AEW Mid-Year Awards: Jon Moxley, Orange Cassidy battle for MVP

The Daily DDT staff comes together to give mid-year awards for AEW.

AEW has had a strange first full calendar year in the wrestling consciousness. From COVID-19 stranding some of their biggest name competitors to having the cops called on one of their filming locations the road has been anything but simple for the wrestling company from Jacksonville.

But even with all the road bumps thrown their way AEW has been able to put together a highly entertaining product week after week and with now more of 2020 behind us than there is in front of us we at Daily DDT wanted to look back and point out some of the winners of the first half of this hellscape of a year. Here are your AEW mid-year awards.

Like with the WWE mid-year awards that ran earlier this month I asked several of my coworkers at the Daily DDT their thoughts and opinions about 5 major categories. Best Singles Wrestler, Best Tag Team, Best Angle/Gimmick, Best Match, and Best Overall PPV. Our participants are Kevin Parvizi, Chris Jeter, Samantha, Jesse Velasquez, Erik Boyer, and Myself.

Favorite Singles Wrestler

Chris –Jon Moxley. Remember when WWE tried to smear Jon Moxley on his way out the door when some in the company said he was a malcontent who would never find happiness anywhere he ultimately went? It was obviously petty at the time, but it looks even sillier now that Mox has become AEW’s top babyface. He’s consistently cut the great promos everyone knows him for and has turned in some great efforts against a variety of opponents, especially since becoming AEW World Champion.

Jesse  – Jon Moxley. Moxley rejuvenated his career in 2019. He has kept the ball rolling in 2020 with dominant performances. I’ve been a big fan of Moxley since 2011, he eventually transitioned that into his Dean Ambrose character with the WWE.His promo skills, brash, take no prisoner’s attitude has always appealed to me and unless someone really opens my eyes, he will continue to be my favorite performer in AEW. Him being AEW champion is the icing on the cake.

Erik – My favorite Singles Wrestler in AEW so far in 2020 has to be Orange Cassidy. My overall favorite would be “Hangman” Page and Darby Allin, had he participated in 2020 more than he was able, was on track to be my favorite singles wrestler, BUT either reason, neither of those guys could be picked. That leaves the Freshly Squeezed wonder of professional wrestling as my favorite singles competitor this year. They have done an excellent job portraying Cassidy’s transformation from purely a joke character to a more serious than not contender over the last several months.

Chris Jericho, my all-time favorite wrestler, just gave Cassidy the Jericho-rub, by only BARELY going over Cassidy with a fatal “Judas Effect” (a move NO-ONE has kicked out of, yet) rolling elbow. However, throughout the match, there was a sense that Cassidy COULD very well take victory in the main event should he connect with his variation of the superman punch, which had put away several combatants over weeks prior. I think after the Jericho match, Cassidy has officially become a legitimate contender to a singles title in AEW, and could easily be called “champion” by the end of 2020.

Kevin – My favorite singles wrestler has to be Britt Baker. She is hitting another level with her heel character, and she gets on my nerves every time she’s on the screen. Baker complains about everything and takes so many cheapshots. I can’t wait for Big Swole to really get her hands on Baker at All Out.

Samantha – Orange Cassidy. He has been incredibly entertaining and had great matches with two of the best in PAC & Jericho.

Sam – Nyla Rose. I am and always will be partial to a monster gimmick in wrestling. Nyla Rose is that monster she ran roughshod over the entire division and built it back up on her shoulders when she was pinned for her title at Double or Nothing.