AEW Awards 2021 Winners Announced Ahead of AEW Dynamite

By Connor Casey

The AEW Awards for 2021 were handed out on Wednesday, celebrating the biggest moments and performances of the previous year. Fans had the opportunity to vote on the topics online for several weeks and the winners were presented by Tony Schiavone, Dr. Britt Baker, The Men of the Year, Danhausen and Orange Cassidy. You can see the full list of winners below. 

This week's AEW Dynamite will feature CM Punk vs. Dax Harwood, an eight-man tornado tag team match include The Hardys, Darby Allin, Sting and the AFO, Chris Jericho & Daniel Garcia vs. John Silver & Alex Reynolds and Adam Cole vs. Jay Lethal.

  • Biggest Surprise — Adam Cole & Bryan Danielson arriving at All Out 2021
  • Best Moment on the Mic — CM Punk's return promo in Chicago
  • Biggest WTF Moment — New Year's Eve Street Fight between Anna Jay & Tay Conti vs. The Bunny & Penelope Ford
  • Biggest Beatdown — Hangman Page for going to a 60-minute draw with Bryan Danielson.
  • Best Twitter Follow — Nyla Rose
  • High Flyer of the Year — Dante Martin
  • Best Fashion Moment — Dr. Britt Baker's "Brittsburgh" Outfit
  • Best Tag Team Brawl — The Lucha Brothers defeating The Young Bucks at All Out inside a Steel Cage
  • Best Mic Duel — MJF w/ CM Punk on Thanksgiving Eve
  • Breakout Star (Male) — Sammy Guevara
  • Breakout Star (Female) — Jade Cargill
  • Wrestler of the Year — Kenny Omega

The awards marked the first time Omega has appeared on camera since announcing he was stepping away from in-ring competition to heal from a number of injuries and surgeries he underwent after dropping the AEW World Championship to Hangman Page at Full Gear. He indicated in his acceptance speech that he plans on winning the award again next year, indicating he'll be back in action at some point in 2022. He offered an update on his recovery in a recent interview with the Wrestling Observer.

"I was perhaps a little too optimistic," Omega said. "I was hoping to be back by February, and it's not looking that way anymore. And that's not to say that there was a huge snag or that you know there's something that is terribly wrong. It's not that. It's just when you're trying to get appointments and things fixed, you have it in your brain that oh yeah, I can just call a number, and I'll get in the next day.

"I'm still feeling a little bit better as time goes by and that's without even having to do a lot of the major procedures that need to be done. That's just myself working with trainers and doing the proper rehab. I was leaning too heavily into my strengths as a performer and as an athlete. I guess over the years there were either just natural strengths that I had or things that I had overdeveloped and I was relying too much on those things," he continued. "Now that the knees are gone, the neck's going, a lot of stuff was going on."

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