Roundtable: Best Of 2019 (Part II)

What was the best promotion of 2019?

Gladen: The easy answer is AEW because it’s new and shiny, but the company that has made the most strides this year and been the most consistently enjoyable is Impact Wrestling.

Bautista: Impact Wrestling. The crew has done very well in keeping up momentum and capitalizing on new opportunities.

Jackson: While AEW has been great, I’m going to go with a promotion I’ve really got into over the past 18 months: Game Changer Wrestling (aka GCW) has continued to knock it out of the park every show and has made huge waves in 2019. It’s the promotion to watch in 2020!

Gibb: NXT. It has the best blend of wrestling, characters, fan engagement and the feeling that something different might happen.

Smith: AEW didn’t go a full year’s schedule, so I’m going to go with NXT here.

Mahalis: WWE. Still the cream of the crop. We give it a lot of grief, but I still won’t prioritize any brand over WWE.

Corrigan: MLW. While I agree with Gladen and Bautista that Impact made great strides, its inaccessibility on TV made following the promotion a chore. MLW makes it very easy to follow and get swept into its storylines.

Gelfand: NXT.

Goodwillie: WWE NXT from top-to-bottom is still the best all-around pro wrestling product out there today. Props to Triple H, the talent and everybody in Florida who contributes to the great behind-the-scenes work. NXT Takeovers are still as much of an event as ever, and as it stands now, NXT has taken the lead in the ratings battle with AEW. And rightfully so. AEW’s insistence on pushing the Dark Order will eventually undo all the great work being done by its core talent, and that’s sad to see.

What was the best wrestling event of 2019?

Gladen: NJPW’s Best of Super Junior Final was the best card of the year bar none. You had Shingo Takagi debuting from Dragon Gate, Jon Moxley leaving WWE AND the return of KENTA.

Bautista: Double or Nothing. It was an amazing show and offered everything. It had six-man tag team action with both men’s and women’s matches. The women had an awesome match, which featured Awesome Kong making a surprise appearance. Great tag team action for the AAA Championship and the brutal matchup between Cody and Dustin.

Jackson: NXT Takeover: New York.

Gibb: MLW Saturday Night SuperFight in November.

Smith: Double or Nothing. This is easy for me because I went to the event, it was the company’s first PPV and it delivered in every area it was supposed to.

Mahalis: Any NXT Takeover. Cop out answer, I know, but when is the last time you were let down by a Takeover? Go ahead I’ll wait.

Corrigan: Slammiversary 2019. Two match of the year contenders in Rich Swann vs. Johnny Impact and Michael Elgin vs. Brian Cage. Add in the surprise “Rhino” cameo, a fun women’s Monsters Ball and a historic main event.

Gelfand: NXT TakeOver: Toronto.

Goodwillie: Well by Al Snow’s logic, WrestleMania would have been the best wrestling event of 2019 because it sold the most tickets. But you and I both know nothing could be further from the truth. However, I do believe the best wrestling show of the year occurred that weekend. It’s NXT Takeover: New York. That show was match-after-match fantastic and while I have a soft spot for AEW Double or Nothing, it just could not measure up to the greatness that NXT put on WrestleMania Weekend.

What was the best moment/angle of 2019?

Gladen: KENTA’s surprise heel turn and joining the Bullet Club.

Bautista: Tama Tonga after the Madison Square Garden show just flinging the ROH titles around and cussing them out.

Jackson: KENTA turning on Shibata and joining Bullet Club was a fantastic piece of booking in NJPW, and really the only notable piece of booking I saw from the company all year.

Gibb: Kofimania running wild, brother!

Smith: Kofi Kingston winning the big one. This moment still doesn’t get enough glory. For years Kofi did everything right, worked hard and lived in the midcard and tag team scene. He stayed the course, never complaining or giving us a crazy pipebomb, and it finally paid off this year with him holding the WWE Championship, celebrating with his family and friends.

Mahalis: NXT winning Survivor Series. That shows that Vince really wants to legitimize NXT. It was absolutely the right call and if AEW didn’t exist, I can’t imagine it would have happened.

Corrigan: KofiMania running wild. It proved that dreams still come true if you work hard and never give up.

Gelfand: Kofi Kingston winning the WWE Championship.

Goodwillie: Jon Moxley’s debut in AEW was HOT. That angle alone really elevated an otherwise subpar show outside of its triple main event. Making the splash he made, attacking Kenny Omega and spiking him on the giant poker chips was a perfect way to debut and showed us that surprise debuts can still be a lot of fun in 2019.

What was the best match of 2019?

Gladen: Jon Moxley vs. Juice Robinson at the Best of Super Juniors final for the IWGP U.S. Championship. It was a hard-hitting welcome back to the world of wrestling and goodbye to the world of sports-entertainment for Moxley.

Bautista: Cody vs. Dustin Rhodes from Double or Nothing. Geez, this year has flown by fast. This match had every emotion possible and it was just a good damn fight.

Jackson: Cody vs. Dustin Rhodes from Double or Nothing was an emotional roller coaster and the match which put AEW on the map. Truly incredible.

Gibb: I’m bad at this kind of thing because my memory just doesn’t work that way (write your own joke). The Women’s Championship triple threat at Survivor Series sticks out in my mind right now, but that’s probably just recency bias.

Smith: Cody vs. Dustin.

Mahalis: Adam Cole and Johnny Gargano. Just watch.

Corrigan: RUSH & Dragon Lee vs. Briscoes from Ring of Honor’s TV tapings in Philly on June 29. If you haven’t seen this instant classic, check out episode 410 of ROH TV (aired on July 26).

Gelfand: Cody vs Dustin Rhodes at Double or Nothing.

Goodwillie: I’m going to be partial to the Cody vs. Dustin match because of how much it surprised me, and then moved me. I was skeptical of the match coming in, just because I found the stakes tough to buy into. There was nothing up for grabs other than personal pride, and that can be tough to sell, especially when you have two brothers as publicly close as Cody and Dustin trying to sell it. That said, the match was AWESOME. It was old school, it suspended your disbelief and it might just be one that defines the career of Dustin Rhodes. Honorable mention: Gargano vs. Cole from Takeover Brooklyn.

Who was the greatest wrestler of 2019?

Gladen: Here’s the thing. I know that these are subjective, but if any of you say anything other than Will Ospreay, you’re either blind or being contrarian for the laughs. Either way you’re wrong. It’s Ospreay – just accept it.

Bautista: Tessa Blanchard. She took advantage of every opportunity and did not squander any precious second.

Jackson: Cody. He has led AEW throughout 2019 and has finally been able to show what he can truly do with all the restrictions taken off. No one can touch him. 2019 was Cody’s year!

Gibb: Whoever I said in my Top 100 list. (I think it was Becky!)

Smith: Chris Jericho. The champ just keeps getting better, bringing in new ideas and putting other people over.

Mahalis: I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, for my money, the best wrestler going right now is Johnny Gargano. The guy does nothing but give you classics. He isn’t talked about with the likes of Styles, Omega or Rollins, but he is every bit as good.

Corrigan: Teddy Hart. I can’t believe he didn’t crack anyone else’s Top 100 list. Hell, he was No. 1 on mine! The leader of the Hart Foundation held two championships in MLW this year, stole the show every time he performed and injected Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Brian Pillman Jr. with some much needed personality. His release is a huge blow to MLW and I hope another company (coughROHcough) scoops him up in 2020.

Gelfand: Kofi Kingston. While his six-month WWE Championship reign didn’t have a great ending, 2019 will be remembered as Kofi Kingston’s year.

Goodwillie: I alluded to this in another roundtable, but Jon Moxley is my 2019 Wrestler of the Year. For several months, he became the center of attention both on and off-screen. His year sort of began with the highly publicized divorce from WWE, then took off from there. He joined AEW, yes, but before that had the tell-all podcast with Chris Jericho (shades of CM Punk), then went off to New Japan where he immediately won the IWGP United States Championship and had a meaningful run in the G-1. His debut in AEW was an explosive one, and from there, he has been a weekly standout on Dynamite, had the highly controversial Unsanctioned Match with Kenny Omega and has since secured a spot at this year’s Wrestle Kingdom 14. He’s also poised to be the next challenger for AEW World Champion Jericho. From an in-ring standpoint, maybe the body of work isn’t quite there. But I couldn’t help but be impressed with how quick he lost the WWE stench and became a star on his own merits. The sky’s the limit for Moxley in 2020.