THE WINNERS:
CM Punk:
There was no bigger winner in WWE in
the last year than CM Punk. Punk started
off 2012 as WWE Champion and ended it as WWE Champion without relinquishing it
once. The last person who could say that he did that was Hulk Hogan twenty-five
years ago. This year he has turned away challenges from Dolph Ziggler, Chris
Jericho, Kane, Daniel Bryan, John Cena, Ryback and more. He also went from one
of the most beloved figures in the company to the most hated. During all of
this CM Punk was also consistently putting on the best matches on the card and
restoring the credibility of the WWE Championship.
Sheamus:
While not as impressive as CM Punk’s
title dominance in 2012 the 210 day World Championship reign of Sheamus was
nothing to scoff at either. Sheamus started his title run with a win against
Daniel Bryan at Wrestlemania XVIII that took him all of eighteen seconds.
Sheamus followed that up with a match of the year candidate at the next month’s
Extreme Rules pay-per-view in a best two out of three falls match. He also
knocked back countless challenges from Dolph Ziggler and Alberto Del Rio.
Sheamus also stepped up his game having great matches all year long on Raw and
Smackdown! Before finally losing the title to The Big Show at Hell In A Cell.
The Big
Show:
The year started a little slowly for
The Big Show but the big man had one of the best years of his career this year
and stayed in the title picture pretty much the entire time. He finally got his
Wrestlemania moment this year winning the Intercontinental Championship
from Cody Rhodes and while he dropped that title back to Rhodes only a month
later in embarrassing fashion he rebounded pretty quickly by turning his back
on his fans and becoming the monster he should have been all along. By the end
of the year he regained The World Title and would hold it for the rest of the
year.
Ryback:
When it comes to the newcomers in WWE
this year no one made their presence felt more than Ryback. Debuting after
Wrestlemania Ryback had one dominant win after another, although in fairness
most of those wins came against local talent that had never been seen of before
or since. After a while he moved up to the regular jobbers of WWE like JTG,
Curt Hawkins, Tyler Reks and others. By the last half of the year though he was
squaring off against more seasoned talent like former WWE champion The Miz and
although he ended the year on a couple of pay-per-view loses each one was
against WWE Champion CM Punk and under dubious circumstances each time.
Dolph
Ziggler:
Even though Ziggler didn't win any
championship gold in 2012 he did win The Money in the Bank Briefcase which is
just as good. He also established himself as a proved grappler with amazing
performances in every one of his matches. Although he did find himself on the
losing end of more matches then he ever should of this year he did so while
looking like a huge star. He also ended the year with the biggest win of his
career when he retained his Money in the Bank Briefcase defeating John Cena in
a ladder match.
John Cena:
John Cena didn't really accomplish a
whole lot in the ring this year with his biggest win easily coming from his
match against Brock Lesnar back at Extreme Rules. Despite this Cena remained the
most popular star and face of WWE the entire year. Cena was also consistently at
the top of the card and main eventing every pay-per-view over WWE Champion CM
Punk. At the end of the year Cena proved his loses didn't hurt his popularity
with fans one bit by winning the Superstar of the Year Slammy for the third
time in four years. Cena's most impressive and admirable accomplishment in 2012
came outside of the ring though with his continued charity work including
granting his 300th wish for The Make-A-Wish Foundation, more than
anyone else in Make-A-Wishes wonderful history.
THE LOSERS:
Zack Ryder:
Was there a bigger loser in WWE this year than Zack Ryder? I don’t think
so. He ended 2011 on a roll after finally capturing the United States championship
from Dolph Zigger and it seemed like 2012 was going to be the year of The Long
Island Iced Z. Unfortunately it seemed like his roll dropped with that giant
ball in Times Square in New York on New Year’s Eve. It took only eighteen days
in 2012 before he dropped the United States title to Jack Swagger and it was
all downhill from there. He was constantly handed his ass to Kane on a weekly
basis to the point where a new cast was added to him every week until he was wearing
a body cast in a wheelchair. Thankfully his bones healed much quicker than Bob
Orton’s and he was back in no time being made a fool of by Eve the girl that he
had been head over heels for for months. He lost the match for his team at
Wrestlemania XXVIII. From there on out he lost pretty much every match he had
on TV whenever he appeared on TV which became less and less as the year wore
on. By the end of the year Ryder couldn’t
buy a win if he had Ted DiBiase's money and despite fan support was back to
hardly showing up on TV. As the final insult of the year when WWE flashed a “Did
you know” fact about the top five WWE Superstars who have the most followers on
Twitter he wasn't even on the list in favor of The Miz in the number five spot
even though Ryder had well over 100,000 more followers.
John Cena:
Yes John Cena was one of the biggest winners of the year in WWE but make
no doubt about it he was also one of the biggest losers of the year. Although
still the face of the company this is easily Cena’s most unsuccessful year yet competition
wise. After a yearlong build to his showdown with The Rock at Wrestlemania
XXVIII he came out on the losing end. After that he was Brock Lesnar’s bitch
for the next month until getting the win during their match at Extreme Rules,
and even that was after getting the crap beaten out of him the entire match making
his win that very much like a fluke.
After that Cena won the Money in the Bank Briefcase which he cashed in
on Raw 1000 only to lose to CM Punk and be the first person to come out on the
losing end after cashing in the briefcase. After that he chased CM Punk for the
title only to come out on the losing end every time. He was then sidelined with
an injury only to come back and challenge Dolph Ziggler for Ziggler's Money in
the Bank only to lose once again. For the first time in years Cena didn’t hold
a single championship.
Alberto Del
Rio:
It doesn't seem right to add Del Rio to this list but let’s face it he
does indeed belong here. Even though he spent several months feuding with
Sheamus over The World Title Del Rio could never win the title and never even
pulled off a single win in the feud that had any meaning to it whatsoever.
Instead Del Rio just looked like a complete non-threat to the champion and in
the end came off as a chump. 2013 may of
started off great for Del Rio but that doesn't erase the awful year he had in
2012.
Randy Orton:
For years Randy Orton has been neck and neck with John Cena as the face
of WWE but this year despite the losing ways of Cena, Randy Orton had it even
worse. Orton spend almost no time whatsoever this year in the main event of
2012 and instead has been regulated to one meaningless feud after the other. It
got even worse after Orton’s sixty day suspension from his second wellness
policy violation. Since then the company has been reluctant to do anything with
him. Add to the fact that Orton seems completely bored by being a hero that he
is just phoning it in night after night and has never been more bland and
boring than ever to the point that when he comes on my TV it usually singles a
good time to take my dogs out to poop.
The Miz:
Once one of the hottest heels in the company The Miz was one of the most
hated people on TV but like Orton he too has gotten incredibly boring and has
been beaten so many times in 2012 he has become nothing but a joke that no one
could ever take seriously as a threat and as just become annoying as possible.
Just when you thought he couldn't of gotten worse he became a hero for the
first time in his career in one of the worse and most uninspired face turns in
recent memory which should of freshen up his character but instead has only
made him even more bland and boring.
Tensai:
Lord Tensai made his big return to WWE this year after Wrestlemania with
a huge amount of hype and big push but he immediately failed to connect with
the fans with them chanting “Albert”, his last WWE persona, at him at every
turn. After a string of impressive wins it was clear that Lord Tensai was going
nowhere. The first change was in his name as he started going simply as Tensai
and lost his neat entrance gear. After that Tensai started losing more and more
frequently until he was losing every match to the likes of people like Santino
and started showing up on TV only every now and again and has become a comedy
figure. He may of returned with a lot of hype but by the time the year ended
very few could of fallen so far.
Jack
Swagger:
2012 started off with some promise for Jack Swagger has he won the
United States championship from the year’s biggest loser Zack Ryder only
sixteen days into the year and held it for the better part of two months before
losing it to Santino who hasn't been able to buy a win for himself for years in
WWE. After that it all went to hell for Swagger. He started teaming up with
Dolph Ziggler and failed to win the tag team titles at every turn. Soon enough Vickie
Guerrero kicked him to the curb in favor of Dolph Ziggler and rightfully so.
After that Swagger continued his losing ways even addressing the fact that he hadn't won a single match since losing the United States title. It got so bad
that there was seemingly nothing WWE could do to rehab Swagger anymore and had
him leave TV on the September 3rd episode of Raw saying that he
needed time off. Since then he has yet to return to TV. If not for missing from
TV for the rest of 2012 Swagger could of very easily been the biggest loser in
WWE for 2012 and the case can be made that he indeed is since he was written off
of TV for his losing ways but given how far Ryder fell since the very start of
the year beginning with his lost to Swagger I think Ryder just edges out
Swagger is suckyness for 2012.
