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411’s Wrestler of the Week 12.14.09: Week 37
Welcome to Week 37, 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~!
Robert S. Leighty Jr
1) Sheamus
In the blink of an eye he went from killing Jamie Noble to #1 contender to your New WWE Champion. I didn’t think the WWE had it in them to pull the trigger, but damn! Easily Sheamus gets Wrestler of the Week as he put mark Cuban through a table (made PTI, Around the Horn, SportsNation, and SportsCenter for that one) and then beats Cena to claim his first WWE Title.
2) DX (HHH and Shawn Michaels): The Super Duo finally get a run as Tag Team Champs. In a pretty sweet match they dethrone JeriShow from their reign of awesomeness. I want to see where they go with this as a breakup has to be teased at some point for DX, right?
3) Drew McIntyre: Drew ends the reign of Morrison as IC Champ, and picks up his first title in the WWE. It seems the WWE is serious about pushing some new talent, and Drew is going to get a shot it seems.
4) Christian
5) The Undertaker
Aaron Hubbard
1) Sheamus
Shocks the world in an upset win over John Cena to become WWE Champion. We can argue about whether he deserves it or not, but well, he has it. Lucky kid.
2)Triple H & Shawn Michaels: Well, it’s twelve years too late, but they win the Undisputed Tag Team Championships, dethroning the dominant JeriShow team in a wild TLC match.
3)Drew McIntyre: Relieves John Morrison of his Intercontinental Championship, establishing himself as a midcard force and giving John the chance to move up.
4)Christian
5)Randy Orton
Chad Nevett
1) Sheamus
From beating up jobbers to WWE Champion in a few short months… he laid out Cena on Monday and then did it again at TLC to become the new champ. All personal feelings aside, it’s impressive and deserves the top spot this week.
2) DX (Shawn Michaels and Triple H): This duo is one of the most well-known tag teams and yet never held the belts until taking them from the incredibly dominant team of Chris Jericho and Big Show in a TLC match. You can’t say they didn’t earn ’em.
3) Drew McIntyre: He may have looked like a bit of a punk on Smackdown, but he brought it Intercontinental Champion John Morrison at TLC and walked away with the strap.
4) Christian
5) Batista
ARI
1) Sheamus
WWE can’t ever use the “you get yourselves over” line in explaining to the lower card why they’re not being pushed, because this Sheamus build has been all their doing…and well, they’ve done a damned great job of it. Sheamus, for his part, has looked tough and acted the part when called for. He didn’t pin Cena, but he did dominate him on Monday and crashed him through a table to win the WWE Title. That and his running Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban through a table on Raw clinches this week for him.
2) Degeneration-X: Took out Chris Jericho and Big Show to win the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship.
3) Drew McIntrye: Defeated John Morrison for the WWE Intercontinental Championship, another young talent given a quick push to the top.
4) Christian
5) Randy Orton
THE Larry Csonka
1) Sheamus
Sheamus actually walked into TLC as the challenger and left as the champion. Everyone is a genius after the fact and says that they called it, but the fact is that not very many thought he had any kind of chance. But they pulled the trigger, they gave us a fresh face, which is what many wanted, and now it is up to the company to follow up and not get cold feet. Congrats to Sheamus.
2) HHH and HBK: DX finally wins the tag team titles to add to their legacy at a group/team. They not only neat Jeri-Show, who had a great run, but they did it in a good PPV main event as well.
3) Drew McIntyre: Won the IC Title at the TLC PPV, and then made sweet passionate love to Vince McMahon. Well, Vince was happy with him after the win, who knows what goes on at the hotel.
4) Christian
5) AJ Styles
Samuel Berman
1) Sheamus
Really?
2) Naruki Doi: Retained the Open the Dream Gate Championship over former title holder Magnitude Kishiwada.
3) Triple H & Shawn Michaels: Finally the cover models for WWE’s tag team DVD set actually hold tag team gold together. I feel like those two things took place in the wrong order…
4) Christian
5) Drew McIntyre
Mathew Sforcina
1) Sheamus
So, the new WWE Champ is… The guy who beat John Cena for the title and thus YOUR WWE champ is… I… What… Ahem. WHY THE HELL DIDN’T THEY DO THIS LAST TIME WITH UMAGA? Oh yeah, the drugs.
2) DX: Thanks a lot guys. Really. Thanks.
3) Drew McIntyre: He’s thanking his lucky stars that Sheamus won, less focus on HIS sudden inexplicable push.
4) Christian/Shelton Benjamin
5) Randy Orton
Michael Bauer
1) Degeneration X
While this is more of a footnote on their careers, this is a first for the most over team in WWE history.
2) Christian and Shelton Benjamin (tie): Tremendous build and an insane match to boot. Awesome work.
3) Drew McIntyre: I surely would have never seen him beating Morrison.
4) Naruki Doi
5) Mark Cuban
Ryan Byers
1) Sheamus
This is the first time in years that I can actually say that I’m happy to see somebody win the WWE Title as opposed to feeling that a title change will just lead to something that I’ve already seen before. I’ve been complaining for quite some time that the company needed to do something in order to freshen up its main event scene, and Sheamus appears to be the PERFECT guy to do it with. He’s carried himself like a total professional in just about every regard despite being on WWE television for less than a year now, and, as a result, he legitimately feels like somebody who belongs in the main event at this early stage of his big league career. This is how the promotion should treat new stars, not keeping a guy under contract for years and using him as a midcarder, only to one week decide to flip a switch and turn him into a main event level performer. Bravo to Sheamus, and bravo to WWE for having the stones to get behind Sheamus.
2) Jun Kasai & Ryoji Ito: This week, for what I believe was the eighteenth consecutive year, Tokyo Sports announced its year-end awards for all things puroresu. To put things in perspective, this wold be the equivalent of an ESPN or the sports section of USA Today holding a set of pro wrestling awards. The winners in the match of the year category were Jun Kasai and Ryoji Ito for their bout against one another on November 20. What’s particularly impressive about this accomplishment is that Kasai and Ito had this battle in Big Japan Wrestling, which is at most the fifth or sixth largest promotion in the country. It’s definitely well behind the “big three” of New Japan, All Japan, and Pro Wrestling NOAH. To make an analogy again, this would be the rough equivalent of a national US media outlet having its own pro wrestling awards with a company like CHIKARA walking away with a top prize. Congrats to Ito and Kasai for putting on a performance so spectacular that they leapfrogged all of the big boys.
3) Drew McIntyre: Though he hasn’t shot up the card quite as quickly as Sheamus, I still have to heartily endorse everything WWE has done with McIntyre. His Intercontinental Title win was absolutely the correct move, as the championship will probably help him significantly more than it helped John Morrison who, even though he is capable of putting on spectacular matches, has been a mid-card guy for so long that it’s going to take a lengthy rebuilding period to actually elevate him.
4) Naruki Doi
5) Randy Orton
Jeremy Thomas
1) Sheamus
Our winner, and STILL WWE Heavyw–wait, what? Seriously? That was most people’s reaction when the Celtic Warrior beat Cena for the Title. I’m glad they’ve elevated someone for sure, and Sheamus looks to be their new golden boy. There’s little doubt that this is the new greatest moment in Sheamus’s career, for obvious reasons, and big congratulations go out to Sheamus for being the man this week (and possibly the palest WWE Champion in history).
2) Drew McIntyre: I’ve been high on Drew since his debut, but that’s cooled since we haven’t seen much actual wrestling from him. That’s changed in the past couple weeks thanks to his push to the IC belt. He put on a very decent match with Morrison and picked up his first piece of WWE gold in the process. Big ups to the guy.
3) D-Generation X: Shawn and ‘H earn their first piece of gold as a tag team and send Chris Jericho back over exclusively to SmackDown with a really fun match. DX wins, fans of SmackDown win.
4) Christian
5) Randy Orton
THE WINNERS~!
McIntyre gets his first taste of WWE gold as he defeats ohn Morrison at TLC for the INtercontinental Title.
D-Generation X win the main event of TLC with a solid and fun performance to claim the Unified Tag Team Titles.
A hugely unexpected WWE Heavyweight Championship win rockets Sheamus to the top of the WWE, and to the top of our charts this week as he becomes Wrestler of the Week!
Year-End Standings~!
Sheamus continues his huge rise up the charts, and now sits in the top 15 tied with Kofi Kingston. Meanwhile, Shawn Michaels moves up to hang out just outside the top of the charts and Naruki Doi is hovering near there as well. Christian and Randy Orton make small gains within the Top 15 and Triple H and Drew McIntyre launch themselves up from the bottom of the rankings. It’s a good week to be a newcomer, but can any of them keep their momentum going to challenge for the top spot?
Let’s check out the Year-End Standings!
1. CM Punk – 113 (SmackDown)
2. Jeff Hardy – 85 (US Independent)
3. John Morrison – 70 (SmackDown)
4. AJ Styles – 60 (TNA)
5. Rey Mysterio – 55 (SmackDown)
5. Chris Jericho – 55 (SmackDown)
7. Randy Orton – 53 (RAW)
8. Edge – 49 (SmackDown) {INJURED}
9. John Cena – 45 (RAW)
10. The Undertaker – 42 (SmackDown)
11. Kofi Kingston – 36 (Raw)
11. Sheamus – 36 (Raw)
13. Christian – 35 (ECW)
14. Samoa Joe – 34 (TNA)
15. Davey Richards – 33 (ROH)
15. Eddie Edwards – 33 (ROH)
Ted DiBiase – 32 (RAW)
Desmond Wolfe – 32 (TNA)
Tyler Black – 31 (ROH)
Batista – 30 (SmackDown)
Naruki Doi – 30 (Dragon Gate)
Kurt Angle – 28 (TNA)
Shawn Michaels – 28 (RAW)
JTG – 27 (SmackDown)
Brian Danielson – 27 (WWE)
Jerry Lynn – 24 (ROH)
Mitsuharu Misawa – 21 (NOAH) {DECEASED}
MsChif – 21 (SHIMMER)
Austin Aries – 19 (ROH)
Sting – 18 (TNA)
Go Shiozaki – 18 (NOAH)
Daniels – 18 (TNA)
Hulk Hogan – 18 (TNA)
Shinsuke Nakamura – 18 (NJPW)
Drew McIntyre – 18 (SmackDown)
Cody Rhodes – 16 (RAW)
Mark Henry – 16 (RAW)
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)
Bison Smith – 15 (NOAH)
Takashia Sugiura – 15 (NOAH)
Triple H – 15 (Raw)
Pinky Sanchez – 12 (CHIKARA)
Minoru Suzuki – 12 (All Japan)
Brother Devon – 12 (TNA)
Brother Ray – 12 (TNA)
The Amazing Red – 12 (TNA)
Bison Smith – 15 (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)
BxB Hulk – 12 (Dragon’s Gate)
Keiji Mutoh – 12 (AJPW)
Masakatsu Funaki – 12 (AJPW)
Kenny Omega – 12 (US Independent)
Soldier Ant – 10 (CHIKARA)
Fire Ant – 10 (CHIKARA)
Delirious – 9 (ROH)
Jack Swagger – 9 (RAW)
Masato Tanaka – 9 (ZERO1)
Homicide – 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)
Bobby Lashley – 9 (TNA)
Roderick Strong – 9 (ROH)
Matt Hardy – 6 (SmackDown)
Chris Hero – 6 (US Independent)
Satoshi Kojima – 6 (AJPW)
Yoshinobu Kanemura – 6 (NOAH)
Giant Bernard – 6 (NJPW)
Karl Anderson – 6 (NJPW)
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)
Mickie James – 3 (SmackDown)
Ricky Steamboat– 2 (WWE)
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)
Tiger Mask IV- 1 (NJPW)
Shelton Benjamin – 1 (ECW)
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.
 Year One Winner: Ric Flair
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If you are wondering how some of the writers decide who to vote for, please check out our Wrestler of the Week Supplemental Column!
