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411’s Wrestler of the Week 5.24.10: Week 8
Welcome to Week EIGHT, Year SIX, 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~!
Jeremy Thomas
1) John Cena
The Champ stood tall at the end of Over the Limit…or at the end of his match, anyway. Sheamus appearance aside, Cena beat Batista by making him say “I Quit” and then throwing him through the stage. This is likely the end of Batista for now and Cena, kayfabe at least, is responsible for that.
2) The Hart Dynasty: The Hart Dynasty took a huge step toward credibility by defeating Chris Jericho and the Miz at Over the Limit to retain the WWE Unified Tag Team Titles.
3) Sting & Jeff Hardy (tie): Sting was named number one contender for the TNA World Title, and Jeff beat Sting on the same show. Pretty much makes it a wash between them, but they both deserve recognition.
4) Rey Mysterio
5) Kofi Kingston
Larry Csonka
1) Kofi Kingston
Not only did Kofi win against Jack Swagger on Smackdown, but he defeated Drew McIntyre at Over the Limit PPV to win the WWE IC Title. It was a great week for Kofi, and in my opinion, he easily wins the WOTW.
2) Edge and Christian: Edge and Christian rocked the house on Raw this week, delivering a great TV match. Christian continues to be the most consistent and underrated performer in wrestling.
3) Kaz: Won the #10 ranking this week on Impact in an X-Division battle royal.
4) The Hart Dynasty
5) John Cena
Chad Nevett
1) Kofi Kingston
Big week for Kingston with a win over the World Heavyweight Champion, Jack Swagger, on Friday night and becoming the Intercontinental Champion by beating Drew McIntyre on Sunday. The Swagger win was a little cheap, but it came after a long, hard-fought fight, so no complaints — and he did some good work against McIntyre and definitely deserves another run with the IC belt.
2) The Hart Dynasty / Bret Hart: The entire Hart clan had a big week with Bret Hart winning the US Championship on Monday with assistance from the Hart Dynasty, while the Hart Dynasty retained the Unified Tag Team Championship against the Miz and Chris Jericho on Sunday.
3) Daniel Bryan: It may not be strictly wrestling, but hitting Michael Cole after a fantastic promo? Worth a spot.
4) Jay Lethal
5) John Cena
Robert S. Leighty Jr
1) Kofi Kingston
Kofi wins the IC Strap for real this time, and does so by pinning the reigning champion. It will be interesting to see where he goes with this run as the champ, but he should have plenty of challengers on SmackDown.
2) Bret Hart: So may get pissy with a non-wrestler being this high, but no matter how it happened he did win the United States Title. Even if the title has no real value it was a great moment and something nobody could have seen coming. I mean Bret Hart is holding a title in the WWE in the year 2010.
3) John Cena: The WWE Champ retains his title by making Batista tap in what be the Animal’s last match in a WWE ring for a while.
4) Rey Mysterio
5) The Hart Dynasty
Daniel Bonnizzio
1) Kofi Kingston
Kofi finally gets the win he deserved last Friday by beating Vince’s ‘Golden Boy’ in Drew McIntyre; I always thought that Kofi wasn’t given a real shot with the title (he lost it without being freaking pinned for crying out loud to Santino of all people) his first time around, so hopefully this time he gets to really run with it.
2) The Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd and David Smith): The team manages to get a HUGE win over the weekend by defeating the team of Chris Jericho and The Miz; hopefully they can keep their momentum up and really strike out in the recently-resurging tag team division.
3) John Cena: The Champ managed to beat Batista in a fantastic “I Quit” match and gets to be the one to say he pushed Batista out of the WWE for now.
4) Kazarian
5) Bryan Danielseon
Michael Bauer
1) The Hart Dynasty
By far the biggest match and win for this team yet, as they defeated Miz and Jericho at Over the Limit. They also got to help Bret win the US Title and truly had one of the best weeks of their young careers.
2) Rey Mysterio: He continues to one up Punk and got to shave him bald.
3) John Cena: Now that is how you definitively end a feud.
4) Daniel Bryan
5) Roderick Strong
Ryan Byers
1) John Cena
Cena defeated Big Dave Batista in their I Quit Match this past Sunday, retaining his WWE Title and presumably blowing off what I have considered one of the most entertaining feuds of either man’s career. Hopefully there’s something just as entertaining for the champ to move on to now that his war with Big Dave has come to a close.
2) Go Shiozaki & Atsushi Aoki: In one of the more unique title changes in recent memory, Shizoaki and Aoki defeated Takeshi Morishima & Taiji Ishimori this past weekend on a Pro Wrestling NOAH show in Japan to win the AAA Tag Team Titles. The twist is that AAA is a Mexican company, and Morishima & Ishimori had won the promotion’s tag straps on a tour of Mexico not that long ago. Should be interesting to see what happens with the belts from here.
3) Claudio Castagnoli & Ares: This past weekend saw CHIKARA run its two huge anniversary shows, and the big winners were Claudio and Ares, who walked out of night two with their Tag Team Titles still intact. To do so, they defeated a very strong team in the form of Incoherence, consisting of Hallowicked and Frightmare. Unfortunately for Incoherence, it was their former partner and new BDK member Delirious who arguably cost them the titles.
4) Kofi Kingston
5) Pink Ant
THE WINNERS~!
The Hart Dynasty managed to retain their titles in a huge defense against the team of Chris Jericho and The Miz at WWE Over the Limit.
John Cena walked into Over the Limit as the champion and walked out the champion after he made Batista say “I Quit” before throwing him through the stage to end his current run in the WWE (for now).
Kofi managed to right a grievous wrong by pinning Drew McIntyre on Sunday to officially become the WWE Intercontinental Champion for the second time in his career and your Wrestler of the Week!
Year-End Standings~!
Week eight is in the books, and Kofi Kingston is the big winner. Kofi leaps into 3rd overall for the year, while the Hart Dynasty is now in 4th overall. Check out the full standings below…
Let’s check out the Year-End Standings!
1. Jack Swagger – 40 (SmackDown)
2. Rob Van Dam – 30 (TNA)
3. Kofi Kingston – 25 (Smackdown)
4. Claudio Castagnoli – 24 (ROH)
4. Tyson Kidd – 24 (Raw)
4. DH Smith – 24 (Raw)
7. Randy Orton – 16 (Raw)
8. Madison Eagles – 15 (SHIMMER)
8. Togi Makabe – 15 (IWGP)
10. Chris Hero – 12 (ROH)
10. Ares – 12 (US Independent)
10. Tursas – 12 (US Independent)
10. Kurt Angle – 12 (TNA)
10. Douglas Williams – 12 (TNA)
10. Minoru Suzuki – 12 (AJPW)
10. Paul London – 12 (US Independent)
10. El Generico – 12 (US Independent)
10. John Cena – 12 (Raw)
Mr. Anderson – 10 (TNA)
Kazarian – 10 (TNA)
Wade Barrett – 9 (NXT)
YAMATO – 9 (Dragon Gate)
Tyler Black – 7 (ROH)
Heath Slater – 6 (NXT)
Nick Jackson – 6 (TNA)
Matt Jackson – 6 (TNA)
Bison Smith – 6 (NOAH)
Keith Walker – 6 (NOAH)
Edge – 6 (Raw)
AJ Styles – 6 (TNA)
Rey Mysterio – 6 (Smackdown)
Bret Hart – 6 (Raw)
Christopher Daniels – 4 (ROH)
Daniel Bryan – 4 (NXT)
Sheamus – 3 (Raw)
Davey Richards – 3 (ROH)
Jon Moxley – 3 (US Independent)
Chris Jericho – 3 (Raw)
John Morrison – 1 (SmackDown)
Beth Phoenix – 1 (SmackDown)
Ted DiBiase – 1 (Raw)
Christian – 1 (Smackdown)
Shingo Takagi – 1 (Dragon Gate)
Chuck Taylor – 1 (US Independent)
Masaaki Mochizuki – 1 (Dragon Gate)
Batista – 1 (Raw)
WWE, Raw, SmackDown and NXT-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.
Australian Contracted Wrestlers are represented in INDIGO.
 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!
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