Grapple Theory End of Year Awards 2023

“Another year gone, and the points stand thus…” - Albus Dumbledore

2023 is in the bag and it’s been another brilliant year for British wrestling. Some new stars have been made, some old stars have returned to the scene and overall I think it’s probably been the best year of wrestling in the UK since pre-Covid.

As usual we’ve taken a look back at the year and given out our own personal awards to the wrestlers that have really shone in 2023.

Now, before we begin, at the time of me writing this we’re just days removed from the tragic news of Kurtis Chapman’s passing. Kurtis was one of the funniest, most creative wrestlers on our scene, he ALWAYS brought a smile to people’s faces and away from the ring was so genuine and likeable.

It’s still tough to process that we won’t be seeing him or his keyboard ever again, or hearing his amazing earworm of a theme song. But it’s so heartwarming to see all the memories and stories people have shared with him.

Kurt, you were a credit to yourself and our scene, thank you for everything Keyboard Warrior.

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Now, onto our awards. As those of you who have followed us from the start will know, we’ve never split our ‘wrestler of the year’ award into male/female but this year we’re breaking tradition, simply because there were TOO MANY people we wanted to give the award to.

So without any further delay, here we go…

Male Wrestler of the year: Leon Slater & Michael Oku

*Credit: @stomphotography/@britwrespics*

Even splitting our ‘wrestler of the year’ award into two categories wasn’t enough this year. So we’re split awarding the Male Wrestler of the Year between Leon Slater and Michael Oku.

Leon was our breakout star winner last year, and this year has just gone from strength to strength. He’s wrestled in America for GCW, he made he New Japan debut, he’s wrestled TWICE at the Copper Box, appeared at AEW All In and let’s not forget he signed a bloody contract with TNA/Impact and starts out there this month.

Title wise he’s picked up the RevPro Cruiserweight belt and the NORTH title, beating Liam Slater in a barn burner of a contest at the promotion’s biggest ever show. As if his year wasn’t insane enough before that.

We considered having Leon as our solo winner, but we couldn’t not give an award to his co-winner…

Michael Oku has had arguably his greatest ever year in wrestling in 2023. Like Leon, he’s wrestled at the Copper Box, defending (and winning back) his RevPro title from Trent Seven. He also appeared at All In and won the Riot Cabaret title in 2023.

But it was the aforementioned RevPro Copper Box show over All In weekend that especially earns him this award. He’d already completed his full circle journey to winning the title - defeating the man he faced on his RevPro debut, Great-O-Khan - and then defended the title expertly against Seven.

It’s been a jot to watch both of these men this year and they’re both worthy winners.

Honourable Mentions; Dereiss, Charles Crowley, Scotty Rawk

Female: Nina Samuels

Nina, and our top honourable mention below are the reason we split the awards this year. We just couldn’t pick. It would’ve been unfair to give accolades to Oku and Leon and leave out Nina Samuels.

The star of the Nina Samuels Show, she has had a phenomenal 2023, encapsulated by all the freakin’ gold she’s held this year. I think at one time she was, and at the time of writing still may, champion at no less than FIVE different promotions.

Her matches have been incredible. Her feud with Safire in EVE was brilliant, she held onto the Riot Cabaret title all year, won loads more and let’s not forget she’s still the best damn baker in BritWres. Thanks for an awesome year Nina.

Honourable Mentions; Ivy, Harley Hudson, Safire Reed

Young Wrestler of the Year: Safire Reed

We didn’t split our Young Wrestler award because in my mind there was always only one, and that’s no slight on any of the other incredible young wrestlers we have on the scene.

But Safire Reed has been the standout star this year in this category. She has cemented herself as one of the best young wrestlers on the planet, putting on incredible matches and getting more bookings across Europe, not just the UK.

She capped 2023 off by winning the EVE She-1, then defeating the unbeaten (at EVE) Miyu Yamashita for the EVE title at WrestleQueendom. She’s also made her RevPro debut and had an incredible match in the Purpose main event in December against Michael Oku.

She’s more than one to watch, Safire Reed WILL be signed by a major promotion in the next 24 months, mark our words.

Honourable mentions; Zizi, Levi Muir

Breakout Star: Tate Mayfairs

We hate to admit it, but Tate Mayfairs has had a pretty damn solid year hasn’t he? He’s got all the making of a star and the crowd absolutely HATES him - which is just the way he likes it. His storyline with Simon Miller at PROGRESS has been great and he’s probably one of the best heels on the scene today.

He’s the TNT Extreme champ and was, until recently, a Pro Wrestling Chaos tag champ. There’s no doubt he can go all the way to the top, the question is….do we want that?

Honourable Mention; Rayne Leverkusen (For the record if it weren’t for her injury she’d have won this award, she had a great year! Can’t wait to see you back Rayne), James Ellis, Mark Trew and Kieron Lacey

Tag Team of the Year: Subculture

There’s no getting around it, Subculture returned to BritWres with a bang and stole 2023. They’ve had amazing matches both at home and over the pond, where they won the Impact tag team titles.

Their crowning achievement was absolutely at All In Weekend where they faced The Velocities for the RevPro tag titles at the Copper Box and then flew over the pond to defend their Impact tag titles the very next night. An unreal turnaround time wise and two cracking matches.

Honourable Mentions; Greedy Souls, Sunshine Machine

Match of the Year: Luke Jacobs vs Tomohiro Ishii I, RevPro 11 Year Anniversary Show, Copper Box, London

As well as being my match of the year, this may be one of the best matches I’ve ever seen in my entire life. In front of a packed out Copper Box, just one day before All In took over Wembley, Luke Jacobs and Tomohiro Ishii went to WAR. This was a battle for the ages with the exact amount of hard-hitting action you’d expect from both.

I said it at the time and I’ll say it again now, this is the match we’ll look back on when Jacobs is a megastar and say ‘this was the moment he made it’. All the focus that night was on Ospreay vs Takagi, but this match stole the show.

They faced off for a second time in RevPro at Crystal Palace in December but for me this match was the better of the two.

Honourable Mentions; Chuck Mambo & TK Cooper vs Nico Angelo & Jay Joshua, Riot Cabaret; Safire vs Mercedes Martinez, EVE; Liam Slater vs Leon Slater, NORTH

International Wrestler of the Year: Bryan Keith & Miyu Yamashita

*Credit: @houstonshots/@newtexaspro/@shore.shots*

Our International Wrestler award in split between two wrestlers who are, in my mind at least, two of the best unsigned talents in the world right now.

Bryan Keith has had an amazing year, working his way across America and soon to be coming to the UK which I am pumped for. His epic year and a half long Freelance title reign ended in October and he’s wrestled in ROH. He’s a megastar.

And speaking of megastar, how is Miyu Yamashita not signed. She’s an absolute monster in the ring. Safire Reed was the only woman to beat her in EVE this year and she has incredible matches with literally everyone. Her contest with Mike Bailey at Pandemonium Pro Wrestling was the icing on the cake that has been 2023.

Honourable Mentions: Regina Rosendahl, Hyan, Jessica Troy, Vert Vixen

International breakout star: Billie Starkz

As many of you know we don’t cover signed stars, but as Billie was signed this year and had been on the indies this year before signing we decided to include her. She’s been amazing this year and more than deserving of her big contract.

The fact she’s so young and still so good is WILD. She’s going to be one of the best in the world in a few years for sure.

Honourable Mentions; Shazza McKenzie

Promotion of the Year: RevPro Wrestling

This one was REALLY tough. For weeks and weeks I flipped back and forth between awarding this title to Newcastle based NORTH Wrestling and RevPro in the south of England.

And after a lot of yo-yoing I decided that Grapple Theory’s Promotion of the Year award is going to RevPro.

Let me start by saying NORTH have had an incredible year once again, selling out basically every single show they’ve run, putting on some MOTY worthy matches and hosting their biggest ever show at the Walker Dome. They were so, so close to being Grapple Theory’s promotion of the year for two years straight.

However, I just don’t think you can look past RevPro in 2023. They too ran their biggest ever show, over All In weekend, selling 4,000 tickets at the Copper Box - the biggest independent British wrestling show we’ve had on these shores since PROGRESS ran Wembley Arena in 2018.

That show was one for the record books and was fantastic from top to bottom. Not only that but then they ran Crystal Palace again in December, that didn’t sell as well but still mightily impressive.

They’ve had some amazing matches and completed some incredible storylines. All I ask of RevPro in 2024 is to please, please put more stock in your women’s division. You have some amazing talent there, use them well!

Honourable Mentions; NORTH, UKPW, United, Ignite, NGW

Best feud: Wild Boar vs Nico Angelo, ATTACK! Pro Wrestling

*Credit: @tonyknox99/@wild_boar_hitchman*

The Welsh wrestling scene has been absolutely on fire this year, it’s been taken to a whole new level and we have the talent out there to thank for that. There have been some cracking feuds this year but my favourite here goes to the long-running battle between Nico Angelo and Wild Boar in ATTACK!.

It all started at the ATTACK! Tournament finals back in April, where Nico had Lykos Gym by his side throughout. That was until the final, when the Shitwolves turned on Nico to help Wild Boar to win the ATTACK! belt.

The battle between Nico and Boar (and Lykos Gym) raged on for a few more months until Nico lost and was subsequently forced to leave the promotion.

Then, just last month during the Mistletour, he made his heroic return and defeated Boar to finally get his hands on the top belt in ATTACK! It was a storyline the entire year in the making and it had just the best ending.

Honourable Mentions: Kira Chimera vs Scotty Rawk, Spike Trivet vs Kid Lykos

Power Couple: Michael Oku and Amira

We waxed lyrical about Oku earlier on in this awards article but it can’t be stated enough just what an amazing year he’s had. And by his side through all of it has been Amira, always looking spectacular for the big RevPro shows and showing she’s not afraid to get involved in the action when needed - still can’t believe Trent Seven put her through a table.

But don’t get things mixed up, Amira is far from just a sidekick to Oku, she’s had a great year herself. It’s been brilliant to see how much she’s improved in the ring and her skills as a manager are phenomenal.

These two could be the power couple of BritWres for many years to come…if she can keep her eyes off Hiroshi Tanahashi…..

Honourable Mentions: Jessy Maria & Roy Johnson, Charlie Morgan & Jetta

Inspiration Award: Choccy Thunder

This year our second ever inspiration award goes to a man who battled cancer, with the possibility of never wrestling again, to making a triumphant return and now being well on his was to cementing himself as one of the best and brightest on the entire scene.

Choccy Thunder has fought the hardest fight of his life and come out on top and it’s clear from speaking to him how much it means to him that he was able to once again don his purple trunks and coat and step into the ring to do what he loves.

Not many people could’ve overcome what he has, with the determination and positive attitude that he’s carried all the way.

Thank you for being an inspiration Choccy, we love you!

Best merch: Rayne Leverkusen

Rayne Leverkusen has been one of my personal highlights of 2023, she’s been a joy to watch in the ring and if injury hadn’t cut her year short she’d have probably won another award or two from us.

But she’s back on the mend and we hope to see her back in the ring soon.

Away from in-ring action the Maiden of Metal has been absolutely slaying with her Merch this year. With strong Iron Maiden inspirations, Rayne has made shirts that from a distance you’d think were band shirts, not wrestler tees. They are fierce and look truly sensational! Keep buying her merch to support her until she’s back, then go ahead and buy some more!

Honourable Mentions; Leon Slater, Nico Angelo

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