wrestling / Columns

411’s Wrestler of the Week – Lesnar Battles Ziggler For #1

December 23, 2014 | Posted by Larry Csonka

Welcome to YEAR TEN, WEEK 37 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) Shinsuke Nakamura:
On December 19th, NJPW continued their Road to the Tokyo Dome, and by doing so held the traditionally fun main event elimination match featuring the co-main event and main event players for the Dome. IWGP IC Champion Shinsuke Nakamura was the sole survivor of the match, eliminating his challenger on the 4th by over the top elimination and then pinning Taguchi to score the final victory. I loved that booking because Okada vs. Tanahashi didn’t need the final spotlight, and tossing it onto Nakamura and by proxy the IC Title adds to the strong co-main event for their biggest show of the year.

2) Mil Muertes: Won a big ten man match on last week’s show, and then went on to defeat the other man that won his 10-man match in the show’s main event. I can leave Muertes as an in ring worker, because he’s not very good at all, but he was booked in a dominating fashion and ended the show as the man to beat for the Lucha Underground Title in January when they return.
3) Brock Lesnar: Brock smash, people enjoy.
4) Kevin Owens
5) Dolph Ziggler

JUSTIN WATRY
1) Seth Rollins:
Beat John Cena in a steel cage match on RAW. Set up a potentially intriguing scenario pairing himself with Paul Heyman (foreshadowing?) and Brock Lesnar with the Royal Rumble looming. Survivor Series 2002 ring a bell? Armageddon 2002, anyone? Always another “Heyman Guy” on the horizon! Plus, Seth Rollins competed in an entertaining main event for the Blue Brand. Whether it is with Paul Heyman or The Authority, he will be WWE World Champion sooner rather than later.

2) Dolph Ziggler: I really enjoyed his main event win over Seth Rollins on Super Smackdown Live! Too bad he has the IC Championship again and is not going to escape that ‘spot’ for awhile. Curious to see where he lands come WrestleMania 31.
3) Ryback: The Big Guy had a good week, making appearances on all the major shows, including Tribute to the Troops. Looks like a feud with Rusev is up next. Good luck getting out of that finish fairly…Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, and Roman Reigns just missed the top five this week. Heck, even Chris Jericho could have made the list with his 358 different segments on Raw.
4) Kevin Owens
5) Brock Lesnar

Ryan Byers
1) Brock Lesnar:
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again . . . Brock Lesnar is one of the only professional wrestlers remaining on the planet who is single handedly capable of elevating the quality of an entire professional wrestling show from something bad or mediocre to something memorable and entertaining. He did that yet again this week on Monday Night Raw, when he GLORIOUSLY no sold the offense of and destroyed an obnoxious Chris Jericho who had overstayed his welcome and then once more destroyed John Cena. This man has an aura that make him worth every damn penny he’s being paid, limited schedule or not, and he should be WWE Champion for another year.

2) Roman Reigns: Despite some online fans salivating at the possibility of the WWE fanbase turning on Reigns, he’s been mega-over in all of his segments since coming back at TLC, including looking very good on both Monday Night Raw and Smackdown. Here’s to the continued rise of the Roman Empire.
3) Dean Ambrose: Ambrose got a big win over Bray Wyatt in a Boot Camp Match on Tribute to the Troops, which helped to rebuild him after he was made to look like a complete and utter moron by the finish of their match at the pay per view.
4) The Uso Twins
5) New Day

Mike Hammerlock
1) Mil Muertes:
Lucha Underground had it’s best in-ring show so far with two 10-man matches and the debut of the Lucha Underground title belt. Muertes actually would get my vote as the company’s worst ring technician, but they booked him strong as he won both a battle royal (eliminating Johnny Mundo for the victory) and then a 1v1 contest against Fenix (who won his 10-man match by pinning Prince Puma). It was Muertes’ best work by far in Lucha Underground, setting him up as the man to beat for the title.

2) Kevin Owens: Lit it up on NXT against Adrian Neville (who’d be my honorable mention pick if we got one). Owens is building toward a feud with Sami Zayn and this match displayed why he should be an instant contender.
3) Dolph Ziggler: Every friggin’ week this guy delivers. This is rapidly turning into his year. If he keeps this up, the Rumble crowd in Philadelphia may adopt a “Ziggler wins or we riot” attitude. Seth Rollins also had another exemplary week too. New Day gets my #5 vote largely for their work on Main Event (they’re better with Kofi).
4) Seth Rollins
5) New Day

Kevin P
1. Dolph Ziggler
After capturing the Intercontinental Title for the fourth time at TLC, I was worried that Dolph would fall back into constant mid-card work. That was not the case however, as he was allowed to main event Super Smackdown Live in USA against the top consistent heel in the company, Seth Rollins. I fully expected another Seth win as he is about 21-0 against Dolph in singles competition. Instead, Dolph finally got the big victory over him, looking strong in the process.

2. Seth Rollins: The only reason he’s not number one is because he lost to Dolph on Smackdown. But, after suffering a Pay-Per-View loss to John Cena at TLC, he rebounded rather nicely by beating Cena in their Steel Cage rematch to main event Raw. Not only that, but he ended the show on a rather interesting note by shaking hands with Paul Heyman. Not sure where this will lead, but I’m interested for sure.
3. Dean Ambrose: Another guy who lost at TLC and looked rather dumb in the process, Dean Ambrose was able to bounce back by besting Bray Wyatt in the Boot Camp match on Tribute to the Troops. It wasn’t much, but it was a win that he really needed.
4. Kevin Owens
5. Roman Reigns

Jeremy Thomas
1) Brock Lesnar:
The champ is back, and he murdelated both Chris Jericho and John Cena. That’s enough to take #1 in a relatively slow week and this is the plus side of a largely-problematic situation; yes, Brock has been away for a long time and that’s left the champion off of shows, but his return was legitimately a huge moment.

2) Dolph Ziggler: Continues to look like a big deal while holding onto the Intercontinental Title. I have my concerns that this won’t last, but for now it looks like Dolph is keeping the heavy push and perhaps doing some IC title rebuilding.
3) Seth Rollins: If he’d beat Ziggler he’d be my #2, because even a Lesnar-assisted win over Cena is a credibility booster. Rollins continues to kill it and if he hasn’t grabbed the brass ring yet…well, he’s pretty close.
4) Kevin Owens
5) Adam Pearce

Wyatt Beougher
1) Brock Lesnar:
As others have mentioned, Lesnar is arguably the only wrestler on the WWE roster who can make shows feel important (senile codger Vince McMahon is also capable of this as well), and Lesnar did it in spades this week, destroying Chris Jericho and then eat-sleep-suplex-repeating John Cena to aid Seth Rollins in the main event.

2) Mil Muertes: Muertes’ booking was actually strong enough that he could’ve overcome Lesnar, if not for one small problem – since his debut in Lucha Underground, Muertes has been booked as a giant monster type heel, but seeing him paired off with Johnny Mundo, who was average-sized in the WWE at best and was only slightly smaller than Muertes, it took away some of his mystique. Nothing Muertes did himself, but I feel like the better booking would have put him in the first match with all of the sub-200-pounders and keep him looking like the biggest competitor in Lucha Underground by far (this would’ve also put Big Ryck in the battle royal with Mundo, who he has had issues with since week 1). Like I said, great performances for Muertes this week, but Lesnar’s booking kept him looking stronger and thus he edges out the top spot.
3) Seth Rollins: Rollins narrowly edges out Kevin Owens, who likely would’ve had this spot if he’d won the match with Neville instead of the double countout, but such is life. To his credit, Rollins won a cage match with Cena (which Bray Wyatt can tell you is next to impossible to do, even with help), allied himself with Paul Heyman, and he main evented Smackdown as well. That’s good enough for third this week.
4) Kevin Owens
5) Dolph Ziggler

THE WINNERS~!
* Special Mention…Dean Ambrose – 6 Votes

* Fifth Place…Mil Muertes – 13 Votes

* Fourth Place…Kevin Owens – 14 Votes

* Third Place…Seth Rollins – 17 Votes

Sure he had some help, but he did defeat John Cena on Raw…

* Second Place…Dolph Ziggler – 18 Votes

Ziggler continues to ride his wave of momentum and picked up a big win on the 800th Smackdown over Seth Rollins.

* And 411’s Wrestler of the Week is…
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Brock Lesnar – 19 Votes

The champ returned and destroyed both John Cena and Chris Jericho.

The Standings~!
Here are the standings after week thirty-seven…

1. Seth Rollins – 147pts.

2. Dolph Ziggler – 104 pts.

3. Dean Ambrose – 98pts.

4. AJ Styles – 74pts.

5. Roman Reigns – 71pts.

6. Rusev – 67pts.

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

9. Brock Lesnar – 58pts.
9. Eric Young – 58pts.
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Kazuchika Okada – 45pts

Kyle O’Reilly – 41pts.

Bobby Fish – 33pts.

Hiroshi Tanahashi – 30pts

Ricochet – 27pts

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

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

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

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

Kevin Owens – 18pts.
Jay Briscoe – 18pts.
Luke Harper – 18pts.
Charlotte – 18pts.
Cesaro – 18pts.
Adam Cole – 18pts.

AJ Lee – 16pts.
Batista – 16pts.

Sami Zayn – 15pts.
Alberto El Patron – 15pts.
Sting – 15pts.
Atlantis – 15pts.
Paige – 15pts.
YAMATO – 15pts
Takao Omori – 15pts
Sheamus – 15pts.
Johnny Gargano – 15pts.

Samoa Joe – 14pts.

Icarus – 13pts.
Bully Ray – 13pts.

Ryback – 12pts.
The Rock – 12pts.
Daniel Bryan – 12pts.
Chris Jericho – 12pts.
Michael Elgin – 12pts.
Austin Aries – 12pts.

Stardust (Cody Rhodes) – 11pts.

KUSHIDA – 10pts.

Johnny Mundo – 9pts.
CM Punk – 9pts.
Havok – 9pts.
Ultimo Guerrero – 9pts.
Triple H – 9pts.
Yujiro Takahashi – 9pts
Masayuki Kono – 9pts
Minoru Suzuki – 9pts
Tyson Kidd – 9pts.

Goldust – 8pts.

Alicia Fox – 7pts.
Devon – 7pts.

Shelton Benjamin – 6pts.
Gail Kim – 6pts.
Takao Omori – 6pts.
Jun Akiyama – 6pts.
Masato Tanaka – 6pts.
Takashi Sugiura – 6pts.
Suwama – 6pts.
Bad Luck Fale – 6pts
Biff Busick – 6pts.
Erick Rowan – 6pts.
Damien Sandow – 6pts.
Stephanie McMahon – 6pts.
Kalisto – 6pts.
Rich Swann – 6pts.
Finn Balor – 6pts.

Tomohiro Ishii – 4pts
Jeff Hardy – 4pts.

Mil Muertes – 3pts.
Taryn Terrell – 3pts.
Kenny Omega – 3pts.
Joe Doering – 3pts.
Hirooki Goto – 3pts.
Katsuyori Shibata – 3pts
T-Hawk – 3pts.
EITA – 3pts.
Mark Henry – 3pts.
Tyler Breeze – 3pts.
Adam Rose – 3pts.
Jack Swagger – 3pts.
Sin Cara – 3pts.

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

Matt Hardy Hardy – 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
Fenix – 1pt
Kaz Hayashi – 1pt
Shuji Kondo – 1pt