411’s Wrestler of The Week: Matanza vs. Styles

Welcome to YEAR TWELVE, WEEK NINE 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: MAY 30 – JUNE 5

Larry Csonka
1) The Monster Matanza Cueto:
The Monster Matanza Cueto defeated Cage in an excellent main event on last week’s edition of Lucha Underground. Not only was the match great, but it was one of the season’s best as the Monster continued to dominate Dario Cueto’s special brand of wrestling.

2) AJ Styles: AJ Styles kicked off a big angle with John Cena last week on Raw. I know that everyone likes to joke about the burial and all, but I have been looking forward to this. It also shows that Styles has not been left completely behind after the Reigns feud.
3) Cage, Chavo Guerrero and Johnny Mundo: The winners of the AAA Lucha Libre world cup tournament.
4) Ricochet/Prince Puma
5) Eli Drake

Mike Chin
1) AJ Styles:
For all of us who (justifiably) feared Styles would never be taken seriously in WWE after he dropped his match to Chris Jericho at WrestleMania, these past two months have been deeply refreshing, as The Phenomenal One has been at the heart of intrigue surrounding The Club and put on a pair of good-to-great main event matches with Roman Reigns. And now we have not only a heel turn, but a heel turn to square off against John Cena. Seth Rollins is hot, but after that electric turn, followed by beating Kofi Kingston on Smackdown, Styles has shored up his place as a major player.

2) The Monster Matanza: The Monster Matanza continues an excellent monster heel run, winning a very good hoss battle opposite Cage to retain the Lucha Underground Championship.
3) KUSHIDA: KUSHIDA won what was quite arguably the match of the week, besting Matt Sydal via submission at NJPW’s BOTSJ Night 11.
4) Eli Drake
5) Rusev

Kevin Pantoja
1) Matanza Cueto:
This was an easy pick for number one this week. In the main event of Lucha Underground, “The Monster” Matanza Cueto defeated Cage in his best title defense so far. There have been plenty of great matches this season, but I believe Bryan Alvarez considered this to be the best of them all. I wouldn’t go that far, but I found it to be the best match of the week by a fair margin. It was a great hoss battle that saw Matanza come out on top as he continues to dominate and run through the Lucha Underground roster. They’ve done a phenomenal job of building him up as unstoppable and whenever someone overcomes him, it should be special.

2) AJ Styles: Yes, I know he’s just 1-3 (not counting the Royal Rumble) on Pay-Per-View. I know he only earned a split in his series with Chris Jericho. I know he is 0-2 in shots at the WWE Title. Even with all of that, you just have to be excited at the idea of AJ Styles vs. John Cena. Styles made a big impact when he came face to face with Cena this past Monday. Things got even more serious when Styles turned heel and was joined by Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows in beating up Cena. It was possibly the biggest moment of his WWE run so far. He also went out and beat Kofi Kingston in a very good main event of Smackdown. I suspect he might win the first match against Cena before losing the next two or three since that’s the traditional Cena booking. For now though, let’s just enjoy the thought of Styles/Cena.
3) KUSHIDA: One of the few guys this week to have wrestled more than once, KUSHIDA finds himself on the list. After starting the Best of the Super Juniors Tournament 0-2, KUSHIDA had an uphill battle ahead of him. On the ninth night of the tournament, he bested Gedo in a surprisingly awesome match to put himself over .500 and move to 3-2. He then went a step further and defeated Matt Sydal in the main event of night eleven in an even better match. KUSHIDA moved into a tie for first place, though he would lose his final match eventually, it was still a really strong week for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion. KUSHIDA is great and continues to be one of the top performers in all of NJPW.
4) Cage, Chavo Guerrero and Johnny Mundo
5) The Motor City Machine Guns

Rob Stewart
1) The Monster, Matanza Cueto:
Matanza won the Battle Of Unstoppable Hosses this past week on Lucha Underground when he turned aside Cage’s Gift of the Gods challenge. While Cage was able to rock and reel Matanza by alternating power moves with some surprising high-flying offense, The Monster ultimately proved to be unstoppable still. At this point, who is left to challenge Dario’s brother? Heck, who would even want to?

2) Johnny Mundo, Jack Evans, and PJ Black: Sometimes you don’t have to be the BETTER wrestler; sometimes you just have to be the SMARTER wrestler. The defending Trios Champions proved that true this week when they defended their titles against the former champs (Rey Mysterio, Prince Puma, and El Dragon Azteca). The champs got into the challengers’ heads and were able to goad Prince Puma into getting disqualified when he tried to match their tactics. Personally, I LOVE this team and hope they can bring some stability to a title that bounced around a bit too much this season.
3) Dean Ambrose and Sami Zayn: These two teamed together twice this week (once with Cesaro in a six-man match) to defeat Kevin Owens and Alberto Del Rio (and Chris Jericho in the six-man), giving them good momentum as we move towards Money In The Bank.
4) Rusev
5) Drew Galloway

Jack McGee
1) The Monster Matanza Cueto:
Still the Lucha Underground champion, looking pretty unstoppable at this point. Forget monster, beat mode is fully activated.

2) Cage, Chavo Guerrero and Johnny Mundo: Won the big AAA Trios World Cup tournament over the weekend.
3) Eli Drake: Your new TNA KOTM champion. Now we see how serious they are with him.
4) AJ Styles
5) PJ Black and Jack Evans

Wyatt Beougher
1) Johnny Mundo, Jack Evans, and PJ Black:
The new LU Trios champions didn’t really touch the workrate of the Super Juniors competitors, though that’s not to say that they couldn’t, given the opportunity. Plus, what they didn’t display in in-ring technical ability, they more than made up for with all-out rudo behavior. Fresh off of last week’s dick-punching/kicking jamboree that saw them win the Trios championship, this team of unbearable jerkwads just picked up where they left off, continually finding new and creative ways to inflict harm on the former champions’ nether regions until Prince Puma was finally fed up with it and just punted Mundo in his little Johnnys and earned what I believe is the first disqualification in an LU title match. Well played, Team Groin Shot – never stop being irredeemable jackwagons.

2) Will Ospreay: Looking to continue the momentum from the match that everyone is still pretty much talking about from last week, it initially seemed like Ospreay might fall flat after dropping a match to Tiger Mask IV, but he rebounded and reeled off victories against Bobby Fish and the legendary Jushin Liger, which kept him alive in the hunt for top honors in this year’s Block B.
3) Cage/Matanza: Cage would be higher on the list for winning the AAA Trios World Cup with Chavito and the aforementioned Johnny Mundo, but he lost his title match against Matanza, though it was an epic clash of two guys who can do things that guys of their size/build should not be able to do. Now I really want a Triple Threat between Cage, Matanza, and (Willie) the Mack.
4) Motor City Machine Guns
5) Eli Drake

Mike Hammerlock
1) The Monster Matanza Cueto:
Big-time hoss match to defend his title against Cage. Love that he’s always a suplex away from taking over a match.

2) Motor City Machine Guns: Love these guys and glad to see them in line for a title shot in ROH.
3) Ricochet/Prince Puma: Between what he’s doing live at BOTSJ and via the magic of video recording on Lucha Underground, he’s lighting up the firmament.
4) AJ Styles
5) KUSHIDA

THE WINNERS~!
* Special Mention…Chavo Guerrero – 9 Votes

* Fifth Place…Jack Evans and PJ Black – 10 Votes

* Fourth Place…Cage – 12 Votes

* Third Place…AJ Styles – 17 Votes

Kicked off his big feud with John Cena..,

* Second Place…Johnny Mundo – 18 Votes

Retained the Lucha Underground trios titles and picked up the AAA Lucha Cup crown.

* And 411’s Wrestler of the Week is…
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The Monster Matanza Cueto – 32 Votes

And still…

The Standings
Here are the standings after week NINE…

* AJ Styles – 46pts

* Prince Puma/Ricochet – 39pts

* Dragon Azteca Jr. – 36pts

* The Monster Matanza Cueto – 33pts

* Rey Mysterio Jr. – 30pts

* Johnny Mundo – 27pts

* Cage – 24 pts
* Roman Reigns – 24pts
* Tetsuya Naito – 24pts
* Jack Evans – 24pts
* PJ Black – 24 pts

* The Miz – 16pts

* Samoa Joe – 15pts
* Sexy Star – 15pts
* Will Ospreay – 15pts

* Kevin Owens – 12pts
* Bobby Fish – 12pts
* Daniels – 12pts
* Kazarian – 12pts

* Kyle O’Reilly – 9pts
* SANADA – 9pts
* KUSHIDA – 9pts

* Rusev – 7pts

* Ethan Carter III – 6pts
* Fenix – 6pts
* Yuji Nagata – 6pts

* Aerostar – 3pts

* Cesaro – 3pts
* Dana Brooke – 3pts
* Mike Bennett – 3pts
* Lashley – 3pts
* Xavier Woods – 3pts
* Kofi Kingston – 3pts
* Big E – 3pts

* Chavo Guerrero – 1pt
* Abyss – 1pt
* Crazy Steve – 1pt
* Sami Zayn – 1pt
* Big Cass – 1pt
* Enzo Amore – 1pt
* Karl Anderson – 1pt
* Doc Gallows – 1pt
* Rocky Romero – 1pt
* Trent Barreta – 1pt
* Matt Sydal – 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)