Welcome to Part 3 of the 411Mania.com 2011 Year End Wrestling Awards. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2!

REVIEW: Before we get to it, let’s take a look at the winners we’ve already announced to this point…

Announcer of the Year: Jim Ross

Worst Announcer of the Year: Michael Cole

Overall Rookie of the Year: Obariyon

Major Fed Rookie of the Year: Tony Nese

Breakout of the Year: Mark Henry

Comeback Wrestler of the Year: The Rock

Disappointment of the Year: C.M.Punks Post Money In The Bank Return

Best Indy Show of the Year (non-PPV) : PWG DDT4

Free TV Match of the Year: RAW 4 Jan ‘10 Falls Count Anywhere: The Miz vs. John Morrison – 21 Votes

Story/Surprise of the Year: The Rock Returns

Worst Story/Surprise of the Year: The Death Of Randy Savage

Feud/Storyline of the Year: The Summer Of Punk

Worst Feud/Storyline of the Year: Michael Cole vs. Jerry Lawler

Worst Fed of the Year: TNA

Now let’s get to today’s awards….

411MANIA’S WRESTLING YEAR END AWARDS 2011!
Part Three

WINNER: Michael Cole Challenge – 24 Votes
1st RUNNER-UP: Stings Traps Eric Bischoff With A Bird – 7 Votes
2nd RUNNER-UP: Jim Ross/Michael Cole Rap Off – 6 Votessize=+1>


JACK BRAMMAsize=+2>
Another Michael Cole landslide that may become a regular for him if he continues in his current role as heel mouthpiece for the show much longer. You could easily switch this with the Battle-Rap or the Knighting Ceremony or Cole talking smack about Jerry Lawler’s deceased mom or any others of Cole’s vacuous segments all year long. Still, the Michael Cole Challenge was an abysmal use of TV time that, after TWO WEEKS worth of bait and switches and delaying, finally was aired. The “build” only made it more obvious that the whole thing was a colossal failure on multiple levels as it went on for nearly half an hour and STILL provided no payoff for Cole’s almost year’s worth of heel antics. The only remotely entertaining aspect of the segment was Cole’s stalling for the arm wrestling but even that enjoyment was ever so brief and quickly interrupted by more painfully unfunny Cole-isms about JR’s weight, voice, colloquialisms, etc. CM Punk was the only thing that could remotely save the segment but even his presence provided only transitory relief. Michael Cole truly is the next heir to the throne of “X-Pac” Heat.

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Another set up for a ‘Jim Ross is overweight’ joke is all this was. What I found surprising is that he’s not THAT much heavier than Michael Cole. In all seriousness, there was no point to this besides ending with a joke about JR’s weight. It was built up for weeks and delayed each time. At no point, apparently, did someone consider just not doing it. No, they just kept hyping it. The WWE can rush through every other damn thing except for the Michael Cole Challenge. That gets weeks of hype, weeks of bad fake Twitter pictures, weeks of Michael Cole reminding us that JR is overweight because… is this supposed to be entertaining? It never goes anywhere. That’s what I don’t get about the Michael Cole character. It never goes anywhere. He just blathers on and wastes our time and, what, Vince is backstage laughing while everyone else rolls their eyes? Is his sense of humor that divorced from the rest of us? That’s what I don’t understand. Who the hell spends weeks setting up a fat joke on a man that everyone loves?

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So many choices, so few true options. Sting and Bischoff I can understand some because as we all know, Bischoff is an immense dweeb in character who despite his blackbelt has been beaten up by old men, old women, a ten-year-old son of Ric Flair, and various other people who a blackbelt should have no difficulty taking on. Bischoff has been booked as a scaredy-cat who runs from trouble and therefore, seeing Sting lock a nasty looking bird with Bischoff in the office isn’t really a surprise as Bischoff’s character is scared of just about anything remotely threatening. The Cole and JR rap off was horrible, as neither of them could put together a good rap and JR forgot his lines, of which there were only two. The fact that Cole tried to bring it up just made things more embarrassing since this was supposed to be some random challenge but Cole made it obvious this was planned and still they went through with the train wreck! The actual worst promo of all was the Michael Cole Challenge, which featured the quest for four weeks to get airtime for JR and Cole in the ring for a fifteen-minute segment that bombed big time. Three tasks JR had to complete to win his job back and have Cole quit, and he was doing fantastic until the third, naturally enough! First, arm wrestling was JR’s after stalling and a lame attempt at actual arm wrestling. Secondly, we had our dance-off, which featured the cringe worthy anal thrusting of Jim Ross, and the rather questionable style of dance employed by Michael Cole. And the final contest? Oh, that was a scale in the ring in the contest of who weighs less, which of course JR failed. They didn’t even have JR switch the scale to Kilograms so he’d weigh less than Cole did in pounds and trick him; they just went with JR knowing he was too fat to beat Cole and still got on the scale and lost anyway. Classy company.

++++

WINNER: TNA Victory Road – 32 Votes
1st RUNNER-UP: WWE Over The Limit – 16 Votes
2nd RUNNER-UP: TNA Final Resolution – 11 Votessize=+1>

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2011 has actually been a stellar year for wrestling PPV, with WWE, Ring of Honor and Chikara all, off the top of my head, putting on some absorbing shows that were well worth shelling out the additional money for. Sure, there have been some bland, uninspiring cards as well, but very few that have been so unbelievably awful that they linger long in the memory like some sort of grotesque accident would. However, there was this one show… TNA Victory Road 2011 was woeful. The card itself wasn’t exactly appetizing, but there was no indication that this would be any worse than a forgettable piece of PPV filler. But my god, it was worse. In fairness, there were three decent matches on the undercard, but they were more than cancelled out by three dreadful ones, one of which was unfortunately the main event. The Knockouts Tag Title Match? Lots of effort, but absolutely no respectable end product. Hernandez-Matt Morgan in an interminable First Blood match? Dull action leading to a mind-numbingly stupid finish. And then there was the main event, the most cringe worthy minute of ‘wrestling’ of the year. It was an affront to the legacies of both Sting and Jeff Hardy, and riled up the usually docile TNA fanbase to such a degree that the company had to offer up full apologies and free admission to the video vault to those who bought the PPV. Over the Limit & Final Resolution take up the next two spots, and while those weren’t exactly highlights of the year, if I had, say, downloaded them for free off the internet, I would have felt they were still just about worthwhile watches. However, even if you had gifted me Victory Road, it wouldn’t have been worth it. It was the nadir of a typically tepid year for TNA, and a show that left you demanding not only your money back, but your time as well.

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There’s one reason why Victory Road is the worst pay-per-view of the year: Jeff Hardy vs. Sting. Looking at the rest of the card, it’s your standard TNA show. Hell, you could take that card and hold it up as the prototypical 2011 TNA PPV. Combined with the main event, that’s plenty to deem Victory Road as the worst PPV of the year. TNA shows underwhelm, delivering cards with two matches with potential, and a bunch of filler. Matt Morgan and Hernandez in a First Blood Match? Mr. Anderson and Rob Van Dam wrestling to a double countout? A Knockouts tag match no one cares about? Ironically, Victory Road is one of the few times Matt Hardy had a decent match in TNA. But, the main event stands out, because TNA chose to allow a man who was clearly unable to wrestle to step into the ring, even it was just for a minute. It was a completely irresponsible and unprofessional decision. Hey, that’s TNA. They brought Jeff Hardy back after this, didn’t they? The main event may stand out for some as something different from the norm; along with the rest of the card, it seems to sum up why I’ve stopped watching anything TNA does. Why I’ve stopped caring. A bland, uninspired show capped off by baffling, stupid thinking that did nothing but make the company look unprofessional and piss off fans. Sounds like the prototypical TNA show to me.

SCOTT RUTHERFORDsize=+2>
Does Victory Road deserve the mantle of shittiest PPV of the year? Yes. Oh god yes! The irony of the situation is that for the first 2/3 it was an OK if rather dull waste of two hours. Same ol’ TNA. Then comes the semi main event and the “thing” that went on last (I refuse to call it a match or a main event). For those living under a rock, the last match was to be a No DQ match between Sting and Jeff Hardy. Some people were actually eager to see how this would go as Sting seemingly had gained a second wind as a worker and Hardy was always at his best in garbage matches. So what does Hardy do? Gets fucked up to the point that he can’t even work and Sting is forced to shoot and pin Jeff inside of a minute. This whole scenario is like a microcosm of the suck that is TNA in 2011. Rather than call an audible and keep Jeff away from the ring and sub in someone that would work a match at a pinch, they actually sent someone that would barely walk out there and hope he didn’t kill himself. The level of un-professionalism was a new low for a company that is adept at hitting them.

++++

WINNER: Victory Road: TNA Title Match Sting vs. Jeff Hardy – 41 Votes
1st RUNNER-UP: RAW 11 November ’10 The Cole Challenge: Michael Cole vs. Jim Ross – 17 Votes
2nd RUNNER-UP: WrestleMania: Michael Cole vs. Jerry Lawler – 16 Votessize=+1>

TONY ACEROsize=+2>
While I cannot readily bash the match between Sting and Hardy due to me simply not seeing it, I can admit to being extremely disappointed with the results here. I recall when it happened and how upset everyone was. I recall the stories of Hardy’s inebriated state to the point tat they had to end the PPV the way they did. I also recall thinking about the alternatives and how upset people would have been regardless of what choice they made. With that being said, I also saw that of all the choices they could have done, this was by far the worst choice ever. Seriously, allowing any performer to go out there, on Pay Per View, in public, in front of an audience, under any type of influence is by far, one of the most unprofessional and idiotic choices that I have ever seen made in the history of my wrestling fandom…and that’s saying a lot. I take this strictly from a business standpoint and it makes perfect sense for this to be at the top of the list. Now, let’s talk about the other two, shortly. They include the announcers of the show. Of the three men, only one was, at one point, a wrestler, and he no longer has the capability to carry anyone to a match. Also notice the common thread here. Michael Fucking Cole. Nuff said, am I right?

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Oh big surprise, TNA gets put as the worst match of the year over a WrestleMania main event that got more time than 80% of the matches on the card. Well, I’ll give the trump card this time: The 411 policy is NOT to rate matches that go under two minutes long and this main event only went 90 seconds, so therefore I’m not counting it as a legitimate match! Let the other three vultures pick TNA apart.

JR and Cole should have been allotted no more than NINE seconds for their atrocity. It got so ugly that JR punched Cole in the face legitimately and made him bleed, which I’m sure a lot of people were happy about! JR also apologized for the match and frankly he needed to. The Cole/Lawler match happening at WrestleMania was just a gigantic travesty and mentioned in the worst feud of the year so I’m not going to get into it any further. Suffice to say, they took a very easy storyline to milk for money and a feel good ending and they screwed it up big time.

CHAD NEVETTsize=+2>
It seems the only thing we at 411 hate more than Michael Cole is Jeff Hardy. And with good reason. This wasn’t a match, it was the most public display of un-professionalism in recent memory, from both Jeff Hardy and TNA. Watch the ‘match’ and you see a man clearly not able to wrestle. He can’t even climb the ring steps! Instead of stripping him of the belt through some sort of backstage crap and delivering an actual main event, TNA opted to let this man get in the ring and simply take the belt off him that way. Hardy doesn’t even seem aware of their plan. He fights Sting’s pin and looks pissed after. Instead of being adults and professionals, they had to shoot on the dumb bastard. Worse, they forgot about the audience and delivering a main event worth paying for. That makes the company just as bad as Hardy. And there’s Sting (THE ICON!) doing what he’s told and trying to just get through it. It’s embarrassing to watch. The Michael Cole stuff can at least be explained away as attempts to entertain. This… this was unprofessional and un-defendable.

++++

WINNER: Cookie – 29 Votes
1st RUNNER-UP: Bob Evans – 24 Votes
2nd RUNNER-UP: Johnny Ace – 10 Votessize=+1>

CHAD NEVETTsize=+2>
With a paucity of managers in contemporary wrestling, declaring the best and worst is more a matter of taking the few managers that there are and throwing them into the two categories. Cookie wasn’t awful. If anything, it was her character that was dragged her down. Saddled with a Snooki rip-off that meant bringing in various Jersey Shore cast members to the complete indifference of everyone was pretty much all it took for Cookie to be declared the worst. Her character was grating, but Becky Bayless did her best. Maybe given time, this character could have been something more than annoying… not in 2011, though.

SCOTT RUTHERFORDsize=+2>
Really Chad nailed this award right on the head. With legitimate manager becoming few and far between, the manager category for both Best and Worst are more than a little redundant these days. Manager used to draw hit on their charges and be able to talk for wrestlers who couldn’t cut a promo. Today most “managers are eye candy and nothing more. Cookie is nothing a manager should be. She’s cute and hardworking and probably should be a completely different character in the ring. You known, someone that’s more like herself than a rip-off of some annoying D-list celeb who NO ONE in wrestling gives a shit about. The fact that TNA brought in actual Jersey Shore cast members only highlight just how absurd the whole deal was. SO while Cookie the character sucked a penis, Becky Bayless the person is someone that could probably do with another chance.

++++

WINNER: s Otunga & Michael McGillicuty – 36 Votes
1st RUNNER-UP: The Great Khali & Jindar Mahal – 18 Vote
2nd RUNNER-UP: Mexican America – 15 Votessize=+1>

RYAN BYERSsize=+2>
Usually I’m one of the first people to jump up and protest when a veteran wrestler buries a young up-and-comer for being boring, talentless, or uncool. However, earlier this year, WWE ran an angle in which Jerry “The King” Lawler from his announcer’s seat started talking about how horrible the team of David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty was. The angle then grew not just into Lawler verbally berating Otunga and McGillicutty but also beating them in the ring with a variety of different tag team partners. But did I complain? Did I protest? Did I call for Jerry Lawler’s head? No, I didn’t. Actually, the whole feud through, I was actually cheering on the King of Memphis, because everything that he was saying on commentary was everything that I had been thinking about Otunga and McGillicutty since they were first put together as a regular team to take the WWE Tag Team Titles off of Kane and the Big Show (of all teams) in May 2011. I’ve disliked Otunga strongly ever since WWE decided that they were going to try to make him the breakout star of the original season of NXT last year. I don’t necessarily dislike him because he was pushed heavily but rather because he was pushed heavily with absolutely no talent justifying that push. The guy can’t wrestle. At all. And, though the company tried to push him at various times as being charismatic or having an “it factor,” I don’t see it and never have. The guy can deliver lines, but, when he delivers them, he in no way sounds like somebody who is intimidating or in any other way possesses those qualities that professional wrestlers are supposed to possess. (That’s why his current attorney character works much better than anything they’ve done with him in the past . . . he’s not SUPPOSED to be a tough guy in this new role.) McGillicutty, meanwhile, isn’t necessary a bad professional wrestler. He’s just not a particularly good professional wrestler. He’s not awful in the ring but does nothing to stand out. He’s not painfully uncharismatic but lacks any character that makes him stand out. He’s not a terrible promo but does nothing on the mic to stand out. He’s more vanilla than the light side of a CM Punk Ice Cream Bar. McGillicutty would be a fine tag team partner for somebody who was more charismatic or a more exciting professional wrestler, but, when you slap him together with the less-than-stellar Otunga, the negative qualities of each man are highlighted and you usually get a channel-changing segment.

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The worst team I can recall seeing in recent history would probably be McGuillicutty and Otunga, who had no personality and while Michael had some wrestling skill, Otunga has none. Otunga also lacks any real charisma and McGuillicutty suffers the same problem, so already we have two guys who can’t wrestle very well and who have no charisma. Throw them in the ring with a few established teams and you have yourselves a team so bad even Lawler got to pin them time and time again on TV with random mystery partners. Mahal and Khali were also horrible as Mahal is just simply terrible and Khali is even worse than him, although Khali has an attraction side to him, as he’s a gigantic seven foot three inch tall guy and McMahon LOVES his giants. Watching those two battle was like watching two washed-up ex-wrestlers going at it in a bar after having ten pints too many! Mexican America are only guilty of really not doing all that much outside a brief tag title reign and a generic anti-American gimmick, but frankly compared to the top two teams Mexican America are like the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express!

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The World’s Dullest Tag Team. Okay, my nickname for Otunga and McGillicutty never caught on, but it isn’t wrong. Can anyone remember any of their matches? I vaguely remember them feuding with Jerry Lawler and a string of one-off tag partners because he said they were boring… and that feud did nothing to change that perception. All I remember is a blur of mediocrity and them proving completely useless as members of the New Nexus. They were two bland, uninspired wrestlers that demonstrate why Vince McMahon could think tag team wrestling is worthless. They’re so dull that I’m struggling to have anything to say about them.

++++

WINNER: Kelly Kelly – 23 Votes
1st RUNNER-UP: Alicia Fox – 12 Votes
2nd RUNNER-UP: Eve Torres – 9 Votessize=+1>

RYAN BYERSsize=+2>“So all my girls in the back say ‘ho,’ ’cause you know just how we do.” So begins the entrance music of Kelly Kelly. I have no clue what the hell that sentence means, just like I have no clue why Kelly Kelly seems to maintain significant popularity on certain corners of the internet. Yes, she’s good looking, but her popularity seems greater than many other WWE women over the years who have been just as good, if not better looking. Beyond her body, she brings virtually nothing to the table. The handful of times that she’s tried to cut a promo it’s been wooden and devoid of any inflection. This year, thanks to Kelly’s feud with Beth Phoenix, we got to see a few instances of Kelly Kelly attempting to act “angry,” and the result was just laughable, underscoring a lack of in-ring charisma. And let’s talk about what goes on when Kelly is in the ring, shall we? I’ve actually had a handful of people try to tell me that Kelly is a good professional wrestler (or at least a professional wrestler who is improving) because she can execute a head scissors takeover or do a handspring. Yes, she’s somewhat athletic. However, being somewhat athletic does absolutely nothing to change or hide the fact that her in-ring fundamentals are terrible. Selling isn’t her strong suit, several of her bumps are cringe-inducing, and, in the most annoying thing about Kelly’s matches, she runs the ropes in such a way that it takes one of the more “fake” aspects of professional wrestling and elevates it to super-duper embarrassingly fake. Making it all the worse is the fact that 2011 is the year in which Kelly has been pushed the most heavily in her WWE tenure, not just winning the WWE Divas Title for the first time but also being involved in a match in which her scoring a pinfall resulted in a successful defense of the World Heavyweight Championship. Yikes. Yet, no matter how much the promotion gets behind Kelly, her level of talent still makes it clear that she has made virtually no progression from being the girl that Johnny Ace recruited because he saw her in a swimsuit catalog.

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Kelly Kelly reminds me of the Great Khali or any other similar giant: she’s there because of how she looks first and her ‘skills’ in the ring second (maybe third, because looks can take two spots). It’s assumed that people want to see her more because she’s attractive, the same way that people want to gawk at the giants. Except, you can see attractive women without watching wrestling. You’re reading this, so you’re obviously familiar with the internet. The internet is great for finding pictures and videos of attractive women doing a whole lot more than wrestle for a minute and a half. Kelly Kelly doesn’t offer anything you can’t find elsewhere. She’s not good in the ring. For Christ’s sake, her finisher these days is a goddamn rollup it seems. And, yet, she’s given the top spot, pushed as someone we’re supposed care about and believe is anything other than a nuisance for someone like Beth Phoenix or Natalya. Watching them move in slow motion to placate the limited abilities of Kelly Kelly is painful sometimes. Sure, she’s improved — but, if she were a man, she wouldn’t even be given a try out by the WWE let alone a title. She’s a nice easy representation of all that is wrong with the WWE’s approach to women’s wrestling.
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Big surprise that all three are from WWE, right? First off, Eve Torres is improving but she’s still way overshooting her moonsault and looks uncomfortable pulling off moves a supposed Brazilian jiu-jitsu student should have no trouble pulling off. Alicia Fox has no idea what the hell she is doing and I actually picked her for this award because that somersault leg drop of hers is not only dangerous to the receiver but also looks completely and utterly screwed up from the very first time she starts it to the leg mostly missing its target. Kelly Kelly is receiving this award because frankly, she can’t wrestle very well and her claim to fame this year was winning a women’s title that is basically a signing bonus and posing nearly nude for Maxim magazine. Yep, that’s quality right there!

++++

WINNER: The Great Khali 38 Votes
1st RUNNER-UP: Mason Ryan – 21 Votes
2nd RUNNER-UP: David Otunga – 12 Votessize=+1>

RYAN BYERSsize=+2>
Believe it or not, this makes Khali the first wrestler in history to be named 411’s Worst Wrestler of the year in two separate years. Believe it or not, I didn’t even have Khali on my ballot. Yes, he’s still an awful wrestler, but he’s been a relatively minor part of the WWE landscape this year when compared to years past (Remember his World Title reign?), and I have a hard time knocking the guy given the stories about how much of his WWE salary he sends back to India for charitable purposes. However, if I’m being completely honest with myself, I do have to say that, objectively speaking, when Khali is on TV and wrestling, he is putting on worse matches than anybody else on the roster. In fact, in recent years, Khali has probably gotten worse than he was when he first started wrestling about ten years ago, as his health has deteriorated and he’s become even less mobile, now unable to do virtually anything other than overhand chops and the dreaded head vice. Khali looks all the more sad when you consider the fact that the other “giant” wrestlers in WWE have looked so good lately, with the Big Show and Mark Henry having what I consider to be one of the best feuds of the year and Kane having a respectable title reign in 2010 before generating a fair amount of buzz with his recent return. Khali is probably in too bad of shape to ever turn around his career and have a year like that, but hopefully he continues in WWE for as long as he’s willing and able (gotta keep those checks going to India) with me seeing as few of his awful matches as possible.

TONY ACEROsize=+2>
It seems like years ago that The Great Khali was in the ring, stinkin it up. Of course, Mason Ryan and David Otunga are in the forefront of our minds due to their most recent outings, but the ability for Khali to be able to remind us that he thoroughly sucked. There truly is no redeemable qualities with the guy, and that’s unfortunate. He’s a throwback to the freakshow portion of wrestling that people would want of yesteryear. An extremely tall, lumbering man that only people such as Jeff Small would consider entertaining. While he wasn’t my choice of worst wrestler of the year (that went to Otunga), it’s easy to see why this title goes to him. Now then, for my choice, Otunga truly deserves this title. Have you seen this guy in the ring? Good lord, he’s worse than my little brother! There’s a reason why they hardly gave him any time in the ring. He’s getting more time recently, Lord knows why, but I see no real improvement. Although, I do believe that they only way he will learn is if he continues to practice…I just wish it wasn’t on television.

WES KIRKsize=+2>
Is it really a surprise to see any of these three guys in the worst wrestler category? By the way, take note that they are all WWE wrestlers despite the fact most of the worst awards are heading to TNA, as if that was a shock since half the people who voted never even watch TNA. Otunga is by far the most boring excuse for a wrestler I’ve seen in a while, but at least he has a rich fiancée to fall back on. Mason Ryan is just a massive generic bodybuilder who can’t hit most of his moves without making one cringe in hopes his opponent didn’t just get murdered in the ring, but the worst of them all? The Great Khali. He hasn’t improved one single bit since his debut and he’s so horrid in the ring most of the time his matches are kept very short or they edit them on Smackdown so people don’t have to watch him go a decent length of time. Retire already, Khali!

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Two things stand out as reasons why the Great Khali, a man who has been god awful in the ring for years warrants the title of Worst Wrestler of the Year for 2011: he couldn’t elevate Jinder Mahal in any way and he couldn’t even enter the Hall of Pain properly. Pairing Khali with Jinder Mahal had potential, especially when Khali became his bodyguard of sorts (albeit conflicted about it). It’s a story that’s worked countless times in the past and had one fatal flaw this time: Khali can’t do anything. He can’t talk, he can’t move quickly — he can barely move! So much of the burden fell on the unprepared Mahal to carry things that of course it failed. Khali, as the veteran, needed to carry that angle and he wasn’t able to. As for Khali entering the Hall of Pain… Mark Henry inducted a lot of people this fall and Khali took it the worst. He’s so limited in the ring that he can’t even take a beating properly. Say what you will about everyone else in the WWE, TNA, ROH, most indie companies… they can at least get killed by the likes of Mark Henry in a manner that doesn’t look staged, awkward, and fake. Two simple things and he couldn’t do either.

++++

COME BACK TOMORROW FOR THE FINAL INSTALLMENT OF THE 411 WRESTLING YEAR END AWARDS