Views From The Turnbuckle: Mid-Year Awards, Wrestler, Tag Team, Match Of The Year And More!

With six months already blistered away through the calendar, the year in wrestling is already half over. Huge events like Wrestlemania and Wrestle Kingdom are in the books while Summerslam and the G1 Climax loom on the horizon. With that being said, it is time for the mid-year awards. At the end of the year I will hand out the real awards, The Viewies ®, but for now, enjoy the Pre-Viewies ®.

Wrestler of the Year: Seth Rollins

A lot of wrestling fans have complained about how Rollins has been booked, a sneaky champion that avoids picking up clean victories, but still manages to hold onto the championship. While that is all true, Rollins has still outperformed the rest of the wrestling world when it comes to working it on a nightly basis. Rollins has been the driving force of storylines in WWE, the main event champion feuds tend to involve men who don't like Rollins and not men who don't like The Authority. Rollins' character has worked well with rivals Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns, he has gotten the best matches possible out of each one. Rollins' average star rating this year has been 3.4, tops in WWE for wrestlers with at least 3 recorded matches.

Rollins' character has been extremely successful in WWE, his arrogant behavior boarding on sociopathic, and his personality really coming into his own over the last few months. Rollins has successfully navigated the difficult gambit of being a top heel, but still avoiding getting cheered from the audience. Today, if a heel is truly good at his job, wrestling fans will cheer him because they recognize a talent doing his job well. Rollins has been very good in his role, cutting biting promos and having no idea how to interact with people. He gets good heat and almost nobody cheers for him. To draw a comparison, the second biggest heel wrestler in the company is Kevin Owens, and the crowd loves him. Owens has been outstanding in his role, but Rollins has gone a different route in order to get heat, and that has prevented fans from cheering for him, making him probably the only true heel in the company.

Honorable Mention- AJ Styles, BxB Hulk, Go Shiozaki, Jay Briscoe, Kevin Owens

Tag Team of the Year: The Kingdom

There are a lot of good options for this award, partly because there is a good collection of tag teams out in the wrestling world, partly because one team hasn't really ran away with the it so far. The Kingdom's ringer is Adam Cole, but while Cole was on the mend with an injury, the tag team of Michael Bennett and Matt Taven kept the brand alive, coming away with the biggest prize of all, the IWGP World Tag Team Championship. Bennett was once assumed to be WWE-bound, but in the last year or so it has been made pretty clear that his future is more likely to be in ROH than in Stamford. The duo of Bennett and Maria Kanellis are underrated heat generators, and no matter how many times Maria runs interference, the crowd never fails to react to it. Taven has quietly become one of the better wrestlers on the independent circuit and keeps getting better. Their stock seems to be rising, so expect to hear more about them as the year progresses.

Honorable Mention: The American Wolves, The New Day, Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson, reDRagon, Go Shiozaki and Kento Miyahara

Best Babyface: Jay Brisco

Not a tremendous year so far for top babyfaces. Daniel Bryan has been a non-factor for most of the year, NJPW has been put into a stranglehold by the villainous Bullet Club, Kurt Angle has had a so-so year on top of TNA and BxB Hulk has occasionally taken a backseat in Dragon Gate despite being their world champion. Jay Briscoe has been a force for Ring of Honor, holding their world championship and carrying the company. During a tumultuous time that has seen many of its top stars depart from the company, Briscoe remains the longest tenured Ring of Honor wrestler, and its top attraction.

Honorable Mention: BxB Hulk, Go Shiozaki, Kurt Angle, Prince Puma

Best Heel: The Bullet Club

Awarding it to a group that has done more to establish NJPW in North America since WCW and NJPW had a working relationship back then. NJPW doesn't really operate with traditional face/heel roles. Besides the Bullet Club, the top heel faction in the company is CHAOS, which features some of the most popular wrestlers in the company including Shinsuke Nakamura and Kazuchika Okada. The Bullet Club has been so dominant and convincing that they have rendered pretty much every other heel in the company a defacto babyface. And they have done it in style.

A very honorable mention to Roderick Strong, whose heel run in PWG has been tremendous, albeit on a limited schedule. Roddy is so over in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla that his ring boots literally get more heat than most other performers.
Honorable Mention: Roderick Strong, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Joe Doering, Mil Muertes, Jay Lethal, Hallowicked

Best Technical Wrestler: Seth Rollins

Guys like Zack Sabre Jr. and Kyle O'Reilly might be a little bit better at going in and out of holds, but in the ring as an overall performer, Rollins has carried the ball in every match he has worked in. For the amount of risks Rollins takes in the ring and for the workers he is working with, the fact that Rollins very rarely screws up in the ring is incredible. My favorite move of his is the springboard knee strike to his opponents head. The skill involved in that move, from properly distancing yourself from the opponent, to the jump itself, to connecting on the side of the head (but not, you know, actually hurting your opponent) is amazing. So many wrestlers, even good wrestlers, whiff on that move, but Rollins always nails it.

Honorable Mention: AJ Styles, Zack Sabre Jr., Kyle O'Reilly, KUSHIDA, Timothy Thatcher, Drew Gulak

Best Power Wrestler: Joe Doering

Despite the fact that All-Japan seems to hate anybody that is actually entertaining to watch in the ring, Doering has found himself bumped down the card in recent months, but in a weak year so far for power wrestlers, Doering has had by far the best match (Doering vs Shiozaki at AJPW's New Year's War) and has remained a bigger factor in his company then his closest competitors, so he gets the nod half-way through the year.

Honorable Mention: Cesaro, Michael Elgin, Brian Cage, Uhaa Nation

Best Brawler: Kevin Owens

Owens has been pure magic so far into his WWE career. Owens' on the microphone has been terrific, but he has somehow managed to be even better in the ring. Owens made a huge statement when he defeated Sami Zayn via referee stoppage in an excellent match at Takeover in February, and then proceeded to have two MOTY quality bouts with John Cena to start his career on the main roster. The sky is the limit for Owens, and it is very conceivable that he finishes 2015 as the Wrestler of the Year.
Honorable Mention: Jay Briscoe, Katsuyori Shibata, Tomohiro Ishii, Roderick Strong

Best High-Flyer- Kota Ibushi

Ibushi has firmly shaken off the junior-heavyweight label in NJPW, and is now one of the companies' top stars outright. There are some wrestlers who are a bit more athletic than Ibushi, and ones that take more risks, but Ibushi overall puts all of his skills together and has the best matches anywhere. Ibushi might never be prominent enough to become the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, but he has far outpaced any projections that were made about him even two years ago.
Honorable Mention: Adrian Neville, ACH, Andrew Everett, Ricochet, TJ Perkins

Most Charismatic: Shinsuke Nakamura

Nakamura has long been one of the top stars in Japan, but thanks to New Japan World, AXS and The Bullet Club, Nakamura has really gotten a foothold in North America. One look at Nakamura and it is no mystery why he has become arguably the most popular wrestler in the world, his off-the-walls charisma translates in any language. Nakamura doesn't have a lot of moves in the ring, yet nobody ever notices because his entertainment level is so impressive.

Honorable Mention: Jay Briscoe, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Finn Balor, ACH

Best on Interviews: Paul Heyman

Much like Nakamura, Heyman is in a class all by himself. Nobody cuts promos like Heyman and in a promotion that values the ability to cut promos above everything else, Heyman stands alone as the master of the mic. The excitement in having Brock Lesnar around is not just because Lesnar is a beast and he kills people, it also because it means that Heyman is coming with him and getting a chance to work the mic.

Honorable Mention: Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins, Bobby Roode, Jay Lethal

Female Wrestler of the Year: Mio Shirai

A close contest that should turn into a fun race throughout the second half of 2015, Mio Shirai separated herself from her fellow joshi rivals, the TNA Knockouts and the game women in NXT by having a sensational match on June 19th, a 32 minute barnburner against Arisa Nakajima. There probably isn't a better female worker right now, but there is plenty of competition ready to take her crown.

Honorable Mention: Sasha Banks, Charlotte, Gail Kim, Candice LeRae, Io Shirai, Arisa Nakajima, Ayako Hamada

Match of the Year: Kota Ibushi vs Shinsuke Nakamura- NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 9

About as perfect of a wrestling match that you will find anywhere, Ibushi and Nakamura have fantastic chemistry together, taking home the Viewie® in 2013 for their match at the G1 Climax. They have a terrific mesh of styles, with Nakamura's charisma and lethal knee strikes countering Ibushi's agility and fighting spirit. The match told a good story as well, with the up-and-coming Ibushi trying to prove that he belongs in the heavyweight division, against he established megastar Nakamura. The match was five stars in every sense of the term.

Honorable Mention- Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada-NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 9, Kevin Owens vs John Cena-WWE Elimination Chamber, KUSHIDA vs Kyle O'Reilly-NJPW Best of the Super Jrs. Final, Joe Doering vs Go Shiozaki-AJPW New Years War, Roderick Strong vs Zack Sabre Jr.- PWG Don't Sweat the Technique

Event of the Year: NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 9

Top to bottom perhaps the best wrestling show I have ever seen. Ibushi vs Nakamura and Tanahashi vs Okada are the only two five star matches I have ranked this year and they took place back-to-back on this show. Outside of that, there was a great supporting undercard, including Kenny Omega vs Ryusuke Taguchi, Tomohiro Ishii vs Togi Makabe and a wonderful four-way match for the Jr. Heavyweight Tag Championships between The Young Bucks, reDRagon, Forever Hooligans and the Time Splitters. Just a show that was very entertaining for four hours.

Honorable Mention-WWE Wrestlemania 31, NJPW New Beginning in Osaka, PWG-Don't Sweat the Technique, Dragon Gate Dead or Alive, WWN Mercury Rising

Most Underrated: Manik

No matter where he goes he never seems to get a lot from the bookers. His charisma isn't great and TNA has saddled him with a bizarre gimmick, but every time he is in the ring it is obvious that he is one of the smoothest high-flyers in the world. He's had a lot of good matches for both TNA and World Wrestling Network this year and he has wrestled for pretty much every major wrestling organization besides WWE, yet he still flies under most fans radar.

Honorable Mention: Kofi Kingston, Matt Taven, Matt Sydal, Kenny Omega

Lastly, I'd like to mention a terrific piece on Dusty Rhodes that I read online the other day. Anyone that likes Dusty Rhodes, baseball and sports in general should take a look at this: https://sonsofsamhorn.com/baseball/a-good-old-fashioned-dusty-rhodes-cage-match/

You can follow Jesse Collings on Twitter @JesseCollings