WWE Slammy Awards 2013: Nominees and Predictions for Each Category

This Monday night's edition of Raw, the "go-home" show for the TLC pay-per-view event, is the annual Slammy Awards show.  While the Slammys date back to 1986, it wasn't an annual event until 2008, when it became a special episode of Raw every December.

WWE has released the list of awards and nominees for the major categories, all of which fans will be able to vote for using the WWE App, presumably during the Raw show itself.  The polling for minor categories will open Sunday morning on WWE.com.

Let's take a look at each category, who's nominated and how it could all play out:

Superstar of the Year (presenter: Shawn Michaels)

• John Cena
• Randy Orton
• CM Punk
• Daniel Bryan
• Big Show
• Brock Lesnar

Should Win: Daniel Bryan was WWE's breakout star of the year and has had a number of great matches, with his WWE Championship win over John Cena being one of the best matches of the year.  Regardless of how things turned out for him due to bad booking, he's absolutely the rightful winner.

Will Win: Daniel Bryan or John Cena.  Bryan is a super popular breakout star and the hardcore fan favorite.  Cena is the biggest star, the favorite of women and children, etc.  In a legitimate online vote, either could win, but I expect it to be a close race.  However, if WWE has future plans for Bryan vs. Michaels, they may try to make sure fans pick Bryan to shoot an angle here.

Diva of the Year (presenter: Eve Torres)

• AJ Lee
• The Bella Twins
• The Funkadactyls
• Natalya
• Kaitlyn
• Eva Marie

Should and Will Win: AJ Lee.  While in the past, there have been results like Maria Kanellis winning the award when she wasn't being pushed at all, I don't foresee any kind of surprise result here.  AJ Lee is the best all-around performer of the women and the most popular.  She's been WWE Divas champion for months with no successor in sight.  This is a gimme. 

Double-Cross of the Year (presenters: The Shield)

• Triple H Pedigrees Daniel Bryan, allowing Randy Orton to win the WWE Championship at SummerSlam.
• Shawn Michaels Superkicks Daniel Bryan at Hell in a Cell.
• Mark Henry feigns retirement before attacking John Cena.
• Paul Heyman betrays CM Punk at WWE Money in the Bank.

Should Win: The Mark Henry retirement angle—one of the best WWE angles of the last 10 years.

Will Win: This one is wide open because it depends on what criteria fans use.  If they pick the most entertaining one and they want to reward the performers, it's Henry.  Most disappointing would be Triple H or Michaels turning on Bryan, with Triple H being more likely to win.  While it fizzled out eventually, Heyman's turn on Punk was part of the most interesting long-term story.  If I had to bet on it, I'd pick Triple H turning on Bryan at SummerSlam.

Match of the Year (presenter: Bret Hart)

• Undertaker vs. CM Punk (WrestleMania 29)
• John Cena vs. The Rock (WrestleMania 29)
• Cody Rhodes and Goldust vs. Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns (Battleground)
• Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar (Extreme Rules)

Should Win: Of the available choices? Undertaker vs. CM Punk, which was a great match and easily the highlight of WrestleMania 29.  This is a weird category.  Only four choices and at least two aren't among the best WWE matches this year.  It looks like WWE didn't want to include any wrestlers twice, so Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk and John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan are locked out even though they're arguably the two best WWE matches of 2013.

Will Win: Undertaker vs. CM Punk.  It's The Undertaker at WrestleMania, and like I already said, it was by far the best match at WrestleMania this year.  Cena vs. Rock was a huge disappointment; it fell flat live and was the subject of derision among PPV viewers for how loudly they were calling spots.  Extreme Rules was easily the best match of the Triple H vs. Lesnar feud, but it was far from one of the best of the year.  Rhodes Brothers vs. Shield was excellent, but it won't beat 'Taker-Punk.

The Other Awards

The WWE.com exclusive categories, which don't have nominees listed yet, are:

• Insult of the Year: I'm not sure I want to know.  Probably something about Daniel Bryan being too short and ugly to be the face of WWE, or a real man, or whatever—even though he's engaged to a woman WWE wants you to see as incredibly attractive.
• "LOL!" Moment of the Year: I'm not sure I want to know this one, either, especially since WWE will probably nominate Titus O'Neil vomiting.
• "This Is Awesome" Moment of the Year: The moment that immediately came to mind for me was Cody Rhodes superplexing Seth Rollins onto the pile of humanity on the floor in the triple threat Tag title match at Hell in a Cell.
• Extreme Moment of the Year: John Cena putting Ryback through the roof of an ambulance with the Attitude Adjustment is both a reasonable pick and the type of thing WWE would push hard and nominate.
• Trending Now (Hashtag) of the Year: I honestly have no idea since WWE almost never pushes any hashtags other than the show names.
• Beard of the Year: Daniel Bryan will obviously be nominated and will win.  No doubt about it.
• Fan Participation of the Year: Did Brock Lesnar Guy do anything interesting this year?  I don't remember any especially interesting reaction shots like Angry Miz Girl, so this one is a mystery to me.
• Breakout Star of the Year: Depends on whom WWE considers a "breakout star" and nominates.  If Daniel Bryan is on the list, it's likely he'll win this one, too, but if The Shield is nominated as a group, he'll have stiff competition.

Agree?  Disagree?  Have other ideas for the secondary-award nominees/winners?  Let us know in the comments.

David Bixenspan has been Bleacher Report's WWE Team Leader and a contracted columnist since 2011. You can follow him on Twitter @davidbix and check out his wrestling podcasts at LLTPod.com.

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