Here’s to 2021 and how it worked to turn things around!

I wanted to have a midyear one of these for 2021, but the summer ended up a rougher time for me personally. And to be fair, I would’ve only had like one Mitchell Medal to even talk about at the time.

As I said last year, these medals aren’t outright for “The Best [category]” winner or even “The Worst [category]” winner here. These will be for the people, moments and more that I felt were worth honoring. And that first medal I had for this year will be our first medal here!

Mitchell Medal for Awesome Start to the Year:
WrestleKingdom 15

The beginning of this year feels so long ago, but WK15 was a great two night event, with night one scoring 9.4 and night two scoring 9.6 with me. It had so much, and the main events were big with the IWGP Double Championship story. Kota Ibushi winning that whole thing was big, too, building upon his G1 Climax win to end the night as THE champion.

Mitchell Medal for Gamechanger:
The NXT UK Heritage Cup

While the cup was introduced in late 2020, it really came into its own this year as it got a second British Rounds Tournament to determine a contender. NXT UK bringing back the match type of British Rounds really redefined things for the midcard, and it has been really good stuff. A-Kid was a good first champion, though I myself thought Trent Seven would’ve been a great choice. Tyler Bate had a very fun run with it, and NXT UK did a great job blending that story with the NXT UK Tag Team Championships, which eventually led to Moustache Mountain taking those titles from Pretty Deadly.

Noam Dar is a great choice for a third champion, and he’s so far had an equally fun run. I can’t wait to see where he goes with this cup, and where this cup goes for NXT UK.

Mitchell Medal for Continuing to WIN:
All Elite Wrestling

Somehow, some way, AEW just keeps growing. Maybe growing a little too much, as it’s a valid point to say they’ve got so many people and not nearly enough time, even with Dynamite, Rampage, Elevation and Dark. But considering they have so many big names now, like CM Punk, Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole, and have more or less nailed the booking of Hangman Adam Page and quite a few others, it’s hard to not see AEW as this tour de force in pro-wrestling. They’re also willing to work with other companies and have their people go there, such as FTR in AAA and ROH for their big PPV events. They still aren’t perfect, but they’re definitely a pro-wrestler’s pro-wrestling company.

Mitchell Medal for Being an Absolute Delight:
Pat McAfee on SmackDown commentary

Pat McAfee went from a perfectly obnoxious celebrity Heel in NXT 1.0 to a highly entertaining and hilarious commentary partner for Michael Cole on Friday nights. Him getting geeked out over Rick Boogs’ rock guitar shredding for Shinsuke Nakamura’s theme song is always fun to watch, he invented a new nickname for Brock Lesnar with the “Alpha Male of Our Species” line, and is clearly having so much fun, just as any fan would be in his position. He brings a unique energy to SmackDown’s presentation by being on commentary, and he might even help define this era of WWE being that voice to hype up the viewers at home.

Mitchell Medal for Farewell, Old Friend:
NXT 1.0, aka The Black ‘n’ Gold

We could all get mad at Vince McMahon and team for taking over NXT and how they used the ratings from the Wednesday Night War as their excuse, but let’s just look back fondly on what “NXT 1.0” was, and what it did for wrestling as a whole.

I mean, the list of wrestlers is insane. Women wrestlers like Paige, Alexa Bliss, Carmella, Ember Moon, The “Four Horsewomen,” Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Bayley and Becky Lynch, as well as Asuka, Kairi Sane and Io Shirai.  And of course male wrestlers like Finn Balor, Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura, Keith Lee, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Aleister Black, Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, the Wyatt Family, and The Undisputed Era of Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish and eventually Roderick Strong. And without NXT 1.0, NXT UK wouldn’t even be a thing, and that means no Rhea Ripley, Toni Storm, Kay Lee Ray, Moustache Mountain, Ilja Dragunov, Walter and Imperium.

Then there was every single TakeOver event, from the first until TakeOver 36. Sadly, I missed out on making an article for TakeOver 36, but it was a badass event that definitely deserves high praise. For that matter, a little bit more on one of those later.

Now, yes, NXT was at the mercy of WWE RawDown taking those people, doing what Vince and team wanted with them, even if that meant letting them go. But without NXT, I’m sure a lot of us wouldn’t have even known who those people were to have those feelings of, “Ugh, how could WWE do this to them?!” If anything, that constant feeling of, “Why doesn’t Vince respect NXT?” added to its street cred with us “cool” fans who knew it was the real flagship brand of the company. I wish we were in a world where Vince didn’t take over the brand, but maybe there’s still hope for 2.0. Speaking of…

Mitchell Medal for Shining Glimmer of Hope:
NXT WarGames

Truly the start of a new era in that it did not have the word, “TakeOver,” in its name, I was certainly not optimistic about NXT WarGames, aka NXT 2.0’s first non-televised event. But I gave this a 9.4, and I feel the 2.0 superstars featured in that event earned their keep. Especially Cora Jade. She did the off-the-cage spot through a table, she played up an injured arm expertly, and got to be the one with the winning cover. If NXT 2.0 can still deliver at an event, maybe all of our concerns will eventually be put to rest.

Mitchell Medal for Awesome Sequel:
TakeOver 36’s NXT UK Championship match

The first match of Walter VS Dragunov for the NXT UK Championship made the Mitchell Medal Mania cut for 2020 because it was just awesome. That first match promised to “redefine violence” and delivered on it, then this one took that definition and rewrote it to make it even MORE powerful. It took everything from the first one, as well as Dragunov’s “reinvention” and his dealing with the berserk rage, and crafted a show stealer for TakeOver 36. And to top it off, we saw history as Walter’s 870 day reign ended and Dragunov’s reign began. NXT UK is now UNBESIEGBAR, Long Live NXT UK’s Czar!