411’s Wrestler of the Year: New Day Rocks

Welcome to YEAR ELEVEN, THE FINAL WEEK 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: March 28 through April 3

Larry Csonka
1) Will Ospreay:
I had the joy of watching a ton of wrestling over the Mania weekend, and to me the all star of that weekend was Will Ospreay. Ospreay, one of the lads brought over from the UK scene, tore some shit up proper in matches with Ricochet, Zack Sabre Jr and in the big six-man match to close out Mercury Rising. He’s being praised as the next king of flight, and was a huge asset to the WWNLive family over the weekend. If you are not watching this young man, you need to start.

2) Shinsuke Nakamura: I don’t often use the word perfect, but Shinsuke Nakamura’s NXT debut against Sami Zayn was as perfect as it gets. You could not have asked for a better match to debut Nakamura to WWE fans or for Zayn to say good-bye to NXT. I loved everything about this match.
3) Zack Ryder: Despite the Raw result, Zack Ryder scored the biggest accomplishment of his career by winning the IC Title and getting a moment to celebrate with his father in the ring. It sucks that he lost, but I am very happy that he got the moment.
4) American Alpha
5) Sami Zayn

Mike Hammerlock
1) Shinsuke Nakamura:
So much wrestling this week, but Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn is the match that will be remembered as the one that stood out from the crowd. I feel incredibly guilty not also having Sami on my ballot, but the cuts this week are vicious. Nakamura came to the U.S. and gave up a premium dose of strong style. I don’t know how many people will get the shifting Ali-Foreman reference from the Boma Ye to the Kinshasa, but it’s friggin’ cool. Anyway, NXT TakeOver blew WrestleMania out of the water and Nakamura heads up the reasons why.

2) Charlotte: The one thing the WWE got absolutely right at Mania is the new WWE Women’s Championship. Ditching the divas monicker was long overdue and this move toward respect feels a lot more like a revolution than a stupid hashtag. Charlotte is my least favorite of three women who fought for the new belt, but the Flair name at WrestleMania was always going to be hard to beat. The WWE also is fairly conservative about moving its women’s title to new champions. Charlotte had yet to get her signature victory. Now she has it in easily the best women’s match in WrestleMania history.
3) Zack Sabre Jr., Chris Hero, Will Ospreay and Ricochet: Over in the indies, Evolve and the WWN put on some red hot shows. These four guys were the standout performers from the three nights of action. ZSJ continues to be awesome. Hero has become one of the hardest men in the business. Ricochet sets the standard for dynamism whenever he hits the ring. As for Ospreay, he didn’t win a single match, but he probably had the best week of the bunch of them, putting on three stellar matches. Quality counts, which is why you’re not going to see Roman Reigns, Undertaker or Brock Lesnar on my list. No reason to vote for shit in a week like this, no matter how important it’s supposed to be.
4) American Alpha
5) Zack Ryder

J Onwuka
1) Will Ospreay:
Possibly the one guy outside NXT who actually came out of this weekend totally golden, he had two amazing matches and somehow managed to build his amazing buzz even higher.

2) Zack Ryder: Probably the last main roster WWE vote I’ll give for a while, congrats for winning the IC title out of nowhere.
3) Asuka: Took the NXT Women’s Championship in a great match against the defending Bayley.
4) American Alpha
5) Nicole Savoy

Kevin Pantoja
1) Shinsuke Nakamura:
WrestleMania weekend always features some big moments. I know that Roman Reigns won the WWE Title but a lot more than just accomplishments goes into picking my top choice. Shinsuke Nakamura made his long awaited debut at TakeOver: Dallas and more than stole the show. Nakamura got to be himself and faced Sami Zayn in what should go down as a classic. It was the best match I’ve seen in the WWE since Bayley vs. Sasha last year and not since Punk/Cena at MITB 2011 before that. Nakamura got a big win and came off like a major star throughout the entire match. On a weekend full of good to great wrestling, this was easily the best thing I saw the entire time. If you haven’t watched the match already, go do so. Nakamura is a star.

2) Zack Sabre Jr.: One of the only guys to have multiple matches be top notch this weekend was Zack Sabre Jr. Will Ospreay and Ricochet did so as well, but only Sabre went 3-0. First, he took on Ospreay in an absolutely thrilling match that should be big in helping get the greatness that is British wrestling, over in America. That was at Evolve 58. At Evolve 59 he continued his “Best in the World” series by defeating Matt Riddle in another highly touted match. Then, to top it all off, at the WWN Supershow “Mercury Rising”, Sabre beat the one man that he hasn’t been able to defeat, Chris Hero. It was a huge weekend for Sabre, who should be nearing another shot at the Evolve Championship soon.
3) American Alpha: Again, there were plenty of good to great matches throughout the weekend. Charlotte won a great women’s match and nearly made the list. However, I’m going with American Alpha here. They got things kick started for the WWE by opening TakeOver: Dallas with a win in a great match against the Revival. It not only marked the first NXT Tag Team Title win for the duo but it also showed that NXT was finally set to give the belts to the right team. They never did it with Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady but putting the straps on Chad Gable and Jason Jordan was absolutely the right move.
4) Roman Reigns
5) Zack Ryder

Robert S Leighty Jr
1) Roman Reigns:
Might as well get the negative out of the way and say that Reigns/HHH was a boring mess to cap off a bloated WrestleMania. With that said, my top rule is to always put a lot of stock in winning titles. Reigns won the WWE World Title to close WrestleMania in front of a massive crowd.

2) Zack Ryder: The ladder match was a fantastic car crash of a match and it ended in shocking fashion with Ryder winning. People joked about him being included, but in the end it was a great moment to a guy who has busted his ass.
3) American Alpha: Your new NXT Tag Champions.
4) Shinsuke Nakamura
5) Charlotte

Wyatt Beougher
1) Shinsuke Nakamura:
When your WWE debut is quite possibly the best American match of a generation, it matters little whether or not you were on the Wrestlemania main card or on the other (better) major WWE show that weekend. “The King of Strong Style” appears to have made the transition from NJPW to NXT/WWE with everything but his theme song and his finisher name intact, and what he and Sami Zayn did on Friday night was truly special. There was a cornucopia of good wrestling this past weekend, and Nakamura had the best performance in the best match, which earns him my top spot. If Sami Zayn had won the Intercontinental Championship ladder match at Wrestlemania (like the crowd so clearly wanted him to), he’d might have edged out Nakamura on my list, but two losses, no matter how entertaining the matches they occurred in were, knocks him down the list.

2) Zack Sabre Jr: ZSJ had an amazing match with Will Ospreay at EVOLVE 58, and while simply winning that match could have easily been overshadowed by a weekend full of tremendous wrestling and excitement, Sabre Jr was also announced as one of the first seven participants for NXT’s Global Cruiserweight Series. If NXT Takeover: Dallas is any indication, the GCS should be amazing, and Sabre is one of the people fans were clamoring to see included. That combination of a big win in a great match and the announcement that he will be able to showcase his abilities to a larger audience is good enough for second place this week.
3) American Alpha: NXT has been somewhat odd with tag team championship changes, at least in the Takeover era, with half of the title changes in that time taking place on regular episodes and garnering some complaints from fans that they either waited too long to pull the trigger, didn’t pull it at all, or the title wins came seemingly out of nowhere. American Alpha’s win on Friday night was none of that, as they’d been built perfectly, have the talent to really help usher in a golden age of tag team wrestling in WWE, and won the titles on arguably NXT’s biggest show of the year.
4) Charlotte
5) Sami Zayn

Jack McGee
1) Shinsuke Nakamura:
The man debuted with a completely amazing match at Takeover, serving notice that the most charismatic man in wrestling had officially arrived.

2) Charlotte: Charlotte defeated Sasha and Becky in the best match at WrestleMania 32, and is the first (new) WWE Women’s Champion.
3) Will Ospreay : Had the best in ring weekend out of anyone.
4) Zack Ryder
5) Sami Zayn and Asuka

Mike Chin
1) Roman Reigns:
Here’s where these Wrestler of the Week rankings are tricky. I try to balance my picks between kayfabe accomplishment, memorability, newsworthiness, and actual quality of in-ring performance. Reigns did not have the in-ring performance of the night at WrestleMania, much less out of a stacked weekend, but he did have a good performance, and ended WrestleMania holding up the WWE Championship after winning his main event match in front of 100,000+. Tough to argue with that.

2) Charlotte: Charlotte more than held her own in putting on the greatest women’s match in WrestleMania history and the match of the night, besides establishing herself as the face of the rebranded women’s division. That’s good for number two on the countdown.
3) Shinsuke Nakamura: Nakamura didn’t appear on the main card of WrestleMania, but I’d argue he did win the single greatest match of WrestleMania weekend, and in so doing put on the single greatest individual in-ring performance of WrestleMania weekend opposite a very game Sami Zayn at NXT Takeover: Dallas
4) Zack Ryder
5) Zack Sabre Jr.

THE WINNERS~!
* Special Mention…Zack Sabre Jr – 13 Votes

* Fifth Place…Roman Reigns – 14 Votes

* Fourth Place…Charlotte – 15 Votes

* Third Place…Will Ospreay, Chad Gable and Jason Jordan -16 Votes

Had a big impact on Mania weekend.

* Second Place…Zack Ryder – 17 Votes

Had a big moment at Mania, winning the IC Title.

* And 411’s Wrestler of the Week is…
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Shinsuke Nakamura – Votes

YEAOH!

The FINAL Standings
T-1. Kofi Kingston – 132 pts.
T-1. Big E – 132 pts.

3. Xavier Woods – 119 pts.

4. Roman Reigns – 113 pts.

5. Dean Ambrose – 93 pts.

6. John Cena – 92 pts.

7. Shinsuke Nakamura – 81 pts.

8. Kevin Owens – 79 pts.

9. Jay Lethal – 67 pts.

10. Seth Rollins – 62 pts.

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AJ Styles – 56 pts.

Kazuchika Okada – 55 pts.
Prince Puma/Ricochet – 55 pts.

Fenix – 51 pts.

Zack Sabre Jr – 50 pts.

Matt Hardy – 45 pts.
Bayley – 45 pts.

Mil Muertes – 44 pts.

Finn Balor – 43 pts.

Sasha Banks – 42 pts.

Brock Lesnar – 39 pts.

Kalisto – 38 pts.

Nick Jackson – 37 pts.
Matt Jackson – 37 pts.

Tomohiro Ishii – 33 pts.

Kenny Omega – 31pts.
Alberto Del Rio – 31 pts.

Cesaro – 30 pts.
Hiroshi Tanahashi – 30 pts.

KUSHIDA – 29 pts.

Ethan Carter III – 28 pts.

Kyle O’Reilly – 27 pts.
Naomichi Marufuji – 27 pts.
Matt Sydal – 27 pts.
Michael Elgin – 27 pts.

Timothy Thatcher – 25 pts.
Roderick Strong – 25 pts.
Sheamus – 25 pts.

Rey Mysterio Jr. – 24 pts.
Jeff Hardy – 24 pts.
Drago – 24 pts.
Kota Ibushi – 24 pts.
Rocky Romero – 24 pts.
Trent Baretta – 24 pts.
Kimber Lee – 24 pts.
Takashi Sugiura – 24 pts.
Katsuyori Shibata – 24 pts.
Triple H – 24 pts.

Tetsuya Naito – 23 pts.

Togi Makabe – 22 pts.

Angelico – 21 pts.
Son of Havoc – 21 pts.
Ivelisse – 21 pts.
Samoa Joe – 21 pts.
Hirooki Goto – 21 pts.

Eddie Edwards – 19 pts.
Davey Richards – 19 pts.
Drew Galloway – 19 pts.

Aerostar – 18 pts.
Bubba Ray Dudley – 18 pts.
D-Von Dudley – 18 pts.

Undertaker – 17 pts.

Pentagon Jr – 16 pts.
Bobby Roode – 16 pts.

The Monster Matanza Cueto – 15 pts.
Hideo Itami – 15 pts.
Shane McMahon – 15 pts.
Randy Orton – 15 pts.
Kurt Angle – 15 pts.
Bobby Fish – 15 pts.
Suwama -15 pts

Kazarian – 13 pts.
Christopher Daniels – 13 pts.
Sting – 13 pts.

Charlotte – 12 pts.
Atsushi Kotoge – 12 pts.
Daisuke Harada – 12 pts.
Mike Bennett – 12 pts.
Matt Taven – 12 pts.
“Speedball” Mike Bailey – 12 pts.
Rich Swann – 12 pts.
Daniel Bryan – 12 pts.
Apollo Crews – 12 pts.
Zack Ryder – 12 pts
Scott Dawson – 12 pts.
Dash Wilder – 12 pts.
Lashley – 12 pts.
Sami Zayn – 12 pts.

Becky Lynch – 10 pts.
King Cuerno – 10 pts.
Jason Jordan – 10 pts.
Chad Gable – 10 pts.

Will Ospreay – 9 pts.
Eric Young – 9 pts.
Santana Garrett – 9 pts.
Ryback – 9 pts.
Jeff Jarrett – 9 pts.
Karl Anderson – 9 pts.
Cherry Bomb – 9 pts.
Trevor Lee – 9 pts.

Tomoaki Honma – 7 pts.
Johnny Gargano – 7 pts.
EVIL – 7 pts.

Shingo Takagi – 6 pts.
Taiji Ishimori – 6 pts
Minoru Suzuki – 6 pts
Tigre Uno – 6 pts.
KAI – 6 pts.
Masato Tanaka – 6 pts.
King Bad News Barrett – 6 pts.
Nicole Matthews – 6 pts.
Gail Kim – 6 pts.

Neville – 5 pts.

James Storm – 3 pts.
Kamaitachi – 3 pts.
Carmella – 3 pts.
Johnny Mundo – 3 pts.
Jack Evans – 3 pts.
Cage – 3 pts.
Madison Eagles – 3 pts.
Jay Briscoe – 3 pts.
Hanson – 3 pts.
Raymond Rowe – 3 pts.
Kento Miyahara -3 pts.

Chris Hero – 2 pts.

BUSHI – 1 pt.
Lio Rush – 1 pt.
PJ Black – 1 pt.
El Siniestro de la Muerte – 1 pt.
Barrio Negro – 1 pt.
Terce – 1 pt.
Mark Andrews – 1 pt.
Kenny King – 1 pt.
The Rock – 1 pt.
Kane – 1 pt.
Jey Uso – 1 pt.
Jimmy Uso – 1 pt.
Nikki Bella – 1 pt.
Titus O’Neil – 1 pt.
Baron Corbin – 1 pt.
Aiden English – 1 pt.
Simon Gotch – 1 pt.
Darren Young – 1 pt.
Minoru Tanaka – 1 pt.
Tajiri – 1 pt.
Masato Yoshino – 1 pt.
Jun Kasai – 1 pt.
Manabu Soya – 1 pt.
Estonian Thunderfrog – 1 pt.

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* Voting began 4.06.15

* 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)