2021 Pro Wrestling Truth Year End Awards

2021 Pro Wrestling Truth Year End Awards PART ONE

Hello hello. It’s Ethan and I am back with more bullshit. The end of the year is my favorite time of the year as I get to compile all the lists, stats, and thoughts from the past 365 days and archive it all. Admittedly, I still have a decent bit of Japan stuff to watch so my Match Rating Archive will definitely see some additions and who knows, maybe even my Wrestlers/Matches of the Year lists here will too. 

I’m trying to stay on track heading toward 2022 and in effort not to fall behind I am releasing this in two parts. This first part features my Top 10 wrestlers of the year list and Top 10 matches of the year list. Part two will feature the full ELITE 80 Wrestlers of the Year list and a few other random small awards & mentions. 

Before we dive in, for those interested, I’ve done this year end awards compilation thing in various fashions for the following years: 2014, 2015, & 2020. All of which can be found by clicking the year that you’re interested in. I am still planning to go back and fill in the gaps for the years I haven’t covered so ignore those gaps for now and make sure to keep tabs by either checking the blog periodically or following me on Twitter @ThePWTruth. Also, each year, I keep a list of all the matches that made my virtual notebook. Anything ***1/4+ or so. Stuff that’s good enough to be noted and of course all the ****+ MOTY quality bangers. I call these my Match Rating Archive's - they are also organized by year and my 2021 Match Rating Archive can be found here.. I updated these periodically as I watch more stuff because there’s simply too much wrestling out there for me to definitively say I’ve seen everything. SO YEAH. 

And last but not least, my friends and I on the Up & Over Podcast did a Year End Awards show on our YouTube a few weeks ago where you can get other opinions on the best of 2021 and also hear me explain some of mine in a little more detail. That can be found here!

Now that all that’s out of the way, let’s dive in. Thanks for reading. 

Top 10 Wrestlers of the Year: 

1) Bryan Danielson (WWE, AEW) 

Previous ranking: #33 in 2020, #66 in 2015

2020 Pro Wresting Truth Year End Awards (Elite 80, Best Matches of the Year List + more)

 2020 PRO WRESTLING TRUTH YEAR END AWARDS

THIS IS HELLA LATE AND WAS WRITTEN BACK IN JANUARY BUT I NEVER GOT AROUND TO POSTING IT AND I WILL NOT BE REVISING IT ANY FURTHER SO HERE GOES...

Hello, it is about a month late, but life and the world has been crazy. I haven't done anything like this since 2014, I think? Or 2015, actually now that I think about it. Pretty crazy! I'm not sure what dove me fully back into wrestling in the last year and a half after an on/off break in 2016-2018. Maybe it's just having more time on my hands now that I'm not doing much of anything with music and work is the only thing on my plate. Regardless, it's been a very enjoyable, but tedious dive back into doing this stuff.

Having to rebuild my audience after years away from reviewing has been tough, but I'd like to think I'm starting to build some consistency back and I hope to meet more new people through this outlet in the new year. Thanks to anyone who's stuck around from the old glory days of 2014-2015 and thank you to anyone who's new to reading my stuff. I appreciate you taking the time to check this blog out and see what I have to say. I truly do this just for fun and because I love compiling lists and trying to keep up with a sport I've loved since childhood. I'd also like to shout out my friends Donnie and Mike, both of whom have contributed to this site in some form in recent years, and are my 100% consistent in real life wrestling buddies that I watch almost everything with. I love y'all <3

Now, onto this. So this year I'm doing things like how I used to. I'm bringing back my PRO WRESTLING TRUTH ELITE 80 wrestlers of the year list (with a sliiiiightly different format) and am also doing Top 10 Wrestler lists for WWE, AEW, and NJPW with write ups on each plus a Top 25 Overall Matches of the Year List consisting of any promotion. Individual promotion Top 10 Matches of the Year List will be listed on my 2020 Year in Review tab at a later date, probably a few days from now. I just needed to get the main stuff out before I let it slip under the rag as the year starts pressing onward. Also, if you want a month by month list of every match I watched and rated that was ***+ you can find that here!

Without further a due, let's start this thing off with the 25 Best Matches of 2020::::::

Best Matches of the Year (Overall): 

1) Kenny Omega & Hangman Page (c) vs. The Young Bucks - AEW World Tag Team Title Match - AEW: Revolution - 2/29/20 - *****