411’s Wrestler of the Week 06.29.09: Week 13

Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 06.29.2009

The Bash sees a few new champions, plus John Morrison beats a World Champion and Tyler Black has a very good weekend! Check out the latest edition of 411's Wrestler of the Week for all the details and for an updated look at the Year-End standings!



Welcome to Week 13, Year FIVE, 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…

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The Voting~!
Andy Clark
1) Rey Mysterio & Chris Jericho (tie)
Rey and Jericho had one hell of a match (I'd be willing to throw the MOTYC hat on it) and both men walked out of The Bash with championship gold.

2) John Morrison: While Morrison may not have had a PPV match he did score a big victory over World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk on SmackDown.
3) CM Punk: On paper Punk would look like he had a bad week. He lost a non-title match to John Morrison on SmackDown and then lost his PPV match by diqualification to Jeff Hardy. But along the way Punk has managed to mature himself into an awesome, fleshed out main eventer. His feud with Hardy is red hot (I wish I had an extra vote to give Jeff some love) and that is largely due to the way Punk has played himself as champion.
4) Edge
5) Tyler Black


Andy Critchell
1. JOHN MORRISON - The Friday Night Delight's rise to the top continues as he had another GREAT match on Smackdown and this time he pinned the World Heavyweight Champ in a non-title contest. MORRISON is being treated like a star and he is doing everything he can to justify the WWE's faith in him. He is the future kids, and it looks like the future is coming fast.

2. Chris Jericho - Jericho was on the winning team on SD and the winning team at the Bash where he and Edge captured the unified tag titles. So I guess he's now the first and only guy to have the Unified Heavyweight Title and the Unified Tag Titles. Plus he put on one hell of a match with Rey at the Bash. That's a great week!
3. Michelle McCool - Speaking of firsts, McCool is the first woman in WWE history to hold both the Divas title and the Women's Championship. That's a nice little feather in her cap. She also had a big win on SD in a tag match by pinning Gail Kim.
4. Rey-Rey
5. Dolph Ziggler


Robert S. Leighty Jr

1) Chris Jericho/Edge
-They are a team now, so I will split the vote between the two of them. They captured the Undisputed Tag Titles to cap off a pretty stellar week for both of them. Edge pinned Hardy in a tag cage match on Friday, and though he lost the IC strap, Jericho tore the house down with Misterio at the Bash.

2) Rey Misterio: Rey has turned back the clock in this feud with Jericho and pulled out moves we haven't seen in years. The match at the Bash was the best of the series between the two this year, and what was awesome is that each match built off the other.
3) John Morrison: He continues to get brought along nicely on SmackDown, and with Edge and Jericho is the tag ranks now, perhaps there is a Main Event spot open against a tweener (though soon to be heel) CM Punk.
4) Michelle McCool
5) Randy Orton


Aaron Hubbard
1) John Morrison
Didn't see the bash. I saw John Morrison beat a world champion clean on television though, in a **** match as well. And it seems he was the only one this week to do so, so he gets it this week.

2) Rey Mysterio: As I've said, didn't see the match, can't comment on quality. However, having a Match that people call a MOTYC and winning the IC Title are nice things to do. And I'm sure he's glad that the mask is going nowhere.
3) Chris Jericho & Edge: By nature of being the NEW WWE Tag Team Champions, I can vote these men as a tag team. These guys won a VERY fun (and sadly overlooked, it seems) cage match on Smackdown!, and then won Tag Team Gold out of NOWHERE. These guys RULE.
4) Magnum TOKYO
5) Michelle McCool


Larry Csonka
1) Rey Mysterio and Chris Jericho
They closed out their feud with the match of the night at the BASH PPV. Honestly it was one of the best matches of the year as they worked even harder than the past matches, played off of them well, had a great series of near falls and I loved the double mask ending, which again, played off of the past matches. Rey wins the IC Title, and then later on Jericho becomes one half of the Unified Tag Team Champions. That's a hell of a night for both guys, no doubt.

2) Edge: Edge gets the big pin in the tag cage match on Smackdown, and then gets the pin to become one half of the Unified Tag Team Champions on a show he wasn't even booked on. Not even Dennis Stamp is that good.
3) Michelle McCool: Michelle McCool defeated Melina at the Bash to become the first woman in the WWE to hold the Women's and Diva's Title. Like her or not, that's an accomplishment.
4) Tyler Black
5) CM Punk


Samuel Berman
1) Tyler Black
Earned a (theoretically) feud-ending victory over former partner and Age of the Fall leader Jimmy Jacobs in a Steel Cage Match before taking NOAH star KENTA to the limit the next night.

2) Austin Aries: Successfully retains the ROH World Title over former champion Nigel McGuinness.
3) Rey Mysterio: Wins back the Intercontinental Title and gets to keep his mask.
4) John Morrison
5) Christian Able & Josh Raymond


Michael Bauer

1) Chris Jericho and Edge
Well, talk about pulling a rabbit out of the hat for surprises. Jericho may have lost the IC Title, but winning the Tag Straps with Edge is certainly not bad either. Plus these two also defeated Hardy and Mysterio on Smackdown, so I'll give my #1 to the new champs and biggest surprise.

2) Rey Mysterio: Gets back the IC Title in a fantastic match.
3) Tyler Black: Feud ending win over Jimmy Jacobs, good enough even with the loss to KENTA.
4) CM Punk
5) John Morrison / Michelle McCool (Tie)


Ryan Byers

1) Randy Orton and Triple H (tie)
Part of me didn't want to vote for these guys because, let's face it, their feud has been ridiculously boring since their stinker of a Wrestlemania main event. However, I do have to give both of them props for working two PPV main event caliber matches against each other within the same week and keeping them different enough so that each match was interesting in its own right. Granted, WWE BOOKING those matches to occur within seven days of one another, one on PPV and one on free TV, was not one of the best moves from a business standpoint. However, I have to give these guys credit for making the best out of a bad situation.

2) Rey Misterio - With Edge and Chris Jericho winning the Tag Team Titles, it seems that the Misterio/Jericho feud has been blown off. That makes me sad, because it was probably the best storyline in WWE so far this year and could have lasted significantly longer if USA Network didn't force the company in to booking so many big shows within such a short period of time. In any event, I'll go ahead and give Misterio credit for winning that awesome, awesome feud, even if it does appear to have been truncated a bit.
3) Magnum TOKYO - The name Toshiaki Kawada doesn't mean quite as much as it did fifteen years ago, but he's still a verifiable legend in Japanese wrestling. TOKYO, a former Dragon Gate standout who less then a year ago seemed to be out of wrestling on a major level, got one of the biggest single wins of his career this last week by pinning Kawada on a HUSTLE show. It's not the same as pinning Kawada in the heyday of All Japan, but it's been a pretty slow week, ya know?
4) Tyler Black
5) Hideyoshi & Masamune


Sat
1) Chris Jericho/Rey Mysterio
I have to give Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio the top slot for their amazing match at the Bash. Also, both guys walked out of the Bash with championship gold.

2) John Morrison: John Morrison gets the second slot for defeating CM Punk in a non-title match.
3) Edge: Edge gets the third slot for winning the undisputed tag team titles with Chris Jericho. Plus, he also pinned the number one contender in Rage in the Cage.
4) CM Punk
5) Michelle McCool


Daniel Wilcox
1) John Morrison
Mysterio and Jericho weren't the only ones to have a great match and big wins this week, as The Friday Night Delight pinned the World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk cleanly on SmackDown after another fantastic match. Although I think the IC Title match from the Bash was better, Morrison's stock rises by a great margin after this, the biggest win of his career.

2) Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio: I'll have to watch both again to decide which was better, but I'm thinking this match was on par with Michaels/Taker in terms of quality. Did you hear how hot that crowd was? This was just awesome stuff, and further proof that Jericho is the best in the business while Rey continues to prove wrong those who don't rate him any more.
3) CM Punk: Sure, the guy lost twice, but he also had two great matches, is still the World Champion and is also on one hell of a roll in his new tweener role, which is slowly becoming more of a heel persona.
4) Edge
5) Michelle McCool


Jeremy Thomas
1) Rated Y2J
Leave it to the two ultimate opportunists in the 'E to win a tag team title match they weren't even in. Jericho and Edge had one hell of a week between their win on SmackDown and then, after Jericho lost the Intercontinental Title, they won the Unified Tag Team Titles from the Colons. It was a great week for both of them, and for us since we'll now be seeing more of the two uber-heels.

2) Rey Mysterio: Rey Rey won back the Intercontinental Title from Jericho in the easy match of the night at THE Bash...only to be upstaged by his opponent and Edge. That's the breaks sometimes, Rey.
3) CM Punk/John Morrison: Punk and Morrison put on what was one of the better free TV matches we've seen yet on SmackDown, which resulted in Morrison getting the win. That would give Morrison the edge for me, except Punk then went on to THE Bash and retained the World Heavyweight Title against Jeff Hardy. Makes things even between them in my book for this week.
4) Tommy Dreamer
5) Michelle McCool

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THE WINNERS~!

Special Mention…Tyler Black & Michelle McCool - 13 Votes

Fifth Place…CM Punk - 14 Votes

Fourth Place…Edge - 29 Votes

Third Place…John Morrison - 32 Votes

Morrison picks up the biggest win of his career by pinning the World Heavyweight Champion on SmackDown in a fantastic match.

Second Place…Chris Jericho - 41 Votes

Y2J enters into an alliance with his SmackDown rival Edge to win the WWE Unified Tag Team Titles, a fair consolation prize after losing the Intercontinental Title.

Wrestler of the Week…Rey Mysterio - 44 Votes

Rey Rey keeps his mask and takes home his second Intercontinental Title reign, a double whammy in one stroke that catapults him into becoming the 13th Wrestler of the Week this year!


Year-End Standings~!

Lots of changes in the top 15 this week, as Rey Mysterio's WOTW win vaults him up into a tie for fifth place while Edge gets a bit of a lead on CM Punk while they both narrow things up against the leader, Jeff Hardy. John Morrison is in fourth place, meaning that five of the top seven spots are held by the new SmackDown Six with Jericho not far behind. How long will that last?

Let's check out the Year-End Standings!

1. Jeff Hardy – 40 (SmackDown)

2. Edge – 37 (SmackDown)

3. CM Punk – 34 (SmackDown)

4. John Morrison – 27 (SmackDown)

5. Jerry Lynn – 24 (ROH)
5. Randy Orton – 24 (RAW)
5. Rey Mysterio – 24 (SmackDown)

8. Christian – 22 (ECW)

9. Davey Richards – 21 (ROH)
9. Eddie Edwards – 21 (ROH)
9. Mitsuharu Misawa - 21 (NOAH)

12. Chris Jericho – 19 (SmackDown)

13. Sting – 18 (TNA)
13. Go Shiozaki - 18 (NOAH)

15. Tyler Black – 16 (ROH)


The Undertaker – 15 (SmackDown)
Mick Foley – 15 (TNA)
Montel Vontavious Porter – 15 (RAW)
Manabu Nakanishi - 15 (NOAH)
Batista – 15 (RAW)
Austin Aries – 15 (ROH)
Kurt Angle – 15 (TNA)

Shawn Michaels – 12 (RAW)
Minoru Suzuki - 12 (All Japan)
Brother Devon – 12 (TNA)
Brother Ray – 12 (TNA)
Bison Smith - 12 (NOAH)
AJ Styles – 12 (TNA)
Tommy Dreamer – 12 (ECW)
Hiroshi Tanahashi - 12 (New Japan)

Samoa Joe – 10 (TNA)

John Cena – 9 (RAW)
MsChif - 9 (SHIMMER)
Jack Swagger – 9 (ECW)

Christopher Daniels – 6 (TNA)
Matt Hardy – 6 (Raw)
Nick Jackson - 6 (US Independent)
Matt Jackson - 6 (US Independent)

Evan Bourne – 3 (ECW)
The Miz – 3 (Raw)
Ken "Kennedy" Anderson - 3 (US Independent)
Dr. Wagner Jr. - 3 (AAA)

Ricky Steamboat– 2 (WWE)

Portia Perez - 1 (SHIMMER)
Nicole Mathews - 1 (SHIMMER)
Ryo Saito - 1 (Dragon Gate)
Genki Horiguchi - 1 (Dragon Gate)
Soldier Ant - 1 (US Independent)
Fire Ant - 1 (US Independent)
Dr. Wagner Jr. - 1 (CMLL)
Michelle McCool – 1 (SmackDown)

Voting began 4.06.09

Year-End Rankings Key:

WWE, Raw, ECW and SmackDown 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.

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**PREVIOUS WINNERS**

Year One Winner: Ric Flair


Year Two Winner: Samoa Joe


Year Three Winner: John Cena


Year Four Winner: Chris Jericho

If you are wondering how some of the writers decide who to vote for, please check out our Wrestler of the Week Supplemental Column!