411’s Wrestler of the Week 09.05.11: Year Seven, Week 23
Posted by Larry Csonka on 09.05.2011
Sin Cara showed his true colors, Mickie James won the Knockouts Title, Randy Orton had another great week 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 23, 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) Randy Orton
Randy Orton had a great week, with a very fun match on Raw with Dolph Ziggler, which he won, and then he had an even better match on Smackdown in a cage with Christian. Orton has been on lately, and has been delivering. Simply put, Orton deserves the recognition.
2) Gunner: While some are too high on Gunner, he did beat RVD this week and earned himself a spot in the final four in the BFG Series. And that means he will compete for a world title shot.
3) Mickie James: Your NEW TNA Knockouts Champion!
4) Sin Cara
5) Christopher Daniels
Aaron Frame
1) Randy Orton
Orton retained his title in a cage match. I would have had a hard time choosing between Orton and Angle seeing as how both retain their world titles. But Angle's wasn't quite as good as Orton's.
2) Kurt Angle: The guy did retain a world title, which is enough for me to give him the number 2 vote. I just wish he could have done it on his own without having to resort to having Old Man Hogan help him.
3) Kingston & Bourne: They retained the tag team titles this week. It's pretty bad when the third best title defense was the WWE tag team titles. As much as I love tag team wrestling, these titles are sadly made out to be nothing more than cannon fodder. But I hold out hope that they'll be revered as truly top gold, eventually. A guy can dream, right?
4) Mickie James
5) Gunner
Chad Nevett
1) Randy Orton
On Monday, he beat the US Champion Dolph Ziggler in a pretty good match and, then, on Tuesday, he retained the World Heavyweight Championship against Christian in a fantastic cage match. He pretty much locked up the week in the first two days.
2) Gunner: Going over Rob Van Dam to make the final four of the Bound for Glory Series is a pretty big thing for Gunner. He joins the final four with a vet (Bully Ray) and two long-term TNA talents (Beer Money) and that's company that elevates him. Maybe the push is back on?
3) Air Boom: Retained the Tag Titles in their rematch against the World's Dullest Tag Team. Maybe now quality challengers?
4) Sin Cara
5) Mickie James
Wes Kirk
1) Gunner
Gunner achieved his first real push towards the main event scene when he was able to score a pin on Rob Van Dam and now will be in the semi-finals of the Bound For Glory Series. Gunner will be joined by James Storm and Robert Roode of Beer Money making an individual attempt at the title along with Bully Ray, who has also made huge strides since separating as a tag team guy. This is Gunner's biggest and best chance to shine bright and possibly be in the main event of the biggest wrestling PPV of the year.
2) Randy Orton: The Viper managed to strike inside a cage and put down Captain Charisma for what is likely their final battle for the short term future, and immediately was assaulted by the new top contender Mark Henry. Orton has been on the rise as of late and despite what happened on Tuesday night, seems to be the one guy who has the ability to put down Mark Henry.
3) Kurt Angle: Although people will point to interference and such, Angle did defend the most valuable wrestling title in America today successfully against Sting in such a way that build up the Sting/Hogan situation as well as advancing Angle as somebody who stands by Hulk but is not part of Immortal. With Anderson saving Sting, this helps build up a renewal of Anderson vs. Angle which was pretty good stuff last year!
4) Sin Cara
5) Mickie James
Ryan Byers
1) Randy Orton
Pretty slow week around the world, so the biggest accomplishment in the past seven days is probably Randy Orton having two great TV matches on two consecutive shows this week. Plus he won both of them if you're into that whole kayfabe-based voting thing.
2) Sin Cara: Pretty much everything I said about Randy Orton this week also applies to Sin Cara. Hopefully Larry has been separately tracking the WOTW points for the Mistico version of Sin Cara and the Hunico version, otherwise things may get messy if the original ever returns for the rumored feud between the two.
3) John Cena: Did pretty much the same thing as Orton and Cara.
4) Dolph Ziggler
5) Jerry Lawler (I can't get enough Otunga burials.)
Steve Cook
1) Randy Orton
Slow week blah blah blah. Orton had an outstanding match with Dolph Ziggler on Raw that ended with one of the better RKOs in recent memory, then he went to SmackDown and defended the World title against Christian in a pretty solid steel cage match. He's going to need this type of momentum going if he expects to beat Mark Henry at Night of Champions.
2) Mickie James: Defeated Winter on Impact to become the new Knockouts Champion, and this time it was in a pretty good match.
3) Kurt Angle: Who cares about the title defense, he made lots of news last week by whining about WWE's Top 50 list, lying about getting an offer from UFC, and being a sloppy drunk douche again. And Matt Hardy thought he had the "Fuckup of the Year" award in the bag...
4) John Cena
5) Sin Cara
Jeremy Thomas
1) Randy Orton
In a slow, slow week for wrestling, competing in a Free TV Match of the Year candidate and another very good match and winning them both is enough to take the top spot.
2) Mickie James: You know it's a slow week when the new Knockouts champion is #2, but James did regard the title she lost less than a month ago one-on-one against Winter. Props for that.
3) Dolph Ziggler: Ziggler looked damned competitive in there against Randy Orton on Monday night. Sure, he lost and you pretty well knew he was going to for the whole of the match, but he did look like he belonged in there with the World Champion and that's quite a statement.
4) Gunner/Christian
5) Sin Cara
THE WINNERS~!
Special Mention…John Cena & Dolph Ziggler - 5 Votes
Fifth Place…Kofi Kingston & Evan Bourne - 6 Votes
Fourth Place…Kurt Angle - 10 Votes
Third Place…Sin Cara - 12 Votes
Will the REAL Sin Cara stand up?
Second Place…Gunner & Mickie James - 15 Votes
Mickie James won the TNA Knockouts title, while Gunner earned a spot in the Bound for Glory series finals.
Wrestler of the Week…Randy Orton - 36 Votes
Randy Orton delivered big time in the ring this week.
Year-End Standings~!
And here are the rankings after week TWENTY THREE…
1. CM Punk (WWE) - 75
2. Randy Orton (WWE) - 73
3. Christian (WWE) – 69
4. Alberto Del Rio (WWE) – 50
5. R-Truth (WWE) – 48
6. John Cena (WWE) - 42
7. Kurt Angle (TNA) - 37
8. Hiroshi Tanahashi (NJPW) - 31
9. Sheamus (WWE) - 30
10. Mark Henry (WWE) - 28
Sin Cara {Mistico} (WWE) – 27
Rey Mysterio (WWE) – 26 {INJURED}
Gunner (TNA) - 24 Sting (TNA) - 24 Giant Bernard (NJPW) - 24 Kota Ibushi (DDT) - 24
Austin Aries (TNA) - 21 El Generico (ROH) - 21 MVP (NJPW) - 21 Daniel Bryan (WWE) - 21
Mickie James (TNA) - 12 Karl Anderson (NJPW) - 12 Johnny Gargano (US Independent) - 12 Winter (TNA) - 12 Nick Jackson (US Independent) - 12 Matt Jackson (US Independent) - 12 Undertaker (WWE) - 12
Kharma (WWE) – 10 {PREGNANT}
Sin Cara {Hunico} (WWE) – 9 Alex Riley (WWE) - 9 Cody Rhodes (WWE) - 9 Angel De Oro (CMLL) - 9 BxB Hulk (Dragon Gate) - 9 Go Shiozaki (NOAH) - 9 Abyss (TNA) - 9 Charlie Haas (ROH) - 9 Shelton Benjamin (ROH) - 9 Evan Bourne (WWE) - 9
AJ Styles (TNA) – 7 The Sheik (US Independent) - 7 Jeff Jarrett (TNA) - 7
Eric Young (TNA) - 6 Ezekiel Jackson (WWE) - 6 Escorpion (CMLL) - 6 Low Ki (US Independent) - 6 Sara Del Rey (US Independent) - 6
Bully Ray(TNA) - 3 Fire Ant (US Independent) - 3 Green Ant (US Independent) - 3 Soldier Ant (US Independent) - 3 Tyson Kidd (WWE) - 3 Kelly Kelly (WWE) - 3 Zack Ryder (WWE) - 3 Hirooki Goto (NJPW) - 3
1.Orton
2.Gunner
3.Sin Cara
4.Angle
5.Mickie James
Posted By: Still Guest#8287 (Guest) on September 05, 2011 at 05:31 PM
" This is Gunner's biggest and best chance to shine bright and possibly be in the main event of the biggest wrestling PPV of the year."
When did Gunner become The Rock and sign up to headline wrestlemania? Oh you meant Bound for Glory Wes? IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU MEANT YOU TROLL RETARD!!!!!!!
Posted By: bestintheworld (Guest) on September 05, 2011 at 05:42 PM
Good to see Fire Ant still gets no love.
Posted By: Sink (Guest) on September 05, 2011 at 06:00 PM
If anyone deserves to be the WOTY this time around, its Randy Orton, considering how he has consistently put together good to great matches with anyone and everyone he has stepped in the ring with.
Posted By: Truth (Guest) on September 05, 2011 at 06:03 PM
And yes, CM Punk definitely deserves a close 2nd spot for the impact he has had on the wrestling business over the course of the last few months. I believe it will be a close contest between Punk and Orton up until the end of this year, but Randy will end up being the WOTY.
Posted By: Truth (Guest) on September 05, 2011 at 06:08 PM
Jesus Christ, why is Kirk still here?
Posted By: Guest#4555 (Guest) on September 05, 2011 at 07:07 PM
kirk is dragging down this column with his troll comments. get rid of him completely along with his wrestling diarrhea article
Posted By: Guest#3262 (Guest) on September 05, 2011 at 07:48 PM
Wes Kirk is right on the money once again.
Posted By: poffo316 (Guest) on September 05, 2011 at 11:14 PM
Seriously 411, the whole "Heel" web columnist BS can only go so far to where it becomes extremely annoying. Get rid of Kirk.
As SEVERAL others have stated, it's not due to his Pro-TNA slant...it's due to his ridiculous amounts of trolling.
This isn't LordsofPain, you guys should hold yourselves and fellow columnist to some level of standards..
Posted By: Enough is Enough (Guest) on September 06, 2011 at 12:34 AM
Wow Wes has become number one heel around here in just a short time span. I'm not defending him mind you, I am just stating the obvious.
1.Randy Orton- had a fun FUN match with Ziggler (I don't think it will be too long before Dolph starts contending for that WOTY spot) and has a great cage match with Christian the next night. There is no denying Orton should be named WOTY not just by this site, but many other sites as well.
2. Air Boom- I do like the name, but I would much prefer the Killer Bees 2011. Ha, just kidding. They beat Otunga and McGillicutty (Did I spell that right) and knocked them out of title contention for a while. Oh, and BTW, Otunga trying to be intimidating was just creepy. Seriously, I have not slept much since last week because all I see when I shut my eyes is Otunga staring me down like we where in the prison shower and I just dropped the soap.
3. Sin Cara-won against two opponents as well, then turned heel. Cool stuff.
4.Kurt
5. Mickie James
Posted By: Mr. Magnanimous (Guest) on September 06, 2011 at 01:31 AM
Lol @ Gunner. That guy is total garbage, a hick nobody who will never come close to being a star. That TNA has pushed him says it all about that shitty company. Also, lol at Wes Kirk trolling for attention, what a pathetic loser.
Posted By: Guest#5203 (Guest) on September 06, 2011 at 06:13 AM
Nice to see Wes Kirk annoying the WWE purists. Bit surprised that Daniels didn't feature more in this weeks top 5.
Posted By: JAK (Guest) on September 06, 2011 at 07:21 AM
You guys are still on Wes Kirk's nutsack when it's Ryan "I'm so cool I don't even recognize TNA's existence" Byers that comes off as the real prick.
Posted By: JR (Guest) on September 06, 2011 at 10:06 AM
Gunner? Really, Wes? Really?
So a screwjob win that was all about pushing a feud between two guys not named Gunner is what TNA calls a main event push?
Posted By: Carl (Guest) on September 06, 2011 at 11:01 AM
"Angle did defend the most valuable wrestling title in America today"
Wes Kirk is either on the Jeff and Matt Hardy Juice...or taking some of that Angle 100 proof
That is some crazy talk bud...when did TNA become the WWE...for that matter how can anything you say be taking seriously after that comment?
Posted By: crazy man (Guest) on September 06, 2011 at 11:37 AM
Fire Csonka!
Posted By: Dr. Jones (Guest) on September 06, 2011 at 03:16 PM
hahahahahaha, a pill popping drunk bozo hold the most important title in the country?? it is not even as important as the RoH title. I have read two things by this divit head today, and both assinine and moronic. He makes this site's credibility take a big hit.
Posted By: Jay (Guest) on September 06, 2011 at 06:10 PM
No one needs to respond to the lonely zero trolling the article when the picture of The Miz with the real most valuable wrestling title is the best possible response.
Posted By: Guest#5606 (Guest) on September 06, 2011 at 08:46 PM
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