The 2025 Best Of WWE Awards

It’s the end of the year, you know what that means! That’s right, it’s the 2025 Best of the WWE Awards! Today, we will be celebrating some of the best moments and wrestlers of the year!

As I say in The Great Eight, this is my opinion; if you disagree, awesome! Feel free to voice your views in the comment section. My only request is that you refrain from insulting others (myself included) for their opinions. Wrestling is an art form, so it’s subjective. We are all entitled to our own thoughts and feelings on the product. There is no reason to insult anyone else for their take! And with that, on to the awards!

The Awards

Most Shocking Moment of the Year: WWE buys AAA

(Runners Up: John Cena turns heel, Jacy Jane beats Stephanie Vaquer for the NXT Women’s Championship, AJ Lee returns)

We had a handful of shocking moments this year, and while in any other year, Cena’s heel turn would have been number one. I don’t think anyone had this on their bingo cards. Seeing the AAA Officials and Vikingo come out on the WrestleMania Pre-Show and hearing the announcement was the biggest shock wrestling has given me in a long time.

And since the first Worlds Collide in June, the merger has gone off well. Even with the influx of WWE and NXT talent, the product has remained steeped in the Lucha tradition. It has introduced Vikingo, Mr. Iguana, El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., and Psycho Clown to the world, helped to revitalize Dragon Lee’s career, and it’s given Dominik Mysterio a vehicle to become one of the biggest stars in Mexico and even bigger in the US.

Most Improved Wrestler: Maxxine Dupree

(Runner Up: Jacy Jane, Grayson Waller)

During the last part of the year, Maxxine came out of nowhere. Going from someone who was very awkward in the ring to holding her own against Becky Lynch. Her work with Nattie and TJ Wilson has paid off in dividends, as every night she is showing the world that she isn’t just arm candy. Her hard work has resulted in an International Championship win.

And if her recent match with Ivy Nile wasn’t quite the same caliber as her matches with Lynch, Nile also isn’t the same caliber of a wrestler. Maxxine still has a lot of room to improve, and if she continues at her current pace, we could be looking at a future World Champion.

Women’s Breakout Star: Stephanie Vaquer

(Runners Up: Sol Ruca, Maxxine Dupree, Lyra Valkyria, Blake Monroe)

Less than a year into her WWE career, Vaquer was already an NXT Women’s North American and NXT Women’s Champion. By May, she would debut on Raw and would become the Number One Contender in July. She would go on to beat IYO SKY at Wrestlepalooza to win her first WWE Women’s World Championship, and would beat Tiffany Stratton to become the 2025 Crown Jewel Champion.

That is an impressive year for the young Vaquer. Before showing up in NXT, she had already made a name for herself in Mexico and Japan. And her 2025 run would be even more proof that Vaquer is not just the future of the Women’s division but the present.

Men’s Breakout Star: Dominik Mysterio

(Runners Up: Bron Breakker, Jacob Fatu, Penta, Je’Von Evans)

You could make a solid case for any of the runner-ups to be in the top slot. But 2025 has been the best year in Mysterio’s career. It’s been three years since Dominik joined the Judgement Day, and he has used those years to hone his skills both in the ring and out.

He regularly gets one of the bigger pops each night. And before he went up against Cena, the fans were going from drowning him with boos to cheering for him. He won the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania XLI, losing it only for a few weeks to John Cena.

Speaking of Cena, one of only four people to beat Cena during his retirement year. He has also become a huge star in AAA, where he is the current AAA Mega Champion. A reign that is clearly testing the waters on whether he can carry the World Championship in the future.

Women’s Tag Team of the Year: The Kabuki Warriors

(Runners Up: Flair & Bliss, Rhiyo, Bayley & Valkyria, Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez)

The Women’s Tag Team division has never had great booking. Going into 2025, they seemed to be getting more attention. We have had some new teams, better matches, and booking. Cut to the last month, and they’ve become a vocal point of both Raw and SmackDown.

While the other teams listed all have strong cases. I think The Kabuki Warriors take the win here. They have been the most consistently fun teams, putting on great matches and having entertaining segments backstage.

Their feud with Rhiyo has been one of the better booked feuds this year, and has given us a lot of fun and memorable spots.  Asuka is probably one of the most consistent wrestlers in the WWE and shows no signs of aging or slowing down. And while Kairi is usually used to help the other teams look strong, she is such a joy to watch in the ring, and her reactions to Asuka yelling her name are gold.

Men’s Tag Team of the Year: Bronson Reed & Bron Breakker

(Runners Up: tyles & Lee, Street Profits, Lumis & Gacy, Balor & McDonagh)

No, they haven’t won or even gone after either Tag Team Championship. But no other team can boast the high-profile matches and wins that Bron and Bronson have. Since joining the Vision, the duo has run through every top guy in the company.

They’ve beaten Penta, Sami Zayn, The Usos, LA Knight, Fraxiom, Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, and were on the winning team for WarGames. Very few teams, in recent years, have dominated like Bron & Bronson. The Tag Team Division should feel lucky they haven’t set their sights on them yet. Because if they did, it would be a long time before anyone got the titles off of them.

Match of the Year: WWE World Heavyweight Championship CM Punk vs Gunther – SummerSlam Night 1

(Runners Up: WWE Women’s World Championship Triple Threat – Ripley vs Belair vs SKY WrestleMania XLI Night 2, Ladder Match for the Undisputed WWE Championship Kevins Owens vs Cody Rhodes – The Royal Rumble, Unsanctioned Match – Kevins Owens vs Sami Zayn – Elimination Chamber, TLC for the WWE Tag Team Championship #DIY, Fraxiom, Motor City Machineguns, Fenix & Andrade, The Street Profits, The Wyatt Sicks – SummerSlam Night 2, Street Fight for the Undisputed WWE CHampionship Cody Rhodes vs John Cena – SummerSlam Night 2)

That runners-up list alone shows that we had a great in-ring year in the WWE. It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that both the Ladder and Unsanctioned matches happened this year. I even left some other matches off, like the Women’s World Championship Triple Threat and the No DQ, Last Chance match for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship, both from SummerSlam Night 2. Rhea Ripley vs IYO SKY (and Money in the Bank Cash-In Naomi) for the WWE Women’s World Championship at Evolution 2 is up there as well.

Honestly, SummerSlam may have been the best PLE of the year. With all that said, my money for the WWE’s Match of the Year is Punk vs Gunther. The two went out there and gave us a 30-minute classic match. It was built like an old NWA match, a slow build, a lot of great ring work, emotion, and drama. The final moments fit that mold as well, where, after a grueling affair, things spill out on the floor, Gunther takes the table spot, and we have a new champion.

Of course, the moment was ruined for Punk with a Rollins fakeout and cash-in. But that doesn’t take away from one of the finest displays of old school wrestling we’ve seen in a long time.

Women Wrestler of the Year: IYO SKY

(Runners Up: Stephanie Vaquer, Rhea Ripley, Naomi, Becky Lynch)

In a year where Vaquer stormed onto the scene, Naomi had one of the best years of her career, and Lynch became a deranged egomaniac. SKY has been the WWE’s most consistent women’s wrestler. To steal a line from Sheamus, SKY has put on banger, after banger, after banger. Every night she is out there, the fans are in for a good to great match.

She beat Ripley for the Women’s World Championship in the lead-up to WrestleMania XLI, and while her opponents were more focused on each other, IYO was the one to walk out with the title. From there, things got a little bogged down, and SKY didn’t get a chance to do a lot during her reign.

But going into Evolution 2, things heated up for her again. She headlined against Ripley, and even though Naomi would cash in and win the World Championship. SKY wouldn’t let it slow her down. She would challenge Vaquer for the vacant Women’s World Championship at Wrestlepalooza, and has spent the rest of the year teaming with Ripley in a feud with The Kabuki Warriors. 2025 was one of SKY’s best years in the WWE, and 2026 looks to be more of the same.

Male Wrestler of the Year: CM Punk

(Runners Up: John Cena, Cody Rhodes, Dominik Mysterio, Gunther)

Speaking of consistency. When you are working in the same year as Cena’s last run, Cody’s work as QB1, the rise of Dirty Dom and Bron Breakker, and Gunther retiring two legends. It requires consistency of the highest caliber to be declared the Best in the World. And CM Punk has done that.

From the first Raw on Netflix against Seth Rollins to the Match of the Year at SummerSlam, from giving Cena one of the best matches in his final run to winning the World Championship twice. Punk has had a hell of a 2025. All of that, and he got to team up with his wife, AJ Lee, in a winning effort against Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins.

He has done all of this in the only way he knows how, as the best. His promos are a step above most everyone else; his in-ring work is more mature and nuanced, but still great. He shares the loudest pops of the night with Rhea Ripley, Roman Reigns, and John Cena. The fans love Punk more than just about everyone on the roster. And Punk proves why every time he steps through that curtain.