The 2019 WWE Year-End Awards were announced on this week’s WWE Backstage (special thanks to heel_vs_face for bringing it to my attention). WWE Hall of Famer Booker T, Christian, Renee Young, Ember Moon, and Aria Menounos were the panel that made the announcements.
This year’s list is sure to stir up some controversy, but we’ll get to that later.
Until then, this year’s winners are:
* WWE Male Superstar of the Year: Bray Wyatt.
* WWE Female Superstar of the Year: Becky Lynch.
* WWE Men’s Tag-Team of the Year: The New Day.
* WWE Women’s Tag-Team of the Year: The Kabuki Warriors.
* WWE Breakthrough Superstars of the Year: The Street Profits.
* WWE Moment of the Year: Kofi Kingston winning the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35.
Love/hate relationship with awards
What is the WWE without controversy? They create it, wallow in it, and spread it around like a pain-inducing salve for their fans. It’s part of the entertainment business, so we don’t generally mind. We know our favorites will lose matches and titles, but there’s something about an award that’s a little more poignant.
As fans, we tent to want to see our action in the ring, not on a talk show or other special program (probably why WWE Backstage isn’t setting the world on fire ratings-wise). For us, these awards are polarizing as well as forgetful. It just depends on how serious we take them.
For those not interested, news of the awards may be one of the biggest surprises to come their way courtesy of Vince McMahon. It’s a fun anecdote to share with our friends at work or school, but beyond that we mainly nod and agree or disagree. This is where we get pulled into the discussion whether we previously cared or not.
A great example is how personally, I never paid much attention to sports awards, but watching the pregame or post game shows are a regular habit for me. Go figure, right? But when it came time for a league MVP or other award, I could get into the conversation pretty easily, and that’s what they want.
Deserving winners
First, I’d like to congratulate everyone for their respective wins. It’s not easy to stand out enough to be considered for an award, much less win it. While professional wrestling is scripted, it’s still up to the athletes to connect with the crowd and put together matches that are memorable. Most times, these moments are the pinnacle of years of hard work and earning Vince McMahon’s trust as well as the fans’.
This is something no one can take away from them, and it’s something I’m sure we’ll heard about more these in the coming weeks as these will most likely be turned into storylines at some point.
More to come
This is going to be a fun list to tear into over the next few hours, so stay tuned for some indepth commentary coming your way from yours truly.
But that’s not all, next Wednesday’s New Year’s Eve show will feature the top five WWE matches of 2019, and NXT will announce their own Year-End Awards on their January 1st episode on the USA network.
This should be an interesting week awards-wise. Hope the action in the ring is as interesting.
Who were your picks for the 2019 WWE Backstage Year-End Awards winners? Anyone you disagree with?
