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The
Fourth Annual Christopher J. Garcia Awards
For Outstanding Achievement in the Field of
Wrestling Excellence...
01-03-06
This year was
a rough one. It was looking like it was going to be one
of the easier years on wrestling until November. Then the
world flipped. The early portion of the year saw the WWE
build to a strong Royal Rumble and WrestleMania, then blow
it out of the water with ECW: One Night Only. While the
product wasn’t hot and the transfer from the ECW PPV
never really reached the rest of the product, I could easily
say that the first six months of the year were solid, if
only rarely spectacular.
The
summer of 2005 was rough. The entire promotion took a turn
for the worse and the only real bright spot was SummerSlam
with its Hogan vs. Michaels match-up. That was followed
by much trouble.
When
the WWE solidified the deal that brought them back to the
USA Network, they started releasing various wrestlers and
valets, including folks like Jacky Gayda, Dawn Marie, Charlie
Haas and, though not a budget cut, Jim Cornette.
The
Company was low on talent and even brought back a few folks
who had been let go to work the lower card, including Paul
London. The most interesting re-hire had to be Matt Hardy,
who was fired after complaining about Edge sleeping with
Lita, his real-life girlfriend. They made an angle of it
and it was briefly the hottest in wrestling, though it was
let go of far too quickly and with Hardy getting the weaker
end of it.
After the WWE
left SpikeTV, TNA and UFC came up to very good numbers.
UFC dominated Spike’s programming and did well all-year
long, especially for their The Ultimate Fighter shows. They
even managed to build a few new names that will be figuring
strongly in 2006 and beyond. The additions of Ken Shamrock
and Tito Ortiz will also help bring TUF III to a new level.
TNA
did well. In fact, they had enough momentum to score their
highest rating ever on Christmas Eve, a night when the WWE
has always struggled. TNA put out a series of DVDs which
have done well, and have built a few new big names. AJ Styles,
Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe are all recognized as
stars and are easily the most over characters on TNA’s
TV and PPVs.
Despite
that popularity, it is Jeff Jarrett and his cadre that remains
the most significant group in TNA. Jarret won the NWA World
Title a few times, first from Raven (who took it from Styles)
and then did a switch with Rhino when they were worried
about fans being disappointed that Kevin Nash had to no-show.
There is a lot of anger in the locker room over the continued
push of Jarrett as World Champion when Samoa Joe is seen
as a bigger star and a far better worker.
The
wrestling world lost fewer big names than any other year
I can think of. The biggest name to fall was The Crusher,
who had been in ill-health for years. October was a rough
month for many wrestlers, but November would almost rip
the world of wrestling apart. Eddie Guerrero, perhaps the
best wrestler in the WWE and probably one of the three biggest
names to come out of Lucha Libre in America, died suddenly
in November. The wrestlers were devastated as Eddie had
always been very popular, and the out-pouring of grief from
his fans, and especially the Latino community, was far larger
than for any wrestler I can think of in the twenty-five
plus years I’ve been watching. His death, a heart
attack after he had done serious damage to his heart via
steroids, drugs and drinking, brought about the biggest
change in wrestling in years: the re-introduction of drug
testing for all WWE employees.
That
single event will probably change the course of wrestling
for at least the next five to ten years. The last time drug
testing came about in McMahonland, attendance and profits
dropped and it wasn’t until the rise of Steve Austin
that they really managed to turn around.
The WWE then
went on to do questionable angle after questionable angle,
and people have been saying that they’re lost and
have no chance of survival. I’ve heard that before
(I had some legendary arguments with Tim Davis about the
exact same thing in early 1997) and the McMahons always
reinvent themselves. The Jim Ross replacement with Joey
Styles has worked, though having Coach out there has hampered
the announcing.
So,
that was the year that was. Sadly, it’ll be far more
remembered for the one loss than the incredible matches.
I had to rewatch ten different matches to figure out which
would be awarded Match of the Year. There was a very close
vote over Fanboy Planet’s Favorite Wrestler, and an
even closer vote for Best Heel. Only Best Face was a walk.
OK,
on to the Awards...
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