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| Jack Swagger looks on at two Bloggie nominated personalities Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Independent Wrestler of the Year - For the wrestler who excelled the most outside the confines of the corporate environment, thus promoting the critical and artistic growth of wrestling
Prior Winners:
2009 – Austin Aries
2010 – Claudio Castagnoli
2011 – Sara del Rey
2012 – Rachel Summerlyn
And the nominees are...
Biff Busick (Frank O'Rourke) - I would argue no one has been more important to the success of one company in 2013 than Busick was to Beyond Wrestling. Any company worth its salt builds around one native or "homegrown" guy, and Beyond's voyage into the upper tier of indie companies has been tied to Busick and his feud with Eddie Edwards. Plus, as O'Rourke, he stormed the Wrestling Is... universe and made his mark there.
Cheerleader Melissa - Of all the midseason heel turns by Champions, Melissa's held the most impact. She turned on a retiring Allison Danger and set the stage for the rest of the year in women's wrestling. She started the "Female Fight Year" with a hot cage match against Saraya Knight, and established herself as THE big bad within SHIMMER by the end of the year.
Chuck Taylor - Taylor's been all over in 2013 - Chikara, DGUSA, CZW - but his biggest impact has come over Instagram video with the 24/7 Championship. He's always a favorite because of his comedic stylings and unpredictability in the ring, but the entrepreneurial spirit puts him over the top this year.
Icarus - Icarus' 2013 was weird, mainly because most of it revolved around character building and alternate reality game material. However, his change from most hated wrestler in Chikara to its spiritual leader has been one of the most remarkable and surreal. He has taken his mantel well.
The Young Bucks - Being a heel in indie wrestling is hard for various reasons, but the Bucks, no matter what the surrounding, are able to bring the crowd to oppose them and thus elevate their opponents. They've been the MVPs of PWG forever, and their runs in Chikara, FWE, DGUSA/EVOLVE, and ROH have been extensions of that excellence.
Talker of the Year - For the wrestler who showed the most prowess at inciting a crowd, building a story, or entertaining the audience via the spoken word
Prior Winners:
2009 - CM Punk
2010 – The Miz
2011 – CM Punk
2012 – Damien Sandow
And the nominees are...
CM Punk - Punk is a perennial nominee for this award and for good reason. Even though he was seemingly down this year, his silver tongue was still able to carry segments that might have faltered with a lesser gabber.
Damien Sandow - Sandow continued his award-winning streak from 2012 into the next year and built on it by evolving from erudite cheap heat grabber into something a bit more vicious. He's still able to do the crowd work that won him the award last year, but he developed a verbal meanstreak to go along with the one he'd always had in the ring.
Enzo Amore - Amore burst into NXT with a metric ton of charisma, a money catchphrase, and a handle on the microphone that seemed years beyond his developmental paygrade. I could sit and watch him riffing with Big Cass for entire hours of NXT programming and not find him boring.
Paul Heyman - Heyman as Punk's second was good, but he really shone brightest as an adversary to his former charge during the summertime. While he seems to be at his best as a slimy master of all things law-related, his balls-out, insane RAW promo was an act of sheer brilliance.
Zeb Colter - Zeb Colter came in to help Jack Swagger get over as a Tea Party parody. While his rhetoric was designed to make me hate him, I couldn't help but be enthralled by how well the moustachioed elseworlds-Dutch Mantell was able to charm me as a viewer while saying some of the most vile things known to man. I guess you need a certain talent to make xenophobia sound entertaining.
The Ricky Steamboat Award - Named for one of the most universally respected and beloved professional wrestlers of all-time, this award is for the wrestler who excelled the most between the ropes during matches to tell stories and build characters through the physical art of professional wrestling.
Prior Winners:
2009 – Christian
2010 – Daniel Bryan/Bryan Danielson
2011 – Dolph Ziggler
2012 – ACH
And the nominees are...
Antonio Cesaro - Cesaro has been unleashed in WWE, and the results have been magnificent. On the main roster, he started the year as United States Champion, having good-to-great matches with a wide variance of opponents, including a series with Miz that no one seemed to want to see but everyone seemed to enjoy the actual matches. Then, he moved into the tag ranks and had an excellent run with Jack Swagger. And of course, the series of matches with Sami Zayn in NXT will be talked about for generations.
Athena - 2013 has been a weird year for in-ring excellence, as outside of a couple of wrestlers who've been consistently great all year long, the major players have been spotty. That reason is why Athena is nominated for the Steamboat this year. Despite missing a huge chunk of the year, including the fall Female Fight Season where she would have had opportunity after opportunity to show her wares, Athena's downright excellent first eight months in the ring propelled her to a nomination when very few could claim 12.
Daniel Bryan - Bryan has pretty much gone out and had excellent matches on every platform given possible. He was part of a revolution on RAW, where the game was raised exponentially for what a free TV main event should be. His pay-per-view performances, vs. Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston with Kane, against the Wyatt Family, opposing Randy Orton, and especially against John Cena at SummerSlam were amazing.
Kevin Steen - Steen was about the closest thing to a surety on the indies in terms of entertaining matches in 2013. He spread his wings, worked for any company who'd take him, and offered his unique mixture of brawling and technical prowess. Whether in Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Beyond Wrestling, or in any number of local companies.
Sami Zayn - Zayn picked up in NXT where he left off on the indie scene with magnificent work in the ring. His series with Cesaro got most of the acclaim, but he also tore the house down with contests against Jack Swagger, Leo Kruger, and Adrian Neville. Zayn showed an adaptability that has served fellow indie-to-WWE success stories well. I would be surprised if within a year, he's not on RAW, having the same excellent matches that Bryan, Ambrose, Rollins, and Punk are having right now.