wrestling / Columns
411’s Wrestler of The Week: Matanza Battles The Addiction
Welcome to YEAR TWELVE, WEEK SIX 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: May 9 – May 15
Larry Csonka
1) The Monster Matanza Cueto:
The Monster Matanza Cueto defeated Mil Muertes is GRAVER Consequences on last week’s Lucha Underground. Not only did The Monster Matanza Cueto defend his title, but he took out his top foe (for now) by doing so.
2) The Addiction: In a surprise result to many, The Addiction defeated War Machine to become the new Ring of Honor tag team champions. I am personally not a huge fan of the move, but it was one of the biggest results of the week.
3) Dragon Azteca Jr., Prince Puma and Rey Mysterio Jr: Still your reigning and defending Lucha Underground Trios champions, successfully defending the titles on last week’s show.
4) Ethan Carter III
5) Sami Zayn
Kevin Pantoja
1) Matanza Cueto:
A relatively slow week is headlined by a good episode of Lucha Underground. A few weeks ago, the “Monster” Matanza Cueto and Mil Muertes went to war and ended in a no contest after falling through the roof of Dario Cueto’s office. This week, they met in “Graver Consequences”, which was Lucha Underground’s second ever casket match, only with more caskets and the Lucha Underground Championship being on the line this time. These two had a battle once again, with some of the coolest and most brutal casket match spots I’ve ever seen. Matanza was able to retain in a really good match, sending back the only challenge that has actually looked like a threat in his career so far.
2) Dragon Azteca Jr., Prince Puma and Rey Mysterio Jr.: The Lucha Underground Trios Champions once again impressed this week. In their first title defense, Dragon Azteca Jr., Prince Puma and Rey Mysterio Jr. successfully sent back the challenge of two-thirds of the former champions. Due to the injury to Angelico, Dario Cueto gave Ivelisse and Son of Havoc a new partner in Johnny Mundo. The new trio didn’t work well together, allowing Azteca, Puma and Mysterio to do their thing and retain the belts. I love the chemistry between the champions and seeing Mysterio tag Puma to get the finish in a bit of a passing of the torch moment was great.
3) The Addiction: After a piece of shit PPV ending, I’m mostly done following ROH outside of the occasional match. Still, in a slow news week, one of the bigger stories was the Tag Team Title change. The Addiction (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian) won back the belts from War Machine at a show in Dearborn, Michigan. I am confused by the change. The Addiction haven’t really been doing too much of note, while War Machine was really picking up steam, especially after beating the Briscoes in the best match at Global Wars. Oh well, Daniels and Kazarian are champions again.
4) Dana Brooke
5) Drew Galloway
Wyatt Beougher
1) The Monster Matanza Cueto:
While Mil Muertes dropped to 0-2 in Grave(r) Consequences matches, it’s more a testament to his opponents than a knock on Mil. And make no mistake, Graver Consequences failed to meet the standard set by the original match, but it also lacked a great deal of the storytelling groundwork leading up to it and it was missing one of the most dynamic performers in wrestling today (Fenix). Again, though, that wasn’t a bad thing, as the match went so far in the other direction story-wise that each match stands on its own as its own entity (contrast that with the innumerable Money in the Bank matches, the storylines of which are seldom deeper than “set up spot A”, “set up spot B”, etc, etc, until someone grabs the briefcase). Graver Consequences was a good, old-fashioned kaiju fight, LU’s King Kong vs. Godzilla. Matanza took the top spot this week by virtue of winning, but Mil also placed on my list by virtue of being INSANELY over during the match and putting on arguably the best performance of his tenure in LU. That speaks to how well Matanza has been built, though, when the promotion’s big bad from season one can get a huge face reaction without any kind of redemption, simply because he’s going against the new big bad. This wasn’t a case of people cheering Mil because they don’t want to see Matanza; it was legitimate face pops for a guy who spent the vast majority of Lucha Underground’s history being the biggest rudo on the show.
2) Dana Brooke: I probably should have given this to Lucha Underground’s trios champions for another solid defense, but I was a huge Dana Brooke detractor when she debuted in NXT and I figured I’d use this spot to highlight her improvement. Sure, she’s still closer to Eva Marie in the ring than Sasha Banks, but her character work has improved exponentially, and her debut actually made her feel like a solid addition to the burgeoning main roster Women’s division. Dana had an impactful debut on RAW and then won her debut match on Smackdown, and while I hate that Becky and Sasha are either being jobbed out or not used at all, I’ll give Dana props for her big week.
3) The Decay: TNA’s tag team champions retained their titles against two of the bigger stars in TNA right now, and on top of that, they’re actually arguably the brightest spot in TNA at the moment, as my colleague Dino Zee pointed out in a fantastic column over the weekend.
4) The Addiction
5) Mil Muertes
Mike Chin
1) The Monster Matanza Cueto:
The LU champ picked up a big win in the main event of this week’s Lucha Underground show, defeating rival Mil Muertes.
2) EC3: Carter won the Impact main event, going over Rockstar Spud in a cage match.
3) Dana Brooke: Brooke made her main roster debut on Raw to partner up with Emma, and went on to win her first match on the main stage opposite Becky Lynch on Smackdown.
4) Sami Zayn
5) Big Cass
Bradley Hargett
1) The Addiction:
Daniels and Kaz are pure gold. At one point in time they were my absolute favorite tag team in all of wrestling. They are two guys who are not only fantastic wrestlers, but also ooze charisma. I hope that I get to see the match where they defeated War Machine for the ROH tag titles.
2) Rey Mysterio Jr, Dragon Azteca Jr and Prince Puma: I am so glad that I finally jumped on the Lucha Underground train, and matches like the Trios Championship match from the past episode are a key reason why. Great work from both teams. Pure fun.
3) Drew Galloway: I’ve had a hard time buying Galloway as ‘the guy’ since I started watching TNA again. I’m coming to learn that is because of how he was treated in WWE. He’s growing on me in his role, and I love his finisher (The Claymore) I hope that he’s given another chance in NXT/WWE again one day and given the shot to be himself like he’s been allowed in TNA and on the indies. That being said, the match with Eli Drake was pretty good, and I believe Galloway makes the most sense as the flag bearer for the company.
4) EC3
5) Joey Ryan
Mitch Nickelson
The Monster Matanza Cueto:
Four caskets lined the ring as the Lucha Underground Champion, Matanza, faced off against the former champ, Mil Muertes. The two hosses kept beef slamming each other on top of the caskets but it was Dario’s dear brother that was victorious. Defeating a behemoth like Mil is an impressive milestone in the reign of Matanza.
2) EC3: He’s on a pursuit to get another shot against the only man to ever pin him, Mike Bennet. Last week, he had to jump through the hoop of Rockstar Spud inside Six Sides of Steel. Carter was victorious after a press slam against the man that Josh Matthews bafflingly continues to call a “ring rat.”
3) Dana Brooke: The head patting reign of terror could not be contained to merely NXT! Dana joined Emma on the main roster last week when she jumped Becky Lynch during a backstage interview on Raw. Then, she racked up a win in her first main roster match on SmackDown (against Lynch). Playtime is officially over.
4) FaBreeze (Fandango & Tyler Breeze)
5) The Addiction
Jack McGee
1) The Monster Matanza Cueto:
Ended both Catrina and Muertes (for now) and retained the Lucha Underground title in “graver consequences.”
2) The Addiction: Defeated War Machine to win the ROH Tag Team Titles. The show is available OnDemand on the ROH site.
3) Ethan Carter III: Continues to be the constant bright spot on Impact for me.
4) Rey Mysterio Jr, Dragon Azteca Jr and Prince Puma
5) Drew Galloway
Rob Stewart
1) The Monster Matanza Cueto:
Graver Consequences was not as great as the original Grave Consequences match, but it was still highly entertaining, and the image of Mil Muertes punching through the lid of a coffin to fight off Matanza is powerful. But in the end, the reigning champion was able to decisively put away the former titleholder to solidify his control over the Lucha Underground scene. The Monster has been having a great tear since his debut, but this match was his statement win.
2) Sami Zayn: Zayn pinned the Intercontinental champion The Miz to earn a spot in the upcoming Intercontinental Fatal 4-Way match at Extreme Rules. His having to do so was a fair decision to make given his clean loss to Kevin Owens at Payback, and it’s good to see Sami continuing to hang around the title scene.
3) Rey Mysterio, Prince Puma, Dragon Azteca Jr: These three continue to be an absolute treat to watch in Lucha Underground, and they retained their Trios Championship over two-thirds of the former champs (and Johnny Mundo).
4) The Addiction
5) Drew Galloway
THE WINNERS~!
* Special Mention…Sami Zayn – 7 Votes
* Fifth Place…Dana Brooke – 12 Votes
* Fourth Place…Ethan Carter III – 13 Votes
* Third Place…Dragon Azteca Jr., Prince Puma and Rey Mysterio Jr – 16 Votes
Retained the Lucha Underground trios titles.
* Second Place…The Addiction (Daniels and Kazarian) – 21 Votes
Your NEW ROH Tag Team Champions!
* And 411’s Wrestler of the Week is…
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The Monster Matanza Cueto – 35 Votes
Still the reigning and defending Lucha Underground Champion!
The Standings
Here are the standings after week SIX…
* AJ Styles – 36pts
* Dragon Azteca Jr. – 36pts
* Prince Puma – 33pts
* Rey Mysterio Jr. – 30pts
* Tetsuya Naito – 24pts
* The Monster Matanza Cueto – 18pts
* Samoa Joe – 15pts
* Sexy Star – 15pts
* Roman Reigns – 12pts
* Bobby Fish – 12pts
* Daniels – 12pts
* Kazarian – 12pts
* Kevin Owens – 9pts
* SANADA – 9pts
* KUSHIDA – 9pts
* Ethan Carter III – 6pts
* Cage – 6pts
* Fenix – 6pts
* Jack Evans – 6pts
* PJ Black – 6pts
* Will Ospreay – 6pts
* Yuji Nagata – 6pts
* Aerostar – 3pts
* Cesaro – 3pts
* Dana Brooke – 3pts
* Mike Bennett – 3pts
* Lashley – 3pts
* Abyss – 1pt
* Crazy Steve – 1pt
* Sami Zayn – 1pt
* Rusev – 1pt
* Big Cass – 1pt
* Enzo Amore – 1pt
* Karl Anderson – 1pt
* Doc Gallows – 1pt
* The Miz – 1pt
* Rocky Romero – 1pt
* Trent Barreta – 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)
