The first annual EuroGraps.com Awards looks to recognise the very best in European Wrestling. We put our survey out to a carefully selected panel of journalists and fans from all across Europe to select their top three in a number of categories. 2018’s panel was @MikeKilby, @NordieByNature, @Spoilex16, @GaryOnGraps, @ArnoldFurious, @SarahFlann, @JPJipeee, @marv2punkt0, @ManuRomeroGraps, @TheKingofBoom, @RealPhillipDohm and @theianhamilton. Points were awarded with a first choice receiving 5 points, a second choice receiving  3 points and a third choice receiving 1 point. Not every person surveyed voted on every category.

Promotion of the Year:

1. wXw – 41pts.

2. OTT – 38pts.

3. Revolution Pro – 9pts.

4. Fight Club: Pro – 6pts.

=5. Pro Wrestling: EVE & PROGRESS Wrestling – 1pt.

Evidently no longer the leading market in the European scene, the Brits were kicked into touch by the biggest companies in Germany and Ireland.  It was always going to be a dogfight between wXw and OTT and this was one of the closest fought votes of the 2018 awards – with wXw having to go down to second choices to get the victory.

What can be said about these two promotions that hasn’t been said already? Both promotions had a fine balance between huge international names and strong core domestic rosters, consistently good cards and a huge increase of support from outside their domestic markets – but I think wXw were just a few steps ahead of OTT in all of these areas.

“WWE Contract-a-geddon” spoilt a lot of the major British companies this year – with most bookers seemingly having no idea on who can work where and against whom, whereas Ireland and Germany appeared to be mostly unscathed. Revolution Pro perhaps had a blessing in the sense that they (along with Defiant) were blacklisted before anyone else was so they had longer to prepare their roster – meaning they got first dibs on the likes of the Arrows of Hungary and Team White Wolf on a semi-full time basis.

Much like wXw and OTT, Wolverhampton-based Fight Club: Pro appealed to the traveling fan with their now infamous weekends and a growing reputation for being the place where literally anything can happen. PROGRESS seemed to follow in ICW and EVOLVE’s footsteps this year and appear to be regressing into the homogenous WWE co-opted bubble – but unlike their Scottish counterparts they still at least put on a few decent matches regularly. Pro Wrestling EVE also hold up the bottom of the table – perhaps unfairly because they’ve been one of the more interesting promotions as a whole (not just as a all-female promotion) in 2018, with the great Wrestle Queendom show in the York Hall as well as their regular events across the road in the Resistance Gallery.

✏️ @MikeKilby