These are based on the Tapatía Awards over at cubsfan's site.

Best Wrestler -- Negro Navarro

Negro Navarro is the best wrestler in Mexico. He looked good in everything I saw from him and his matwork was amazing every time he wrestled. Moreover he deserves credit for reinventing himself in his late 40s/early 50s, because the Navarro you see today is different from the guy who resurfaced in the 2001 El Dandy matches. Not a lot of guys change what works for them, and even fewer get better with age, but Navarro's become a more fearsome grappler than at any point in his career. And the promising thing is that he's so good from a vertical base, and so good on the mat, that he doesn't need to take a lot of bumps. So long as he maintains his leg strength, he's got plenty left in him.

A top five would go something like this -- Navarro, Black Terry, Solar, Virus and Blue Panther. If Panther were working the independent scene, I'd probably be gushing over him, but he has to dumb his shit down in CMLL. To me, Panther has always been a mat guy, who developed his skills between the ropes so he could work with anyone. Present CMLL has a strong emphasis on the latter, cutting matwork to a minute or less. And while Panther had some decent throwback matches, I thought he was noticably slower and more awkward looking doing the standard CMLL filler. Plus they had him brawl for most of the year, in a promotion that runs amazingly shitty brawls, when it's not his strength and doesn't suit the way he's sold over the years. Those are my critical reasons for not picking him as the No.1 guy, but he's still Blue Panther and he would've been awesome in a better setting.

Black Terry and Solar speak for themselves, though I never got to see the Black Terry matches I wanted to watch and Solar was disappointing in the latter half of the year, but Terry is ageless doing the same shtick that's made him a living all these years and Solar is still the complete luchador. The big surprise was Virus. I watched a bunch of stuff I wouldn't ordinarily watch and man can he go. He's the kind of guy who seems comfortable with his spot; a hard working rudo foil who makes everyone around him better. You've gotta admire that, because he's out there night after night with kids who don't have a quarter of his talent, all vying to move up the card, and the guy's giving them a helping hand. But the real treat is when he works with another vet. Why CMLL don't let Virus and Felino tear the house down on one of their smaller shows is beyond me. They had some of the best exchanges all year.

Best Match -- Mystico De La Juarez/Silver King/Rubi Gardenia v. Cassandro/Magno/El Hijo Del Santo, Lucha Libre London, 12/9/08

Up until I saw this match, I didn't have a match of the year and thought it was either the youtube clips of Black Terry vs. Negro Navarro, or, in all likelihood, something we never got to see, but this was the most entertaining thing I saw all year. Others might not appreciate it as much, but that's like coming out of a movie and your friends not matching your enthusiasm; it doesn't take away from the luster. Everybody has their own sense of rhythm and this was a triumph as far as I'm concerned. What can I say, it was fantastic.

Best Technico -- Freelance

I haven't heard what happened to him since he almost pulled an Oro on a botched dive, but he's so good at the stuff between dives that he doesn't need to do that shit. There's no point risking life and limb on tiny IWRG shows, so I hope he cuts back on the high risk, low reward stuff. Anyway, he's got a lot of fight for a guy his size and was the most charismatic technico I saw all year.

Best Rudo -- None

I saw a lot of great rudo foils this year -- Virus, Arkangel de La Muerte, Skandalo, Ephesto, even Mini Damian, and there's always guys like Black Terry, but when it came to feuds, rivalries or programs, there wasn't much to say about the rudos. The rivalry of the year was probably Villano V vs. Blue Panther, and Villano V may win this in the actual Tapatía Awards, but I wasn't too shocked by Panther losing his mask. The morning of the show I logged onto cubsfan's site and there was a guy who reckoned Villano would win, so it was kinda in the back of my mind. I don't think he's a good enough worker to win this category, but CMLL won't let them brawl Monterrey style, so who knows how heated it could've been.

Best Unit -- Los Oficiales

These are the only guys I'd consider. From what I saw, they got better throughout the year, but footage of these guys was few and far between. It's a great gimmick and they started gelling as a three man act, whereas before I thought they were better at individual match-ups. IWRG threw some pretty limited guys at them, and while I don't think they can carry anyone, they bumped their way into the collective consciousness.

Best Promotion -- The Scraps

All the best stuff came from AULL, IWRG, NWA Mexico, Lucha Libre London, etc. We were living off the scraps.