10 Alternative Wrestling Awards For 2023
9. The Most Passive Aggressive Award
It mustn't be very fulfilling or particularly good for the confidence, if you're a pro wrestler who is barely used on your promoter's television programme - but there's a way of dealing with the frustration.
You can plough ahead, giving it your all in the ring, under the hope that your efforts will one day be rewarded.
Alternatively, you can simply be chuffed that you have a job, and point to your purple Kangol hat with a "How wacky is this?!" look on your face whenever you pass the booker in the corridor.
Or, you can indirectly express your displeasure using the Five Moves of Passive Aggressive Doom, which are as follows:
1) Post a cryptic GIF on Twitter, which could be interpreted as dissatisfaction - but you aren't outright saying that, wink.
2) Put over the disgraced former colleague who may or may not have punched your boss in the face when they jump to the competition.
3) Mention on your podcast that you are unhappy with your creative direction.
4) 'Like' tweets that bury your booker for not giving you the World title.
5) Unfavourably compare your promotion's recent creative to an infamously terrible angle.
Given AEW's creative woes and the extent to which TV time was at a premium in 2023, the nominees are mostly confined to that promotion. Dr. Britt Baker had her moments. John Silver opted for move #5 by comparing the Devil's Masked Men to the Dark Order Creepers. Matt Hardy scored a brace with moves #3 and #4, but Danhausen and Andrade el Idolo gave John Cena a run for his money this year.
Who wins?
That can't be determined. It's like comparing Messi and Ronaldo, Pele and Maradona. You don't quarrel over such outstanding contributions to the field of passive aggressive behaviour: you simply luxuriate in the fact that you experienced it in real-time.