Big year in matches for the WWE. Here are the top 15 for EYG.
#15. Men’s Royal Rumble Match (Jey Uso winner)
#14. CM Punk vs. Seth Rollins, cage match
#13. CM Punk vs. John Cena, Crown Jewel.
#12, Seth Rollins vs. CM Punk, 1st Netflix RAW
#11. Cody Rhodes vs. Kevin Owens, Ladder Match, Royal Rumble.
#10. DIY vs. Motor City Machine Guns vs. Street Profits, TLC Match on Smackdown.
#9. Oba Femi vs. Trick Williams vs. Je’Von Evans, Stand & Deliver
#8. CM Punk vs. Gunther, SummerSlam
#7. Iyo Sky vs. Rhea Ripley, Evolution.
#6. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn, Elimination Chamber
#5. Bianca Belair vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Iyo Sky, Wrestlemania 41
#4. El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Chad Gable, World’s Collide
#3. Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk vs. Seth Rollins, Wrestlemania 41
#2. John Cena vs. Cody Rhodes, Summer Slam
#1. John Cena vs. AJ Styles, Crown Jewel- Perth.
I was unable to watch this live. I watched a replay later. I had seen highlights and knew the winner. During that replay, I had tears in my eyes. It was such a love letter to Cena and AJ and their previous opponents that it made me emotional. I can’t imagine what it would have been like if I had been able to see it live and did not know what was going to happen. It provided maybe the most emotion of the year and that is why it is Match of the Year.
Every year we have some of the best female stars in Geek culture. Here are the top 15 of the year, including the winner of the Anna Devane Kick Ass Female Award. Here are the previous winners of this award.
The Anna Devane Kick Ass Female Award
Previous winners: Rey (Star Wars), Mockingbird (Marvel Comics), Wonder Woman (DCEU), The Shirewolves, Captain Marvel, Kamala Harris, Wanda Maximoff, Pearl, Dorothy “Dot” Lyon (Fargo season five), Agatha Harkness (Agatha All Along)
#15. Becky Lynch. Becky is the best WWE wrestler ever… and it’s not just her saying it… Sports Illustrated is saying it. Becky has had a fabulous year this year.
#14. Ironheart. Ironheart had her own Marvel Studios Disney + series. It was better than I thought it would be and it ended with a major shock.
#13. Yellowjackets women. Misty. Shauna. Taissa. Liv. The Yellowjackets women were not just kick ass, but really pretty crazy.
#12. Iris (Companion). Iris is a robot, but she turned into another example of the eventual overlords of AI.
#11. Carol (Pluribus). Carol is one of the few people on planet earth who avoided the hive mind take over. She is straight-forward and hot headed, with a violent temper. I guess you can understand why.
#10. Wednesday. Wednesday’s second season was not as strong as the first one, but Wednesday is a force on that show.
#9. Storm. Storm got her own series in Marvel this year. She became an Avenger. She was being placed as a big deal in Marvel. About time.
#8. Emilia Harcourt (Peacemaker). Harcourt is co-lead of peacemaker, and her relationship with John Cena was the heart of the series. Plus, she just is kick ass.
#7. Elphaba (Wicked: For Good). The Wicked Witch of the West’s real story in Wicked: For Good shows how powerful this witch is… and retcons that ending of Wizard of Oz.
#6. Lois Lane (Superman). Lois was a huge star of the new DCU film, Superman. Played by Rachel Brosnahan, Lois was intricate to the story.
#5. Eleven (Stranger Things). Eleven is no doubt a kick ass character, but she may still have some major action in the final season of Stranger Things at Christmas time.
#4. Yelena Belova (Thunderbolts*) Played by Florence Pugh, Yelena was the main character in the ensemble film, Thunderbolts*. Yelena was sensational in the film.
#3. Rumi, Mira, and Zoey (K-Pop Demon Hunters) One of the big surprises of the year, the K-Pop Demon Hunters battled demons and sang songs.
#2. Black Canary. One of my favorite mini series this year, Black Canary: Best of the Best wa one of my favorite DC books of the year, and was one reason why I started buying as many DC books as I did.
#1. Invisible Woman
She gave birth in space. She used her invisible shields to push Galactus through a portal, and it nearly cost her her life. Thankfully her ultimately powered baby was able to save her.
Vanessa Kirby was a major star of Fantastic Four: First Steps. Her final scenes with Galactus showed the power of a momma.
And the Anna Devane Kick Ass of the Year Award winner.
It has been a big year in Geek culture. Here are the Top 10 stories according to EYG of Geek culture from 2025.
#10. Neil Gaiman controversy. Neil Gaiman was an iconic writer with some of the best work ever. However, it was revealed that he was into some really gross things including sexual assaults, and he was done. It only got worse as the year moved along.
#9. TikTok stays of execution. At one point, it seemed as if TikTok was about to be banned by the US government because of the rumors that TikTok was a Chinese company and it was collecting info. However, it has gone all year with a couple of delays from Donald Trump and other politicians. What is the fate of TikTok? Who knows?
#8. Jack the Ripper’s identity is…. This year it was reported that mitochondrial DNA was found on a shawl found near a victim (Catherine Eddowes) and was a 100% match to Aaron Kosminski, one of the all time Ripper suspects. However, there are questions about the results and many believe that this is not the final answer.
#7. Brain Rot. 6-7. Rizz. Sigma. Skibiti Toilet. Cringe. Gyatt. Ohio. Some of these are slang that kids on TikTok and classrooms around the country are using. Some of these words are becoming literally real words.
#6. AI Developments. Artificial intelligence has become a major force in the world. Google has AI to answer questions searched with Gemini. There is ChatGPT, Magic School Bus, Siri, Alexa etc. Yes, we are on the path to our eventual AI overlords to take over the world.
#5. John Cena Retirement Tour. I am getting ready to watch the final match of John Cena’s career. he has been on a retirement tour this year in WWE. He had a heel turn that was massive, but did not work out perhaps as they wanted. Still, he has been willing to do anything all year long.
#4. Box Office Struggles. The Box office struggled in 2025, which included a 27-year low in October. There were too many flops and very few major hits (Lilo & Stitch and Zootopia 2 being the exceptions). The world of streaming has taken its chunk out of the theater experience and it does not seem to be changing any time soon. Hopefully with Avatar: Fire and Ash coming and then with a major Avengers movie next year, things will be improving.
#3. Jimmy Kimmel suspended. Kimmel was suspended by ABC for a comment/joke he made in response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The public would not accept this, and they revolted against ABC and Disney + lost many subscribers until ABC rescinded the suspension after a few days.
#2. Stephen Colbert canceled. However, unlike Kimmel, Stephen Colbert wound up canceled by CBS under the excuse that his ratings were low (though he was the #1 rated show in late night) and was costing too much money. Speculation was that Colbert was canceled as a way to help get Paramount’s merger with Skydance approved by the Trump administration. This has never been confirmed. Colbert’s final episode will come in May 2026.
#1. Netflix buys Warner Brothers.. or do they? Netflix won the bidding war for WB… with their 80+ billion dollar bid. However, Paramount, the rival in the attempt to buy the film company, planned to do a hostile takeover of WB, stealing it out from under Netflix’s nose. It is still up in the air about what the eventual owner of WB will be. Perhaps this has a chance to be the Top Geek Story of 2026 as well.
Best Movie starring an Expendable: The Running Man (starring Glen Powell). The rebooted film of the classic Schwarzenegger film turned out to be a solid fun time.
Best Actor: Glen Powell. Powell looked like an action star in The Running Man.
Worst Movie starring an Expendable: Old Guard 2 (featuring Chiwetel Ejiofor). I just recently saw this one and it was so bad. Quite a step down from the previous film.
Bruce Willis Quantity over Quality Award: Eric Roberts. Three feature films and two podcasts. It may not be Bruce Willis-like, but it is quite the bunch.
Best Expendable Cameo: David Zayas, Dexter Resurrection. Zayas appeared in several episodes of Dexter: Resurrection as Angel Bautista, though he did not make it through the season unscathed.
Best Expendable Supporting Actor: Antonio Banderas, Paddington in Peru. Weakest of the Paddington movies is still awesome.
The Reddest Expendable Actor: Harrison Ford, Captain America: Brand New World. Red literally… as Harrison Ford became the Red Hulk!
A movie with a group of actors that might lack a leading actor is a great thing. We have had some great ones this year.
The Avengers: Endgame Ensemble Cast of the Year Award
Previous Winners: Avengers: Endgame (2019), The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), In the Heights (2021), Mass (2021), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022), Oppenheimer (2023), Saturday Night (2024)
Runners-Up: Wicked: For Good, Weapons, Fantastic Four: First Steps, Sinners, Nuremberg, A House of Dynamite, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, The Life of Chuck, Phoenician Scheme, and Warfare.
2025 EYG The Avengers: Endgame Ensemble Cast of the Year Award
Thunderbolts*
Marvel Studios’ new film Thunderbolts (aka New Avengers) was such a great movie and it was because this group of low level characters were such a sensational group together. The film worked story wise is because of this ensemble.
The ensemble included Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer, Wendell Pierce, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
The movie was emotional and the performances were fantastic. The film did not make as much money as you would want. There are a lot of reasons, but they were not a really well known group of characters. Still, as an MCU fan, I loved this film and the cast was the main reason.
I think this is a difficult one to give out this year, and I do think that my decision is different than I have ever done before.
There are three possible films: Thunderbolts, Superman, and Fantastic Four. I usually give this award to the superhero film that is highest on my Best Films list. That is not the situation this year. In fact, of the three, this one is my least favorite of the three. They are all awesome, but it just felt right to give this award to this certain film.
The Christopher Reeve Memorial Comic Book Movie of the Year
Previous Winners: Batman (1989), Dick Tracy (1990), The Rocketeer (1991), Batman Returns (1992), Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), The Crow (1994), Batman Forever (1995), The Phantom (1996), Men in Black (1997), Blade (1998), Mystery Men (1999), X-Men (2000), From Hell (2001), Spider-Man (2002), X2: X-Men United (1993), Spider-Man 2 (1994), V for Vendetta (2005), 300 (2006), Superman: Doomsday (2007), The Dark Knight (2008), Watchmen (2009), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), Captain America: First Avenger (2011), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Captain America: Winter Soldier & Guardians of the Galaxy [tie] (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Logan (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Birds of Prey (2020), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)
So, in 2025, The Christopher Reeve Memorial Comic Book Movie of the Year goes to….
Superman.
This film brought the character of Superman back to the big screen and did it in a way that truly paid homage to the Christopher Reeve version back in the 1978 movie.
Director James Gunn placed this new Superman smack dab in the center of his new DCU where Superman had been around for awhile. No origin story here. We all know it.
It’s not perfect, but it is the best rendition of Superman since Christopher Reeve and that is why I gave Superman this award, despite the fact that both Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four are higher up the list for me than Superman.
We just had the Confirmed.. or is it? Award, which dealt with the Internet getting fooled. Now, we have the internet getting mad.
This happens daily.
Things cause so much rage-bait on the internet all the time. So this award is here to offer up the Insane Internet Rage Scandal of the Year… known as The Don’t Feed the Trolls Award!
The Don’t Feed the Trolls: Insane Internet Rage Scandal of the Year
Previous Winner: Baby Yoda eats frog’s eggs (2020), Masters of the Universe: Revelations part one (2021), She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022), Twitter becomes X (2023), Trump (2024)
This year had a couple of runners-up. They were: Snow White and the CGI dwarves and Brock Lesnar’s return to the WWE.
But this year’s winner….
Superman (2025) is too woke!
Complaints about the new Superman movie went everywhere online. James Gunn dared to call this an immigrant tale and all the right wing haters came from everywhere to dump on this movie.
There are other haters, such as those who believe that Superman should not be covering his face (picture above). So much anger directed toward this film and there was too much joy from some when Superman did not make the amount of money they thought it should have.
Many believed that they made this too political (hey there Dean Cain) and had taken away his patriot symbol (“Truth, Justice, and the Human Way”… not American way???). It was all just noise to distract.
Superman was a great movie and any one claiming it was too woke… well, they do not have to watch it.
Every year there are rumors that spread about a certainty because someone has said it somewhere on the net. Many times, these rumors just are not true.
A few years ago, we added this award to go to the rumor that seemed to be the most secure.. only to turn out false.
Confirmed… or is it? Award
Previous Winner: Mephisto is in WandaVision (2021), Fantastic Four has been cast (2022), Everyone is cast as Reed Richards (2023), Spider-Man 4 was being secretly filmed (2024)
It’s ironic that our first winner of this award was how everyone believed that Mephisto was going to be introduced on WandaVision… but he was actually introduced this past year on Ironheart.
This year, the Confirmed… or is it? Award goes to…
WWE Rumors(Seth Rollins)
There are rumors of WWE every day. It has gotten to the point where I do not believe anything the dirt sheets have to say until I see it on the screen at a Premium Live Event, RAW or Smackdown.
Seth Rollins trolled the entire world with a knew injury he suffered in a match with LA Knight on Saturday’s Night Main Event. The injury was a work, and Seth was back at SummerSlam to cost CM Punk the title. There were people confirming Seth’s injury all over the place. Seth even used crutches to take his daughter to school.
The WWE and Seth trolled the world. Seth went on the Rich Eisen Show and lied his face off.
Of course, Seth Rollins injured his shoulder and is out, and the WWE is pretending that Seth donned a black mask and a black outfit and stomped Punk during the War Games. And with Seth’s history, who knows if it is true.
In 2025, we are looking at our EYG Star of the Year. This can be from any level of entertainment: TV, Movies, Sports, Music, Production companies, etc.
Here are the previous winners:
EYG Star of the YearPrevious Winners: Gal Gadot, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jennifer Lawrence, Marvel Studios, J.J. Abrams, Josh Brolin, Damon Lindelof & Regina King, Netflix, Andrew Garfield, Tom Cruise, Taylor Swift, Ryan Reynolds
Runners-Up: Shohei Ohtani, Taylor Swift, Jack Black, James Gunn, David Corenswet, Florence Pugh, Pedro Pascal, TikTok
2025 EYG Star of the Year
John Cena
John Cena returned to the WWE this year for his retirement tour. After 20 years, John Cena put on several huge matches against such opponents as Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, AJ Styles, Dominik Mysterio, and Randy Orton.
John Cena won his 17th World Championship, breaking the record of Ric Flair.
John Cena won the Intercontinental Championship, becoming a Grand Slam Champion.
John Cena turned heel, in one of the most shocking moments of the year.
While Cena’s heel run was not great (mainly because the fans did not really want to boo him), he put everything he had into it.
His final match takes place on Saturday Night’s Main Event on Dec. 13.
He also starred in the HBO Max series Peacemaker season two. He cameoed in Superman. He starred in Heads of State with Idris Elba.
John Cena has been at the forefront all year long and he deserves his flowers. He is out EYG Star of the Year.
YouTube is forever changing, adding, adjusting. There are a ton of shows, reactors, reviews that I have enjoyed watching.
I think it is very interesting since these shows go up and down the list quite a bit. Here are the Top 15 shows on YouTube for me.
#15. Jeremy Johns. Here is one that has been higher up the list in past years. Jeremy reviews movies and I do like his opinions.
#14. The Geek Buddies. This is another example of a show I used to watch much more, but that I haven’t watched much lately. It has to do with the content available.
#13. Dodgers Nation. The Dodgers won the World Series again and so I do like listening to Doug McKain talk about them.
#12. Fatman Beyond. Another one that would have been higher before. I love Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin, but their schedule and show length catches up with me.
#11. Ashleigh Burton. She depends on what she is watching. I have loved watching her react to Buffy TV shows this past year.
#10. The Hot Mike. The entertainment show that breaks stories on movies and TV. John Rocha and Jeff Sneider have a great chemistry with each other.
#9. John Campea. John Campea has been a movie pundit for many years. He talks daily about all the top movie news.
#8. Dan Murrell. Dan is probably my favorite movie reviewer on YouTube right now. Dan’s reviews allowed me to see two of the Top 5 movies from 2024 in 2025.
#7. Settle the Score. I love this competition show, but it has slipped a little because of the amount of time I have to watch it. Matt Knost hosts and Andy Merriweather is the musical director.
#6. Kristian Harloff Show. Kristian, former Schmoe-Knows guy, does a weekly talk show that discusses movies and TV. He has multiple co-hosts during the week including Roxy Striar, John Richa, Winston Marshall, Mike Kalinowski and others.
#5. Untraveled. Jay and Adam traveling through Spain, reacting to what they see. I have to say, this has only had 4 episodes so far and might have been higher up the list had I seen more of the show. They are really funny, and will show up higher up this list.
#4. Reel Rejects. Greg and John started a reaction channel and they will react to movies, TV shows etc. There are multiple Reel Rejects who join in on the reactions (Roxy, Coy, Tara, Aaron, Andrew). They have great conversations after viewing.
#3. pReview’d. Here is the original Jay and Adam channel. They react and review TV and movies. And cry. They are funny and real. This is the place where friends don’t let friends watch movies (or watch tv or watch trailers) alone.
#2. Bonus Action. Last year’s #1, slipped to number two, mainly because this season’s volume is not finished yet. The crew switched from playing D&D to Daggerheart. Despite the new system, the cast is still the best around.
And the #1 show on YouTube….
FYC (For Your Consideration)
Scott Mantz, Perri Nemiroff and Jeff Sneider get together to talk everything Oscars. They predict the nominations. The predict the winners. They discuss reasons behind their thoughts. Above all else, even when they disagree, there is a level of respect between each other that is awesome to watch. I love the intelligence that they show.
Every year, I watch some movies from the previous year and I do not place them on the Best Movie list at the end of the year. Instead, I usually do a list here. A lot of times, I would see these films in January or February as they were Oscar contenders that had been released in limited release in November or December.
Of course, the last few years, there has also been the June Swoon where I watch 30 different films daily from the year before.
So this is always the first post of the Year in Review. It is the Top 5 movies from 2024 that I saw in 2025.
#5. Better Man.
The biopic of British pop sensation Robbie Williams and the story of his personal struggles and his eventual comeback. Of course, this film portrayed Williams as a singing monkey. I knew nothing about this performer, but it was very strong and powerful of a film.
#4. Flow. The animated movie that wound up winning the Academy Award for best animated movie. The dialogue free film tells the story of a flood and a group of animals, led by a black cat, in their attempts to survive the natural disaster.
#3. Ghostlight.
A beautiful story of life and loss and finding a way to go on after tragedy. It starred Keith Kupferer as a middle-aged construction worker who unexpectedly joined a local theater’s production of Romeo and Juliet. The film dealt with depression after a painful death. Ghostlight was an unexpected film that I heard about thanks to YouTube film critic Dan Murrell.
#2. Hundreds of Beavers. This is another film that I had only heard about thanks to Dan Murrell. It is an absurdist comedy with plenty of slapstick. It was one of the weirdest films that I saw this year.
#1. September 5
The first film I watched in this past summer’s June Swoon was September 5. This told the true story of the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage crisis and the coverage from ABC Sports. The drama of this film was done extremely well. This was a film that I was excited to see and I would have seen in the theater had it ever came around here. It is a powerful story.
Today was Thanksgiving and it is always around Thanksgiving time here at EYG that I start compiling the Year in Review awards. We do awards for movies, TV, Music, Comics, WWE, YouTube, as well as some other categories. I love putting together the lists through the month of December, which leads us to our Best and Worst movies of the year lists.
I should say that all of these lists are formed from my opinions. If you disagree, that is absolutely fine. I respect all people’s opinions. All of these topics are subjective, meaning what I love, you may not like at all. That is the way it should be. We at EYG believe that everyone has a right to their own opinions and we will never put someone down for their thoughts.
I will be including the records for these awards. Some have been here since day one of these awards that we have been giving out for 15 years. Some awards included the The EYG Stan Lee Movie Cameo Award, The Strangelove (Best Actor), The Liz (Best Actress), The Batman and Robin Award for Rottenness, The Avengers: Endgame Ensemble Cast of the Year Award, The Logan “Hurt” Trailer of the Year Award and a bunch more.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 