411’s Wrestler of the Week 07.27.09: Week 17

Posted by Andy Critchell on 07.27.2009

Jeff Hardy and Mickie James win at Night of Champions, Naruki Doi continues to roll in Japan, Lance Storm comes out of retirement for ROH in Canada and more! 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 17, Year FIVE, of 411's Wrestler of the Week. Jeremy is out this week but don't worry as your ol' Uncle Andy has you covered. 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~!
Jeremy Thomas
1) Jeff Hardy
Here's one that no one saw coming. Jeff's supposed in-question contract status, combined with the strength of the Punk title reign and Jeff's questionable past, made this seem like an impossible match for Day-Glo to win. But apparently not. Jeff went out there and put on a great match with Punk to win the strap. That's not even counting his nice match against Jericho on SmackDown, which he won. Frankly, there isn't even a question about this one in my eyes.

2) CM Punk: He may have lost his World Title but bad-ass heel promos on SmackDown and at Night of Champions, combined with great matches on both shows, puts CM Punk fully and officially heel and still made for a great week for the Straight-Edge Superstar
3) Eric Young: Eric Young's heel push got a serious shot in the arm this week as he turned on AJ Styles and piledrove him, then became the leader of the World Elite.
4) Randy Orton/Mickie James
5) Kofi Kingston

Andy Clark
1) Jeff Hardy
World Title's count big, and a suprise World Title win at that scores bonus points. Jeff swerved us all by winning the World Heavyweight Title from CM Punk in a good PPV main event at Night of Champions, as well as besting Chris Jericho in a great match on SmackDown.

2) Christian: Christian becomes only the second two-time WWE sponsored ECW Champion with his win over ECW Original Tommy Dreamer in Philadelphia.
3) Randy Orton: Orton retained the WWE Championship in a great Triple Threat Match at Night of Champions.
4) Bobby Lashley
5) Naruki Doi & Chris Hero (tie)

ARI
1) Jeff Hardy
The moment Jeff defeated CM Punk at the Night of Champions PPV for the World Heavyweight Title sealed the deal on Hardy as the number one pick this week. Although I can't agree with the rapid-fire title changes WWE is doing seemingly every month, Hardy winning works in the story-telling of the Punk / Hardy feud.

2) The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson): They had the breakout match on the debut Dragon Gate USA show in Philly and upset the team of CIMA & Yokosuka. CIMA is the most commonly known DG wrestler to the US independent wrestling fan base so a win against him in any match is no minor feat. The Bucks have smooth moves and are coming into their own. They really impressed the Philly crowd on Saturday.
3) Chris Hero & Lance Storm (tie): Storm returned for two very good matches on this weekend's Ring of Honor double shot in Canada. He defeated Hero & Davey Richards in a tag match on night one with an homage to Bret Hart and then Chris Hero topped him with the win in the main event of night two. Storm's finale (for now) proved to be the highlight of what seemed to be a very fun weekend of ROH action.
4) Naruki Doi
5) Bobby Lashley

Larry Csonka
1) Jeff Hardy
Jeff Hardy regained the WWE Title at the Night of Champions PPV while having the match of the night against CM Punk. Sure the title changing hands so many damn times isn't my cup of tea, but the match was good, Punk is cemented as a heel, and the crowd dug it.

2) Christian: Christian regained the ECW title against Tommy Dreamer. Christian has been great since returning, and that poor bastard needs all the accomplishments he can get, because his next program is with Kozlov…
3) CM Punk: A great main event match at Night of Champions as well as some stellar mic work get him the third spot this week.
4) Eric Young/Bobby Lashley
5) Mickie James

Samuel Berman
1) Jeff Hardy and CM Punk (tie)
One of the best programs in recent memory in WWE leads to a fantastic Pay-Per-View main event title switch.

2) The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson): Breakout stars of Dragon Gate USA's debut show.
3) Chris Hero: A big time singles win over a returning Lance Storm.
4) Naruki Doi
5) Hiroshi Tanahashi

Jasper Gerretsen

1) Jeff Hardy
After a surprisingly personal feud that went way beyond what I'd expect from WWE's current PG title, Jeff won his third world title after already picking up a clean win over Chris Jericho on Friday. I have no idea what's going on with Hardy's contract status, but for now he's the champion of the hottest brand of WWE.

2) Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki: They beat two time tournament winners KENTA and Taiji Ishimori in the semifinals, then DDT representatives Atsushi Aoki & Kota Ibushi in the finals to win the NOAH NTV Jr. Heavyweight Tag League.
3) Naruki Doi: After last week's huge win over CIMA, Doi picked up the win over former Open the Dream Gate champion Shingo.
4) Randy Orton
5) Chris Hero

Michael Bauer

1) Jeff Hardy
Well, so much for Punk's killer reign as champion. A shocking win to say the least, but an amazing match to go with it. Plus, he beat Jericho on Smackdown.

2) Naruki Doi: Successfully defended both the Open the Brave Gate and Open the Dream Gate titles in the Main event of the first Dragon Gate USA event.
3) Chris Hero: Defeated Lance Storm, a huge win for Hero, who needed it.
4) The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson)
5) Austin Aries / Christian

Ryan Byers

1) Jeff Hardy
Not a ton of note in wrestling this past week. Several wrestling companies (WWE, NJPW, ROH, DG USA) had what were supposed to be major shows, and, though they all contained some good matches, none of the results were particularly noteworthy. Given that, I'll go ahead and put Hardy on top for his Smackdown Title win, even though it is fairly obvious that he's only got the belt so that he can lose it back to CM Punk (or somebody else) on his way out of the company later this summer.

2) TAJIRI: TAJIRI invaded New Japan this past weekend after the main event of a major show, attacking world champion Hiroshi Tanahashi and leaving him laying with a blast of green mist. This immediately positions TAJIRI at the top of the company for his (likely brief) run there and virtually guarantees him a good finish in the upcoming G1 Climax tournament and a title shot down the road.
3) Yoshinobu Kanemura & Kotaro Suzuki: Kanemura and Suzuki are YOUR winners of this year's NTV Cup in NOAH, featuring the company's greatest junior heavyweight tag teams.
4) Kenny Omega
5) Naruki Doi

Andy Critchell
1) Jeff Hardy
If all he did was win the World Heavyweight Title in a very good match to close out a pay-per-view he would still get #1 but he also beat Chris Jericho is a very fun Smackdown match.

2) Randall K Orton, Esq.: Orton was able to retain the title when most everyone thought he would lose and he did it in what was the MOTN in my opinion. The Age of Orton rolls on...
3) Kofi Kingston: Kofi gets the nod here because I think him retaining the US Title in the Six-Pack Challenge Match was the most impressive thing he has done to date and should go a long way to helping him stand out from the midcard crowd. Or at least I hope so.
4) Christian
5) Rey-Rey

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THE WINNERS~!

Special Mention… Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki - 7 Votes

Fifth Place… The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) - 10 Votes

Fourth Place… Randy Orton/Christian/Chris Hero - 11 Votes

Third Place…CM Punk - 12 Votes

Punks impressive outings on Smackdown and Night of Champions earns him a big third place nod this week.

Second Place… Naruki Doi - 13 Votes

Doi continues to roll in Japan picking up an impressive win over Shingo.

Wrestler of the Week… Jeff Hardy - 45 Votes

Hardy's HUGE World Heavyweight Title win over Punk in the main event at Night of Champions gets him a landslide win for WOTW.


Year-End Standings~!
Night of Champions really shook things up as we finally have a NEW number one in the standings in Jeff Hardy. Punk moves up to a second place tie with Edge and Naruki Doi makes his top-15 debut. Speaking of debuts, Chris Hero, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, and Kotaro Suzuki all made their WOTW debuts this week.


Let's check out the Year-End Standings!

1. Jeff Hardy – 55 (SmackDown)

2. Edge – 49 (SmackDown) {INJURED}
2. CM Punk – 49 (SmackDown)

4. John Morrison – 39 (SmackDown)

5. Rey Mysterio – 36 (SmackDown)

6. Chris Jericho – 34 (SmackDown)

7. Randy Orton – 30 (RAW)

8. Naruki Doi - 27 (Dragon Gate)

9. Christian – 28 (ECW)

10. Jerry Lynn – 24 (ROH)

11. Kurt Angle – 22 (TNA)

12. Davey Richards – 21 (ROH)
12. Eddie Edwards – 21 (ROH)
12. Mitsuharu Misawa - 21 (NOAH) {DECEASED}

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

Tyler Black – 16 (ROH)

The Undertaker – 15 (SmackDown) {INJURED}
Mick Foley – 15 (TNA)
Montel Vontavious Porter – 15 (RAW)
Manabu Nakanishi - 15 (NOAH)
Batista – 15 (RAW) {INJURED}
Austin Aries – 15 (ROH)
Mark Henry – 15 (RAW)
Ted DiBiase – 15 (RAW)

Shawn Michaels – 12 (RAW) {INJURED}
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 (RAW)
Masato Tanaka - 9 (ZERO1)
Homcide – 9 (TNA)
Nick Jackson - 9 (US Independent)
Matt Jackson - 9 (US Independent)

Daniels – 6 (TNA)
Matt Hardy – 6 (SmackDown) {INJURED}
Dolph Ziggler – 6 (SmackDown)
Chris Hero - 6 (US Independent)

Dr. Wagner Jr. - 4 (AAA)

Evan Bourne – 3 (Raw)
The Miz – 3 (Raw)
Ken Anderson - 3 (US Independent)
Tara – 3 (TNA)
Booker T – 3 (TNA)
Scott Steiner – 3 (TNA)

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)
Michelle McCool – 1 (SmackDown)
Atsushi Aoki - 1 (NOAH)
Kota Ibushi - 1 (NOAH)
Seth Green - 1 (US Independent)
Yoshinobu Kanemaru - 1 (NOAH)
Kotaro Suzuki - 1 (NOAH)

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!