When I first started to enjoy professional wrestling in late 1991/early 1992, in a pre-internet era, I would search far and wide for every wrestling magazine title available in the UK during that period of time. I would read every magazine from cover to cover. From The Ring, to Pro Wrestling Illustrated, the WWF magazine and WCW magazine, to name but a few. But the one magazine that stood head and shoulders above all the others was a certain wrestling magazine, called Superstars of Wrestling.

S.O.W was a UK based wrestling magazine, written and edited by Findlay Martin. Superstars of Wrestling was the only magazine that took an objective view on pro wrestling, with a forthright writing style that gave us fans an honest peek behind the curtain of our beloved and favourite form of (sports) entertainment – Professional Wrestling.

After a couple of years, Superstars of Wrestling transitioned into being Power Slam magazine (1994) and became my monthly go-to wrestling magazine for another 20 years, until its demise in 2014. Besides being the best wrestling magazine on the shelves of W.H.Smith for over 20 years, it also gave us wrestling fans a fantastic range of articles and regular features that held my interest and had me genuinely excited for each new edition. One of those features was their annual Power Slam End of Year reader’s awards. I would spend hours fulling out my nominations for all of the categories on offer, and it would be an exciting opportunity to add my “expert” views on all that had gone down in the world of Pro Wrestling, from the previous 12 months.

So, in honour of Power Slam’s End of Year Awards, I decided to do something similar, in the lead up to our End of Year Awards podcast special on 21st December 2019. By offering the listeners of the WWJ Pod an opportunity to vote on who they believe should be the deserved winners of our very own annual Pro Wrestling awards. And with 2019 being the last year from the 2010’s decade, there are also a few ‘End of Decade Awards’ up for grabs in amongst this year’s awards.

Remember, all of the winners and all of those nominated were voted for by the listeners of the Wrestling With Johners podcast. So, thanks to everyone who took the time to cast their votes.

Enjoy the full run-down of nominees and winners to all 25 categories below!

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Breakout Star of the Year

Nominees:

• MJF
• Private Party
• Jordan Devlin
• Sammy Guevara

Triple Winners:

Rhea Ripley

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Keith Lee

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Darby Allin

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Announcer of the Year 2019

Nominees:

• Nigel McGuiness
• Cory Graves
• Excalibur
• Tom Philips
• Vic Joseph

Winner: Mauro Ranallo

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Faction/Stable of the Year 2019

Nominees:

• Jurassic Express
• The Elite
• The Inner Circle

Winner: Undisputed Era

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Best Gimmick for 2019

Nominees:

• Luchasaurus
• Viking Raiders
• ‘The Planets Champion’ Daniel Bryan
• Cara Noir

Winner: The Fiend

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Indy Promotion of the Year 2019

Nominations:

• NWA
• IMPACT Wrestling
• AAW
• Destiny
• TNT
• Beyond Wrestling
• IWE:UK

Winner: Progress Wrestling

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Indy Wrestler of the Year 2019

Nominees:

• Orange Cassidy
• Eddie Ryan
• James Storm
• Damian Dunne
• Jordynne Grace
• Filthy Tom Lawler
• Marty Scurll
• Will Ospreay

Winner: David Starr

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Angle / Storyline of the Year 2019

Nominees:

• The Introduction to the Fiend/Firefly funhouse
• The Cody/MJF storyline
• The Jericho/Cody build to their Full Gear world title match
• Finn Balor’s heel turn

Double Winners:

The NXT Invasion of Smackdown and main roster in build towards Survivor Series

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Kofi-Mania and Kofi’s march to WrestleMania 35

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Worst Wrestler of the Year 2019

Nominees:

• Cody
• Mike Kanellis
• Brock Lesnar
• Seth Rollins
• Becky Lynch
• Bray Wyatt

Winner: King Baron Corbin

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Biggest Letdown match of the Year 2019

Nominees:

• Lynch vs. Rousey vs. Flair (WM 35 main event)
• Lynch vs. Bailey vs. Baszler (Survivor Series main event)
• Brock Lesnar vs Kofi 10 sec SD match
• Brock vs Cain Velasquez (Crown Jewel)
• Undertaker vs Goldberg (Super Showdown)
• Kay Lee Ray vs Toni Storm (NXT:UK TakeOver Cardiff)

Winner: Hell In A Cell main event (The Fiend vs Seth Rollins – WWE Universal Championship)

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Worst PPV/Show of the Year 2019

Nominees:

• WWE Crown Jewel
• WWE Stomping Grounds
• NWA Into the Fire
• AEW Dynamite

Winner: WWE Hell In A Cell 2019

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Babyface of the Year 2019

Nominees:

• Luchasaurus
• Johnny Gargano
• Cody
• Keith Lee
• Tyler Bate
• Kenny Omega
• Will Ospreay

Winner: Kofi Kingston

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Heel of the Year 2019

Nominees:

• MJF
• The Fiend Bray Wyatt
• Adam Cole
• Seth Rollins (before the actual heel turn)

Winner: ‘Le Champion’ Chris Jericho {:class=“restrict-width”}

Biggest Shock/Moment of the Year 2019

Nominees:

• Kenta’s heel turn on Shibata
• NXT’S Invasion of Smackdown and the main roster
• Jon Moxley’s shocking arrival in AEW at Double or Nothing
• MJF throwing in the towel during Cody’s match with Jericho
• Kofimania and Kofi winning the WWE championship at WM35
• CM Punk’s return to the wrestling as a guest host of WWE Backstage on FOX

Winner: Finn Balors heel turn on Johnny Gargano on NXT {:class=“restrict-width”}

Most Improved Wrestler for 2019

Nominees:

• Mustafa Ali
• Rhea Ripley
• Chad Gable (Shorty G)
• Humberto Carrillo
• Cody

Winner: Bray Wyatt/The Fiend

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Comeback of the Year 2019

Nominees:

• Jon Moxley
• CM Punk
• Finn Balor
• NWA
• Tony Shiavone
• Tommaso Ciampa
• IMPACT Wrestling

Winner: Bray Wyatt/The Fiend

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Show/PPV of the Decade (2010-2019)

Nominees:

• NXT Takeover New Orleans (2018)
• NXT Takeover Wargames 2017, 2018, 2019
• NJPW WrestleKingdom 9, 10, 11, 12
• WWE MITB 2011
• WWE Survivor Series 2019
• WrestleMania 26 & 28

Winner: Wrestlemania 30 (2014)

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Match of the Decade (2010-2019)

Nominees:

• Cole vs Gargano - NXT Takeover: 25 (2/3 falls stipulation match - 2019)
• Kenny Omega vs Okada - Wrestle Kingdom 11 (2017)
• Ciampa vs Gargano - NXT Takeover: New Orleans (2018)
• Sasha Banks vs Bailey - NXT Takeover Brooklyn (2015)
• Cody vs Dustin Rhodes – AEW Double Or Nothing (2019)
• Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker - WrestleMania 26 (2010)

Winner: CM Punk vs John Cena (WWE Championship – Money In The Bank 2011)

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Wrestler of the Decade (2010-2019)

Nominees:

• Chris Jericho
• Kazuchika Okada
• Seth Rollins
• Tatsuyo Naito
• Kenny Omega
• CM Punk

Double Winners:

AJ Styles

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Daniel Bryan

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Brightest Prospect for 2020

Nominees:

• Rhea Ripley
• Damien Priest
• Hangman Adam Page
• Luchasaurus
• Matt Riddle
• Io Shirai
• Camron Grimes
• Jack Evans
• MJF

Winner: Keith Lee

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Wrestling Promotion of the Year 2019

Nominees:

• WWE
• AEW
• New Japan Pro Wrestling
• NWA
• IMPACT Wrestling
• Progress wrestling
• IWE:UK

Winner: NXT

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Tag team of the Year 2019

Nominees:

• Undisputed Era
• The Young Bucks
• Private Party
• Viking Raiders
• LAX (Santana & Ortiz)
• Kabuki Warriors
• The New Day
• The Bone Brothers

Winners: The Lucha Brothers

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Show/PPV of the Year 2019

Nominees:

• AEW Double or Nothing
• IWE:UK Road to Glory
• NXT Takeover Wargames 2019
• Survivor Series 2019
• NXT:UK Takeover Cardiff
• AEW Full Gear

Winner: NXT Takeover: New York

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Match of the Year 2019

Nominees:

• Adam Cole vs Johnny Gargano (NXT Takeover: New York)
• Adam Cole vs Johnny Gargano (NXT Takeover: 25)
• Kenny Omega vs Jon Moxley (Unsanctioned match at AEW Full Gear)
• Pete Dunne vs Adam Cole (Survivor Series 2019)
• Will Ospreay vs Shingo Takagi (NJPW Best of Super Jr’s 2019)
• Cody vs Dustin Rhodes (AEW Double Or Nothing)

Winner: Tyler Bate vs WALTER (NXT:UK Takeover Cardiff)

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Female wrestler of the Year 2019

Nominees:

• Arisha Hoshiki
• Victoria Adams
• Rhea Ripley
• Io Shirai
• Shayna Baszler

Double Winners:

Becky Lynch

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Tessa Blanchard

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Male wrestler of the Year 2019

Nominees:

• Bray Wyatt/The Fiend
• Kenny Omega
• WALTER
• ‘The Bastard’ PAC
• Bob Sharpe
• Kofi Kingston
• Pete Dunne
• Kazuchika Okada
• Chris Jericho
• Roderick Strong

Winner: Adam Cole

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