Wrestling Awards 2014

It’s hard to believe that 2014 has come and gone. There’s few things in life I enjoy more than lists and awards, so here we go.

The Shut Up and Enjoy the Show Award: Fans who chant “CM Punk” during AJ Lee segments.

Now that CM Punk has signed with UFC, wrestling fans seem to have lost interest in chanting for him during WWE live events, so this covers January through November. While it was fun at first, the chanting overstayed it’s welcome heading into the fall. It’s one thing to chant for Punk in place of “boring” chants, but it’s another to hijack AJ’s segments. I’m sure AJ really enjoyed going backstage after her matches and having to deal with Triple H, Stephanie, and company after getting Punk chants. Also, it was just disrespectful. AJ is a talented, serious performer and I wanted to be able to enjoy her performances without being reminded that she’s married to an internet darling. If Punk’s alleged fans really wanted to support Punk, they’d have been better suited to chanting “AJ Lee” instead, or just shut up already.

The Zack Ryder Award for Biggest Fall from Grace: Curtis Axel

I’ll admit, it wasn’t THAT much of a fall. In 2013, Michael McGillicutty found a new lease on life as the most recent Paul Heyman Guy, and with a much needed rebranding as Curtis Axel. He quickly got a bunch of flukey wins over Triple H and was crowned Intercontinental Champion. Axel got to feud with top star CM Punk on behalf of Heyman. Then he lost the IC title to Big E and has been on a downward trajectory ever since, spinning his wheels in a go-nowhere tag team with Ryback and even getting removed from television for a stretch. Axel has always seemed to have all the tools needed to become a player in WWE, but just cannot seem to find the correct casting and sustained push to get him there. Axel will be putting in some time on the NXT brand in 2015, so hopefully he’ll follow in Tyson Kidd’s footsteps and reestablish himself on the Cool Show.

Get Over Yourselves, It’s Only an Angle: Brock Lesnar: part time champion.

I’m referring to online sentiments towards Brock being the guaranteed lock to win the title over the summer, as had I known how Lesnar’s reign would play out, I probably would have joined the complaining. I distinctly recall listening to the Place To Be podcast, and one or two of the hosts were OUTRAGED that a part-timer was going to become WWE Champion and were going on about how disrespectful it was to the full-time boys and how it was a disgrace to the belt itself. Well, in the abstract, I don’t see how Lesnar winning the title was a negative if it lead to increased business, elevated some challengers, elevated the brand, and made a big star out of whoever eventually beat him. Of course, I was also assuming that WWE was going to pony up the money to have Lesnar on more than one fall pay-per-view and not spend months pretending that Lesnar and the title didn’t exist. I suppose the bottom line is that some folks on the internet are WWE devotees to the point where they treat it like a religion, and that doesn’t sit well with me. It’s just a show with a bunch of angles, and lately it’s been a bad show with a bunch of bad angles, so let’s relax.

Biggest Hypocrite of 2014: WWE

I have a feeling that for as long as I do this award (courtesy of Mr. Scrooge McSuck) WWE will have a lock on it most years. WWE earned this prize by their collective attitude regarding one Daniel Bryan. Yes, they did the right thing, and put Bryan in the Wrestlemania main event, but it was clear that they didn’t really have any strong follow-up plans (Extreme Rules main event against Kane). Honestly though, have you ever seen a wrestling company get so upset that someone on their roster got hugely over and then try to pass it off as a fluke or mirage? The mindset was that the YES! chant was over, not Bryan himself. If that’s how they really feel, I guess I can disagree, but it doesn’t matter. That was, until they sent Big Show out in a dark segment on Smackdown and got the arena full of fans to do the YES chant with him so they could film a “video get well card” for Bryan. Then they did some fancy editing and used the footage to make it look like the fans were YESSING about to Vince McMahon announcing that the Network would be free for the month of November and doing his own half-assed YES gestures. So yeah, proof that someone in WWE knows that the YES chant doesn’t mean much without Bryan and using it for their own gains. Just love this freaking company.

Also, WWE wins for banning CM Punk merchandise at live events. Unless, I’m mistaken, Punk merch was still available on their online store until a few weeks ago. In the grand scheme of things, I guess this isn’t that big of a deal, but if I’m on the fence about going to the next WWE live event in Manchester or Boston, this might sway me to stay home.

Worst Match of 2014: Charlotte vs. Natalya on Raw.

This took place on the Raw before NXT: R-Evolution. I was pretty stoked, because before NXT Fatal 4-way in September, the top NXT stars got to have a fine tag team exhibition match that allowed them to look good. I was expecting a good showing for Charlotte here, seeing as she was co-headling the Network special with a big title defense. Instead, they got a whopping 2 and a half minutes, Natalya went over with little fanfare, and Charlotte wasn’t allowed to bust out any of the cool moves she’s allowed to do on NXT. It must have left non-NXT fans scratching their heads about why they should care about NXT in the first place. This match just illustrates the disconnect between the detail oriented booking of NXT and the last minute, thoughtless booking that’s thrown out on Raw every week.

Worst Storyline of 2014: Adam Rose turns on the Bunny something like 36 times.

I’m not sure this can even be considered an angle. It felt like the first chapter in a storyline that happened to get retold every show.

Chapter One: Adam Rose loses a match because the Bunny in his entourage distracted him, so he beats up the Bunny. Chapter Two: Adam Rose loses another match because the Bunny in his entourage distracted him, so he beats up the Bunny.

Chapter Three: Adam Rose loses another match, and I give up, you see where this is going.

The thing was, the Bunny was always right back with Rose and company like the beating from the previous show never happened. I THINK it’s finally over, now that Kane has squashed Rose like a bug and murdered the Bunny a few times, but they’ve got six hours of TV to fill every week, so who knows.

Worst Diva of 2014: Cameron

I almost feel bad picking on her, but she’s been there for ages, doesn’t seem to have a clue about anything in the ring (including the basics, like going for covers on divas laying on their stomachs), and has exposed herself for being a complete bimbo on Total Divas (gotta love Daniel Bryan making fun of her to her face in regards to her “budding” music career). I was tempted to go with Rosa Mendes or Eva Marie, but they were MIA most of the time. What puts Cameron over the top for me might be her continued efforts to get “Girl-bye” over as a catchphrase. Next time WWE does budget cuts, it might be a good idea to cut their losses here.

Worst Tag Team of 2014: Adam Rose and the Bunny

I almost went with Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady for the second straight year, but they’ve been amusing me lately, so Rose and Bunny get another prize.

Worst WWE Wrestler of 2014: Sylvester Lefort

This was a hard category for me, as there aren’t really any bad wrestlers on the main roster these days, and I feel bad for picking on green NXT rookies who are still getting their feet wet. Lefort should be exclusively a manager, as his in-ring skills continue to be basic, create-a-wrestler level stuff.

Worst Pay-per-view of 2014: Battleground

This was a flat, skippable July pay-per-view at a time when WWE could not afford to have one, with their struggles to get new Network subscribers and keep them on board. The most appealing match on the card (Rollins vs. Ambrose) didn’t happen, the second most interesting match (Jericho vs. Wyatt) was a severe disappointment, and the fatal 4-way main event had a foregone conclusion (Cena wins, LOL) and lacked drama. Another good Usos match couldn’t save this one. For the second year in a row, Battleground was at the bottom of WWE’s pay-per-view offerings.

Best Pay-per-view of 2014: Wrestlemania XXX

This was a tough call, because Wrestlemania XXX was marginally better than Summerslam and Payback. It gets the nod because while Summerslam was great, everything it set up ending up being crap, and Payback just didn't have the historical significance. The story of Daniel Bryan upsetting Triple H and going on to defeat Batista and Orton to become WWE Champion is a dream come true and months later I still can't believe it actually happened.  

Best Diva of 2014: Charlotte

This was another tough call. I wanted to pick AJ, but she missed significant time and hasn’t been well booked for most of the year. I also wanted to pick Paige, but her main roster tenure has taken away everything that was great about her in NXT. That leaves us with Charlotte, the dominating NXT Women’s Champion, who has busted out multiple great matches against experienced workers (Natalya) and fellow NXT divas (Bayley, Sasha Banks). Her botched Raw appearance is making me cringe about the thought of her leaving for the main roster permanently, but Charlotte had a great coming out party of a year in 2014.

Best Tag Team of 2014: The Usos

These guys have been a stable force in the tag team ranks, having good to great matches consistently. Whenever I hear that the Usos have a pay-per-view slot, I know that the show will have at least one good match. They stole the show several times in their feud with the Wyatt Family, and elevated themselves and the tag titles in the process.

Best WWE Wrestler of 2014: Sami Zayn

I debated with myself over whether or not it was right to pick an NXT star for this award, but ultimately, I found it impossible to pick anyone from the main roster. Daniel Bryan missed half the year on the shelf. John Cena didn’t have an overly inspiring year creatively. Brock Lesnar is hardly around. I would have picked Seth Rollins if I didn’t allow myself the luxury of looking at NXT, as he’s been consistently great all year and is now positioned as a future top star. But Sami Zayn was the wrestler I consistently enjoyed the most throughout 2014. I got behind Zayn when he was looking for respect from Cesaro. I cared about his title hunt, including great performances against Tyson Kidd, Tyler Breeze, freaking Titus O’Neil, and against NXT Champion Adrian Neville. And then R-Evolution happened, and Sami had the match of his life with Neville and finally won the title, culminating his entire WWE career to that point. I truly hope Vince, HHH, and WWE creative know what they have in Zayn, and give him every opportunity to succeed on the main roster in 2015.