wrestling / Columns

411’s Wrestler of the Week – Ambrose & Ziggler Battle For The Top Spot

September 30, 2014 | Posted by Larry Csonka

Welcome to YEAR TEN, WEEK 25 of 411’s Wrestler of the Week. A quick overview of the rules to kick things off for us as a reminder…

Each writer chooses FIVE wrestlers (although ties and tag teams are allowed) from any promotion and each wrestler gets a point total attached to that ranking. It looks a little like this…

1st – 5
2nd – 4
3rd – 3
4th – 2
5th – 1

Then we tally up the votes and the official 411 Wrestler of the Week is crowned. But wait, there’s more! Each week the top SIX vote getters get a points value for their ranking which looks something like this…

1st – 15
2nd – 12
3rd – 9
4th – 6
5th – 3
6th – 1

…and they go towards the 411 Wrestler of the Year award to be announced each year around WrestleMania. This will be posted every Tuesday (the voting week runs Monday through Sunday). Let’s see who wins this week…

Larry Csonka
1) Jimmy Susumu and Jimmy Kagetora:
Jimmy Susumu and Jimmy Kagetora defeated the awesome team of EITA and T-Hawk to win the Dragon Gate’s 2014 Summer Adventure Tag League. Following the victory, EITA and T-Hawk agreed to defend the Open the Twin Gate titles against the Jimmyz. EITA and T-Hawk have been one of the very best tag teams in wrestling for 2014, in terms of how they have been booked and their top-notch performance. This was a huge win for The Jimmyz.

2) Kazuchika Okada: Defeated Karl Anderson at the NJPW Destruction in Okayama event to retain his title shot for January 4th. This was a tremendous main event, and more proof that the Machinegun can hang with the top guys, because he has proven it time and time again.
3) Austin Aries: Won the one night NYC Goldrush Tournament on Impact to earn a title shot of his choosing.
4) Dean Ambrose
5) The Time Splitters (Shelley and KUSHIDA)

Mike Hammerlock
1) Dolph Ziggler
Won back the Intercontinental belt on Monday night and then defended against Cesaro on Friday. Excellent in-ring week from Mr. Ziggler. And did you hear that crowd reaction he got on Monday? Memphis was behind him like he was the second coming of Elvis. The WWE really needs to start paying attention to its nightly focus group, because fans are clamoring for more Dolph Ziggler. Quick notes about lower picks – Austin Aries is really good at wrestling. The Dean Ambrose Mindfreak stunt didn’t work for me because it had to be explained a day later. Meanwhile John Cena did a superior job of selling a chokeslam from Kane (way better than Ambrose), so I’m giving him a vote over Ambrose. Honorable mentions to Randy Orton, who delivered a lot of main event goodness on Monday, and the Usos because they whipped out a Doomsday Device.

2) Big Show: First off, Smackdown was the show of the week. Best edition of it we’ve seen in a while. One of the keys is they gave us a real main event that wasn’t a hangover from the Raw. Show took on Rusev and looked kind of great. He’s moving better. He dwarfed Rusev. Sometimes I think we forget just how massive a human Show really is. The announce team even did a stellar job of selling the match. The crowd was clearly hot for it too. The whole thing worked.
3) Cesaro: His elimination of Kofi and Swagger at the end of the Smackdown battle royal was super cool. Cesaro’s super cool in general. If he’s now feuding with Ziggler, I’m all for that. Shows will be stolen.
4) Austin Aries
5) John Cena

justin watry
1) Dean Ambrose
Bad News Barrett is out. Roman Reigns is out. Daniel Bryan is out. Brock Lesnar is (rightfully) part-time and off television for the time being. Raw needed a shake up, and the return of Dean Ambrose was exactly what the doctor ordered. His feud with Seth Rollins is VERY deserving of the main event position it is getting right now. Also, not to beat a dead horse, but those two in a Heck on a Deck grudge match could easily headline the event. A WWE World Title match is not even really needed. Let Rollins and Ambrose tear the house down in the closing bout…

2) Rusev: Main event match on Smackdown. In an impossible feat, he and Big Show actually delivered an entertaining bout. Liked the Blue Brand a lot this week.
3) Dolph Ziggler: Won back the IC Championship on RAW, but we can all be honest at this point – the title change means nothing. Do not let any Ziggler ‘internet fanboyism’ fool you. That being said, his match with The Miz was very good, as was his match against Cesaro. Two solid nights for Dolph.
4) Seth Rollins
5) John Cena

Mike Chin
1) Dean Ambrose
In addition to his ongoing program with Seth Rollins, Ambrose looked totally at home bickering with John Cena, and was portrayed as a full cut above Kane and The Miz on Raw and Smackdown this week. In the absence of Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan, he just may have his opportunity as the number two face in WWE.

2) Rusev: Despite what the haters may say, The Bulgarian Brute is turning in good high profile matches on a consistent basis. He shored up his dominance over Mark Henry on Raw and, though Big Show may have been the last man standing on Raw, Rusev held his own and didn’t lose the match, thus further elevating the character.
3) Cesaro: The number one contender-ship for a secondary title may not seem like an overwhelming credential, but the bigger story to me for Cesaro’s week was winning another battle royal. In doing so, a subplot emerges with Cesaro as a budding king of battle royals–besides continuing to have something to do in the mid-card, which is more than the bulk of the roster can really say.
4) Austin Aries
5) Dolph Ziggler

Ryan Byers
1) Dean Ambrose
Ambrose was back on regular weekly television for the first time since his recent hiatus began, and this also felt like the first time Ambrose was truly being booked as a definite main event singles act. Before his break to shoot the movie, he was working in some top matches but was always positioned in such a way that I was left with some concern in the back of my mind that he’d be cycled down to the midcard as soon as his issue with Seth Rollins was sewn open. Now, given his interactions with John Cena and the greater Authority, he finally feels like the real deal. Granted, there’s still the possibility that may be swept away once Roman Reigns returns, but, for the time being, Dean is still in a better place than he had been previously.

2) Kazuchika Okada: Defeated Karl Anderson in a great match in the main event of this week’s major New Japan show, successfully defending his WrestleKingdom title match against the Machine Gun and therefore taking one step closer to yet again main eventing NJPW’s biggest show of the year.
3) Tetsuya Endo & Konosuke Takeshita: Many of you probably haven’t heard of Endo & Takeshita, but they’re two young wrestlers (ages 19 and 22, each with two years in-ring experience) climbing the ranks in the DDT promotion. Everybody’s been amazed with how well they’ve advanced, and there was a big show of faith in them this week when they were allowed to beat Kota Ibushi & Kenny Omega for the company’s tag titles, essentially the DDT equivalent of beating John Cena and Daniel Bryan. You will be hearing more about Endo & Takeshita as the years go on, mark my words.
4) The Big Show
5) Susumu Yokosuka & Kagetora

Alex Crowder
1) Dean Ambrose
Finally, Ambrose is being booked as more of a main eventer, and his return has helped the quality of the WWE product. Somehow, he makes everything feel a little fresher. He stood man to man with John Cena, so that is always a good sign.

2) Dolph Ziggler: Ziggler has really taken advantage of his renewed push. I remember a short time ago when he was losing every match. Dolph has turned the corner and they seem to be behind him at least a little bit.
3) Hiroshi Tanahashi: I know a lot of people praise Okada and Styles as of late, but Tanahashi is having an incredible year as well. Tanahashi continues to be one of the most consistent performers of the decade and no matter where he is on the card, he gives a great effort.
4) Austin Aries
5) Rusev

Wyatt Beougher
1) Brock Lesnar
Like I said last week, Lesnar is getting my vote every week for the rest of the WOTY year, just to ensure that he gets the proper recognition that he deserves for his 2014.

2) Dolph Ziggler: Not only did Ziggler win back the Intercontinental title on RAW, he also had an pretty spectacular defense against Cesaro on Smackdown. Plus, the crowd is now fully behind him again, and it looks like the sky is legitimately the limit.
3) Kazuchika Okada: The Rainmaker scores a big win over a member of the Bullet Club, and with the win over Anderson, he continues his march towards a rematch with IWGP champion AJ Styles.
4) Time Splitters
5) Cesaro

Jack McGee
1) Jimmy Susumu and Jimmy Kagetora
Jimmy Susumu and Jimmy Kagetora defeated T-Hawk and Eita to win the 2014 Dragon Gate Summer League Tag Team Tournament. Not only did they win the tournament, they defeated the Open the Twin Gate champions to do so. This will get them a shot at those titles, making the tournament win even sweeter.

2) Dean Ambrose: Dean Ambrose is back from shooting his movie, and feels like an even bigger star to me. It has nothing to do with the movie mind you; he was getting red-hot reactions prior to the angle that wrote him out. The crowds loved him then, and are treating him like a major star since he has returned. I know the company is all about Reigns and I get that, but maybe Ambrose is really the guy to be looking at.
3) Kazuchika Okada: Retained his IWGP title shot (which he won for winning the G1) in a damn fine match with Karl Anderson.
4) Time Splitters
5) Austin Aries

THE WINNERS~!
* Special Mention…Rusev – 9 Votes

* Fifth Place…Austin Aries – 10 Votes

* Fourth Place…Jimmy Susumu and Jimmy Kagetora – 11 Votes

* Third Place…Kazuchika Okada – 14 Votes

Retained his title shot for the IWGP Title, which he will use on January 4th.

* Second Place…Dolph Ziggler – 17 Votes

And once again, your NEW WWE Intercontinental Champion!

* And 411’s Wrestler of the Week is…

Dean Ambrose – 26 Votes

Dean Ambrose is back, wreaking havoc and kicking the shit out of the Miz. #1 with a bullet…

Year-End Standings~!
And here are the standings after week twenty-five…

Seth Rollins – 87pts.

AJ Styles – 74pts.

Roman Reigns – 71pts.

Dean Ambrose – 62pts.

Bobby Lashley – 60pts.

Eric Young – 58pts.

John Cena – 45pts.

Brock Lesnar – 43pts.

Kazuchika Okada – 39pts

Rusev – 34pts.

Ricochet – 27pts
Kyle O’Reilly – 27pts.

Hideo Itami – 24pts.

Bad News Barrett – 21pts.

Charlotte – 18pts.
Bobby Fish – 18pts.
Cesaro – 18pts.
Bray Wyatt – 18pts
Jey Uso – 18pts.
Jimmy Uso – 18pts.

AJ Lee – 16pts.
Batista – 16pts.

Atlantis – 15pts.
Adrian Neville – 15pts.
Paige – 15pts.
YAMATO – 15pts
Takao Omori – 15pts
Sheamus – 15pts.

Dolph Ziggler – 13 pts.

Samoa Joe – 12pts.
Hiroshi Tanahashi – 12pts
BxB Hulk – 12pts
Icarus – 12pts.
Daniel Bryan – 12pts.
Chris Jericho – 12pts.
Michael Elgin – 12pts.
Bully Ray – 12pts.
Jay Briscoe – 12pts.
Austin Aries – 12pts.

KUSHIDA – 10pts.
Davey Richards – 10pts.
Eddie Edwards – 10pts.
Stardust (Cody Rhodes) – 10pts.

Ultimo Guerrero – 9pts.
Adam Cole – 9pts.
Luke Harper – 9pts.
Triple H – 9pts.
Yujiro Takahashi – 9pts
Minoru Suzuki – 9pts

Randy Orton – 7pts.
Alicia Fox – 7pts.
Goldust – 7pts.

Shelton Benjamin – 6pts.
Gail Kim – 6pts.
Devon – 6pts.
Suwama – 6pts.
Bad Luck Fale – 6pts
Biff Busick – 6pts.
Erick Rowan – 6pts.
Stephanie McMahon – 6pts.
Kalisto – 6pts.

Joe Doering – 3pts.
T-Hawk – 3pts.
EITA – 3pts.
Jeff Hardy – 3pts.
Bobby Roode – 3pts.
Tyson Kidd – 3pts.
Mark Henry – 3pts.
Tyler Breeze – 3pts.
Adam Rose – 3pts.
Jack Swagger – 3pts.
Sin Cara – 3pts.

Dasher Hatfield – 2 pts.
Mr. Touchdown – 2 pts.

The Miz – 1pt
Kane – 1pt
Brie Bella – 1pt
Uhaa Nation – 1pt
Naomichi Marufuji – 1pt
Kota Ibushi – 1pt
Sanada – 1pt
Bram – 1pt
Alex Shelley – 1pt
Isami Kodaka – 1pt
Kazuyuki Fujita – 1pt
Vickie Guerrero – 1pt
Drew Galloway – 1pt
Caleb Konley – 1pt
Jimmy Susumu – 1pt
Jimmy Kagetora – 1pt