wrestling / Columns

411’s Wrestler of the Week – Did Lesnar Make an Impact?

April 7, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka

Welcome to YEAR ELEVEN, WEEK 1 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…

 photo WrestlerOfWeek_zps4f74fe91.jpg

Larry Csonka
1) Matt Taven & Michael Bennett:
Matt Taven & Michael Bennett take the top spot for me this week. On Sunday, they defeated Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows to win the IWGP Tag Team Titles at the Invasion Attack PPV. There have been rumors that New Japan liked the trio (with Maria included) and that they were in line for a big push, and winning those titles solidified that. I feel that this is easily the biggest win of their careers, and that is why they got the top spot this week.

2) Rocky Romero and Trent Baretta: Roppongi Vice, the team of Rocky Romero and Trent Baretta, defeated the Young Bucks at the Invasion Attack PPV to win the IWGP Jr Tag Team Titles. When Alex Kozlov left wrestling, many wondered where Romero would end up; thankfully Trent Baretta entered the picture (who is having a quality post WWE career) and a new team was born. They take the titles, and from here I hope the NJPW Jr tag ranks get even more interesting.
3) AJ Styles: Defeated Kota Ibushi in the main event at the Invasion Attack PPV to retain the IWGP Title.
4) Kurt Angle
5) Santana Garrett

Kevin Pantoja
1) AJ Styles:
The biggest show of the week was NJPW Invasion Attack and it was headlined by AJ Styles defending the IWGP Title against Kota Ibushi. Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to watch the show just yet, except for some highlights. I’m hearing nothing but good things about the event and the main event. Ever since I first saw Ibushi a few years back in Ring of Honor, I kind of always wanted to see these two go at it. It looks like it not only delivered, but the finishing spot of Kota being caught mid-Phoenix Splash into the Styles Clash was sick. Styles continues to be on a roll since leaving TNA.

2) Brock Lesnar: Yea, my number two pick is someone who didn’t even wrestle a match this week. But dammit if Brock Lesnar wasn’t the most entertaining thing about the big post WrestleMania Raw. He opened the show in ring gear, letting everyone know that it was about to go down. He came out for his rematch against new Champion Seth Rollins and when he found out that it wasn’t happening, he went absolutely nuts. Not only did he take out a cameraman, but he pretty much killed the commentary. I’m sorry, but an F5 on the awful Michael Cole is enough to get him the number two spot this week.
3) Matt Taven & Michael Bennett/Rocky Romero and Trent Baretta: Again, I haven’t had the chance to check out Invasion Attack but there were two new champions crowned and I bunched the teams together. First, Rocky Romero and Trent Baretta, a team consisting of two guys that I enjoy, won the IWGP Jr. Tag Team Titles from the Young Bucks. That’s damn cool since I’ve never been much of a Bucks fan. On the other side, Matt Taven and Michael Bennett captured the IWGP Tag Team Titles from Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows of the Bullet Club. This came off the heels of them pinning Anderson at the ROH Anniversary Show a few months ago. This was a big night for both tag teams.
4) Kalisto
5) Santana Garrett

Eric Palmer
1) AJ Styles:
After retaining his IWGP Heavyweight Championship at NJPW’s Invasion Attack! 2015, it’s hard to put anybody else as number one. I haven’t had the chance to check out the show, but his match with Kota Ibushi is easily one of the most anticipated matches this year. I did see the finish to the match, and catching an Ibushi Phoenix Splash attempt, and hitting a Styles Clash is one of the sickest spots I’ve seen this year. With a match against Okada seemingly on the horizon, it’s hard to imagine Styles having a bad match anytime soon.

2) Kenny Omega: Omega retained the IWGP Jr Heavyweight Title in a match against Mascara Dorada that I’ve been hearing was fantastic. I’ve seen some clips from the match, and I’m really excited to watch it myself. Omega continues to put on top notch matches every time he’s on the card, and is easily one of the best guys to watch in NJPW, with that roster, that speaks volumes.
3) Matt Taven & Michael Bennett: Beating the Bullet Club of Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows for the IWGP Tag Team Championship is no small feat. Arguably the top tag team in the world, Anderson and Gallows were destroying any and all challengers for their belts. I personally loved watching their title reign, but the team known as “The Kingdom” has taken their throne atop of NJPW. That alone puts them in the top three of this list.
4) Santana Garrett
5) Kurt Angle

Mike Hammerlock
1) AJ Styles:
Beat the red hot Kota Ibushi at a sold out Sumo Hall to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Been lots of speculation about why this Invasion Attack card sold out Sumo Hall when previous NJPW cards haven’t. My two cents is because NJPW is on a steady upward trajectory. New Japan is the bomb when it comes to pro wrestling and we are in a post-Wrestle Kingdom 9 universe. AJ Styles has played a major role in kicking the company up to this level. He’s a great American wrestler who is doing that belt proud.

2) Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero and Baretta): Won the IWGP Jr. Tag Team Championship at Invasion Attack over the Young Bucks in a match universally regarded as superior to the Kingdom (Matt Taven and Michael Bennett) winning the bigger boys’ IWGP Tag Team Championship later in the card. Really excited to see Baretta getting the push here. Hope it leads to a big 2015 for him.
3) Magnus: While Kurt Angle and Don’t Call Me Bobby Lashley headlined TNA Impact this week in a fine match, I thought Magnus and Bram stole the show. I am not a Magnus fan and I consider his title run in TNA the absolute low point of the company’s existence, but he may have had his best match ever. It was that good. Good enough to beat out Angle, Lashley and quality performances from Daniel Bryan and John Cena in WWE (and Johnny Mundo, and the KRD winning the ROH tag titles, and a sneaky good week from Naomi).
4) Daniel Bryan and John Cena
5) Kurt Angle and Lashley

Andrew Shillinglaw
1) Matt Taven and Michael Bennett:
This was a huge week for these two. These guys are more or less midcarders in ROH. They’ve never really broken through to be major players. However, they are now the IWGP World Tag Team Champions. This is a huge moment in their careers as they now hold the second most important set of tag titles in the world. Great day for both of them.

2) AJ Styles: He retained his IWGP World Championship and the finish alone is worth checking out. Kota Ibushi is on fire this year so AJ and him was bound to be a money match up for New Japan and AJ came out on top of this one.
3) Rocky Romero and Trent Beretta: It’s great to see Trent getting love on a grand stage. I always thought he deserved more love in WWE. And even though I wish he had done this with Chuck Taylor, it’s great to see Roppongi Vice with the straps.
4) Dean Ambrose
5) Sheamus

Arnold Furious
1) Daisuke Sekimoto:
Sekimoto is one of the most consistently entertaining men in the wrestling business. His matches are routinely fantastic and for a while I’ve been wondering why no one has wanted to make him their champion. Maybe he has commitments to appear in too many different promotions (whether it be NOAH, BJW, ZERO1 or DDT) but there’s no denying his pedigree. Big Japan is essentially his home promotion so it’s nice to see him being treated as the top guy there again. For me he’s a top guy wherever he goes and he’s the kind of guy it’s worth following around as great, hard-hitting matches occur wherever he is. Plus it’s a rare opportunity for me to vote Sekimoto in first place on WOTW. For sheer consistency he belongs amongst the wrestler of the year candidates.

2) AJ Styles: Big win for AJ at Invasion Attack, seeing off the challenge of top contender Kota Ibushi with minimal Bullet Club interference. Not only that but it was a seasoned, experienced performance from Styles in front of over 9,000 fans in Sumo Hall. His run in New Japan has been a tremendous success. Especially when you consider they’ve got three top tier guys and none of them are performing at AJ’s level at the moment.
3) Hideki Suzuki: His win might have barely been noticed on a weekend of busy shows in Japan (the New Japan PPV, Sekimoto’s big win, Omori beating Shiozaki in Champion Carnival action) but he’s claimed the Wrestle-1 title, beating incumbent champion KAI in under 7 minutes. It’s easily the biggest win of his career and another sign that Wrestle-1 is rapidly becoming the most unpredictable promotion in the world. Suzuki also retained his United National title over in ZERO1 the same week, besting Takafumi Ito. A red letter week for Hideki.
4) Takao Omori
5) Kota Ibushi

Sean Garmer
1) AJ Styles:
AJ defeated Kota Ibushi in a terrific match to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Invasion Attack. AJ has done great things for New Japan and I’ve enjoyed his run ever there. Talk about a guy that left somewhere and made himself a much bigger deal in a new place. I hope things keep on the up and up for Styles.

2)Roppongi Vice: New Japan was in dire need of some new teams being added to both tag divisions. Romero and Beretta took the opportunity to shine and ran with it. They had a fantastic match with Young Bucks and made it look like they had been a team forever just countering and mocking the Bucks at every turn in that match. This was a result I was generally surprised by too, which helped make things even better for these two.
3)Brock Lesnar: He made me want to watch anything he did on RAW because Brock is truly a special character. It’s sad he can’t be around more often because he is just bad ass and I want to see him destroy more stuff. Even though what he left in his wake was bad Byron Saxton commentary, he helped last week’s RAW feel memorable. Even though Brock didn’t wrestle on the show, it is a testament to how entertaining Brock was that he is still one of the bright spots when I look back at this week in wrestling.
4)Matt Taven & Michael Bennett
5)Magnus

Mike Chin
1) AJ Styles:
Styles continues to run wild in Japan, retaining the IWGP Championship in a very good bout opposite Kota Ibushi, to main event the NJPW Invasion Attack Show.

2) Brock Lesnar: Yes, he’s going home for a while, but Lesnar went out in style with an unforgettable attack on the Raw announce team and a camera man to wreak havoc as only he can, besides providing a logical explanation for why someone this angry would leave WWE for a while.
3) Kurt Angle: Angle retained his newly won TNA Championship against Lashley in a very good match on Impact.
4) Daniel Bryan
5) John Cena

Jack McGee
1) AJ Styles:
AJ Styles defeated Kota Ibushi in the main event of the New Japan Pro Wrestling Invasion Attack PPV. It was a very good show, with multiple title changes, but the IWGP Champion fought off his latest challenge to retain his title and t show how good he is.

2) The Kingdom (Bennett and Taven): Your NEW IWGP Tag team Champions, defeating Gallows and Anderson of the Bullet Club.
3) Roppongi Vice (Baretta and Romero): Your NEW IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, defeating the Young Bucks of the Bullet Club.
4) Kurt Angle
5) Brock Lesnar

Greg DeMarco
1) Seth Rollins:
The new WWE World Heavyweight Champion had a great first week as champion. What was so great about it, you ask? Shit, he brought the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, in its current form, to Smackdown for the first time EVER. That and that alone warrants the top spot.

2) Kalisto: Of the debuts on RawAfterMania, his made the best impression by far. The WWE has been left with a void without Rey Mysterio, and that void can easily be filled by Kalisto.
3) The KRD: Kazarian, Christopher Daniels and Chris Sabin were revealed as the KRD at Ring Of Honor’s Saturday event in San Antonio. While I don’t know how Sabin is the “R,” it’s more star power that fits the ROH mold.
4) Sheamus
5) Brock Lesnar


THE WINNERS~!
* Special Mention…Kalisto – 6 Votes

* Fifth Place…Kurt Angle – 9 Votes

* Fourth Place…Brock Lesnar – 13 Votes

* Third Place…Roppongi Vice (Trent Baretta and Rocky Romero) – 21 Votes

Your NEW IWGP Jr HW Tag Team Champions!

* Second Place…The Kingdom (Mike Bennett and Matt Taven) – 22 Votes

Your NEW IWGP Tag Team Champions!

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

 photo Styles WOTW 1_zpsj5srzovv.jpg

AJ Styles – 41 Votes

Still your current, reigning and defending IWGP Champion!

The Standings
Here are the standings after week ONE

AJ Styles – 15 pts.

Mike Bennett – 12 pts.
Matt Taven – 12 pts.

Rocky Romero – 9 pts.
Trent Baretta – 9 pts.

Brock Lesnar – 6pts.

Kurt Angle – 3pts.

Kalisto – 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)