Who Is WWE’s Person Of The Year?

Time magazine has named President-elect Donald Trump its Person of the Year for his shocking upset election victory that rewrote the rules of politics.

The choice of Trump was pretty much a no-brainer after he went from business tycoon to reality show host to fiery underdog in the race for the Republican presidential nomination to defeating Clinton in the November 8 election. He won 306 electoral votes, easily enough to make him president. Clinton won the popular vote.

But, while Time’s choice may have been fairly straightforward, doling out the same award in the WWE may not be so easy. The magazine said its Person of the Year, an annual tradition that dates back 90 years, “had the greatest influence, for better or worse, on the events of the year”.

To find out which WWE star had the greatest impact on the year, we ran the data through an extensive system of equations and complex algorithms to come up with WWE’s Person of the Year.

Here are a list of contenders, followed by the winner.

5. Chris Jericho

After 26 years in the business, Y2J had his most unexpected renaissance in 2016. Jericho had his greatest Royal Rumble showing in ages, followed by an outstanding feud with AJ Styles at Wrestlemania. But it was the latter half of the year that made this the Year of Jericho. His BFF act with Kevin Owens has been the brightest spot of the brand split. In a three month span he was able to get over the phrases “stupid idiot”, “it”, “drink it man”, “gift of Jericho”, and “You just made the list!”. That’s more than most superstars have in a career. However, it’s not enough for Chris to be named Person Of the Year.  

4. Charlotte/Sasha Banks (tie)

How could I possibly put one here without the other? These two women have pushed the boulder of women’s wrestling farther up the hill in 8 months than any other two women in wrestling history were able to. You could argue that they have had more opportunities than any other women, but that’s just the nature of the wrestling business. It’s what they did with the opportunity that mattered most. From stealing the show in NXT to main eventing the first ever women’s Hell In A Cell match, Sasha and Charlotte have put on some of the greatest matches of the year. They would probably win this award if it were named the People of The Year. Since it’s not, we’ll move on. 

3. AJ Styles

Like Daniel Bryan and CM Punk before him, AJ Styles brought a whole lot of Internet Wrestling Community love with him to the WWE. After years of toiling in TNA and honing his craft as Bullet Club leader in New Japan, AJ set the WWE on fire when he debuted at the 2016 Royal Rumble. Since then, he’s shown that not only is he the best athlete inside the squared circle since HBK, but that his cocky redneck persona makes for a great heel champion. 

AJ put on classic matches with the best the WWE has to offer. He defeated Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and John Cena. But all his in ring accomplishments weren’t quite enough to make him the Person of the Year. 

2. James Ellsworth

Ellsworth’s career started when he gave a goofy promo before getting destroyed by Braun Strowman. It seemed as if he’d be nothing more than a footnote in wrestling history. Four months later and the long time indy circuit jobber has had a number one selling WWE t shirt, a real WWE contract, and factored into the main event of nearly every recent episode of Smackdown LIVE. He was the deciding factor in the TLC main event and is now prominently positioned for a sustained run as a weasley heel atop the blue brand. Look, if Donald Trump can win Person of the Year, so can James Ellsworth. Unfortunately, James falls just a little short this year. 

1. Triple H

Sure, Trips won the Royal Rumble and his 14th WWE World Championship. He even main evented Wrestlemania against Roman Reigns. But that’s nothing compared to what he’s done behind the scenes. This past year, Trips has given us NXT, the Cruiserweight Classic, real respect for women’s wrestling, Shinsuke Nakamura, Samoa Joe, Sami Zayn, AJ Styles and the Brand Split. If 2016 is any sign of what’s to come for the WWE when Vince finally steps down, the business is going to be in great shape.

If Triple H was bold enough to book himself to be the WWE champion, then we feel totally comfortable booking him as the 2016 WWE Person of the Year.