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EditorialMy End of The Year Awards For WWE: Newcomer/Rivalry Of The Year

My End of The Year Awards For WWE: Newcomer/Rivalry Of The Year

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My WWE awards continue, with this edition honoring the best newcomer and the best rivalry of the year for WWE in 2017. If you haven’t caught up, here’s the list of all my categories that I’ll be uploading in separate articles.

 

OMG Moment of the Year – Given to the single most shocking or surprising moment in all of WWE this year. Genuine shock factor is stressed here.

Return of the Year – Given to the best return of a superstar(s) that no one saw coming.

Tag Team of the Year – Given to the most consistent and best-performing tag team of 2017.

Promo/Segment of the Year – Given to the best promo or segment in all of WWE.

Newcomer of the Year – Given to the superstar either new to the main roster or put in a different role who’s performed the best in 2017.

Rivalry of the Year – Given to the best rivalry between two opposing entities in WWE this year. The rivalry has to span at least two matches in order to qualify.

Superstar of the Year (Men’s) – Given to the best overall performing superstar on the men’s roster.

Superstar of the Year (Women’s) – Given to the best overall performing superstar on the women’s roster.

Match of the Year – Given to the best overall match of the year in 2017.

 

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR

And the nominees are…

1. Bobby Roode

               

Mr. Glorious got off to sort of a rocky start upon his debut on the Smackdown roster after passing on the NXT Championship to Drew McIntyre. He then got off to a pretty uneventful feud against Dolph Ziggler and it wasn’t until his inclusion onto Team Smackdown at Survivor Series where he was involved in anything of significant worth. He is currently in the second round of the United States Championship tournament that is taking place on Smackdown, and if I have a hunch, he’ll be facing Jinder Mahal in the finals at the Royal Rumble. He hasn’t done anything of note thus far, but I feel as though his breakthrough is soon to come.


2. Shinsuke Nakamura

               

Shinsuke Nakamura was something special in NXT. At least in 2016 he was. To be honest, for the most part on Smackdown, the former 2-time NXT Champion has been made to look like a joke on the main roster, especially in his WWE Championship feud with Jinder Mahal. I also hate the fact that WWE added “The Artist Known As…” to his intro as if that adds anything. Despite being on Team Smackdown at Survivor Series and competing for the WWE Championship, he has had some quality matches against the likes of Dolph Ziggler, Randy Orton, and John Cena and is set to enter the Royal Rumble. He’s supposed to be one of the favorites to win the Rumble, and rumors have stated that he may be in line to face AJ Styles for the title at WrestleMania next year. Whether or not WWE pulls the trigger remains to be seen, but I think Nakamura is too good to remain in this holding pattern for long.


3. Samoa Joe

             

Joe instantly made an impact upon his main roster call-up, taking out Seth Rollins and putting his WrestleMania status in great jeopardy. He started the year primarily serving as Triple H’s enforcer, but once he started to work independently, he became a more important piece of the RAW brand for most of the year. He dismantled superstars such as Finn Balor, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns, and the highlight of this year came when he won a Fatal Five Way at Extreme Rules to challenge Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at Great Balls of Fire. While the match didn’t amount to anything special, Joe certainly looked the part and made many people think WWE should take a gamble on him as Universal Champion. The former NXT Champion now finds himself embroiled in a feud over the Intercontinental Championship against Roman Reigns, which would give him his first title on the main roster should he be successful.


4. Jason Jordan

             

Now yes, yes, I know. Jason Jordan technically isn’t a newcomer as he’s been in a tag team with Chad Gable for a couple of years now, but Jordan is certainly a newcomer as a singles performer. Love or hate Jordan, he’s had some quality performances on RAW against some of the top guys WWE put out at him. And putting him in a storyline that has him as Kurt Angle’s abandoned son (I personally think the role should have gone to Gable) is something I don’t think any would successfully adapt to, but I think Jordan did about as good a job as he could given the circumstances. A heel turn had been teased for him for the past couple of weeks, but that appears to be on hold, as Jordan ended the year winning the RAW Tag Team Championship with Seth Rollins. In addition to all of this, Jason Jordan became the first person to win the NXT, Smackdown and RAW Tag Team Championships.


5. Elias

               

Elias was a bit of an under-the-radar NXT call-up, as he would simply drift by people cutting promos. But it wasn’t until he started to get the spotlight in the center of the ring and start singing where he started to find his groove, and I think he’s come quite a long way. While he hasn’t accomplished anything or had any major feuds as of yet, he is certainly making a name for himself and what is nice to see is that he is getting consistent time on television week after week doing the same thing, and the gimmick doesn’t seem to be getting stale as of yet. I personally think he would be a great mid-card champion, and with more seasoning and more matches with quality guys, that should be just around the horizon. Very soon, everyone will want to walk with Elias.

 

AND THE WINNER IS……

 

No one has had the immediate impact on the main roster that Samoa Joe has upon being called up. While he has yet to win a title, best believe that will change going into 2018.

 

RIVALRY OF THE YEAR

And the nominees are….

 

1. Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owens

                 

The way this feud was booked, the Universal Championship should have been on the line, but since I knew what WWE was going for with Goldberg and Lesnar, the United States Championship did just fine. While the matches between these two didn’t quite live up to the booking this feud had, there’s no doubt that this feud was something awesome. The best feuds are the ones that have a build that takes time to get to the point. These two were partners from the summer of last year, and it wasn’t until February where they went their separate ways. They kept playing up their friendship and how they had each other’s backs over the months. Jericho helped KO retain his Universal Championship while KO helped Jericho win the only title he hadn’t won in his illustrious career, being the United States Championship.

However, the Festival of Friendship became the Festival of Betrayal as Kevin Owens viciously attacked Jericho and then beat him for his title at WrestleMania. Jericho would get his revenge at the Payback PPV, but the victory would be short-lived as KO would get his title back on the Smackdown that same week. Jericho would then take a brief hiatus before inserting his name back in the hat for the US Title in an episode of Smackdown in July, and Jericho inadvertently cost KO his US Title as he was the one who lost to AJ Styles and not Kevin. So I suppose you could say Y2J had the last laugh after all.


 

2. Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman

               

Five words define this feud. I’M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU! Technically, this whole beef started back at the Royal Rumble, when Braun Strowman came out and cost Roman Reigns the Universal Championship against Kevin Owens. They had a match at Fastlane so Roman could get his retribution and he did so, giving Braun his first clean loss on the main roster. Then they went their separate ways for about a month or so before Braun was back for more after WrestleMania. Braun would dismantle Roman seemingly night after night, pushing him off carts and tipping him in ambulances. Braun would then get his win back at Payback. However, Roman would get HIS revenge back on Braun, and caused him to be out with an injury that caused him to miss extreme rules.

Braun wasn’t going to take this sitting down as he came back in an ambulance, attacked Roman and challenged him to an ambulance match. Braun won the ambulance match at Great Balls of Fire, but he might as well have lost it with the way Roman attempted to kill him afterward, ramming the ambulance truck at high speeds into the wall, and leaving Braun’s bloody body helpless. What’s amazing in all of this is that Braun still remained to walk off on his own. They would have some more encounters after that won, but this feud forced both men to elevate their games, and this would make Braun Strowman in particular, the big star that he is today.


3. The New Day vs. The Usos

               

Words cannot stress how necessary this feud was. The New Day stated it best. No matter what capacity their match was in, be it a street fight or a pre-show match, they left little doubt in any one’s mind that the match The Usos and The New Day were involved in was the match of the night. On Smackdown-exclusive PPV’s, there wasn’t much competition to deal with, especially with Jinder Mahal as WWE Champion, but on PPV’s such as Summerslam, you could argue they had the best match of the night aside from the fatal four-way main event. And they weren’t even on the main card. This feud was necessary because the Smackdown tag team division was a joke from the moment they got exclusive tag team belts, and they had no signature team that WWE could really be proud of. It got to a point where Chad Gable and Jason Jordan weren’t even being featured on Smackdown week after week because of how much of a joke the division got.

Then, enter the Usos. With their fresh heel gimmick, they took the titles off of American Alpha, and they became relevant for the first time since its inception. The Usos faced a big issue afterward, however. They didn’t have any credible challengers. Breezango was a brief sprint and entertaining for the while, but they couldn’t be taken seriously. Then, you bring the longest reigning tag champs in WWE history onto the roster, and then you have something special. Battle raps, street fights and intense back and forth later, they culminated their heated rivalry inside Hell In A Cell which was straight up evil. They played up all of their previous spots in their previous matches and straight up destroyed each other until one team was left standing, and when the dust cleared, The Usos left victorious. In doing so, however, both teams garnered major respect.


4. RAW vs. Smackdown

             

Survivor Series season has become more intense since the brand split, and it sure felt that way this year. In the yearly battle for brand supremacy, RAW and Smackdown began their yearly invasion of each other’s locker rooms, interfered in each brand’s matches and held each other’s locker room under siege. It started with Smackdown, taking RAW and Kurt Angle hostage by invading their locker room and attacking any man or woman that dare came in their way. Shane then gave Kurt an ultimatum that more of this is to come and to bring whatever was left of the carnage to Survivor Series. The New Day would cost The Shield the RAW Tag Team Titles, and that was the final straw as RAW reciprocated in kind and not only decimated the enemy camp’s locker room but destroyed Shane McMahon and The New Day.

The battle of RAW vs. Smackdown ended with Smackdown taking all of the mid-card title matches and RAW would take the world title, six man tag and both men and women’s 5 on 5 elimination matches. The best of each brand were represented and the night’s tipping point was a very fun AJ Styles/Brock Lesnar back and forth.


5. Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles

             

This spot was originally supposed to go to Jinder Mahal and Randy Orton. Despite that, the rivalry over the United States Championship between Kevin Owens and AJ Styles gets the nod here, because this was the feud that was treated like the main event with each match. While the series of matches didn’t nearly reach the level these two are capable of reaching, they made the United States Championship feel like something special. It’s weird because I feel as though this feud shouldn’t be here because this didn’t really elevate either man and one of the matches came off a botched finish at Battleground. In spite of that, we still got quality matches and a great good guy/bad guy dynamic between the two.

The feud, in all honesty, should have been much better than it actually was, because after a while the feud became more about the incompetence of the referees, and once Shane was added into the proceedings, you just knew that a lot of foolishness would obscure the in-ring story. The feud was okay, but given the scope of a lack of high-quality feuds on the Smackdown brand for the majority of 2017, this is about as good as it gets. And it would appear as though this won’t be the last we see of these two, as KO just picked up a pinfall victory over the WWE Champion.

 

AND THE WINNER IS…..

 

This was a TOUGH one, but why do I give the nod to these two teams? Look at where the tag team division is now compared to the start of the year. You have more credible teams and the tag titles now mean something. These two reminded me of Edge/Mysterio vs. Angle/Benoit back in Smackdown circa 2002.

 

I ain’t done yet, there’s more to come!

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