wrestling / Columns
411’s Wrestler of the Week 6.04.07: Week 9
Welcome to Week 9, Year-Three, of 411’s Wrestler of the Week. A quick overview to kick things off as we have some new rules for year three…
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
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…
The Voting!
Scott Slimmer
1) Lashley
Bobby Lashley gets my first place vote for FINALLY defeating Mr. McMahon (and Shane McMahon… and Umaga…) to once again become the ECW World Heavyweight Champion. The ECW Championship has been seriously devalued during Mr. McMahon’s title reign, but being back around the waist of Bobby Lashley may be the first step in reestablishing its legitimacy.
2) Matt Hardy – Matt Hardy gets my second place for winning not one, not two, but three entertaining tag team matches this week. Matt has been finding success everywhere he goes lately, and the upcoming draft lottery might just provide him with the opportunity to finally break into the upper echelon of sports entertainment.
3) Randy Orton – Randy Orton gets my third place vote for defeating Rob Van Dam on Raw, defeating Tommy Dreamer on ECW, and possibly ending Van Dam’s WWE career at One Night Stand. Orton may not have technically won the Stretcher Match, but he nonetheless furthered his reputation as the Legend Killer.
4) Sara Del Ray
5) Brock Lesnar
Mike Bauer
1) The Hardy Boys/ The World’s Greatest Tag Team -It’s hard to pick any of the champions this week, so I picked what has to be the best developed feud, even if short term, in some time. From all accounts that I’ve read, the ladder match was amazing at One Night Stand. Add in a great match on Raw and some more antics after the match at ONS and both teams deserve it this week. No offense Lashley, but the whole feud sucked ass. And no offense Edge, but you should be able to beat Batista. And no offense Cena, but Khali shouldn’t be facing you.
2) Randy Orton – The Legend Killer indeed this week as he pretty much ended Rob Van Damn’s WWE career and picked up some huge wins in the process. He didn’t win the match offically at One Night Stand, but he got the job done.
3) Finlay – Larry, I beg you, please put that video up so everyone can see why I’m voting for him. Words do not describe it and he gets the vote for entertainment purposes.
LARRY EDIT: Ok!
4) Sara Del Ray
5) Brock Lesnar
SAT
1) Bobby Lashley
Bobby Lashley manages to regain the ECW title from Vince McMahon in a street fight at One Night Stand. He had a tough time regaining the title, so he gets the top slot.
2) Randy Orton – Randy Orton gets the second slot for his amazing week. Randy Orton defeats Rob Van Dam on RAW and then defeats Tommy Dreamer on ECW. Randy Orton did lose at One Night Stand, but he may have ended Rob Van Dam’s WWE career. Randy Orton manages to kill two ECW originals in the span of a week and that is definitely enough to get him the second slot.
3) Sara Del Ray – Sara Del Ray defeats Lacey to become the first Shimmer champion and that gets her the third slot.
4) The Hardy’s
5) John Cena
JT~!
1) Lashley
Vince wants to push him like a beast, and despite odds being stacked against him over and over again, he continued to show resiliency tonight as he took out the entire “Team McMahon” to re-capture the ECW title.
2) Hardy’s – To be honest, I wanted to tie them as well with the WGTT, but the fact is that they won tonight to retain the belts at a PPV, so they get my nod.
3) Edge – Escaped the clutches of Big Dave on Saturday in true heel fashion, and then won the title match at ONS. It doesn’t matter how, something has to be said for the fact that Edge does whatever it takes to remain champion, and it worked.
4) John Cena
5) Sara Del Ray
Sammy Davis Berman
1) Sara Del Rey
SHIMMER pretty much consistently puts on a great product and now Del Rey is the company’s official standard-bearer. Hopefully she’ll continue to put on good performances in the coming months while continuing to help the company legitimize itself to a growing audience. Theoretically she’s going to get the opportunity to defend her newly won title on an ROH show soon to increase its (and her) exposure even more.
2) Matt & Jeff Hardy – Retained their titles in what can only be considered their specialty match.
3) John Cena – Hopefully this spells the end of Khali on my television.
4) CM Punk
5) Edge
Mathew Sforcina
1) Lashley
Honest to Teller, when I typed this up, I put ‘Brock Lesnar’ there and only just caught it as I went to post this. That says something right there. Bobby wins back his ‘world’ title, and got to dismantle the boss and the boss’ son in the same night. That’s pretty darn impressive.
2) John Cena- He retained against all odds (yet again)! Huzzah.
3) Finlay- Best. Dancing. Ever.
4) Sara Del Ray
5) The Hardys/WGTT
Ryan Byers
1) Sara Del Ray
SHIMMER: Women Athletes set out to crown its first singles champion this weekend, and they picked just about the best lady for the job, namely Ms. Sara Del Ray. “Death Rey,” as she is known to her fans, has been red hot ever since SHIMMER debuted, only dropping one singles match in the promotion’s history. Her winning ways continued this weekend, as she entered the title tournament and defeated Cindy Rogers, Alicia, Sara Stock, and Lacey over the course of two days to earn her crown. Top that off with a tag team victory with Nikki Roxx against the Minnesota Homewrecking Crew in non-tournament action, and you’ve got a hell of a weekend for the young lady from Martinez, California.
2) Sara Stock – Made her SHIMMER debut as a mystery entrant in the title tournament and put away three of the company’s top names in Cheerleader Melissa, MsChif, and Daizee Haze.
3) The Hardys/TWGGT – Made an otherwise boring PPV full of predictable results in to something fun.
4) Blaster Lashley
5) Edge
ARI
1) The Hardys / Worlds Greatest Tag Team
From the sounds of it, it was the best match of the week and exactly what we all though it might be–the show stealer of the ECW PPV.
2) Sara Del Rey: The NEWWWWWW and first SHIMMER Women’s champion–obviously won out all of her matches and then some (an additional tag match for volume 12). Sara represents the very definition of the “women’s wrestler” that SHIMMER is supposed to be about. Hopefully she’ll have a very successful reign as champion.
3) “Dark Angel” Sara Stock: Yes, this might be a record, TWO women’s wrestlers nominated at the same time. Much hyped from CMLL action, Stock proved her stock by coming into the SHIMMER tournament and racking up big wins and great performances against established SHIMMER wrestlers Cheerleader Melissa and MsChif. Stock bowed out in the tournament semi finals in a losing effort to Sara Del Rey, but continued her winning ways by defeated Daizee Haze for the volume 12 tapings. Now THAT is impressive.
4) Finlay
5) Brock Lesnar
Matt Adamson
1) Sara Del Rey
There is only going to be one first ever SHIMMER champion and it is Sara Del Rey. She came out on top in what is likely to be the most important weekend in North American women’s professional wrestling history. SHIMMER is just starting to put itself on the map, and this is its most impressive landmark.
2) Lacey – While Sara Stock was impressive, I have to give Lacey my number 2 spot for overcoming all but one of her opponents in the SHIMMER title tournament.
3) Hardyz/WGTT – Putting out just about the only interesting match on PPV this week.
4) Finlay
5) “DarK Angel” Sarah Stock
Matt Short
1) Lashley
As much as his feud with McMahon dragged and as bad as his promos are, I can’t ignore him winning the ECW World Title. It’s probably his biggest win since he first won the belt last December. I can put aside my dislike for the guy and give him his due. Though what the hell he’s going to do now I can only guess.
2) Sara Del Rey: Your first ever champion of SHIMMER. Sara got through some tough competition this weekend in a tournament that culminated in a win against Lacey to be crowned the first champion of SHIMMER.
3) John Cena- Beat Khali again like we all knew and hoped he would.
4) Ricky Marvin/Kotaro Suzuki
5) Edge
Stuart Carapola
1) Lashley
He won a World Title this weekend, which basically automatically shoots him to the top by my estimation.
2) Sara Del Rey: After being the most dominant women’s wrestler on the US Indy scene for quite some time, she won the tournament to crown the first SHIMMER Champion with a victory over Lacey in what was said to be a great tournament final.
3) Matt & Jeff Hardy/Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas: Did anyone really doubt that they were going to steal the show at One Night Stand?
4) Edge
5) John Cena
Furious
1) Lashley
Reclaimed his prestigious ECW title from the evil clutches of Mr. McMahon. Was the only wrestler to bag a title when all the big ones were on the line at One Night Stand.
2) Sara Del Ray. Feels dirty voting for a chick. I’m sure she deserves it though.
3) John Cena. Once again slew the monster and now has a pinfall win over Khali. Not many people can say that.
4) Edge
5) The Hardy’s
Andy Critchell
1) Lashley
Bobby did what he had to do and overcame the odds to get back what is rightfully his. Once again, Lashley comes out of a match looking dominant and Vince is out of excuses. Well done!
2) Sara Del Ray: First champion of Shimmer. You gotta respect that.
3) Edge: Beat Batista in a cage match and looked good doing it. Is there anything this guy can’t do??
4) “Dancing machine” Finlay
5) Candice Michelle
MEEHAN
1) John Cena
Made a main event miracle out of Khali, and added another “giant killer” notch in his already-impressive (and blinged out) spinner belt.
2) Edge – When’s the last time a HEEL won a cage match by escaping OVER THE TOP?!?! Well done!
3) Bobby Lashley – Mercifully, let’s hope this one’s over.
4) The Hardy’s
5) AJ Styles
Bayani Domingo
1) Sara Del Rey
I’m a sucker for a tournament winner and considering how important this title and company is to making Women’s wrestling legit again in the US this gets the top spot.
2) Lashley – The biggest title win on ONS, well the ONLY title win on the show although everyone else retained. Sad how the ECW title probably means less than a good handful of Indy titles now.
3) Edge – Kind of won clean on Sunday without any outside interference, maybe we can avoid the abortion that is Henry/Batista after all.
4) Marvin/Suzuki
5) Brock Lesnar
Larry Csonka
1) Sara Del Rey
I agree with Matt when he says that there can only ever be ONE first SHIMMER champion. This was a huge weekend for the promotion, and they have put the company on the back of Del Ray and from all accounts she has and will continue to deliver.
2) AJ Styles – Poor AJ, forgotten this week after making KOTM while everyone else got mention in their weeks.
3) The Hardy’s/WGTT – These guys put on a damn fine ladder match at ONS III, and deserve some mention.
4) Lashley
5) Finlay
THE WINNERS!
Matt Hardy again out does his brother by continuing to have great outings as a singles competitor. If Matt can keep this us, he could not only be the model of consistency, but could be the WOTY!
The man finally took down the 3-1 odds, and got back at Vinny Mac and then won his title back to boot. Pretty good week by all accounts!
But there can only be one, and there can only be one first and that is Sara Del Ray this week. At the SHIMMER vol. 11 tapings, Sara became the first ever SHIMMER champion. Who knows if Shimmer will even be around in 5-years, but on that night she became the champion and on this day she becomes 411’s Wrestler of the Week!
Year-End Standings~!
Cena, Edge, Lashley and Matt Hardy all got major points this week and are dominating the top of the standings. With her win, Sara Del Ray is right behind them along with Jeff Hardy, Joe, Punk, Angle and others. It is early on but the standings are very interesting thus far, and should get even more interesting with two more PPV’s to go in this very month!
John Cena – 34 (Raw)
Matt Hardy – 33 (Smackdown)
Bobby Lashley – 32 (ECW)
MVP – 31 (Smackdown)
Edge – 31 (Raw)
Sara Del Ray – 18 (US Independent)
Jeff Hardy – 16 (Raw)
Samoa Joe – 15 (TNA)
Kurt Angle – 15 (TNA)
CM Punk – 15 (ECW)
Shawn Michaels – 15 (Raw)
Santino Marella – 15 (Raw)
Elijah Burke – 12 (ECW)
Deuce – 12 (Smackdown)
Domino – 12 (Smackdown)
Brother Ray – 12 (TNA)
Brother Devon – 12 (TNA)
Dick Togo – 12 (New Japan)
PAC – 12 (Independent)
Roderick Strong– 12 (ROH/FIP)
Batista – 9 (Smackdown)
Bryan Danielson – 9 (ROH)
Nigel McGuiness – 9 (ROH)
Mark Briscoe – 9 (ROH)
Jay Briscoe – 9 (ROH)
Vito Thomaselli – 9 (US Independent)
Sal Thomaselli – 9 (US Independent)
TAKA Michinoku – 9 (New Japan)
Yugi Nagata – 9 (New Japan)
Paul London – 7 (Smackdown)
Brian Kendrick – 7 (Smackdown)
Vince McMahon – 6 (WWE)
Abyss– 6 (TNA)
Sting– 6 (TNA)
Scott Steiner– 6 (TNA)
Mike Quackenbush – 4 (US Independent)
Charlie Haas – 3 (Raw)
Shelton Benjamin– 3 (Raw)
Ultimo Guerrero – 3 (CMLL)
Christopher Daniels – 3 (TNA)
The Great Khali – 3 (Raw)
Togi Makabe – 3 (New Japan)
Jeff Jarrett– 1 (TNA)
Rob Van Dam – 1 (ECW)
Colt Cabana – 1 (WWE)
El Generico – 1 (US Independent)
Chuck Taylor – 1 (US Independent)
Raw and Smackdown Wrestlers are represented in BLUE.
ECW Wrestlers are represented in GREEN.
TNA wrestlers are represented in RED.
ROH/FIP Wrestlers are represented in MAROON.
US Independent Wrestlers are represented in ORANGE
Japanese wrestlers are represented in BLACK.
Mexican Wrestlers are represented in MAGENTA.
