Brooklyn Brawlin' 12.10.08: A Year in Review and a Year in Preview

Posted by Dan Torkel on 12.10.2008

The Slammys...uh, no...I give you the TORKEYS!!!

Greetings. I am writing this column without seeing one little bit of Raw or the Slammys, but since I read that Vince McMahon did not sing "Stand Back" I know I didn't miss anything. Kudos to the WWE for giving the awards to the people who deserved them; Jericho in particular. Seems the WWE has bettered the Oscars in that category. In some personal news, last week I did not write a column due to getting engaged and being busy with friends and family. So as I walk my own green mile, as does the 2008-year in professional wrestling. With that in mind, I present to you, my own personal award spectacular...THE TORKEYS!!!

Now, a quick word on the rules...
1) I am only using WWE and TNA as I have not seen enough ROH to judge the overall product.
2) I am not giving nominees, just winners baby, just winners
3) Let's get on with it!!!

MANAGER OF THE YEAR...

- And the TORKEY goes to...MISS JACKIE MOORE, the Pride of Tennessee. Serving as a manager for Beer Money Inc (Robert Roode and James Storm) in TNA, Jackie has been a great heel manager in the tradition of the great heel manager. And I grew up watching Bobby Heenan, Jimmy Hart, Slick, Fuji, Freddy Blassie and so on. She is constantly protecting her men, either with her body, as in taking out Salinas during their feud with LAX, or around with Storm's beer bottle to use as a handy weapon of choice for her men.

TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR...

- And the TORKEY goes to...BEER MONEY INC. What a strange concept? Take two wrestlers who are veteran tag team competitors and former tag champs; put them together when you can't pull the trigger on a main event push; and push their team to the moon. Robert Roode and James Storm have been tremendous together in 2008, capturing the TNA Tag Team Titles by beating the once dominant LAX. More than that, they have since defended the straps against LAX, The Motor City Machine Guns and most recently Abyss/Matt Morgan. What I love most is the return of the great heel tag team. Like Hart Foundation, using their wrestling skills, until they needed Jimmy Hart's megaphone, BMI continually uses their weapon of choice, the beer bottle when the victory is in doubt.

FEUD OF THE YEAR...

- And the TORKEY goes to...CHRIS JERICHO VS. SHAWN MICHAELS. Was their any doubt? This was a feud for the ages with all the good character and storyline development that make for great movies. It started way back in April when a face Chris Jericho called out Shawn for enjoying the spotlight from retiring Ric Flair. Michaels was involved in a feud with Batista over that very fact at this time. Jericho as positioned as special ref for their Backlash match and called it down the middle despite Shawn feigning a knee injury to win the match up. Jericho and Michaels wrestled at Judgment Day in a great match where Shawn won again, this time with an inside cradle. Jericho decided the best way to handle the disappointment was to take Shawn by the head and throw him through the Jerich-a-tron 3000 screen injuring Shawn's eye and thus ending the tweener dynamic of the feud. Jericho was becoming an all time heel here. He followed this up by pummeling Shawn's injured eye into oblivion at their GAB rematch where the ref stopped the match in Jericho's favor. The feud only heated up at Summerslam when Jericho tried to convince Shawn into retirement. When Shawn said no, Jericho went for a punch only to land it on the face of Shawn's wife! Now beating the be-Jesus out of a guy is one thing, but punching his wife is Jake Roberts level awesome heel-ness. When Michaels got a chance for revenge, it was at the appropriately named Unforgiven ppv, where HBK brutalized Jericho into the same style ref stoppage as their previous encounter. Jericho managed to one-up HBK even on that night as he snuck into the main event Raw Scramble and stole the World Title. The feud reached its pinnacle at No Mercy when in their final ppv match Jericho beat Shawn in a MOTYC Ladder match. A feud lasting 7 + months filled with gratuitous violence, epic storytelling, and utter hatred lead this to becoming one of the great all-time feuds.

MATCH OF THE YEAR...(this is going to rustle some feathers)

- And the TORKEY goes to... EDGE VS. UNDERTAKER FOR THE WORLD TITLE AT WRESTLEMANIA XXIV. Yes, I went there! I said no candidates, but to me, this was not only the best match in their feud, but also the best match of the year over Shawn/Jericho's ladder match and Joe/Angle in the cage at Lockdown. This match had so much working against it, being on the same card with Shawn/Flair, having to defy the odds as everyone just knew Taker would win and Edge wouldn't break the streak. But they went out there in the main event of the biggest show of 2008 after Shawn/Flair, after Cena and Triple H, and after Floyd Mayweather. The went out and put on, not only a near perfect match, but they did the impossible... they convinced the smartest fans that Taker was in jeopardy. Edge gave Taker his best Wrestlemania match and took him as far to the limit he's ever been taken. He kicked out of a Chokeslam, Last Ride, and Tombstone, and continuously countered Taker's every move. In the end after a second Spear, Taker was able to counter the pin into the Hell's Gate choke and Edge eventually tapped. I know many will disagree, but this was my Match of the Year.

MOMENT OF THE YEAR…

- And the TORKEY goes to… EVERYTHING FLAIR FROM THE WRESTLEMANIA WEEKEND. This is worded this way due to Monday's Raw celebration being my favorite TV moment of the year. I joined the 411 staff back in April and my first column came out right after Wrestlemania XXIV where I wrote about not being ashamed to be a wrestling fan who cries. Well, I was crying on Wrestlemania Sunday as Shawn Michaels stood up, paused, and said "I love you, I'm Sorry" before delivering the fatal Sweet Chin Music. The following night on Raw Triple H came out after Flair delivered a short speech and brought out nearly every important person (wrestler, opponent, friend, family) in Flair's life as Naitch was choked up and sobbing. The whole spectacle of Flair's farewell was perfectly done and a fitting end to the greatest wrestler the sport has ever seen.

WRESTLER OF THE YEAR…

- And the TORKEY goes to… CHRIS JERICHO. Was their any doubt here? Anyone who has paid attention to any columns I have written knows my affinity for Jericho and the way he has carried the company on his back all year. Cena had the Rumble and recent title win; but a terrible injury-plagued middle year. Triple H was the WWE Champion for 7 months, but on the B-Show, facing some inferior opponents like Khali, and Kozlov. Orton, Edge, Taker, Punk, and Batista all spent time as champion but also spent time floundering or injured. Jericho meanwhile re-invented everything we have ever known about character development in wrestling. He starts 2008 as a fresh returning face feuding with hated villains Randy Orton, and JBL. After narrowly losing the MITB match, Jericho embarked on the epic HBK feud, first becoming the pesky tweener talk show host, out there to cause problems, then turning full blown heel and destroying HBK ala a 2008 version of the Rockers on the Barbershop. Throw in 3 MOTYC with Shawn on ppv, and 2 stints as World Champion, and we have a unanimous choice for wrestler of the year… and even Stephanie, the dime bag HOE agrees with me.


That is it for the first annual TORKEYS! Hope you enjoyed. Now that we have concluded the 2008 portion of the show, lets jump ahead to 2009 and one of my favorite ppvs, the Royal Rumble. Based on the upcoming Armageddon card, I am going to assume Edge retains by pinning Jeff Hardy, which should set up Edge/Hunter for the Rumble. That leaves Jeff to go into the Rumble ad win it. That sets up either A) Edge/Jeff at Wrestlemania with years of ladder matches and family hatred to build on, or B) Triple H/Jeff where Jeff finally wins the big one against his hated rival. I have to feel that Cena/Batisa would still qualify as most logical choice for the Raw main event at WM 25, but who knows at this point. We'll see if the World Hot Potato Title changes hands again at Armageddon.

With everything playing out, here is my Wrestlemania XXV preview: (bear in mind this will ultimately change 25 times before the event) –

WWE Title – © Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy
World Heavyweight Title – © John Cena vs. Batista
Showstopper vs. Streak – Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker
Legend Killer vs. Legend – Randy Orton vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin
Edge vs. CHRISTIAN CAGE
ECW Title – © Vladimir Kozlov vs. Umaga
MITB 5 – Chris Jericho vs. Mr. Kennedy vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. R-Truth vs. JBL vs. Kane vs. Matt Hardy vs. Finlay
IC Title – © William Regal vs. CM Punk
World Tag Team Titles – © Miz & Morrison vs. Rey Mysterio & Evan Bourne
Unification Match – © Beth Phoenix vs. © Michelle McCool


I gotta go, my woman is hungry… have fun storming the castle!!!