Diva Dirt presents its third annual Writers’ Choice Awards, the awards that celebrate the year in women’s wrestling, as decided by the editors and contributors of Diva Dirt. The Diva Dirt team has watched hundreds of episode of wrestling television this year, followed a countless number of wrestlers and reviewed tons of matches. Now, as we come to the end of 2013, we have picked the best of the best to be awarded our Writers’ Choice trophies.
Best Babyface: Emma
When it comes to popular babyfaces, we certainly have more candidates to choose from than we have in years past. Nevertheless, one candidate (awkwardly) danced her way into the hearts of our writers more than the rest, and for that, we’ve selected NXT’s own Emma as Babyface of the year!
She may have started out in NXT in a bit of a character-less persona, but as soon as 2013 rolled around, Emma’s path to dance dominance took over. She debuted a captivatingly fun new character which involved dancing, dancing and more dancing… the catch though? Her dancing was different, to say the least. Unlike Fandango and Summer Rae‘s ballroom elegance, Emma’s moves were a bit more rough around the edges so to speak, and honestly, we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Emma started racking up both wins and popularity right around the weeks leading up to WrestleMania, taking down rivals like Bayley and Audrey Marie to the audience’s amusement. As the victories continued and the dancing increased, fans began to grow a fond attachment to the Aussie born Diva, embracing her along the way and transforming the once shy debute into one of the most popular superstars — male or female — on the entire roster!
Around mid-June, the addition of an NXT Women’s Championship was announced by Stephanie McMahon, and Emma immediately became one of the leading candidates to be crowned the inaugural title holder. alongside Summer Rae and Paige in particular. As round one of an eight woman tourney rolled around, she managed to take down a main roster Diva in Aksana, then proceeding to surprise one of her most favored opponents, Summer Rae, as well, thus advancing to the finals in the process.
Unfortunately for Emma, she fell to Paige in the finale, but what a fight it was! Regarded as one of the top televised female matches this year, the twosome tour the house down with gripping back and forth action that left every fan at the edge of their seats wondering who would come out on top. The crowd was split right down the middle, but while Paige may have won the battle, Emma is continuing to prove the war is far from over.
Many may point out NXT Divas as rivaling Emma’s popularity this year, with Paige and Bayley popping up as easy comparisons. We take nothing away from either of them, but in Bayley’s case, her popularity began to skyrocket later on in the year. With Paige, she has begun to show signs that she may not have much babyface left in her as we head into 2014. Emma’s popularity, though, has lasted throughout majority of the calendar year and doesn’t look to be stopping anytime soon!
After all, who else has inspired audience members to chant, blow bubbles, make poseable signs and dance along to the beat of her infectious theme song?
Make no mistake, 2013 was a year filled with much Emma-tainment. We’re hoping that come this time next year, the entire WWE Universe will be just as Emma-tained as we are. Oh, and we also demand that she keeps her theme song. That dancing will never appear as effortless and majestic with any other song!
Stay tuned for more Writers’ Choice Award reveals over the next few days.
