wrestling / Columns

411’s Wrestler of the Week – John Cena on Top?

July 21, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka

Welcome to YEAR TWELVE, WEEK 16 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. This will be posted every Tuesday (the voting week runs Monday through Sunday). Let’s see who wins this week…

Larry Csonka
1) John Cena:
While not the outcome that many wanted, John Cena vs. Kevin Owens had the best match at the WWE Battleground PPV. Cena won the match to retain the WWE US Title, and also continues his run of quality matches while doing so.

2) Bengala, King Cuerno and Sexy Star: All three won an Aztec medallion on this week’s episode of Lucha Underground.
3) Brooke: Defeated Taryn Terrell to become the new TNA Knockouts Champion.
4) The Prime Time Players
5) Charlotte

Ryan Byers
1) The Undertaker:
There was one segment that got everybody in the wrestling world buzzing this week, featuring a spectacular and unexpected appearance on the WWE main roster. It saw the Undertaker pop up on WWE Battleground for the first time since WrestleMania to lay out Brock Lesnar. Taker made a big splash by making Brock look weaker he has since his post-WrestleMania XXIX return to the company, getting revenge for the end of the Streak and his little brother’s ankle, as well as setting up what will likely be a monster match for the Summerslam pay per view. It will be interesting to see whether Taker still has the good to deliver at SS, both in terms of match quality and as a draw.

2) John Cena: Cena wrestled another impressive matchup against Kevin Owens on the Battleground pay per view and came out victorious, which apparently means that he has now won the entire feud. Good on you, John. Never give up.
3) Rusev: Rusev looked excellent in his three way match against Cesaro and Kevin Steen on Monday Night Raw, winning it and going on to have a fun yet brief encounter with John Cena that featured one of the better finisher reversals I have seen in a while. With the way he’s been booked and the way he’s been wrestling lately, I’d be interested in seeing a Rusev run as a babyface.
4) Minoru Suzuki
5) Ikuto Hidaka

Kevin Pantoja
1) Sasha Banks:
Outside of the Undertaker’s return at Battleground, the biggest story in WWE for the week was the “Divas revolution” on Raw. Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Charlotte all made their official main roster debuts in a fun segment that involved the girls taking out some main roster ladies, including a great triple submission spot. I went with Sasha here because, while Charlotte won their Triple Threat match at Battleground, Sasha beat Charlotte on NXT. So not only was she part of a big angle on Raw, but she performed well at Battleground and made Charlotte tap out on Wednesday. Both matches that she was part of delivered and she once again put on performances to show why she’s the best female in the WWE.

2) John Cena: John Cena and Kevin Owens showed that they clicked very well at Elimination Chamber and Money in the Bank. Their rubber match was at Battleground and unfortunately, it wasn’t on the level of those two matches. It wasn’t bad by any means, but it was missing something and was the worst of their series, which has gotten progressively worse in my eyes. Hell, the same thing happened against Rusev. Regardless, Cena retained his title in another high profile match, earning this spot, even though I wholeheartedly disagree with having Owens tap out.
3) Cesaro: In a week that mostly featured disappointing matches (I’m looking at you Brock/Seth and Cena/Owens), one guy managed to shine with his performance and that was Cesaro. First, the guy went out on Raw and put on probably the Raw match of the year against Kevin Owens and Rusev. While he may have lost there, it was a tremendous performance. Some credit needs to be given to Rusev as well there. The reason Cesaro makes it over him here is because Cesaro would then cleanly pin Rusev on Smackdown, becoming just the second man to do so. I’m not sure if this recent string of showings by Cesaro will lead anywhere, but it’s been fun to watch.
4) Bray Wyatt
5) Brooke Tessmacher

Mike Hammerlock
1) John Cena:
Worst week of the year. Cena gets my vote for winning what was, in a bubble, a hell of a match against Kevin Owens. The problem is we’re likely going to look back on this match as the moment where the WWE botched it with Owens. Now he gets to lose a couple more to Cena before drifting around the mid-card. Idiotic booking, not that we should have expected anything different. They’ll surely fight again at SummerSlam and we’ll try to convince ourselves that no way would they bury Owens like this when he was so incredibly over and, guess what, Cena will beat him. It’s not that the guy I wanted to win didn’t get the victory, I appreciate Owens’ talent but I’m far from a mark for him. I appreciate Cena’s talent too. Got nothing against him winning if it’s part of a new, inventive direction for him. It’s that they’ve told this story with Cena dozens of times and it’s painful to watch. Speaking of painful to watch, I’m trying to think of a worse storyline than what they’re doing with the Undertaker at the moment and I’m drawing a blank. Wow, was that hot garbage.

2) Sasha Banks: Beat Charlotte in a dynamite match on NXT to retain her title and shined during the divas three-way affair at Battleground. I worry that she’ll ultimately get ruined once Vince McMahon starts booking her matches, but her match against Charlotte showed what women’s wrestling can and should be.
3) Bray Wyatt: Did good work in his match against Roman Reigns. I like that they might be getting the Family back together. That faction broke up far too early, before it ever won much of anything. Not that I expect it to happen, but Wyatt and Reigns could have a really great program if they threw the Intercontinental Championship into the mix. Both need to win some singles gold and it would get them involved with a big chunk of the mid-card in between 1v1 contests. Also, given the crowd reactions from last night, the E ought to consider a double switch storyline with these two. They could steal the show at SummerSlam with Bray-Roman role reversal (and, yes, I know there’s a snowball’s chance in hell for that).
4) King Cuerno
5) Minoru Suzuki

Eric Palmer
1) Cesaro:
Cesaro didn’t wrestle on Sunday’s Battleground PPV, but he did have two really solid matches this week. After having a MOTY candidate on Monday, he went on to beat Rusev by a clean pinfall in another solid bout. He looked great this week and it looks like his star is on the rise, but we’ve been down this road with him before, so we’ll see if WWE keeps him looking this strong.

2) John Cena: Cena had another great match with Kevin Owens at Battleground. While I don’t the match was up to the par of the other two matches they had, it was still solid and helped make Owens look like a star, even though I don’t think the finish did Owens any favors. Cena, however, definitely deserves to make the list on a slow week.
3) Minoru Suzuki: Suzuki retained the GHC Heavyweight Championship over Yoshihiro Takayama, setting up a match with Takashi Sugiura on September 19th in what should be an awesome watch.
4) Sasha Banks
5) Undertaker

Sean Garmer
1) John Cena:
I thought it was still a pretty great match from Cena and Owens the third time around, but it felt like they were just running a marathon the whole time and doing a bunch a moves. The emotional investment from the other two matches wasn’t there until much later in the match. I know a lot of people are upset at the finish, but Owens had to save himself and I’m sure he will be back in the title picture again at Summerslam. Cena has been doing tremendously well with the US Open Challenge and now let’s see with all of these legit challengers, if we still get surprises, or if there will be a different storyline built up to the third biggest PPV of the year.

2) Sasha Banks: She had a great match on NXT against Charlotte and retained her title, she looked the most impressive in that match at Battleground, and she debuted on RAW. I mean can’t get a much better week than that.
3) Undertaker: He returned on Sunday and cost Brock Lesnar his opportunity at regaining the WWE Championship. He also allowed Seth Rollins to continue to be Champion. Maybe we will hear his motivations soon, but his return was the talk of the town on Sunday night and for that he deserves a spot on this list.
4) Minoru Suzuki
5) Rusev

THE WINNERS~!
* Special Mention…King Cuerno – 6 Votes

* Fifth Place…Minoru Suzuki – 7 Votes

* Fourth Place…Cesaro – 8 Votes

* Third Place…The Undertaker – 9 Votes

Made his return at WWE Battleground.

* Second Place…Sasha Banks – 15 Votes

Retained her NXT Title over Charlotte and also made her main roster debut this week.

* And 411’s Wrestler of the Week is…
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John Cena – 27 Votes

Still your reigning and defending US Champion…

The Standings
Here are the standings after week sixteen…

Kevin Owens – 48 pts.

John Cena – 46 pts.

Kofi Kingston – 35 pts.
Big E – 35 pts.

Seth Rollins – 31 pts.

Prince Puma – 25 pts.

Dean Ambrose – 24 pts.
KUSHIDA – 24 pts.
Sasha Banks – 24 pts.

Xavier Woods – 22 pts.

Cesaro – 21 pts.

AJ Styles – 18 pts.
Roman Reigns – 18 pts.
Nick Jackson – 18 pts.
Matt Jackson – 18 pts.

Mil Muertes – 16 pts.

Kazuchika Okada – 15 pts.
Jay Lethal – 15 pts.
Hideo Itami – 15 pts.
Randy Orton – 15 pts.
Matt Hardy – 15 pts.
Jeff Hardy – 15 pts.
Hirooki Goto – 15 pts.
Angelico – 15 pts.
Son of Havoc – 15 pts.
Alberto El Patron – 15 pts.
Kurt Angle – 15 pts.

Finn Balor – 13 pts.

Shinsuke Nakamura – 12 pts.
Kyle O’Reilly – 12 pts.
Mike Bennett – 12 pts.
Matt Taven – 12 pts.
“Speedball” Mike Bailey – 12 pts.
Rich Swann – 12 pts.
Ivelisse – 12 pts.

Becky Lynch – 10 pts.
Roderick Strong – 10 pts.

Undertaker – 9 pts.
Jeff Jarrett – 9 pts.
Togi Makabe – 9 pts.
Sheamus – 9 pts.
Sami Zayn – 9 pts.
Rocky Romero – 9 pts.
Trent Baretta – 9 pts.
Kimber Lee – 9 pts.
Cherry Bomb – 9 pts.
Timothy Thatcher – 9 pts.
Drago – 9 pts.
Brock Lesnar – 9 pts.

Minoru Suzuki – 6 pts
Ethan Carter III – 6 pts.
Tigre Uno – 6 pts.
Samoa Joe – 6 pts.
KAI – 6 pts.
Masato Tanaka – 6 pts.
Takashi Sugiura – 6 pts.
Ryback – 6 pts.
King Bad News Barrett – 6 pts.
Nicole Matthews – 6 pts.

Neville – 4 pts.

Drew Galloway – 3 pts.
Fenix – 3 pts.
Johnny Mundo – 3 pts.
Jack Evans – 3 pts.
Aerostar – 3 pts.

King Cuerno – 1 pts
Eddie Edwards – 1 pt.
Davey Richards – 1 pt.
Kenny King – 1 pt.
Kalisto – 1 pt.
Titus O’Neil – 1 pt.
Darren Young – 1 pt.
Minoru Tanaka – 1 pt.
Masato Yoshino – 1 pt.
Kazarian – 1 pt
Christopher Daniels – 1 pt
Zack Sabre Jr – 1 pt.
Jun Kasai – 1 pt.
Manabu Soya – 1 pt.