AJ Styles voted wrestler of year for 2017 by Sky Sports readers
Friday 22 December 2017 09:08, UK
AJ Styles has capped a Phenomenal 2017 by being voted wrestler of the year by Sky Sports readers.
Styles ends the year in the same way he started it - as the WWE Champion and with his reputation as the best worker in the world completely solidified.
The 40-year-old provided British fans with one of their most memorable wrestling moments when he beat Jinder Mahal for the belt in a thrilling match at an episode of SmackDown in Manchester.
The arena crowd chanted his name throughout the match and long into the night on an evening which will never be forgotten.
It also represented the first time in the history of the company that a major WWE title changed hands outside of North America as history was made in the Manchester Arena.
Styles has been consistently excellent throughout the year and arguably had his best performance in a champion-against-champion showdown with Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series.
Although Lesnar prevailed on that occasion, it was comfortably the best match on the card and a contender for 2017's match of the year.
Paul Heyman was glowing in his praise of Styles' performance in that match, saying: "He's everything that Shawn Michaels, and Bret Hart, and Ric Flair were to their generation and he's updated it.
"He's evolved their styles to truly be the single most phenomenal in-ring performer I have ever had the honour and the pleasure of watching up close."
Styles' closest rival in the voting was Braun Strowman, who featured heavily despite not holding a championship at any point during the year.
His stock has risen sharply over the past 12 months, to the point where he is now regarded as one of the company's main eventers, and that growth in popularity was reflected in the voting.
Taking third place in the poll was Raw women's champion Alexa Bliss, who remains in the midst of a four-month run with the red brand's title at the end of a year which also saw her twice hold the SmackDown championship.
Bliss' in-ring performances have steadily improved over the year, culminating in arguably her best outing to date in the Raw-against-SmackDown head to head with Charlotte Flair at Survivor Series.
