10 Alternative Wrestling Awards For 2023
8. The "What On EARTH Are You On About" Award
Commentators don't half talk a lot of sh*te at the best of times.
It's a tough gig. You have to be on non-stop, you can't get up and piss, and sometimes, the stories are so bad that you have to play dumb and make yourself look like a complete moron.
It would be harsh, then, to bury someone outright when they are suddenly tasked with having to explain away something like a wrestler selling for a move that obviously did not connect. No, this award is presented to a man who said something utterly baffling on purpose under the impression that it was a good idea.
In what turned out to be a good idea in general, Triple H paired together GUNTHER and The Miz, and in the second match anyway, that crazed juxtaposition informed an improbably dramatic styles clash with one shockingly effective near-fall. The build to the first was flat-out weird. GUNTHER told Miz that he didn't belong in the ring, but rather behind the guardrail "with all those other weirdos that are just like you".
It was a strange choice of word. This Miz is many things. A star. A "talk show host". The least convincing striker since Ali Dia.
Generally, he's a bit of a jock figure, the cock of the walk. For 19 years of his onscreen presence in WWE, he was never a "weirdo". Quite the opposite; if anything, he was the guy who made fun of the "weirdos" like Daniel Bryan.
Michael Cole ran with it nonetheless, screaming "Do it for all us weirdos, Miz!" when Miz got the better of the physical confrontation.
What?
Why was Cole acting like he was Shannon Moore or some sh*t?