411’s Wrestler of The Week: Nakamura Battles Balor

Welcome to YEAR TWELVE, WEEK 20 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: AUGUST 15 – AUGUST 21

Larry Csonka
1) Adam Cole BAY BAY:
Adam Cole BAY BAY defeated Jay Lethal at the ROH Death Before Dishonor PPV, clean, to win the ROH Title. Cole ended Lethal’s great run as champion and did so in one of the best matches of the Summerslam weekend.

2) Finn Balor: While the reign only lasted one day due to injury, Finn Balor goes down in history as the first WWE Universal Champion, completing an awesome rise on the main roster.
3) AJ Styles and the Revival: Were the winners of the two best matches over the Summerslam weekend.
4) Shinsuke Nakamura
5) KUSHIDA

Kevin Pantoja
1) AJ Styles:
Sure there were championships won and history made but one thing stood out during the weekend and that was AJ Styles vs. John Cena. Their match at Money in the Bank was great but this one proved to be much better. It was a straight up one on one match that saw Styles pick up the biggest win of his young WWE career. He didn’t just beat John Cena, he beat him cleanly. That’s something only a handful of people (HBK, HHH, Owens, Khali, Batista and a few others) have been able to do. He became the second man to kick out of the super Attitude Adjustment. Cena looked at him as if to say “maybe you really are better than me”. Styles then won and continued his great 2016. That need to put the WWE Title on him before the year is over. He truly is the best wrestler on the planet in my eyes.

2) The Revival/Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa: I was going to only put the winners here but the week was so loaded that I had to find a spot for all four men. Outside of the Styles/Cena match, the weekend was stolen by the Revival and Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. The Revival had a tremendous series of matches with American Alpha earlier in the year and I enjoyed this match at TakeOver: Brooklyn more than any of those. Gargano and Ciampa had the crowd in the palm of their hands and it was their best performance in WWE. The Revival continued to make a case for best tag team in the world. They just get it. In a world where everyone is all “WRESTLING IS EVOLVING, WE WANT NEW”, they work 80’s style tag matches and it’s fucking awesome. This was the best tag team match I’ve seen all year long.
3) Finn Balor: History was made at SummerSlam. Raw debuted their new, ugly title, the WWE Universal Championship and Finn Balor defeated Seth Rollins to win it. The match was really good, but just shy of being great. Balor’s win was not only historic for winning the title, but for being the first man to win a top title in his first ever Pay-Per-View match. I don’t think he’s quite ready yet (still needs a fair amount of character work mainly), but kudos to the WWE for having the balls to actually pull the trigger on someone instead of drawing it out for too long. Balor is now the face of Raw just one month after his main roster debut.
4) Shinsuke Nakamura
5) KUSHIDA

Dylan Diot
1) Finn Balor:
On a loaded weekend of memorable moments and big achievements, to me Finn Balor stood out above everyone else. He made history by becoming the first ever WWE Universal Champion after beating Seth Rollins in a great match at SummerSlam. He was getting the biggest push off a debut since maybe Brock Lesnar in 2002 and it’s absolutely heartbreaking that he injured his shoulder in the match and will be out six months. Still, no one will ever be able to take this moment from him and he earned his spot as my wrestling of the week.

2) Adam Cole: Adam Cole ended the year plus long reign of Jay Lethal at Death Before Dishonor to become the NEW ROH Word Champion. Cole joins the short list of Austin Aries and Jay Briscoe of becoming a 2 time ROH World Champion and now looks like he’s set to meet archrival Kyle O’Reilly in another chapter of their epic feud.
3) Shinsuke Nakamura: Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Samoa Joe at NXT: Takeover to become the NEW NXT Champion. Much like Balor, Nakamura rose to the top quickly since his arrival in April and now the King of NXT, adding another championship to his resume and continues to be the dominant force of the brand.
4) KUSHIDA
5) AJ Styles

Jack McGee
1) Finn Balor:
The first ever WWE Universal Champion.

2) KUSHIDA: Fought through 19 kinds of bullshit to win the 2016 NJPW Super J-Cup.
3) Adam Cole: You’re new ROH champion!
4) Shinsuke Nakamura and Asuka
5) The Revival

Arnold Furious
1) KUSHIDA:
This week has to be one of the hardest weeks to look at for WOTW. So many wrestlers have won huge over the course of a massive SummerSlam weekend that’s it’s virtually impossible to figure out which achievement meant the most. So I ended up judging the achievements on how rare they are. Winning the Super J Cup has to be the rarest of achievements available this weekend, even more so than winning a newly minted ‘world’ title. There have only been six J Cup’s, ever. The fact that KUSHIDA won helped to make my decision for me because he’s been outstanding all year long. He’s great at everything whether that’s mat work, aerial assaults or striking. He’s the best.

2) Finn Balor: WWE’s Universal title has received a lot of scorn already, considering they just invented a ‘world’ title. At least this one wasn’t handed over to Seth Rollins (Triple H substitute, user of the Pedigree) in lieu of a tournament like the last brand split championship. Despite the belt having no prestige and looking hideous Balor is a worthy champion, having earned WWE’s respect with his hard work in NXT. The match with Rollins wasn’t a show stealer but it was pretty good.
3) AJ Styles: How awesome a weekend has it been that AJ has a ****3/4 match with John Cena, beats the WWE’s most iconic current superstar, and only comes in 3rd on WOTW? I could make an argument for a lot of other guys in this spot too. Nakamura won the NXT title, Charlotte won the women’s title, Adam Cole won the ROH title, the Young Bucks defended their belts and challenged up a division in NJPW shattering tradition and Tim Thatcher defended his belt twice in EVOLVE. No matter how you slice it I’m sure all those guys would trade in their achievements this weekend for a clean pinfall win over John Cena. That’s the kind of thing that makes you. Kudos to WWE for realizing what they have with Styles.
4) Charlotte
5) Shinsuke Nakamura

Rob Stewart
1) Adam Cole:
So this was a HUGE week, and far too many deserving talents are going to get left off here. I feel bad we can’t hold some of these folks over for one of the year’s quieter weeks. But it is what it is. I have to give Cole props for ending Jay Lethal’s amazing Ring of Honor championship reign. He had really taken that belt and made it seem untouchable until Cole beat him at RoH’s most recent PPV offering. Can’t deny the magnitude of Cole’s being able to end that reign.

2) Finn Balor: It is bittersweet because he only held the belt for less than 24 hours, but Finn was still the inaugural WWE Universal Champion. He had a damn good match with Seth Rollins at SummerSlam to win the belt and give The Demon his first main roster WWE match.
3) Shinsuke Nakamura: For the third spot, we go with a third new primary title champion. Nakamura took down Samoa Joe at Takeover Brooklyn 2.
4) KUSHIDA
5) Charlotte

Wyatt Beougher
1) Shinsuke Nakamura:
Nakamura won his first major title in the United States at the biggest Takeover special to date, and cemented himself as NXT’s current ace. I would entertain an argument for either Finn Balor or Dean Ambrose taking the top spot considering they won or retained world titles on the main roster show, but Nakamura’s win felt like the biggest win of the week for me.

2) The Revival: Again, there were arguably bigger tag matches last week, but not only did the Revival retain their NXT tag team championships in one of the best matches of the week, it was also something of a coming out party for them, as I’ve seen a lot more fans talking about how great they are since Takeover: Back to Brooklyn that I did prior to that. To those fans, I say: welcome to the bandwagon, there is plenty of room for all of you.
3) Finn Balor: I flirted with giving Balor the top spot just for the simple fact that he’s out for the next six months, but that felt too much like accepting that he would end up the next Daniel Bryan, and I just can’t do that at this point. Instead, I’ll say he had an awesome match at Summerfest and wish him a speedy recovery.
4) Brock Lesnar
5) Adam Cole (BAY BAY)

Mitch Nickelson
1) Finn Balor:
It’s sad to see Finn Balor have to go on the injured list one day after being crowned the inaugural WWE Universal Champion, but I guess that’s life. His performance against Seth Rollins was incredible, especially after rewatching the moments after the Powerbomb into the barricade in which he popped his own shoulder back into place. He will be missed over the next 6 months, but at least he can glory in the fact this his name will forever be first in the lineage of this new title.

2) Shinsuke Nakamura: Defeating Samoa Joe at the NXT Brooklyn event last Saturday, Shinsuke Nakamura captured his first bit of WWE gold. He also legit kicked Joe’s jaw out of socket during the process. That injury probably should be a knock against him but then I go and remember that awesome intro with the violin and I’m ready to forgive him again. Nakamura is arguably the most over guy not only on his brand but in all of WWE right now – I’m looking forward to his reign.
3) Charlotte: It was odd for Charlotte to drop the WWE Women’s Champion on Raw a few weeks back only to win it again at SummerSlam but it least it was a little unpredictable. She’s dominated WWE’s women’s title scene for 2016 and it looks like that domination will continue.
4) Dean Ambrose
5) KUSHIDA

THE WINNERS~!
* Special Mention…Charlotte – 5 Votes

* Fifth Place…The Revival & AJ Styles – 12 Votes

* Fourth Place…KUSHIDA – 16 Votes

* Third Place…Adam Cole BAY BAY – 18 Votes

Your NEW ROH Champion!

* Second Place…Shinsuke Nakamura – 22 Votes

Your NEW NXT Champion!

* And 411’s Wrestler of the Week is…

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Finn Balor – 32 Votes

Became the first ever WWE Universal champion at Summerslam.

The Standings
Here are the standings after week 20…

* Prince Puma/Ricochet – 54pts

* AJ Styles – 49pts

* Lashley – 45pts

* Dean Ambrose – 42pts

* Rey Mysterio Jr. – 36pts
* Dragon Azteca Jr. – 36pts

* The Monster Matanza Cueto – 33pts
* Will Ospreay – 33pts
* Sexy Star – 33pts

* Tetsuya Naito – 30pts
* Finn Balor – 30pts

* Johnny Mundo – 27pts

* Cage – 24 pts
* Roman Reigns – 24pts
* Jack Evans – 24pts
* PJ Black – 24 pts

* Jay Lethal – 21pts
* Samoa Joe – 21pts

* Dash – 18pts
* Dawson – 18pts

* The Miz – 16pts

* Kenny Omega – 15pts
* Seth Rollins – 15pts
* Broken Matt Hardy – 15pts
* Drew Galloway – 15pts
* Johnny Gargano – 15pts
* KUSHIDA – 15pts

* Sami Zayn – 13pts

* Shinsuke Nakamura – 12pts
* Sasha Banks – 12pts
* Son of Havoc – 12pts
* Michael Elgin -12pts
* Kevin Owens – 12pts
* Bobby Fish – 12pts
* Daniels – 12pts
* Kazarian – 12pts
* Mike Bennett – 12pts
* Eddie Edwards – 12pts
* Tomohiro Ishii – 12pts

* Dolph Ziggler – 10pts
* Kota Ibushi – 10pts
* Kazuchika Okada – 10pts

* Adam Cole – 9pts
* Tommaso Ciampa – 9pts
* Mil Muertes – 9pts
* Kyle O’Reilly – 9pts
* SANADA – 9pts
* Katsuyori Shibata – 9pts

* Rusev – 7pts

* Ethan Carter III – 6pts
* Fenix – 6pts
* Pentagon Jr – 6pts
* Mariposa – 6pts
* Yuji Nagata – 6pts
* Takashi Sugiura – 6pts
* Matt Riddle – 6pts

* Aerostar – 3pts
* The Mack – 3pts
* Cesaro – 3pts
* Dana Brooke – 3pts
* Xavier Woods – 3pts
* Kofi Kingston – 3pts
* Big E – 3pts
* Evie – 3pts
* Heidi Lovelace – 3pts
* Dustin (Chuck Taylor) – 3pts
* Cedric Alexander – 3pts
* YAMATO – 3pts
* Zack Sabre Jr – 3pts
* James Storm – 3pts

* Matt Sydal – 2pts

* Chavo Guerrero – 1pt
* Jeff Hardy – 1pt
* Abyss – 1pt
* Crazy Steve – 1pt
* Charlotte – 1pt
* Bayley – 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
* Satoshi Kojima – 1pt
* Hiroyoshi Tenzan – 1pt
* Taiji Ishimori – 1pt
* Hiroshi Tanahashi – 1pt

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* 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.

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**PREVIOUS WINNERS**
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)