411’s Wrestler of the Week 11.06.06: Week 31
Posted by Larry Csonka on 11.06.2006
A close week of voting brings us a new year-end leader!
Welcome to Week 31, Year-Two, of 411's Wrestler of the Week. A quick overview for those who don't know the deal…
Each writer chooses three wrestlers from any promotion and each wrestler gets a vote attached to that ranking. It looks a little like this…
1st – 5
2nd – 3
3rd – 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 five vote getters get a points value for their ranking which looks something like this…
1st – 15
2nd – 10
3rd – 5
4th – 3
5th – 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!
Scott Slimmer
1) "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair & "Rowdy" Roddy Piper
All week I was sure that I would be giving my vote for WOTW to the winner of the Champion of Champions match, but I just can't bring myself to give the top spot to a guy that needs KFed-ference just to retain his own title. Instead I'm giving the nod to two legitimate Hall of Famers who FINALLY ended the seven month World Tag Team Championship reign of those insipid male cheerleaders. We all know that the tag team situation in WWE in abysmal at best, but maybe Flair and Piper can do a little something about that. Flair's run with the Intercontinental Championship last year helped to begin to rebuild the credibility of that title, so let's all hope that Flair and Piper's run with the World Tag Team Championships this year can do the same.
2) King Booker
3) AJ Styles
Ryan Byers
1) K-Fed
I know, I know. I'm usually the guy who votes for Indy or foreign workers. But, quite frankly, Kevin Federline has been the greatest heel in wrestling over the course of the last month, getting crowd reactions and cutting promos that people who have been the business for years WISH they could come close to. His involvement in the Cyber Sunday main event means that we'll be able to see more of K-Fed's greatness over the next several weeks on Monday Night Raw, and I have absolutely no problem with that. He's bringing the lost art of managing back from the grave, ladies and gentlemen.
2) Ric Flair
3) Mickie Knuckles
Sat
1) Roddy Piper and Ric Flair
They managed to end the seven month reign of the Spirit Squad. They probably won't have that long of a reign, but they deserved to win this match.
2) AJ Styles
3) King Booker
Steve Cook
1) King Booker
Champion of Champions. What's not to like? One thing's for sure, Booker's fans sure can't complain about him not getting pushed anymore, because even if he is associated with an ass-munch whose album flopped as hard as Brooke Hogan's, he sure is getting lots of big wins this year. ALL HAIL KING BOOKER!
2) AJ Styles
3) KENTA
Jeff Small
1) K Fed
You know, I really do not want to do this but the last shot of tonight's PPV ended with K-fed and not with say the winner of the main event. Clearly, we could be headed to the latter day David Arquette and personally, it's quite sad. That being said, K-fed is still a much better heel than most of the roster.
2) Austin Aries and Roderick Strong
3) King Booker
Geoff Eubanks
1) AJ Styles
While some will look at it as a step back, this could be a sign that TNA realizes that they need to repair the X-Division. Hopefully someone will get a huge run off of AJ when he drops the belt, so he can then transition back to the main event scene.
2) "Tremendous" Tom Lawrence
3) King Booker
Stuart Carapola
1) Homicide
As far as I'm concerned, it'd be hard to argue against Homicide taking this honor. Saturday night in Philadelphia, Homicide finally won the long feud with Steve Corino, pinning him in an incredibly brutal Fight Without Honor and shaving his head to boot. After years of being unable to get that decisive win over Corino, Homicide went over huge and continues to roll toward Final Battle 2005 and his last shot at the ROH World Title. King Booker won the Champion Of Champions match with a fall over the Golden Boy, John Cena, which I guess dispels the belief of Smackdown being the B-Brand to a certain degree. Nigel McGuinness looked awesome this weekend as well, with clean wins over a returning John Walters in Boston and also beating Jimmy Rave in a tag match in Philly. I think Nigel is going to be one of the biggest stars in ROH next year, even more so than he was this year.
2) King Booker
3) Nigel McGuinness
Bayani Domingo
1) King Booker
You...are a...SICK ... Bastard if you didn't vote for the man who is the CHAMPION of CHAMPIONS!! Sure the outcome was fairly easy to predict after King Booker's title was announced, but regardless of the douche bag-eference the man is now and forever the TRUE Champion... of Champions!!
2) AJ Styles
3) Ric Flair/Roddy Piper
Andy Clark
1) King Booker
As much as I hate the fact that he won without so much as tapping to the STFU behind the ref's back, this was a historically significant win. He is indeed the Champion of Champions, now he better go round up Hacksaw Jim Duggan and the Little Bastard...
2) Batista
3) Jeff Hardy & Carlito
JT~!
1) King Booker
He won the "Champion of Champions" match, and therefore, he rules all in the WWE, and therefore rules all in the "mainstream" wrestling business. There is only ONE company that has three shows a week, all on NATIONAL/CABLE, and that's WWE. Like it or not, they're top dog, and Booker is top dog of said top dog. Oh, and for people voting for K-Fed... WHAT IN THE MOTHER FUCK? He shows up for 18 seconds and gets the nod? That's worse than Slimmer's pick of Ro... you know what, let me stop. But whoever voted for K-Fed ...just... for fucking shame.
2) AJ Styles
3) Homicide
Julian Williams
1) King Booker
He's the Champion of Champions damn it, how could he not get the number one spot?!?
2) Flair and Piper
3) AJ Styles
ARI
1) King Booker
He's no longer just "King of the World"; add "Champion of Champions" to the list of monikers for King Book. His win against John Cena (K-Federference aside) and being the focus of most of the Cyber Sunday PPV are more than enough to lock him in as the number one choice. Elsewhere, Homicide beats Corino in ROH action this past weekend to close the feud with Corino and AJ Styles is about the only decent thing from TNA this past week. He won the X Division title and advanced into this rigmarole of a tournament at the same time. It's good enough for third this week.
2) Homicide
3) AJ Styles
Mathew Sforcina
1) AJ Styles
Yes, this is back to square one for the X Division title. Yes, this severely derails Sabin, enough so that a snap heel turn may not help him. Yes, we are back to the problem of the belt welded to the gestalt entity that is Samoa J Daniels. Yes, it was a title win in a complicated tournament that is designed solely to give Abyss a title shot while putting all the heat on Joe costing Angle his first match in TNA. And yet, and yet...AJ Styles as the X Division Champion is just so...Right.
2) King Booker
3) Ric Flair/Roddy Piper
Larry Csonka
1) AJ Styles
I totally agree with Geoff and Mathew. AJ as X Champ could be really good, and hopefully this will mean a rebirth of a division that was nearly ruined. Homicide finally ended the feud with Corino, in tremendous fashion so he gets some love. I love King Booker, but the stench of K Fed really taints that whole deal for me, that and the match was so blah; like the whole PPV.
2) Homicide
3) King Booker
THE WINNERS!
Special Mention…Roddy Piper - 16 Votes
Roddy Piper gets the fans vote and then walks away with one half of the tag titles. Maybe now he will search out a tanning bed, and keep his shirt on.
Third Place…Ric Flair - 19 Votes
Flair tagged with Piper to defeat the Spirit Squad for the tag titles. Who would have known that in 2006 Piper and Flair would be the tag champions on Raw. What an amazing business.
Second Place…AJ Styles - 30 Votes
AJ Styles not only moves on in the Fight for Your Right tournament, but also won the X-Title yet again. Styles looks to be back, ready to bring honor back to the X-Division as well as good matches, and that is a good thing.
Wrestler of the Week…King Booker - 43 Votes
The King of the land of Smackdown, the King of the World, a true gladiator and now the Champion of Champions! King Booker takes another WOTW title, and now is back atop the year-end standings. The King is having a royal career resurgence, and a serious contender for the WOTY award.
Year-End Standings!
Once again we have some big changes in the rankings. AJ Styles makes a leap into the 7th spot on the list, while King Booker retakes over the top spot. Ric Flair gained some more points, and is having a good year. There are still 2-PPV's this month, and I expect more changes when all is said and done.
The top 15 spots are marked.
1. KING Booker - 85 (Smackdown)
2. Samoa Joe - 81 (TNA/ROH)
3. RVD - 72 (ECW)
4. Homicide - 60 (ROH/TNA)
5. Edge - 43 (Raw)
6. Hernandez – 41 (TNA)
7. AJ Styles - 40 (TNA) 7. Konnan - 40 (TNA)
9. Christian Cage - 38 (TNA)
10. Kurt Angle - 36 (TNA)
11. Christopher Daniels - 35 (TNA/ROH) 11. John Cena - 35 (Raw)
William Regal - 5 (Smackdown) BJ Whitmer - 5 (ROH) Jay Lethal - 5 (TNA) Hiroyoshi Tenzan - 5 (New Japan) Minoru - 5 (New Japan) JBL - 5 (Smackdown) Mark Henry - 5 (Smackdown)
Roddy Piper - 3 (Raw) The Undertaker - 3 (Smackdown) Johnny Nitro - 3 (Raw) Brian Kendrick - 3 (Smackdown) Paul London - 3 (Smackdown) Rey Bucanero - 3 (CMLL) Shelton Benjamin - 3 (Raw)
Kevin Nash - 2 (TNA) Shawn Michaels – 2 (Raw)
Icarus – 1 (US Independent) Balls Mahoney - 1 (ECW) Necro Butcher - 1 (US Independent) Giant Bernard - 1 (New Japan) Johnny Devine - 1 (TNA) Chris Sabin - 1 (TNA) Vince McMahon - 1 (WWE) Paul Heyman - 1 (ECW) Chavo Guerrero - 1 (Smackdown) Davey Richards - 1 (US Independent) Bobby Heenan - 1 (US Independent)
Voting began 4.10.06
Year-End Rankings Key:
Raw and Smackdown Wrestlers are represented in BLUE.
ECW Wrestlers are represented in GREEN.
TNA and ROH wrestlers are represented in RED.
Japanese wrestlers are represented in BLACK.
Mexican Wrestlers are represented in PURPLE.
CZW, FIP, PWG and other US Independent Wrestlers are represented in ORANGE
