wrestling / Columns

411’s Wrestler of The Week: DIY Takes The Top Spots

November 26, 2016 | Posted by Larry Csonka
DIY NXT

Who won 411’s Wrestler of the Week? Find out inside!

Welcome to YEAR TWELVE, WEEK 32 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, and more on a special occasion) 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. (The voting week runs Monday through Sunday). Let’s see who wins this week…

 photo WrestlerOfWeek_zps4f74fe91.jpg

Voting period: NOVEMBER 7 – NOVEMBER 13

Larry Csonka
1) Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa: Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa won the best match of Survivor Series Weekend, the NXT tag Team Titles and did so in One of the WWE’s best matches of 2016

2) Sexy Star: Won Aztec Warfare III to win the Lucha Underground Title.
3) Samoa Joe: Defeated Nakamura to regain the NXT Title
4) Asuka:
5) Goldberg

Kevin Pantoja
1) Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa:
I know that several people won big matches this week. Goldberg squashed Brock Lesnar and there are new Lucha Underground and NXT Champions. Honestly though, there was nobody else I even considered for this spot. Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa had an excellent tag match at TakeOver: Brooklyn that was my favorite of the year. They managed to best it and then some at TakeOver: Toronto this week. #DIY vs. The Revival got the rare ***** treatment from me and it absolutely deserved it. Both teams did every little right to make a perfect match. The right decision was made too as Gargano and Ciampa captured the titles in an emotional moment. There were a lot of great matches this week (I believe I gave out four ****+ scores) but nothing came even close to touching this. The Revival are the best tag team on the planet but DIY isn’t far behind
2) Sexy Star: In Lucha Underground history there have been three Aztec Warfare matches. All three times, we’ve had new champions (granted the first was to crown the inaugural champion but still). “The Monster” Matanza Cueto had held the title since Aztec Warfare II last season. He entered at number one and dominated before taking a barrage of moves and getting eliminated, guaranteeing a new champion. It came down to former champion Mil Muertes and Sexy Star. Sexy Star pulled off the big upset to become the first female champion in Lucha Underground history. I’m not the biggest Sexy Star fan but they have kind of been building to this since season one. It was a huge win in a great match for Sexy Star.
3) Goldberg: I gave no shits about Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar and I’ll give no shits about it going forward. Even when Goldberg got the three count, I didn’t have a super shocked reaction. I was more just like “oh wow,” and then went about my day. Either way you look at it though, beating Brock Lesnar in under two minutes deserves some sort of accolade. I’m sure we’ll get a rematch or two, but this was done for shock value and for a lot of people, it worked.
4) Samoa Joe
5) Bray Wyatt

Mike Chin
1) Goldberg:
The dude squashed Brock Lesnar. No further explanation needed.
2) Sexy Star: The unlikely new LU champ won Aztec Warfare 3.
3) DIY: DIY won the NXT tag titles in a late contender for MOTY.
4) Samoa Joe
5) Bray Wyatt

Rob Stewart
1) Goldberg:
You know… up until about 10:30 EST on Sunday night, I though this was one of the easiest WotW weeks in my history at 411Mania. By 10:40, I still knew it was an easy call, but my pick changed. Yeah, Goldberg’s absolutely annihilation of Brock Lesnar is controversial, but it happened, and it is a B.F.D. Lesnar had been a death ray of a human being for 2+ years now, and the match against Goldberg blew that reputation out of the water. This week is Bill’s week.

2) Sexy Star: If not for the public beating of Brock Lesnar, Sexy would be a definitive #1 choice for me, and I hope she isn’t lost in the Takeover/Survivor Series shuffle. Sexy won Aztec Warfare III to become the Lucha Underground champion this past week, and she survived (and, let’s be honest, effectively matched) Mil Muertes one-on-one at the end of the contest to truly earn that championship. She’s been booked as a solid threat all year long, so this was likely no one-off fluke.
3) Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa: The team known as DIY (and boy do I hate that name) won the match of Survivor Series weekend by wresting the NXT Tag Team championships from the waist of The Revival. The match was a goddamn thing of storytelling beauty and amazing action, and all four men should be proud of the effort they put out there. They topped their Brooklyn match, and that one was damn near flawless.
4) Samoa Joe
5) Tie/Toss-up (it was a huge week): Asuka; Randy Orton & Bray Wyatt

Jack McGee
1) Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa : Won the NXT Tag Titles in an out standing match.
The dude squashed Brock Lesnar. No further explanation needed.
2) Sexy Star: Won Aztec Warfare 3 and the Lucha underground Title.
3) Goldberg: Killed Brock.
4) Samoa Joe
5) Bray Wyatt

Mike Hammerlock
1) Sexy Star:
This week is impossible. Yet the match I liked best, probably because I like Lucha Underground best, was Aztec Warfare. And Sexy Star winning a fed title is a major milestone in the industry. She joins Princess KimberLee (who did it in Chikara) as the only women to pull off that feat. The match was a blast and I marked out most for that finish, so she’s my top pick.

2) Samoa Joe: Opinions are like assholes and elbows, and this asshole’s elbows thought the Joe-Nakamura was slightly better than the tag title match at NXT TakeOver: Toronto. I may be an army of one on that, but Joe out-strong-styled the King of Strong Style. I was impressed.
3) Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton: For the record, I think there’s about a millimeter of difference that separates the top five this week. List the top five anyway you want and you’ll get no argument from me, and my sixth place selection (Cesaro) deserves recognition as well. However, I really liked the final Raw vs. Smackdown traditional Survivor Series match. That’s the best one of those they’ve done in a long time (I though the 2014 match was generally poor outside of Dolph Ziggler being awesome). It’s the biggest win of Wyatt’s career and Orton did a near-perfect job of vipering. It really served as a reminder of why he was once considered a ringer at Survivor Series. Huge wins for DIY and Goldberg too. Goldberg didn’t really do anything, which is probably the perfect way to book him. So props to the booking, though points off because he didn’t have to perform a whole lot. DIY had a tremendous match against the Revival, though I though it fell more into ****1/4 territory.
4) DIY
5) Goldberg

Arnold Furious
1) Joe Coffey:
Pinned Kurt Angle in the main event of ICW’s Fear & Loathing IX. The biggest UK show in 30 years, with a huge crowd of 6000+. Coffey went on last and scored a clean submission victory over your Olympic hero. In terms of achievements that’s quite the rarity. Admittedly it’ll get lost in the mix because Goldberg did the same exact thing to Brock Lesnar but I thought it was worth mentioning. Everyone will vote for Goldberg. Let’s not forget Coffey.

2) #DIY: Not only did Gargano & Ciampa capture the NXT Tag Team Championships but they did so in a match of the year contender. One of the most outstanding tag team matches of the entire year, highlighted by a balls-to-the-wall third fall. Both teams deserve credit for the match but Gargano & Ciampa get the spot for a) winning and b) coming out of the Indies, retaining all their gimmick and personality and capturing WWE gold without changing a thing. Proof that the gap between WWE and elsewhere is smaller than ever.
3) Samoa Joe: Won the NXT title and inflicted Shinsuke Nakamura’s first defeat in NXT. Quite the weekend for the big Samoan, who’s the first ever two-time NXT Champion.
4) Asuka
5) Goldberg

THE WINNERS~!
* Special Mention…Asuka – 3 Votes

* Fifth Place…Bray Wyatt – 4 Votes

* Fourth Place…KUSHIDA – 11 Votes

* Third Place…Goldberg – 17 Votes

squashed Lesnar…

* Second Place…Sexy Star – 20 Votes

Won Aztec Warfare & The Lucha Underground Title.

* And 411’s Wrestler of the Week is…

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Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa – 21 Votes

Your NEW NXT Tag Team Champions!

The Standings
Here are the standings after week 32

1. AJ Styles – 91pts

2. Prince Puma/Ricochet – 69pts

3. Tetsuya Naito – 54pts
3. Dean Ambrose – 54pts

4. Lashley – 51pts

5. Sexy Star – 48pts

6. Eddie Edwards – 45pts

7. The Monster Matanza Cueto – 42pts

8. Kevin Owens – 40pts

9. Roman Reigns – 39pts

10. Rey Mysterio Jr. – 37pts

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* Dragon Azteca Jr. – 36pts

* Will Ospreay – 33pts

* Finn Balor – 30pts
* Sasha Banks – 30pts
* Johnny Gargano – 30pts

* Johnny Mundo – 29pts
* Broken Matt Hardy – 28pts

* TJ Perkins – 27pts
* Samoa Joe – 27pts

* Dolph Ziggler – 25pts
* Kazuchika Okada – 25pts

* Kenny Omega – 24pts
* Cage – 24 pts
* Jack Evans – 24pts
* PJ Black – 24 pts

* Jay Lethal – 21pts
* KUSHIDA – 21pts
* Bobby Fish – 21pts

* The Miz – 20pts

* Dash – 18pts
* Dawson – 18pts

* Charlotte – 17pts

* Kota Ibushi – 16pts
* Brother Nero – 16pts
* Katsuyori Shibata – 16pts

* EVIL – 15pts
* Katsuhiko Nakajima – 15pts
* Nick Jackson – 15pts
* Matt Jackson – 15pts
* Seth Rollins – 15pts
* Drew Galloway – 15pts
* Tommaso Ciampa – 24pts
* Aerostar – 15pts

* Sami Zayn – 13pts
* Killshot/Shane Strickland – 13pts
* Chris Hero – 13 pts

* Brian Kendrick – 12pts
* Shinsuke Nakamura – 12pts
* Becky Lynch – 12pts
* Son of Havoc – 12pts
* Michael Elgin -12pts
* Daniels – 12pts
* Kazarian – 12pts
* Mike Bennett – 12pts
* Tomohiro Ishii – 12pts
* Marty Scurll – 12pts

* Adam Cole – 9pts
* Goldberg – 9pts
* Heath Slater – 9pts
* Rhyno – 9pts
* Mil Muertes – 9pts
* Drago – 9pts
* Kyle O’Reilly – 9pts
* SANADA – 9pts
* Zack Sabre Jr – 9pts
* Ethan Carter III – 9pts
* Meiko Satomura – 9pts
* DASH Chisako – 9pts
* Cassandra Miyagi – 9pts
* BUSHI – 9pts

* ACH – 7pts
* Taiji Ishimori – 7pts
* Satoshi Kojima – 7pts
* Rusev – 7pts
* Gran Metalik – 7pts
* Pentagon Jr – 7pts

* Fenix – 6pts
* Mariposa – 6pts
* Yuji Nagata – 6pts
* Takashi Sugiura – 6pts
* Matt Riddle – 6pts
* David Finlay – 6pts

* Bayley – 4pts
* James Ellsworth – 4pts

* The Mack – 3pts
* Cesaro – 3pts
* Dana Brooke – 3pts
* Xavier Woods – 3pts
* Kofi Kingston – 3pts
* Big E – 3pts
* Bray Wyatt – 3pts
* Evie – 3pts
* Heidi Lovelace – 3pts
* Dustin (Chuck Taylor) – 3pts
* Cedric Alexander – 3pts
* YAMATO – 3pts
* James Storm – 3pts
* Mark Haskins – 3pts

* Matt Sydal – 2pts

* Chavo Guerrero – 1pt
* DJ Z – 1pt
* Abyss – 1pt
* Crazy Steve – 1pt
* Asuka – 1pt
* Zack Ryder – 1pt
* Big Cass – 1pt
* Enzo Amore – 1pt
* Karl Anderson – 1pt
* Doc Gallows – 1pt
* Rocky Romero – 1pt
* Trent Barreta – 1pt
* Timothy Thatcher – 1pt
* Jay Briscoe – 1pt
* Mark Briscoe – 1pt
* Hiroyoshi Tenzan – 1pt
* Hiroshi Tanahashi – 1pt
* David Starr – 1pt


* Voting began the week of April 4th, 2016

* 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)
Year Ten Winner: Seth Rollins (2014-2015)

Year Eleven Winners: The New Day (2015-2016)