411’s Wrestler of the Week: Is Rusev #1?

Welcome to YEAR TEN, WEEK 31 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) Tomohiro Ishii and Hirooki Goto:
At the NJPW Power Struggle event, Tomohiro Ishii and Hirooki Goto put on a true MOTY contender. I love hard hitting and physical wrestling, and this was done so well and pulled me into the action through their insane level of intensity. This was a beautiful exercise in violence, and I feel that both men deserve the top spot this week, although it was close…

2) reDragon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish): reDragon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) defeated KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley to win the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles at the NJPW Power Struggle event. They did so in an excellent match, and are making a late push for tag team of the year honors.
3) Adam Cole: Adam Cole punched his ticket to the ROH Final Battle title match and main event by winning the Survival of the Fittest tournament. He defeated Adam Page, Roderick Strong, Hanson, Tommaso Ciampa and Matt Sydal in the finals to accomplish this.
4) Rusev
5) Takashi Sugiura

Jack McGee
1) reDragon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish):
Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish defeated KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley at the NJPW Power Struggle event to win the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles, and with that will defend them at the big WrestleKingdom event on January 4th. This is a huge win for Fish and O’Reilly.

2) Adam Cole: Defeated Adam Page, Roderick Strong, Hanson, Tommaso Ciampa and Matt Sydal in the finals to win the 2014 Survival of the Fittest Tournament. He will now face Jay Briscoe for the ROH Title in the main event of Final Battle 2014, ROH’s biggest show of the year. ADAM COLE BABY!
3) Matt and Jeff Hardy: Defeated Low Ki and Samoa Joe to win the TNA Tag Team Title Tournament and by doing so have earned a shot at the TNA tag team champions.
4) Tomohiro Ishii
5) Shinsuke Nakamura

justin watry
1) Rusev:
The WWE Network hosting a United States Championship match surely had its pros and cons. However, what it did to was convince me to turn the WWE Network on after Raw ended – something I have not done in months! Thus, mission accomplished. Sheamus was a very good US Champ, but the heel foreigner holding the ‘USA Gold’ just writes itself. Hopefully, Rusev winning his first title in WWE does not result in the usual non-title losses that mid-card champs usually endure. Keep him undefeated and have the next step already in mind for Rusev. Maybe an Olympic American Hero to save the day? Maybe John Cena? Until then, Rusev CRUSH!!!

2) Dolph Ziggler: Good matches on both Raw and Smackdown. Plus, he was able to tell off Triple H is a promo segment. I will still remain hesitant over this all, but Dolph Ziggler had the spotlight on him yet again and delivered.
3) Ryback: Another solid week. The fact he is already facing John Cena in a ‘huge’ match on RAW just shows how much potential WWE sees in The Big Guy. My prediction (and it is just a prediction) for Monday night: Cena and Ryback have a great back and forth battle for 20 minutes, and regardless of the finish, the two shake hands afterwards. Ryback earns the respect of Cena and is then offered a spot on his Survivor Series team. You know, something like that…now we wait to see if I was right or like my columns says, I was wrong.
4) Randy Orton
5) Seth Rollins

Kevin Pantoja
1) Dolph Ziggler:
Had really good matches on both Raw and Smackdown and was a focal point of a Raw promo, thus making the Intercontinental Title and its Champion seem more prestigious.

2) The Hardy Boys:Won the TNA Tag Team Tournament
3) Rusev: Won the United States Title and stayed undefeated. That title change was a big deal for the WWE Network
4) Seth Rollins
5) Adam Cole/b>

Mike Chin
1) Rusev:
The collective voice of 411mania’s wrestling staff has been calling for WWE’s secondary titles to mean more in the absence of the WWE Championship. WWE made some strides in that direction this week, most prominently in Rusev taking the US Championship on a special WWE Network exclusive match. There’s no questioning Rusev is a big deal and after a clean title win over Sheamus it’s hard to imagine him not feuding with John Cena and/or having at least a cup of coffee in the main event in the next six months.

2) Dolph Ziggler: Ziggler has made his unlikely ascent to reassert himself as a fringe main event act, shoring up his spot with Team Cena and getting a steel cage victory over Kane on Smackdown this week.
3) Seth Rollins: Rollins put Randy Orton out of action this week, cementing a big time program with The Viper in the future, and further establishing his place as WWE’s top full-time heel.
4) Adam Cole
5) Tomohiro Ishii

Mike Hammerlock
1) Seth Rollins:
Talk about working overtime. He carried Raw last week. First he nearly took the Intercontinental belt of Dolph Ziggler, then he beat Randy Orton clean, then he put Orton out of action (props to Orton for busting himself open hard way while selling those curb stomps). That’s a young man who’s stepping up. It’s also a perfect example of why he’s running at the top of the WOTY rankings. Every week Seth Rollins picks up his lunch pail and goes to work. We’re seeing why he won belts in ROH, NXT, FIP, FCW and AAW before he reached the WWE, because he delivers in the ring.

2) Adam Cole: Winning ROH’s Survival of the Fittest Tournament adds yet another prize onto this young man’s already embarrassingly long list of achievements in the wrestling game. If ROH knows what it’s doing, it should milk Cole for all he’s worth.
3) Dolph Ziggler: No John Cena this week meant Ziggler got a chance to shine. Dolph putting everything on the line in order to unseat the Authority is a way more interesting story than Cena pretend bucking a power structure that coddles him in real life. Given Dolph’s up-and-down booking history, we really don’t know what’s going to happen when he steps into the ring. Ideally he should come out of this struggle with enough spotlight to do big things at the Royal Rumble and beyond (unifying the Intercontinental and U.S. belts against Rusev at WrestleMania wouldn’t suck). No idea if they’ve got bigger plans for him or if this is a happy interlude before they forget his name again, but it’s nice to see actual talent get some attention.
4) Rusev
5) Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish

Arnold Furious
1) Takashi Sugiura:
No love for NOAH around these parts, I see. Sugi won NOAH’s big winter tournament during the week by defeating Daisuke Sekimoto. Maybe the Global League doesn’t have the prestige of the G1 Climax but it’s still a pretty big deal to win it. The tournament took place over 12 nights and encompassed all of NOAH’s top guys plus imports Colt Cabana and Chris Hero. Sugiura may have faded from being NOAH’s go-to champion but winning this confirms he’s still relevant. Still a solid hand in the ring too. At 44 years young he’s proven over the year that he can still go with the best of them.

2) reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish): The ROH regulars staked a claim to a spot in New Japan in their first outing, back at the G1 Climax finals, and have been swiftly elevated to winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight tag titles. Make no mistake about it, this puts them in a class amongst the most exciting cruiser tag teams in the world. Kyle O’Reilly in particular is destined for greatness. This is their first step into a bigger world.
3) Tomohiro Ishii: Another New Japan PPV, another MOTYC from the Stone Pitbull. He’s been one of the most dependable and consistently excellent wrestlers during 2014 and has even shone amongst the star studded NJPW roster.
4) Daisuke Sekimoto
5) Kengo Mashimo

Sean Garmer
1) Rusev:
Rusev had a damn good match with Sheamus in a Network special after RAW and wins his first championship making Sheamus tap out for the first time in his career to do it as well.

2) Dolph Ziggler: Ziggler had some good matches on RAW and SmackDown, but the reason he is here is that he amazingly was allowed to shine on Monday’s RAW without John Cena. They could have picked a few other guys to be the main face, but what do you know? The Intercontinental Champion was made to feel important and had a much better “he might join Team Authority” promo than Cena did the previous week. It would be nice to see Ziggler’s role continue to get bigger as he excels this month.
3) Adam Cole: Winning Survival of the fittest is a bigger deal now than its ever been because this was for a ROH World Title shot on an actual LIVE PPV. Adam Cole is such a great talent and he deserves this, as big a fan of reDRagon that I am, I still rank singles accomplishments a little higher than tag team ones.
4) reDRagon
5) Prince Puma

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THE WINNERS~!
* Special Mention…Matt and Jeff Hardy – 7 Votes

* Fifth Place…Tomohiro Ishii & Seth Rollins – 11 Votes

* Fourth Place…reDragon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) – 16 Votes

* Third Place…Adam Cole – 19 Votes

Won the 2014 ROH Survival of the fittest tournament, and now gets to main event Final Battle.

* Second Place…Dolph Ziggler – 20 Votes

Was heavily featured on last week’s WWE programming, and defeated Kane in a steel cage match on Smackdown.

* And 411’s Wrestler of the Week is…
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Rusev – 22 Votes

Defeated Shamus on last week’s WWE Network special to capture the US Title!

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

1. Seth Rollins – 132pts.

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. Rusev – 52pts.

9. Kazuchika Okada – 45pts

10. Brock Lesnar – 43pts.

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Dolph Ziggler – 35 pts.
Kyle O’Reilly – 33pts.

Ricochet – 27pts
Hiroshi Tanahashi – 27pts

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

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

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

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

Charlotte – 18pts.
Cesaro – 18pts.
Adam Cole – 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.
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.

Tomohiro Ishii – 4pts
Jeff Hardy – 4pts.

Kenny Omega – 3pts.
Joe Doering – 3pts.
T-Hawk – 3pts.
EITA – 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.

Matt Hardy Hardy – 1pt
The Miz – 1pt
Kane – 1pt
Brie Bella – 1pt
Uhaa Nation – 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

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* 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.

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**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)