Table of contents for April 2019 in Pro Wrestling Illustrated

I WASN’T GOING to report this private conversation, but I feel ethically compelled to do so. Once word spread on social media that we were planning to put the Woman of the Year, Becky Lynch, on the cover of this issue, I received a call from Saudi Arabia’s General Sports Authority’s chairman asking that we reconsider. “From what we understand, you always put the Wrestler of the Year on your cover,” said Turki bin Abdel Muhsin Al-Asheikh. “We understand the West’s feelings about female professional athletes, and we respect Miss Lynch’s talents and abilities, but isn’t it more appropriate to put a man on the cover?” I have to admit that I was confused when I noted the caller ID on my phone. I had no idea who was calling…

THE STAKES were high. Ronda Rousey—the former UFC champion and Olympic medalist—would be making her pro wrestling debut in a marquee match on the biggest stage of all: WrestleMania. Everyone knew that Rousey had the athletic credentials to become a WWE Superstar, but she had never competed in front of 78,000 rabid fans, and millions more watching on the WWE Network. The world was watching … and “Rowdy” Ronda delivered in a big way. Wrestling Observer Newsletter publisher Dave Meltzer gave the mixed tag team match pitting Rousey and Kurt Angle against Triple H and Stephanie McMahon 4.25 stars, his highest-rated match of WrestleMania 34. Even opinionated curmudgeon and historian Jim Cornette conceded it was “the best debut match ever” on The Jim Cornette Experience podcast. But as impressive as…

ON FEBRUARY 8, 2016, Daniel Bryan stepped into the ring in Seattle, Washington, and delivered one of the most heartfelt and poignant retirement speeches in wrestling history. “I took a test that said that maybe my brain isn’t as okay as I thought it was,” he admitted. By his own count, Bryan had suffered at least 10 concussions throughout his wrestling career. He had experienced seizures and a lesion was found on his brain. The doctors pulled the plug. He was declared physically unable to compete. But wrestling had been Bryan’s passion since high school and he wasn’t going to give up on his dream career without a fight. He sought out more doctors, looking for second, third, and fourth opinions. He underwent a variety of tests and evaluations. In…

WITH NEARLY one-third of the vote, AJ Styles won Most Popular Wrestler of the Year for the second consecutive year. Throughout 2018, Styles was a fighting champion who conducted himself with honor and class. He was a steady competitor during a year that saw several other beloved stars turn their backs on the fans. The 2016 Most Popular award winner, Shinsuke Nakamura, shockingly turned on Styles after their battle at WrestleMania 34. Dean Ambrose, who won the Most Popular honors in 2014 and 2015, turned heel in October, attacking Seth Rollins the very night their Shield partner, Roman Reigns, announced he had leukemia. The 2013 Most Popular winner, Daniel Bryan, made a rulebreaking turn in November (also in a match against Styles) just as the Achievement Awards voting period opened.…

WITH ONE-QUARTER of the total votes cast, the Brothers Jackson beat out The New Day to win Tag Team of the Year for the second consecutive year. The New Day (who, ironically, squared off against The Bucks in a video game challenge at the E3 Expo in June) won Tag Team of the Year honors in 2015 and 2016, with The Young Bucks taking the top runner-up spot both years. This year, the roles are reversed with The New Day serving as runners-up to The Young Bucks. Any way you look at it, The Bucks and The New Day have been wrestling’s top tandems for the past few years. But while The New Day seems to be cooling off a bit, The Bucks are hotter than ever. In 2018, The…

STU SAKS [PUBLISHER] I never truly believed Roman Reigns when he insisted that the outward show of contempt by the fans didn’t bother him. “As long as I get a reaction, I’m doing my job.” If his job was to inspire a hateful response, fine. It wasn’t. If WWE was looking for a man to succeed John Cena, in that sense they found him. But Reigns has feelings, and no one can tell me those feelings were not hurt by the way the paying customers reacted to him. Those customers at Providence, Rhode Island’s Dunkin’ Donuts Center proved to me on October 22 that their derision wasn’t really aimed at Reigns, but at the process that eased him to the top. They were stunned by Reigns’ announcement that he was…

ROMAN REIGNS has been a polarizing figure, but the entire wrestling world rallied to his side after he announced in October that he was once again fighting leukemia. The October 22 edition of Raw began as it often did, with WWE Universal champion Reigns coming to the ring and addressing the fans. However, it didn’t take long to realize that this wasn’t a standard, run-of-the-mill wrestling promo. “My real name is Joe, and I’ve been living with leukemia for 11 years,” Reigns (real name Joseph Anoa’i) announced. “And, unfortunately, it’s back.” Reigns said that he was vacating the championship and stepping away from wrestling to concentrate on his health. The announcement came as a surprise to all but Reigns’ closest friends and family. The fact that he had even been…

THE MAN is the 2018 Woman of the Year. Becky Lynch barely beat out her archrival Ronda Rousey to win the honor for the first time. A number of factors helped “The Lass-Kicker” win this award. First of all, after a lackluster first half of the year, she hit her stride toward the tail end of 2018, winning the Smackdown Women’s title at Hell in a Cell in September. She was in championship form as the voting period opened in November. She was also “snubbed” (in the words of several of our respondents) in the 2018 “Women’s 100,” earning a ranking of 11, while her Raw championship counterpart, Ronda Rousey, was named number one. A legion of rankled Lynch fans made sure to cast their votes in her favor to…

WANT A sure-fire way to wear out your welcome in the wrestling world? Easy. Just maintain a stranglehold on one of the most prestigious championships and refuse to defend it. Brock Lesnar’s first Universal title reign lasted a record-setting 504 days (from April 2017 through August 2018). That certainly sounds impressive. It’s a bit less impressive when you consider Lesnar made only 17 title defenses during that time (nine of which were untelevised house shows). Ever since his WWE comeback in 2012, it has been obvious that Lesnar plays by his own set of rules. The traditional 30-day title defense rule—once one of the most venerated and respected rules in the game—was tossed out the window. Lesnar wrestled when he wanted to wrestle, title or no title. This year, Lesnar…

WITH 46 percent of the vote, AJ Styles cruised to his third Wrestler of the Year award, becoming the first wrestler to win the coveted honor in three consecutive years since Ric Flair accomplished the Herculean task in 1984-1986. Only Flair (WOTY 1981, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1992), Hulk Hogan (1987, 1991, 1994), and Steve Austin (1998, 1999, 2001) have managed to win Wrestler of the Year three times or more, placing AJ in some serious Hall-of-Fame caliber company. Styles reigned as WWE champion from November 7, 2017, until November 13, 2018, a remarkable 371-day span that tied Randy Savage’s 1988-1989 run as the eighth-longest WWE title reign ever. During that time, Styles successfully defended his title against an impressive and diverse array of opponents, including Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura,…

Alabama Doink the Clown Charles Anschutz Jr. Frank Anderson Arkangel de la Muerte Johnny Attitude Motoko Baba Hombre Bala Black Silver Jr. Lana Blaze Marcial Bovee Brickhouse Brown Nick Busick Tracy Caddell Matt Cappotelli Chris Champion As Charro Brian Christopher Willie Clay Ed Cohen Zach Crow Doc Dean Devil Rocker Dynamite Kid Troy Eaton El Egipcio E-Money Manny Escobar Falcon De Oro Mt. Fiji Virgil Flynn Walt Harris Tor Hart Nate Hatred Gerald Hebert Larry Hennig Mike Hogewood Leroy Howard Jim Jamieson Don Leo Jonathan Paul Jones Ben Justice Joe Kaos Paula Kaye Mike Kelly Buddha Khan Rob Kincaid Aya Koyama Tim Lawler Boris Levinsky Jose Lothario Reginald Love Neff Maiava Thomas Marlin Larry Matysik Scotty McKeever Johnny Mercedes Bull Miller Piratita Morgan Thunder Morgan Nate the Rat Jim Neidhart…

  SEND LETTERS TO:BETWEEN FALLS Box 96Ft. Washington, PA 19034Or you can e-mail your comments to prowrestlingillustrated@yahoo.com PRO WRESTLING ILLUSTRATED welcomes readers' comments on any of our stories or columns. WOMEN’S 100 Pro Wrestling Illustrated was under attack the moment the news came out that Ronda Rousey was selected number-one in the “Women’s 100” and Becky Lynch came in at number 11. Part of the anger can be attributed to the fact that Lynch was scalding hot at the time the issue was released digitally in November. People didn’t seem to understand that she had achieved the bulk of her success for the year within the last few weeks of our period of evaluation and afterward. In fact, we were the victims of poor timing in several instances in the February…

THE FANS HAVE spoken, the votes have been counted, and the 2018 Achievement Awards are official. The wrestling landscape has changed considerably since the very first Achievement Awards appeared in the pages of the Victory Sports Series Wrestling Annual And Yearbook in 1972. Back in those days, who could have predicted that one promotion could become a multibillion-dollar “sports entertainment” empire? Certainly, no one foresaw the day when the Girl Wrestler of the Year (as the award was unfortunately named then) Marie La-Verne would beat out Wrestler of the Year Pedro Morales for the cover of the magazine. To borrow WWE’s term, wrestling has evolved, and the PWI Achievement Awards have evolved along with it. The 11 Achievement Awards are decided entirely by fan ballot. Because they are not awarded…

WHEN THE Velveteen Dream turned up in NXT in the spring of 2017, fan reaction could be described as a combination of intrigue and bemusement. NXT fans had previously seen him compete under the much less ostentatious name Patrick Clark. He was an undercard competitor and former Tough Enough contestant with few wins to his name. Now with a violet makeover, a flashy name, and apparently a closet full of Prince’s old togs, Clark had the sizzle … but what about the steak? The Dream began to collect a few more wins, but he was still more known for his elaborate ring entrances and promos than his in-ring abilities. But Dream showed continuous improvement, demonstrating his toughness in losses to Aleister Black and Johnny Gargano. At TakeOver: Philadelphia, he scored…

ONCE UPON a time, Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa were the closest of friends, two indy darlings clawing and scratching their way to make it in the wrestling business. They debuted in NXT in 2015 as an unsigned team competing in the Dusty Rhodes Classic and managed to win over the fans at Full Sail University with their Do It Yourself ethos. They both signed WWE deals in 2016 and set out to capture the NXT tag title. At NXT TakeOver: Toronto, they defeated The Revival in an electric best-of-three falls bout to capture championship gold. Ciampa was a groomsman in Gargano’s wedding. For a time, he lived with his tag partner and his wife, Candice. Their friendship—their partnership—was real. But something happened to Ciampa as he sat on the…

FOR THE third time in the history of the Achievement Awards, the Match of the Year is a rematch from the previous year’s Match of the Year winner. This year’s MOTY saw Kenny Omega finally score that elusive title win over Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP heavyweight championship at Dominion in Osaka, Japan. Omega had failed to unseat Okada at Wrestle Kingdom 11 (2017’s Match of the Year) and at Dominion 2017 (a time-limit draw). The Dominion 2018 match was set as a best-of-three falls bout with no time limit. Omega rocked Okada with a series of V Trigger running kneestrikes, while Okada connected with a devastating Tombstone Piledriver on the ring apron. Both men jockeyed for their finisher of choice, with Okada attempting the Rainmaker lariat and Omega trying…

LOOKING AT the year 2018 in wrestling, Antonio Inoki’s influence is impossible to ignore. The founder of New Japan Pro Wrestling and one of the early proponents of what has come to be known as mixed martial arts competition, Inoki is the recipient of this year’s Stanley Weston Award. Named after the founder of Pro Wrestling Illustrated, the Stanley Weston Award, given annually by the editors, recognizes a lifetime of achievement. Born in Yokohama, Japan, on February 20, 1943, Inoki grew up in a nation that was struggling to rebuild following its losses during World War II. As a boy, he took up karate and basketball before discovering track and field in junior high school. In 1957, Inoki and his family emigrated to Brazil, where he won regional championships in…

2019 NEXT BIG THING: “Switchblade” Jay White —Gilles Sauvageau PAKUASHIPI, QC 2019 WILL BE HIS YEAR: Finn Balor —Adam Miller ABOUT TIME AWARD: A woman on commentary —Matthew Rooy IONIA, MI ALMOST AS ANNOYING AS THE KARDASHIANS: The Bella Twins —Jimmy Nance ASHEBORO, NC ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL EACH OTHER, OR YOURSELVES?: Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa’s feud —Scott Awtrey DALLAS, TX AT LEAST SHE’S NOT AS ANNOYING AS VICKIE GUERRERO: Alexa Bliss as Raw general manager —Jarrod Wilkerson GREENSBORO, NC BAD THINGS DO COME IN THREES: Brickhouse Brown, Nikolai Volkoff, And Brian Christopher die on the same day —Dave Whitaker DANVILLE, GA BAD TIMING AWARD: To WWE for turning Dean Ambrose heel on the night Roman Reigns vacated the Universal championship —Chris King BOONE, IA BEST FOR BUSINESS:…

Top 10 and Tag Team ratings are based on won-lost records for the past month, quality of opposition, and inherent skill of each wrestler or tag team. These ratings are compiled by a committee consisting of Stu Saks, Dan Murphy, Kris Zellner, Harry Burkett, Louie Dee, and STRIGGA (cagematch.net, purolove.com). The numbers in parentheses indicate a wrestler’s position in that category last issue. Agate-sized ratings are supplied to PWI by promoters and can be e-mailed to us at pwiresults@yahoo.com (please put the word “ratings” in the subject line). TOP 10 1 DANIEL BRYAN 210, Aberdeen, WA (–) WWE heavyweight champion 2 JAY LETHAL 225, Elizabeth, NJ (6) ROH heavyweight champion 3 KENNY OMEGA 228, Winnipeg, MB (3) IWGP heavyweight champion 4 SHINSUKE NAKAMURA 229, Kyoto, Japan (9) WWE U.S. champion 5 DEAN AMBROSE 225, Cincinnati, OH (–)…