wrestling / Columns

411’s Wrestler of the Week – Did Roman Reign Over Lesnar?

January 27, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka

Welcome to YEAR TEN, WEEK 42 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) Brock Lesnar:
As I stated in my Rumble review, Brock Lesnar is a GROWN ASS MAN. They have done a good job making this man into a monster, and last nights match was a great example of that. Retaining the title at the second biggest PPV of the WWE year, in a match that was a very different match than the usual WWE style match to get in the clubhouse with the lead in the WWE Match of the Year battle? That’s tops for me.

2) Roman Reigns: While he did not have the blockbuster performance that he did last year, Roman Reigns did win the Royal Rumble and will get the their spot this week. If he had actually done something special or even entertaining, he would have won the top spot with ease. But he was booked to do nothing until the end, and it came off as a lackluster victory. The shame is that the booking letdown Reigns in what should have been a huge moment for him.
3) John Cena and Seth Rollins: Along with the love shown for Lesnar, I feel that John Cena and Seth Rollins also deserve their fair share of credit for the match. Cena always seems to deliver in big matches and Rollins stepped up big in his really big PPV match as a solo. Great work.
4) King Cuerno
5) Yoshihiro Takayama

Ryan Byers
1) Roman Reigns:
Unlike a lot of people, I don’t hate Roman Reigns to the point that I think his winning the Royal Rumble and being booked into the WrestleMania championship match is an affront to humanity. I think that the manner in which WWE booked him to win the Rumble if he is meant to be their golden boy was poor. However, for purposes of this column, what matters more than crowd reaction and more than the booking is the fact that he was indeed selected to win the match and be placed into what will most likely be the most prominent spot on the WrestleMania card that a full-time member of the roster will have. That’s a big notch in his belt and gets him a place in the history books, no matter how the folks in Philly or on Twitter feel about it.

2) Brock Lesnar: People are fawning over Seth Rollins and his performance in the WWE Championship match, and it was great. However, I think that Lensar and his contributions to the match are being overlooked and were probably more significant than those of Rollins. The presence, timing, strength, and willingness to bump like a madman of Brock Lesnar make him one of the best (if not the best) big match performers in the company today, barring an unexpected concussion to either himself or his opponent. It’s disappointing that he is most likely headed out the door once his contract expires in late March.
3) Seth Rollins: Even in defeat, Rollins had what was almost certainly a career-making performance, as he proved that he could hang in a PPV caliber WWE Championship match. Good for him.
4) John Cena
5) Yoshihiro Takayama

Mike Chin
1) Brock Lesnar:
Brock Lesnar may not be a regular presence or a full-time wrestler, but every time he has stepped in the ring over the last year it has been memorable, and The Beast has a tendency to put on some of the most memorable and unsettling good-to-great matches WWE has seen in a long time. His triple threat outing with John Cena and Seth Rollins put him over as an unstoppable force one more time.

2) Roman Reigns: I was originally inclined to give Reigns the number one spot, but the second half of the Royal Rumble match flopped and, though I know that WWE carted out The Rock to endorse Reigns and help get him over, I felt the move back fired. Watching Reigns laugh like a star-struck teenager while The Rock gave a post-match promo, and listening to him try to deliver his own words and sound like a threat to Brock Lesnar actually set back his credibility for me. All of that said, Reigns did go over strong at Rumble and looks to be riding the push of a lifetime all the way to WrestleMania, so its hard to deny him a high spot on this week’s countdown.
3) Bubba Ray Dudley: This may seem like an absurd pick, but the surprise appearance of Dudley and his tandem offense with R-Truth in the role of Devon set a great tone for the early stages of last night’s Rumble. It’s unfortunate that I don’t expect Dudley to be a player in the upper card for WWE, but in a Rumble that turned into one of the weakest of all time, Dudley did all he could to get the Philly crowd into the match and deliver a combination of nostalgia and perfectly reasonable in-ring action in his limited minutes.
4) Seth Rollins
5) Bray Wyatt

Mike Hammerlock
1) Brock Lesnar:
One of the amazing things about wrestling is that, despite it being a fictional construct, you can see the truth with your own eyes. The Lesnar-Rollins-Cena WWE Title match was superb, and Brock Lesnar really is a beast. He delivers a German suplex like no one else. He closes the distance between himself and his opponents effortlessly. He’s hitting a move the instant he arrives too. He wastes no motion. He puts more torque on everything. His balance is spectacular. It’s a pleasure to watch him in a big match. Not everyone can execute at his level. All credit to Seth Rollins and John Cena for showing that they belong in a match with Lesnar (wish I had one more vote for Cena this week). Anyway, Brock was magnificent.

2) Seth Rollins: From his knee off the top rope that broke Lesnar’s initial momentum to the flying elbow out to the announce table to his phoenix splash, Rollins delivered the biggest moments in the championship match. He came within a hair of winning his first title. Main thing is he looked like a star. You can’t fake what Rollins has got. Contrast that with the guy I’ve got at #4 this week, who was supposed to be the star of the Royal Rumble, but came away looking like a hollow corporate prop. After last night, Seth Rollins = Coca-Cola, Roman Reigns = Mountain Dew Typhoon. Bray Wyatt also showed off star-level stuff early in the Rumble match, which is why I’ve got him at #5 below.
3) King Cuerno: He beat Drago in the Last Luchador Standing main event on Lucha Underground. LU continues to be a revelation. These two had been building to this match for two months and it was a more physical, punishing affair than the standard lucha match. As Hugo Savinovich would (and did) say, BRU-TAL! They really sold the hostility and Cuerno won in true heel style, tying Drago down so he couldn’t beat the 10-count.
4) Roman Reigns
5) Bray Wyatt

Jack McGee
1) Roman Reigns:
Roman Reigns won this year’s Royal Rumble match, and at this time is headed for his first WrestleMania main event. It’s easily the biggest accomplishment of his career, which earns him the top spot from me.

2) Brock Lesnar: Eat, sleep, suplex, repeat. Brock Lesnar is a bad man, and showed that as he retained his title in the best match on the Royal Rumble PPV.
3) John Cena and Seth Rollins: John Cena and Seth Rollins were part of the best match on the Rumble PPV, and get some love for their work with Champion Brock Lesnar.
4) King Cuerno
5) Bubba Ray Dudley

Kevin P
1. Seth Rollins:
I know he lost at the Royal Rumble but nobody put on a better performance than Seth Rollins. He was the X Factor added in to save us from yet another Brock Lesnar/John Cena match. He delivered in that aspect in spades. Not only was the WWE World Heavyweight Title match easily the best thing on the show, it will go down as a top 3 WWE Title match in Rumble history. Seth was the main reason for that as he added something to this match that we hadn’t seen yet. He had the spot of the night as he put Brock through the announce table and he also busted out the Phoenix Splash. I haven’t seen that since his Tyler Black days! He ate the pin but the big deal here was that he stepped into the ring with the two biggest money guys currently on the roster and not only didn’t look out of place, but out performed them.

2. Roman Reigns: Originally, I completed expected my number one choice this week to be the guy who won the Royal Rumble. However, things went incredibly bad. Look, I’m not against Roman Reigns. I like the guy, but I don’t believe he is ready. It seems like a lot of fans agreed with my sentiments and it led to a pretty awful moment. Roman got the biggest of his career for now and not even his incredibly popular cousin could save it. Daniel Bryan got eliminated early on and it completely deflated the crowd. The fans wanted Bryan again and for the second straight year, they didn’t listen to the crowd. This was booked about as poorly as possible in regards to Roman. Regardless, he did pick up a massive win so kudos to him.
3. Brock Lesnar: While I did pick Seth Rollins as my top guy for the week, you can’t deny what Brock Lesnar. He did spend a fair amount of the match on the outside after taking the table, but when he was in the ring, he was a complete badass. He suplexed John Cena and Seth Rollins around the ring and came off looking like a beast. I honestly thought that he might lose at the end, but surviving the two briefcase shots and hitting the F5 to retain was awesome. With the exception of his match against CM Punk, this was Brock’s best match since his return.
4. Austin Aries
5. Bray Wyatt

Alex Crowder
1) Roman Reigns:
Even if I don’t like something and see the flaws in how it came about…I cannot discredit a result. Roman Reigns won the rumble for better and in a lot of people’s minds worse. Reigns gets a high profile WrestleMania spot which is obviously big for his career. However, I’m not sure if this long term result will help him. Reigns could end up as the next Cena without half the cheers. He won a poor rumble and only did so with help from The Rock. His victory was poorly booked even if one was a Reigns fan. The backlash from his victory is another story. I feel bad for him, because he didn’t choose this result and will get all the blame when everything falls apart. Anyway, we’ll see what happens from here.

2) Seth Rollins: Sometimes, a loss helps more than a victory. Rollins finally looked like an equal to Lesnar and Cena for the most part. Anyone that doubted Rollins before has to take him more seriously now. He stood with the best and threatened both of them. This match made Rollins into a star in my mind. Rollins to me was never quite in main event territory (booking wise), but now I feel like Rollins has emerged. This validates Seth Rollins more than any other match to this point.
3) Brock Lesnar: I must commend Lesnar for selling Rollins’ offense well. Lesnar contributed to Rollin’s ascension certainly and Rollins owes him the assist. In addition, Lesnar won the match and makes his first WrestleMania main event in years. I’m not sure how many more WrestleMania main events we’ll see from Lesnar, so this is a great opportunity for him. Lesnar also continues his streak of good big match performances and owes Cena for letting him look so dominant (popping right up from 2 AAs).
4) Yoshihiro Takayama
5) King Cuerno

Jeremy Thomas
1) Roman Reigns:
Love it or hate it, Reigns had the biggest moment in his career when he won the Royal Rumble. I get the Reigns hate, but I don’t share it to the level of most; I think that he is no worse off than Cena was at the start of his megapush way back when (except for on the mic) and he’ll have time to fix that. Either way, even with the crowd completely turning on the match, Reigns is heading to the main event of WrestleMania and that is the biggest accomplishment of the week.

2) Seth Rollins: Last night was the perfect example of someone getting put over in a loss, as Rollins looked like an absolute star in there with Cena and Lesnar. There were moments where I legit suspected he might win and that’s an accomplishment.
3) Brock Lesnar: WWE’s next comic book should be Brock Kills the WWE Universe. Because that’s pretty much what he’s been doing and he was absolutely fantastic last night. The only reason he doesn’t get a higher rank than Rollins is that Rollins’ star rose and frankly, there isn’t any room for upward motion for Brock. He’s already the biggest thing WWE has.
4) Bray Wyatt & Rusev (tie)
5) John Cena


THE WINNERS~!
* Special Mention…Bray Wyatt – 5 Votes

* Fifth Place…King Cuerno – 8 Votes

* Fourth Place…John Cena – 9 Votes

* Third Place…Seth Rollins – 28 Votes

Stepped up big in his first major solo effort on PPV, and looked like he belonged.

* Second Place…Brock Lesnar – 32 Votes

Defended his WWE Title in a great match at the Royal Rumble.

* And 411’s Wrestler of the Week is…
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Roman Reigns – 33 Votes

Your 2015 Royal Rumble winner.

The Standings~!
Here are the standings after week forty-two

1. Seth Rollins – 163pts.

2. Dolph Ziggler – 119pts.

3. Dean Ambrose – 98pts.

4. Roman Reigns – 95pts.

5. AJ Styles – 89pts.

6. Brock Lesnar – 70pts.

7. Rusev – 67pts.

8. Bobby Lashley – 66pts.
8. John Cena – 66pts.

10. Eric Young – 58pts.
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Kazuchika Okada – 54pts

Hiroshi Tanahashi – 45pts

Kyle O’Reilly – 41pts.

Ricochet/Prince Puma – 39pts

Bray Wyatt – 35pts
BxB Hulk – 34pts

Bobby Fish – 33pts.

Daniel Bryan – 25pts.
Davey Richards – 25pts.
Eddie Edwards – 25pts.
Adrian Neville – 25pts.

Jey Uso – 24pts.
Jimmy Uso – 24pts.
Hideo Itami – 24pts.

Bobby Roode – 21pts.
Bad News Barrett – 21pts.

Randy Orton – 19pts.
Alberto El Patron – 19pts.

Sami Zayn – 18pts.
Kevin Owens – 18pts.
Jay Briscoe – 18pts.
Luke Harper – 18pts.
Charlotte – 18pts.
Cesaro – 18pts.
Adam Cole – 18pts.
YAMATO – 18pts

AJ Lee – 16pts.
Batista – 16pts.
Jeff Hardy – 16pts.

Sting – 15pts.
Atlantis – 15pts.
Paige – 15pts.
Takao Omori – 15pts
Sheamus – 15pts.
Johnny Gargano – 15pts.

Samoa Joe – 14pts.

Icarus – 13pts.
Bully Ray – 13pts.

Ryback – 12pts.
The Rock – 12pts.
Chris Jericho – 12pts.
Michael Elgin – 12pts.
Austin Aries – 12pts.
Shinsuke Nakamura – 12pts.

Stardust (Cody Rhodes) – 11pts.

KUSHIDA – 10pts.

Johnny Mundo – 9pts.
CM Punk – 9pts.
Havok – 9pts.
Ultimo Guerrero – 9pts.
Triple H – 9pts.
Yujiro Takahashi – 9pts
Masayuki Kono – 9pts
Minoru Suzuki – 9pts
Tyson Kidd – 9pts.

Goldust – 8pts.

Alicia Fox – 7pts.
Devon – 7pts.
Kota Ibushi – 7pts
Matt Hardy Hardy – 7pt

Shelton Benjamin – 6pts.
Gail Kim – 6pts.
Takao Omori – 6pts.
Jun Akiyama – 6pts.
Masato Tanaka – 6pts.
Takashi Sugiura – 6pts.
Suwama – 6pts.
Bad Luck Fale – 6pts
Biff Busick – 6pts.
Erick Rowan – 6pts.
Damien Sandow – 6pts.
Stephanie McMahon – 6pts.
Kalisto – 6pts.
Rich Swann – 6pts.
Finn Balor – 6pts.

Tomohiro Ishii – 4pts

Shane Hatse – 3pts.
Mikey Nicolls – 3pts.
Go Shiozaki – 3pts.
King Cuerno – 3pts.
Mil Muertes – 3pts.
Taryn Terrell – 3pts.
Kenny Omega – 3pts.
Cyber Kong – 3pts.
Joe Doering – 3pts.
Hirooki Goto – 3pts.
Katsuyori Shibata – 3pts
T-Hawk – 3pts.
EITA – 3pts.
Mark Henry – 3pts.
Tyler Breeze – 3pts.
Adam Rose – 3pts.
Jack Swagger – 3pts.
Sin Cara – 3pts.

The Miz – 2pt
Naomichi Marufuji – 2pt
Dasher Hatfield – 2pts.
Mr. Touchdown – 2pts.

Kane – 1pt
Brie Bella – 1pt
Uhaa Nation – 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
Fenix – 1pt
Kaz Hayashi – 1pt
Shuji Kondo – 1pt
HARASHIMA – 1pt
Cage – 1pts


* Voting began 4.15.14

* 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)