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So, here we are again. It’s that time of the year when we look back at the previous calendar year —and in this case, the yearly tradition that is the Voices of Wrestling 2024 MOTY poll.
For the fourth year, I have had the honour of having a ballot to fill in and again I’ll say the following. It feels weird to be in the qualifying classification mandatory to be a voter for the VOW MOTY Poll as a member of the wrestling media, but as it's the fourth year I’ve been doing this, I probably need to stop feeling so weird about it. But enough spoilers about my next meeting with my therapist, let’s get into what we can learn from the 2024 Voices of Wrestling Match of the Year Poll.
1. It was Will Ospreay’s year again
(But will he win Observer WOTY again? and was he actually better in 24’ than in 23’?)
Surprise! Will Ospreay once again got the most matches into the Top 100, something he has done for the third year after his “wins” in 2019 and last year but this year statistically was better than 2019 and 2023. In fact the 11 matches Ospreay accumulated in this Top 100 is not only the first time that someone has totalled a double digit number into the Top 100 since AJ Styles’s 10 in 2015 but it is now the most matches any wrestler has put up in the 100 since the start of the list (when 100 matches were first listed) in 2014. As a side note, Ospreay wasn't even the only wrestler to beat AJ's 10 in '15— Bryan Danielson went to 11.
Last year, I made the case that the fact that Will had the most matches in the 100 would not only make him the prime candidate for Most Outstanding Wrestler, but also for the Flair / Thesz Award for Wrestler of the Year. This is based on the fact that seven of those who had the most entries in the 100 in the ten years of its existence have gone on to win Most Outstanding Wrestler.
And Will is probably going to make it 8 out of 11 but will he also repeat his WOTY win from last year?
Since 2014, five winners of Most Outstanding have won WOTY.
Of the five that didn't do the double — Shinsuke Nakamura in 2014, Chris Jericho in a 2019 which saw him fill the main event in AEW the year they were the biggest story in wrestling, Kenny Omega won in 2021 when he was having great matches galore in AEW, and Jon Moxley in 2020 and 2022 when Jon was pulling in top quarters in the most-watched Dynamites (along with Kenny Omega) in what was the most unusual year we will ever see in wrestling. In the former and in the latter, Mox was the calming force amongst the chaos surrounding him in AEW .
So which way does Flair / Thesz go in the Observer Awards? Does the flag bearer for WWE in what is — to quote Dave Meltzer — a “hot period” win in the shape of Cody Rhodes, or does Will Ospreay take it?
(I voted Will in my Observer Awards ballot.)
2- AEW was the best wrestling company in 2024
(I didn't say anything about being the best booked company)
Once again, AEW got the highest number of matches from a promotion in the 100 with 23, having the most matches in the list for the fifth consecutive year. So everything’s great in AEW land then, huh?
(Goes off to listen to wrestling podcasts for the rest of the day...)
Oh...
The fact is that AEW is not the company it was in 2021. Tony is losing his religion as a booker more and more with every week of AEW television that goes by, the amount of wrestlers that would be eligible for a wrestlers Seniors Tour wandering around is gathering more critics by the week and the main event may be at its weakest point since the inception of All Elite Wrestling. There are problems with AEW that need to be fixed. But when it comes to the bell to bell, the concern doesn’t need to be there.
With 7 out of the Top 10 being from AEW, the most since NJPW’s seven in 2017, with all seven of these matches being on PPV. It led to me being the curious person I am, so I aimed to find out how many matches made top 100 from the AEW weekly television shows in the 3 full calendar years that the company have been to put on shows without attendance restrictions:
With the caveat that in the last two years, AEW have increased their PPV output, the decrease in the numbers of matches from AEW TV that have been in the 100 in 2023 and 2024 from how many matches from Dynamite and Rampage in 2022 made the list tells you the story of how the lineal television product of All Elite Wrestling is not what it once was.
AEW might still be the best wrestling company in the world, but it is a different company than what it used to be — and not in a good way.
3- Predicting things actually isn’t hard
Last year in my critically acclaimed review of the 2023 VOW Match of the Year poll (Rich DM’d me to tell me that he liked it and then praised the piece to the high hills on the VOW Discord. I don't make the rules ok) I made some predictions to what the world of great wrestling matches would look like in 2023...
Danielson and Okada did get a Top Ten slot but not in my ballot. The Ospreay / AEW combination did produce record numbers. Okada / AEW did not —with Okada’s only entry into the 100 in duet with AEW being the Wembley Casino Gauntlet Match.
NJPW didn't struggle as such but their 14 entries in the Top 100 is the lowest in the history of Voices of Wrestling's MOTY poll. So maybe that actually counts as struggling.
WWE were WWE in the ring (as I talk about later) but the out of the ring scandal didn't hit as predicted thanks to a media that seems happy to look away from what is going on and Stardom in fact didn't have 7 matches in the list, they had three.
But that doesn’t tell the story of women’s wrestling and specifically joshi in 2024 according to the VOW MOTY Poll.
4- Women’s wrestling got its groove back
(And Sareee was the women of the hour)
After last year’s lull in women’s wrestling with their low total of 14 by previous years standards, 2024 was a return to form and then some with a total of 20 women’s matches on the main list equalling the amount of 20 from 2022, a year that is seen by many as one of the glory years of women’s wrestling but these two years are very different when you look at the details.
While Stardom dominated the proceedings on behalf of women’s wrestling with 50% of the 20 women’s matches listed in the 2022 list with women’s matches from eight different promotions in the 20, 2024 saw 11 different promotions representing the women’s game with eight joshi companies represented in the Top 100.
AEW got 3 matches compared to the solitary one in 2022. Not bad for a company that has only one quarter a show dedicated to women’s wrestling. That three is the most from an American company in 2024.
But in Japan, the top Joshi companies with four each were Stardom and TJPW, a high for Tokyo Joshi. With Stardom rebuilding after the departure of Rossy Ogawa to set up Marigold (2 matches from them) it has given the chance for others in the world of Joshi to show themselves off.
Seadlinnng, Sendai and AWG got entries, as did Oz Academy, which makes this writer (who has Mayumi Ozaki as his all-time crush) very happy, but it’s the set-up called Saree-ism — which for some reason Cagematch and VOW have misspelled as Freelance — and its owner that caught the attention in women’s wrestling.
Sareee was the women’s wrestler with the most matches in the 100 with five. Sareee’s non-exclusivity meant that she would travel the Joshi world with four different companies being in the five matches from Sareee’s output in the 100. Sareee simply put is the Women’s MVP for 2024.
So why am I concerned that the Observer Awards and its voters give the Women’s MVP award to Rhea Ripley then?
If this happens, expect a thousand words on it in my Observer Awards column on Musings later in February.
5- Daveflation is a thing
(No need to check my notes on this)
First off, I’m aware that Dave Meltzer’s star ratings actually don’t matter. They are one person’s opinion which somehow got out of control and has got into the wrestling discourse as something important and yes, I’m aware that I write about such star ratings but hey, it gets people to like me, so…..
But one of things that is a hot talking point from people that assess wrestling is that Daveflation is a thing. Daveflation is the idea that in 2025, Meltzer is rating matches higher than the general consensus. The fact that 2024 saw the equal most *****+ matches given out in a calendar year when we’ve all seen the output wrestling has given us in the previous year is a very good indicator of Daveflation existing and when you look at where Dave’s maximum+ matches slot in compared to the years before, it tells a story.
Without wanting to sound like a co-host of a Conrad Thompson podcast, the idea that people take the Meltzer star ratings seriously enough on a Friday is preposterous when Dave’s critical analysis radar is set on lenient these days.
Considering the turn that people who had success in wrestling in the 80s and 90s have had at the sight of a successful wrestling company that has an evolving style, seeing a journalist who came to prominence in the same time as Jim Cornette and Dutch Mantell be enthusiastic towards the changing landscape of one of the surviving functional creative industries around is great but when you look at the gap widening between the consumer and said journo in what they perceive to be 5/5 matches then you just look at it and chuckle.
6- Cagematch and VOW agreed on the whole
(Except on matters NXT)
The winner this year was Bryan Danielson vs Will Ospreay at Dynasty. Hardly a surprise when you look at the history of the winner of the VOW MOTY.
But what when you look at the Top 10 and even further down the agreement between the people that rate matches on Cagematch and the VOW voters is there to see.
7 of the Top Ten in the MOTY poll from Voices concurs with the Top Ten rated matches from Cagematch for 2024 with Swerve / Hangman’s Cage Match (26th) and Ospreay / Swerve (13th) and Danielson / Okada (which was 11th at writing but in the Top Ten on publishing day for the MOTY list on Jan 31st) falling outside CM’s Top Ten and Iwatani / Sareee (18th) Chihiro Hashimoto and VENY versus Mayu Iwatani and Sareee (12th) and PAC vs Ospreay (13th) the three from Cagematch's Top Ten falling outside the Top Ten from VOW.
The interesting discrepancies come down the list and not that further down. In 11th, the Mad Dog Connelly vs Demus Dog Collar Chain Match was a surprise inclusion that high in the list even if it is a celebration of indie wrestling and brilliance of brawling. Its 8.05 on Cagematch makes it the second highest ranked Mad Dog DCC match in 2024 behind his match with One Called Manders on 26 January 2024 which is on 8.07 as of Feb 1st. The fact that since 2017, only two matches have got into a VOW Top Ten with a Cagematch rating under 9.00 (with those matches also being bloody brawls) tells what a surprise it actually was in going against the trend.
“Promotions” wise, the biggest difference of opinion between VOW and CM was on NXT. With one match from the Orlando branch of WWE in the 100 with Oba Femi (didn’t he score the winner in the League Cup Final for Birmingham City?) vs Dijak (I don’t watch NXT but judging from his effort when I saw him live at the Rev Pro show at the Copper Box, Dijak being in this list is very funny to me) vs Josh Briggs (whose name sounds like a driver in the NASCAR ARCA series who caused caution number seven on Lap 30 of the Daytona race) at No.69 (do I have say nice?) with the Top 100 on Cagematch for 2024 having four matches from NXT.
The Ethan Page v Je’von Evans v Shawn Spears v Trick Williams match that 8.89 on cagematch with a 35th place on CM (and a ****½ rating from Big Dave), Fraxiom vs Chase Academy (also 8.89, 36th and ****½) and Dragunov vs Trick (8.88, 38th and ****) didn't get a single vote to even put them in Sadness Village where the matches that got a vote yet did not make the Top 100 ended up.
It kinda feels that NXT fans spend way too much time on Cagematch and that’s saying something from me.
While other matches on the list outkicked their coverage compared to their Cagematch numbers, one match overachieved in this MOTY poll more than the others.
7– The winner of the Punk / Joe award was?
The most talked about section from my write-up on the Voices of Wrestling MOTY poll last year was my critical analysis of the CM Punk / Samoa Joe match at All In 2023. It’s essentially a couple of paragraphs of me going “why was this match 27th ahead of Ishii / Jacobs at the Copperbox”.
And when I say “most talked about” I mean PunkAnon getting into my DM’s on twitter.
My opinion on this match hasn’t changed. It was a 3.5 special with Joe dragging Punk kicking and screaming to that number but opinions are what they are. Everyone has one and everyone thinks they are correct in theirs.
But as I was scrolling through the chapters counting down the list, I thought to myself which match was the most 3.5 starry match of the Top 100. Step forward, Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness.
As someone who did really enjoy the tale of Danielson and McGuinness in ROH at the time. The idea of relitigating a feud from an indy (albeit one of the most prosperous ones ever) in 2006-08 onto a major wrestling company was a choice.
To say that Danielson / McGuinness X didn’t live up to the three matches in their legendary series that got 9.50+ on Cagematch is an understatement. With a large percentage of the match played out to a silence that Taylor Fritz could only dream off when he plays on Arthur Ashe, the match is technically fine, actually it’s more than fine but the passion shown by Nigel in the weeks beforehand and especially the Collision before isn’t there when the bell rings.
A really fun exchange in the corner gets this match to a ***¾ but 56th in the list ahead of the likes Gabe vs Henare and Zozaya vs Slater’s Ironman match is baffling for me.
8- WWE isn’t a wrestling company
It's hardly breaking news that WWE isn't a wrestling company. It hasn't been that way for two decades (was the last year that WWE was a wrestling company 2002?) but why does it feel that I need to notify you of that fact now.
There was a feeling when Vince McMahon was exposed as the sex pest that he is and Paul Levesque took the helm as CCO (or head booker in normal language) there was a belief from some that we would get a refined version Black and Gold NXT.
That hasn't happened.
Through the “cinemifaction” of WWE and the downsizing of PLE cards (can't fill those buckets up) the in-ring aspect of WWE and it's relevance to the canon of WWE has actually decreased and in the VOW Poll, that fact is even fully testified with the lowly number of 4 matches in the Top 100 (5 if you insist that NXT isn’t a separate promotion to WWE), a number that is only lower in the abomination to the concept of wrestling that was WWE's 2019.
I might as well talk about the elephant in the room regarding WWE and Voices of Wrestling. In a world where a lot of wrestling media outlets gives the company based in Stamford, to put kindly, the benefit of the doubt, Voices of Wrestling don't. Joe and Rich’s reviews are critical of the product. They don't vibe with the current WWE (rightly so) and you can say that with the electorate as well. So that makes the fact that 2 matches from WWE make the Top 12 of this list interesting.
It’s the first time that two WWE main roster matches have made the top fifteen of the poll since 2017. But while #10 and #12, Cena vs Styles and Styles vs Lesnar respectively were interesting and worthy inclusions into the conversation for that years Top 15, Punk vs McIntyre (9th) and Cody vs Roman (15th) actually weren’t.
Cody / Roman II was the most modern day WWE being a modern day WWE match of all time. It was a MCU movie in a squared circle. It was an amalgamation of moments with the final one satisfying the audience it was primed for but just like a modern MCU movie (except Guardians 3. I cried twice during that ok) unless you’re having your life defined by that franchise it just left you cold and not in tears.
Being 1 point ahead of the Hangman / Swerve Cage Match, the similarities between both Hangman / Swerve and Punk / McIntyre in the Hell In A Cell from a promotional aspect is very much there to see. The promise of violence, the deliverance of that violence and the opposing team ripping it to shreds. So read me ripping Punk / McIntyre to shreds.
To be fair, I gave that HIAC match 4.25 stars, it’s the best male singles HIAC match since Triple H / Batista in 2005 that didn't involve Cody Rhodes but it’s not even in my Top 50 for the year. If the overlying sentiment after a match is to shout “oh my god, I saw blood” like someone from Hartlepool seeing a plane for the first time in their lives then maybe it actually isn’t a Top 10 match of the year.
Even when you read the writes up for both the HIAC and Lights Out Cage Match, the difference between the two matches in execution is obvious. The violence in the HIAC was really aimed to satisfy a lapsed fan, the violence in the Lights Out match was there to satisfy those who invested in the Hangman / Swerve feud.
I would also talk about the fact that many adjacent to the F4Wonline Empire voted for both the WWE matches but a) I have a word count limit and b) writing about it in depth will just make me worry more that Sareee won’t win Women’s MVP....
Sareee isn’t winning Women’s MVP is she?
Also, do I need to admit that I had Hangman / Swerve in my ballot until I watched Chihiro Hashimoto vs Sareee and put that match in instead?
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