411’s Wrestler of the Week 08.01.11: Year Seven, Week 18
Posted by Larry Csonka on 08.01.2011
Rey Mysterio won the WWE Title and John Cena won it from him, Sara Del Rey won big in CHIKARA, CM Punk returned and more! Check out 411's Wrestler of the Week for all the details and for an updated look at the Year-End standings!
Welcome to Week 18, Year SEVEN, 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…
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 around WrestleMania. This will be posted every Monday. Let's see who wins this week…
Larry Csonka
1) Rey Mysterio
I am going to give Rey the love this week, as he had two really good matches on Raw while winning the WWE Title. Some said he would never win the actual WWE Title, and while it was only for most of Raw, he did do it. Also, not only did he have a good match with Miz, but he also held his chin up high and delivered in the ring with Cena. He could have been pissy, been lazy and no sold in that main event, but he remained professional and I for one appreciate the dedication he has to the business.
2) CM Punk: The man is on fire right now, and has continued to prove so by showing up on Raw and simply raising the belt. Punk and Cena have been tearing up the house shows, and the man's merchandize is continually selling out. CM Punk is the man right now.
3) Sara Del Rey: DEATH REY scored a huge win over Claudio this past weekend in CHIKARA, and continues to roll on strongly in the 12 LARGE tournament.
4) Adam Pearce/John Cena
5) Zack Ryder
Robert S. Leighty Jr
1) Rey Mysterio
Rey gets the nod because he wins the WWE Title for the first time, and put on 2 stellar matches on RAW. Rey and Miz had a damn fine match, but then Rey/Cena blew that out of the water. They had great chemistry together, and I would like to see what they can do on a PPV.
2) John Cena: Cena is your WWE Champion again (interim, maybe?), and did it but having a fantastic match with Rey.
3) CM Punk: He returns to RAW and the WWE with a new theme song, and without saying a single word stole the show.
4) Christian
5) Kurt Angle
Michael Ornelas
1) John Cena
Won the WWE Championship in the better match on Raw.
2) Rey Mysterio: Won the WWE Championship on Raw.
3) CM Punk: Returned in a big way.
4) Brian Kendrick
5) The Miz
Chad Nevett
1) John Cena
Won the WWE Championship in the main event on Raw.
2) Rey Mysterio: Won the WWE Championship in the opening match on Raw... but, then, lost it in the main event.
3) Brian Kendrick: Sure, the deck was stacked in his favour, but he did retain the X Division Title in an Ultimate X match against the much larger and powerful Abyss.
4) Christian
5) CM Punk
Wes Kirk
1) Rey Mysterio
WWE Champion #42 is crowned when Rey Mysterio defeated The Miz on RAW to become one of the rare wrestlers who has both the WWE and World title to his credit. Although the title win was short lived, it definitely showed that WWE has nothing but positive feelings for Mysterio and will likely let him carry the company with the big championship for a longer run down the line. Mysterio wrestled two good matches in one night, and he's nearly forty! Definitely no contest here.
2) Kurt Angle: Our #1 contender to the TNA Championship scores a victory over Mr. Anderson in the Steel Cage match which propels him with some momentum towards the next Impact and the Hardcore Justice title shot against Sting. Angle is able to have a good longer match with just about anybody and he proves it week in and week out, although if he was allowed to go as often as he can he'd likely be number one every week.
3) CM Punk: Punk returns to end up challenging Cena's claim to be WWE Champion, and that means Punk is back in the company and back to action starting on Monday in all likelihood. Although the jury is still out on if this is a short term deal or if Punk is not leaving for a break as speculated, Punk raised a few eyebrows with his return. Then, he ended up giving Living Colour a huge iTunes sales boost by using their biggest hit song. Is there anything he can't do?
4) Brian Kendrick
5) The Miz
Michael Bauer
1) Rey Mysterio
Put on the two best matches of the week and he got his first WWE Championship, even if it was only for an hour.
2) CM Punk: Three words: Cult of Personality
3) Sara Del Rey: Claudio is one of hottest people in the Indies and knocking him off is something.
4) Kurt Angle
5) John Cena
Ryan Byers
1) Rey Misterio Jr.
I get it, John Cena walked out of Monday Night Raw as the champion this week. However, when I vote in these things, the real world trumps kayfabe. With the real world trumping kayfabe, I can't ignore the performance Rey had on Monday and not declare him number one. The man was ON FIRE, with two really great free television matches, a championship win, and a fun celebration. Cena might have gotten the glory, but, without Misterio making it all possible, the champ's win would not have been nearly as glorious as it was.
2) CM Punk: Punk is still the most talked about man in professional wrestling, with his big return this week generating more buzz than Triple H's new COO position or even Cena's title victory. I admit I might have a bit of a personal bias because I saw Punk put on a great performance at a house show this week, but I think that he still belongs in the top five somewhere.
3) Sara Del Rey: CHIKARA just had one of its biggest weekends of shows for the year, and, oddly enough, Sara Del Rey was one of the centerpieces. She defeated her male stablemate Claudio Castagnoli as part of the tournament to crown the company's first singles champion and then became a focal point of the angle that may result in the dissolution of the BDK, the heel stable that has been dominating CHIKARA for over a year. It's great to see Del Rey, who is more talented than many male wrestlers, getting a main event role in a men's company where it is believable that she can hang with the guys.
4) Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Aoki
5) Suwama
Greg DeMarco
1) Rey Mysterio
Rey competed in the two best matches of the week (on the same night), winning the WWE Championship against a very game Miz in the first, and losing it to the face of the WWE in John Cena to close the show. His great in-ring performance coupled with his first ever WWE Championship win garnered the top stop this week.
2) CM Punk: One song, one slow walk to the ring and one raising of the WWE Championship was all it took the keep CM Punk at the forefront of all wrestling fans' minds.
3) John Cena: Cena continues to show intensity and humility in the CM Punk feud. You can see that Cena's character is conflicted, and I'd absolutely love it if he's driven to desperation. That equals a heel turn, so I won't get my hopes up. But Cena delivered this week.
4) Austin Aries
5) The Miz
Steve Cook
1) CM Punk
It's too soon to tell whether the Punker's return on Monday night was the right call or not, and there seems to be reason to believe that WWE's set on screwing this thing up. Yes, he didn't wrestle, but he's still the talk of the town. And before anybody asks...John Cena doesn't make my list this week because him winning the WWE title is nothing new. It was just another week in his life, while these other folks did things out of the ordinary.
2) Rey Mysterio: Rey had a great Monday night in the ring, but I reject the notion that winning the WWE title is a good thing even if it's for less than a full TV show. How's Dolph Ziggler been doing since his ten minute World title reign? Rey seemingly being tossed on the backburner by WWE keeps me from giving him the top spot this week, though he'll surely be the overall pick.
3) Sara Del Rey: Claudio might be hot, but Sara's hotter.
4) Zack Ryder
5) Sheamus
Andy Critchell
1) Zack Ryder
I think in terms of overall career impact/advancement I don't think anyone had a bigger week than the woo-woo-woo kid. You have the usual genius of his youtube show, the debut of his new t-shirt, the fact that he had an actual match on Raw, which he won in a squash, and now his new role as Teddy Long's assistant on Smackdown. Ryder is getting a slow push where he is getting more and more exposure on TV and I am all for it, especially if he ends up on both shows every week. In my eyes Ryder is already a star and now he's being given the chance to prove to the whole WWE fanbase that he is a wrestler on the rise. Take care, spike your hair.
2) CM Punk: Once again, Punk is the one generating all the buzz in the wrestling world, this time by making his return to Raw. And no, it isn't too soon so if you're going to bitch about that then feel free to GTFO. Anyhoo, Punk was able to take what was to that point an already solid to good episode of Raw and bring it up to epic status. I think there are so many possibilities from here and so much intrigue surrounding Punk's character that one can't help but be interested. I know I will be glued to my TV to see what happens…
3) Rey-Rey/John Cena: Both guys won the WWE title and they both won it on the same show. Rey, of course, won it by beating The Miz in a really fun match to open the show and Cena won it from Rey in a really fun match to close the show. Funny how that works. Obviously having two title switches in one night is something that should not happen again for a LONG time but it made sense from a storyline standpoint and set up what should be a fun champion vs. champion match between Cena and Punk at Summerslam. In case you're worried about Rey being hurt by that miniscule title reign, just don't. The fact is that Rey is basically bulletproof and he doesn't need the belt anyway, so losing the way he did doesn't damage his character. Besides, Cena/Punk is the money feud and the champion vs. champion aspect of it adds an extra layer.
4) New Nexus (McGillicutty & Otunga)
5) Sheamus
THE WINNERS~!
Special Mention…Kurt Angle & Brian Kendrick - 7 Votes
Fifth Place…Zack Ryder - 8 Votes
Fourth Place…Sara Del Rey - 12 Votes
Third Place…John Cena - 23 Votes
Once again YOUR WWE Champion…
Second Place…CM Punk - 35 Votes
He's baaaaaaaack…
Wrestler of the Week…Rey Mysterio - Votes
Won and lost the WWE Title in one night, but had some great matches while doing so…
Year-End Standings~!
And here are the rankings after week EIGHTTEEN…
1. Christian (WWE) – 66
2. CM Punk (WWE) - 63
3. Randy Orton (WWE) - 46
4. R-Truth (WWE) – 42
5. John Cena (WWE) - 28
6. Sin Cara (WWE) – 27 {SUSPENDED}
7. Rey Mysterio (WWE) - 26
8. Sting (TNA) - 24
8. Giant Bernard (NJPW) - 24
8. Kota Ibushi (DDT) - 24
Hiroshi Tanahashi (NJPW) - 22
Daniel Bryan (WWE) - 21 Alberto Del Rio (WWE) – 21 Sheamus (WWE) - 21
Takashi Sugiura (NOAH) - 19 The Miz (WWE) - 19
Kurt Angle (TNA) - 16 Mark Henry (WWE) - 16 HHH (WWE) – 16
First two-time MitB winner, first two-time WotY winner as well?
Posted By: Guest#0602 (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 03:14 PM
So John Cena wins the WWE Title and some of you didn't vote for him, while CM Punk just shows up and gets more votes than he did?
Posted By: SHADE (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 03:17 PM
I see that this little cesspool of malcontents is liberally using the names of my superstars and sports entertainers on it's list of... *gulp* ..."wrestlers."
You'll be hearing from my attorney shortly.
Posted By: Mr. McMahon (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 03:19 PM
How in the hell does hulk hogan not receive one vote?
Do none of you even watch tna?
Hogan didnt wrestle but neither did punk. Except hogans segment with angle was twice as good as punk lifting a belt.
Hogan&angle set up hogans return to the ring and was the thing on impact in weeks.
Posted By: Zip (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 03:26 PM
So John Cena wins the WWE Title and some of you didn't vote for him, while CM Punk just shows up and gets more votes than he did?
Posted By: SHADE (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 03:17 PM
That's because Cena's winning had little impact in contrast to CM Punk appearance in the show. In terms of furthing the angle, CM Punk did more than Cena with just rising his title belt.
Posted By: Guest#9617 (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 03:30 PM
Wow, he hasn't used the name "Rey Misterio Jr." in almost ten years, Byers. ........ BYERRRRRSSS!!!!
Posted By: Jamal (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 03:34 PM
So John Cena wins the WWE Title and some of you didn't vote for him
Posted By: SHADE (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 03:17 PM
Its a fake title, in a few weeks (months) from now that title will no longer exist. So winning it isnt going to elevate his career any further.
Posted By: Guest#5311 (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 03:41 PM
Andy Critchell putting Zack Ryder at #1 is just laughable. What a typical IWC mark.
Posted By: Guest#2940 (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 04:11 PM
Hogan&angle set up hogans return to the ring and was the thing on impact in weeks.
Posted By: Zip (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 03:26 PM
The headbangers appearing for the JCW Legends show is 100x more relevant than Hulk Hogan returning to the ring (again).
Posted By: Guest#3097 (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 04:33 PM
Andy Critchell clearly wants to be Broski of the Week. Nice try, bro.
I love the little status notes on the year end standings. Retired. Suspended. Pregnant.
Posted By: Dr Insanity (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 04:40 PM
Its amazing how all you CM Punk fanboy losers all claim that this angle is killed by too soon of a return and how bad of a decision it was to bring him back....then you go as far as ranking him 2nd place in WOTW? Are you kidding? How can you claim both? That doesn't make sense.
I've made comments about how bias you guys have been in the past regarding Cena. But the guy wins the WWE title and you still only rank him 3rd overall. A good chunk of the guys didn't even vote for him simply because they don't like his wrestling style. Sorry guys, hardly NOBODY reacted in the audience when Cult of Personality hit. Yes, they chimed up a bit when he raised the belt, but stole show? Not hardly.
Cena wins the World title and he still can't get WOTW. CM Punk still beats him out. I'm sure someone will say "its just a ratings article, it means nothing." Well if it means nothing then why waste your time writing it if you're only gonna vote for your favorite guy? Ridiculous.
Posted By: bias bias bias (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 04:42 PM
Dear Andy:
ARE YOU SERIOUS BRO!
Posted By: Guest#0283 (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 04:43 PM
Wow, he hasn't used the name "Rey Misterio Jr." in almost ten years, Byers. ........ BYERRRRRSSS!!!!
Posted By: Jamal (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 03:34 PM
Hell, in about a year or he'll have been "Rey Mysterio" for LONGER than "Rey Misterio Jr." but you just know Byers will keep typing it that way because he thinks that makes him "smart."
If ever there was a sign of a man in desperate need of approval and entitlement it's Byers' writing.
Posted By: Black Snow (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 05:53 PM
Wow, he hasn't used the name "Rey Misterio Jr." in almost ten years, Byers. ........ BYERRRRRSSS!!!!
Posted By: Jamal (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 03:34 PM
Hell, in about a year or he'll have been "Rey Mysterio" for LONGER than "Rey Misterio Jr." but you just know Byers will keep typing it that way because he thinks that makes him "smart."
If ever there was a sign of a man in desperate need of approval and entitlement it's Byers' writing.
Posted By: Black Snow (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 05:53 PM
Also Christian Cage, Johnny Nitro and Mike the Miz.
Posted By: Guest#2347 (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 06:54 PM
I'm pretty sure the voters are going to go out of their way to make sure Punk is WOTY. Except Wes, he'll go out of his way to be a dickhead.
Posted By: Guest#2664 (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 07:09 PM
"And before anybody asks...John Cena doesn't make my list this week because him winning the WWE title is nothing new. It was just another week in his life, while these other folks did things out of the ordinary."
And this is why Cook rules.
Posted By: Banz (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 09:12 PM
"Hogan&angle set up hogans return to the ring and was the thing on impact in weeks."
Posted By: Zip (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 03:26 PM.
See, here's the thing: No one cares about Hogan. Angle maybe shoulda been in top 5, but Mysterio, Cena, Ryder and even CM Punk did more relevant things this week.
Posted By: Banz (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 09:18 PM
Andy Critchell - Zack Ryder is not "already a star". He is a comedy jobber who has been overrated by IWC marks who love any midcarder not being pushed. Get off this guy's dick already.
Posted By: Guest#9946 (Guest) on August 02, 2011 at 12:41 PM
How in the hell does hulk hogan not receive one vote?
Do none of you even watch tna?
Hogan didnt wrestle but neither did punk. Except hogans segment with angle was twice as good as punk lifting a belt.
Hogan&angle set up hogans return to the ring and was the thing on impact in weeks.
Posted By: Zip (Guest) on August 01, 2011 at 03:26 PM
I laughed out loud.
Posted By: ingolfr (Guest) on August 03, 2011 at 05:44 AM
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