411’s Wrestler of The Week: Styles Battles Perkins

Welcome to YEAR TWELVE, WEEK 21 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 22 – AUGUST 28

Larry Csonka
1) Aerostar & Drago:
TripleMania was largely a shit show, but the one highlights was the tag team title match. Aerostar & Drago defeated Champions Jack Evans & Angelico, Matt Cross & Paul London and Garza Jr & El Hijo del Fantasma in an extremely fun match. It was a tremendous athletic display and the only thing that I would recommend from that show.

2) Rich Swann, Zack Sabre Jr, TJ Perkins: The Cruiserweight Classic was a tremendous show last week, and Rich Swann, Zack Sabre Jr, TJ Perkins were your winners. I try to avoid things like this, but I truly feel that all three men deserve equal recognition for their efforts last week with great but very different performances.
3) The Miz: Cut a hell of a promo last week and certainly got the attention of the wrestling world.
4) AJ Styles
5) Ethan Carter III

Kevin Pantoja
1) AJ Styles:
I’d say my favorite match of the week was a toss up between the ones won by my first and second choice. I went with AJ Styles because of what his win meant. Styles has been great all year but his biggest moment so far came at SummerSlam when he defeated John Cena, cleanly, in a great match. To follow it up on Smackdown, Styles bragged and got into it with Dolph Ziggler. It led to a main event match where, if Ziggler won, he’d face Styles and Dean Ambrose in a triple threat match at Backlash for the WWE Championship. Styles won an awesome match and got right in Dean’s face, setting the stage for what should be a top notch PPV main event for Smackdown.

2) TJ Perkins: The second round of the Cruiserweight Classic wrapped up this week with one of, if not the single best, episode yet. They saved the best for last as TJ Perkins and Johnny Gargano had a great match that saw a bit of an upset. A lot of people figured Gargano would make it far since he’s been heavily featured on NXT in recent months. Instead, TJ Perkins got the win with a knee bar. I loved the result because Perkins has a load of potential and honestly, probably should win since Kota Ibushi has yet to sign a deal. Make Perkins the cocky heel to lead the division on Raw. The dude is immensely talented and I’m sure we’ll see it again when he faces Rich Swann in the quarterfinals.
3) Bayley: It finally happened. After waiting for months and months and getting teased at Battleground, Bayley officially got called up to the main roster. With Sasha Banks on the shelf and the Raw women’s divisions severely lacking, she showed up and looks to be in line as Charlotte’s next challenger for the Women’s Title. She challenged Charlotte but got Dana Brooke instead, winning a ho hum match. Bayley herself has said that she wants a slow build to the title, but considering we had to sit through a boring 309 day reign for Charlotte already, get the title on Bayley as soon as humanely possible.
4) The Miz
5) American Alpha

Mike Chin
1) AJ Styles:
Followed up on a potential WWE career making performance at SummerSlam by arriving as number one contender and beating Dolph Ziggler in a great main event on Smackdown.

2) Bayley: Bayley has arrived on the main roster for real, and finds herself immediately slotted into the title picture.
3) Seth Rollins: Rollins finds himself right back into top contendership for the Universal Title after beating Sami Zayn in a very good match on Raw.
4) Ethan Carter III
5) Zack Sabre Jr.

Arnold Furious
1) Shuji Ishikawa:
DDT’s Peter Pan show was the biggest of the weekend in Japan, on what was clearly a slow weekend compared to some of the massive ones recently. Big Shuji unseated incumbent KO-D Openweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita in a strong main event. Ishikawa has won the title three times before but all those reigns were relatively short lived. It’ll be interesting to see how this run pans out for him. Nobody has had a long run with the title since HARASHIMA’s big 2013-2015 split run. There isn’t a shortage of challengers.

2) Daisuke Sasaki & Tetsuya Endo: These two won a fantastic tag match against Dick Togo & Mike Bailey on the Peter Pan show. It was a 21 minute showstealer that clocked in at around ****1/2. By virtue of winning the best match I’ve seen all week I’ve popped them in the number two slot.
3) Marty Scurll: Successfully retained his PROGRESS World title against Mark Andrews in London at the weekend. It was the big go-home show before PROGRESS’ biggest show of the year in Brixton and Scurll won the headline match.
4) TJ Perkins
5) Soma Takao

Jack McGee
1) Zack Sabre Jr, TJ Perkins and Rich Swann:
The Cruiserweight Classic guys take the top spot, putting on the show of the week with some great and different performers

2) Aerostar & Drago: The new AAA tag team champions.
3) Johnny Mundo: Defeated Pentagon Jr to become the new Latin American Heavyweight champion.
4) AJ Styles
5) Shuji Ishikawa

Rob Stewart
1) AJ Styles:
Styles fended off the challenge of Dolph Ziggler on this last week’s edition of Smackdown Live to ensure a singles match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Dean Ambrose at Backlash. Styles is on an absolute roll at the moment, and now he’s set up for a great shot at being the central figure of WWE’s blue brand.

2) Johnny Mundo: At AAA TripleMania, Mundo defeated Pentagon Jr to become the new Latin American Heavyweight champion using the same underhanded tactics he had mastered in the latter half of Lucha Underground season 2. And damn has TripleMania whetted my appetite for Lucha Underground to start back up. Speaking of which…
3) Rey Mysterio, Dragon Azteca Jr, and Prince Puma: No titles were at stake in this one, but the former LU Trios Champions partnered up again to defeat the team of Matanza Cueto, Mil Muertes, and Marty The Moth. Marty was the noticeable weak link of the rudos team (and he ate the pin), but Muertes and Matanza are forces of nature, so any win over them is noteworthy.
4) Zack Sabre Jr
5) Ethan Carter III

Robert S. Leighty Jr
1) AJ Styles:
Tremendous match with Ziggler and now AJ is the #1 contender for Ambrose’s WWE Title. Many were upset how AJ seemed to be misused early in his WWE run, but now the time seems right for him to be the top guy on the Blue Brand.

2) Bayley: Finally made her main roster debut and is immediately the top threat to Charlotte on RAW.
3) Ethan Carter III: Gets a World Title Shot at Bound for Glory.
4) Seth Rollins
5) Mike Bennett

Wyatt Beougher
1) Aerostar & Drago:
The LU standouts were the winners of the only real bright spot on a pretty lackluster Triplemania pay-per-view, and they picked up the AAA tag team titles in the process. In a week without a ton of high-profile stuff going on, that’s good enough for first for me.

2) ECIII/Mike Bennett: Both guys earned title shots on IMPACT last week, and with the run that Lashley’s been on lately, I’m excited for both matches.
3) Johnny Mundo: While I could complain until I’m blue in the face about how Pentagon Jr is utilized so much better in LU than in AAA, I’ll still give Mundo credit for winning the Latin American Heavyweight Title. The match was far more overbooked than either man actually needed, but it never quite devolved into a Planet Jarrett-era TNA title match, so I think third is a pretty reasonable spot for Mundo.
4) Seth Rollins
5) Allie

THE WINNERS~!
* Special Mention…Johnny Mundo – 10 Votes

* Fifth Place…Ethan Carter III & Bayley – 11 Votes

* Fourth Place…Zack Sabre Jr – 12 Votes

* Third Place…Aerostar & Drago – 14 Votes

Your NEW AAA tag team champions!

* Second Place…TJ Perkins – 15 Votes

Defeated Johnny Gargano in the main event of last week’s Cruiserweight Classic.

* And 411’s Wrestler of the Week is…

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AJ Styles – 24 Votes

Defeated Dolph Ziggler in a great match on Smackdown to become the #1 contender for the WWE Title.

The Standings
Here are the standings after week 21…

* AJ Styles – 61pts

* Prince Puma/Ricochet – 54pts

* 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 – 28pts

* 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
* TJ Perkins – 12pts
* Aerostar – 12pts

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

* Adam Cole – 9pts
* Tommaso Ciampa – 9pts
* Mil Muertes – 9pts
* Drago – 9pts
* Kyle O’Reilly – 9pts
* SANADA – 9pts
* Katsuyori Shibata – 9pts
* Zack Sabre Jr – 9pts
* Ethan Carter III – 9pts

* Rusev – 7pts

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

* Bayley – 4pts

* 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
* James Storm – 3pts

* Matt Sydal – 2pts

* Chavo Guerrero – 1pt
* Jeff Hardy – 1pt
* Abyss – 1pt
* Crazy Steve – 1pt
* Charlotte – 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)