The 2015 professional wrestling year in review

Most professional sports offer some variation on the “It’s a long season” theme. But nowhere is this more true than any given year in pro wrestling. There’s no offseason. There are a minimum five hours of WWE programming in a given week. Add in Lucha Underground, TNA, Ring of Honor, New Japan and the indies ... it’s virtually impossible for a wrestling fan to watch everything.

Each year in pro wrestling, there are spectacular heights. Often, there are crushing lows. This year, there were entire months that tested the loyalty of a not-insignificant portion of wrestling fans. 2015 offered legitimately transcendent moments and stretches that we’d like to forget.

So much happened. So much. It’s a long, long year. There’s no way to completely recap 2015 in this space. But there were some major stories that shaped and helped define what it meant to be a wrestling fan over the past 12 months. Here’s an earnest attempt to sum up the major happenings in pro wrestling this year.

No one knows about how long the year is than the wrestlers themselves. They’re in the ring over 300 days a year and their bodies suffer more wear and tear than most other athletes over the course of an average sports season. But something was in the air this year. It seemed like everyone who mattered got injured, usually at the very worst time.

The WWE roster was completely ravaged by injuries. Daniel Bryan, who had to surrender the world title last year due to injury, finally made his long-awaited return and captured the Intercontinental title at WrestleMania ... only to vacate it due to injury. He still hasn’t been cleared to wrestle by WWE doctors and there’s a chance he never will be.

Tyson Kidd suffered a nearly fatal neck injury in a dark match against Samoa Joe. If he ever returns to wrestling, it won’t be until next summer at the earliest. His tag team partner, Cesaro, who was wearing a Tyson Kidd armband since the injury, was forced to get shoulder surgery just as his singles career seemed to finally get rolling before Survivor Series.

Sting got injured in his first-ever WWE title match. It might be a career-ending injury. Randy Orton hurt his shoulder taking out the garbage in October and needed surgery. He’ll be out four to six months. And perhaps worst of all, reigning WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins tore his right knee to pieces in a match against Kane in Germany and had to vacate the belt. He’s expected to be out for a minimum of six months.

The damage wasn’t limited to the WWE, either. New Japan superstar Kota Ibushi suffered a year-ending injury just as he seemed poised to ascend to the upper echelon of the NJPW ranks. Over in TNA, multiple-time world champion Jeff Hardy broke his leg in a motorcycle accident in April and hasn’t been back since.

All of these injuries, of course, only added to the tragedies of losing wrestling luminaries like Dusty Rhodes, Roddy Piper, Perro Aguayo Jr., and Nick Bockwinkel this year.

The Road to WrestleMania -- the period of time that runs roughly from the Royal Rumble in January until WrestleMania in late March/early April -- is the most-anticipated season for all wrestling fans. This year, it appeared to be the all-time worst build to a WrestleMania. At least, it was the worst build that most fans could remember. Rumble winner Roman Reigns was booed out of the building, even while standing next to his cousin, The Rock. The go-home show featured Reigns and Brock Lesnar playing tug-of-war over a title belt like petulant children.

And then ... WrestleMania 31 was an instant classic. WWE proved it could still pull a rabbit out of its hat and deliver when it mattered, giving the fans exactly what they needed, exactly when they needed it most.

Then it all went to hell again. Injuries started piling up. Kane was getting world title feuds no one wanted. It wasn’t clear who was supposed to be a good guy or a bad guy from one segment to another. The Divas Revolution was perhaps one of the most polarizing storylines ever.

And then ... SummerSlam weekend in Brooklyn was a rousing success, almost like a second WrestleMania weekend. Then John Cena took some time off and it all went to hell again. Then the title tournament for Rollins’ vacated title was universally lauded. Then Sheamus became a lame-duck champion and RAW ratings hit an all-time low.

It’s a long year, yes. But this year was also spectacularly uneven, even for WWE. Droves of fans vented their frustrations loudly, then stopped tuning in altogether. Triple H acknowledged that WWE will find a way to right the ship and bring fans back in.

The main lesson they can learn from 2015 is that they need to find consistency. There were too many weeks of treading water and forgetting that stories need to actually advance. This is the year they learned that fans will reach a breaking point.

There was good news in 2015, of course. There was a lot of wrestling to enjoy. There were a lot of fantastic pay-per-views. It was pretty much an embarrassment of riches, although it was easy to lose sight of that during the more tedious episodes of RAW.

The biggest revelation is that after years of complaining about the same stars being in the main event for a decade, WWE fans blinked and there was an almost complete paradigm shift. Triple H is on a one-match-a-year schedule now. John Cena, Big Show, Kane and Undertaker all took serious time off this year. Randy Orton moved to working a lighter schedule before his injury.

Suddenly, we’re looking at a WWE where the biggest (non-Brock Lesnar) stars are Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Dean Ambrose ... and yes, John Cena. But Cena only challenged for the world title twice in 2015 and spent most of the year establishing the United States Championship as the prestige secondary title in the company. What’s more: when Cena took six weeks off to work on a reality competition show for Fox, the same fans that complained about him hogging the spotlight for years were screaming for him to come back.

The future is extremely bright for WWE fans and for wrestling fans all over the world. New Japan delighted fans with its annual G1 Climax tournament that produced a trove of five-star matches. AAA and CMLL in Mexico both attracted viewers with some much-hyped dream matches, like Rey Mysterio vs. Myzteziz.

Stateside, Lucha Underground built on its passionate cult following, wrapped up its universally acclaimed first season and finally announced (and began taping) its second. Indie company EVOLVE entered into a landmark partnership and talent exchange with WWE. Promotions like CHIKARA, PWG, Beyond Wrestling and Inspire Pro continued to turn heads with much-ballyhooed matches. Jeff Jarrett’s Global Force Wrestling finally launched and began a cross-promotional storyline with TNA. And speaking of TNA, it got a stay of execution -- twice -- when it moved to Destination America and then to POP TV, where it’ll launch to begin 2016.

WWE continued to make huge international signings and stock its developmental league, NXT, with the best talent in the world. And while NXT had always had a passionate, vocal following, 2015 was the year it became its own, globally touring promotion.

NXT was perhaps the brightest spot in all of wrestling in 2015. It created fully formed characters that you cared about. Characters that settled their differences in the ring with some of the best wrestling you’ve ever seen. NXT became the total package and the standard for a wrestling promotion this year, highlighted by Sasha Banks defending the NXT Women’s Championship against Bayley in the sold-out Barclays Center in Brooklyn the night before SummerSlam.

It was the culmination of a years-long storyline for both Bayley and Banks and both women not only stole the show, they stole the entire weekend. Nothing else that weekend -- or indeed much of this year -- could hold a candle to the passion and storytelling on display in that match. And all that was BEFORE Sasha and Bayley were the first women to ever headline a WWE live special. (With the first-ever Iron Woman match.)

NXT is creating the WWE megastars of the future. As long as NXT keeps running, there will be joy in wrestling and there will be hope for the next breakout star. But looking back over the year and how much the landscape has changed, it’s safe to say the future of the business is a whole lot closer then we anticipated in 2014. Hell, it’s already here.

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