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411’s Wrestler of the Week 5.20.14: Year 10, Week 6
Welcome to YEAR TEN, WEEK 6 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 (although ties and tag teams are allowed) 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
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 Tuesday (the voting week runs Monday through Sunday). Let’s see who wins this week…
Larry Csonka
1) AJ Styles
AJ Styles defeated Michael Elgin and Kazuchika Okada to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Title at the ROH War of the Worlds iPPV event. It was a great match and a strong title defense for Styles, and he did so in the main event of the best ROH show in quite some time.
2) reDragon (Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish): reDragon (Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish)defeated Champions The Young Bucks to win the ROH Tag Team Titles at the ROH/NJPW War of the Worlds iPPV. This was my match of the night, and an upper tier MOTY contender.
3) Adam Cole: In another match from the ROH War of the Worlds iPPV, Adam Cole defeated Jushin Liger via submission to retain the ROH World Title. Cole did a damn fine job in the match, and came out looking great against the legend.
4) Tyson Kidd
5) Sheamus
Andrew Shillinglaw
1) reDragon
The team of reDragon absolutely MURDERED it this weekend at War of the Worlds. I was there live and them and the Young Bucks put on a show. Just the best kind of full speed spot fest for twelve minutes. They wasted nothing. It was hard-hitting and brutal and innovative and exciting. And to top it off they beat the Young Bucks, indy wrestling’s golden boys, for the ROH Tag Titles. Beautiful.
2) Adam Cole: Adam Cole beat Jushin “Thunder” Liger to retain his ROH World Championship at War of the Worlds. It wasn’t the best match, and that’s because Liger’s old and beat up, but it was totally serviceable and it did exactly what it was supposed to do. Cole beat somebody who’s looked at as a wrestling legend. On top of that, the show ended with Cole laying out Elgin, Okada, and AJ to stand tall as the only champion in ROH’s attempt to make him appear on the same level as those New Japan talents. I’m not saying that it necessarily worked but it was a good image and proved that ROH has a lot of faith in the man.
3) Tyson Kidd: Tyson Kidd beat Sami Zayn and Tyler Breeze in a fun triple threat to win the number one contendership to Adrian Neville’s NXT Championship at Takeover. It was a good match and it’s nice to see Tyson Kidd in some sort of spotlight again. Hopefully that momentum keeps up and he kills it with Neville on the live show.
4) AJ Styles
5) MVP
JUSTIN WATRY
1) Alicia Fox
Yep! One of my original three “it girls” is back in the spotlight on WWE television. Like Jim Ross always says, you maximize your minutes. If you only get four minutes, do not cry about it. Go out there and make those four minutes the best four minutes ever! Then that leads to five minutes, which leads to six minutes, which leads to more. Pretty simple. That was on full display this week with Alicia Fox – somebody I have always been a fan of. She went out there, did her thing, and within a few minutes had fans all up in arms. Simple yet effective. Best part of Raw last week and hopefully the beginning of even better things!
2) Daniel Bryan: Did not do anything…BUT this may be his last week as WWE World Champion. Thus, he gets a vote. It was a great journey to the top at WrestleMania XXX, but the last few weeks have not been very kind to Mr. Daniel Bryan. Wish him all the best following neck surgery.
3) Roman Reigns: Of all The Shield members, he continues to be presented in the best way and does not ramble during his promos. Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins need to cool it with the long-winded babble…
4) Damien Sandow
5) Daniels
Jack McGee
1) reDragon
Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish (along with UFC’s Tom Lawler) defeated the Young Bucks at the ROH/NJPW War of the Worlds iPPV to win the ROH Tag Team Titles. This was easily my favorite match on the show (there was a lot of competition) and the title win is big for reDragon.
2) AJ Styles: AJ Styles defeated Elgin and Okada in a tremendous main event match to retain the IWGP Title. This was an excellent match and a good start to Styles’ IWGP Title run.
3) Adam Cole: Adam Cole defeated wrestling legend Justin Thunder Liger via submission over the weekend; a tremendous feather in the cap for the ROH Champion.
4) Tyson Kidd
5) Sheamus
Alex Crowder
1) AJ Styles
This week was pretty uneventful in the big leagues. I would say ROH and NJPW basically dominated the week. Really, I could go with multiple performers from War of The Worlds show or fill my list full of them. In the end, I decided to give AJ Styles the top spot for simply successfully defending a World Championship n a great match. AJ Styles continues to hold onto the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
2) reDragon: I rarely get to highlight tag team wrestling anymore or junior heavyweights since most companies don’t let them shine as much. Well, ROH and NJPW proved that both tag team wrestling and junior heavyweights are still alive. They gave two incredible teams somewhere over ten minutes and let them entertain the crowd.
3) Alicia Fox: Honestly, she may not have won any matches this week, but she was the most interesting character this week. Alicia Fox has been underrated in the ring for a good while, and this week she finally got some character added to that. I know she lost both her matches, but the matches were decent. Most importantly, she was entertaining to people whether it was in a campy way or an eventful way.
4) MVP
5) Shinsuke Nakamura
Mike Chin
1) AJ Styles
On a slow week, a successful title defense via clean victory on a laudable show earns Styles the top spot.
2) Adam Cole Objective match quality aside, Cole pulled off a fairly high profile win over one of the most significant Japanese-US crossover legends of the last 25 years and ROH seems to be booking him like they want to keep him on top for a while.
3) Sheamus With Daniel Bryan presumably out, Sheamus is arguably the top active champ of the top company right now and, either via the title scene or a rumored jump to Evolution could find himself main eventing again soon.
4) MVP
5) Bad News Barrett
Mike Hammerlock
1) AJ Styles
AJ defended his IWGP title at the ROH-New Japan crossover against Michael Elgin and Kazuchika Okada. Mostly, he reminded people why he’s been called the Phenomenal One. Given how well AJ’s doing since he left TNA, wouldn’t surprise me if he started those “Fuck TNA” chants.
2) reDragon: Big title win for them, beating the Young Bucks.
3) Adam Cole: Any time you retain your title against Jushin Liger, you had a good week.
4) The Usos
5) Sheamus
THE WINNERS~!
Defeated Jushin Liger to retain the ROH World Title.
Defeated the Young Bucks to become the NEW ROH Tag Team Champions!
AJ Styles – 26 Votes
Defeated Michael Elgin and Kazuchika Okada to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Title!
Year-End Standings~!
And here are the standings after week six…
Eric Young – 43pts.
AJ Styles – 30pts.
Roman Reigns – 21pts.
Bad News Barrett – 18pts.
YAMATO – 15pts
Batista – 15pts.
Sheamus – 13pts.
Paige – 12pts.
Cesaro – 12pts.
Dean Ambrose – 12pts.
Daniel Bryan – 12pts.
Bobby Fish – 12pts.
Kyle O’Reilly – 12pts.
Adam Cole – 9pts.
Bray Wyatt – 9pts.
Triple H – 9pts.
Davey Richards – 9pts.
Eddie Edwards – 9pts.
Seth Rollins – 9pts.
Biff Busick – 6pts.
Randy Orton – 6pts.
Alicia Fox – 6pts.
Tyson Kidd – 3pts.
Adam Rose – 3pts.
Takao Omori – 3pt
Kane – 1pt
Uhaa Nation – 1pt
Kota Ibushi – 1pt
Sanada – 1pt
WWE 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.
Other International Wrestlers are represented in INDIGO.
Year One Winner: Ric Flair (2005-2006)
Shortened year, starting September 2005)
Year Two Winner: Samoa Joe (2006-2007)
Year Three Winner: John Cena (2007-2008)
Year Four Winner: Chris Jericho (2008-2009)
Year Five Winner: CM Punk (2009-2010)
Year Six Winner: The Miz (2010-2011)
Year Seven Winner: CM Punk (2011-2012)
Year Eight Winner: CM Punk (2012-2013)
Year Nine Winner: Daniel Bryan (2013-2014)
