Gaffney's 2025 Pro Wrestling Awards Part 2
- Jack Gaffney
- Jan 1
- 11 min read
In the back half of our 2025 Pro Wrestling Awards, we'll be settling several of the top honors we have. Namely, Men's and Women's Wrestler of the Year, Feud of the Year, alongside our best on promo-related offerings, recognizing our elders, acknowledging the lowest low of this year, and most importantly, settling the second ever running of the Second Annual Christian Cage Hater of the Year™ Award race, which has 10 nominees in 2025. Let's get right into it.
Class B Awards
Best on Promos (Men)
Nominees: "Hangman" Adam Page, CM Punk, Jon Moxley, Samoa Joe, Will Ospreay
Winner: "Hangman" Adam Page
Best on Promos (Women)
Nominees: Becky Lynch, Harley Cameron, Naomi, "Timeless" Toni Storm
Winner: "Timeless" Toni Storm
Best Individual Promo Segment
Nominees: "What makes you different from me?" "I, am real." (MJF and Adam Page), "Listen up Dwyane you bald fraud!!!" (CM Punk), "What ever happened to Mariah May?" (Toni Storm and Mariah May/Blake Monroe), "Entertainers like to seem complicated." (Trevor Lee), "I'm calling you out for a shootout bruv!!!" (Will Ospreay and Adam Page), "On any day you've ever existed, you've never been greater than me!!!" (Samoa Joe)
Winner: "I'm calling you out for a shootout bruv!!!" (Will Ospreay and Adam Page)
Auntie of the Year (Active Women's Wrestler 43+)
Nominees: Aja Kong, Asuka, Jaguar Yokota, Meiko Satomura, Nattie Neidhart
Winner: Meiko Satomura
Unc of the Year (Active Men's Wrestler 47+)
Nominees: Blue Panther, Hiroshi Tanahashi, John Cena, Shelton Benjamin, Tomohiro Ishii
Co-Winners: John Cena and Hiroshi Tanahashi
Trio of the Year
Nominees: El Sky Team (Mistico, Neon, and Mascara Dorada), The Hurt Syndicate (MVP, Bobby Lashley, and Shelton Benjamin), The Opps (Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Katsuyori Shibata), Fatal Influence (Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley, and Jasmine Nyx/Lainey Reid), Neo Genesis (Starlight Kid, AZM, and Miyu Amasaki)
Winner: El Sky Team
Faction of the Year
Nominees: H.A.T.E, The Don Callis Family, The Conglomeration, The Death Riders, The Seth Riders (aka The Vision)
Winner: The Death Riders
Comeback Wrestler of the Year
Nominees: Alexa Bliss, Bandido, Becky Lynch, Darby Allin, Kenny Omega
Winner: Kenny Omega
The Second Annual Christian Cage Hater of the Year™
Winner: The Rock
Arguably the most prestigious of our Awards, we are honored and privileged to welcome Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to a lineage that includes Christian Cage (by default), plus last year's co-winners, "Hangman" Adam Page and New Day members Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods. Leaving Triple H to his own devices with a John Cena heel turn that we now know had no plan attached with it, letting him fall on his own face in the aftermath, knowing full well he was not going to be in Vegas that weekend, and then burying him on ESPN for bad Elimination Chamber ticket sales and fumbling John Cena's final ever WrestleMania match demonstrates elite hating at the highest levels of corporate America, and is worthy of being recognized as the "Final Boss" of the craft in 2025.
Class A Awards
Worst of the Worst Moment of the Year (Bad Wrestling Moment/Happening for Mainly Non-Wrestling Related Reasons)
Nominees:
- The Deification of Alberto Del Rio/El Patron by AAA fans
- The WWE return of Brock Lesnar, while named in the still ongoing Vince McMahon Federal S. Trafficking/Assault Lawsuit
- Active WWE talent being spotted at Vince McMahon's private 80th birthday party in NYC
- WWE pulling the trigger on a Saudi Arabia-hosted WrestleMania for 2027
Winner: The WWE return of Brock Lesnar
Just to get this out of the way, Brock Lesnar is not a defendant in the McMahon case, nor is he charged with anything (as of the time of writing), but he comes up 44 times in the Amended Complaint of the Janel Grant team, and what's alleged does not paint him in a good light at all. Won't get into that too much since it's NSFW; however, I'd absolutely recommend either Brandon Thurston or BJ Bethel, who've been great reporting on this from the jump. And yes, Brock Lesnar being back under these circumstances is bad; I don't know what to tell you if you think otherwise.
Especially in a year where WWE got a ton wrong, bringing back Lesnar, with everything that entails, to close out your second biggest weekend of the year was as tone deaf and abhorrent as anything they've done since Triple H and Nick Khan have taken over the company's day-to-day. It didn't take long for anyone to connect the dots on the return and WWE ending their post-show pressers, and those two points were the headlines coming out of SummerSlam, not the fact that John Cena just worked his final-ever World Title match.
The ironic thing is that, outside of the "buzz" and "shock value" the SummerSlam return got, Lesnar isn't even a needle mover anymore on the business side. Per Wrestlenomics' numbers, his first advertised Raw appearance of the year coincided with the first Netflix-era Raw not to finish in the top 10 in weekly viewing app wide, and his first two back-to-back advertised SmackDown appearances in mid-September saw an audience drop of over a quarter million viewers from the previous week, where he showed up un-advertised in Chicago the night AJ Lee returned, and this had been a bad ratings year for wrestling across the board as it is.
Beyond the fact WWE had done more than fine on the business front without him, he hasn't stopped their ratings freefall (if anything, he accelerated it), he's not a good worker anymore and his overall ouput since returning has been putrid, and regardless of the fact he's not charged with anything, he's still central to one of the biggest scandals in company history. What exactly has been (positvely) achieved here? Lastly, Triple H trying to pawn off his self-inflicted PR wound onto John Cena by saying Cena wanted to work with Brock minutes after SummerSlam ended, when Cena had been adamant throughout his entire retirement run that he was going with what WWE wanted, was unbelievably nasty work.
Major Show of the Year
Nominees: NJPW: The New Beginning in Osaka, Stardom: All-Star Grand Queendom, AEW Double or Nothing, AEW All In Texas, WWE Evolution 2
Winner: AEW Double or Nothing
For me, it doesn't take much time, if any, really, after an A+ wrestling show to realize you just watched one. With Double or Nothing this year, I felt that way with at least 10 minutes to go in the Hangman-Ospreay main event thriller. AEW PPVs have, by far and wide, been excellent this year, but start to finish, AEW's first-ever linear PPV event in its 2025 running was on another level entirely. Beyond the pair of spectacular Owen Hart Tournament final bouts, Anarchy in the Arena was beyond what most would've hoped for after the last couple of tries, and then Kazuchika Okada vs. Mike Bailey and Mark Briscoe and Ricochet's Stretcher/Ambulance match were both great matches that unfortunately got a bit lost amid everything else. In simple terms, this was one of the best shows AEW has ever run, and legitimately one of the best PPVs ever run on U.S. Soil.
As a sidebar, although it doesn't win here, WWE's second running of Evolution was an absolute gem in what was a really poor big show year for them. There's no excuse for them not to run the show's third installment in 2026 with how deep their women's roster is.
Promotion of the Year
Nominees: All Elite Wrestling, CMLL, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Stardom, World Wrestling Entertainment
Winner: CMLL
You could make a case for a handful of promotions for 2025's best on a variety of factors, but it'd be hard to say there's a better argument than the combination of the outright business and overall in-ring/content output CMLL has done this year. 1,000,000-plus fans entered the historic halls of Arena Mexico for starters, and they also hosted highly successful collaborative events with AEW/ROH and New Japan, as well as non-wrestling shows featuring the Linkin Park and Pokémon brands. Also worth noting is that CMLL, not the WWE with Evolution 2, would be responsible for hosting the largest all-women's event in 2025, taking place in October on a night when Mercedes Mone dueled Persephone for the CMLL World Women's title.
The cross-promotional, multi-month, MJF-Mistico feud was another feather in the cap of CMLL this year, as the pair put on one of the best matches of the year at the 92nd Anniversary show. On top of what was nothing short of a renaissance year for 44-year-old Mistico, however, their core contributors this year range from young(er) up-and-comers like Mascara Dorada 2.0, to women like Persephone, all the way to lucha libre icons Blue Panther and Ultimo Guerrero. If 2025 was a down year for Pro Wrestling, that in no way, shape, or form applies to CMLL.
Best Weekly TV Show
Nominees: AEW Collision, WWE Monday Night Raw, AEW Dynamite, WWE NXT
Winner: AEW Dynamite
I genuinely think that if you average out every episode of each of these three shows, the gap between them isn't horribly stretched out. That said, there isn't a show that had as many highs as AEW Dynamite did in 2025. That stretch from Spring BreakThru in Boston, which included a taping in Arena Mexico and Dynamite's 300th taping in Ontario, CA, to the residency in Chicago, is up there with any in the show's history, and that doesn't even include the "Winter is Coming" and "Blood&Guts" renditions of Dynamite after the fact either. Not a perfect year, but this was the best year for AEW's flagship since 2021.
Tag Team of the Year
Nominees: Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss (WWE), Brodido (AEW), FTR (AEW), JetSpeed (AEW), The Young Bucks (AEW)
Winner: FTR
From the beginning of the year to the end, there was not a better, more consistent tag team across the board than FTR was, and that especially rang true after their heel turn when AEW badly needed a central true heel team for the division, since the Young Bucks were primarily involved in the Death Riders angle upon return. Your mileage may vary when you talk about the FTR-Cope&Christian feud that's currently on ice, but FTR was consistently out there putting on tag matches with teams that varied from the Outrunners, Adam Priest&Tommy Billington, all the way to JetSpeed, and Brodido, the latter of whom had two classics with, one on TV and the other at Full Gear.
The addition of Stokely Hathaway as a manager was another plus for FTR this year, and it's not a stretch to link the resurgence of AEW's tag division in the final few months of this year back to them. If you've seen enough people, you probably already know FTR isn't everyone's cup of tea, but you can't knock them for a lack of passion for tag wrestling, and I thought that shined through well, especially after a really bad year for the medium (especially in AEW) in 2024.
Feud of the Year
Nominees: Saya Kamitani vs. Tam Nakano, Becky Lynch vs. Lyra Valkyria, Toni Storm vs. Mariah May/Blake Monroe, MJF vs. Mistico, Jon Moxley vs. "Hangman" Adam Page
Winner: Jon Moxley vs. "Hangman" Adam Page
Sticking with the aforementioned Death Riders, it's fitting that their leader, Jon Moxley, and Adam Page, who together had an incredible short feud at the back end of 2022 and into 2023, linked back up for one of the more compelling World Title sagas in AEW history. 2.5 years after they went to war in a Texas Death Match at Revolution, they did so once again for the company's biggest prize in a stadium setting, and everything from the buildup to setting up the stipulation two weeks out to the match itself was executed to perfection.
The idea that Mox thought Page was simply comfortable as a guy close to the proverbial mountaintop, but not the peak, and wasn't willing to do what it takes to become champion blowing up in Moxley's face in Dallas made for some great theater, and that doesn't even get to their Dynamite match multiple weeks after All In, which was also fantastic in it's own right. Not that Mox-Hanger is AEW's top rivalry six years into its existence, but every time they've locked up, they've produced magic, and the summer of 2025 was the best example of that.
Women's Wrestler of the Year
Nominees: Iyo Sky (WWE), Mercedes Mone (AEW), Sareee (Sareee-ism/Freelance), Saya Kamitani (Stardom), "Timeless" Toni Storm (AEW)
Winner: Saya Kamitani
The fact that all of these five women have legitimate claims to win this award speaks to them individually, and to the level of top-shelf performers on the women's side this year, but everything that encompasses Saya Kamitani's career-defining year is tough to ignore. Her extended program with Nakano, the woman who legitimately got her into the business, was a massive highlight in the first third of 2025. Their two bouts, especially their second at All Star Grand Queendom, received universal praise, with later outings vs. Azumi (twice), Natsupoi, and Saori Anou being highlights on the year as well.
As massive as the program with Nakano ended up being, it'd also be tough to ignore that Kamitani, who’s been a regular guest on the Japanese morning variety show "Love It", ended a near quarter-century drought of Japanese Women's Wrestling not being on terrestrial/over-the-air Japanese television came to a close in late September where she worked a 10 minute exhibition match against Stardom's Hanan on the show. A gigantic deal for Japanese Wrestling as a whole, but certainly more so on the women’s side.
As historic as that was, the crown jewel of Kamitani's 2025 resume, however, would have to be that she became the first Japanese women's wrestler to take home Tokyo Sports' annual Puroseuo MVP award, as well as the first non-NJPW talent to win since Takeshi Sugiura in 2010.
Some of that can certainly be attributed to a lull in the Japanese men's scene in 2025, but regardless, this was a nice sign of time times given the murderers' row of women's talent Japan has had since the 1990s (Aja Kong, Akira Hokuto, Manami Toyota, Kana/Asuka, Io Sharai, etc.) who never got this opportunity. Are you (yes, you reading this) going to disagree with Kenta Kobashi, the greatest wrestler who's ever lived (argue a wall)???
Men's Wrestler of the Year
Nominees: "Hangman" Adam Page (AEW), Bandido (AEW), Jon Moxley (AEW), Konosuke Takeshita (AEW/NJPW/DDT), Mistico (CMLL)
Winner: Bandido
To be frank, if Jon Moxley's first 4.5 months of this year were anywhere near as good as his final 6.5, this is his award, and it's not even remotely close. Words I never thought I would say in the week following AEW Dynasty. Instead, this is really just a four-horse race on the men's side, and while he isn't the only good option of the four, from surviving a stint babysitting Chris Jericho (who didn't put him over clean once), to doing everything he did after between AEW, ROH, CMLL, and the handful of Mexican independent dates he did this year, Bandido was nothing if not undeniable in 2025.
"The Most Wanted's" stretch as a singles wrestler from midway through June, beginning with a single win over The Beast Mortos, up until his Death Before Dishonor thriller with Hechicero, was a blistering hot a run as any one performer had this year, Multiple critically acclaimed Arena Mexico main event spots against Mascara Dorada, Mistico, and then both in tag action, the MOTY candidate with Konosuke Takeshita at Supercard of Honor, Bandido quickly became appoinment veiwing. That doesn't even include bouts after the fact with Hechicero in Arena Mexico, plus some well-received AEW TV bouts with Dorada and Kazuchika Okada.
As an elite singles performer, Bandido was in 2025; this year will almost certainly be most remembered for his tag-team stint with Brody King as "Brodido". A lightning in a bottle outcome for a relatively thrown-together tag team that got over instantaneously, and had some of the best tag team matches of the year on TV and PPV. The "story" before the second-to-last PPV defense of Bandido getting shaken of confidence after a loss while dealing with a worked shoulder injury, getting confidence and encouragement back from King in the Okada-Takeshita defense, and then going down with the ship in the FTR loss, not willing to give up down 2-on-1, was as good as any bit of in-match tag team story stuff this year.
As great a year as it was for Bandido, it's easy to forget he effectively was out of action for nearly 20 months due to a wrist injury in June of 2023, and a concussion on what was supposed to be his return date at ROH Final Battle 2024 in December of that year. Easy for people to forget about you with that kind of long layoff, but Bandido's in-ring ability, presentation, and ability to get crowds to buy-in and engage, even as someone who isn't the most prolific talker, quickly reminded everyone in every corner of North America that he's a bona fide star. ROH play-by-play man Ian Riccaboni said it best at Supercard of Honor: he's not human; he's Bandido.
Main Image via