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411’s Wrestler of the Week 07.12.10: Week 15

July 12, 2010 | Posted by Larry Csonka

Welcome to Week 15, 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…

Larry Csonka
1) The Motor City Machine Guns
After what seems like a decade in the making, the hardest working team in TNA, The Motor City Machine Guns, have won the TNA Tag Team Titles. And not only did they win the titles, they also had the match of the night at the PPV with Beer Money, which is really no surprise.

2) RVD: RVD had a very productive week, first beating Samoa Joe on Impact, and then surviving the four-way at Victory Road and retaining his title. This was a very strong week for the TNA World Champion.
3) Masato Yoshino: At the latest Dragon Gate PPV (In Japan, Not Dragon Gate USA) he defeated YAMATO to become the NEW Open the Dream Gate Champion.
4) Jay Lethal and Kurt Angle
5) Austin “Consequences” Creed

Chad Nevett
1) The Motor City Machine Guns
Finally! The Guns are the tag champs and they did it by putting on a great match against Beer Money. A hard-fought and well-deserved title win.

2) Masato Yoshino: Beat YAMATO for the Open the Dream Gate title in Dragon Gate.
3) Rob Van Dam: Beat Abyss, Mr. Anderson, and Jeff Hardy in the fourway for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
4) Jack Swagger
5) Drew McIntyre

Jeremy Thomas
1) The Motor City Machine Guns
The journey’s been long and hard, and they’ve teased it for far too long. But finally the Guns have the World Tag Team Titles and they did it in a great match by beating their greatest rivals. About freaking time.

2) Jay Lethal: Lethal got a win over Ric Flair, which may be the biggest win of his career. He made a sixteen-time World Champion tap. That’s big.
3. Drew McIntyre & Evan Bourne (tie): Drew came back and had a solid promo with Teddy Long and then had a very good return TV match with Kofi Kingston where he earned his way into Money in the Bank. Meanwhile, Evan Bourne got the pinfall in a tag team match alongside Randy Orton against Jericho and Edge. More to the point, Orton at one point made the hot tag to Bourne for the save. That’s as much of a sign of Bourne’s potential push than anything.
4) Masato Yoshino
5) Takashi Sugiura

Ronnie LaFianza
1) Motor City Machine Guns
FINALLY!!! I don’t care if other people don’t think these two deserve to be number one. What the Guns gave us was a great match with Beer Money, and more importantly, their four year chase for the gold comes to a close on the first TNA PPV they ever teamed on together.

2) Jay Lethal: Picked up the biggest victory of his career against one of the greatest legends of all time in a surprisingly good match. Lethal’s on fire, and it’s only a matter of time before he’s getting a title shot.
3) Rob Van Dam: Ended Impact by showing Abyss that he’s not afraid of what The Monster’s capable of, and more importantly he retained the TNA World Championship in a Four Way main event of Victory Road.
4) Kurt Angle
5) The Miz

Michael Bauer
1) Motor City Machine Guns
I never actually though TNA would pull the trigger on it (pun intender), but holy shit… the Guns are Champs.

2) Masato Yoshino: The new top dog in Dragon Gate, beating YAMATO for the Open the Dream Gate title.
3) Evan Bourne: Looks like his push is continuing, especially when getting a hot tag from Orton.
4) Jay Lethal
5) Douglas Williams / RVD (tie)

Ryan Byers
1) Masato Yoshino
After climbing the ranks with four reigns as the Open the Brave Gate Champion, Dragon Gate’s Masato Yoshino has now, for the first time, captured the biggest prize in the entire company. This past Sunday on pay per view, he defeated YAMATO for the Open the Dream Gate Title, ending a reign that many loyal DG fans had been enjoying a good deal. It will be interesting to see if his turn with the Dream Gate allows Yoshino to “break out” as much as YAMATO had done in his time with the championship.

2) Takashi Sugiura: I was a little bit surprised when Sugiura retained his GHC Heavyweight Title this week over Yoshihiro Takayama. On one hand, if you wanted to book Sugiura effectively, he would retain the belt. On the other hand, there have definitely been instances where NOAH has panicked and taken its top strap off of a young competitor too soon in favor of an established guy (e.g. Misawa ending Marufuji’s run). However, Sugiura did in fact keep the strap, which ups his stock a good deal in the puro world.
3) CIMA: Dragon Gate has recently been embroiled in a feud with the stars of local wrestling promotion Osaka Pro, and CIMA gets credit this week for shutting down the O-Pro faction on not just one but two shows. First of all, he defeated Black Buffalo to retain the Osaka Pro Singles Title on one of O-Pro’s cards. Later in the week, on Dragon Gate’s PPV, he captained his team of Gamma and Genki Horiguchi in their retention of the Open the Triangle Gate Titles over the Osaka trio of Tigers Mask, Black Buffalo, and the Bodyguard.
4) Go Shiozaki
5) Evan Bourne

Robert S. Leighty Jr
1) The Motor City Machine Guns
TNA finally pulled the trigger and put the Tag Titles on the Gun. Big moment for MCMG and having the best match on the PPV doesn’t hurt either.

2) Jay Lethal: No matter how advanced in his career, there was something still kid of shocking to see Ric Flair tap to the figure four. Lethal sold the moment perfectly and now up to TNA to follow up from here.
3) RVD: Successfully defended the TNA Title against 3 others in the Main Event of a PPV and defeated Samoa Joe on Impact earlier in the week.
4) Drew McIntyre
5) Evan Bourne

Aaron Hubbard
1) The Motor City Machine Guns
THANK YOU TNA!!! I never thought I’d say that, but man, it’s about damn time they reward two of their most talented wrestlers and one of the best tag teams in the world. Go Motor City! Sabin! Shelley! YES! (Done marking out now.)

2) Masato Yoshino: YAMATO’S reign as the Open the Dream Gate champion ends as the fastest wrestler in the world takes his place on top of Dragon Gate.
3) Takashi Sugiura: The GHC Champion overcomes a huge size and experience advantage to defeat Yoshihiro Takayama. Sugiura is one of my favorite young guns in NOAH, and I’m glad to see him continue his run.
4) Jay Lethal
5) Evan Bourne/Go Shiozaki

Andy Critchell
1) MCMG
This isn’t rocket science, these guy won the tag titles in what was easily the PPV MOTN and a match that is probably a tag MOTY candidate. This win is a validation of how great they’ve been for years. Glad to see they are at the top of the heap.

2) RVD: He had a good week; he got the win over Samoa Joe is a pretty decent Impact match and retained his title in a 4-way on PPV that ended up being decent as well despite the fact that Abyss was involved. Count me as a skeptic of RVD’s return but being in TNA seems to have given him more motivation than he showed his last year in WWE.
3) Evan Bourne: His push continues as he picked up the pin in a tag match that featured three of the top guys in the world. Sure, he got stole on by his partner Orton post match but that’s his own fault for turning his back on THE VIPER!
4) Wade Barrett
5) Angelina Love

THE WINNERS~!

Special Mention…Drew McIntyre – 6 Votes

Fifth Place…Takashi Sugiura – 8 Votes

Fourth Place…Evan Bourne – 9 Votes

Third Place…RVD and Jay Lethal – 18 Votes

RVD defeated Joe on Impact and retained his title at Victory Road, while Jay Lethal defeated Ric Flair on PPV.

Second Place…Masato Yoshino – 23 Votes

Defeated YAMATO on Dragon Gate PPV (in Japan) to win the Open the Dream Gate Title

Wrestler of the Week…Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley – 40 Votes

The Motor City Machineguns of Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley have finally climbed the mountain and are the TNA Tag Team Champions.

Year-End Standings~!
The Motor City Machineguns of Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley crack the top 15, RVD inches closer to the top spot and Evan Bourne is in the top five! Check out the updated standings to see the all of the changes…

Let’s check out the Year-End Standings!

1. Jack Swagger – 55 (SmackDown)

2. Rob Van Dam – 49 (TNA)

3. Wade Barrett – 35 (NXT)

4. Evan Bourne – 33 (Raw)

5. Bryan Danielson – 32 (US Independent)

6. Rey Mysterio – 27 (Smackdown)

7. Kofi Kingston – 25 (Smackdown)
7. Randy Orton – 25 (Raw)

9. Claudio Castagnoli – 24 (ROH)
9. Tyson Kidd – 24 (Raw)
9. DH Smith – 24 (Raw)

12. Chris Sabin– 21 (TNA)
12. Alex Shelley – 21 (TNA)

14. Kurt Angle – 18 (TNA)
14. Jay Lethal – 18 (TNA)

Tyler Black – 16 (ROH)

Madison Eagles – 15 (SHIMMER)
Togi Makabe – 15 (IWGP)
Kaval – 15 (Raw)
Edge – 15 (Raw)
R-Truth – 15 (Raw)
Sheamus – 15 (Raw)

Douglas Williams – 13 (TNA)

Chris Hero – 12 (ROH)
Ares – 12 (US Independent)
Tursas – 12 (US Independent)
Minoru Suzuki – 12 (AJPW)
Kaz Hayashi– 12 (AJPW)
Masato Yoshino– 12 (Dragon Gate)
Paul London – 12 (US Independent)
El Generico – 12 (US Independent)
John Cena – 12 (Raw)
Desmond Wolfe – 12 (TNA)
Matt Hardy – 12 (SmackDown)
Chris Jericho – 12 (Raw)
Cody Rhodes – 12 (Smackdown)

Mr. Anderson – 10 (TNA)
Kazarian – 10 (TNA)

YAMATO – 9 (Dragon Gate)
Samoa Joe – 9 (TNA)
Jeff Hardy – 9 (TNA)
Davey Richards – 9 (ROH)
Prince Devitt – 6 (NJPW)
Robert Roode – 9 (TNA)
James Storm – 9 (TNA)

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)
CM Punk – 3 (Smackdown)
Percy Watson – 3 (NXT)
Dr. Wagner Jr. – 3(AAA)
Willie Richardson – 3 (US Independent)
Marshe Rocket – 3 (US Independent)
Acid Jaz – 3 (US Independent)
Takashi Sugiura – 3 (Dragon Gate)

Kane – 2 (SmackDown)

John Morrison – 1 (Raw)
Drew McIntyre – 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)
Akebono – 1 (AJPW)
Taiyo Kea – 1 (AJPW)