1) Roderick Strong: This was an easy choice for number one. Roderick Strong has been in a rivalry with ROH World and Television Champion Jay Lethal for most of the second half of the year. They first had an hour draw at Death Before Dishonor, which I didn't love. They bested it in a World Title match in September where Lethal retained. They had the final match of their trilogy this week on ROH TV, for the Television Title. I honestly feel like this was the best match of their series this year and Strong was able to capture the gold. Doing so not only makes him the second two time TV Champion (with Lethal), but he ended Lethal's record 567 day reign as champion. I don't imagine Roderick's reign will be anything like that, but I hope for one full of great matches, which seems to be all that Roderick Strong can have these days.
2) Dean Ambrose: He came up just short in the WWE World Heavyweight Title Tournament at Survivor Series. Not deterred, Dean Ambrose set his sights elsewhere. He competed in a tag team match on Raw where he pinned Tyler Breeze following Dirty Deeds. His main reason for coming in second this week happened on Smackdown, so maybe a lot of people missed it. In a really good main event, he defeated Breeze and Dolph Ziggler to become the number one contender to Kevin Owens' WWE Intercontinental Title. Their match at Survivor Series was good and I'm betting there is something better coming down the line.
3) Santana Garrett: So, 2015 has been quite the year for Santana Garrett. Coming into this week, she not only held the NWA Women's Championship, but she was also the reigning SHINE Champion. Those are the two biggest that I know of but she actually holds many more. To reel them off, along with the NWA and SHINE Titles, she is the current CWE Vixen's Champion, JCW Women's Champion, NPW Women's Champion, OPW Women's Champion, Ring Warrior's Battling Bombshell's Champion, SCW Florida Cruiserweight Champion, USPW Women's Champion, USWA Women's Champion, one half of the WOW Tag Team Champions and one half of the BPW Tag Team Champions. That's insane. This week, she beat Shirai to win the Wonder of Stardom Title, adding to the ridiculous amount of gold that she already holds. That's the top title for Stardom and continues the big 2015 for her. Honestly, along with girls like Cheerleader Melissa and Nicole Matthews, she is one of my biggest current wants to WWE. She could be a very valuable asset to the NXT and WWE women's/divas divisions. While I haven't been able to see as much of her in 2015 as I'd like, she's definitely in the top five performers that I will be going out of my way of to make sure I see a bunch in 2016. With all of those accomplishments under her belt right now (not including titles she's held previously), she has to be doing something very right all around the world.
4) Bayley: We stick with one of the best female wrestlers heading into the number four spot for this week's list. Bayley had the unenviable task of wrestling the god awful Eva Marie for the NXT Women's Championship. I have to commend whoever laid out the match because they provided a TON of smoke and mirrors to work around Eva being dreadful. They had a conspiracy angle where it seemed like the WWE wanted their cookie cutter girl Eva as champion, Nia Jax got involved and it featured a few ref bumps. Bayley would succeed in retaining the belt despite all of this with a second rope Bayley to Belly. It wasn't a match I'd consider good like some people are, but it was indeed expertly booked. Bayley keeps the title again, did her best to make Eva look halfway competent in the ring and she moves into what looks like a program with Nia Jax.
5) Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson: Similar to the NXT Tag Team Title win of Blake and Murphy earlier this year, the one by Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson kind of came from out of nowhere. They dethroned the Vaudevillains a few weeks ago and this week on NXT, the Vaudevillains used their rematch clause. The match itself wasn't anything special, but it was another win for Dash and Dawson. Their old school heel tag team mentality is pretty refreshing and they look to be moving into a title defense against Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady. I've said Enzo and Cass should have won the titles a while back but with Dash and Dawson just winning them, I see the champions retaining when they match does happen.
