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411’s Wrestler of the Week 06.21.10: Week 12
Welcome to Week 12, 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~!
Ronnie LaFianza
1) Davey Richards/Tyler Black
Both of these guys tore the house down at Death Before Dishonor, giving it their all for the World Title. Awesome bout, and because of that, I’m giving them a tie for the top spot.
2) Rey Mysterio : I said in the Roundtable that I never though Mysterio would ever win the World title again. Well, I guess I’m eating my own words. Mysterio definitely deserves another reign with the belt, lets just hope it goes better than his first reign.
3) Sheamus : It may have been due to interference and was somewhat overshadowed by the NXT beat down, but Sheamus still was able to capture his second WWE Championship in the main event of a PPV.
4) Evan Bourne
5) Christopher Daniels
Aaron Hubbard
1) Rey Mysterio/Sheamus (TIE)
Both of these were very surprising title changes to me, and it works. Let’s hope their second world title reigns are booked better than their first ones.
2) Prince Devitt: Defeated Naomichi Marufuji to win the IWJP Jr. Heavyweight Championship, right after winning the Super J Cup. Devitt is on the roll of his life.
3) Tyler Black: Retained his ROH Championship in an outstanding MOTYC against Davey Richards, and finally looked like a genuinely great main event wrestler and not just a spot-monkey.
4) Evan Bourne
5) Davey Richards
Chad Nevett
1) Rey Mysterio
While Sheamus was a possibility in many people’s minds, no one really took Mysterio seriously as a possibility to be the new World Heavyweight Champion. He’s a main eventer that just isn’t championship material… not anymore.
2) Sheamus: A two time WWE Champion! Since he was the one sort of feuding with John Cena, he was the smart choice. Let’s see if his second reign is more successful.
3) Tyler Black/Davey Richards (tie): Put on a MOTY calibre match this weekend. It takes two to do that, hence the tie.
4) The Miz
5) Evan Bourne
Michael Bauer
1) Evan Bourne
Mysterio and Sheamus both get their second title wins, but both came with outside nonsense, so I can’t really get behind them. Bourne pinned Jericho clean in the MOTN on Pay Per View. And while I normally give RoH mathces the nod, this is worthy enough to be #1.
2) Tyler Black: Simply put, that was the Match of the Year, end of story. Insane title defense over Richards that might get the fans behind him.
3) Prince Devitt: Talk about a tear. He wins the Super J Cup and then beats Marifuji for the IWJP Jr. Heavyweight Championship. Good stuff.
4) Christopher Daniels/Kenny Omega (tie)
5) Davey Richards
Steve Cook
1. Sheamus: The Celtic Warrior won his second WWE title on Sunday, taking advantage of a situation provided by the NXT Seven. He’s had a pretty strong push lately, has been pretty good in-ring and on the microphone, and one figures that Triple H might want to be feuding with the champion whenever he comes back, so I probably shouldn’t have been surprised by this. Whether there was outside interference or not, a man’s second title reign is the one that proves the first one wasn’t a fluke. FELLA!
2. Tyler Black/Davey Richards: These two men had a lot of pressure on them to live up to the hype provided by ROH, but they stepped up and delivered a great match worthy of main eventing any show in the country. Hopefully this will get the fickle ROH fans off of Tyler’s back.
3. Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson: I saw Machine Gun Anderson main eventing at the Richwood Flea Market not that many years ago as Chad “2 Badd” Allegra, so it’s awesome to see him teaming with Bernard and winning the IWGP tag team championship. Yeah, it’s a homer pick. What about it?
4. Rey Mysterio
5. Evan Bourne
Robert S. Leighty
1.Sheamus/Rey Mysterio
Both men capture their second World Titles respectively, and both were kind of unsuspected. Especially Mysterio’s considering he wasn’t even in the match originally.
2. The Miz: Wins the US Title on RAW and then successfully defends his title at the PPV.
3. Evan Bourne: Defeats Chris Jericho on PPV to get the biggest win of his career.
4. Tyler Black
5. Davey Richards
Larry Csonka
1) Evan Bourne
To me the WOTW deal has always a been about the biggest achievement of the week, title or no title. And while we can argue who should be in first this week, I have to go with Evan Bourne. He started a program with Jericho on Monday, and while the match was not advertised, her and Jericho not only had the best match at the Fatal Four Way PPV, but he beat Chris Jericho, clean, and looked like a star doing so.
2) Prince Fergal Devitt: Followed up on his Super Juniors victory by defeating Naomichi Marufuji to win the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title. Devitt is having a great year thus far.
3) Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson: Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson won the IWGP Tag Titles, defeating champions Yuji Nagata and Wataru Inoue and NO LIMIT. Bernard gets back some gold while this is the biggest win of Anderson’s career.
4) Rey Mysterio and Sheamus
5) Alicia Fox
Ryan Byers
1) Rey Misterio, Jr.
I was amazed when Rey Rey actually won a world heavyweight title in WWE for the first time. After how that reign went, I figured that we’d never see him holding of the promotion’s top straps again. However, he pulled out a title win on Sunday night that managed to be even more impressive and surprising than Sheamus’ title victory . . . which is an odd sentence to type given how long each of those men has been in WWE.
2) Prince Devitt: New Japan Pro Wrestling has had a desire to make Devitt a main player in their junior heavyweight division for some time now, but outside factors like injuries have stalled out many of his pushes. Well, the Prince is now 100% healthy, and he has been healthy long enough not only to win the Best of the Super Juniors tournament a few days ago but also to win the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title this weekend by pinning outsider champion Naomichi Marufuji. Go, Devitt, go!
3) Wade Barrett: No, he wasn’t on the pay per view in a major role, but I think that Barrett deserves some credit for his performance this past Monday and has been skipped over. The man carried himself on the microphone like a seasoned veteran, which helped the follow-up on the Gang Green storyline tremendously and probably cemented his status as a guy WWE will be willing to make into one the new faces of the company.
4) Evan Bourne
5) Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson
Jeremy Thomas
1) Evan Bourne
Other people had title wins, but no one else had the biggest win of their career. If someone would have told me Evan Bourne would get a win on Pay-Per-View, I wouldn’t have believed it. If someone had told me he would have beat Chris Jericho on Pay-Per-View, I would laughed. But he did, and coupled with the other big wins this month he’s on the ride of his career. I don’t know how long it’ll last, but he’s flying high for now.
2) Rey Mysterio: See what I said for Evan Bourne beating Chris Jericho on PPV? It applies to Rey Mysterio winning the World Title. But win he did, and while I’m surprised I’m certainly not disappointed. I love how people will give him credit as long as he’s not holding a World belt; as soon as he does he sucks. I would disagree and this is definitely a chance for him to get out from under the “He was only a World Champion because of Eddie” specter.
3) Tyler Black/Davey Richards (tie): They put on the Match of the Week, Month and probably Year. What more do you need?
4) Sheamus
5) Prince Devitt
THE WINNERS~!
Black tears the house down against Davey Richards, and wins to defend his ROH World Title in a Match of the Year contender.
Sheamus wins the WWE Heavyweight Title while Bourne gets the win of his career.
Rey Rey comes out of nowhere to win the World Heavyweight Championship at Fatal Four-Way and become our Wrestler of the Week!
Year-End Standings~!
Moving into Week Twelve we have some big moves on the chart as Rey Mysterio and Evan Bourne move into a tie for fifth place. Tyler Black and Sheamus leap into the Top 15 while Davey Richards and Prince Devitt move up and the new IWGP Tag Team Champions make their debut. It won’t be long before a first place finish won’t jump you right into the Top 15 now!
Let’s check out the Year-End Standings!
1. Jack Swagger – 40 (SmackDown)
1. Rob Van Dam – 40 (TNA)
3. Wade Barrett – 35 (NXT)
4. Bryan Danielson – 32 (US Independent)
5. Rey Mysterio – 27 (Smackdown)
5. Evan Bourne – 27 (Raw)
7. Kofi Kingston – 25 (Smackdown)
8. Claudio Castagnoli – 24 (ROH)
8. Tyson Kidd – 24 (Raw)
8. DH Smith – 24 (Raw)
11. Kurt Angle – 18 (TNA)
12. Randy Orton – 16 (Raw)
12. Tyler Black – 16 (ROH)
14. Madison Eagles – 15 (SHIMMER)
14. Togi Makabe – 15 (IWGP)
14. Edge – 15 (Raw)
14. R-Truth – 15 (Raw)
14. Sheamus – 15 (Raw)
Douglas Williams – 13 (TNA)
Chris Hero – 12 (ROH)
Ares – 12 (US Independent)
Tursas – 12 (US Independent)
Minoru Suzuki – 12 (AJPW)
Paul London – 12 (US Independent)
El Generico – 12 (US Independent)
John Cena – 12 (Raw)
Desmond Wolfe – 12 (TNA)
Mr. Anderson – 10 (TNA)
Kazarian – 10 (TNA)
YAMATO – 9 (Dragon Gate)
Jay Lethal – 9 (TNA)
Davey Richards – 9 (ROH)
Prince Devitt – 6 (NJPW)
Heath Slater – 6 (NXT)
Nick Jackson – 6 (TNA)
Matt Jackson – 6 (TNA)
Bison Smith – 6 (NOAH)
Keith Walker – 6 (NOAH)
AJ Styles – 6 (TNA)
Bret Hart – 6 (Raw)
Christopher Daniels – 4 (ROH)
Jon Moxley – 3 (US Independent)
Chris Jericho – 3 (Raw)
CM Punk – 3 (Smackdown)
Dr. Wagner Jr. – 3(AAA)
John Morrison – 1 (Raw)
Kane – 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)
The Undertaker – 1 (Smackdown)
Giant Bernard – 1 (NJPW)
Karl Anderson – 1 (NJPW)
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!
