wrestling / Columns
411’s Wrestler of the Week 1.07.08: Week 40
Welcome to Week 40, Year-Three, of 411’s Wrestler of the Week. A quick overview to kick things off as we have some new rules for year three…
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
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…
The Voting!
Brad Garoon
1) Shinsuke Nakamura
A couple big titles changed hands this weekend but I think its safe to say that between Tanahashi coming off the red-hot match against Goto and the fact that it happened to main event a joint show with TNA that this switch will get more press.
2) Low Ki: Beat Bryan Danielson for PWG “World” title. PWG in this case. He and his buddy Homicide must know a secret.
3) Kurt Angle: Defended the IWGP 3rd belt and looks to head into a unification match with the new REAL IWGP champ.
4) Bernard & Tomko
5) Wataru Inoue
Ryan Byers
1) Shinsuke Nakamura
Nakamura managed to win one of the most prestigious heavyweight championships in the world when he unseated Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Title on January 4. On top of that, New Japan shot an angle involving Nakamura and Kurt Angle after the match concluded, which lead to the signing of a match between the two men. The title victory was already enough to take Nakamura from “rising star” to “legitimate superstar,” and the fact that he’s going to be able to battle (and most likely defeat) Angle will only cement that status. Hopefully he, along with Tanahashi and others, will be able to reinvigorate the puroresu scene in 2008.
2) Kurt Angle – Lousy TNA booking aside, he did retain two different titles on two different continents this week, and that’s nothing to scoff at.
3) Gail Kim / Amazing Kong – They walked in to the TNA pay per view once again scheduled to have perhaps the most anticipated match on the card, and, by virtually every account, they delivered.
4) Low Ki
5) Angel Williams
ARI~!
1) Kurt Angle: He retained his titles this week in two huge matches. He won against Nagata and that is a very big accomplishment these days. You can say what you will about the booking of Angle in TNA (and I have and I will), he can still bring it in the ring like he did back in his WWE glory days.
2) Shinsuke Nakamura: I had expected it to be a Nagata vs. Tanahashi blow off to unify the IWGP title, but his win here shocked me. In addition to winning the IWGP title, the higher profile will also put him in the crosshairs of Angle and THAt will be the unification bout.
3) Low Ki: Came from out of nowhere to shock PWG fans and Bryan Danielson. Defeated Danielson in the very first bout of the night to become the new PWG champion. Ki makes a hell of a mark this week.
4) Gail Kim / Amazing Kong
5) Ken Kennedy
Andy Clark
1) Shinsuke Nakamure
Surprised us all by winning the real IWGP Title from Hiroshi Tanahashi and looks to face Kurt Angle in a unification match for the two IWGP belts.
2) Kurt Angle: Successfully defended his TNA World Heavyweight Title and his fake IWGP Title against two of the top competitors in their respective promotions.
3) Low Ki: In his first post-TNA appearance shocked the world by winning the PWG Title from Bryan Danielson.
4) Mr. Kennedy
5) Ric Flair
Matt Short
1) Shinsuke Nakamura
Captures the real IWGP Heavyweight Title from Hiroshi Tanahashi this weekend. He’s now staring down a match with the holder of the fake IWGP title held by Kurt Angle to unify the belts. All I can say to that prospect is FINALLY!.
2) Kurt Angle: Angle retained his two championship belts this weekend. First he retained his “IWGP” title against Yuji Nagata in Japan then defended against Christian Cage at Final Resolution. Angle can still have great matches even if he is shoved down out throats via TNA booking style.
3) Low Ki: Made a surprise return to PWG to defeat Bryan Danielson and take the PWG World Championship.
4) Gail Kim/Awesome Kong
5) Wataru Inoue
Christi Csonka
1) Awesome Kong and Gail Kim
This is what women’s wrestling is supposed to be all about. They were awesome, worked hard and I was so pleased that the crowd responded in kind. This was an easy choice for me this week.
2) Kurt Angle: He and Christian had an awesome PPV match that I was into from bell to bell.
3) Christian Cage: See above
4) Tomko
5) Angel Williams aka Angelina Love
Samuel Berman
1) Low Ki
A shocking return to PWG nets the former Senshi another World Title, this time PWG’s strap. Beyond the win itself, Ki earns bonus points for having a reportedly stellar match with “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson as well as pulling off the World Title upset in the incredibly surprising opening match slot.
2) Human Tornado: His epic storyline with former valet Candice LeRae took a huge step forward while the former PWG World Champion got a pair of victories.
3) Joey Ryan & Scott Lost: A pair of wins for the former X-Foundation, who continue to impress while being ducked by Super Dragon & Davey Richards
4) Shinsuke Nakamura
5) CIMA and “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson
Bayani Domingo
1) Low Ki
Made a huge and surprising return to PWG to beat Bryan Danielson for the PWG World Title. Danielson has been an absolute beast since signing up as a PWG regular a few months back and kicking off All-Star Weekend 6 with this match was absolute insanity. I guess anything really can happen in wrestling.
2) Shinsuke Nakamura: Winning the real IWGP title now puts him in line to finally take the “fake” title from Kurt Angle and restore some sanity to New Japan.
3) Gail Kim: She scaled the un-scalable wall known as Awesome Kong and retained the title.
4) CIMA
5) Joey Ryan & Scott Lost (aka The Dynasty)
Theo Frasier
1) Low Ki
Your NEW PWG World Heavyweight Champion after a surprise appearance and subsequent unannounced match with then-champion Bryan Danielson to kick off the All-Star Weekend 6…weekend. This was PWG’s first match of 2008, and if this is any indication, PWG fans are in store for another wild year. Danielson had a really enjoyable title reign, but this is a totally fresh angle, and Low Ki as champ creates some great possibilities for main event match ups. Give me Low Ki/PAC and I can die happy.
2) Kurt Angle- Retained the TNA World Title in a great match with Christian Cage, and normally that would be enough to secure a good position in the WOTW standings. But he also managed to retain the fake IWGP belt over in Japan in a match taped for the Global Impact Special against Yuji Nagata. Another strong week for our Olympic Hero.
3) Bryan Danielson/CIMA (tie)- Reportedly had a tremendous match to main event PWG ASW 6 Night 2, ending in a draw, meaning that we very well may see a third encounter between these two competitors.
4) Shinsuke Nakamura
5) Mr. Kennedy
SAT
1) Low Ki
Low Ki gets the top slot for winning the PWG Title from Bryan Danielson in an unannounced match.
2) Kurt Angle: Kurt Angle gets the second slot for successfully defending the TNA Title and for also successfully defending the “fake” IWGP
3) Shinsuke Nakamura: Shinsuke Nakamura gets the third slot for winning the real IWGP Title
4) Gail Kim
5) Ric Flair
Michael Bauer
1) Low Ki
While Kurt Angle retained his title twice, he has the “fake” title in Japan. Low Ki came out of nowhere, defeated Bryan Danielson, and took the PWG World Title from the hottest Indy wrestler in the world. That’s an accomplishment.
2) Kurt Angle – Excellent Main Event win over Cage and retained his fake belt in Japan.
3) Shinsuke Nakamura – Meanwhile, the real belt changed hands in a huge shocker.
4) CIMA/Bryan Danielson
5) Gail Kim
Matt Adamson
1) Shinsuke Nakamura
The most deserving of the top rank as he was able to capture one of the most exclusive titles in professional wrestling. I’m looking forward to great things from the new IWGP Champion.
2) Low Ki – Accomplishments are key here. He won the PWG title and showed us exactly why leaving TNA may have been the right step for him to take.
3) CIMA/Bryan Danielson – Tremendous match at the PWG All Star Weekend.
4) Kurt Angle
5) Ric Flair
Daniel Wilcox
1) Rey Mysterio
Somehow every one seems to have forgotten Rey Rey who won a Beat the Clock challenge on SmackDown and beat the World Champion Edge in the process to earn a World title shot at Royal Rumble.
2) Kurt Angle – Angle retained his TNA Championship against Christian Cage at Final Resolution and had a great match in doing so.
3) Mr. Kennedy – Kennedy got a clean win over Shawn Michaels on Raw in another great match.
4) Ric Flair
5) Gail Kim
Larry Csonka
1) Kurt Angle
Angle not only defended his TNA title in Japan this week, but he also had an excellent title defense on PPV. Together that is enough to make Angle my #1 of the week.
2) Gail Kim and Awesome Kong: This IS Women’s wrestling right now and is easily the best-booked feud in all of TNA. They need to feud forever because they are both great, great women.
3) Shinsuke Nakamura: I feel really bad for having to knock Makamura all the ay to #3 this week, but I feel that Angle’s retaining the title two times in three days and the awesomeness of the ladies match out-weights him this week.
4) Christian Cage
5) Tomko
THE WINNERS!
Low Ki sheds his slave name of Senshi and returned to the Independent scene this past weekend, and in doing so shocked the Indy world by defeating Brian Danielson for the PWG title
Shinsuke Nakamura rocks the face of New Japan and wins the new IWGP!
Kurt Angle went to Japan, defended the TNA World Title and then returned home to do it again in a great match with Christian Cage.
Year-End Standings~!
This was a very interesting week indeed as far as the standings go. Shinsuke Nakamura makes a big debut with his IWG title victory, while Low Ki wins the PWG gold and makes a string debut as well. Gail Kim and Awesome Kong try to crash the boys club with another impressive performance. In the end Kurt Angle takes first place for the week and also takes over the year-end standing lead. He and Samoa Joe are fighting it out on the top, and with Cena and Hardy injured, Edge is their closest competition and is over 20-points behind right now.
–The top 15 spots are marked
1. Kurt Angle – 89 (TNA)
2. Samoa Joe – 87 (TNA)
3. John Cena – 78 (Raw) {INJURED}
4. Matt Hardy – 66 (Smackdown) {INJURED}
5. Edge – 65 (Smackdown)
6. CM Punk – 61 (ECW)
7. Randy Orton – 55 (Raw)
7. Mark Briscoe – 55 (ROH)
7. Jay Briscoe – 55 (ROH)
10. Batista – 51 (Smackdown)
11. Jeff Hardy – 50 (Raw)
12. MVP – 47 (Smackdown)
13. Shawn Michaels – 45 (Raw)
14. Jimmy Jacobs – 41 (ROH)
15. Claudio Castagnoli – 37 (ROH)
Nigel McGuinness – 36 (ROH)
Bobby Lashley – 35 (Raw) {INJURED}
CIMA – 33 (Dragon Gate)
Chuck Taylor – 32 (US Independent)
Kaz – 28 (TNA)
El Generico – 28 (US Independent)
Bryan Danielson – 25 (ROH)
Giant Bernard – 24 (New Japan)
The Great Khali – 24 (Raw)
Takeshi Morishima – 24 (ROH/NOAH)
Chris Hero – 24 (US Independent)
John Morrison – 22 (ECW)
Austin Aries – 22 (ROH)
Sting– 21 (TNA)
Black Machismo – 21 (TNA)
Hiroshi Tanahashi – 21 (New Japan)
Ric Flair – 21 (Raw)
HHH – 21 (Raw)
Mike Quackenbush – 19 (US Independent)
Chris Sabin – 19 (TNA)
Brother Ray – 18 (TNA)
Brother Devon – 18 (TNA)
Kevin Steen – 18 (US Independent)
Sara Del Ray – 18 (US Independent)
Vince McMahon – 18 (WWE)
Ken Kennedy – 16 (Raw)
Umaga – 16 (Raw)
Kenta Kobashi – 15 (NOAH)
Masato Tanaka – 15 (ZERO-ONE MAX)
Christian Cage– 15 (TNA)
Christopher Daniels – 15 (TNA)
Alex Shelley – 15 (TNA)
James Storm – 15 (TNA)
Chris Jericho– 15 (Raw)
Lance Cade – 15 (Raw)
Trevor Murdoch – 15 (Raw)
Santino Marella – 15 (Raw)
Eddie Kingston – 15 (US Independent)
Tyler Black – 14 (ROH)
Erick Stevens – 14 (ROH)
Tomko – 14 (TNA/New Japan)
Naruki Doi – 14 (Dragon Gate)
Masato Yoshino – 14 (Dragon Gate)
Ricky Banderas a.k.a. Judas Mesias – 13 (AAA/TNA)
Gail Kim– 13 (TNA)
Elijah Burke – 12 (ECW)
Deuce – 12 (Smackdown)
Domino – 12 (Smackdown)
Amazing Kong – 12 (TNA)
Chris Harris – 12 (TNA)
Shinsuke Nakamura – 12 (New Japan)
Gamma – 12 (Dragon Gate)
Taku Iwasa – 12 (Dragon Gate)
Keni’chiro Arai – 12 (Dragon Gate)
Ryusuke Taguchi – 12 (New Japan)
Dick Togo – 12 (New Japan)
PAC – 12 (Independent)
Adam Pearce – 12 (US Independent)
Roderick Strong– 12 (ROH/FIP)
Abyss – 10 (TNA)
Low Ki – 9 (US Independent)
Vito Thomaselli – 9 (US Independent)
Sal Thomaselli – 9 (US Independent)
Icarus – 9 (US Independent)
Gran Akuma – 9 (US Independent)
Kenny King – 9 (US Independent)
Jason Blade – 9 (US Independent)
Lince Dorado – 9 (US Independent)
TAKA Michinoku – 9 (New Japan)
Yugi Nagata – 9 (New Japan)
D LO Brown- 9 (NOAH)
Bull Buchanan – 9 (NOAH)
Naomichi Marufuji – 9 (NOAH)
Mitsuharu Misawa – 9 (NOAH)
Keiji Muto – 9 (All Japan)
Joe Doering– 9 (All Japan)
Blue Panther – 9 (CMLL)
Necro Butcher – 7 (US Independent)
Finlay – 7 (WWE)
Paul London – 7 (Raw)
Brian Kendrick – 7 (Raw)
Hornswoggle – 6 (Smackdown)
Rey Mysterio – 6 (Smackdown)
Carlito – 6 (Raw)
Booker T– 6 (TNA)
Scott Steiner– 6 (TNA)
Kensuke Sasaki – 6 (All Japan)
Milano Collection AT – 6 (Japan)
Scott Hall – 6 (Independent)
Super Dragon – 6 (Independent)
Davey Richards – 6 (ROH)
Ultimo Guerrero – 6 (CMLL)
Averno – 6 (CMLL)
Shelton Benjamin– 4 (ECW)
AJ Styles– 4 (TNA)
Delirious – 4 (ROH)
Rob Van Dam – 4 (US Independent)
Hallowicked – 4 (US Independent)
Eric Young – 3 (TNA)
Big Daddy V – 3 (ECW)
Jimmy Yang Wang – 3 (Smackdown)
Shannon Moore – 3 (Smackdown)
Beth Phoenix – 3 (Raw)
Charlie Haas – 3 (Raw)
William Regal – 3 (Raw)
Mistico – 3 (CMLL)
Atlantis – 3 (CMLL)
Togi Makabe – 3 (New Japan)
Tiger Mask IV – 3 (New Japan)
KENTA – 2 (NOAH)
The Miz – 2 (ECW)
Jeff Jarrett – 1 (TNA)
Super Crazy – 1 (Raw)
JBL – 1 (Raw)
Hardcore Holly– 1 (Raw)
Cody Rhodes – 1 (Raw)
Colt Cabana – 1 (WWE)
Dragon Kid – 1 (Dragon Gate)
Taiji Ishimori – 1 (NOAH)
Andrew Martin – 1 (US Independent)
Sherri Martel – 1 {Deceased}
Raw and Smackdown Wrestlers are represented in BLUE.
ECW Wrestlers are represented in GREEN.
TNA wrestlers are represented in RED.
ROH/FIP Wrestlers are represented in MAROON.
US Independent Wrestlers are represented in ORANGE
Japanese wrestlers are represented in BLACK.
Mexican Wrestlers are represented in MAGENTA.
