Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

Welcome one and all to the Daveportivo Wrestling Awards! Before the show begins and we go through a plethora of awards I have to announce that sadly for the majority of awards ROH will not be elligable because I'm about six months behind on ROH and it would be unfair to use 2007 matches and feuds in consideration, plus does ROH really need more recognition from me? No, the answer is no. Let's Start the Show.

The first of award of the night is the much coverted MVP award. Before I announce the winner lets take a look at the nominees:

Kurt Angle: Kurt is without doubt the life and soul of TNA, he has carried TNA throughout 2008 on the mic and in ring. While he has been thoroughly undermined by the terrible writing and booking that plagues TNA, he always delivers even if what is asked of him is totally silly. While Joe and AJ are good, if you took Angle away from TNA the company would be in even more dire straights than they presently are. Look at the TNA match of the year list, take Kurt Angle out and its an even sorrier list. Kurt is literally risking his health and well being for Vince Russo and Jeff Jarrett's vision.

John Cena: Cena was shovelled lower down the card in 2008, losing clean to Orton, Triple H and then feuding and losing to JBL in a lower level fued, furthermore he was out injured for two months this year but regardless of all this what is abundantly clear is that John Cena is a draw. When Cena is away ratings and buyrates go down. He may not be my or anyones cup of tea but he is unbelievably valuable to WWE and remains there biggest assest.

Jeff Hardy: While I'm not a fan of Jeff Hardy he has certianly captured the "WWE universes" imagination this year. Jeff's quest for the title was undoubtably one of the biggest stories of the year. Jeff has also ascended to the status as the most over Babyface in the WWE, he doesn't get the overall reaction of Cena but Jeff avoids the boos. Jeff still has his problems violating the wellness policy caused him to miss Wrestlemania and is a big blot against his record. Jeff has improved in all aspect this year and finished his year with a world title win.

Edge: Another year another great year for Edge. He single handledly carried Smackdown until the draft and with Undertaker he had match of year contenders each and every PPV. His skits with Vicky were funny and while his feud ran long, TV is just markedly better when Edge is on screen. The major mark against Edge for MVP this year is him taking three months off to rest up.

And Your MVP is.....Chris Jericho: Jericho is without doubt this year's MVP. The slow burn feud with HBK as he went from cheesey face, to suspicious tweener to briliant heel carried WWE programing this year. It was quite simple the best acted fued in WWE history (obviously overacting by any other scale). Jericho's heel character is superb, from the way he wears his suit to the way he walks to the ring Jericho's performance has been sublime. He's a level above everyone else on promos, only Edge's pre summerslam work came close. He gave RAW the credible lead heel it desperately needed. Jericho has also become a true proffesional in the ring and has greatly tighten up his performances and wrestlers more credibly than at any other time in his career. Jericho turned into the perfect foil and people tune into to see John Cena kick Jericho's arse. If you disagree your just a sycophantic hypocrite!

Next up its your Match of the year award the nominees are:

McGuiness-Black (Respect is Earned II): This match was a tribute to McGuiness and a classic old school story of the underdog taking everything the darstadly heel had to offer and not staying down. A tremdous match with unbelievable nearfalls throughout and perfect execution.

The Royal Rumble: This years rumble was absolutely brilliant, Michaels and Taker were excellent and carried the first ten minutes, then the midcarders really showed off there athleticism, we got a trip down memory lane with Snuka-Piper and Triple H-Foley before an incredible suprise with the return of John Cena and an exciting conclusion, best of all there was minmal generic Rumble lifting.

Michaels-Jericho (No Mercy): This was one of my favorite ladder matches in recent years was brutal and intense, very creative with a superb finish. The best thing about this match was the absent of awkward moments and contrived sets ups the matched followed execellent, one of the most realistic ladder matches ever.

Joe-Angle (Lockdown): A brilliant match up that was crisply executed from start to finish. What made this match truely special was the quasi MMA match they worked, it was a brave decision to do this match as it could have ended in disaster but instead they created the most realistic wrestling match in history. It borrowed all the right aspects from MMA to make the mat wrestling realistic and made the actual wrestling moves doubly impact full.

Muscle Outlawz vs. Typhoon (Supercard of Honor): While it wasn't quite as good as the Dragon Gate effort from the year before this was just a notch away from perfection. These guys are so fast, so creative and so unbelievably crisp and reminder just how far ahead and revolutionary the Japanese athletes are.

And the Match Of The Year...Shawn Michaels-Ric Flair (Wrestlemania): This was just one of the all time greatest moments in wrestling history that will be remember long after every other match in this year is forgotten. This match was all about the story telling and pacing which was sublime, Ric did things in the ring a 60 should not be able to do (a flat back bump over the top rope!), he did mores we didn't think he was still capable of. The match just built and built and had the crowd going completely insane, they even had the audience thinking Ric might win, the finishing superkick with the "I'm Sorry, I Love You" was one of the best plotted out finishes in resent times. This was simply one of the classy matches in wrestling history, the greatest send off to the undisputed greatest of all time.

now on to the minor awards!

Worst Match of The Year: tie - Dutt-Lethal, Triple H-Koslov: On the one hand you have a dreadful 1970s house show match that had the crowd chanting boring and "we want Jeff!" from the get go against a match where two of the most talented athletes on the TNA roster were chained together negating there wrestling ability and on top of this were forced to rip each others clothes off to win! The crowd chanted "Fire Vusso" from the outset. I can't decided between these two they both sucked in totally different ways.

PPV of the Year: Wrestlemania 24: There were very good PPVs this year Summerslam, No Mercy, No Way Out and Royal Rumble really stood out but there simply wasn't a bigger spectacle than Wrestlemania, with the big star attractions, the huge outside venue, the great feeling of importance and to top it off FOUR match of the year contenders. Another year, another great mania, shame about Umaga-Bastista.

Worst PPV of the Year: Sacrifice: There were quite alot of candidates this year but a terrible tag team tournement and a lame main event made this a pathetic and utterly forgetable PPV, if you paid for this crap I feel sorry for you.

Feud Of The Year: Shawn Michaels-Chris Jericho: It wasn't a particularly memorable year for feuds but perhaps HBK-Jericho just overshadowed everything else. This was the slowest burning, most sutble, attention to detail fued, intense and dramatic feud wrestling has seen in along long time. By wrestling standards it was brilliantly acted, had many chapters and a plethora of brilliant match ups and it was worth paying attention to detail because the writers actually did and the wrestlers incorperated the multiphasic nature of the fued into there various match ups. Intense, brooding and created the most intriguing heel character WWE has seen in years.

Feud To Forget: Sonjay Dutt-Jay Lethal: It started okay, and feature two very good wrestlers and charismatic guys but unfortunately the writting was just so abysmal, I could rant for an hour but if you saw it, you know my pain.

Wrestler Of The Year: Kurt Angle: If I'd seen more of ROH Kurt likely wouldn't have won but as is Kurt is a worthy winner. 2008 is a tough year for this catagory as there has been some very good wrestling and wrestlers but everyone seems to have had limmited opponents, Shawn was wrestling Jericho almost every PPV, Ditto for Jericho, Edge wrestled Taker countless times, Jeff and Triple H didn't really reach top level consitantly, and Joe and Styles were booked into oblivion. Kurt had excellent matches with a wide range of oponnents Abyss, Jarrett, Styles and one tremendous match with Joe.

Worst Wrestler Of The Year: Candice Michelle: She's sub Lita and even sub Ashley, while she showed signs of improvement this year, she simply a danger to herself and others in the ring and should be kept away from it at all costs. Don't believe me, look up the footaged they editted out of Raw on her return, its daming.

Shock Moment Of The Year: John Cena Returns: Yes the majority of the wrestling world fell for the oldest trick in the book, the promoter adds two months onto an injury so they can suprise us with a return and furthermore it made Cena look impressive as if he came back early from a terrible injury. His return pushed this years RUmble over the edge.

Worst Moment of the Year: Triple H destroys the Titantron: There were so many this year, million dollar mania and the Khali kiss cam come to mind, especially the Mae Young kiss come to mind but honestly you kind of expect crap like that but Triple H destroy a massive image of Vince with a sledge hammer was stupid enough but what makes it so much worse was the fact that after he hit he ripped the thin screen random pyro went off, THREE TIMES!!!!

Baffling Decision of the Year: Gail Kim is not resigned by TNA: TNA get a chance to resign there biggest TV ratings draw and arguably one of their best wrestlers but no, even after she considers turning down WWE for TNA they refuse to pay her as much as KIP FUCKING JAMES!!! TNA should fire Matt Morgan, Kip James, BJ James, Shark Boy and Lance Hoyt to keep Kim. She's more valuable than Booker T at this stage.

More awards may be added in the coming days, but for now that's all folks.