wrestling / Columns

411’s Wrestler of the Week – Is Bobby Roode #1?

November 4, 2014 | Posted by Larry Csonka

Welcome to YEAR TEN, WEEK 30 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) Bobby Roode:
Bobby Roode defeated Lashley last week on Impact Wrestling. I get that TNA has downgraded itself with the lack of live events and the limbo of the TNA deal, but Roode defeated Lashley is a very good TV match to win his second TNA World Title. Lashley’s run with the title was really good, and he worked hard; and I really enjoyed his run overall. I wish the company’s future was a bit more stable, because a longer and more dominant run by Lashley could have been built to a big PPV, similar to Joe vs. Angle back in the day. Anyway, Roode won a good (if overbooked match) and is now the reigning TNA champion.

2) BxB Hulk: Defeated Akira Tozawa to retain the Open the Dream Gate Championship. This was Hulk’s third defense of the title.
3) CIMA and Gamma: CIMA and Gamma defeated one of the tag team of the year contenders, EITA and T-hawk, to win the Open the Twin Gate Title.
4) Johnny Mundo
5) Dean Ambrose

JUSTIN WATRY
1) Ryback:
As I mentioned on Twitter a few days ago, it was as if 2012 Ryback was back, and fans had forgotten/forgiven 2013 Ryback. That is fine by me. You could not help but be happy for The Big Guy on Monday night when he returned. Had to be a great feeling to be accepted (again) by the fans as a destroyer. Hopefully, he stays on the right path and becomes the main event star some of us expected years ago.

2) Dolph Ziggler: I am cautiously optimistic over the idea of Dolph Ziggler being the IC Champion and moving up the card with John Cena by his side to battle The Authority. Definitely better than what he was doing in recent months…fingers crossed!
3) Seth Rollins: Another solid week. Many doubted him being a lead heel when HE was the one who turned on The Shield, and Dean Ambrose was not in that role. Um, yeah…imagine that. WWE was right; fans were wrong. Shocking, huh? Shout out to Randy Orton, Cesaro, and Mark Henry for good weeks as well.
4) Dean Ambrose
5) Bobby Roode

Mike Hammerlock
1) Bobby Roode:
Easy pick this week. Roode’s been TNA’s champ-in-waiting for most of the past year. He’s their gold standard inside the ring. Admittedly, Roode-Lashley I was better than Roode-Lashley II. Still, TNA has its top belt around the waist of its top talent. The main event for the next few months of Impact is in very good hands.

2) Seth Rollins and John Cena: They had a dynamite match to headline Raw. These two have excellent ring chemistry and it really served as a reminder that sometimes Cena can be very good at the wrestling. His selling was top notch. Rollins’ ability to counter (and even to counter other wrestler’s counters) is special. It’s the cure for complacency as it enables him to defeat the crowd expectations for what’s going to happen next in a match. He might be the WWE’s most rewindable superstar. Quick notes on lower votes: BxB Hulk defended his Open the Dream Gate Championship against former tag partner and Mad Blankey stablemate Akira Tozawa. That deserves a vote this week if for no other than I get to make a Mad Blankey reference. Dolph Ziggler dragged more out of Kane than anyone else has in a long time, though Kane getting his Raw loss back on Smackdown was idiotic booking. Ryback? One-minute squash matches are filler. Wake me up when he finds himself contributing to an actual well-worked match.
3) Johnny Mundo and Prince Puma (Ricochet): Thanks to Lucha Underground, Puma/Ricochet got to show his stuff in front of a wider audience. We only got a small sample of his wares, but it suddenly got a lot easier to watch a kid who very well may become one of the signature wrestling talents of his generation. That’s very cool. JoMo is now JoMu. Still fun in the ring and he got the win. One slight complaint about the Lucha Underground product is they don’t have an Andres Cantor style announcer. That seems like a real opportunity missed.
4) BxB Hulk
5) Dolph Ziggler

Mike Chin
1) Bobby Roode:
TNA has been handling world title reigns nicely this year with reasonably long, meaningful runs. Here’s hoping for another great spell with the strap for Bobby Roode.

2) John Cena: Perhaps it’s lack of other options, but WWE has gone back to John Cena full-tilt and he looks to be the featured performer at Survivor Series, heading up a face team against The Authority.
3) Dolph Ziggler: With Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns out, and Dean Ambrose off to bizarro Bray Wyatt land, Ziggler is being positioned as Cena’s top running buddy for the time being–not a bad spot for the perennial mid-card champ who has struggled to break through.
4) Seth Rollins
5) BxB Hulk

Alex Crowder
1) Bobby Roode:
Lashley did a fantastic job as champion, but Roode is TNA now. Roode is one of the few originals left and also one of the best at what he does. If anyone deserves it…it is Roode. I’m happy to see him as champion again.

2) Ryback: I stopped watching wrestling for a short spell, so I never understood what happened to Ryback in the first place without going back and looking. It seemed that he just lost every PPV match despite being over. I’m happy to see Ryback return as a face. Ryback should have been elevated long ago in the first place. He may not be the best in the ring, but he has that strange Psycho Sid charisma.
3) Johnny Mundo: I found this week to be a bit slow and few people stood out this week in my opinion. I’ll give Johnny Mundo a nod for winning the main event of the first Lucha Underground. He came off well and had a pretty good match. Hopefully, Lucha Underground provides a good alternative for fans.
4) BXB Hulk
5) Seth Rollins

Jack McGee
1) Bobby Roode:
Lashley was a damn good TNA World Champion, but Bobby Roode is a guy that TNA can really get behind due to his loyalty and good work ethic. They had a really good match last week, and Roode’s journey back to the title has been a fun one.

2) Johnny Mundo: Johnny Mundo defeated Prince Puma in the first ever main event of the Lucha Underground Series. It was a good match and will be a fun trivia tidbit one day.
3) CIMA and Gamma: Won the Open the Twin Gate Title defeating T-Hawk and EITA.
4) BxB Hulk
5) Ryback

Jeremy Thomas
1) Bobby Roode:
Deservedly won the TNA World Title, unseating Bobby Lashley in the process.

2) Seth Rollins: Continues to look like an absolute star. Yeah, he lost to Cena but by DQ and was protected by that. Awesome work here.
3) Johnny Mundo and Prince Puma : Put on a very impressive main event to highlight Lucha Underground’s premiere on El Rey.
4) John Cena
5) Dolph Ziggler

THE WINNERS~!
* Special Mention…Dolph Ziggler – 9 Votes

* Fifth Place…John Cena and Ryback – 10 Votes

* Fourth Place…BxB Hulk – 11 Votes

* Third Place…Seth Rollins – 14 Votes

Still rolling along as the Authority’s chosen one.

* Second Place…Johnny Mundo – 15 Votes

The winner of the first ever Lucha Underground main event.

* And 411’s Wrestler of the Week is…
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Bobby Roode – 31 Votes

Your NEW TNA World Champion!

Year-End Standings~!
Here are the standings after week thirty…

1. Seth Rollins – 129pts.

2. Dean Ambrose – 94pts.

3. AJ Styles – 74pts.

4. Roman Reigns – 71pts.

5. Bobby Lashley – 60pts.
5. John Cena – 60pts.

7. Eric Young – 58pts.

8. Kazuchika Okada – 45pts

9. Brock Lesnar – 43pts.

10. Rusev – 37pts.
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Ricochet – 27pts
Kyle O’Reilly – 27pts.
Hiroshi Tanahashi – 27pts

Davey Richards – 25pts.
Eddie Edwards – 25pts.

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

Dolph Ziggler – 23 pts.

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

BxB Hulk – 19pts
Randy Orton – 19pts.
Bray Wyatt – 19pts

Charlotte – 18pts.
Bobby Fish – 18pts.
Cesaro – 18pts.

AJ Lee – 16pts.
Batista – 16pts.

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

Samoa Joe – 14pts.

Bully Ray – 13pts.

The Rock – 12pts.
Icarus – 12pts.
Daniel Bryan – 12pts.
Chris Jericho – 12pts.
Michael Elgin – 12pts.
Jay Briscoe – 12pts.
Austin Aries – 12pts.

Stardust (Cody Rhodes) – 11pts.

KUSHIDA – 10pts.

Johnny Mundo – 9pts.
Havok – 9pts.
Ultimo Guerrero – 9pts.
Adam Cole – 9pts.
Luke Harper – 9pts.
Triple H – 9pts.
Yujiro Takahashi – 9pts
Masayuki Kono – 9pts
Minoru Suzuki – 9pts

Goldust – 8pts.

Alicia Fox – 7pts.
Devon – 7pts.

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

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

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

The Miz – 1pt
Kane – 1pt
Brie Bella – 1pt
Uhaa Nation – 1pt
Tomohiro Ishii – 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