Every WWE Superstar of the Year (2008-2015): Where are they now?

When it comes to achievements in WWE, many Superstars say in out-of-character interviews that their main career goal is to headline WrestleMania one day.

Other than that, winning a World Championship is often mentioned as another career target, while a select few people have had the honour of winning WWE’s Superstar of the Year Award.

In 2008, the category returned as the top prize in the annual Slammy Awards, and it remained a regular feature every December until WWE stopped producing the ceremony in 2016.

We recently revisited WWE’s end-of-year awards by taking a look at eight Breakout Superstars of the Year (2008-2018) to find out where they are now.

In this article, let’s look at the very best of the best in WWE by finding out what every Superstar of the Year (2008-2015) is up to in 2019.

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#6 Chris Jericho (2008)

In 2008, WWE decided to reintroduce the Slammy Awards for the first time since 1997. The top category, Superstar of the Year, was won by Chris Jericho, who beat Batista, Edge, Jeff Hardy, John Cena and Triple H to the prestigious award.

Jericho began the year as one of several Superstars involved in the Intercontinental Championship picture, and he ended it with another two World Heavyweight Championship reigns and as the top villain in the wrestling business.

Much of Jericho’s 2008 revolved around his phenomenal rivalry with Shawn Michaels, while he also had some memorable World Heavyweight Championship battles with Batista and Cena.

Chris Jericho in 2019

Eleven years later, Jericho is a legitimate contender to be crowned Wrestler of the Year in 2019.

The nine-time WWE Intercontinental Champion signed with AEW in January and immediately cemented his status as the top name in the company by defeating Kenny Omega in the main event of the Double or Nothing pay-per-view.

He has since defeated Adam Page at All Out to become the inaugural AEW World Champion, and he retained his title against Cody Rhodes at Full Gear and against Darby Allin and Scorpio Sky on Dynamite.

#5 John Cena (2009, 2010, 2012)

Even the most loyal of WWE fans will have to admit that the decision to hold a tournament for the 2009 Superstar of the Year Award was utterly absurd.

The four-man tournament saw John Cena defeat CM Punk via submission and Randy Orton defeat The Undertaker via countout in the first round, meaning Cena had to defeat Orton in the final to pick up that year’s prize.

One year later, Cena won the award again, this time by fan vote ahead of Orton, Edge, Rey Mysterio, Kane and The Miz, and he was successful again in 2012 when fans voted for him instead of fellow nominees Big Show, CM Punk and Sheamus.

John Cena in 2019

At the start of 2019, Cena returned to the ring to defeat Andrade and Zelina Vega in a tag team match with Becky Lynch on the New Year’s Day episode of SmackDown.

He went on to compete in multi-man matches on the next two episodes of RAW, but he did not appear at the 2019 Royal Rumble, which he had originally been advertised for, due to a kayfabe ankle injury.

With the exception of his WrestleMania 35 cameo as “The Doctor of Thuganomics”, Cena has spent the year working on various movies, including Fast & Furious 9 and Dolittle.

#4 CM Punk (2011)

If you ask any WWE fan to recall a significant moment from 2011, there is a good chance they will talk about CM Punk’s WWE Championship victory in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois against John Cena at Money In The Bank.

“The Best In The World” only signed his new WWE deal on the day of the show. However, the Chicago fans did not know that and it looked as though Punk was set to compete in his final match, regardless of whether or not he left with the WWE Championship.

As it turned out, he did win the title – he even kept it in his fridge that night – and he went on to spend another two-and-a-half years as a WWE Superstar.

Cena, Randy Orton, Mark Henry, Alberto Del Rio and The Miz were also nominated for the Superstar of the Year prize in 2011, but it was no surprise when fans voted for Punk.

CM Punk in 2019

It still feels strange to type this, but CM Punk is now an analyst on FOX show WWE Backstage.

As of the time of writing, the former WWE Champion has only appeared on one episode but he has already made headlines with his thoughts on Seth Rollins’ Twitter antics and Baron Corbin’s “Big Dog” segment.

There has, of course, been lots of speculation suggesting that he could return to a WWE ring one day, so watch this space, perhaps?

#3 Daniel Bryan (2013)

Although Daniel Bryan’s Team Hell No partnership with Kane proved to be very popular with fans, “The Leader of the Yes Movement” had to break up with his tag partner midway through 2013 in order to become a major singles star again.

This time, with the “Yes Movement” stronger than ever, he received some of the biggest crowd reactions of his career in the summer of 2013, culminating in him briefly winning the WWE Championship from John Cena at SummerSlam.

WWE attempted to move Bryan away from the WWE Championship picture towards the end of the year by having him feud with The Wyatt Family. However, this only led to Bryan receiving even more support, especially during the Championship Ascension Ceremony between Cena and Randy Orton, which was hijacked by chants for WWE’s ultimate underdog.

Cena, Orton, CM Punk, Big Show and Brock Lesnar were nominated for the 2013 Superstar of the Year, but Bryan was the clear winner.

Daniel Bryan in 2019

After his in-ring retirement was reversed in 2018, Bryan has been involved in prominent storylines on SmackDown with Kofi Kingston, Erick Rowan and Roman Reigns throughout 2019.

As we approach 2020, the former WWE Champion now finds himself involved in a rivalry with “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt over the Universal Championship.

#2 Roman Reigns (2014)

Looking back, Roman Reigns’ WWE career in 2014 can be viewed as the calm before the almighty storm of boos that followed him everywhere he went in 2015 and beyond.

At the start of the year, he broke Kane’s long-standing record of 11 eliminations in a single Royal Rumble match (12 eliminations), while he joined forces with his fellow Shield members to battle it out with top factions including The Wyatt Family and Evolution.

After Seth Rollins dismantled The Shield in June, Reigns soon began to establish himself as a prominent singles Superstar – notably at SummerSlam, where he defeated Randy Orton – before a hernia injury ruled him out for three months between September and December.

Despite his absence, Reigns was surprisingly voted ahead of Rollins, Brock Lesnar, Dean Ambrose, John Cena, Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt as the 2014 Superstar of the Year.

Roman Reigns in 2019

While Roman Reigns’ career was on the rise in 2014, few people would have predicted at the time that he would go on to headline the next four WrestleMania events.

Nowadays, Reigns remains a vital part of WWE programming and he is a genuine contender to be named the top WWE Superstar of the Decade.

#1 Seth Rollins (2015)

One of the best years of any WWE heel over the last decade came in 2015 when Seth Rollins won the WWE Championship for the first time in his career.

Not only did the former Shield member steal the show at WrestleMania 31 by cashing in his Money In The Bank contract in the main event between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns, but he went on to successfully defend his WWE Championship over the next seven months, including against John Cena in a Champion vs. Champion match at SummerSlam.

When you throw in his rivalries with Randy Orton, Dean Ambrose, Brock Lesnar, Sting and Kane, there was no way anybody else was more worthy than Rollins of winning the 2015 Superstar of the Year Award.

Sadly for the Authority member, who won the prize in the only year where every Superstar on the roster was nominated, his 2015 ended in unfortunate circumstances when he tore his MCL, ACL and medial meniscus against Kane at a live event in Dublin in November 2015, forcing him to relinquish the WWE Championship.

Seth Rollins in 2019

Four years on from his 2015 award, many fans still regard Seth Rollins’ seven-month WWE Championship reign as his best time as a character on WWE television.

He is still one of the top male Superstars on the RAW roster in 2019, and recent signs suggest that the former Shield member could return to his villainous 2015 ways sooner rather than later.