wrestling / Columns
411’s Wrestler of the Week: Year 10, Week 23 – Adrian Neville & Hideo Itami Battle For The Top Spot
Welcome to YEAR TEN, WEEK 23 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) Caleb Konley:
Caleb Konley defeated Open the Freedom Gate Champion Ricochet in a non-title match at EVOLVE 34, and then followed up that huge victory by winning the Open The United Gate tag team titles the next night with Anthony Nese. Konley has been having a great year, and it finally climaxed over the weekend.
2) Adrian Neville: Adrian Neville defeated Tyson Kidd, Sami Zayn and Tyler Breeze at NXT Takeover: Fatal Four-Way to retain the NXT Title. It was a very good match, that also showed a new side of Neville as he resorted to dishonorable actions to retain the title.
3) Charlotte: Defeated Bayley at NXT Takeover: Fatal Four-Way to retain the NXT Women’s Title.
4) Lucha Dragons (Kalisto and Sin Cara)
5) Matt and Jeff Hardy
justin watry
1) Adrian Neville
Brought a fun spark to WWE Raw on Monday night. Please do NOT make it a weekly thing though! Please keep NXT stars on NXT and not the main roster. Pretty please with a cherry on top? I wrote about that subject on Tuesday last week (on another website). Adrian Neville followed that up with a very entertaining fatal four-way victory on NXT Takeover II to retain his NXT Title.
2) Hideo Itami: I knew nothing about Kenta until he signed with WWE, so the name change means nothing to me. Plus, with all due respect to Chris Jericho and Bray Wyatt, this past week was all about the NXT stars shining. That included Hideo Itami taking out The Ascension. Going forward – never let him deliver a lengthy promo again, and things will be great.
3) Baron Corbin: Very cool debut match on NXT Thursday night and impressive finisher as well.
4) Kalisto
5) Sin Cara
Wyatt Beougher
1) Adrian Neville
This was easily the best title defense of Neville’s reign, and one of the better fatal four-way matches we’ve seen in the WWE in quite some time. (For proof, compare/contrast the Takeover II main event to the Battleground 2014 main event – this one defecates all over that stale, predictable mess.) And while it would be unfair to short Tyson Kidd, Tyler Breeze, and especially Sami Zayn for their roles in the match being so good, the fact remains that the star was Neville. It doesn’t hurt that he was also the star of the tag team match that the foursome had on RAW, either.
2) Charlotte: When Charlotte debuted in NXT, it looked like the wrestling gene had skipped yet another of the Nature Boy’s kids. However, unlike her elder half brother David, Charlotte quickly figured it out and appears to have all of the tools to become a female version of her father. I’m not sure the WWE’s booking will ever allow her to become that on a stage larger than NXT, but all the tools are there, and her match with Bayley was an emotional roller coaster the likes of which I haven’t experienced in quite some time.
3) KENTA/Hideo Itami: Like many other fans, I wasn’t sure how the WWE were going to handle the introduction of KENTA. All they did was give him a reasonable explanation for the name change, put him over as the huge acquisition that he is, and then have him take out the former tag team champions, who had been billed as the toughest, most unbeatable guys on the roster. Not a bad first night’s work.
4) Kengo Mashimo
5) ECIII
Alex Crowder
1) Adrian Neville
This man does incredible things in the ring and the name the man gravity forgot is very fitting. I’m more of a Zayn guy, but Neville is always entertaining. Every man in the match did well, but Neville really shined this week on both a bad Raw and a good NXT event. Neville really caught my eyes this week and judging from the other entries, he impressed everyone else too.
2) Hideo Itami: I’ll admit I don’t like the name change, but they’ve done far worse with name changes. The Ascension have been completely unstoppable in NXT, and I wouldn’t even be surprised if they randomly show up and squash the Usos. Regardless, he took out both of them with relative ease. I was afraid they wouldn’t use him correctly, but if there going push him hard and let him tear things up, NXT will be better for it.
3) Bray Wyatt: Maybe, this match surprised me because my expectations were extremely low, but I thought this was a pretty strong win for Wyatt. I’m glad someone gave him a decent victory. This feud disappointed me throughout, but for one night I enjoyed it. Good work from both Jericho and Wyatt and at least they had one decent, good match together.
4) Drew Galloway
5) ECIII
Mike Chin
1) Adrian Neville
Adrian Neville was the star of a show-stealing tag match on Raw, and followed it up by more than carrying his weight in the Takeover II main event, retaining his strap, and adding a bit of intrigue with hints of a heel turn.
2) Chris Jericho: He may be on his way back of WWE, but the past week breathed new life into Y2J’s latest run with a top-of-the-cage spot on Raw that had everyone talking, plus he won the fall in the main event tag match on Smackdown.
3) Charlotte: Charlotte came out of Takeover II looking like a star. Her match with Bayley was easily the second best of the night, and Charlotte truly looks a cut above the rest of the women in developmental.
4) Hideo Itami
5) John Cena
Dylan Diot
1) Adrian Neville
Adrian Neville goes 3 for 3 on NXT Special main events, defeating Sami Zayn, Tyler Breeze, and Tyson Kidd at NXT Takeover II to retain the NXT Championship. The match lived up to the high expectations going in and combine that with Neville’s first Monday Night Raw win and it turned out to be one hell of a week for him.
2) Kalisto and Sin Cara: Kalisto and Sin Cara were the duo that finally ended the reign of the Ascension at NXT Takeover II to become the NEW NXT Tag Team Champions. It’s a huge victory over a team that has dominated the tag division on NXT and it’s going to be exciting to see how these two gel as a unit over the next several months.
3) Charlotte: Charlotte defeated Bayley to retain the NXT Women’s Championship at NXT Takeover II. Charlotte continues to shine on the big stage in NXT and continues to show she has the brightest potential for a Diva we have seen in some time.
4) Hideo Itami
5) Premier Athlete Brand (Tony Nese and Caleb Konley)
Jeremy Thomas
1) Adrian Neville
Retained the NXT Title at Takeover: Fatal Four-Way and came out looking fantastic during the NXT tag team match on Raw. That’s definitely enough to win in a week that was relatively quiet outside of the NXT events.
2) Hideo Itami: KENTA came out and revealed his official WWE ring name, which is a perfectly good name and won’t take a thing away from him. (Remember, Daniel Bryan wasn’t Bryan Danielson’s indy name either.) And looked like the star WWE clearly intends him to be.
3) Charlotte: Retained the NXT Women’s Title in a great match against Bayley.
4) Kalisto and Sin Cara
5) The Hardys
Robert S. Leighty Jr
1) Kalisto and Sin Cara
I always put a lot of importance on winning titles and since NXT is now an integral part of WWE programming, their tag titles carry more weight. Kaslisto and Sin Cara end the reign of The Ascension and thus get my number 1 spot.
2) Adrian Neville: The reigning NXT Champ successfully defended his title in a very good match and got a chance to shine on a bigger stage in the tag match on RAW.
3) The Hardys: Win their first match in the TNA Tag Title series and opted for a ladder match and we as the fans should be the real winners with that one.
4) Hideo Itami
5) Chris Jericho
THE WINNERS~!
Defeated Bayley to retain her NXT Women’s Title.
Made his big debut at NXT Takeover: Fatal Four-Way, and took out the former tag team champions…
Adrian Neville – 38 Votes
Still your reigning and defending NXT Champion!
Year-End Standings~!
And here are the standings after week twenty-three…
Seth Rollins – 84pts.
AJ Styles – 74pts.
Roman Reigns – 71pts.
Eric Young – 58pts.
Bobby Lashley – 51pts.
Dean Ambrose – 47pts.
John Cena – 39pts.
Rusev – 33pts.
Kazuchika Okada – 30pts
Ricochet – 27pts
Brock Lesnar – 27pts.
Kyle O’Reilly – 27pts.
Hideo Itami – 24pts.
Bad News Barrett – 21pts.
Charlotte – 18pts.
Bobby Fish – 18pts.
Cesaro – 18pts.
Bray Wyatt – 18pts
Jey Uso – 18pts.
Jimmy Uso – 18pts.
Batista – 16pts.
Adrian Neville – 15pts.
Paige – 15pts.
YAMATO – 15pts
Takao Omori – 15pts
AJ Lee – 15pts.
Sheamus – 15pts.
Samoa Joe – 12pts.
Hiroshi Tanahashi – 12pts
BxB Hulk – 12pts
Icarus – 12pts.
Daniel Bryan – 12pts.
Chris Jericho – 12pts.
Michael Elgin – 12pts.
Bully Ray – 12pts.
Jay Briscoe – 12pts.
KUSHIDA – 10pts.
Davey Richards – 10pts.
Eddie Edwards – 10pts.
Ultimo Guerrero – 9pts.
Adam Cole – 9pts.
Luke Harper – 9pts.
Triple H – 9pts.
Austin Aries – 9pts.
Yujiro Takahashi – 9pts
Minoru Suzuki – 9pts
Stardust (Cody Rhodes) – 9pts.
Randy Orton – 7pts.
Alicia Fox – 7pts.
Shelton Benjamin – 6pts.
Gail Kim – 6pts.
Devon – 6pts.
Suwama – 6pts.
Bad Luck Fale – 6pts
Biff Busick – 6pts.
Erick Rowan – 6pts.
Stephanie McMahon – 6pts.
Goldust – 6pts.
Kalisto – 6pts.
Joe Doering – 3pts.
T-Hawk – 3pts.
EITA – 3pts.
Jeff Hardy – 3pts.
Bobby Roode – 3pts.
Tyson Kidd – 3pts.
Mark Henry – 3pts.
Tyler Breeze – 3pts.
Adam Rose – 3pts.
Jack Swagger – 3pts.
Sin Cara – 3pts.
Dasher Hatfield – 2 pts.
Mr. Touchdown – 2 pts.
Dolph Ziggler – 1pt
The Miz – 1pt
Kane – 1pt
Brie Bella – 1pt
Uhaa Nation – 1pt
Naomichi Marufuji – 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
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 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)
