wrestling / Columns
411’s Wrestler of The Week: Kazuchika Okada Battles Chris Hero
Welcome to YEAR TWELVE, WEEK 28 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…
Voting period: OCTOBER 10 – OCTOBER 16
Larry Csonka
1) Kazuchika Okada:
Defeated Naomichi Marufuji in an absolutely awesome match to retain the IWGP Title. It delivered everything that I wanted from a big time, big show main event. Much like Omega vs. Goto, we knew that Marufuji was losing this match (unless Gedo had a stroke and none told us) so they had to deliver a story and structure that allowed us to buy into the Marufuji winning story. Marufuji felt like a completely different performer than in NOAH, with Okada giving him a lot and taking an absolute beating to make sure everything Marufuji did worked. Okada thrives at selling a beating as opposed to selling a body part, did that here and made a great babyface comeback down the stretch where he was simply determined to overcome. The challenger was amazing in his brutality, the champion had to dig deep to put away a fellow champion and man that had previously defeated him. This was everything I wanted from this match and more, it both played off of and surpassed the G1 match that they had (which I loved) and more than delivered as the main event to an overall amazing show.
2) Chris Hero: Chris Hero ain’t nothing to fuck with, the dude just travels the planet earth shitting out four star matches on the regular. Seriously, he may be the best guy out there not under contract to anyone and just delivers excellent wrestling matches.
3) Kenny Omega: With the win, Omega is now officially the challenger for WrestleKingdom as this was his last scheduled defense of the briefcase. This was a rematch that I had no desire to see, but to their credit they made it work. Omega is awesome working with Goto, and while we all new Goto was losing the key here was working something that made you believe that he had a chance to win. And that’s exactly what they did here, they worked a great match, the crowd was into it big time and the closing stretch was awesome. Once again, for a match that I had absolutely no desire to see and one that didn’t even really make sense to put on, they succeeded and made it great.
4) Katsuyori Shibata
5) Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa)
Mike Chin
1) Kazuchika Okada:
Okada retained the IWGP Heavyweight Championship over Naomichi Marufuji in a stellar match for NJPW King of Pro Wrestling.
2) Chris Hero: Chris Hero put on back-to-back great performances in back-to-back big wins at Evolve events this weekend.
3) Pentagon Dark: After uneven, somewhat directionless booking so far season three, Pentagon Dark picked up the big win in the Lucha Underground main event, besting Chavo Guerrero and pinning Rey Mysterio.
4) Kenny Omega
5) Seth Rollins
Arnold Furious
1) Mark Haskins:
It was a bit of a slow weekend for wrestling with only EVOLVE running a major show in North America (two of them to be exact). Meanwhile over the pond Mark Haskins was tasked with defending his newly won Progress title and did so by dispatching one of the top heel contenders in Liverpool’s own Zack Gibson. With BritWres returning to ITV in the near future, tapings are in November, it seems as if BritWres is the place to be right now. Crowds are up, interest in the product is up and when TV is actively chasing the product you know you’re onto a winner.
2) Kazuchika Okada: Defended his IWGP title in a stellar match with NOAH’s Naomichi Marufuji. It’s an outside contender for MOTY and a further demonstration of Okada’s excellence. He’s had an outstanding year, slightly hidden by the performances of other up and coming talent like Naito, Omega and Elgin. On top the story has been the same all year; Okada has been Mr Consistent and continues to be a box office draw.
3) Chihiro Hashimoto: Beat the outstanding Meiko Satomura to claim the Sendai Girls title over the weekend. Satomura had been the first and only champion to this juncture, holding the belt for over a year. Hashimoto’s win is huge for her, as she’s only been in the business for about a year. She was trained and groomed by Satomura to become her in-ring replacement. Now she has a chance to shine.
4) Kenny Omega
5) Katsuyori Shibata
Kevin Pantoja
1) Kazuchika Okada:
I’m in no way a fan of the guy, but Kazuchika Okada deserves the top spot this week. The first show of the week was NJPW’s King of Pro Wrestling, which has had some fantastic Heavyweight Title matches throughout its history. While Okada’s defense this week wasn’t on par with the incredible 2012 and 2013 main events, it was the third best. He and Naomichi Marufuji told a great story and put on my second favorite IWGP Heavyweight Title match this year (only behind Naito/Ishii). Okada has been one step behind Marufuji since losing to him back on the first night of the G1 Climax. Okada was able to finally get one over on Marufuji and defeated him to retain the title.
2) Katsuyori Shibata: Okada/Marufuji was arguably the match of the week but the one that is neck and neck with it was the NEVER Openweight Title match between Katsuyori Shibata and Kyle O’Reilly. O’Reilly recently moved up to the heavyweight division and this was his first real test there. O’Reilly bested Shibata at ROH’s Field of Honor event (the match aired on ROH TV this past week) and was also trying to get some revenge for his partner, Bobby Fish, who lost to Shibata last month. O’Reilly and Shibata had just the kind of match I was hoping for. They played to their strengths and in the end, Shibata was able to retain the title. Outside of a month and a half, he’s had a hold on the NEVER Title throughout all of 2016.
3) Chris Hero: Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see any of the shows yet, but Evolve 70 and 71 were this week. Chris Hero has arguably been the MVP of Evolve in 2016 and it seemed to continue here. At Evolve 70, Hero defeated Drew Gulak in a match that has gotten some pretty high praise. On Evolve 71 though, Hero was part of the main event and bested Evolve’s hottest star, Matt Riddle, in a match that got even more positive things said about it. Any way you look at it, Chris Hero is not just one of the best performers of 2016, he’s one of the best on the planet.
4) Pentagon Dark
5) James Ellsworth
Jack McGee
1) Kazuchika Okada:
Still your reigning and defending IWGP Heavyweight Champion.
2) Katsuyori Shibata: Still your reigning and defending IWGP NEVER Openweight Champion
3) Kenny Omega: Officially the challenger for Kazuchika Okada at WresteKingdom.
4) Aron Rex
5) Mark Haskins
Mike Hammerlock
1) Kazuchika Okada:
Sometimes I wonder to myself who the actual world champion is. If you took all the champions in the wrestling business and then weeded them out until you had only one, who would it be? At the moment I come down to a horse race between Okada and AJ Styles. Okada reminded everyone of why he’s a gold standard by defeating Naomichi Marufuji in a MOTY-worthy contest. His level of excellence sets a bar for the whole industry.
2) Chris Hero: Hero almost never has anything less than a great match. Evolve has got to put its strap on him sooner rather than later.
3) Pentagon Dark: Pinned Rey Mysterio Jr. to win a three-man match that also involved Chavo Guerrero Jr. Good match and I believe it marks only the second time Rey has been pinned in LU (first time being when Matanza Cueto did it at Aztec Warfare last season).
4) Kenny Omega
5) Katsuyori Shibata
Rob Stewart
1) Kazuchika Okada:
At New Japan’s King of Pro Wrestling, Okada fended off the challenge of Naomichi Marufuji to retain his IWGP Heavyweight title in a 28 minute affair. Okada’s fourth reign is now in its fourth month, and he is on track for a Tokyo Dome matchup with Kenny Omega.
2) Chris Hero: Hero had a successful weekend of EVOLVE action as he defeated Matt Riddle in the main event of EVOLVE 71 after having also defeated Drew Gulak at EVOLVE 70.
3) Sexy Star: Sexy Star successfully defended her Gift Of The Gods Championship against Jack Evans on this past week’s episode of Lucha Underground. Before Star’s reign, the GotG title had never successfully been defended. Star has now retained it twice (both times against members of the Worldwide Underground).
4) Kenny Omega
5) Pentagon Dark
Mitch Nickelson
1) James Ellsworth:
His win over AJ Styles was a complete fluke thanks to help from some very biased officiating by Dean Ambrose, but that doesn’t change that this match was too much fun. His non-title pinfall of the current WWE World Champion impressed Daniel Bryan so much that he announced that Ellsworth would get a rematch with the belt on the line. That match will have already happened before this blurb gets published so I can only assume that you are reading these words as James Ellsworth currently holds the most valuable prize on SmackDown Live. Congrats on your big win, James, you’re an inspiration to us all!
2) Kenny Omega: Kenny Omega defeated Hirooki Goto in a match that made his IWGP Heavyweight Championship challenge against Kazuchika Okada official. Kenny even survived getting knocked off the top rope and falling through a table on the outside in this King of Pro Wrestling match. Kenny’s star keeps rising in wrestling and I’m looking forward to the WrestleKingdom match.
3) Roman Reigns: He’s getting the number 3 spot from me this week because his rad leaping spear of Rusev over Sasha Banks while she had the Banks Statement locked on happened during this time frame. I could watch that on slo-mo over and over again.
4) Kazuchika Okada
5) Sexy Star
Dylan Diot
1) Kazuchika Okada:
Kazuchika Okada defeated Naomichi Marufuji in an epic match at King of Pro Wrestling to retain his IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Okada had another incredible outing in the main event of a big show and is now set to face Kenny Omega in the main event of WresteKingdom in January. For a success world title defense and competing in easily the best match of the week, Okada is #1 for me.
2) James Ellsworth: With some help from Dean Ambrose, James Ellsworth picked up a stunning victory over AJ Styles on Smackdown. He has gone from the original Braun Strowman victim to now getting a WWE World Heavyweight Championship opportunity on Smackdown against Styles. Maybe there’s another miracle in the making.
3) Guerillas of Destiny: In the only major title change of the week, the Guerillas of Destiny defeated The Briscoes to regain the IWGP Tag Team Championships at King of Pro Wrestling. They now added gold to the Bullet Clubs collection and now seek to have a more dominant reign than they had the first time around earlier this year.
4) Katsuyori Shibata
5) Chris Hero
THE WINNERS~!
* Special Mention…Pentagon Dark – 9 Votes
* Fifth Place…James Ellsworth – 10 Votes
* Fourth Place…Katsuyori Shibata – 14 Votes
* Third Place…Kenny Omega – 18 Votes
Secured his spot at WrestleKingdom with an excellent victory over Hirooki Goto.
* Second Place…Chris Hero – 20 Votes
Put on a pair of great matches at Evolve 70 and 71, picking up victories in both.
* And 411’s Wrestler of the Week is…
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Kazuchika Okada – 41 Votes
Still your reigning and defending IWGP Champion, and heading to a clash at WrestleKingdom with Kenny Omega.
The Standings
Here are the standings after week 28, there was no change in the top 10…
1. AJ Styles – 91pts
2. Prince Puma/Ricochet – 60pts
3. Dean Ambrose – 51pts
3. Lashley – 51pts
5. Tetsuya Naito – 45pts
6. Roman Reigns – 36pts
6. Rey Mysterio Jr. – 36pts
6. Dragon Azteca Jr. – 36pts
6. The Monster Matanza Cueto – 36pts
10. Will Ospreay – 33pts
10. Sexy Star – 33pts
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* Kevin Owens – 31pts
* Finn Balor – 30pts
* Johnny Mundo – 28pts
* Broken Matt Hardy – 28pts
* TJ Perkins – 27pts
* Dolph Ziggler – 25pts
* Kazuchika Okada – 25pts
* Kenny Omega – 24pts
* Cage – 24 pts
* Jack Evans – 24pts
* PJ Black – 24 pts
* Sasha Banks – 24pts
* Jay Lethal – 21pts
* Samoa Joe – 21pts
* Eddie Edwards – 21pts
* The Miz – 20pts
* Dash – 18pts
* Dawson – 18pts
* Kota Ibushi – 16pts
* Brother Nero – 16pts
* Katsuyori Shibata – 16pts
* Nick Jackson – 15pts
* Matt Jackson – 15pts
* Seth Rollins – 15pts
* Drew Galloway – 15pts
* Johnny Gargano – 15pts
* KUSHIDA – 15pts
* Aerostar – 15pts
* Sami Zayn – 13pts
* Killshot/Shane Strickland – 13pts
* Chris Hero – 13 pts
* Shinsuke Nakamura – 12pts
* Becky Lynch – 12pts
* Son of Havoc – 12pts
* Michael Elgin -12pts
* Bobby Fish – 12pts
* Daniels – 12pts
* Kazarian – 12pts
* Mike Bennett – 12pts
* Tomohiro Ishii – 12pts
* Marty Scurll – 12pts
* Adam Cole – 9pts
* Tommaso Ciampa – 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
* 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
* The Mack – 3pts
* Cesaro – 3pts
* Dana Brooke – 3pts
* Xavier Woods – 3pts
* Kofi Kingston – 3pts
* Big E – 3pts
* Evie – 3pts
* James Ellsworth – 3pts
* Heidi Lovelace – 3pts
* Dustin (Chuck Taylor) – 3pts
* Cedric Alexander – 3pts
* YAMATO – 3pts
* James Storm – 3pts
* Mark Haskins – 3pts
* Matt Sydal – 2pts
* Charlotte – 2pts
* Chavo Guerrero – 1pt
* DJ Z – 1pt
* Abyss – 1pt
* Crazy Steve – 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
* ACH – 1pt
* Hiroyoshi Tenzan – 1pt
* Taiji Ishimori – 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.
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)
