WWE Slammy Awards 2014 Review: Superstars Who Should Have Won
When reviewing the winners of the 2014 WWE Slammy Awards, there were some obvious choices and some that could have gone a multitude of ways.
The good thing about WWE's annual ceremony is that it gives the fans a chance to tell WWE what they liked and didn't like so the plans for next year can take these opinions into consideration.
The bad thing, on the other hand, is that the fans are going to vote for their favorites.
The popular-vote concept is not exactly the most credible, which is why an actor would rather win an Oscar at the Academy Awards than a distinction for best actor of the year at the People's Choice Awards.
While this is great for giving props to the fan favorites and recognizing how someone or something can be truly entertaining for a mass group of people, it doesn't always reward those who have earned it.
If the WWE Universe were to put its collective biased preferences aside and vote based on the caliber of each nominee's aptitude, things may have gone a little differently.
So looking back on the events of tonight's edition of the Slammy Awards, who are some people who were robbed of their rightful wins simply because someone else was more likable when the polls were open?
Faction of the Year: The Shield
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Although The Shield is certainly not a bad choice to pick for this award, they were only around for half of the year.
The Authority started off this year as the primary villains that had the most behind them going into WrestleMania. Here at the end of the year, they are still the top faction, despite technically being out of power.
Every single event revolved around what Triple H, Stephanie McMahon and Seth Rollins were up to, with no exceptions.
Not even the WWE World Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar was a bigger presence than those three names, which is saying a lot.
The Shield had some great matches, some of which were against Evolutionāwhich was a subsidiary of The Authority, let's not forgetābut they split up.
Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose were both out of action for a while. Despite the fact that they could have teamed up and kept the idea of The Shield going with just the two of them when they were both still active, they didn't.
The question is whether the award should go to the big bad villain of the year himself or the group that laid the foundation for both the heels and the babyfaces that ran the joint in 2014.
If you go with the former, then The Authority is the obvious winner, but the latter speaks much more to the power and influence of The Shield than anything else.
Fan Participation of the Year: Bray Wyatt
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Is it good that the fans have taken to the "you sold out" chants against Seth Rollins?
Of course it is! That shows that his heel turn worked perfectly and he's maintained momentum to keep the audience from cheering him as a cool villain.
He's supposed to be hated, and if the crowd is siding with his opponents, then all is going as planned.
But even if the fans had not chanted this particular phrase, things probably would have gone the same way. The feuds would have revolved around the same people, and the matches would have been booked similarly.
On the other hand, when the fans started singing along with Bray Wyatt during "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands," it somewhat changed the direction of Wyatt's character.
Had the audience not joined in, there could be no feuds revolving around Wyatt corrupting the crowd because it would have no legitimacy
A dead reaction leads to a dead program, but look at how much WWE was about to milk out of the fact that the fans dug this song.
It was used as the primary build for one of his matches with John Cena as well as the distraction that resulted in his victory.
Then, it was incorporated into the entrance music for quite some time.
Has any of that carried over with the Rollins chant, or was that just something supplemental that was chanted a couple of times?
Animal of the Year: Batista
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Although this is a joke award with the only nominees being El Torito, The Bunny, Grumpy Cat and Hornswoggle dressed up as an alligator, there is one candidate who is missing from the list: Batista.
This is naturally a matter of semantics, but that hasn't stopped WWE from doing things like this before.
Technically speaking, he is The Animal, so there's no reason why he couldn't be listed as a potential candidate for this category.
Batista's presence at the beginning of the year altered the entire direction of WWE for 2014.
Without his Royal Rumble victory and the controversy that surrounded his title shot at WrestleMania, this year's biggest event may have gone down with less energy than it did.
A course correction and a heel turn became a necessity, and after Daniel Bryan was given his proper spot as the champion, Batista's presence ushered in another one of the best feuds of the year, with Evolution facing off against The Shield.
This, of course, led to Seth Rollins turning on his brethren, and the remainder of 2014 would be spent with The Authority championing the current Mr. Money in the Bank against people like Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and John Cena.
Without El Torito and Hornswoggle, the only thing missing would be the WeeLC Match and some terrible skits on Raw and SmackDown.
WWE is getting a lot more mileage out of The Bunny than anybody could have expected, but is the character truly that integral to the roster?
Grumpy Cat should have been grouped in with Raw Guest Star of the Year, considering what she did was nothing but a couple of backstage segments that amounted to nothing at all.
When you factor in Batista being a cast member of the year's biggest film in Guardians of the Galaxy, it's an easy victory in comparison to the other nominees.
Best Couple of the Year: Triple H and Stephanie McMahon
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One of the flaws of the Slammy voting system is that the popular vote obviously favors the popular stars more so than the ones who are truly deserving.
Daniel Bryan is the reason he and Brie Bella have won this, purely resting on the laurels of his support from fans.
Did they really do so much this year in comparison to The Authority's power couple?
First, let's get the other two couples out of the way. While the Wilsons and Fatus have had their fair share of importance on Total Divas, it would be ridiculous to consider them possible winners for this award.
Stephanie McMahon and Triple H were the driving force of practically every important storyline that happened in 2014.
In a kayfabe sense, they were able to influence the outcome in their favor more times than not.
If you're looking at this award through the eyes of a smark, it's even more painfully obvious how much of a necessity they were.
There was no better villain this year than the partnership of Triple H and Stephanie, seeing as how Brock Lesnar spent the majority of the time at home.
The heroes who have been built up in 2014, such as Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns, and the resurgence for folks like Dolph Ziggler and even John Cena, to an extent, owe success to The Authority being just that good.
Bryan spent a good portion of the year incapacitated, and Brie has been either absent entirely or standing on the sidelines finding herself unable to do anything as either a slave or damsel in distress.
Is that really the best couple of the year, or is it the dominant and power-hungry manipulators who are responsible for the bulk of the plot month after month?
Anti-Gravity Moment of the Year: Adrian Neville
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At the time Seth Rollins jumped from the balcony, it was definitely awesome. There's no doubt about how fun that was in the moment.
On repeated viewings, though, it doesn't hold up as well and is no longer as astonishing.
Crazier things have happened, and it isn't going to be something that people look back on years from now with fond memories as a legendary spot, like Mick Foley being tossed off Hell in a Cell in 1998.
When it comes to Adrian Neville's Red Arrow finisher, that's something that is indeed awe-inspiring.
It's an insult in the same regard as it is a compliment to admit that if it weren't for this move, Neville probably wouldn't be the NXT champion.
People make fun of his looks, and he certainly isn't a silver-tongued wordsmith like The Rock or Chris Jericho.
If there is one thing that Neville brings to the table that nobody else can claim for themselves, it's the Red Arrow, which is just a spectacle to see.
As far as this award goes, it particularly doesn't make sense to give it to him when you think about how his whole gimmick and nickname is The Man That Gravity Forgot of all things.
For that matter, wouldn't Jericho's crossbody from the top of the cage have even been a better fit for this category instead of the Extreme Moment of the Year award?
That would have had just as much of a right to tie or beat the Rollins jump and still have lost to Neville's finisher.
Superstar of the Year: Seth Rollins
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Nobody had the year that Seth Rollins had, and if the WWE Universe didn't play favorites with the voting, it would be his award to lose.
Sure, Brock Lesnar had two great accomplishments by ending Undertaker's undefeated streak and defeating John Cena to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, but outside of that, he's done nothing.
What's more important: doing two things throughout the entire year and spending the rest of the time off television or being the top heel and one of the best performers week in and week out?
Bray Wyatt has gone up and down, never quite reaching the level that it seemed WWE would have liked to get him to by the end of 2014.
Dean Ambrose struggled a bit when Roman Reigns was given the top spot over him, but he's since balanced out due to Reigns' injury that incapacitated him.
Daniel Bryan is no stranger to missing time, either, and the last half of this year has been nothing for him.
While John Cena is clearly the top guy in the company still, was he a more consistent performer than Rollins?
Did he step up his game and almost always end up in the match of the night?
Rollins carried this year both as a babyface and a heel at different times, won the Money in the Bank and single-handedly kept The Authority going.
Which awards do you think were given to the wrong people? Who would you give those awards to?
Leave us your thoughts in the comments below.
If you want to cast your votes for even more WWE awards, be sure to check out the 2014 Smark Out Moment Awards going on this month.
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