Voting for this year's Slammy Awards is now open and winners will be announced next Monday night on a special edition of Raw in Minneapolis.
Here's my ballot.
Superstar of the Year
All superstars eligible
Seth Rollins
Rollins, Cena, Lesnar, and Reigns are the only performers who were pushed strongly enough to warrant consideration for this award, and a reasonable case can be made for any of them. Ultimately I'm choosing Seth Rollins based on his strong work in the ring and overall time in the main event spot. Rollins had some of the best matches of the year on important cards like Royal Rumble and SummerSlam, and his shocking win of the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 31 was the highlight of that show. Rollins was also the focal point of Raw for most of the year. Kudos to Seth for working his ass off to consistently put on good matches with a wide variety of stars ranging from Neville to Sting.
Diva of the Year
Nikki Bella
Naomi
Paige
Sasha Banks
Charlotte
Paige and Nikki Bella were all over WWE television this year on both Raw and Total Divas. As far as their performance goes, Nikki had a slight edge in match quality over Paige, but Paige blew her away on mic work. Paige is the best talker in the divas division, and this is why I'm still very invested in her character even though she has seemingly turned a dozen times between babyface and heel. Nikki Bella has probably turned between heel and babyface just as many times as Paige, but I don't care about her character or her matches nearly as much as Paige because Nikki's promos rarely grab my attention. Therefore I'm giving this award to Paige.
Breakout Star of the Year
Kevin Owens
Neville
Charlotte
Tyler Breeze
Braun Strowman
Kevin Owens wins this award easily. He was the most interesting character on the show back when he was powerbombing John Cena onto ring aprons and dumping Machine Gun Kelly off of stages. In just a few months he has shown that he deserves to be pushed as the top heel on the roster. Neville can do amazing things with his body and could be a big star as well, but he just wasn't given enough of a push to have a chance to match Owens as the breakout star of the year.
Tag Team of the Year
The New Day
The Usos
The Prime Time Players
Tyson Kidd & Cesaro
The Lucha Dragons
The New Day spent most of the year engaging the audience with over-the-top antics to become one of most entertaining acts in the company. Once Tyson Kidd went down with an injury during the summer, there wasn't much doubt that New Day would run away with this award.
Match of the Year
John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins (Royal Rumble)
Sting vs. Triple H (WrestleMania 31)
John Cena vs. Kevin Owens (Elimination Chamber)
Roman Reigns vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Kevin Owens vs. Alberto Del Rio (Raw)
Brock Lesnar vs. Undertaker (Hell in a Cell)
Rollins, Lesnar, and Cena put on a breathtakingly awesome match back in January, and no other match since then has been able to top it. It's a shame that WWE booked Seth's one-on-one match with Lesnar at Battleground to be a glorified squash, because this Royal Rumble match showed that those two guys can have a hell of a match together.
Rivalry of the Year
Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt
The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar
John Cena vs. Rusev
Team Bella vs. Team BAD vs. PCB
Randy Orton vs. Seth Rollins
There weren't really any great rivalries this year, so Lesnar versus Undertaker wins this award by being better than the rest. Overall Lesnar and Undertaker had an entertaining rivalry with a logical story and two strong matches to headline Pay-Per-View events. Wyatt versus Reigns comes next, while the remaining three nominees were hurt by some combination of poor storytelling, boring characters, and CenaWinsLOL.
WWE Network Show of the Year
Breaking Ground
Table for 3
Stone Cold Podcast
WWE 24
Swerved
Unfortunately I have never watched Breaking Ground, WWE 24, or Table for 3, so they are all off the list. The one episode of Swerved that I watched was better than listening to Brock and Austin talk about hunting and music, but it wasn't as interesting as Austin's podcast with Edge and Christian. Stone Cold is a well-prepared interviewer and asks thought-provoking questions once he stops talking about alcohol and hunting, so his show wins this award.
Double-Cross of the Year
Jon Stewart attacks John Cena
Randy Orton turns on The Authority
Paige attacks Charlotte and Becky Lynch
Stardust betrays Goldust
Damien Mizdow eliminates The Miz
What a pathetic bunch of nominees. Can I instead give this award to the Philadelphia crowd for turning on WWE once Bryan was eliminated from the Royal Rumble match? Stewart's turn on Cena was the most memorable on this list but it was poorly executed. However Mizdow's turn on Miz provided a wonderful mark out moment, and it's not Mizdow's fault that WWE screwed it all up by having Big Show win that Battle Royal. So congrats to Mizdow on having the best double cross of the year.
Surprise Return of the Year
Jericho teams up with Reigns and Ambrose
The Dudley Boyz return to confront The New Day
Sting ambushes Rollins and Triple H
Del Rio answers Cena's US open challenge
Demon Kane prevents Sheamus' Money in the Bank cash-in
The original ECW was probably my favorite wrestling promotion ever, and so not surprisingly I thought the best return of the year was Bubba Ray's return at the Royal Rumble. Undertaker's return at Battleground was also pretty exciting, even with the excessive gray back hair. The closest thing on this list that I can find to either of those moments is the Dudley Boyz returning to confront the New Day, so that's the one that has my support.
Hashtag of the Year
#GiveDivasAChance
#SaveTheTables
#AxelMania
#RKOOUTTANOWHERE
#SuplexCity
Hashtags have no meaning in my life. Yeah yeah I know, get off my lawn and all that jazz. I have no idea what to do with this one so I'm going with Curtis Axel for trying his damnedest to get that AxelMania gimmick over.
Celebrity Moment of the Year
Stephen Amell dives onto Stardust
The cast of Entourage introduces Zack Ryder
Kevin Owens powerbombs Machine Gun Kelly off the stage
Jon Stewart gets on Cena's bad side
Wayne Rooney slaps King Barrett
Here are just 2 of the 1004 rules that govern my viewing habits for Raw each week:
Rule #567 - change the channel whenever WWE has a music performance on Raw.
Rule #899 - change the channel when Machine Gun Kelly is on Raw.
Boy was I a sad panda when I followed those two rules and then tuned back in later to see that I missed Kevin Owens being the greatest dude ever.
"Tell Me You Didn't Just Say That" Moment of the Year
Ambrose calls Rollins "Justin Bieber"
Rollins calls Johnny Manziel "Johnny Idiot Face"
Lesnar introduces "Suplex City" to the world
Rollins says Kane was just "there" at WrestleMania
Paige spoils Charlotte's Divas title celebration
Suplex City became a phenomenon shortly after Lesnar coined the term. And since references to Brad Maddox and Reid Flair are nowhere to be found among the list of nominees, Lesnar wins this one in a landslide.
Best John Cena US open challenge
Cena vs. Cesaro
Cena vs. Ziggler
Cena vs. Zayn
Cena vs. Ambrose
Cena vs. Neville
Cena's matches with Cesaro and Neville stand out from the pack. I'm still disappointed that WWE would set it up so that Neville was about to beat Cena clean prior to Rusev's interference, only to demote Neville to the land of jobbers shortly thereafter. Meanwhile the Cesaro matches provided even more data points that Cesaro can stay massively over just based on his ring work alone. Imagine how hot this guy could be if WWE ever gave him a sustained push? Cesaro wins this one.
LOL Moment of the Year
Edge and Christian battle New Day
The Bushwhackers Hall of Fame speech
The Miz and Damien Mizdow commercial
The Authority dance with The New Day
R-Truth thinks he's in the Money in the Bank ladder match
Edge and Christian battling with New Day was fun and corny all at the same time. But it just doesn't match R-Truth's serious promos where he thinks he is going to kick every top star's ass and win either the Money in the Bank briefcase or the Survivor Series tournament.
"This is Awesome" Moment of the Year
Brock Lesnar destroys J&J Security's car
Randy Orton's RKO to Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 31
Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks are called up to the main roster
The Shield give Randy Orton a triple powerbomb
The Rock and Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania 31
I don't know much about MMA so the Rousey moment wasn't that big of a deal for me. The call-up of Sasha, Becky, and Charlotte was poisoned right from the start by the toxic cloud of Stephanie McMahon. The remaining nominees are difficult to rank, but ultimately I have to go with the Shield triple powerbomb because it immediately brought back all those good feelings from 2013 and the first half of 2014. I'm still eagerly awaiting the day that the Shield triple powerbombs Brock Lesnar through a table.
"OMG!" Shocking Moment of the Year
Seth Rollins cashes in Money in the Bank contract at WrestleMania 31
Brock Lesnar destroys everyone
Kalisto hits Salida Del Sol off a ladder through another ladder
Undertaker is abducted by The Wyatt Family
Sheamus cashes in Money in the Bank contract at Survivor Series
I think Kalisto deserves the Extreme Moment of the Year for that Salida Del Sol off the ladder at TLC. But the surprise factor of Rollins cashing in is too great to pass on for the Shocking Moment of the Year. I thought WrestleMania 31 was going to be all about making Roman Reigns the top star rather than Seth Rollins, so I never saw it coming.
Extreme Moment of the Year
Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker have a pull apart brawl
Dean Ambrose is powerbombed through a ladder at WrestleMania 31 by Luke Harper
Seth Rollins breaks John Cena's nose
Roman Reigns snaps, destroys everyone at TLC
Neville hits a splash off a ladder onto a group of stars
The brawl between Undertaker and Lesnar was one of the coolest segments on Raw all year long. I'm not sure that it really fits the bill for Extreme Moment of the Year, but I enjoyed it more than the other nominees so it has my vote. In fact I think Undertaker and Lesnar should have another pull apart brawl on Monday night when they win this award and can't figure out which man should take home the Slammy statue.
That's my ballot. What do you think about it, Cagesiders?