wrestling / Columns

411’s Wrestler of the Week – Lesnar Battles Del Rio

October 27, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka

Welcome to YEAR ELEVEN, 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, 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) Alberto Del Rio:
At the WWE Hell in a Cell PPV, Alberto El Patron (the current AAA Mega Champion) returned to WWE as Alberto Del Rio. Del Rio quickly, soundly and most importantly cleanly defeated John Cena in the opening match to win the WWE US Title. Del Rio is back, and reportedly got a sweet deal to do so. This is really big deal that a lot of people have completely downplayed. Del Rio’s departure, along with that of Sin Myztico 2.0 or whatever the hell he wants to be called, is a huge blow to AAA and a sign of WWE reaching out (partly out of desperation to be sure) to bring back anther talent. I am not sure how long it will last, but Del Rio’s return was a big deal.

2) Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns: Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns were both victorious in their hell in the cell matches, which were both good from a quality standpoint and were set as the definitive endings for their feuds.
3) The New Day: New Day Rocks, having another entertaining week and retaining the WWE Tag Team Titles.
4) Jay Briscoe
5) Seth Rollins

Ryan Byers
1) Brock Lesnar:
In an excellent performance, Brock Lesnar finally put his feud with the Undertaker to bed, once more pinning the dead man after three F5s and establishing himself as THE premier special attraction wrestler currently affiliated with WWE. It will be interesting to see where Lesnar goes from here, as he has essentially run through all of the wrestlers who feel worthy of facing him, with the exception of the Rock, who in all likelihood won’t be around until WrestleMania.

2) Alberto Del Rio: Del Rio returned to WWE but, perhaps more importantly, took the United States Championship off of John Cena in a very unexpected turn of events. Hopefully he winds up as a legitimate main eventer this time and not the glorified midcarder that he was in his last run with the company.
3) The New Day: The New Day got two huge wins this week, first beating John Cena & The Dudley Boys in a six man tag on Raw and following it up by retaining their Tag Team Titles against the Duds at Hell in a Cell. What’s even more impressive is that this felt like a blowoff to the feud with the Bubba & D-Von, and the New Day never once dropped the straps to them.
4) Yukio Sakaguchi
5) Ricochet & Matt Sydal

Mike Hammerlock
1) Brock Lesnar:
They slowed the pace and upped the blood and it worked. Felt like an old school match, which is appropriate for two old school wrestlers. What stood out though is that when Brock cranks it up, he’s special. Taker can’t match Brock’s workrate. He doesn’t have the cardio for it. So Brock had to fight in controlled bursts. It was an achievement in economy. He made his shots count. As for the Undertaker, should be interesting to see how his reprogramming goes.

2) Charlotte: Her bout vs. Nikki Bella wasn’t a masterpiece, but it was good. The WWE put two women in a ring and let have a real wrestling match. I expect the divas booking to snap back to terrible on Raw and Smackdown, but if we’re in a phase where the ladies at least get to shine during the Sunday spectaculars, that’s progress. Maybe we’ll get a traditional Survivor Series match with the divas that delivers.
3) Alberto Del Rio: Did not have a great match against John Cena, but entered and exited the ring like a true star. Give the WWE credit for hatching a true surprise. It felt fresh. Could all go to hell inside a few weeks, but a clean victory over Cena in front an electrified crowd is all anyone could have asked for in terms of a start.
4) Jay Briscoe
5) Roman Reigns

Chad Perry
1) Brock Lesnar:
Lesnar started his week by giving the fans a rare insight on his personal life with his appearance on The Stone Cold Podcast. He ended the week by putting on yet another MOTYC (his third in seven matches this year by my viewing eyes) against a true legend. Lesnar pulled out all the stops in his HIAC match against Undertaker and while they did not top their 2002 encounter it was certainly a brutal fight that exceeded expectations. The biggest question on my mind leaving Hell in a Cell is what exactly is Lesnar going to do for Mania as I would be surprised if we see him again before Rumble season.

2) Seth Rollins: No one wrestled more televised matches in the last week then Rollins did. While none of them were “great” they all did exactly what they were supposed to do. Rollins for the second month in a row was able to wrestle a 3 star match out of a wrestler over the age of 50. Along with that Rollins decisively defeated Kane on his own last night and looks stronger than he has in months.
3) Jay Briscoe: Briscoe has had a rather quiet second half of the year since loosing the ROH World Title to Jay Lethal, competing in a lot of tag team matches and not really having any direction. However the main event of last week’s ROH TV was the culmination of a nice mini feud that had been built between Jay Briscoe and Adam Page. Adam Page, who is a very talented young wrestler in his own right, will look back on this match as the one that really helped him breakout .
4) Austin Aries
5) Matt Sydal & Ricochet

Kevin Pantoja
1) Alberto Del Rio:
Hell in a Cell turned out to be far better than I ever expected it to be. The biggest news coming out of the show came right at the start as John Cena’s United States Title Open Challenge was answered by a returning Alberto Del Rio. It’s been over a year since we last saw Del Rio in the WWE, and in that time he’s done some great work with AAA, Lucha Underground and ROH. He is now paired with Zeb Colter, which could certainly help since he needs a mouthpiece. Del Rio came out and proceeded to defeat Cena cleanly. Not only that but he did so in under ten minutes. Since Cena became the man in 2005, only a handful of people have beaten him clean and none have done it this quickly. The match was anti-climactic and not very good, but the result and return were incredibly memorable and one of my favorite moments of 2015.

2) Roman Reigns: Both of the matches inside of the Hell in a Cell delivered at the Pay-Per-View. I enjoyed Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns more than Lesnar/Taker, resulting in Reigns’ position here. He overcame Bray in a twenty plus minute war that was another in a string of good to great Pay-Per-View performances by Reigns in 2015. Honestly, outside of the Royal Rumble, I’ve given every Reigns PPV match somewhere between ***1/4 and ****1/4. That’s impressive. Reigns and Wyatt got a chance to have a great Cell match with no extra bullshit and went out and delivered. He still needs tons of work on his promo skills, but Reigns has done nothing but step up in big matches this year and this might have been the most impressive.
3) Brock Lesnar: The other Hell in a Cell match featured Brock Lesnar taking on the Undertaker. I was vocal in how I didn’t care for the match and that never wavered. I will admit that they managed to have a damn good match that was nearly on the level of their 2002 Cell encounter. As always, things just felt different in a Brock match. He and the Undertaker went out and had a war, including blood, violence and some close near falls. The WWE did the wise thing and Brock cleanly went over after hitting an F5 on the exposed wood under the mat. Brock should absolutely move into something new and fresh now that the Undertaker is behind him.
4) Jay Briscoe
5) The New Day

Wyatt Beougher
1) New Day:
They beat Cena and the Dudleys on RAW, then followed that up with a clean win over the Dudleys (without Xavier Woods) at Hell in a Cell. If you needed any more proof that New Day are the best thing going in WWE right now, surely Kofi Kingston, once near the top of any list of bland characters in the wastelands of WWE’s midcard, just busted out an Eddie Guerrero tribute spot Sunday night and it felt right. My New Day fandom knows no bounds, and I could easily turn this into a 2,000 word missive about the WWE’s magical unicorns, but instead I’ll just say: NEW…DAY ROCKS! NEW…DAY ROCKS! NEW…DAY ROCKS!

2) Seth Rollins: Rollins is right there with New Day in terms of providing consistent entertainment, and he did just retain his championship cleanly against Kane at Hell in a Cell. However, I can’t justify giving him the top spot because someone decided it would be a good idea to have a guy who hasn’t wrestled regularly in half a decade to utterly emasculate Rollins on RAW, but still, second place isn’t all that bad.
3) Brock Lesnar/Bray Wyatt: The former was one-half of arguably the best match at Hell in a Cell (not involving New Day), and he decisively won his feud with the Undertaker; the latter came out on the losing end of his match with Roman Reigns, but put up a valiant performance nonetheless AND ended the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view by beating down a true legend of the sport and spiriting him away, likely to his swamp bayou compound. Should Reigns be on this list in Wyatt’s place? Maybe, but the fact that his post-match selling consisted of looking like he had hemorrhoids and Wyatt’s included a gnarly looking eye and barely being able to use his arm, I’m giving the nod to the guy who was still able to incapacitate the Undertaker and carry him out of the arena.
4) Jay Briscoe
5) Alberto Del Rio

A-Aron Scott
1) ADR:
Alberto Del RRRRRRRRIIIIOOOO returns from Lucha Underground, successfully defeating the machine that drove him from the WWE to come back from a nasty race-related dismissal and not only that, vanquish John Cena in a rather easy go! Pulling one win off is one thing, defeating the Golden Goose is another. Not only that, he is the NEW United States Champion and has a new manager in the wonderful Zeb Colter. The new prodigal son returns!

2) Brock Lesnar: He beat the Undertaker with a pin and hopefully comes out of the feud the way he should have, victorious over Taker since WrestleMania. Undertaker has consistently had to cheat to win, and Lesnar returned the favor in grand fashion this last Hell in the Cell. Hopefully The Wyatt Family have ended that feud once and for all, and so Lesnar is now a free man to focus on the Championship.
3) Nick Aldis: This is the second biggest win of Nick’s life, the first being marrying Mickie James. Aldis has been TNA World Heavyweight Champion and now once again he is the cornerstone of a promotion. It’s not so much that he hasn’t had a lot of help in his career and still has yet to reach the next level, but the former Magnus still has a shot at being a real Superstar in wrestling and all the best to this young man’s career.
4) Ethan Carter III
5) Roman Reigns

Mike Chin
1) Alberto Del Rio:
Truly shocking return? Check. Clean win over the guy who still has to be considered the de facto face of the company? Check. Clean win that was also quick, and positions Del Rio as the only guy to beat Cena that emphatically and quickly this side of Brock Lesnar? Checkmate. I wish that Del Rio’s match with Cena had been a bit longer and more dramatic. Just the same, it accomplished a quite arguably made Del Rio the single most talked about wrestler in the world coming out of Sunday night’s show.

2) Brock Lesnar: I wanted to get into Lesnar-‘Taker–I really did. The match just never really hit its next gear, though, leaving it in similar territory to his WrestleMania 30 bout with The Phenom, as not objectively bad, but also not the epic main event that we’ll be talking about for years that WWE must have been aiming for. Still Lesnar gets the clean win. You have to expect he’s going on sabbatical, but leaves well positioned for a main event-ish spot come WrestleMania.
3) The New Day: You can place me with all the folks who thought, in Xavier Woods’ absence, New Day would both be less entertaining and unable to retain the tag titles. But after Woods’ nice performance as pseudo-victim on Raw, Kofi Kingston and Big E pulled out all of the stops for one of their strongest in-ring performances as a tandem, paired with a nice homage to the Guerreros in their attempt to get the DQ win, before finally picking up a pinfall win over The Dudleys without the benefit of the numbers game. It was a nice outing for these gentlemen.
4) Roman Reigns
5) Nick Aldis

THE WINNERS~!
* Special Mention…Seth Rollins – 9 Votes

* Fifth Place…Jay Briscoe – 11 Votes

* Fourth Place…Roman Reigns – 12 Votes

* Third Place…The New Day – 15 Votes

Still the reigning and defending tag team champions of the world, and glorious unicorns.

* Second Place…Alberto Del Rio – 29 Votes

Made a triumphant return to the WWE, defeating John Cena to win the SU Title.

* And 411’s Wrestler of the Week is…
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Brock Lesnar – 33 Votes

Lesnar defeated the Undertaker at Hell in a Cell to end their feud…

The Standings
Here are the standings after week thirty…

1. John Cena – 80 pts.

2. Seth Rollins – 62 pts.
2. Kofi Kingston – 62 pts.
2. Big E – 62 pts.

5. Kevin Owens – 58 pts.

6. Xavier Woods – 49 pts.

7. Shinsuke Nakamura – 45 pts.

8. Jay Lethal – 43 pts.

9. Sasha Banks – 42 pts.

10. Kazuchika Okada – 39 pts.

Brock Lesnar – 33 pts.

Finn Balor – 31 pts.
Mil Muertes – 31 pts.

Alberto Del Rio – 30 pts.
Matt Hardy – 30 pts.

Hiroshi Tanahashi – 27 pts.
KUSHIDA – 27 pts.
Kyle O’Reilly – 27 pts.
Bayley – 27 pts.

Prince Puma – 25 pts.
Ethan Carter III – 25 pts.

Roman Reigns – 24 pts.
Drago – 24 pts.
Fenix – 24 pts.
Dean Ambrose – 24 pts.
Kota Ibushi – 24 pts.
AJ Styles – 24 pts.

Samoa Joe – 21 pts.
Nick Jackson – 21 pts.
Matt Jackson – 21 pts.
Cesaro – 21 pts.
Hirooki Goto – 21 pts.

Eddie Edwards – 19 pts.
Davey Richards – 19 pts.

Aerostar – 18 pts.
Bubba Ray Dudley – 18 pts.
D-Von Dudley – 18 pts.

Zack Sabre Jr – 16 pts.

Hideo Itami – 15 pts.
Randy Orton – 15 pts.
Jeff Hardy – 15 pts.
Angelico – 15 pts.
Son of Havoc – 15 pts.
Kurt Angle – 15 pts.
Undertaker – 15 pts.
Bobby Fish – 15 pts.
Togi Makabe – 15 pts.

Kazarian – 13 pts.
Christopher Daniels – 13 pts.
Sting – 13 pts.

Rey Mysterio Jr. – 12 pts.
Atsushi Kotoge – 12 pts.
Daisuke Harada – 12 pts.
Katsuyori Shibata – 12 pts.
Mike Bennett – 12 pts.
Matt Taven – 12 pts.
“Speedball” Mike Bailey – 12 pts.
Rich Swann – 12 pts.
Ivelisse – 12 pts.
Bobby Roode – 12 pts.
Drew Galloway – 12 pts.
Rocky Romero – 12 pts.
Trent Baretta – 12 pts.
Apollo Crews – 12 pts.

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

Ryback – 9 pts.
Jeff Jarrett – 9 pts.
Tomohiro Ishii – 9 pts.
Karl Anderson – 9 pts.
Sheamus – 9 pts.
Sami Zayn – 9 pts.
Kimber Lee – 9 pts.
Cherry Bomb – 9 pts.

Michael Elgin – 6 pts.
Minoru Suzuki – 6 pts
Tigre Uno – 6 pts.
KAI – 6 pts.
Masato Tanaka – 6 pts.
Takashi Sugiura – 6 pts.
Charlotte – 6 pts.
King Bad News Barrett – 6 pts.
Nicole Matthews – 6 pts.
Johnny Gargano – 6 pts.

Neville – 5 pts.

Johnny Mundo – 3 pts.
Jack Evans – 3 pts.
Cage – 3 pts.
Madison Eagles – 3 pts.
Jay Briscoe – 3 pts.

Chris Hero – 1 pt.
PJ Black – 1 pt.
Pentagon Jr – 1 pt.
El Siniestro de la Muerte – 1 pt.
Barrio Negro – 1 pt.
Terce – 1 pt.
King Cuerno – 1 pt.
Mark Andrews – 1 pt.
Kenny King – 1 pt.
Nikki Bella – 1 pt.
Kalisto – 1 pt.
Titus O’Neil – 1 pt.
Aiden English – 1 pt.
Simon Gotch – 1 pt.
Darren Young – 1 pt.
Kenny Omega – 1 pt.
Minoru Tanaka – 1 pt.
Masato Yoshino – 1 pt.
Jun Kasai – 1 pt.
Manabu Soya – 1 pt.
Tetsuya Naito – 1 pt.