wrestling / Columns

411’s Wrestler of the Week – Rusev vs. Reigns For #1

February 24, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka

Welcome to YEAR TEN, WEEK 46 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…

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Larry Csonka
1) Roman Reigns:
Roman Reigns defeated Daniel Bryan in the main event of WWE Fastlane to secure his main event spot at WrestleMania. It was the best match on the card, and securing the WrestleMania event spot is easily the biggest accomplishment of the week.

2) Rusev: Rusev defeated John Cena at Fastlane to retain the US Title at Fastlane. Had the match been a little better, and had Rusev actually won clean, he would have been #1 with a rocket.
3) Tyson Kidd & Antonio Cesaro: Defeated the Usos in a fun match at Fastlane to win the WWE Tag Team Titles.
4) MVP
5) Kotaro Suzuki

Ryan Byers
1) Rusev:
In what is unquestionably the biggest win of his career to date, Rusev defeated John Cena via referee stoppage at Fast Lane in a manner that, while not clean, is a lot closer to clean than what I would normally expect for a Cena defeat. This is all likely a setup for Rusev dropping a fall back to Cena at Wrestlemania, but I don’t see that as a problem, because, if Rusev is still booked properly in the aftermath of WM, I think that this one victory at Fast Lane could still stand to elevate him substantially.

2) Roman Reigns: There was never much doubt, but Roman Reigns is now officially, 100% headed into the WWE Championship match at Wrestlemania. (I hesitate to call it the “main event,” because, even if it goes on last, it seems to me that the real drawing card on the show is HHH vs. Sting.) That’s an impressive enough accomplishment given the small number of people who have had shots at the big title in Wrestlemania history, but it’s even more impressive when you consider, in the grand scheme of things, just how new Reigns still is to the business of professional wrestling.
3) Tyson Kidd & Antonio Cesaro: What once seemed like a makeshift team for a random gauntlet match on Raw has now gelled very well and holds the WWE Tag Team Titles. Good on them. Also, Tyson/TJ came off like a million bucks after salvaging his mother-in-law’s house on Total Divas, which likely saved his marriage. This makes TJ’s contractor Art almost as good a tag partner as Cesaro.
4) Mitsuya Nagai & Takeshi Minamino
5) Kotaro Suzuki

Mike Hammerlock
1) Rusev:
I did not think they’d give Rusev an actual victory over Cena. He didn’t even have to cheat much to do it. One nut shot is nothing in the grand scheme of nefarious heel tactics or WWE overbooking. I thought they were going to have Rusev do something heinous which led to a DQ and demanded retribution on Cena’s part. Instead Rusev took Cena’s best punches and beat the guy. A win like this should close the door on Cena and send Rusev onto his next challenger. Won’t happen. Technically, this win was clean enough that Cena should have to lay something on the line to get a rematch.

2) Roman Reigns: Huge win, fine match, but it’s a massive problem when you get the biggest singles win of your career and the audience barely reacts. Daniel Bryan carried him, made him look like a tough SOB. Yet it didn’t take with the audience. It wasn’t the outright hostility that rained down on him in Philly, but ambivalence arguably is worse. So this was a big win that didn’t solve his problems.
3) Cesaro and Tyson Kidd: I have them just nudging out MVP (who won a #1 contender battle royal on Impact) for this one. Nifty tag match against the Usos. Love the chemistry between the two teams. This feud should roll forward to WrestleMania. No complaints about that.
4) MVP
5) Daniel Bryan

B. Denny
1) Roman Reigns:
He beat Daniel Bryan, clean, and he’s now on his way to WrestleMania. Where he will most likely beat Lesnar. Reigns looked very strong.

2) Rusev: Rusev crush. He did a couple of heel tactics to win but that’s okay, he’s a heel.
3) MVP: Won a gauntlet to get a shot at Lashley’s title.
4) Cesaro & Kidd
5) Samoa Joe

Mike Chin
1) Roman Reigns:
Reigns-Bryan was as about as good as anyone could reasonably expect–a four-star-ish match with plenty of false finishes and reasonable psychology. Reigns isn’t as over as WWE would like for him to be, but I’d actually argue that this match was a step in the right direction toward legitimizing him as a challenger to Brock Lesnar. I also appreciated that we didn’t have sports entertainment shenanigans to pave the way to the win.

2) Rusev: Sure, Rusev cheated to beat John Cena last night, but in the grand scheme of things, going toe to toe with Cena for twenty minutes and only needing one low blow to steal the win was a pretty noteworthy accomplishment. Cena will likely get his win back at ‘Mania, but in the mean time, Rusev has taken the next step toward main even heel status, particularly if Brock Lesnar doesn’t re-sign.
3) Randy Orton: This WrestleMania season’s biggest X-factor has returned and charted a course–he will, indeed, be a face, and all signs point toward him aiming to settle the score with (and hopefully put over) Seth Rollins at WrestleMania.
4) Tyson Kidd and Cesaro
5) MVP

Kevin Pantoja
1) Rusev: It was very tempting to put Roman Reigns at the number one spot. However, scoring a win over John Cena is too big to not place at the top of the list. It was one of the cleaner victories over Cena in history too. Yea he hit a low blow, but that was about it. And, in the record books, it goes down as a submission victory. I don’t think Cena has a submission loss on his record since like 2004. I fully expected more cheating or a DQ win, but I was pleasantly surprised. I like Rusev and, with the exception of his outdated gimmick, he’s grown on me. This was the biggest win of his career.

2) Roman Reigns: I fully expected it and it happened. Roman Reigns was supposed to go into Fast Lane as the unproven guy who seemingly didn’t belong in the WrestleMania main event, but come out looking like he belonged. Well, I guess I was partially right. On the one hand, he still isn’t ready for the biggest stage but he looked great last night. Not only did he beat Daniel Bryan cleanly, but he showed that he can go. The crowd was less enthusiastic than I would have liked, but that was more due to the crowd sucking the entire night in general. Roman Reigns is officially on a collision course with Brock Lesnar, whether he is ready or not. He took a pretty big step last night.
3) Tyson Kidd and Cesaro: Nothing on Fast Lane made me happier than seeing Tyson Kidd and Cesaro win the Tag Team Titles. When they were paired together, it seemed like it was going to be a random thrown together team that goes nowhere. Instead, Kidd has taken the character that he developed in NXT and on Total Divas, and helped this team along. Along with that personality that he brings, their in-ring work is what steals the show. I never expected them to win but I marked out at the result. I’d love to see this culminate in a tag team ladder match at WrestleMania, but I doubt it. Still, they deserve some praise.
4) MVP
5) Awesome Kong

Alex Crowder
1) Rusev:
I was surprised to see Rusev beat Cena before Cena beat him. The match was mostly clean too, and that makes it even more impressive. At this point, beating Cena or Lesnar is probably a bigger deal than being number 1 contender due to WWE’s booking. I did not expect that result and am pleasantly surprised. This is Rusev’s biggest victory to date; hopefully, it continues his momentum and is used to further him.

2) Roman Reigns: Daniel Bryan carried Reigns’ to his best match yet. The conclusion was never in doubt for me, and the match was good but not great. Reigns gets a big victory and heads to Wrestlemania against Lesnar. The crowd wasn’t that great all night, but they appeared a little apathetic for Reigns’ victory.
3) MVP: The MVP and Lashley story has built up nicely. MVP finally gets a chance for personal revenge on Lashley. MVP has done fantastic in TNA since arriving. MVP seemed poised to win the title last year before injuries, we will see how he does this time around.
4) Mitsuya Nagai & Takeshi Minamino
5) Kotaro Suzuki


THE WINNERS~!
* Special Mention…Kotaro Suzuki & Randy Orton – 3 Votes

* Fifth Place…Mitsuya Nagai & Takeshi Minamino – 4 Votes

* Fourth Place…MVP – 13 Votes

* Third Place…Tyson Kidd and Cesaro – 16 Votes

Your NEW WWE Tag Team Champions!

* Second Place…Roman Reigns – 31 Votes

Secured his main event spot at WrestleMania with his victory over Daniel Bryan at Fastlane.

* And 411’s Wrestler of the Week is…
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Rusev – 32 Votes

YOU CAN’T SEE HIM JOHN CENA!

The Standings~!
Here are the standings after week forty-six

1. Seth Rollins – 163pts.

2. Dolph Ziggler – 119pts.

3. Roman Reigns – 107pts.

4. AJ Styles – 104pts.

5. Dean Ambrose – 98pts.

6. Bobby Lashley – 87pts.

7. Rusev – 82pts.

8. Brock Lesnar – 70pts.

9. John Cena – 66pts.

10. Eric Young – 58pts.
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Kazuchika Okada – 54pts

Daniel Bryan – 52pts.

Hiroshi Tanahashi – 45pts

Kyle O’Reilly – 41pts.

Ricochet/Prince Puma – 40pts

BxB Hulk – 37pts

Bray Wyatt – 35pts

Bobby Fish – 33pts.

Kevin Owens – 27pts.
Cesaro – 27pts.

Adrian Neville – 26pts.

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

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

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

Randy Orton – 20pts.

Alberto El Patron – 19pts.

Finn Balor – 18pts.
Sami Zayn – 18pts.
Jay Briscoe – 18pts.
Luke Harper – 18pts.
Charlotte – 18pts.
Adam Cole – 18pts.
YAMATO – 18pts
Tyson Kidd – 18pts.

AJ Lee – 16pts.
Batista – 16pts.
Jeff Hardy – 16pts.
Tomohiro Ishii – 16pts

Sting – 15pts.
Atlantis – 15pts.
Paige – 15pts.
Takao Omori – 15pts
Sheamus – 15pts.
Johnny Gargano – 15pts.

Samoa Joe – 14pts.

Icarus – 13pts.
Bully Ray – 13pts.

Ryback – 12pts.
The Rock – 12pts.
Chris Jericho – 12pts.
Michael Elgin – 12pts.
Austin Aries – 12pts.
Shinsuke Nakamura – 12pts.

Stardust (Cody Rhodes) – 11pts.

KUSHIDA – 10pts.
Cage – 10pts

Johnny Mundo – 9pts.
CM Punk – 9pts.
Havok – 9pts.
Ultimo Guerrero – 9pts.
Triple H – 9pts.
Yuji Nagata – 9pts
Yujiro Takahashi – 9pts
Masayuki Kono – 9pts
Minoru Suzuki – 9pts
Taryn Terrell – 9pts.

Kota Ibushi – 8pts.
Goldust – 8pts.

Alicia Fox – 7pts.
Devon – 7pts.
Matt Hardy Hardy – 7pts.

Shelton Benjamin – 6pts.
MVP – 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.
Tomoaki Honma – 6pts

Shane Hatse – 3pts.
Mikey Nicolls – 3pts.
Go Shiozaki – 3pts.
King Cuerno – 3pts.
Mil Muertes – 3pts.
Kenny Omega – 3pts.
Cyber Kong – 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.
Sasha Banks – 3pts.
Mitsuya Nagai – 3pts.
Takeshi Minamino – 3pts.

The Miz – 2pt
Wesley Blake – 2pt
Bubby Murphy – 2pt
Naomichi Marufuji – 2pt
Dasher Hatfield – 2pts.
Mr. Touchdown – 2pts.

Kane – 1pt
Brie Bella – 1pt
Uhaa Nation – 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
HARASHIMA – 1pt
Kataro Suzuki – 1pt


* Voting began 4.15.14

* 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.


**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)