Fans pick 2018 award winners
2018 was a big year in the world of professional wrestling and 2019 has picked up where 2018 left.
Sure, ratings were down for WWE programming, but there were lots of big happenings.
Let鈥檚 take a look at the 2018 award winners!
Seth Rollins is the Male Wrestler of the Year.
鈥淩ollins has been a pure workhorse,鈥� said Frank from Grindstone. 鈥淲ith other wrestlers injured and absenteeism, he has truly carried Raw and established that the show is indeed Monday Night Rollins.鈥�
Rollins received half of the votes tallied, so he gets the nod, although AJ Styles was my pick.
Ronda Rousey won the women鈥檚 Wrestler of the Year award with 40 percent of the vote, but my nod went to Becky Lynch.
The Young Bucks won Tag Team of the Year with 40 percent of the vote, while The New Day and The Bar each received 25 percent.
The Match of the Year was the most spread out with the Rousey and Charlotte Flair match winning with 25 percent of the vote.
鈥淗ow is Rousey a rookie,鈥� Tim from Uniontown asked. 鈥淪he is so talented.鈥�
Rousey was also voted Rookie of the Year.
Velveteen Dream won the Most Improved award with 40 percent, Styles versus Samoa Joe won Feud of the Year, Styles won the Most Popular Wrestler of the Year, Dean Ambrose won the Most Hated Wrestler of the Year and Daniel Bryan received 75 percent of the vote to win the Comeback of the Year.
Thank you to everyone who voted!
WWE wrestlers asking for their releases?
With news breaking new week about All Elite Wrestling and the money that the owners are putting into it, it isn鈥檛 all that surprising to hear that some WWE wrestlers may be looking to get out of their deals.
Recently, The Revival were rumored to ask for their release, but it was denied with WWE all of a sudden using them more on TV and a rumored raise may have been given.
With AEW looking like it could be a real alternative for talent, it does not appear that WWE will be releasing anyone.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE has gone as far to tell people that they will not only beat any offer, but perhaps double it if the wrestler(s) sign immediately on the spot.
NXT TakeOver: Phoenix
This coming Saturday on the WWE Network, NXT presents its next TakeOver event, titled NXT TakeOver: Phoenix.
Five matches have been announced for the card with the headliner being Tommaso Ciampa defending the NXT championship against Aleister Black.
In other matches, Shayna Baszler defends the women鈥檚 title against Bianca Belair, Johnny Gargano challenges Ricochet for the North American title, Undisputed Era defends the tag title against War Raiders and Matt Riddle faces Kassius Ohno.
The Kickoff Show begins at 6 p.m., with the actual card beginning at 7 p.m.
Braun out; Balor in
This past Monday on Raw, WWE made a switch to the Universal championship match by removing Braun Strowman and inserting Finn Balor.
There are a few reasons why.
First off, Strowman isn鈥檛 fully cleared to return to the ring.
Secondly, Vince McMahon doesn鈥檛 feel that Strowman is ready for the title and since he wasn鈥檛 going to win it, he was pulled because McMahon doesn鈥檛 want Strowman losing to Lesnar yet again.
WWE announced the Lesnar and Strowman match to help push ticket sales, but there are a ton of seats still available at Chase Field in Phoenix.
Lastly, Lesnar likes working with smaller guys who make him look strong, and he wanted to face Balor.
On This Day 鈥�
In 2002, Ric Flair defeated Vince McMahon in a street fight at the Royal Rumble.
This week鈥檚 question
How did WWE build a Performance Center in the United Kingdom so fast without it being such big news? Timmy, Uniontown.
Opening a training center in the U.K. has been a plan of WWE鈥檚 going back many years.
In fact, I can share from personal experience that Dean Malenko asked me, during a WWE tryout in December 2005, if I would have a problem moving overseas if a new facility was built.
That was more than 13 years ago, and if Malenko, an agent, knew about the idea and was comfortable enough to bring it up to me, then the idea had to be in the works for quite a while.
On Friday, WWE announced the opening of the 鈥淯K Performance Center鈥� and it is seen as a significant step in localizing content from around the world.
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