Talk about a roller coaster of emotions!

As I have said before, these Mitchell Medals are special awards, not for the purely best wrestler, moment or story, or purely the worst. This is for best, worst, and whatever was memorable from the past year, within my purview of pro-wrestling. So basically, apologies to anything outside of WWE, AEW, ROH and/or NJPW. If a tree fell in the woods and I wasn’t there to see it, I can’t comment on it. Or however that saying goes.

Mitchell Medal for Incredible First Reign for Inaugural Champion:
Zack Sabre Jr. with the NJPW World Television Championship

After a tournament in late 2022, WrestleKingdom 17 was where the Submission Master finally got his first NJPW singles championship, and he has been on an incredible reign ever since. He’s faced a variety of opponents, including great names like Gran Metalik, Jeff Cobb, Rocky Romero, Christopher Daniels and “Speedball” Mike Bailey. And as of this moment, he is set to face Hiroshi Tanahashi at WrestleKingdom 18 to revive their rivalry, and that could be the most epic 15 minute time limit match ever.

Mitchell Medal for Most Amazing Fatal 4 Way:
Double Or Nothing 2023

Whatever anyone thinks of naming Four Pillars before a company gets to even four years of business, the four fighting over the AEW World Championship on May 28th, 2023 gave us one to remember. MJF, Jack Perry, Sammy Guevara & Darby Allin proved themselves that night, and raised the bar on how a Fatal 4 can move and feel. This one might even stand the test of time the same way Samoa Joe VS AJ Styles VS Christopher Daniels in TNA Impact has.

Mitchell Medal for General Mismanagement:
Tony Khan

Is it cliche to point out the flaws of a pro-wrestling booker? Maybe. But isn’t it just as bad to ignore flaws when they’re pretty obvious? There’s the issue of the men VS women match ratio, storylines that were booked backwards, and storylines that weren’t given finishes. The first one is the one everyone brings up, but Tony has technically worked on that. There were examples this year of the women’s matches being the main events to acknowledge their importance, such as the night Hikaru Shida won the AEW Women’s World Championship to become the historic three-time champion.

But in point two, so much of Ricky Starks VS Chris Jericho felt backwards. Starks beats Jericho 1v1 then has to fight the Jericho Appreciation Society goons just to get the rematch? A real headscratcher there. And Keith Lee is a man with two examples for the third point: his rivalry with Swerve Strickland, and his rivalry with Shane Taylor. Weeks of build, anticipation, hype, but where are the blowoff matches? Though, at least Keith and Shane had theirs out on ROH Final Battle. Sadly, what was going to be Keith VS Swerve last night at Worlds End had to be cancelled because Keith’s injuries piled up and he couldn’t ignore them any longer. If only Tony hadn’t wasted time…

Don’t even get me started on Samoa Joe as ROH World TV Champion. There was a thing with Castle in the works, but Tony doesn’t care, he has Joe aim for the AEW World title and just drop the ROH TV title. It still created a good opportunity for a lot of ROH guys, and also as of Worlds End, hooray new champion Joe. But that doesn’t justify ditching one story out of neglect or boredom.

And of course, there’s actually a fourth point of mismanagement, in how he hasn’t been a strong authority figure.  There’s the beef between Sammy Guevara and Andrade, the tension in the women’s division (AEW All Access documenting some of that), oh and of course, Brawl Out last year and Brawl In this year. Tony pumped up CM Punk’s ego by calling him The Plus Delta, then didn’t know how to rein him back in during either of those incidents. Yes, Tony did what anyone would and he fired Punk before there was a third incident, but as the boss, it was his responsibility to keep stuff like this from happening in the first place.

Mitchell Medal for Best, and Worst(?) in the World:
CM Punk

Look in my eyes, what do you see? Punk’s full of controversy. I could’ve probably given him something for Brawl Out last year, but then he gave us the sequel of Brawl In with Jack Perry. And while I put some blame on Tony Khan in the previous entry, Punk is the hot head who let things get to him so that he felt the need to confront The Elite and Jack Perry on those different occasions. Tony Khan couldn’t handle Punk, but Samoa Joe did, and now he’s out of AEW, the Undisputed AEW World Champion story dead and buried. But then hey! He’s back in WWE! He’s “home!” I admit to laughing, hand on the side of my face in disbelief when he said that.

But for his first month and change since returning to the WWE, it is clear he and the WWE all want big things to come from this. He visited all three brands until he “signed” with Raw to make it clear he wants after Seth Rollins and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship by declaring for the Royal Rumble. Plus, gotten to interact with a lot of the superstars, both those who were around when he was last in WWE and the new names and faces that showed up since. I personally wouldn’t have poked fun at the backstage fights that got Punk fired from AEW, but I guess that just means Punk’s willing to laugh at himself.

And hell, even if Punk doesn’t win the Rumble, it should be obvious that the plan will be Rollins VS Punk for the title at WrestleMania 40, possibly main eventing Night One, because we all know Night Two is part of the Tribal Chief set-up. And we all know the Tribal Chief set-up isn’t for Seth Rollins, it’s only for Roman Reigns. Speaking of…

Mitchell Medal for STILL Masterful Storytelling:
The Tribal Chief/Bloodline Story

Three years out of four that I’ve done this special, there’s been something relating to Roman Reigns and this epic saga we’ve been on with him. And while I have no idea what I was thinking in 2021 to not have anything to ACKNOWLEDGE The Bloodline story with, and while I myself have been in the state where I couldn’t believe they kept Roman Reigns the REIGNING, DEFENDING, UNDISPUTED Universal Heavyweight Champion the entire time to where he is third all-time in longest world title reigns, 2023 has only made this story stronger.

Sami’s defiance at the Royal Rumble, how that encouraged Jey Uso to take a stand and become his own man, how that actually broke up the Usos, how Jimmy has become a rather spastic and unhinged wild card within the faction, and how Solo Sikoa has been allowed to rise up and even got to put down John Cena at Survivor Series, all parts of the pictured group has gotten to shine through the overall story. Sami and Jey are now separate from Roman and the others being on Raw, but that has allowed for more great storytelling with Drew McIntyre’s Heel turn being facilitated through his hate for Jey.

Who knows how much longer this story is going to go, since Roman could end up overtaking Hulk Hogan’s reign, the second longest in wrestling history. But surely, once it is all said and done (with Roman finally losing the title, I presume), we will all look back on this multiple year story as an era within the WWE unto itself.

Mitchell Medal for Three Someones We All Miss:
Bray Wyatt, Jay Briscoe & Terry Funk

Three great wrestlers, three great men, three great legacies. I’ve put them all together in one big category because it wouldn’t feel right to try and figure out who to talk about first, how to change the category title to fit each one without making it seem like one was favored over the others. The hardcore legend, Terry Funk, made it to 79 years old and pro-wrestling immortality long ago, but he still could’ve shared his knowledge a little longer with those coming up in the new generation. The tributes both AEW and WWE gave him were well done, but AEW got to do the crazier match stuff to really get that ECW/death match Terry Funk feel.

Bray and Jay are more tragic losses given neither man made it out of their 30s, and neither man had to die so young. In many ways, both men were entering into new chapters of their pro-wrestling careers, perhaps their best chapters yet. It is still surreal to think that this generation of fans witnessed both men’s last televised matches. Final Battle 2022, the Double Dog Collar match, FTR VS The Briscoes, and Bray VS LA Knight in the Pitch Black match at the Royal Rumble 2023. But perhaps they and Terry are at peace, all spending time with The Macho Man, Latino Heat, and Razor Ramon, smiling down on those carrying on in their stead.