ESPN Reveals Its 2023 Wrestling Award Winners

It’s that time of year. We are less than a week away from the end of 2023 and that means it is time to start looking back at what the wrestling world has been doing over the course of the year. Several outlets will be doing just that in the coming weeks while several already have. This includes one of the most prominent outlets in sports, who have revealed their bests of 2023.

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ESPN has released it year end wrestling awards, looking at the best in the industry over the course of 2023. The outlet released nine awards, with winners mainly from WWE and AEW, plus runners up from other promotions. Here are the winners and the runners up, some of which have multiple choices:

* Female Wrestler of the Year: Rhea Ripley (WWE) (Runners-up were Giulia and IYO SKY)
* Male Wrestler of the Year: Cody Rhodes (WWE) (Runners-up were Roman Reigns, MJF & Will Ospreay)
* Tag Team of the Year: FTR (AEW) (Runner-up was Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn)
* Debut of the Year: CM Punk (WWE) (Runner-up was Mercedes Mone in NJPW)
* Breakthrough Wrestler of the Year: LA Knight (WWE) (Runner-up was Swerve Strickland)
* Promo Artist of the Year: MJF (AEW) (Runner-up was LA Knight)
* Match of the Year: Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay (AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door and Wrestle Kingdom) (Runner-up was Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte Flair)
* Best PPV Event of the Year: Wrestlemania 39 (WWE) (Runner-up was Forbidden Door)
* Best Storyline of the Year: The Bloodline 2.0 (WWE) (Runner-up was MJF & Adam Cole)

There are some talented people on the list. Check out some of them in action:

Opinion: This is the kind of thing that you are going to see every year and most of these are perfectly logical. Rhodes and Ripley are among the most successful stars in the industry right now and Omega vs. Ospreay was quite the showdown either time. The fun part of this kind of release is getting to discuss the choices, which is where the runners up can make it even better.

What do you think of the choices? Who were your picks? Let us know in the comments below.

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You can find more from Thomas Hall at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books.

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