Professional wrestling gave us so much to be pleased about in 2024. WWE continued to ship “cinema” with partaking storytelling, whereas AEW has masterfully offered motion inside the squared circle.
We noticed Cody Rhodes lastly end the story at WrestleMania 40, the gorgeous in-ring return of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, a number of entertaining feuds and a brand new champion emerge with Gunther within the WWE. In AEW, Bryan Danielson’s storied profession ended, Swerve Strickland cemented himself as an authorized star and Will Ospreay turned in arguably the perfect in-ring yr within the historical past of the enterprise.
With a lot to chew on this yr, deciding the perfect performers and performances of 2024 was no simple activity. The competitors was fierce throughout the board with few clear-cut winners. Has anybody completed sufficient to usurp MJF from his perch as the perfect promo artist within the business? Rhodes could have completed the story, however Ospreay and Gunther made compelling circumstances to be topped as males’s wrestler of the yr. Rhea Ripley spent a lot of the yr on the shelf with an harm, leaving room for a brand new lady to be topped as wrestler of the yr. And whereas Ospreay has proved himself as a generational expertise, the match of the yr class was jam-packed with worthy competitors from the brutal Hell in a Cell match involving CM Punk and Drew McIntyre and Hangman Page’s ultraviolent unsanctioned lights-out metal cage match with Strickland.
We gathered 13 marks to crown the winners of ESPN’s 2024 professional wrestling awards. Andreas Hale, Arda Ocal and Brandon Caldwell present evaluation on every winner.
Women’s wrestler of the yr: Roxanne Perez and Toni Storm (tie)
NXT has probably the most numerous girls’s roster in North American wrestling, and Roxanne Perez is its anchor. Her Raw debut, the evening after WrestleMania 40, showcased how vibrant her future is, however in 2024, she reminded NXT who’s the ultimate boss of the ladies’s division. “The Prodigy” welcomed all challengers after regaining the NXT girls’s championship at NXT Stand & Deliver vs. Lyra Valkyria. Perez confronted newcomers Giulia and TNA star Jordynne Grace and potential future champions Lola Vice and Jaida Parker.
Why she shares this honor with AEW’s Toni Storm is sort of clear. Storm and Perez signify top-level expertise, placing a division on their backs and carrying it to new heights. Storm’s “Timeless” gimmick helped elevate the Aussie wrestler to a different degree. Her record-tying third reign as AEW girls’s champion was her finest, completely capturing the essence of a paranoid but hilarious Golden Age Hollywood-era starlet with attention-grabbing feuds and matches. Storm raised the profiles of everybody round her, together with former understudy and present AEW girls’s champion Mariah May. 2025 can be a possibility for each to evolve, for Perez to face a brand new problem maybe and for Storm to see a brand new wrinkle within the feud with May. — Caldwell
Men’s wrestler of the yr: Gunther
Gunther’s rise in 2024 went precisely how WWE followers would have drawn it up. He lastly misplaced the Intercontinental title, however quickly grew to become the world heavyweight champion. His match in opposition to Sami Zayn was probably the greatest at WrestleMania 40, then 4 months later, “The Ring General” raised gold once more at SummerSlam after defeating Damian Priest.
Gunther has spent over half of his WWE profession holding a championship. Recently, although, some followers have requested for a extra engaging wrinkle in his persona or an attention-grabbing storyline to dive into. (Will Ludwig Kaiser be the one to problem him at WrestleMania 41?) The Austrian sensation is a fan favourite, and lots of followers imagine he is the one lively wrestler who may achieve any period. If Gunther retains the world heavyweight title all year long, he may win this award once more in 2025. — Ocal
Tag crew of the yr: Fraxiom (Nathan Frazer and Axiom)
Tag crew wrestling was in a wierd place in 2024. There had been many title adjustments throughout each promotion and the general feeling was that tag groups had been deemphasized for one more yr. Still, the one pair that remained constant was the unlikely duo of Nathan Frazer and Axiom, who held the NXT tag crew title for a lot of the yr.
After capturing the championship in April, the 2 have navigated chemistry points whereas making a number of profitable title defenses with their high-flying assault. They briefly dropped the title in July however reclaimed it 19 days later and have held on whereas holding viewers engaged with their endless internal turmoil. The spotlight of their present title reign was an excellent showdown with Myles Borne and Tavion Heights. The match exceeded expectations because the duo once more overcame what gave the impression to be self-destruction to stay champions. Few followers would have anticipated Fraxiom to be probably the most entertaining tag crew getting into 2024. Between their grip on the title and their storyline drama, they’re going to enter 2025 as one of the intriguing tales in NXT. — Hale
Debut wrestler of the yr: Jacob Fatu
Solo Sikoa‘s Bloodline 2.0 was on the verge of changing into a legit faction by including the Guerillas of Destiny, Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa, weeks after WrestleMania 40. Fatu’s arrival on SmackDown on June 21, destroying Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton and Kevin Owens by himself, solidified him as a professional star.
Fatu’s emergence instantly put him in rarefied air as a competitor. He has off-the-charts athleticism and a magnetic persona that make him must-see TV. He’s such a plausible talker on the mic — each risk hits with fireplace and condemnation. Projecting titles and WrestleMania most important occasions for Bloodline 2.0’s enforcer does not really feel too early. Fans constantly ask for extra of the “Samoan Werewolf” as a result of his measurement, depth and charisma. Solo Sikoa’s most loyal devotee did not simply develop into a breakout star in 2024; he grew to become a made man. — Caldwell
Breakthrough wrestler of the yr: Swerve Strickland
Strickland leveled up greater than every other wrestler this yr. He gained his first world title, claiming the AEW World Championship in April. And his long-standing feud with Adam Page stands out as the biggest feud in AEW historical past. This story has been on level. The hatred burns sizzling, and every match has gotten higher — and extra violent — than the final. Both wrestlers have elevated after interacting with one another for such a very long time, however Strickland, particularly, has develop into a star. — Ocal
Best promo artist: Drew McIntyre
There was a time when speaking on the mic was removed from Drew McIntyre’s power, however after an distinctive heel run in 2024, he emerged as the perfect promo artist within the enterprise. “The Scottish Psychopath” has reached new heights with a brooding combination of truth-telling and delusion. His declare to this yr’s award was punctuated when he stood toe-to-toe with arguably probably the greatest to ever contact a microphone, CM Punk. Not solely did McIntyre grasp with “The Voice of the Voiceless,” he usually bested his counterpart in verbal jousting. His seamless capacity to mix fiction with actuality — alongside along with his diabolical use of social media — has made him must-see TV. If you want additional validation, try McIntyre’s look on Sirius XM’s “Busted Open,” the place he navigated by way of a number of feelings that left followers questioning the place the story stopped and actuality began. — Hale
Match of the yr: Will Ospreay vs. Bryan Danielson, AEW Dynasty
The finest wrestler on the earth vs. the perfect wrestler of his technology. Bryan Danielson knew 2024 could be his closing yr as a full-time wrestler, and he got down to have matches with everybody attainable. Each Danielson match has aptitude, cues and rises, however none had been higher than his bout with Will Ospreay at AEW Dynasty in April. Ospreay’s first yr as a full-time AEW performer will go down as probably the greatest in-ring years by any wrestler, however for one evening in St. Louis, he was the perfect within the enterprise. For half-hour, Ospreay and Danielson threw every thing from chain submissions to onerous strikes at each other. At one level, the group even chanted, “We’re undeserving,” through the match.
The closing 5 minutes of the match felt like a western, with Ospreay beating Danielson to the punch after one closing stalemate, delivering a Tiger Driver 97 and one closing Hidden Blade to beat “The American Dragon.” A blood feud did not deliver Danielson and Ospreay collectively — it was their supreme perception in who was higher. Although Danielson is not competing full-time, he gave followers yet another traditional on his method out. — Caldwell
Best PPV/PLE occasion of the yr: WrestleMania 40
For the second straight yr, WrestleMania tops this checklist. The two-night occasion already has sky-high expectations from wrestling followers yearly, however WrestleMania 40 not solely delivered, it far exceeded expectations.
Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns grew to become the primary pair to most important occasion each nights of the identical WrestleMania, which appears poetic given what they’ve meant — and can proceed to imply — to the corporate. The Rock pinning Rhodes to finish Night 1 left the door open for a future most important occasion. And Rhodes profitable the WWE Undisputed Universal championship on Night 2 to “end the story” was a cathartic second for wrestling followers who insisted on having their voices heard when the WWE’s plan seemingly modified. The closing 5 minutes of the match completely encapsulated how wrestling will be the final word curler coaster of feelings. Drew McIntyre gained the world title after a terrific match with Seth Rollins, solely to have it ripped away from him after a Money within the Bank cash-in from Damian Priest. Bayley and Iyo Sky tore the home down with their WWE girls’s title match. The manufacturing high quality was a few of WWE’s best work, and that is saying one thing. — Ocal
Best feud/storyline of the yr: CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre
The finest feud of 2024 was the one which no one noticed coming. Entering the yr, it appeared that CM Punk was on a collision course with Seth Rollins for a extremely anticipated feud, anticipated to culminate at WrestleMania. However, a real-life harm suffered by Punk within the Royal Rumble shuttered these plans. Instead, it led to a vitriolic feud between McIntyre and Punk that was white sizzling regardless of their incapacity to have a match. Scathing disses had been exchanged in quite a few exchanges, and social media grew to become simply as essential to their feud as what transpired on tv. Although Punk has been recognized for his brilliance on the microphone, McIntyre greater than held his personal in opposition to the “Best within the World.” After Punk price McIntyre the world heavyweight championship at WrestleMania 40, the 2 engaged in a brutal trio of matches. Their Hell in a Cell match at Bad Blood was a contender for match of the yr. There’s no query that this was probably the most compelling storyline in skilled wrestling. — Hale
