew from high school, maybe college, perhaps even a relative, who’s funny, and generally a nice guy, but who just never gets the girl, never gets the promotion, never seems to have things go his way? How about a guy who just pisses away what he’s got? A slacker, a druggie, a rich kid, someone who had something, money, talent, brains, looks, and just let it slip away for some reason. 2008, right up until the last couple of weeks, was a year in which Jeff Hardy managed to be both of these guys. Jeff seemed to have worked his shit out, he was gonna enter MITB, win the foregone conclusion, and then later in the year cash it in and win a world title and the years long saga of Jeff Hardy would have it’s happy conclusion. He then gets busted for drug use at the WORST possible time (well OK, a week before WM or a week after might have been worse but that general area was all bad), losing all momentum and thus sending about half a dozen people on totally different career paths (seriously, CM Punk, Chris Jericho, Kofi Kingston, Matt Hardy, Edge, Kozlov… it impacted on a lot of guys), and thus he was sent home to think about he had done.

And then, of all things, his life goes from “it’s his own fault” to “hard luck central” as his house burns down, and his dog dies. I’m kinda surprised he didn’t get a girl at this point who would then dump him immediately. The impact of this whole thing is lessened right now given that he has ended the calender year, but this year, no-one had as bad luck and made as bad choices as Jeff Hardy.

Joseph Martinez: Jeff Hardy began 2008 with huge expectations from his fans and pundits. He was projected by many to have a breakout year and be a solid main-eventer. Even the WWE had shown that they had faith in Hardy. Despite being suspended in August of 2007, Hardy enjoyed success in the latter portion of the year. He rode that success into 2008. He had memorable moments and matches and he was positioned to launch himself into the next level. Jeff Hardy won a spot in the annual Money in the Bank match and was the big favorite to win it all. Unfortunately, life doesn’t always go as planned. Jeff Hardy suspiciously lost his Intercontinental title to Chris Jericho and was suspended the following day. The suspension was his second in nine months. Many individuals thought that this was the low point of Jeff Hardy’s life. He was riding the success of the largest push of his career and blew it all away, but the low point of his life occurred just a few days after his suspension. It was revealed that Hardy’s house had caught on fire. All of his belongings (including his beloved dog ) were destroyed. History told us that Jeff Hardy was going to disappoint under the pressure yet again and some fans feared for his life.

The suspension passed and Jeff Hardy returned to WWE television with fanfare but he did not recapture the success he enjoyed at the beginning of the year. Later in the year he restarted his program with Triple H and the rest is history.

Honorable Mentions: Jeff Hardy’s sustained push despite all of his personal issues, results in him winning the WWE Title (WWE – 3 points), Brock Lesnar defeats Randy Couture to win the UFC title (UFC, 11.15.08 – 12 points), Chris Jericho wins the World Heavyweight Championship at Unforgiven despite wrestling a brutal match with Shawn Michaels earlier in the night (WWE, 09.07.08 – 4 points)

3rd Place: CM Punk wins the World Heavyweight Championship (WWE RAW, 06.30.08) – 19 points

2nd Place: John Cena shocks the world and returns to the ring to win the Royal Rumble (WWE, 01.27.08) – 43 points

And your winner is…:

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Ric Flair retires, by way of a final match against Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 24, and culminating in a retirement ceremony on the following nights RAW (WWE) – 55 points

Jeremy Thomas: Ric Flair is truly a legend in an industry where many claim the title yet few are worthy of it. You really shouldn’t need to have the man’s many accolades and amazing career recounted for you if you consider yourself a wrestling fan, and it’s no exaggeration to say that he’s one of the greatest men ever to step into the ring. Like all good things however, this had to end, and 2008 was that year.

It’s not like we didn’t see it coming. Ever since the point where Vince told Ric in November of ’07 that his next loss would be his last, we all had a feeling that the career of the 17-time World Champion was coming to a close. Still, Flair kept going, creating enormous fan sympathy as he eked out one great match after another, until it finally came down to WrestleMania. Flair wanted to go out with as great a match as he could, and he wanted Shawn Michaels as his opponent. Ric and Shawn did great work leading up to the match, building anticipation for what we all knew was going to be the last time we saw Ric wrestle. And damn, did they deliver. You can go to any web site and get arguments over how good the match was, but for my money, there was nothing that sold the emotion as well as this. The story of the match itself was unbelievable, and really gave Ric the fitting send-off he deserved.

However, they weren’t done yet. The ‘E has been accused of failing to show class many a time, and I have agreed often. However, in giving Flair his last farewell moment, they created one of the greatest and most memorable moments in wrestling. It was so utterly real, and I know many a man who got very misty-eyed as the ‘E gave us a chance to see the Nature Boy one last time, and all the wrestlers came out to show him how much respect he had earned. Flair is a man who put his heart and soul into the business and gave us almost four decades of entertainment, and for that, he deserved every moment of the send-off he got. It was a bittersweet moment for us all that, in a time where wrestling is infamously marked by so many tragic young deaths, one of the greatest to ever lace on a pair of boots was getting out at the relatively ripe old age of 59—and more to the point, was going out on top, where he deserved to. If only more of our heroes could go out this way, what a different and even more amazing industry we’d be following.

Mathew Sforcina: People don’t tend to leave Wrestling companies or Wrestling itself in positive lights. For every Trish Stratus, there’s a dozen Bret Harts, Litas and Eric Bischoffs. It’s not just a matter of wins and losses, it’s more that people tend to get humiliated and disrespected as they leave. Be it an attempt to downplay their contribution to highlight the remaining guys, trying to cut their popularity and drawing power so as not to help their opponent, or just pure spite, whatever it is, people leave on their backs, and with their pants down, to mix my metaphors. That’s what makes the classy exits so rare. Mick Foley had at least one or two in his time, Trish had probably the best up until that point, and then you have Ric Flair. The fact that Ric was to retire was of course obvious the second they announced the angle, and yes, you can argue that the angle was terribly done, but the fact remains that Ric had a good last run, a great match to go out on, and then…

Trish got a title, a video package and a goodbye. Ric had everyone in the WWE and almost every important guy in his past come out and pay their respect to arguably the best wrestler in history. He got 30 minutes, which was still criminally short, of Raw, Ric got the most perfect ending in Wrestling history. That’s the real story, Ric Flair getting the respect in one night that almost made up for the years he was disrespected and kicked around. Everything has to end sometime, and if something in your life ends in a way that’s a hundredth of the end of Flair’s career, then your doing well.

Thank you Ric indeed.

Joseph Martinez: When Vince McMahon delivered his “win or go home” ultimatum to Ric Flair I anticipated the worst. Flair’s career can be described as all-time great, but at the time, Flair had hit a wall with his performance. It was obvious where the story was going to end, but I still had my qualms. Would Ric Flair be able to perform at a high level? What if an erratic decision was made and they pulled the trigger early? Wrestlemania XXIV possessed the answers to all of my questions as Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels put on a great match. It wasn’t a technical masterpiece, but it was an emotional classic that should have ended the show.

The next evening was a great compliment to the Wrestlemania match. Many individuals who were important to Ric Flair attended the show and each had their shot at wishing the Nature Boy farewell. It was the feel-good story of the year and it couldn’t have happened without the greatness of Ric Flair and the decision by the WWE to properly honor one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time.

Ryan Bers: What can I say about this one that wasn’t already said by many others when it was taking place? Though wrestling fans are seemingly getting younger and younger these days, Ric Flair is the entire reason that an entire generation of pro wrestling afficionados became enamored with our favorite pseudo-sport. He was a once in a lifetime performer, not unlike Babe Ruth in baseball or Michael Jordan in basketball. The end of the career of a once in a lifetime performer deserved a once in a lifetime retirement ceremony, and that is exactly what the Nature Boy received. Though I had some qualms with the manner that the “Flair must win or retire” angle was booked for the majority of its existence, things kicked in to high gear when Shawn Michaels announced that Slick Ric would be inducted in to the WWE Hall of Fame the nigth before Wrestlemania. When that announcement was made, most folks knew instantly knew how Naitch’s final moments as an in-ring performer would play out. However, what nobody knew was how flawlessly WWE would execute Flair’s final program, last match, and retirement ceremony. The angle with Michaels provided us all an opportunity to once again see the sixteen-time world champion involved in the type of emotional, gripping promos that he was known for throughout his career, going head-to-head with one of the few men who can be considered Flair’s equal when it comes to pro wrestlers who could attempt to pass themselves off as legitimate actors. The match at Wrestlemania, though not the most technically proficient of encounters, was one chock full of individual moments that will forever be etched in the minds of those watching. Who could forget Michaels’ ridiculous moonsaults, Flair busting out all of his big spots one last time, or the final, “I’m sorry, I love you,” followed up by the superkick of superkicks? Yet, as great as the match was and as great as the angle was, perhaps nothing would top the farewell to Ric Flair on the episode of Monday Night Raw following Wrestlemania. With Flair’s family on hand and surprise appearances from the likes of the Four Horsemen, a legitimately choked up Ric Flair had an opportunity to say goodbye to competing in pro wrestling in much the same way that he spent the majority of his time in the business . . . being the focal point of the evening and not necessarily the man that everybody came to see but the man who everybody remembered when they walked out.

Honorable Mentions: Kurt Angle vs. Karen Angle (TNA – 12 points), Rey Mysterio vs. Kane (WWE – 12 points), Austin Aries vs. Jimmy Jacobs (ROH – 5 points)

3rd Place: Vince vs. Finlay/Hornswaggle (WWE) – 14 points

2nd Place: Black Reign vs. Kaz (TNA) – 20 points

And your winner is…:

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Black machismo Jay Lethal vs. Sonjay Dutt (TNA) – 64 points

Daniel Wilcox: This feud just about sums up everything that is so infuriating about the way TNA is booked. In Sonjay Dutt and Jay Lethal, you have two incredibly gifted athletes capable of exciting a crowd and putting on a great match on any given night. Jay Lethal in particular has always been a joy to watch in TNA and that’s reflected in his popularity within the Impact zone. With that in mind, how difficult can it be to build a successful feud between the two, based upon jealousy? Apparently, harder than you’d think.

This feud did have a whole lot of promise, but any chance it had of succeeding went right out of the window at Slammiversary where the wedding of Jay Lethal and So Cal Val was set to go down. A successful heel turn isn’t that hard to do; you simply have to have the heel look dominant in beating down a former friend, thus ensuring people are wanting to see said friend get revenge on the heel. What should have happened in this segment was Dutt making the revelation that he wanted Val, attacking Lethal and leaving him in a pile of his blood, or “blood, piss and shit,” as TNA likes to say. Instead, the whole angle was an utter joke. The presence of George Steele, Jake Roberts, Kamala et al was ridiculously unnecessary and added nothing to the angle, and yet those are the guys that end up kicking Dutt’s ass and making him run off scared. So not only does Dutt get made to look like a joke, but he already gets his comeuppance, The angle was dead from here, but in true TNA fashion, in managed to get even worse.

One would hope that these two would have been able to salvage something from this feud by putting in some good in-ring performances, but that just never materialized. After a (I hate to use the term, but it’s so apropos…) “Russoriffic” backstage brawl at the “Pink Taco”, the two went one-on-one at Victory Road, and it was the definition of mediocre. The crowd just didn’t care, because the feud had been so bad. Then at Hard Justice, they had a “Black Tie Brawl and Chain” match, and yes, it was as stupid as it sounds. Russo’s policy of “if the feud stinks, throw a silly gimmick at it,” didn’t work out here. Thankfully, the feud managed to end on something of a high, as Lethal and Dutt had a very entertaining Ladder match at No Surrender. Putting aside the fact that they were literally fighting for the right to marry Val, a ridiculous idea in itself, it was a good way for the feud to end, but was far from enough to make me or anyone else forget the atrocities that had gone before it.

Randy Harrison: Jay Lethal may be a passable Macho Man, but Sonjay Dutt is no Hulk Hogan and So Cal Val sure as hell isn’t Miss Elizabeth. I know that there is the statute of limitations on angles that states that anything that hasn’t been done in seven years can be considered “new”, but when TNA dug this one out of mothballs they didn’t realize that part of what made that original feud so compelling was that we cared about the people involved. Who gives a blue hell about So Cal Val. Really. Elizabeth was a complex character that had evolved over her time in the then-WWF and was someone that the fans had become emotionally invested in. Val was a ring-jacket broad that ended up having one of the wrestlers smitten with her. The ham-handed attempts to make this into an updated version of a Mega-Powers feud fell flat as after gimmick matches that seemed silly even for TNA, So Cal Val turned on Lethal, her lovey-dove, and went with Dutt. That seemed like what should have been the beginning of the feud, but instead it was the end as Dutt has Val and is going nowhere fast. Lethal just kind of forgot about being wronged by the woman he loved and has essentially looked like a neutered dog by being bitched out by both Dutt and Val. Pointless feud? Yep. Warmed over idea that should have stayed dead with Zubaz pants and Crystal Pepsi? You betcha. Convoluted matches filled with gimmicks and faux tension? Absolutely. Heel turn seen a mile away? Had it. Whole thing forgotten about and everyone involved no better than they were when they started? Hells to the yes. Sounds like an easy choice for the Worst Feud of the Year from me.

W.S. Thomason: One thing that makes the TNA of the last three years so tragic is the number of opportunities for exciting, wrestling-based storylines that they have blown. Instead, the TNA creative team has scratched out soap-opera based fare that is so poorly written that it makes the Katie Vick angle look like The Sound and the Fury.

The feud between “Black Machismo” Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt had all of the elements to be a solid rivalry based around each man’s thirst for the X-Division Title. Lethal and Dutt were X-Division allies throughout 2007, often teaming up while both men simultaneously chased the X-Division Title. Lethal eventually won the title on several occasions, and Dutt unsuccessfully challenged his friend for the belt at Genesis. By 2008 the two were ready for their friendship to be dissolved by their lust for gold and glory – but instead it was melted by a desire for So-Cal Val seemingly scripted by a poor man’s John Hughes.

A series of goofy backstage skits where Dutt interrupted Lethal and Val’s dates neutered any intensity between the partners. Lethal and Val’s wedding was set for Slammiversary, with Dutt as the best man. The guest list looked like a TNT reunion show. And – to the surprise of absolutely no one except Mike Tenay and Don West (both of whom could be tricked into buying bagged sand in a desert) – Dutt turned on Lethal and disrupted the wedding.

The focus of the angle was immediately shifted from the hatred between Lethal and Dutt and onto which man Val would pick. While Miss Elizabeth served as the initial spark in the Mega Powers explosion, the resulting personal animosity between Hogan and Savage drove the intensity of the blast. Elizabeth was also a WWF mainstay that the audience had longed cared for; Val did not enjoy such a standing. A So-Cal Val-centered feud lacked the key intensity because the her role with both men was not firmly rooted, nor was their much fan investment in her character. An uninteresting match at Victory Road opened the door for things to get Russoed up.

Hard Justice witnessed a “Black Tie Brawl and Chain” match, showing that no one wins when two gimmick matches are combined beneath one bad pun. This tuxedo and chain match ended with Val begging Lethal to stop brutalizing Dutt. He ignored her and she walked out, but a lot of folks did not notice as they were too busy chanting “Fire Russo” or calling their cable company for a refund. Lethal and Dutt were secondary players in their own angle, lost amidst a tabloid love triangle and ridiculously over-booked gimmick matches. The fact that both men were capable performers with a rich history was completely lost.

The big pay off to the feud occurred at No Surrender in a ladder match (of love), with Val turning on Jay and giving Dutt the duke. In response, “Black Machismo” pulled a Test and simply walked away. The storyline that had generated negative crowd reactions at three straight PPVs was dropped immediately after Val’s turn. The audience that booed the matches was left feeling as if they had been ripped off. It would be like going through a colonoscopy only to end up with no x-rays or results. After a certain amount of discomfort, you expect some pay off – even if it is not very good.

The feud was already written. The reason for conflict already existed. TNA just had to run with it. Instead, the creative team dropped the ball, leaving the promising careers of Lethal and Dutt hanging and giving us the worst feud of the year.

Jeremy Thomas: Total Nonstop Action has given us some good things this year. There’s been the Main Event Mafia vs. TNA Frontline storyline, the Knockouts division, Beer Money and more. The Jay Lethal vs. Sonjay Dutt feud…not one of those good things. I think the worst thing about this feud is that it could have been so, SO very good. Lethal and Dutt are both exceptional wrestlers with history together as allies and rivals, and with the right booking we could have had a seriously awesome feud. Instead, TNA booking decided we needed something other then the X-Division title to feud over, and So Cal Val was thrown into the mix. Now, that on its own could have been okay, or at least benignly mediocre. It’s not as if TNA has never rehashed feud ideas before, and a tribute to the old Hogan/Savage/Elizabeth feud probably looked like it was a great idea on paper. In practice? Well, let’s see.

Silly date vignettes that Dutt crashed? Check.
Retarded wedding that took up way too much time on Slammiversary, instead of a match that could have been great? Check.
Much of the early feud being played for comedy and not intensity? Check.
Non-sensical and ridiculous gimmick matches? Check.

Even with all of that aside, this feud probably wouldn’t have earned the head it did if not for the fact that it went on SO…DAMN….LONG. By the time Val turned on Jay, we had been waiting for it to happen for months. Essentially what TNA did here was take a two to three month feud and stretched it out to seven freaking months. It completely wasted these great talents for over half a year, and that criminal fact makes this one well-deserving of the worst feud of the year over all the other crap that floated its way through 2008.

Honorable Mentions: Cryme Tyme vs. The Miz & Morrison (WWE – 3 points), Big Show vs. Floyd Mayweather (WWE – 4 points), Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles (TNA – 1 point)

3rd Place: Roderick Strong vs. Eric Stevens (ROH/FIP) – 11 points

2nd Place: Undertaker vs. Edge (WWE SmackDown!) – 18 points

And your winner is…:

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Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho (WWE RAW) – 76 points

James Craig: Captivating. Emotional. Perfect. All these words have been used to describe the HBK vs. Jericho saga that has given WWE fans a reason to tune in for the better part of 2008. Starting in the aftermath of the fantastic HBK/Flair journey in the first third of 2008, The Jericho/HBK feud grew organically from the poking and prodding of Jericho on the Highlight Reel, instigating the HBK/Batista feud. Even as HBK and Big Dave were doing their thing, Jericho was always there, poking at HBK, always pushing the boundaries. As things finally settled on the two men, Jericho and HBK were able to fully deliver on all of the potential we, the fans, knew to be there.

This feud delivered on every scale possible in terms of wrestling. It seemed that both men were hitting on all cylinders over the summer and early autumn months, delivering strong matches not only in terms of work rate but also emotion. It is safe to say that there was never just and average match in the lot of matches they had. Each time these men hit the ring, the delivered and we the fans were the beneficiaries of this as we watched. It wasn’t only the match quality either, both of this guys were in rare form all through the feud in terms of promo work. While Jericho carried the majority of the promo workload and essentially the feud (at times) through his promos, HBK was able to carry his weight as well when given the opportunity. It seemed that with each passing week, the feud was evolving from a simple case of jealousy on Jericho’s part, into a bonafide blood feud.

This feud gave us a reason to watch RAW every week during a time when not much else was all that interesting, or if it was, it didn’t have the same feeling that something special was happening. As we were brought along for the ride, we were able to witness an evolution in the Jericho character that has never been seen before. This also gave HBK his best work and most emotional feud in years and he seemed fully into it and gave it his all. With both men not only giving all of themselves for this, and allowing this feud to grow and evolve, never rushing it, they were able to provide the BEST feud of 2008 and perhaps, of the the last 5 years.

Randy Harrison: For everything that was wrong with the worst feud of the year, this was like a master class in Wrestling Booking. This feud had everything as it began simply, as most of the best feuds do, and just kept building and building. When it seemed like there was no way for the feud to get better, it did and it spurred both men on to what could be considered the best feud of their careers. While Michaels has had more high-profile feuds, a lot of them have felt similar in their build and execution. This one was special from the beginning and like most of the best storylines that the WWE has been able to produce, it was given the proper time to develop into a white-hot battle of hatred between two of the best performers in wrestling.

HBK had just come out of his classic at WrestleMania 24 with Ric Flair and was struggling with Batista, who was trying to avenge his former mentor Flair. Chris Jericho, who was seemingly moving through the WWE without much of a purpose, became involved as a third-party and for the HBK/Batista bout at Backlash, Jericho was named as the guest referee. Michaels faked a knee injury and ended up dropping Batista with a superkick to pick up the win, which kickstarted the entire Jericho/HBK issue. Jericho called Michaels on his bullshit, claiming he faked the injury, which led to a match against Michaels at Judgment Day which Michaels won. Many were thinking that that was the end of the issue between HBK and Jericho as Michaels continued his issue with Batista at One Night Stand, losing a stretcher match to blow off that feud. However, a little over a week later on Raw, Jericho proved that his issue with Michaels was indeed not forgotten. Jericho attacked Michaels while Michaels was a guest on The Highlight Reel, verbally berated him and threw him through the OBSCENELY expensive Jeritron 5000, injuring Michaels’ eye and adding a new level of hatred to the feud.

After a match at The Great American Bash which saw Jericho win by referee stoppage after splitting Michaels’ eye wide open and nearly blinding him with a vicious barrage of punches and headbutts, Jericho thought he had rid the WWE of Michaels forever. It looked to be true as Michaels went to SummerSlam with the intention of announcing his retirement, but those plans changed as during the promo Chris Jericho came out and confronted HBK, inadvertantly punching Michaels’ wife in the face at the end of it. That led to Michaels renouncing his retirement and challenging Jericho to an unsanctioned match at Unforgiven, which Michaels won after beating Jericho so severely the referee stopped the match. Jericho would get the last laugh however by ending the night by sneaking into the World Heavyweight Championship Scramble match and picking up the coveted title. His first defense had to be against Michaels as their issue was still on the front burner and the biggest feud going in any of the three brands of the WWE despite it being nearly seven months old. Jericho defended his championship against Michaels in a great ladder match that was full of intensity and full of the usual signature spots that you’d expect from both Jericho and Michaels. That was the blow-off as both men have gone on their separate ways since then, but let’s take a look back at what was done right.

Good wrestling feuds improve both men and propel both men forward in their careers. Great feuds can help make careers and this one helped both men solidify their Hall of Fame credentials even further. Granted, HBK was not in much of a career slump as he was involved in the high-profile Flair angle and the aftermath, but he was brought up to an even higher level after squaring off with Jericho for all of those months. For Jericho, it was a career-saver as he was seemingly ready to languish in the mid-card again after losing all of the momentum he had built prior to his return and lukewarm babyface run. The heel turn on Michaels and the subsequent fine-tuning of his heel act propelled Jericho into the stratosphere, making him the hottest wrestler in the sport and giving him the World Heavyweight Championship. This was a feud that had a logical starting point, two men who firmly believed they were right, and two men who were willing to do anything to prove that they were right. It built from a friendly suspicion into outright hatred and featured many compelling moments including the punch on Michaels’ wife and the Shawn Michaels “Tell your children that daddy will never be HBK” promo which won Promo of the Year. This feud kept people tuning into Raw week in and week out and was miles ahead of anything that any other wrestling promotion produced this year.

Theo Fraser: How does one aptly sum up arguably the best feud the WWE has put out since the Attitude era and the days of The Rock & Stone Cold? Much like Batista’s gradual face turn a few years ago, this was a rare example of WWE employing ‘the slow burn’ booking technique, and the feud was all the better for it. You could pretty much trace this one all the way back to Wrestlemania XXIV, as it was the repercussions of the Michaels-Flair match that originally brought the two competitors together. Critics and fans the world over have commended Michaels and Jericho for their fantastic performances, both in the ring and on the mic. That cannot be denied, but I’d like to give credit to the fact that the feud was also an illustration of perfect pacing. Jericho’s heel turn had been rumored for months, but none knew when exactly it would come. Everyone thought the logical place for the turn to occur would be at the Judgment Day PPV, but it never came. When it finally arrived, it was suitably violent enough to make an impact, whilst not being so hardcore they could never top it, which they would have to do on more than one occasion, going from the Unsanctioned Match to the awesome feud-ending Ladder Match. Again, the pacing with each match was faultless, as they upped the violence and the emotion each time, topping their previous encounter. The entire feud acted as a crescendo, building towards the payoff of the Ladder Match at No Mercy. It never faltered, it never peaked too early; put simply, through the summer months THIS was the reason to watch WWE programming.

Ryan Byers: Forget feud of the year. This might be a contender for feud of the decade. Though the Michaels/Jericho duo didn’t hit their rumored goal of having a feud that lasted twelve full months, they still managed to have perhaps the most entertaining WWE rivalry in recent memory. The two men proved that what is old can be new again, as their program was in many ways the epitome of a 1970’s or 1980’s rivalry. The heel was given a believable reason for hating the babyface but was still portrayed in such a way that fans were not going to support him. The babyface promos were intense, well delivered, and – perhaps most importantly – largely sprung from the minds of the competitors themselves. The story had a logical beginning, middle, and end, transitioning seemlessly from the Batista/Michaels feud (which itself transitioned seemlessly from the Micheals/Flair Feud), building in to a major person matter and culminating in a series of matches centered around what should be the focal point of the biggest rivalry in any promotion: The Heavyweight Championship of the World. From the moment that these two locked it up, it was evident that they were going to deliver the goods, but I don’t think that anybody realized just how well Michaels and Jericho were going to do that job. For providing more memorable matches and more memorable interviews than most professional wrestlers provide in their careers, Shawn Michaels versus Chris Jericho is your feud of the year.

Honorable Mentions: MVP’s losing streak, can’t live up to his “MVP” status (WWE SmackDown! – 2 points), The X-Divisions issues with Team 3D (TNA – 5 points), Kane tries to eat Kane’s soul or some shit (WWE RAW – 1 point)

3rd Place: TIE – “Samoa Joe and Kevin nash’s off/on relationship, waiting for the inevitable Nash turn” and “The Vickie Guerrero-Edge Saga: Vickie becomes GM of SmackDown!, falls in love with Edge, creates La Familia, has a falling out, strips Taker of his belt, who then fights in a tournament for the title against the man he defeated in the first place, Edge returns, all is well, blah blah” (TNA and WWE respectively) – 12 points

2nd Place: The Deuces Wild Tournament (TNA) – 20 points

And your winner is…:

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NO CHANCE… Vince McMahon continues to insert himself everywhere with his “fake” son Hornswaggle, making Finley’s life hell and then trying to entice and increase in ratings by giving away a million dollars a week, culminating in the set collapsing on him; be it miscue or sabotage, we will probably never know (WWE) – 39 points

Jarrod Westerfeld: For years Vince McMahon has managed to implement himself into storylines that are meant to be provocative, intriguing, exciting and entertaining but more often than not it fails to capture the magic of the one saga he had been a part of that launched his company high into the ratings marks. Nothing he has done, or probably will do from here on out, will match the feud he had with Stone Cold Steve Austin and every year Vince still tries to make himself into the character that fans love to hate and want to see destroyed. This year, however, Vince’s saga took a ridiculous turn for the worse as his own storyline has resulted in no payoff since it first developed.

We have not heard word or seen hair of McMahon since his stage collapsed upon him and he was stretched out at the end of the June 23rd edition of Raw. We’ve not heard word referencing McMahon in several months and nothing has come from his storyline in which he was injured by the stage collapse. This has no build, no character development and no payoff in sight and has been ultimately forgotten about. It was supposed to be a big deal, after all a major character in the promotion was just injured. Yet nothing is coming of it, nor does it appear anything ever will. Congratulations WWE, you managed to give us a dead-ended storyline that even you got bored of contemplating after about 3 weeks.

Jeremy Thomas: I’m not positive, but I think this may be the only back-to-back winner from last year to this one. And well-deserved it is, too. You know, there was a time when Vince McMahon was consistently part of the hottest and best storylines in wrestling. For you younglings out there, we call that era “The Monday Night Wars.” Then WCW went under, the ‘E bought them, and for some reason storylines surrounding the McMahons started to go bad. Maybe it was that the final win over his hated rival gave Vince such an ego stroke that he stopped listening to people who toned down the McMahon stuff or maybe the lack of competition just meant that Creative got lazy and went to the Vince well every time they started to run dry. Whatever the reason, the Vince-centric storylines have been on a steady decline for quite some time, and 2008 was no exception.

What, you need proof? Jesus, where to begin? As 2007 drew to a close and 2008 opened, Vince was still fully mired in the storyline where Hornswoggle was his believed son. The last show of ’07 saw Vince pushing Regal to bust the little leprechaun open with the knucks, after all. But we weren’t done yet…not at all. The Hornswoggle portion of the Vince saga would continue, as Horny would compete in the Royal Rumble by hiding under the ring. Vince was ashamed of the little guy’s tactics and tried to get him to join the “Kiss My Ass” club. Unfortunately for Vince—and all of us—Horny would listen to Finlay’s advice and we were treated to the image of Hornswoggle biting Vince on the ass. If that wasn’t enough torture for us, Vince would then take on Horny in a No DQ match the next week and a Steel Cage match after that. Or, rather, a scheduled Steel Cage match, which would be interrupted by JBL. We would find out from JBL the next week that Hornswoggle wasn’t Vince’s son, he was Finlay’s. This would finally put an end to the horrible Hornswoggle McMahon storyline, thankfully, but it did dominate Vince’s life for the first few months of the year.

Of course, we weren’t done with the Vince drama. Vince had set up Ric Flair late in ’07, telling him that the next match he lost would be the one that ended his career. When Ric kept winning and winning, Vince finally decided he’d had enough, and booked himself against the Nature Boy in a Street Fight. The match itself was actually not bad, all things considered, but in yet another ego stroke for Vince, Flair needed HBK’s help in order to get the win. This is RIC FREAKING FLAIR, and he needed help to beat a 62 year old non-wrestler. Certainly, this would then lead into the Michaels/Flair match at WrestleMania and it gets a bit of a pass from that, but there were certainly other ways they could have done this. Either way, it would be a couple months after that until we saw Vince again. When he did return in May, it was to first endorse and then (due to Wellness) fire William Regal before the next phase of this whole mess began…Million Dollar Mania.

Okay, now admit it people. I know most of you signed up to try and win money. It’s okay, you can admit it. I know I did. It was, in theory, a potentially decent idea, a publicity stunt to try and give sagging ratings a shot in the arm. Unfortunately, it also begat some of the worst segments on WWE television this year, as we were forced to see Vince come out multiple times over the three week period that the idea ran for and call viewers to give them the money. Besides the boringness of the execution, it also failed miserably, resulting in a slight blip in the ratings on the second week. By the third, they’d had enough. So did they end it quietly and move on? Of course not, this is the ‘E after all. Instead of letting it just end, they had to turn it into an angle that, to this date, has had no major follow-up. On the last show, a lighting fixture fell and landed a few feet away from the Chairman. Moments later the stage would collapse, giving us the second “Who tried to kill Vince?” storyline in consecutive years. While this may yet see some fruit—Stephanie McMahon certainly looks like she might be a viable choice for the person who engineered it all at this point—this merely reminds us that in 2009 we have more McMahon drama to look forward to, and quite possibly the first three-time consecutive-year winner of a 411 Year End Award. Let’s hope not.

Sat: The Vince McMahon saga was painfully hard to watch in 2008. The first part of the saga was with his bastard son Hornswoggle. The main things that happened with this angle was that Hornswoggle bit Mr. McMahon in the ass and then taking a brutal beating from JBL in a steel cage with Finlay handcuffed. At that point, it was announced that Hornswoggle was actually Finlay’s son. The other part of the Vince McMahon saga was the Million Dollar Mania. The basic concept here was that Vince would call you and you would give him the password of the evening and then you would win some money. This led to multiple segments over the next few weeks where Vince would call the winners live. Eventually, this mess was ended when a stage fell on Vince McMahon. And here we are at the start of 2009 and we still do not know who orchestrated this attack.

Honorable Mentions: Were there any, really?

3rd Place: Chris Jericho saves himself, and you should all be ashamed of yourself! (WWE RAW) – 31 points

2nd Place: The Ric Flair Retirement Tour (WWE) – 33 points

And your winner is…:

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Fallen: The Trials of HBK (Retires Ric Flair, Dave feels disrespected, Jericho calls him out as a fraud, now works for JBL) (WWE) – 49 points

Ari Berenstein: Wrestling is essentially a morality play…and if you’re going to do a morality play, you might as well use Shawn Michaels, whose whole real life is a parable. HBK has had his ups and downs with pills and attitude problems, and many fans knew about his sordid past, his mistakes and his attempts at redemption. This year the WWE took Michael’s character through a Job-like experience, dragging him through “heartbreak and triumph” (as his book and DVD are named). As a result of living through so much difficulty, fans saw his character evolve based on the choices he made…some of which we could agree with and others only shake our heads in sympathy.

It all began with his decision to wrestle Ric Flair at Wrestlemania. Michaels only wanted to honor his idol Ric Flair by announcing Naitch had been selected for the 2008 WWE Hall of Fame. However, he hadn’t anticipated that Flair would want a big time match against him at Wrestlemania. He was torn between his admiration of a man, not wanting to end his career and on the other hand living up to his reputation of being “Mr. Wrestlemania”. In the storyline, Flair was insulted that HBK didn’t want to fight him and that he believed he could take HBK and beat him. Respect and admiration gave way to anger and the breaking point. “I’m sorry, I love you” could have been a schmaltzy and cheesy moment, but it really was a poignant thing to say—I think in some ways all fans felt sorry Flair was leaving the active role as a professional wrestling, and love him for his thirty plus years of a spectacular career.

Michaels didn’t want to have the baggage of retiring Ric Flair, but he got that and more. Batista became upset with him for taking out his mentor, so they battled with Chris Jericho observing and even egging things on. The more Jericho saw HBK act, the more he thought he saw hypocrisy in his actions. More than that, Michaels would bend the rules and be cheered, while Y2J was receiving more and more boos from the fans and little explanation as to why. It led to an awesome moment of wrestling karma , something long time fans could appreciate. Back in the day, Shawn Michaels broke up The Rockers by superkicking Marty Jannetty and throwing him through a plate glass window. This time the shoe was on the other foot as Jericho attacked HBK when he wasn’t expecting it, and then threw him through a television monitor. Jericho exclaimed the worst was yet to come, and he was right.

The brutal wars with Jericho had some severe costs, from his wife being decked to Michaels’s eye injury. It gave way to a war with JBL and the final descent of Michaels from comeback kid to tortured soul. Whether or not HBK’s “financial woes” are believable, WWE has run with the story and Michaels has become indentured to the rich bully in JBL. We can look at the HBK of the end of 2008 and see he is in a completely different situation than at the beginning. THAT is story telling at its finest, and I have enjoyed it every step of the way.

Stephen Randle: I don’t think anyone in pro wrestling has had a rougher year than Shawn Michaels. Sure, as 2008 began, he was a happy guy, even though he’d just spent the last half of 2007 failing to take Randy Orton’s title in revenge for kicking him in the head and sidelining him for several months. But then things began to go downhill, as his mentor and friend, Ric Flair, demanded that Shawn and he have a match at WrestleMania, even though Flair was wrestling under the stigma that he would be forced to retire if he ever lost a singles match. And to make things worse, Flair insisted that Shawn not hold anything back, even if it meant the end of his career. Shawn went into WrestleMania clearly struggling with what he might be forced to do, but true to his friend’s wishes he gave no quarter and ultimately ended Ric Flair’s career.

It’s hard to say exactly how much this affected Shawn, but it’s easy to see how it affected another friend of Flair’s, as Batista made it quite clear that while Flair may have forgiven Shawn, Batista was not exactly the forgiving type. Batista seemed unable or unwilling to accept any explanation from Michaels, and forced HBK into a match in the ring to settle accounts. Shawn managed to escape after seeming to injure his leg, and both Batista and a suddenly interfering Chris Jericho seemed suspicious of his honesty in the matter of his injury.

After revealing that he’d faked the injury, Shawn was forced to suffer the revenge of the Animal, who destroyed Michaels in a stretcher match at One Night Stand. But what seemed to hurt more was Chris Jericho, taking every opportunity to point out how Shawn had lied, and indeed, had often lied throughout his career, and how he seemed to get a free pass with the fans despite it. Jericho made it clear that he disagreed with how Shawn did business, and set out to prove that he was the better man. This resulted in some of the best promos and matches of both men’s careers, and in WWE history, as Shawn continually fought to redeem himself and his past actions, while Jericho would slide to new lows in order to attempt to destroy the Heartbreak Kid. And even when Shawn finally managed to get a form of revenge on his tormentor, beating him bloody in an unsanctioned match at Unforgiven, his nemesis still walked out that night as a winner, having snuck his way into the Raw Scramble match later that night and won the World Heavyweight Title.

After a few more matches between the two, Shawn seems to have put Chris Jericho behind him. But the hardships of 2008 seem poised to continue into 2009 for HBK, as he’s recently been forced, through hardships brought on by the worldwide economic crisis, to enter employment under hated heel JBL.

For his year of so many ups and even more downs, that have led to some of WWE’s most captivating television moments in recent memory, there is no doubt that the story of Shawn Michaels’ battles with friends, enemies, his past, his present, his future, and even for his very soul is the only possible choice for Storyline of 2008.

Michael O: Even before making one of the all-time greatest comebacks in wrestling history, Shawn Michaels had established himself as a legend by doing it all and leaving a body of work that is matched by only an elite few in quality. Since returning in 2002, Shawn has added many more matches and moments to his oeuvre but he hadn’t been involved in any particularly memorable angles for quite some time. Sure, he chased the Heavyweight championship around here and there but he’d been aimlessly bouncing from one forgettable feud to the next, with the odd DX appearance sprinkled in, for so long that I really wasn’t expecting any significant change in course.

If anything, that lack of expectation made this year’s best storyline all the better. In 2008, The WWE churned out some of the most compelling television it has in a long ass time, but the karmic updraft HBK’s been caught in takes the cake. From retiring Flair at ‘Mania to knocking Jericho’s teeth out at No Mercy, Shawn and anything orbiting him has been pretty much non-stop awesome. In addition to entertaining us, a redemptive story arc with parallels to the Hickenbottom skeleton closet enabled Shawn to act out a comeuppance of sorts while perhaps also reconciling for some their conflicting feelings about the performer and the man. Maybe now that Shawn has taken his lumps, those that begrudge him will be more amenable to letting it go. What do you say, Canada?

Sat: The storyline of the year for 2008 was the trials of Shawn Michaels. The story began with Ric Flair asking Shawn Michaels to face him at WrestleMania 24 and not to hold anything back. Shawn was hesitant to do this because Ric Flair would be forced to retire the next time that he lost. Eventually, we saw Shawn Michaels accept the match, deliver a great promo, and then retire Ric Flair at WrestleMania. This led to Batista being angry at Shawn Michaels for retiring his friend Ric Flair and challenging Shawn Michaels to a match at Backlash. During the time before the match, Chris Jericho got involved and got under the skin of both competitors. Both of these incidents led to Jericho being attacked by the competitors on the highlight reel and then being named guest referee for Backlash. At Backlash, we saw Shawn Michaels pull one over the crowd, Batista, and Chris Jericho by sneaking out with the victory by faking a knee injury. For the next few weeks, Batista said that he would seriously injure Shawn if he was faking it and Chris Jericho eventually came around to believing that Shawn Michaels was injured. This led to Shawn saying that he was not injured and super kicking Jericho. After this, we saw a match between Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels, with Batista also at the pay per view saying that he wants a piece of Shawn Michaels. The following night, Jericho and Batista met to see who would face Shawn Michaels at One Night Stand with Batista coming out the victor. At One Night Stand, Batista defeated Shawn Michaels in a stretcher match. A few weeks later, Jericho and Shawn Michaels were on the highlight reel and we saw the amazing sight of Chris Jericho throwing Shawn Michaels in the Jeritron. This led to Shawn Michaels’ eye being injured and Shawn Michaels getting revenge by costing Jericho the Intercontinental title at the Night of Champions. This led to a match at the Great American Bash, which was stopped by the referee after a brutal beating by Chris Jericho. This led Shawn to say that he retiring at SummerSlam, but this led to Chris Jericho accidentally punching Shawn’s wife Rebecca. Because of this, Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho agreed to face in an unsanctioned match at Unforgiven, which Shawn won. But later in the night, Chris Jericho was successful in winning the World Heavyweight Title. A week later, Shawn decided to challenge Jericho in a ladder match at No Mercy. The feud between Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels ended at No Mercy with Chris Jericho coming out on top. And in the past few months, we have seen Shawn Michaels align himself with John “Bradshaw” Layfield because he has gone broke. The way that this storyline progressed and the wrestlers that were involved made this the only logical choice for storyline of the year.

Be sure to check out Part 1 now, Part 3 tomorrow, Part 4 Thursday, and Part 5 on Friday!

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James Thomlison

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