2021 Awards: Surprise of the Year

[Storm Trooper]

What a twist!

The real twist is that there's a whole hell of a lot of nominations. We almost had to cut some.

[Storm Trooper]

This would be a difficult one, but at the end of the day, GameChanger Wrestling was a ho-hum indy promotion known for excessive violence. Of all the ex-WWE guys they could bring in, Matt Cardona shows up, and they get more social media buzz than the fucking Olympics.

The company is now running a PPV event Saturday from Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, and is aguably the 4th biggest promotion in American behind WWE/AEW/Impact. Therefore the winner of this is the King of the Deathmatch, the King of the Indies, the GCW Universal Champion Matt Cardona.

Honestly all the other nominees are not that surprising, as they were pretty known beforehand.

[#AbsoluteUnit]

It's Punk returning. Simple as that.

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Everyone knew CM Punk was returning, so was it really that surprising?

I'll go with Bray Wyatt's release. Multi-time world champion, top merch seller. Cut in the prime of his career.

[Stone Cold Tea]

Wyatts release was probably the most shocked I've was off those moments last year.

Cm Punks return was a surprise but it was also announced in advance.

[Yer Maw]

CM Punk wasn't announced there was just rumours.

[Stone Cold Tea]

CM Punk wasn't announced there was just rumours.

Yeah but it was 99% guaranteed.

[Spidey]

It was still surprising. More surprising than WWE's MO of releasing good talent. If Bray wasn't released this would be about Braun. If Braun wasn't released it would be Keith Lee, Aleister Black, etc.

I'll go with the feel-good moment.

[Stone Cold Tea]

It was still surprising. More surprising than WWE's MO of releasing good talent. If Bray wasn't released this would be about Braun. If Braun wasn't released it would be Keith Lee, Aleister Black, etc.

I'll go with the feel-good moment.

I get both views points on the Punk return. For me the fact it was telegraphed took away from the surprise element. There was nothing at all to suggest either of Braun of The Fiend were going to be released.

[BestSportsEntertainer]

It was still surprising. More surprising than WWE's MO of releasing good talent. If Bray wasn't released this would be about Braun. If Braun wasn't released it would be Keith Lee, Aleister Black, etc.

Has a multi-time world champion still in the main event scene ever been released?

[Spidey]

Has a multi-time world champion still in the main event scene ever been released?

Several have been. There's the easy answer with Bret Hart. Brock Lesnar left twice when he was on top. Before jumping to TNA in '08 Jeff Hardy was a multi-time world champ who last fought Punk for the gold. Hogan had world title matches with Yokozuna before heading over to NJPW and then WCW. Probably a few others Vince pissed off were granted their release around that time too. There are also companies outside of WWE like ROH who have released such people.


I get choosing Bray here, but I do not gel with the notion that an announcement in wrestling makes it less of a surprise, or some mark against it. The sport is riddled with spoilers. I'd argue wrestling thrives on being heavy-handed. Punk showing up as promoted was refreshing to me compared to AEW's usual surprise appearances. For that I think Punk debuting instead of some MJF trolling is the surprise of the year.

There was also Punk telling the crowd Daniel Bryan, another released multi-time world champ still in the WWE main event scene, was on his way made it a two-fold surprise.

[Stone Cold Tea]

What do we do in the event of a 1 hour time limit draw then?