If You Really Think About It, The VP100 is Wrestling’s Oscar’s
The Oscar’s are tomorrow, and my goodness have I taken in way too much Oscar’s content for any sane person. Dozens of hours of podcasts, some specifically dedicated to the award season. I visit websites specific to the Academy Awards to feel clued in. Answering important questions like “Who worked the room at the latest Academy luncheon?” and “Do the BAFTA’s mean anything?”. Typically is a lot of guessing and trying to use new data points to spice up the conversation. Where the answer has been A for months but suddenly, one new award being given out makes you think “Well maybe actually B is going to win after all?”. The award is absolutely going to A, but sometimes when you are deep in the weeds. Having the same response for month after month with no change could make you mad.
That brings us to the VP100 where every year social media, or more so this year the Violent People Discord, lights up with conversations on who is jockeying into position where. I’m not spoiling anything to say that Jon Moxley is the presumptive #1 wrestler of 2025. If you are on social media, hard to miss the tells.
Precursors
Usually I would use something like Joseph Montecillo’s YouTube video for the year as a version of a precursor. It embodies the critic award circuit in a lot of ways. The wins don’t necessarily matter, but getting your name there “legitimizes” your case to the awards body. It doesn’t necessarily guarantee anything but it certainly can give you a read of the room. Afterwards, you might even have some folks double down support. Without the video or anything, if you look at his 2025 Recommended Matches you’ll see Moxley recommended more than any other wrestler across the board. He even has the most top ranked matches of anyone. Frankly, you are creating a scenario for your own amusement if you don’t think he’s walking away with it.
Other precursor’s might be Voices of Wrestling’s Match of the Year poll which is very clearly the Golden Globes. A completely meaningless award that used to be at least an amusing show and is now purely a slog.
Parallels
The #1 ranking is kind of like Best Picture though. It is the big award, it isn’t the only prize though. Finding a parallel to some of them is difficult. Best Actress is simple, top ranked women’s wrestler. Last year the honor would have been given to Sareee, and gut says that parallels correctly.
Below the line awards, the technical categories such as Costume Design and Score, are akin to top ranked indie lucha wrestler or US-based non-Super Indy person. The later of which might not even make the top 100, might be an honorable mention. Honestly that works with the way award shows will squeeze one of these below the line awards off to the side. Part of the show but with less pomp and circumstance.
Ultimately what has the VP100 standout and aligns with the Oscars, in a positive respect, is that it is a celebration of the form with a diverse voter pool. When you look up the 10 Best Picture nominees you rarely see one type of film. That is in part because the makeup of the voters isn’t one type of person. You have a blockbuster or two, a foreign language film or two, and films that won awards at their respective film festivals across the globe. For the VP100, you have folks from AEW and NJPW, joshi wrestlers from various promotions, and even luchadores who wrestled in junkyards. There is no one type of wrestler to make the list. Even if you aren’t in consideration for the top spot, you still have the opportunity to be highlighted.
Hopefully next year we can get the VP100 on Kalshi and Polymarket. The we could truly be like the big award shows.
