wrestling / Columns

411’s Wrestler of the Week – Did Angle Take #1?

April 14, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka

Welcome to YEAR ELEVEN, WEEK 2 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…

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Larry Csonka
1) The KimberBombs:
At SHIMMER 72, The SHINE tag team champions The KimberBombs (Kimber Lee & Cherry Bomb) defeated Kellie Skater & Tomoka Nakagawa to become the NEW SHIMMER tag team champions. They then defeated Courtney Rush & Xandra Bale and Team Slap Happy (Heidi Lovelace & Evie) to retain those title s over the weekend.

2) “Speedball” Mike Bailey: “Speedball” Mike Bailey has been gaining a lot of attention on the independent scene, and upped his profile by winning the CWZ 2015 Best of the Best tournament. He defeated ‘Dirty’ Buxx Belmar and Andrew Everett in his first match, former NXT performer CJ Parker in his second match and finally Jonathan Gresham in the finals to score the title.
3) Kurt Angle & Prince Puma: Both successfully defended their titles this week on TV.
4) Nicole Matthews
5) Hideo Itami

Ryan Byers
1) Hideo Itami:
This week was almost eerily slow, to the point that there was nobody who sprang to mind as an obvious number one choice. After giving it some thought, I settled on Hideo Itami who was put over like a million bucks on this past week’s episode of NXT. Yes, most of the footage was from WrestleMania week, but the way that it was assembled and presented is bound to make Itami a big star in the eyes of anybody who was watching, and their opportunity to do so was this week.

2) Roman Reigns: Despite WrestleMania plans being changed, the Reigns train continues to roll on, as he scored major victories this week over the Big Show on Raw and in a six man tag main event on Smackdown.
3) Randy Orton: I have a hard time voting for Randy Orton winning his 7,532,891 WWE Title match like it’s some kind of accomplishment but, again, the week was just that darn slow.
4) Taichi
5) TAKA Michinoku & El Desperado

Kevin Pantoja
1) The KimberBombs:
The team of Cherry Bomb and Kimber Lee has been making waves lately. At Shine 25 about a month ago, the Kimber Bombs captured the Shine Tag Team Titles, becoming the third team in history to hold the belts. That’s impressive, but the reason they top the list this week is because they won the SHIMMER Tag Team Titles. SHIMMER is a promotion that I love pretty dearly. Unfortunately, I missed more of their shows recently than I care to count but I’ve been catching up. Not only are the Kimber Bombs a team with great chemistry, but their win was significant. The team they overthrew, the Global Green Gangsters, were the longest reigning champions in history at 727 days. The Kimber Bombs would add to their week by successfully defending the belts against Courtney Rush and Xandra Bale, as well as Team Slap Happy.

2) Nicole Matthews: As I mentioned, I am a pretty big fan of SHIMMER. I’ve watched them since the early single digit volumes they produced. Around SHIMMER 14 or 15 I believe, Nicole Matthews came into play. I watched her develop into my absolute favorite girl in all of women’s wrestling. When I read that she won the SHIMMER Title a while back, I was elated. At SHIMMER 72 and 73, Matthews had two big title defenses to make. On the first one, she retained against Kay Lee Ray and then she retained against Havok. Then, on SHIMMER 74 she also retained the belt against former champion Madison Eagles. Some people had successful title defenses this week, but only Matthews did it three times.
3) Prince Puma: Speaking of Champions with successful title defenses this week, we move to Prince Puma. Puma has been excellent as the Lucha Underground Champion. Hell, he’s been excellent period in Lucha Underground. This week, he took on another of the top guys in LU, King Cuerno. Cuerno has impressed me greatly and is easily in my top five performers of the company. Puma continues to reign as the top guy in the company though, solidifying his spot here.
4) Kurt Angle
5) Hideo Itami

Andrew Shillinglaw
1) Hideo Itami:
Hey, why not? Yes, the tournament matches were over Mania weekend but this week’s episode of NXT was the Hideo Itami show, and that’s what matters. Not only were two fantastic matches of his shown, but he also was featured majorly in that brilliant mini documentary feature. Because of all that, he gets the nod this week.

2) Randy Orton: Orton is officially the number one contender for Extreme Rules. It’s not a surprise by any means but it’s a noteworthy win.
3) “Speedball” Mike Bailey: Mike Bailey is slowly but surely going to take over the independents. He’s getting lots of love over in places like PWG and Beyond and now he has won the CZW Battle of the Best. I hope he keeps popping up all over as I do truly enjoy his work.
4) Roman Reigns
5) Sheamus

Eric Palmer
1) Hideo Itami:
Like others have stated, this week’s NXT was all about Hideo Itami. His rise to the WrestleMania Battle Royal was the focus of NXT, and it made Itami look fantastic. Somehow, they made that awful battle royal seem like it was legitimately a huge step in his career. Add in the two great matches they showed and it makes sense to put him number one on a slow week.

2) “Speedball” Mike Bailey: Bailey took home the CZW Best of the Best crown this weekend, and while I have not seen the show myself, I have seen his work from PWG recently and he’s definitely one to watch on the indies. Winning BotB might not seem like a big deal these days, but in all honesty, none of us would be talking about him today had he not won it. The future is bright for the young high flier.
3) Randy Orton: It’s a slow week, so winning a number one contenders match on Raw against Roman Reigns and Ryback will get you a top three spot. Orton’s work lately has been better than recent years, as for some reason, he’s finally decided to show some personality. For the first time in a long time, I’m legitimately interested in a Randy Orton face run.
4) Nicole Matthews
5) The KimberBombs

Mike Chin
1) Seth Rollins:
Monday night belonged to Rollins, between a very good heel world champ promo to open the show and tease dissension with Kane, to WWE letting him do what he does best–put on a very good match in the ring, opposite newly debuted Neville. You can argue that the match’s booking should have done more to elevate Neville, but just the same it was solid enough bout in which Rollins scored a clean victory. World champs have to win clean sometimes reinforce their credibility. This was Rollins’s first win of that ilk since picking up the strap.

2) Mike Bailey: The CZW Best of the Best tournament win is a nice feather in the cap for this rising star of the indies.
3) Kurt Angle: Angle retained the TNA Championship over on Impact over Lashley and Eric Young.
4) Nicole Matthews
5) Randy Orton


THE WINNERS~!
* Special Mention…Prince Puma – 6 Votes

* Fifth Place…Kurt Angle – 8 Votes

* Fourth Place…Nicole Matthews – 10 Votes

* Third Place…Randy Orton, Kimber Lee and Cherry Bomb – 11 Votes

Orton became the top contender to WWE Champion Seth Rollins, while Kimber Lee and Cherry Bomb won the SHIMMER tag team titles.

* Second Place…“Speedball” Mike Bailey – 16 Votes

Won the 2015 CZW Bet of the Best Tournament!

* And 411’s Wrestler of the Week is…
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*

 photo Hideo Itami WOTW_zpsmqdxoy3o.jpg

Hideo Itami – 17 Votes

Was the focus of the most recent edition of NXT, and made to look like a big deal.

The Standings
Here are the standings after week TWO

AJ Styles – 15 pts.
Hideo Itami – 15 pts.

Mike Bennett – 12 pts.
Matt Taven – 12 pts.
“Speedball” Mike Bailey – 12 pts.

Rocky Romero – 9 pts.
Trent Baretta – 9 pts.
Kimber Lee – 9 pts.
Cherry Bomb – 9 pts.
Randy Orton – 9 pts.

Brock Lesnar – 6 pts.
Kurt Angle – 6 pts.
Nicole Matthews – 6 pts.

Kalisto – 1 pt.
Prince Puma – 1pt.


* Voting began 4.06.15

* Year-End Rankings Key:

WWE Contracted Wrestlers are represented in BLUE.

TNA Contracted Wrestlers are represented in GREEN.

ROH Contracted Wrestlers are represented in RED.

US Independent Wrestlers are represented in MAROON.

Japanese Contracted Wrestlers are represented in BLACK.

Mexican/Lucha Underground Contracted Wrestlers are represented in MAGENTA.

Other International Wrestlers are represented in INDIGO.


**PREVIOUS WINNERS**

Year One Winner: Ric Flair (2005-2006) (Shortened year, starting September 2005)


Year Two Winner: Samoa Joe (2006-2007)


Year Three Winner: John Cena (2007-2008)


Year Four Winner: Chris Jericho (2008-2009)


Year Five Winner: CM Punk (2009-2010)


Year Six Winner: The Miz (2010-2011)


Year Seven Winner: CM Punk (2011-2012)


Year Eight Winner: CM Punk (2012-2013)


Year Nine Winner: Daniel Bryan (2013-2014)

 photo Rollins WOTY_zpsozlrughk.png
Year Ten Winner: Seth Rollins (2014-2015)