It’s part 2 of my awards segment, covering the best of the best WWE has had to offer this year, and in this portion, I will be covering who I thought to be the best tag team and what was the best promo of the year. Here’s a reminder of all the categories I will be covering:
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.
TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR
And the nominees are….
1. The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus)
Cesaro and Sheamus certainly raised the bar for tag team wrestling in 2017. The tag team won the titles off of the New Day to end 2016, and for the majority of 2017, they remained arguably the most consistent tag team in all of 2017. From feuds to Gallows and Anderson to the Hardy Boyz to The Shield, the tag team duo remained hard-working and never let whoever their opponents were impact the quality of their work. The two were also involved in the first ever tag team iron man match at Great Balls of Fire in which they won. Cesaro and Sheamus compliment each other’s styles immensely as a physical duo that prides itself on old-school style heel psychology in their matches. Their heel turn at Payback also facilitated the great run in the second half of the year they had in which they won the RAW Tag Team Titles twice.
2. The Usos
Just like Cesaro and Sheamus, The Usos set the standard for tag team wrestling for their brand on Smackdown for the majority of 2017. Of course, it helps that for most of 2017, the tag team division in 2017 was relatively thin and there were no real threats to The Usos’ dominance. That is, until, another tag team on this list came along and pushed The Usos to their absolute limits. The Usos turning heel has done wonders for their career, as it has shown in their promos, their wrestling style, and their newfound aggressiveness. The twin duo won the Smackdown Tag Team Title three times in WWE, most of which came during their feud with The New Day throughout the summer. They were highly loathed in the past due to them being essentially Roman Reigns’ security, but as their own individual unit, they have worked hard to make a name for themselves and had as great a year a tag team can ever have.
3. The New Day
Kind of hard to believe that The New Day is somehow still together and that they will have been a faction for three years now. The New Day wasn’t doing anything of real note before WrestleMania, as they mainly served as hosts for WrestleMania and didn’t have a concentrated feud to which they were involved in. However, after it was announced that The New Day would be making their way over to Smackdown after the Superstar Shakeup, they proved to be the perfect foil for The Usos in their intense feud over the Summer. They had incredible matches together and helped carry the Smackdown tag team division through the fall of this year. While they had more eventful years in 2015 and 2016, 2017 was still a year where they were able to win two more tag team championships to their collection.
4. The Shield (Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose)
The Shield’s reunion was capped off with an exciting win over The Bar at Summerslam this past summer. A lot of people were saying back in 2014 that before The Shield split that Ambrose and Rollins should be a tag team due to the chemistry that they had with each other. The former Shield brothers reunited for a tour with the RAW Tag Team Championship and had a pretty swell series of matches against The Bar at Summerslam and No Mercy. While their stint as a tag team duo didn’t last as long as the other teams on this list, they were very impactful during their stint as champions and it did give WWE fans a little taste of what they once were. In addition, by virtue of Dean Ambrose winning the tag team championship, he is now one of nine superstars in WWE history (Jericho, Edge, Guererro, Angle, Big Show, Miz, Bryan, Reigns) to have won every major active title in WWE.
5. The Hardy Boyz
The Hardy Boyz returned with a vengeance in 2017 as they won their first match as a tag team at WrestleMania en route to winning the RAW Tag Team Championship and carrying it up until Extreme Rules. While the reunion, just like Ambrose and Rollins, didn’t last too long due to Jeff Hardy’s injury, they were still amazing to see after all the time they have spent in other promotions over the years. Considering that we really thought we had said goodbye to Jeff Hardy in 2009 and Matt in 2010, their return shows that you can’t keep a good tag team down.
AND THE WINNER IS…..
Bottom line is that there was no tag team that asserted their dominance and consistency throughout the entire year more than The Usos, and they enter 2018 as THE team in WWE today.
PROMO/SEGMENT OF THE YEAR
1. Festival of Friendship
If wrestling wasn’t scripted, I might as well have cried when this happened. For so long, the buildup between the inevitable breakup of Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens had been teased for months, but WWE never fully pulled the trigger. That is, until one night in February, after Chris Jericho helped facilitate a Universal Championship match between Goldberg and Kevin Owens at Fastlane, Kevin Owens decided that the final straw had been had, and Kevin Owens viciously attacked Chris Jericho in a similar manner in which Jericho attacked Shawn Michaels in an episode of the Highlight Reel in 2008. When Kevin Owens handed Jericho a new list, and when Jericho said “How come my name’s on this?”, the collective mood in the arena shifted in an instant. This was all shades of brilliant. Jericho poured his heart out to his friend, hit us with the humor early, and then got the big beat down in a segment that really delivered one of the best WWE breakups in forever.
2. The New Day/Usos Battle Rap
Some people don’t like rap and celebrities getting involved in WWE feuds, but there’s always an exception to every rule, and this was it. Normally, battle raps in WWE don’t go anywhere good, but with the digs that each team took on each team, things got very personal very quickly. From shots at The Usos being on the pre-show in the past to Big E’s enlarged chest, the rap segment was capitalized heavy by a real dig by The Usos telling Big E not get all rated R like Xavier Woods, and a mere internet search will show you what he meant by that. This segment was the single best representation of what the feud between these two teams were all about. Wale didn’t add anything, but he didn’t subtract either.
3. Samoa Joe threatens Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar
Samoa Joe was treated like an amateur in his brief feud with Brock Lesnar, but boy did he have some bark behind his bite. This was as intense and lethal a promo one can get. What I especially loved is that those seething words Samoa Joe told to Paul Heyman weren’t said on the microphone, but he whispered it right in his ear while having him cornered just so he can understand the impact of what he was saying and what he was about to do. The moment the mic dropped, you knew that things were about to get very real, very fast. Heyman was great in putting Joe over, and the final touch with Joe whispering sweet nothings into Heyman’s ear before choking him out was just a spectacular touch. You don’t get them much anymore, but THAT felt like a money promo segment.
4. AJ Styles and John Cena’s Contract Signing
The first Smackdown of the year came with guns a blazing as the build to the Royal Rumble was on. John Cena was granted a WWE Championship match by his real-life brother-in-law, Daniel Bryan, and AJ Styles didn’t take too kindly to it. He took issue with him being towards the back of the Royal Rumble advertising poster despite being WWE Champion for the past couple of months while Cena was off on other WWE projects. He laid into Cena, about all the unearned opportunities he’s afforded simply because of his name as well as mocking his part-time status, as well as the ratings Smackdown drew in his absence. Cena, in the only way he can, passionately rebuked Styles’ sentiments, leaving no doubt to question his commitment to WWE and that no matter what anyone said about him, he is here to stay and despite Styles wanting me gone from WWE, he’s trying very hard to be what he envies. This is how you build a WWE Title match.
5. Roman Reigns and John Cena shoot from the hip
The best promos and segments in WWE are the ones that make you question whether or not it was actually scripted. If you’re left in limbo over that, then its purpose was accomplished. The bottom line is that this was amazing in all facets. Cena and Roman had been taking blind shots at each other over Twitter, but free agent John Cena decided to take a trip to RAW because he wanted to say a few things to the supposed new face of WWE. Roman Reigns began the tirade by saying that Cena is nothing more than a part-time, spotlight-stealing shark who buries talent, gets afforded unwarranted opportunities and is fake and disingenuine about everything he stands for. He also claimed that Cena wasn’t nearly as big a deal as he thinks.
But then, Cena responded with fire right from hell. First, he claimed Roman was nothing more than a propped up bootleg version of himself. He took shots at Roman’s ability to cut a promo, which was apropos considering that Roman actually forgot his lines and Cena made sure to capitalize on the opportunity. He downplayed Roman’s win over The Undertaker because he wasn’t nearly in his prime when Roman beat him. He also broke down Roman by saying that he’s slowly starting to become what he hates in Cena, as he’s main evented WrestleMania after WrestleMania while Cena doesn’t have nearly the opportunities he once had, citing a lack of a main event WrestleMania match in four years.
Roman responded by saying no matter what he does, he’s one guy he won’t be able to bury. This was all types of savage. I sort of was confused why WWE would put Roman in this position because Cena simply eviscerated Roman limb from limb on the mic, and Cena was right in saying he can’t be a top guy but get outworked by someone who’s in the swan song portion of his career. This made the headlines for obvious reasons the day afterward, and with good reason. The one thing that defined this promo? “I’m still here because you can’t do your job.”
AND THE WINNER IS……
Of all the promos and segments here, this was the only one that made me think they went off script. Angle’s face in the background tells the whole story.
That does it for this edition of the awards. Stay tuned, as more content will be heading your way soon!
