wrestling / Columns

411’s Wrestler of the Week 03.01.10: Week 48

March 1, 2010 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas

Welcome to Week 48, 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) Daniel Bryan
Was the focal point of the debut episode of NXT, battled Chris Jericho in his first match as part of the WWE roster, has an interesting storyline with The Miz, and had one of the best executed and most awesome debuts ever in wrestling. Love him or hate him, EVERY ONE is talking about Daniel Bryan, and whatever becomes of him, this was his week.

2) Christian: Defeated Carlito to qualifiy for Money in the Bank in his return to RAW, and teamed with Heath Slater to defeat Carlito and Michael Tarver on NXT.
3) Davey Richards: Defeated Kenny Omega to become the FIP World Champion.
4) Claudio Castagnoli & Ares
5) Edge

Samuel Berman
1) Daniel Bryan
A big time debut against World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho for the former Bryan Danielson.

2) Davey Richards: Defeated Kenny Omega to win the PWG World Title.
3) Takashi Sugiura: Retained the GHC Heavyweight Title over New Japan’s Togi Makabe.
4) Fire Ant & Soldier Ant
5) Claudio Castagnoli and Ares (tie)

ARI
1) Daniel Bryan / The Miz (tie)
The former Bryan Danielson was the featured wrestler on the debut episode of WWE NXT, and not only was he inserted into the thick of that show’s storyline with his budding issues with his mentor The Miz, but he wrestled the WWE World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho in his debut–AND he was inches away from defeating him as well! Not too many television debuts can be better than that. Meanwhile, The Miz proved to be an excellent antagonist for not only Daniel Bryan, but for Jewel and Ty Murray and for Edge as well.

2) Edge: Had the one-up on Chris Jericho the entire week, with a spear on WWE Raw and another on WWE Smackdown! Edge looks in prime form to fight Jericho for the title at Wrestlemania XXVI.
3) Batista: Intentionally lost the main event match of Raw to John Cena and thus allowing Cena the opportunity to challenge him at ‘Mania in order to prove a point–he could decimate John Cena whenever and where-ever he wanted and that includes the biggest PPV of WWE’s calendar year. Batista owned John Cena for the entire final ten minutes of WWE Raw to make the exclamation point on that sentiment.
4) Christian
5) Davey Richards

Chad Nevett
1) Daniel Bryan
You don’t get a lot of debuts that make you sit up and take notice, but Daniel Bryan received just that this week on NXT with some great interaction with the Miz on the mic and, then, holding his own against the World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho.

2) The Miz: The Miz was all over the WWE this week with a victory to retain the tag belts on Raw, some great heel promo work on NXT, and another good promo on Smackdown which led to a pretty good match with Edge. He may have lost, but he looked like he belonged in the ring with the Rated R Superstar.
3) Davey Richards: Became the new PWG world champion, which goes nicely with his FIP world belt.
4) Super Shisa
5) Chris Jericho

THE Larry Csonka
1) Davey Richards
The biggest victory of the week was Davey Richards defeating Kenny Omega to win the PWG World Title. Richards continues his run of dominance on the Indy scene, and now has some more gold to show for it.

2) Daniel Bryan: It is obvious that they want to push Daniel Bryan as the star of NXT, and he got off to a great start. His interaction with Miz was good and the short match with Jericho was a ton of fun.
3) Christian: Christian debuted as an official part of Raw and qualified for the MITB ladder match.
4) Fire Ant and Solider Ant
5) Edge

Jasper Gerretsen
1) Daniel Bryan
The former American Dragon was the focal point of the very first episode of NXT, and got plenty of attention on both WWE’s other shows and WWE.com, which speaks volumes for how much faith WWE puts in this guy.

2) Edge: Announced himself as Chris Jericho’s challenger on Monday, then continued to catch the world heavyweight champion off guard pretty much everywhere he went.
3) Davey Richards: Despite all the shenanigans involving his contracts with various companies, he’s still a great wrestler and reminded us of that this Sunday.
4) Claudio Castagnoli & Ares (tie)
5) The Colony

Michael Bauer
1) Daniel Bryan
I have never seen this much excitement, hype, or execution of a debut in my 20 years of watching wrestling. His promo work was better than most thought it would be and he showed he could compete with the World Champ.

2) Davey Richards: Very unexpected, but he is the new PWG World Champ.
3) The Miz: Another Tag Title defense and deserves some credit for Bryan’s debut.
4) Claudio Castagnoli & Ares
5) Edge

Jeremy Thomas
1) Daniel Bryan
It was definitely an impressive debut for our most experienced of WWE “rookies,” as Bryan got featured heavily on WWE programming including a promo on NXT and a match with the World Heavyweight Champion in which Bryan looked like he belonged there.

2) Edge/The Miz (tie): Edge spent all of Raw and SmackDown looking as if he owned Chris Jericho, and then had a match on the Blue Brand where he beat the Miz. On the other hand, Miz has a starring role on NXT thanks to his mentoring of Daniel Bryan, defended the Tag Titles on Raw and hung in there with Edge on SmackDown.
3) Christian: Christian became the first person to earn a spot in Money in the Bank by defeating Carlito, and then repeated the win in a tag team match on NXT with his rookie Heath Slater.
4) Davey Richards
5) The Colony

THE WINNERS~!

Special Mention…Claudio Castagnoli & Ares – 7 Votes

Fifth Place…Christian – 12 Votes

Fourth Place…Edge – 15 Votes

Third Place…The Miz – 16 Votes

The Miz defends his Unified Tag Team Titles, helps get Daniel Bryan over on NXT, then puts on a good showing against Edge on SmackDown.

Second Place…Davey Richards – 25 Votes

Richards defeats Kenny Omega for the PWG World Title.

Wrestler of the Week…Daniel Bryan – 39 Votes

The former American Dragon makes his impact on the debut NXT show, becoming the star of the show after a great match against the World Heavyweight Champion and climbing the ranks to become our Wrestler of the Week!

Year-End Standings~!

The biggest changes in the standings are the move of Edge into the Top 5, Davey Richards into the Top 10 and Daniel Bryan moving into the top 15. Christian & The Miz move within striking distance of the top 15 while Claudio Castagnoli & Ares make their debuts on the list. Punk is still leading the year-end tallies, but Styles has time to beat him still!

Let’s check out the Year-End Standings!

1. CM Punk – 137 (SmackDown)

2. AJ Styles – 120 (TNA)

3. Rey Mysterio – 86 (SmackDown)

4. Jeff Hardy – 85 (TNA)

5. Edge – 73 (SmackDown)

6. John Morrison – 70 (SmackDown)
6. Chris Jericho – 70 (SmackDown)

8. John Cena – 62 (RAW)

9. Randy Orton – 59 (RAW)

10. Davey Richards – 48 (ROH)

11. Kurt Angle – 46 (TNA)
11. Tyler Black – 46 (ROH)

13. The Undertaker – 42 (SmackDown)
13. Naruki Doi – 42 (Dragon Gate)
13. Batista – 42 (SmackDown)
13. Daniel Bryan – 42 (NXT)

Shawn Michaels – 38 (RAW)
Christian – 38 (WWE)

Kofi Kingston – 37 (Raw)

Sheamus – 36 (Raw)

Samoa Joe – 34 (TNA)
The Miz – 34 (Raw)

Eddie Edwards – 33 (ROH)
Ted DiBiase – 33 (RAW)

Desmond Wolfe – 32 (TNA)

JTG – 27 (SmackDown)
Keiji Mutoh – 27 (AJPW)
Masakatsu Funaki – 27 (AJPW)
BxB Hulk – 27 (Dragon’s Gate)
D’Angelo Dinero – 27 (TNA)

Jerry Lynn – 24 (ROH)

MsChif – 21 (SHIMMER)
Nick Jackson – 21 (US Independent)
Matt Jackson – 21 (US Independent)
Daniels – 21 (TNA)
Hulk Hogan – 21 (TNA)
Naomichi Marufuji – 21 (NOAH)

Austin Aries – 19 (ROH)
Shinsuke Nakamura – 19 (NJPW)

Sting – 18 (TNA)
Go Shiozaki – 18 (NOAH)
Drew McIntyre – 18 (SmackDown)
Tommy Dreamer – 18 (US Independent)
Bret Hart – 18 (RAW)
The Big Show – 18 (RAW)

Cody Rhodes – 16 (RAW)
Mark Henry – 16 (RAW)
Triple H – 16 (Raw)
Hernandez – 16 (TNA)

Mick Foley – 15 (TNA)
Montel Vontavious Porter – 15 (RAW)
Manabu Nakanishi – 15 (NOAH)
Togi Makabe – 15 (NOAH)
Dolph Ziggler – 15 (SmackDown)
Bison Smith – 15 (NOAH)
Takashia Sugiura – 15 (NOAH)
Bison Smith – 15 (NOAH)

Pinky Sanchez – 12 (CHIKARA)
Minoru Suzuki – 12 (All Japan)
Brother Devon – 12 (TNA)
Brother Ray – 12 (TNA)
The Amazing Red – 12 (TNA)
Masato Yoshino – 12 (Dragon Gate)
Hiroshi Tanahashi – 12 (New Japan)
Shad – 12 (SmackDown)
Zach Ryder – 12 (WWE)
Shingo Takagi – 12 (Dragon Gate)
YAMATO – 12 (Dragon’s Gate)
Kenny Omega – 12 (US Independent)
CIMA – 12 (Dragon Gate)
Gamma – 12 (Dragon Gate)
Jack Swagger – 12 (RAW)
Massive Q – 12 (AWF)
Ryoto Hama – 12 (AJPW)

Soldier Ant – 10 (CHIKARA)
Fire Ant – 10 (CHIKARA)
Vince McMahon – 10 (WWE)

Delirious – 9 (ROH)
Masato Tanaka – 9 (ZERO1)
Homicide – 9 (TNA)
ODB – 9 (TNA)

Ryouji Sai – 9 (ZERO1)
Player Dos – 9 (CHIKARA)
Mistico – 9 (CMLL)
Bobby Lashley – 9 (TNA)
Roderick Strong – 9 (ROH)
Mickie James – 9 (SmackDown)

Yoshinobu Kanemura – 7 (NOAH)
Karl Anderson – 7 (NJPW)

Matt Hardy – 6 (SmackDown)
Chris Hero – 6 (US Independent)
Satoshi Kojima – 6 (AJPW)
Giant Bernard – 6 (NJPW)
Yoshi Tatsu – 6 (WWE)
Serena – 6 (SmackDown)
Ezekiel Jackson – 6 (SmackDown)

Hamada – 5 (TNA)

Dr. Wagner Jr. – 4 (AAA)
Doug Williams – 4 (TNA)
Ken Anderson – 4 (TNA)

Evan Bourne – 3 (Raw)
Tara – 3 (TNA)
Booker T – 3 (TNA)
Alex Shelley – 3 (TNA)
Chris Sabin – 3 (TNA)
Scott Steiner – 3 (US Independent)
Tajiri – 3 (HUSTLE)
Tyson Kidd – 3 (SmackDown)
Eric Young – 3 (TNA)
Eric Escobar – 3 (SmackDown)
Brutus Magnus – 3 (TNA)
Yujiro Takahashi – 3 (CMLL)
Jun Kasai – 3 (Big Japan)
Taiji Ishimori – 1 (NOAH)
Ricky Marvin – 1 (NOAH)

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)
Kotaro Suzuki – 1 (NOAH)
Brian Kendrick – 1 (US Independent)
Tiger Mask IV- 1 (NJPW)
Shelton Benjamin – 1 (WWE)
Kevin Steen – 1 (ROH)
Awesome Kong – 1 (TNA)
Claudio Castagnoli – 1 (ROH)
Ares – 1 (US Independent)