wrestling / Columns

411’s Wrestler of the Week 11.02.09: Week 31

November 2, 2009 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas

Welcome to Week 31, 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…

The Voting~!
Aaron Hubbard
1) Kofi Kingston
There’s a lot of talk about Hulk Hogan signing with TNA this week, but the biggest name in history signing with a second rate company doesn’t strike me as advancing his career or legacy any. Someone who DID make a big step in advancing his career this week was Kofi Kingston. Kofi was the victim or Orton’s wrath coming off the loss to John Cena at Bragging Rights, but he didn’t just sit there and let Orton walk over him. Instead, he cut the best promo of his career and attacked Orton’s car. Kofi is about to go on the most high-profile program of his career, and Orton isn’t the type to “cling” to his spot. Kofi could very well become a huge star, and if he does, and we will all look back at this week as where it started.

2) Yoshinobu Kanemura: Won the Jr. Heavyweight Championship tournament that’s been going on for two weeks. BUT, more importantly, due to KENTA’s injury, his title for victory. So Kanemura won the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Championship, defeating Jushin Thunder Lyger in the final match. And if you don’t know who Jushin Liger is, turn in your “smart mark” card right now.
3) Chris Jericho: Defeated Kane to earn his way into a triple threat World Title match with Big Show and Undertaker at Survivor Series.
4) Christian
5) Yoshi Tatsu/Delirious

ARI
1) Chris Jericho
Jericho has become the MVP (not Montel Vontavious, the other kind) of WWE in the second half of the year thanks to his constant involvement in major storyline and matches on both Smackdown and Raw. This week Jericho played an excellent antagonist on Raw by rubbing the “Bragging Rights” Cup in that brand’s collective face. Then in an awesome moment he got when he saw the getting was good to avoid public humiliation such as The Big Show suffered at the end of the night. Yet the true genius of Jericho came during Smackdown when he was able to insert himself in the World Heavyweight Title picture by defeating Kane in an “anything Big Show can do, I can do better” moment.

2) Hulk Hogan: Just as “Nigel McGuinness to TNA” dominated last week’s headlines, it was “Hulk Hogan to TNA” that dominated this week’s big picture. Hogan didn’t do anything in the ring and wasn’t officially on the show in any “live” (or “plausibly live”) capacity, but the video footage was shown, not to mention Hogan was all over mainstream press (promoting his autobiography more than TNA, but still, more often than not, TNA was mentioned during his appearances). Face facts friends, its a Hulk Hogan world in TNA and we’re all about to experience it, for better or for worse.
3) Desmond Wolf: I will be officially referring to Nigel as Desmond from here on in. For the second week in a row Desmond was dominant against Kurt Angle, one of TNA’s elite players. He looked strong in both a promo and in his first match against Angle, which not only main evented that edition of the show but ended when a lariat decapitated Angle and put him out.
4) Kofi Kingston
5) Christian / Yoshi Tatsu (tie)

Ryan Byers
1) Kofi Kingston
Kofi’s stock continues to rise in an impressive fashion. Coming off of the Bragging Rights pay per view, I figured that he was headed into a feud with Cody Rhodes and/or Ted DiBiase, Jr. However, after Raw on Monday night, it became apparent that he was bypassing the cronies and heading straight after Randy Orton, the leader of the Legacy pack. Getting an opportunity to show off his skills against the immediate past WWE Champion is a huge step up for the former fakin’ Jamaican, and, though I don’t think he’s the greatest wrestler in the world, I’m still more excited by what he will do with this opportunity than just about anything else in WWE right now.

2) Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson – Bernard and Anderson won the annual G1 Tag League tournament in New Japan Pro Wrestling. This sets them up as the most likely team to take the IWGP Tag Team Titles off of Bubba Ray & D-Von Dudley, who have held the belts and kept them out of NJPW since January of this year. This is particularly important for Anderson, who has spent the majority of his time in New Japan as “that guy who teams with Bernard just so that he can get pinned.”
3) Prince Fergal Devitt & Rysuke Taguchi – Devitt and Taguchi, the reigning IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, made it to the finals of the G1 Tag League before losing to Bernard & Anderson. However, the fact that they were placed in the finals is evidence of a huge vote of confidence in them by NJPW, as generally junior heavyweights aren’t depicted as successful when they go head-to-head with heavyweights. On top of that, in their semi-final match, the two defeated a team that includes Shinsuke Nakamura, the promotion’s reigning heavyweight champion.
4) Yoshinobu Kanemura
5) Chris Jericho

Andy Clark
1) Hulk Hogan
Yeah sorry, I’m not no selling this one. Truth be told the real vote getter here should be “TNA” but I don’t think that one would fly. Hulk Hogan is the biggest name in professional wrestling history and he is once again relevent for actual wrestling news. If promoted properly, which admittedly remains to be seen (try namedropping a bit, Hulkster) this could help TNA get even more on the map.

2) Kofi Kingston: Kingston has a really good match, and win, against Chris Jericho on Raw, but more importantly he got to stand up to Randy Orton and cut a pretty solid promo as well. This could be the start of something big for the West Ghanan Sensation.
3) Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson: Bernard & Anderson won the G1 Tag League Tournament, significantly upping their prestige on the Japanese tag team scene.
4) Chris Jericho
5) Christian & Yoshhi Tatsu (tie)

Samuel Berman
1) Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Won NOAH’s Jr. Heavyweight Tournament and with it the vacant GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title.

2) Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson: Won NJPW’s G1 Tag League.
3) Kofi Kingston and Desmond Wolfe (tie): Furthered potentially career-making feuds.
4) Delirious
5) Hulk Hogan

THE Larry Csonka
1) Hulk Hogan
Love him or hate him, you have to admit that the big news of the week was revolving around Hulk Hogan. The mainstream media, the late night talk shows, the internet sites all were talking about Hogan. Love him or hate him, he was the biggest thing going last week. I am going to throw up now…

2) Yoshinobu Kanemura: Yoshinobu Kanemura pinned Jushin Liger to become the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion and to win the NOAH Jr. Heavyweight League, which had been going on for two weeks.
3) Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson: Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson defeated Prince Fergal Devitt & Rysuke Taguchi in the finals of the G1 Tag League in NJPW.
4) Desmond Wolfe
5) Kofi Kingston

Robert Leighty Jr
1) Hulk Hogan
I could care less if the man didn’t actually wrestle. He clearly had the biggest impact on the business this week. His signing with TNA was announced at a press conference in Madison Square Garden. That is WWE only Territory and Hogan got TNA in the door. He has been all over the news and though it has mainly been for his book, he has name dropped TNA. The ratings for Impact had a slight increase against heavy competition in the World Series, and I highly doubt it was because of Desmond Wolfe.

2) Kofi Kingston: Kofi’s performance on RAW was excellent. The interview he gave was one the best ones of the year, and showed the man has some emotion to go with his skill set in the ring. A feud with Randy Orton could be great for his career. It appears he is being given the ball and hopefully he makes the most of it.
3) Chris Jericho: The most overlooked man in the wrestling in terms of what he has been treating everyone to on a nightly basis. He has been gold for well over a year night, and I think we are just used to the awesomeness that is Chris Jericho. His involvment at Survivor Series in the World Title Match easily makes the match better in every sense. It’s also nice to see we are finally going to get some version of Jericho vs Taker.
4) Christian
5) Yoshi Tatsu

Shawn S. Lealos
1) Desmond Wolfe
In his second week in TNA, he KILLED Kurt Angle. He got some mic time and was great and then in the main event, he dominated Angle. He then stood triumphant over our Olympic champion in what should have been the end of the show if not for a certain press conferance.

2) The Motor City Machine Guns: I don’t care if it was controversial, they beat Team 3D and look to be on their way to the tag team titles. This is awesome.
3) Hulk Hogan: The guy dominated the news this week. He will either make or break my favorite promotion, so this is the start of “something”
4) Chris Jericho
5) Kofi Kingston

Michael Bauer
1) Desmond Wolfe
This is wrestler of the week, not the Un-retirement Watch. If you want that, go read about Brett Farve returning to Green Bay. It’s a toss up between my top two, but I have to give the edge to Wolfe simply because he is being built so perfectly by TNA that it shocks even me. RoH Haters, do yourselves a favor and watch this guy, then tell me that nothing good came out of there.

2) Kofi Kingston: Pins Jericho clean, gets huge momentum for a feud with Randy Orton, and simply has broken the mid-carder glass ceiling.
3) Yoshinobu Kanemura: The beneficiary of KENTA’s injury, as he beat Jushin Liger to become GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion.
4) Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson
5) Christian / Yoshi Tatsu (tie)

Chad Nevett

1) Desmond Wolfe
After an impressive debut last week, Wolfe kicked off Impact this week with a great promo and, then, beat Kurt Angle in a street fight clean in Impact’s main event. Actually, he didn’t just beat Angle, he destroyed him with the ref stopping the match because Angle could no longer compete. When was the last time you saw that happen? Wolfe has been set up as a possible main eventer after only two weeks.

2) Chris Jericho: Chris Jericho being on Raw and Smackdown (and ECW sometimes) is one of the best things the WWE has going for them as he followed up Bragging Rights with the suitable arrogance on Raw to rub in Smackdown’s win. On Smackdown, he carried that attitude over to demanding a spot in the World Heavyweight Championship match at Survivor Series and earned it by defeating Kane. Now, the Undertaker/Big Show contest doesn’t seem nearly as boring.
3) Kofi Kingston: Funny how being an Intercontinental, World Tag Team, and US champion never got Kingstom as over as losing the Jamaican accent. A win over Jericho, a burgeoning feud with Randy Orton? Finally, Kingston is showing why people have been predicting big things for him ever since his debut.
4) Christian / Yoshi Tatsu (tie)
5) Hulk Hogan

Jeremy Thomas
1) Hulk Hogan
There really isn’t any other choice here, to be frank. Hogan was the talk of the wrestling world after he signed with TNA and brought Eric Bischoff with him. He did the rounds of talk shows and got the company’s name mentioned more on mainstream television than it’s probably been mentioned in the entirety of its history. Whether you love him or hate him, one thing is assured and that’s the fact that he’s going to bring huge changes to TNA in one fashion or the other. Whether he’ll be the savior or destroyer of the company is another question, but for now he’s undoubtedly my wrestler of the week.

2) Kofi Kingston: Kofi is in a primed spot. He’s dropped his more cartoony gimmick for a character that’s more an extension of his real-life self, shown us that he has some serious mic skills, and been inserted into a high-profile feud with Randy Orton and/or Priceless. Could the Jamaican from Ghana be the next guy to make the CM Punk leap into the main event? If things continue this way, it certainly looks like it.
3) Desmond Wolfe: Desmond’s reign of terror over Kurt Angle continues with a nice promo on the guy and then murdering him with a lariat to end the show. He’s continuing to make an impact on iMpact, and his run is already quite impressive only two weeks in.
4) Chris Jericho
5) Christian/Yoshi Tatsu (tie)

THE WINNERS~!

Special Mention…Christian – 10 Votes

Fifth Place…Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson – 16 Votes

Fourth Place…Chris Jericho and Yoshinobu Kanemura – 18 Votes

Third Place…Desmond Wolfe – 22 Votes

Desmond Wolfe’s big debut in TNA is followed up strongly as he rolls through in his feud with Kurt Angle.

Second Place…Hulk Hogan – 26 Votes

Hulkamania shocks the wrestling world by returning to the business, signing with TNA.

Wrestler of the Week…Kofi Kingston – 36 Votes

A new and more serious character and a high-profile feud with Randy Orton are definite signs of a star on the rise, and that makes Kofi Kingston our Wrestler of the Week!

Year-End Standings~!

Kofi Kingston is right on the heels of the top 15 after his big week, and of course the Hulkster makes his Year-End Rankings debut. Giant Bernard, Karl Anderson and Yoshinobu Kanemura also make their debuts, but the bigger stories are the leaps of Chris Jericho and Desmond Wolfe in the top 15! Wolfe is not within two points of the top ten and Jericho has entered the top five! It’s tightening up near the top!

Let’s check out the Year-End Standings!

1. CM Punk – 107 (SmackDown)

2. Jeff Hardy – 85 (US Independent)

3. John Morrison – 70 (SmackDown)

4. Rey Mysterio – 55 (SmackDown)

5. Randy Orton – 52 (RAW)
5. Chris Jericho – 52 (SmackDown)

7. Edge – 49 (SmackDown) {INJURED}

8. AJ Styles – 45 (TNA)

9. The Undertaker – 36 (SmackDown)

10. Davey Richards – 33 (ROH)
10. Eddie Edwards – 33 (ROH)
10. John Cena – 33 (RAW)

13. Ted DiBiase – 32 (RAW)

14. Tyler Black – 31 (ROH)
14. Desmond Wolfe – 31 (TNA)

Batista – 30 (SmackDown)

Christian – 29 (ECW)

Naruki Doi – 27 (Dragon Gate)
JTG – 27 (SmackDown)
Brian Danielson – 27 (WWE)

Jerry Lynn – 24 (ROH)

Kurt Angle – 22 (TNA)
Samoa Joe – 22 (TNA)

Mitsuharu Misawa – 21 (NOAH) {DECEASED}
Kofi Kingston – 21 (Raw)

Sting – 18 (TNA)
Go Shiozaki – 18 (NOAH)

Cody Rhodes – 16 (RAW)
Mark Henry – 16 (RAW)
Shawn Michaels – 16 (RAW)
Austin Aries – 16 (ROH)
The Miz – 16 (Raw)

Mick Foley – 15 (TNA)
Montel Vontavious Porter – 15 (RAW)
Manabu Nakanishi – 15 (NOAH)
Togi Makabe – 15 (NOAH)
Hernandez – 15 (TNA)
Dolph Ziggler – 15 (SmackDown)
Mitsuharu Misawa – 15 (NJPW)

Carpenter Ant – 12 (CHIKARA)
Minoru Suzuki – 12 (All Japan)
Brother Devon – 12 (TNA)
Brother Ray – 12 (TNA)
The Amazing Red – 12 (TNA)
Bison Smith – 12 (NOAH)
Tommy Dreamer – 12 (ECW)
Hiroshi Tanahashi – 12 (New Japan)
Shad – 12 (SmackDown)
Zach Ryder – 12 (ECW)
Shingo Takagi – 12 (Dragon Gate)
YAMATO – 12 (Dragon’s Gate)
Hulk Hogan – 12 (TNA)

Soldier Ant – 10 (CHIKARA)
Fire Ant – 10 (CHIKARA)

Delirious – 9 (ROH)
MsChif – 9 (SHIMMER)
Jack Swagger – 9 (RAW)
Masato Tanaka – 9 (ZERO1)
Homcide – 9 (TNA)
Nick Jackson – 9 (US Independent)
Matt Jackson – 9 (US Independent)
Ryouji Sai – 9 (ZERO1)
Player Dos – 9 (CHIKARA)
Mistico – 9 (CMLL)
The Big Show – 9 (RAW)
Daniels – 9 (TNA)

Matt Hardy – 6 (SmackDown)
Chris Hero – 6 (US Independent)
Satoshi Kojima – 6 (AJPW)
Yoshinobu Kanemura – 6 (NOAH)

Dr. Wagner Jr. – 4 (AAA)

Evan Bourne – 3 (Raw)
Ken Anderson – 3 (US Independent)
Tara – 3 (TNA)
Booker T – 3 (TNA)
Alex Shelley – 3 (TNA)
Chris Sabin – 3 (TNA)
Scott Steiner – 3 (TNA)
Tajiri – 3 (HUSTLE)
Tyson Kidd – 3 (SmackDown)
Hamada – 3 (TNA)
Eric Young – 3 (TNA)
Eric Escobar – 3 (SmackDown)
Doug Williams – 3 (TNA)
Brutus Magnus – 3 (TNA)
Yujiro Takahashi – 3 (CMLL)
Giant Bernard – 6 (NJPW)
Karl Anderson – 6 (NJPW)

Ricky Steamboat– 2 (WWE)
Triple H – 2 (Raw)

Portia Perez – 1 (SHIMMER)
Nicole Mathews – 1 (SHIMMER)
Ryo Saito – 1 (Dragon Gate)
Genki Horiguchi – 1 (Dragon Gate)
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)
Vince McMahon – 1 (WWE)
Brian Kendrick – 1 (US Independent)