wrestling / Columns
411’s Wrestler of the Week 01.03.11: Week 40
Welcome to Week 40, Year 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 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
If you are wondering how some of the writers decide who to vote for, please check out our Wrestler of the Week Supplemental Column!
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 at WrestleMania. This will be posted every Monday. Let’s see who wins this week…
Larry Csonka
1) Minoru Tanaka
Minoru Tanaka will take my top spot for the week. While it was pretty quiet in the US, Minoru defeated Kaz Hayashi to win the AJPW Jr. Heavyweight Title. This ends a record-setting reign where Hayashi had seventeen successful championship defenses of that title, and in my opinion, this easily takes the top spot for the week.
2) CM Punk: After a mostly disappointing year, CM Punk is back in the main mix with John Cena and now is controlling Nexus. I am not sure that Punk leading Nexus makes it all better, but he is a great leader, and he went from an underachieving guy to announcer to in the main program on Raw. A great rebound for him.
3) Dolph Ziggler: Dolph Ziggler continues to shine, delivering good matches, and also becoming a heel that people are really disliking. Ziggler has really grown on me, and just flat out is delivering. His latest title defense was another good outing for him as he has completely grown into his role.
4) Robert Roode
5) Jerry Lawler
Michael Ornelas
1) CM Punk
I know everyone was complaining last week that all it took was a chairshot to get number one if it’s an IWC favorite. Well, I gave last week to Cena/Ziggler/Vickie (due to being at RAW live) and THIS week give it to CM Punk because even though he didn’t wrestle, he got us talking about him. I voted him second last week and it was for that very reason. I’m excited for his program with Cena, who will elevate Punk just by being in a feud with him. Punk delivered an excellent promo to open the show and had a moment no one saw coming in aligning (taking the reins of?) with Nexus to close the show. Punk has me more excited to watch wrestling than anyone else in the past couple weeks, and that is why he’s worthy of number one. Disagree if you want, but at least I have a logical reason.
2) Minoru Tanaka: Defeated Kaz Hayashi for the AJPW World Jr. Heavyweight championship, ending his nearly twenty-three month reign in which he broke the record for successful defenses (at seventeen). This is definitely a big deal and just because it happened in Japan doesn’t mean nobody cares. Congratulations to Minoru and hopefully he can bring some interest and prestige to the division as well.
3) Dolph Ziggler: The most consistent performer of the past six months, Dolph Ziggler successfully defended his Intercontinental championship in one of the best matches this week.
4) Jerry “The King” Lawler
5) Randy Orton/Robert Roode
Chad Nevett
1) CM Punk
Ended the year by getting everyone talking by joining the Nexus.
2) Robert Roode: Put on a great match with Chris Sabin, getting the clean win to boot.
3) Randy Orton: Took on Sheamus and won cleanly.
4) Minoru
5) Dolph Ziggler
Ryan Byers
1) CM Punk
As I stated in my Raw Instant Analysis for this week, I really don’t think that this pairing of CM Punk with Nexus is going to be anything particularly interesting. The Nexus crew has been buried eight miles below the earth, and my gut is telling me that the alliance will do more to drag Punk down to their level than it will to elevate them to Punk’s level. However, despite my personal beliefs regarding the angle, the Punk deal has wrestling fans talking more than anything else that happened in the sport within the voting period, so, in an otherwise uneventful seven days, the Punker is going to get my top spot.
2) Minoru: Kaz Hayashi has held the All Japan Junior Heavyweight Title since February 2009, and he has successfully defended it a record-breaking SEVENTEEN TIMES, including one defense against the legendary Keiji Mutoh, who cut weight specifically to qualify for the championship match in the lighter weight division. However, on January 2, 2011, that title reign came to an end, as Minoru pinned Hayashi clean in the middle on the first All Japan show of the year. We’ll see if ending such an epic reign does anything for the new champion or whether he was just next in line for the belt.
3) Jerry “The King” Lawler: Lawler beat the Miz by count out this week. Some people will scream and holler about voting for a guy when he won a match by count out, but, here’s a newsflash for those people: Wrestling is FAKE. It’s not how you win and it’s not even necessarily whether you win, but it’s how you get over. Jerry Lawler, whose program with the Miz wasn’t expected to last more than a week by most people, took a step this week to continue that feud, which is the most interesting on Raw and is eliciting perhaps more genuine emotional reaction than anything else going in wrestling these days. That’s an accomplishment, no matter how the storyline is written.
4) Ayumi Kurihara
5) Daisuke Sekimoto
Michael Bauer
1) Minoru
Sorry, but I have no faith in everyone else’s #1 doing something this week. Instead, I’ll look to Japan where Minoru ended the 23 month reign of Kaz Hayashi in winning the All Japan Junior Heavyweight Title. Kaz’s reign was almost unheard of with how Japan switches titles and ending such a streak in more than deserving of a top billing.
2) Dolph Ziggler: Great title defense as he continues to put on solid matches.
3) CM Punk: Again, not sold on it, but noteworthy.
4) Randy Orton
5) Ayumi Kurihara
Jeremy Thomas
1) CM Punk
I’m a bit less pessimistic about the Punk/Nexus association, and even if I wasn’t it would be damn hard to deny that Punk as part of the Nexus was THAT moment of the week. I think it’ll be good for both Puunk and Nexus, and this should be a lot of fun to watch.
2) Awesome Kong: In what is a slow week, a Tweet is enough to earn someone a spot on my list. Of course, in this case that Tweet is one that indicated that may have signed with WWE, something that has since been confirmed. May the Diva-killing begin soon.
3) Robert Roode: Roode’s match with Chris Sabin was really enjoyable, and he beat the co-tag team champion cleanly to gain some heat on the Guns in their feud leading up to Genesis.
4) Dolph Ziggler
5) Minoru
Andy Critchell
1) Dolph Ziggler
I’m going against the grain here but Ziggler won what I thought was the best match I saw last week. I’m not sure if I would call his recent success a push or just a coincidence but needless to say I’m glad he is finally starting to get some of the attention he deserves. He also won on NXT against a rookie.
2) CM Punk: His involvement in the Nexus storyline gives us a fresh match up right off the bat and potential for more fresh match ups down the line (with Barrett at the very least) plus it breathes new life into a storyline which had been kind of stalled. Hooray, hurrah.
3) Awesome Kong: I guess this is news but she’s really unattractive so I’m not exactly thrilled at the prospect of having her on my TV that much. Still, it received a lot of attention and signing with WWE is the biggest thing she’s done in her career to date so props for that I suppose.
4) Miz/Lawler
5) Orton
THE WINNERS~!
Continues to roll as the IC champion.
Minoru defeated Kaz Hayashi to win the AJPW Jr. Heavyweight Title, ending a record setting reign by Hayashi.
CM Punk continues to make waves, taking over Nexus and making John Cena’s life hell.
Year-End Standings~!
Dolph Ziggler makes the biggest move of the week, jumping into the top 15, while CM Punk is just on the outside looking in. There’s twelve weeks left to go, and anything could still happen at the top of the list!
Let’s check out the Year-End Standings!
1. Daniel Bryan – 104 (Raw)
2. Wade Barrett – 93 (Raw)
3. Randy Orton – 87 (Raw)
4. Chris Sabin– 78 (TNA)
4. Alex Shelley – 78 (TNA)
6. Edge – 75 (Smackdown)
7. The Miz – 66 (Raw)
8. Jack Swagger – 61 (SmackDown)
9. Rob Van Dam – 55 (TNA)
10. Kane – 50 (SmackDown)
11. Dolph Ziggler – 46 (Smackdown)
11. John Morrison – 46 (Raw)
11. Rey Mysterio – 46 (Smackdown)
14. “DASHING” Cody Rhodes – 45 (Smackdown)
15. Claudio Castagnoli – 43 (ROH)
CM Punk – 39 (Raw)
Jeff Hardy – 39 (TNA)
Masato Yoshino – 39 (Dragon Gate)
AJ Styles – 39 (TNA)
Kurt Angle – 38 (TNA)
John Cena – 36 (Raw)
Satoshia Kojima – 35 (All Japan)
Evan Bourne – 34 (Raw) {INJURED}
KING Sheamus – 31 (Raw)
Madison Eagles – 27 (SHIMMER)
Kaval – 27 (US Independent)
Kofi Kingston – 26 (Smackdown)
Douglas Williams – 26 (TNA)
Robert Roode – 24 (TNA)
Tyson Kidd – 24 (Raw)
DH Smith – 24 (Raw)
El Generico – 21 (ROH)
Roderick Strong – 21 (ROH)
Davey Richards – 21 (ROH)
Christopher Daniels – 19 (ROH)
James Storm – 18 (TNA)
Jay Lethal – 18 (TNA)
Drew McIntyre – 17 (SmackDown)
Alberto Del Rio – 17 (Smackdown)
Justin Gabriel – 16 (Raw)
Togi Makabe – 16 (AJPW)
Tyler Black – 16 (WWE)
Santino Marella – 15 (Raw)
Eddie Edwards – 12 (ROH)
Kaz Hayashi– 15 (AJPW)
Joey Ryan – 15 (US Independent)
Frightmare – 15 (US Independent)
R-Truth – 15 (Raw)
Natalya – 13 (Raw)
Minoru Tanaka – 12 (AJPW)
David Otunga – 12 (Raw)
Chris Hero – 12 (ROH)
Eddie Kingston – 12 (US Independent)
Mike Quackenbush – 12 (US Independent)
Jigsaw – 12 (US Independent)
Ares – 12 (US Independent)
Tursas – 12 (US Independent)
Paul London – 12 (US Independent)
Desmond Wolfe – 12 (TNA)
Matt Hardy – 12 (US Independent)
Chris Jericho – 12 (US Independent)
Minoru Suzuki – 12 (AJPW)
Mr. Anderson – 10 (TNA)
Kazarian – 10 (TNA)
Takashi Sugiura – 10 (Dragon Gate)
Tigers Mask – 9 (Dragon Gate)
Naruki Doi – 9 (Dragon Gate)
Jimmy Yang – 9 (All Japan)
YAMATO – 9 (Dragon Gate)
Prince Devitt – 9 (NJPW)
Mickie James – 9 (TNA)
Robbie E. – 9 (TNA)
Samoa Joe – 9 (TNA)
Dr. Wagner Jr. – 9 (AAA)
Heath Slater – 7 (Raw)
Kory Chavis – 6 (US Independent)
Jon Davis – 6 (US Independent)
MVP – 6 (Smackdown)
Bret Hart – 6 (Raw)
Hamada – 6 (Japan)
Taylor Wilde – 6 (TNA)
Nick Jackson – 6 (TNA)
Matt Jackson – 6 (TNA)
Jado – 6 (NJPW)
Gedo – 6 (NJPW)
Bison Smith – 6 (NOAH)
Keith Walker – 6 (NOAH)
Vladimir Kozlov – 3 (Raw)
The Undertaker – 4 (Smackdown) {SENT TO HELL}
Jerry The King Lawler – 3 (Raw)
Matt Morgan – 3 (TNA)
Tara – 3 (TNA)
Mick Foley – 3 (TNA)
Kotaro Suzuki – 3 (NOAH)
Manami Toyota – 3 (Japan)
Suwama – 3 (AJPW)
AJ Lee – 3 (NXT)
The Big Show – 3 (Smackdown)
Skip Sheffield – 3 (Raw)
Michael McGillicutty – 3 (Raw)
Percy Watson – 3 (NXT)
Willie Richardson – 3 (US Independent)
Marshe Rocket – 3 (US Independent)
Acid Jaz – 3 (US Independent)
Jon Moxley – 3 (US Independent)
Awesome Kong – 1 (US Independent)
El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. – 1 (CMLL)
Charly Manson – 1 (CMLL)
Abyss – 1 (TNA)
Kevin Steen – 1 (ROH)
Tasha Simone – 1 (US Independent)
Batista – 1 (US Independent)
Shelton Benjamin – 1 (US Independent)
Serena– 1 (US Independent)
Chuck Taylor – 1 (US Independent)
Melina – 1 (Raw)
Kaitlyn – 1 (SmackDown)
Beth Phoenix – 1 (SmackDown)
Ted DiBiase – 1 (Raw)
Christian – 1 (Smackdown)
Shingo Takagi – 1 (Dragon Gate)
BxB Hulk – 1 (Dragon Gate)
Masaaki Mochizuki – 1 (Dragon Gate)
Giant Bernard – 1 (NJPW)
Karl Anderson – 1 (NJPW)
Akebono – 1 (AJPW)
Taiyo Kea – 1 (AJPW)
PAC – 1 (Dragon Gate)
Ricochet – 1 (Dragon Gate)
WWE, Raw, SmackDown and NXT-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.
Australian Contracted Wrestlers are represented in INDIGO.
 Year One Winner: Ric Flair
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If you are wondering how some of the writers decide who to vote for, please check out our Wrestler of the Week Supplemental Column!
