411’s Wrestler of The Week: Ricochet Battles Ambrose

Welcome to YEAR TWELVE, WEEK THIRTEEN 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: JUNE 27 – JULY 3

Larry Csonka
1) Prince Puma/Ricochet:
It was a big week for the man known as Prince Puma AND Ricochet. First, Prince Puma scored a big victory on Lucha Underground, and sent a message to his Ultima Lucha Dos opponent Rey Mysterio. And then, in Japan, Ricochet won the Never Openweight Six-Man titles with regular partner Matt Sydal and veteran Satoshi Kojima. It was a huge week for him.

2) Lashley: Lashley continues to be a great TNA Champion, once again defending his title and picking up the big win in a totally glorious, give no fucks fashion. Lashley is a bad ass champion that wins clean and just kicks asses, and he is awesome in the role.
3) Will Ospreay: Ospreay was the star and only survivor in the big CHOAS vs. Los Ingobernables elimination tag at Kizuna road; they have been careful to bring him along slowly, but also position him as the junior star of CHAOS. His NJPW run has been great so far.
4) Katsuyori Shibata
5) Matt Sydal and Satoshi Kojima

Rob Stewart
1) Dean Ambrose:
Dean continues to be a hard-working champion, and he won the main events of Raw and Smackdown this week, defeating AJ Styles and The Miz, respectively. The former contest kept AJ from entering the title match at Battleground; the latter was over a fellow champion. Good showings. I don’t know how WWE feels about Dean (who can claim to know what goes on in Vince’s head these days), but it certainly seems like he’s reaching out for a brass ring as far as his arm will allow.

2) Bobby Lashley: On this week’s IMPACT, Lashley successfully defended his TNA World Title against two great talents in Drew Galloway and EC3. It’s a win that really justifies Lashley’s recent winning of the title and shows him as the best of the best.
3) King Cuerno: Any time that Mil Muertes takes a loss, it’s substantial. Cuerno may have had to use underhanded tactics to get one over on his arch-nemesis (and he may deeply pay for further enraging Mil at Ultima Lucha), but a win over the former champion is a win over the former champion.
4) Satoshi Kojima, Matt Sydal, and Ricochet
5) Katsuyori Shibata

Kevin Pantoja
1) Katsuyori Shibata:
Another relatively slow week. There were some standouts and first, I’m going with Katsuyori Shibata. He’s been consistently one of the best guys in NJPW for the past few years and his current title run shows why. After regaining his NEVER Openweight Championship from Yuji Nagata at Dominion, he made his first successful title defense against Tomoaki Honma in the main event of Kizuna Road. While it wasn’t a spectacular match like their outing in the G1 Climax two years ago, it was a fitting main event and another feather in the cap of Shibata’s great 2016.

2) Dean Ambrose: Since winning the WWE Title and taking over as the top guy while Roman Reigns is out suspended, Dean Ambrose has been working a crazy schedule. He’s appeared on several WWE shows, including multiple events in one night. This week, he was one of the few people to stay behind while the WWE was in Hawaii, but still made it over to Japan to compete there. While the WWE was in Hawaii, Ambrose was main eventing Smackdown in a win over the Miz following a really fun segment of Miz TV. On Raw, in a first time ever match, Ambrose defeated AJ Styles in the main event to keep the Battleground main event as a triple threat. Ambrose has been given the ball (even if it is only for a short time) and is running with it.
3) Matt Sydal, Ricochet and Satoshi Kojima: It’s hard to consider winning the NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championships an accomplishment at this point. The titles have been around for six months and have changed hand seven times already. Still, the victory for the strange team of Matt Sydal, Ricochet and Satoshi Kojima was one of the bigger ones of the week. They bested “The Elite” of Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks to all win the title for the first time. It was a fun match but I don’t expect them to hold the title for a while. Nobody does.
4) Sasha Banks
5) Will Ospreay

Jack McGee
1) Lashley:
Still your reigning and defending TNA Champion, taking out top contenders EC3 and Galloway.

2) Prince Puma/Ricochet: Had a great week on Lucha Underground and also picked up the NJPW Six-man tag titles.
3) Will Ospreay: The sole survivor in the CHOAS vs. Los Ingobernables, and positioned as a star in the process.
4) Dean Ambrose
5) Matt Sydal and Satoshi Kojima

Mike Hammerlock
1) Prince Puma/Ricochet:
It pays to be working in two promotions. On Lucha Underground, Ricochet had a hot match against El Dragon Azteca Jr. Then on the second night of New Japan’s Kizuna Road event, he teamed with Matt Sydal and Satoshi Kojima to win the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Team Championship. Point being, you get Ricochet all over the place and he’s always awesome. Hardest working man in the business.

2) Katsuyori Shibata: Didn’t have a classic against Tomoaki Honma, but still managed to defend his NEVER Openweight Championship in an enjoyable main event.
3) Will Ospreay: Close call between Ospreay and Seth Rollins (who beat John Cena about as clean as anyone’s allowed to beat John Cena). Yet Ospreay was the last man standing in an elimination tag match against New Japan’s top heel stable, Log Ingobernables. Ospreay had the champ, Kazuchika Okada, on his side, but it still came down to him to win the whole shebang. Loving the push he’s getting in New Japan.
4) Seth Rollins
5) Matt Sydal and Satoshi Kojima

Dylan Diot
1) Katsuyori Shibata:
For me, Shibata came out the big winner of the holiday week. He successfully defended the NEVER Openweight title against Tomoaki Honma and has a ton of momentum heading into the G1, where he should be one of the favorites in Block B of the tournament.

2) Dean Ambrose: This was a great week for the WWE Champion. Ambrose defeated AJ Styles on Raw to block him from participating in the Battleground main event and he beat Miz on Smackdown in a Champion vs Champion match.
3) Satoshi Kojima, Ricochet and Matt Sydal: Kojima, Ricochet and Sydal defeated the ELITE to become the NEW NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions. This certainly is a unique group and it’ll be fun to see how these three gel as a unit for as long as they hold the belts.
4) Cesaro
5) Will Ospreay

Greg DeMarco
1) Dean Ambrose:
The WWE World Heavyweight Champion scored a victory that, on paper, is over one of the hottest talents in the WWE today. And since ratings like this are printed on virtual paper, he gets #1. As time goes by this is a win over AJ Styles, John Cena’s involvement is irrelevant.

2) Seth Rollins: Much like his former Shield brother above, Seth Rollins scored a victory over John Cena during Raw. The method is important now, but history shows it as a win over John Cena.
3) Bobby Lashley: “The Destroyer” confirmed his dominance as TNA World Heavyweight Champion with a win over the past two champions not named Matt Hardy.
4) Cesaro
5) Will Osperay

THE WINNERS~!
* Special Mention…Satoshi Kojima and Matt Sydal – 11 Votes

* Fifth Place…Will Ospreay – 12 Votes

* Fourth Place…Katsuyori Shibata – 14 Votes

* Third Place…Lashley – 16 Votes

Still your reigning and defending TNA World Champion!

* Second Place…Dean Ambrose – 20 Votes

Impressing as the WWE Champion…

* And 411’s Wrestler of the Week is…
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Prince Puma/Ricochet – 22 Votes

Had an impressive week on Lucha Underground (impressing on his way to a match with Rey Mysterio) and for New Japan (picking up gold).

The Standings
Here are the standings after week 13…

* Prince Puma/Ricochet – 54pts

* AJ Styles – 46pts

* Dragon Azteca Jr. – 36pts

* The Monster Matanza Cueto – 33pts
* Will Ospreay – 33pts

* Rey Mysterio Jr. – 30pts

* Johnny Mundo – 27pts
* Dean Ambrose – 27pts

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

* Samoa Joe – 21pts
* Sexy Star – 21pts

* The Miz – 16pts

* Jay Lethal – 15pts
* Seth Rollins – 15pts

* Michael Elgin -12pts
* Kevin Owens – 12pts
* Bobby Fish – 12pts
* Daniels – 12pts
* Kazarian – 12pts
* Mike Bennett – 12pts

* Kyle O’Reilly – 9pts
* SANADA – 9pts
* KUSHIDA – 9pts
* Dash – 9pts
* Dawson – 9pts
* Kazuchika Okada – 9pts
* Katsuyori Shibata – 9pts

* Rusev – 7pts

* Ethan Carter III – 6pts
* Fenix – 6pts
* Pentagon Jr – 6pts
* Mariposa – 6pts
* Yuji Nagata – 6pts

* Aerostar – 3pts

* Cesaro – 3pts
* Dana Brooke – 3pts
* Eddie Edwards – 3pts
* Xavier Woods – 3pts
* Kofi Kingston – 3pts
* Big E – 3pts
* Evie – 3pts
* Heidi Lovelace – 3pts
* Matt Sydal – 2pts

* Chavo Guerrero – 1pt
* Jeff Hardy – 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
* Timothy Thatcher – 1pt
* Jay Briscoe – 1pt
* Mark Briscoe – 1pt
* Satoshi Kojima – 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)