Biggest Snubs Left off List of 2014 WWE Slammy Awards Nominees

The 2014 WWE Slammy Awards nominees are in, and Daniel Bryan should be miffed. He's among the biggest snubs on the awards show, his battle with Bray Wyatt to kick off the year and his fiery disposal of a masked demon both failing to get their rightful spots on the list of nominees.  

Fans will decide who emerges from the upcoming awards ceremony with their arms brimming with gold statuettes. WWE, though, decided on the Superstars the fans have to choose from. 

In a number of cases, a worthy candidate didn't make the list. 

Bryan and Charlotte can commiserate with each other; they both missed the cut despite achievements in 2014 that should have earned them inclusion as nominees in various Slammy categories.

The ceremony is more entertainment than prestige, but it's still a marker of where Superstars stand with the fans. And the Slammys are certainly resume-boosters. You have to assume that Bryan's win for Superstar of the Year in 2013 had special significance with how much WWE hesitated to make him its top star.

This time around, he's up for that same award even though he's missed much of the year following neck surgery.

Considering him for Superstar of the Year but not for year's most extreme moment is baffling. Although, not having a single female in the running for NXT Superstar of the Year is even more of a head-scratcher.

NXT Superstar of the Year: Charlotte

Adrian Neville, Sami Zayn and The Ascension all deserve to be on this list thanks to winning championships and thriving in the spotlight. What about Charlotte, though?

She has been the centerpiece of the NXT Divas division, which has constantly outshone the main roster's version. 

At NXT Takeover, she become only the second wrestler to ever win the NXT Women's Championship. She has now held onto that belt for nearly 200 days. In that span, she's delivered some of the best Divas matches on any of WWE's shows.

Take that title win, for example.

In the process of defeating Natalya, she showed that she had inherited her famous father's in-ring charisma and storytelling skills. She and Natalya put on the best women's match in years.

Mick Foley wrote of the bout on Facebook, "I'm convinced that what took place between Natalya and Ms Charlotte was more than just a match. It was a symbol of the potential the Divas division."

Following that, Natalya shined against Bayley at NXT Takeover: Fatal 4-Way and was a consistently entertaining part of NXT each Thursday.

Unless the Slammys had a separate NXT Diva of the Year category, there's no reason Charlotte's name shouldn't be next to Zayn and Neville's. 

Extreme Moment of the Year: Daniel Bryan sends Kane into a flaming table

For some reason, Kane pummeling Bryan on Raw with Tombstone piledrivers made the list of nominees but not the more memorable moment between those rivals.

At Extreme Rules, Bryan fended off his challenger in stunning fashion. Kane lit a table on fire and looked to chokeslam the then-world champ through the flames. Instead, Bryan sent The Devil's Favorite Demon on that fiery ride.

Credit: WWE.com

As Kane writhed in pain—even with the WWE staff spraying him with a fire extinguisher—Bryan launched himself in the air, hitting a flying knee for the win.

If a man falling through a table covered in fire isn't extreme enough to win this award, one has to question the company's definition of that word. This moment could easily replace Brock Lesnar's succession of German suplexes as a nominee.

One of those moments was a repeated use of a wrestling move. The other was the kind of stunt we rarely see in a wrestling ring. 

Match of the Year: Several

• Bray Wyatt vs. Daniel Bryan: Royal Rumble
• The Shield vs. The Wyatt Family: Elimination Chamber
• Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H: WrestleMania 30
• Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins: Raw (Aug. 18)
• Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins: Hell in a Cell

Those five bouts were all tremendous. None of them are nominated for a Slammy.

Credit: WWE.com

WWE stumbled with this category last year. It nominated John Cena vs. The Rock from WrestleMania 29 despite it being a severe letdown and a display of the overuse of the false finish.

CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam didn't even get a mention. That bout was the highest-ranked WWE match in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Match of the Year race. It also sat at No. 1 in WWE.com's list of top 25 matches of 2013.

This year's Slammy Awards has its own key deficiencies in the Match of the Year department. The nominees are all deserving:

• Daniel Bryan vs. Batista vs. Randy Orton
• The Shield vs. Evolution: Extreme Rules
• John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt: Payback
• Team Cena vs. Team Authority: Survivor Series

It just needs to be a longer list. 

Wyatt and Bryan's battle at the Royal Rumble pulsated with intensity. It was a showcase of both a hero and a monster, technical skill and brute force. 

Equally surprising is that The Shield's six-man war with Wyatt's clan didn't make the cut either. The tension leading up to that had fans chanting, "This is awesome!" before either team landed the first strike.

And leaving either one of the Ambrose and Rollins clashes would be one thing, but there's no good explanation for snubbing both. The Hell in a Cell match paid homage to that structure's more violent past, capping the year's best rivalry with steel, Kendo stick shots and fabulous storytelling.

Credit: WWE.com

Maybe WWE is second-guessing having a hologram play a key role in the ending. Even so, this match is too good to be passed by, and the same goes for the Falls Count Anywhere collision that preceded it.

The Slammys still promise to be fun and will end with a number of deserving winners. However, the event not give Bryan, The Shield and Charlotte their due.

They lose before the first award is even given out.