Nerdly Wrestling Awards – Week Five
Welcome to this week’s Nerdly Wrestling Awards, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and we have some good wrestling to cover, so let’s do so.
Worst Promo:
Milwaukee Bull-$@!# (Smackdown) – Aiden English told Lana he knew about what she did in Milwaukee. Who cares?
Best Promo:
Ain’t Got No Respect (Impact) – The OGz had an excellent promo where they burnt Konnan’s old luchador mask while promising to destroy LAX at Bound For Glory.
Worst Moment:
Top Prospects Get No Respect (Ring of Honor) – Jeff Cobb was booked to beat the hell out of two more members of the Top Prospect Tournament and it made the two guys look terrible. Trust me when I say, you may not give a $#!% about the Top Prospect tournament after this angle.
Best Moment:
Old School Salesman (Ring of Honor: Death Before Dishonor) – Nick Aldis did a great job on commentary for the Bullet Club/CHAOS match, as he sold you on his hatred for Cody Rhodes while selling every competitor in the ring and how he’s going to get his title back. Some-times, it’s the little things that are the greatest pleasures and that was the case here.
Worst Trend:
Matches Gone Fishin’ (Impact) – The idea behind this terrible title is that each match on Impact followed a dull trend that featured a good match that went early and ended with a whimper, instead of a bang.
Best Trend:
Prison Sentence Ended (Raw, Smackdown, NXT, 205 Live) – Numerous wrestlers who haven’t gotten a chance to do any-thing of value for quite some time were given better matches than usual and even won in an upset or two.
Worst Match:
Brian Johnson versus Donte Calbero – Top Prospect Match
My Take: 0 out of 5 – Jeff Cobb humiliated these guys in an embarrassing display that made Cobb look good, but killed the Top Prospect tournament when Donte was decimated and Johnson proved he was a geek. I get the idea of having Cobb make a big debut, but why not just have him attack Punishment Martinez and set him up as an immediate contender who just has to win enough to be the contender? They’ve buried so many excellent wrestlers by having them be trounced during these beatings from Jeff Cobb. I like Cobb, but no one deserves to be pissed on just to get one guy over.
Best Match:
Jay Lethal versus Will Ospreay – Ring of Honor World Title Match
My Take: 4.5 out of 5 – This is the way it’s supposed to be. The main event stole the show and did it without resorting to cheap thrills to do it. Ospreay gave one of his best performances yet in a match where the currently-controversial champion, Jay Lethal, gave one of his best performances of the year. There was more wrestling here from Ospreay than usual and he really turned the corner in how he presented himself. Ospreay could be a great World Champion in the near future. It would appear that Lethal’s sexual harassment allegations will not be taking a toll on his immediate future, so we can expect to see him remain in this role, for the time being.
Worst Wrestler:
Matanza Cueto/Jeff Cobb (Lucha Underground and Ring of Honor) – Between giving Jack Evans a lame end to his time in Lucha Underground and ruining the immediate careers of two Top prospect members, Cobb got booked into being the worst wrestler of the week. Don’t worry, I don’t think he’ll be in this position again any time soon, but who knows.
Best Wrestler:
Jay Lethal (Ring of Honor, Ring of Honor: Death Before Dishonor) – Despite the ongoing [alleged] controversy with Jay Lethal, we have him as our wrestler of the week with a fine performance on ROH TV and his match of the week at DBD.
Worst League:
Ring of Honor – ROH TV got a 2 out of 5 because of match averages, to be sure, but also because it had so many booking errors in a few key places.
Best League:
Major League Wrestling – MLW: Fusion was a simple card this week that had a great main event and excellent booking, along with proper announcements of interesting matches for a big show in Fury Road.
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Final Verdict: 2.5 out of 5 – This was an odd week of the best and worst of what wrestling has to offer. From a 0 out of 5 to a 4.5 out of 5, we had enough to keep us busy with things to talk about in wrestling, but the mistakes are a reminder of why so many of the regular folks that have a passing interest in wrestling don’t talk about it as much as we do.
