There are 5 new categories this year, making it 25 awards broken up between the three sections of Technical Awards, Writing Awards, and Performance Awards. There's also a new section of Smack Talk Awards with three categories inside of that.
Check back every day, because you never know when a new award is going to be leaked.
Make sure you let us know in the comments what your choices are for each award - and remember that this celebrates both the best AND the worst for each category!
Here's the list of awards:
TECHNICAL AWARDS
BEST & WORST ENTRANCES
BEST: Brodus Clay
The Undertaker is an honorary permanent winner of this award as far as I'm concerned, but if I had to go with a regular roster member, it'd be Brodus Clay. The song's catchy, it works with the ridiculous gimmick, the Funkadactyls are good dancers even if Brodus isn't but it's supposed to be stupid and fun and it is.
WORST: [TIE] Chris Jericho's return / Ascension
Ascension on NXT has this entrance that is supposed to be cool and mysterious but is so poorly executed that it kills the entire thing and makes it that much worse. You can't have a near epileptic seizure from your lights and have music that's supposed to be epic and driving you to excitement and then have the wrestlers do NOTHING in the mean time. Also, the tie vote goes to Chris Jericho's big return where he said nothing. We all know that this was supposed to piss us off but it pissed off the smark fan of myself, not the mark. It was another lack of a proper payoff that would set the course for Jericho's entire run with WWE this year.
BEST & WORST FINISHERS
BEST: Randy Orton's RKO
Tyson Kidd has an awesome submission finisher that should see the light of day more often, but sadly, it doesn't. If you were WWE, you'd probably be saying that the best finisher was the Brogue Kick as it factored into storylines more than anything else. However, on a smark point of view, the best is the RKO in my mind. Once again, simply put, it's the fact that it comes out of nowhere, the crowd loves it, it has a good build up to it, and although it doesn't look like it would hurt the most it at least has the reputation in the kayfabe sense of being brutal.
WORST: Lord Tensai's claw
As much as I think the Neutralizer can be kind of stupid at times, and as much as some people have horrible finishers out there (or no finishers), Tensai's claw was beyond dumb. There's not much to say on the subject...it was just that horrible.
BEST & WORST TITLE REIGN
BEST: CM Punk's WWE Championship Reign
Cody Rhodes was great with the Intercontinental Championship and if CM Punk didn't have this entire year reign, I would have given this to him. I don't expect anybody else to win this award from anyone commenting on it. It goes without being said that he dominates this.
WORST: Santino Marella United States Championship Reign
As much as I disliked Kofi Kingston and R-Truth being a pretty pointless tag team and as much as Sheamus had an annoying World Heavyweight Championship reign, the one person who did the most damage and offered nothing positive as champion was Santino. His reign did nothing but destructive things to the title and didn't even elevate himself in the process. There's no feuds to go with it that are memorable, no good matches, and Antonio Cesaro had to start from less than scratch with it.
BEST & WORST MIC SKILLS
BEST: CM Punk
Really tough not giving this to Damien Sandow, but Punk's promos have been gold nearly every single time and there doesn't seem to be any stop to that. Whether he was a face or a heel he's pulled them all off amazingly.
WORST: Khali
This is tough, considering how many people are terrible like Yoshi Tatsu. Last year, I gave this to Sin Cara for his horrible attempts at promos and for how abundantly silent he was. This year, I don't remember a single promo he cut, so even though I'd be tempted to give it to him for that, I think it's better to give it to Khali, since he did in fact get on the mic and it was always terrible.
BEST & WORST RING SKILLS
BEST: Dolph Ziggler
You might want to argue that CM Punk is the best, but I think Dolph Ziggler is the true man on the roster that can have a good match with pretty much anybody and do it consistently. The guy is just the overall most entertaining to me to watch and it's been that way for a long, long time.
WORST: Khali
For the third year in a row, Khali gets this award. Do I even need to justify this pick?
MOST UNDERRATED AND OVERRATED
UNDERRATED: Alex Riley
How is this guy not utilized? I know he's been down with an injury, but even before that, he was booked as nothing. Once they split him from Miz, they just forgot about him and it's a real shame. He's got a great look to him, he's great on the mic, and he's not bad in the ring either (especially when you look at other people that have gotten more out of being worse wrestlers). They haven't even been using him for a YouTube show or anything. Total disregard for the guy's talent.
OVERRATED: [TIE] Sheamus / Alberto Del Rio
The reason I had to tie these two is because a lot of it has to do with the feud they had together. Tell me one good thing that they've done this year overall that deserves such big praise. The company makes them out to be two of the biggest stars they have but in actuality if both of them got fired tomorrow, they'd bounce back in mere moments. This is a case of people hyping stuff up because of the fact that it can't create the hype on its own, hoping that people will believe into it, and I'm not willing to do that.
BIGGEST & LEAST IMPROVEMENT
MOST IMPROVED: Ryback
Skip Sheffield. Remember that? Yeah, that was awful. Now, Ryback is legitimizing himself and not even in the midcard but as a main event player. Most importantly, he's over with the crowd, which a lot of people can't do when they're given even more than him for a much longer time.
LEAST IMPROVED: R-Truth
Talk about a 180. This guy was SO entertaining with his heel character last year and they absolutely killed it by turning him face. He's sucked in all capacity this year. His gimmick sucks, his tag team with Kofi Kingston sucked, he's still not great in the ring, and he's just brought nothing to the table in comparison to being awesome for a large chunk of last year.
BEST & WORST MATCHES OF THE YEAR
BEST: John Cena vs Brock Lesnar @ Extreme Rules
Out of all of the matches this year, this was the one I was the most into. It was built up to have a huge amount of anticipation and it actually delivered. This was just brutal and rough and exactly what we needed to spice things up. If it would have been a standard match, it probably would have fallen short. Even though there are other matches that are better in terms of chain wrestling and such, I think this match had the most impact and it's the one that I remember the most after this whole year.
WORST: [TIE] Santino Marella vs Ricardo Rodriguez Tuxedo Match @ No Way Out / #1 Contender Divas Battle Royal @ Raw August 20th
These.......ugh. There's nothing good about them. The tuxedo match isn't funny, it's just insultingly dumb. There's no suspension of disbelief that can save them for that. The divas battle royal has not one single good move in the entire thing, just terrible, terrible moves one after another. Even while doing commentary for the match, Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler were just watching in horror and making fun of it.
WRITING AWARDS
BEST & WORST CATCH PHRASE OR SLOGAN
BEST: "Yes/No" by Daniel Bryan
Very close call for Ryback's "Feed me more". As fun as "I am the tag team champions" is, the clear winner for this year is the combination of the Yes and No chants from Daniel Bryan and the crowd. There's just no denying it. It's the new What chant in a lot of regards and there's a chance it could be here to stay.
WORST: [TIE] Vickie Guerrero's Scream / Multilingual Antonio Cesaro
There are a few honorable mentions here. Some terrible ones are still funny, like the "milllions of dollars" chant and "I'm the one man band, baby". I'm not particularly a fan of CM Punk flat out changing the best wrestler in the world idea to "the best in the world" as that was Jericho's. People Power was ridiculous but in a lot of ways, not in the fun way. However, I have to give it a tie between these two. I love the "excuse me" from Vickie, but I absolutely cannot stand when she just shrieks because it's SO over the top and ridiculous and forced that it pulls me right out of the scene. I also think the idea of Antonio Cesaro saying words in other languages is so poorly handled. It should have been incorporated into Damien Sandow's character instead and giving it to Cesaro just makes it awkward and lame.
BEST & WORST RETRO APPEARANCE
[This is a new category about the appearances from old superstars, such as Mick Foley, Ron Simmons, Sycho Sid, Vader, and so forth.]
BEST: Mae Young's Hand Son all grown up
It was fun seeing people return like Vader and Sid during the Heath Slater angle, and I liked Mick Foley's promo with CM Punk on the 9-24 edition of Raw, as well. I almost gave this to the DX reunion, but to be honest, I was a little bit disappointed with it. There couldn't have been a match or something, maybe New Age Outlaws against a tag team? Sean Waltman was just creepy and awkward. However, Mae Young's son, the hand, was just SO fucking over the top retarded that I broken down and laughed out loud. Sometimes, the most ridiculous thing is just so bad that it's good.
WORST: Cyndi Lauper & Wendi Richter
Slick's appearance at the wedding was pretty awful, but out of all the flashback special guests we've had this year, the worst has to be the combination of Wendi Richter and Cyndi Lauper. Even Rowdy Roddy Piper wasn't able to make that good.
BEST & WORST PAY-PER-VIEWS
BEST PPV: Hell in a Cell
Overall solid matches up and down the card. It wasn't perfect, but nothing is. When I weigh all the pros and cons of each ppv, this one has the most positives, including the Brad Maddox twist, Cesaro vs Gabriel being good, etc.
WORST PPV: WrestleMania XXVIII
Filled with commercials, musical performances, and then disappointing matches. I didn't like Big Show winning the title from Cody Rhodes, I didn't like Kane vs Randy Orton, everyone hated the 18 second loss, the divas tag match was terrible, the Hell in a Cell match is overrated I think, the Team Teddy vs Team Johnny match was so basic and bland, and both Jericho vs Punk as well as Rock vs Cena were disappointing.
BEST & WORST GIMMICKS
BEST: Damien Sandow
If I may beg your indulgence for a moment, I'd like to run down by Damien Sandow has the best gimmick going for him right now. It's interesting, it's over with the crowd, it goes with a heel persona, he pulls it off so damn well, it's catchy, and it's believable. No need to thank me for this award, Damien Sandow. You're welcome.
WORST: Natalya farts
The best female wrestler on the roster continually gets screwed over, but this was unforgivable. FARTING is the best idea they can come up with for her? Seriously? Was this written by some idiot middle school kid? Maybe it was the same person responsible for Hornswoggle and when Beth Phoenix and Natalya ran around the ring for no reason. This didn't even build up to something, so it was a stupid idea that turned into nothing. In the end, it was nothing but a degradation of Natalya who doesn't get the credit she deserves to begin with.
BEST & WORST STORYLINES
BEST: Respect CM Punk
The main reason I'm going for this is how they incorporated the idea that John Cena was in the main event of each pay-per-view up until the point where it was a necessity to make Punk the main event. That was some damn good maneuvering around that and it helped the storyline seem that much more realistic.
WORST: Embrace the Hate / Zack Ryder & Eve Torres & John Cena love triangle
This incorporates both the Zack Ryder love story with Eve and John Cena as well as the ridiculous handshake feud with Randy Orton. The beginning of the year for Kane could have been cool with the return of the mask but they screwed it all up. The idea behind his feud with Cena was good and it was ruined with the inclusion of the Ryder and Eve love story, which did nothing but hurt all 4 parties involved. Then, with nothing for WrestleMania, they try to build upon that and switch it to Randy Orton and the only basis they have is that they shook hands before, which made Kane weak? Come on.
MOST & LEAST SHOCKING MOMENT OF THE YEAR
[This is a new category. What shocked you the most this year and what was supposed to shock you but you saw it coming from a mile away?]
BEST: Jerry Lawler's Heart Attack on Raw
Props go to some other moments like Sheamus winning the Royal Rumble, the appearance of the Shield, Brad Maddox screwing Ryback, and the reintroduction of Brock Lesnar, but if you were to tell me any of those things would happen, I'd believe them much more than Jerry the King Lawler almost dying on air.
WORST: Eve wins Divas Championship from Layla at Night of Champions
This was painfully obvious once the attack happened on Kaitlyn. Even more predictable was just how horrible this whole storyline has been as well as the matches themselves.
BEST & WORST SMARK OUT MOMENT OF THE YEAR
[This is a new category. What made you cheer the most and what made you want to change the channel?]
BEST: Cobra vs Mr. Socko
Was it ridiculous? Yeah. Was it awesome? Yeah. Just because it's silly doesn't mean I have to hate it, despite what you might think. I almost gave this to Kofi Kingston's handstand but as much as I thought that was awesome, I honestly think seeing Santino and Foley do this spot got a bigger stir out of me as a fan.
WORST: Commercials on pay-per-views and musical performances
My biggest gripe out of everything in the year. There's no justification for it in my mind. You can't have a product that has such a huge amount of wasted time. As much as I hated Zack Ryder changing the tire, Hornswoggle as the Anonymous General Manager, Ricardo Rodriguez singing with R-Truth, and other things, the relentless onslaught of bullshit on TV and pay-per-views is too much to ignore.
BEST & WORST TV SHOWS
[Choose between: Raw, Smackdown, Superstars, NXT: Redemption, NXT at Full Sail, Saturday Morning Slam, Main Event, and all of the YouTube shows]
BEST: Raw
As far as the YouTube shows go, I like WWE Inbox a lot, but overall, the best show has to be Raw. The 3 hour versions are tiresome to get through due to all of the stretching and rewinds and such, but it's still the only show that you need to watch in order to follow through with the product. I've missed many episodes of Smackdown since the 3 hour Raw transition and it's never come into play, whereas if I were to miss Raw, I'm sure I'd be far behind.
WORST: NXT: Redemption
This was the absolute biggest trash of a show that WWE had this year, and they've had some awful shows, like Superstars and Are You Serious. NXT: Redemption started off with the idea of old NXT stars getting a second shot at winning NXT but the redemption points made no sense and then they eventually turned it into another Superstars type show. The entire purpose of NXT's competition was thrown out the window. Instead, we were "treated" to the people that couldn't even make it on the undercard. It's pretty bad when you're so far down the ladder in WWE that they don't even use you to job out on Superstars. I tried my hardest to watch this and I had to cave in and tap out. They should be ashamed of themselves for this show.
SMACK TALK AWARDS
BEST "DID YOU KNOW" PARODY OF THE YEAR
[Click here for a list of the Did You Know parodies to choose from]
BEST: Episode 18 - "With Google's latest glitches, Smark Out Moment is getting screwed over even more than Bret Hart at Survivor Series."
It's true. It's damn true.
BEST OUTRO PARODY OF THE YEAR
[Click here for a list of the Outro parodies to choose from]
BEST: Episode 24 - Dusty Rhodes parody "American Outro"
Just for the sake of giving credit where credit is due, I wanted to point out what I consider to be the top ten. In order of appearance, episode 11's Brodus Clay parody "Somebody Do an Outro", episode 14's Sheamus parody "Outro in my Face", episode 15's Miz parody, episode 18's Eve Torres parody "Outro's Good to Me", episode 27's Edge parody, episode 31's Jillian Hall parody, episode 41's Cryme Tyme parody, episode 43's Limp Bizkit parody "My Way or the Outro", and episode 48's Ryback parody "Outro on the Table" are some great ones to go with my choice for the best.
BEST SMACK TALK SEGMENT
[Choose between: Ask Him, Hot Tags, Tournament, Did You Know Parody, PPV Predictions, PPV Reviews, Image Captions, Outro Parody, Best & Worst Awards]
BEST: Best & Worst Awards
Tough call, but I do love doing the end of the year awards a lot. Otherwise, I wouldn't put so much effort into the show. Obviously, I'm expecting the outro to be the fan favorite here.
BEST GUEST HOST OF THE YEAR
[Choose between: Michael Burhan, Chris Dace, Braeden Mayhew, Chris Urban, Michael Paden, Jeff Croop, Graham Matthews, Chris Jester, Carlos Covington, Alphonso Mack]
BEST: [n/a]
In all honesty, this isn't an attempt at a cop-out answer. I appreciate everyone who signs up to do the show and in the interest of fairness, I can't really vote one person over the others. Everyone has contributed to the show in positive ways, so I'm very thankful.
PERFORMANCE AWARDS
BEST & WORST ANCILLARY CHARACTERS
[These are the people that aren't roster wrestlers. IE, the managers, special guests, valets, and other actors that performed in sketches and promos and the like. Everyone is fair game, from John Laurinaitis to Sakamoto to even the Funketeer Kids and Flo Rida. Renee Paquette isn't even too fresh to escape a possible vote.]
BEST: Paul Heyman
Props to John Laurinaitis and AJ Lee, but let's be honest, Paul Heyman's been the man this year, if not just for the way he says Brock Lesnar's name.
WORST: Funketeers kids
For the record, I almost gave this to "every social media ambassador" as well as Christopher J. Stephenson, the Executive Coach for AJ Lee. However, I decided to go with the Funketeers because it annoys the living hell out of me when ANYTHING revolves around little kids that I'm supposed to find cute or something. They take up time standing awkwardly in the ring half-bouncing like idiots. Would I have done the same as a kid? Of course. But I was retarded as a kid as well. Just not my thing, being force-fed this Be a Star type stuff that WWE does in the PG era. It's good for the kids, but for someone my age, I skip it on the dvr. If you were to ask a kid what they would pick for this award, I'm sure they'd go with something that I find entertaining. It's just how the world works.
BEST & WORST COMMENTATORS
[Choose between: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, Booker T, Josh Mathews, Scott Stanford, Matt Striker, William Regal, Byron Saxton, Jim Ross, John Bradshaw Layfield, Carlos Cabrera, Marcelo Rodriguez, Tom Phillips, Tony Dawson]
BEST: JBL
Although he's only been back for a short time, he's been the most entertaining by far. He also manages to add some actual perspective to the matches as well.
WORST: Byron Saxton
He's not the worst they've ever had, but he's certainly not good enough to be on the main show, and it is really obvious if you listen to his commentary on NXT. He could eventually be good enough, but not now.
BEST & WORST ANNOUNCERS
[Choose between: Justin Roberts, Tony Chimel, Lilian Garcia, Caylee Turner, and Ricardo Rodriguez]
BEST: Ricardo Rodriguez
If you're going with a serious answer, it's Justin Roberts, but all in all, Ricardo does a great job with his character and you've got to love his delivery of Albertooooooooooooooooooooooo.
WORST: Caylee Turner
Fired for a reason, am I right?
BEST & WORST ROOKIES
[Choose between: The NXT roster, Antonio Cesaro, Ryback, Lord Tensai, Damien Sandow, Brad Maddox, Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Big E Langston - and yes, some of those aren't truly rookies, but I'm giving some leeway for new characters]
BEST: Damien Sandow
Good on the mic, good in the ring, I haven't seen anything bad from him so far and he just keeps getting better. Give this man the Intercontinental Championship!
WORST: Lord Tensai
He's made even worse by the fact that they tried to build him up as being worth something. Tell me one decent thing that Tensai is responsible for and pulled off well. Yes, I know he's not a true 100% rookie, but this category has always been stretched to include new characters with a virtually retconned existence. I'm sure if you won't count him that there's a bunch of NXT guys that could fill the spot instead.
BEST & WORST TAG TEAMS / STABLES
[Choose between: Jack Swagger & Dolph Ziggler with Vickie Guerrero, Epico & Primo with Rosa Mendes and Abraham Washington, Air Boom, Kofi Kingston & R-Truth, The Usos, Curt Hawkins & Tyler Reks, Hunico & Camacho, Justin Gabriel & Tyson Kidd, The Prime Time Players, Ascension, Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara, Team Hell No, Team Rhodes Scholars, 3MB, The Shield]
BEST: Team Hell No
I think Swagger and Ziggler got screwed out of being the best tag team. They deserved a title reign. Since they didn't get it, I have to give this award to Daniel Bryan and Kane. They took what could have been a ridiculous, stupid storyline and made it work, becoming easily the most popular tag team this whole year to the point of being in main event matches.
WORST: Epico & Primo with Rosa and AW
What was the point of this? Epico and Primo are pretty bad on their own, as is Rosa, and when they added Abraham Washington and did nothing with him, it was just awful. AW was entertaining with the Prime Time Players but this stable has just sucked all year long.
BEST & WORST DIVAS
[Choose between: Eve Torres, Brie Bella, Nikki Bella, Caylee Turner, Paige, Raquel Diaz, Sofia Cortez, Summer Rae, Rosa Mendes, Naomi, Cameron Lynn, Lilian Garcia, AJ Lee, Aksana, Alicia Fox, Kaitlyn, Layla El, Natalya, Tamina, Vickie Guerrero, Kelly Kelly, Beth Phoenix, Kharma]
BEST: AJ Lee
Runner up Eve Torres is still outshined enough by AJ that this wasn't particularly close to me. AJ has been the forefront diva for the entire year in various different ways and that's because she's been able to pull it off. Look for her to be the main diva of the division as far as wrestling goes for 2013 as well.
WORST: [TIE] Aksana / Rosa Mendes
Is there a purpose to either of these two? They're not good on the mic, they're the worst divas wrestlers that the company has had for years, and they don't even have characters that serve a purpose anymore.
BEST & WORST HEELS
BEST: CM Punk
Even though Heath Slater is the best at making me want to watch him lose and I think Damien Sandow is just killing it 24/7, I can't deny CM Punk this award. He just does too good of a job.
WORST: Michael McGillicutty
The only reason I didn't give this to Tensai is because he used to push Sakamoto. That's it. If he didn't beat Sakamoto up, he'd be here probably. That being said, there are a few people that could have won this, such as Epico, Johnny Curtis, and Tyler Reks, but I'm going with Michael McGillicutty because I don't see it in his eyes. The guy never wrestles on Raw or Smackdown but he pops up on WWE Inbox quite often and each time he answers a question, he tries to come off as a heel and it just looks pitiful to me. The only hope he has for his career, if he's doing that bad of a job acting on something as simple as WWE Inbox where most people are just themselves, is to be repackaged as a generic babyface and team with someone like Tyson Kidd.
BEST & WORST BABYFACES
BEST: CM Punk
John Cena would win this if he weren't so goddamn bland all the time. And by that, I don't mean "I wish he'd go back to thuganomics once in a while", I mean he just needs something else to his character. CM Punk was killing it as a babyface this year and I think they could have even gone a little further with it before turning him heel, but at least he's been able to excel in that as well. CM Punk earned his cheers from the audience while someone like John Cena only earned some cheers from some people and equally is responsible for earning the boos that CM Punk didn't seem to really get, didn't he?
WORST: Yoshi Tatsu
He's nothing. You can't get behind him because he never wrestles, let alone wins a match or puts up a fight, and he has no character, he's just Japanese, so am I really supposed to cheer for him just because he's a guy who is out there and isn't the heel of the match? At least Khali is clearly used as just "comedic" waste and we know that. Tatsu isn't even in the position to be on TV and losing as a joke. He's just losing on house shows and such.
BEST & WORST SUPERSTARS OF THE YEAR
BEST: CM Punk
He's had the best title reign, some of the best storylines, good matches, and none of it was force-fed to us like John Cena's storylines were in a lot of regards. There's really nobody that stands up to him when you look at the big picture. He hits all the bullet points.
WORST: Tensai
The non-entities like Tyler Reks, Yoshi Tatsu, and Michael McGillicutty aside, if you're going for someone who was actually supposed to mean something and didn't at all, it has to be Tensai. He sure turned out to be a big player, didn't he?
LEAVE YOUR CHOICES BELOW IN THE COMMENTS!
18 comments: