411’s Wrestler of the Week 7.02.07: Week 13
Posted by Larry Csonka on 07.02.2007
Punk is the #1 contender, Angle wins big in America and Japan while CIMA, Kanda, Saito and Yokosuka all won gold! Add onto that the fact that Chris Sabin won the AJPW Jr. Heavyweight League and it is a wild week of voting! Come on into see the results!
Welcome to Week 13, 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!
Andy Clark
1) Chris, Nancy and Daniel Benoit
This could be an unpopular vote but I feel it's the only one I could go with. Chris Benoit was arguably the best pure wrestler in professional wrestling history and he has been a part of more great matches and big time moments then just about anybody. Due to his actions in the final two days of his life, however, he will not be able to be celebrated for his talent and contributions to the business. There will be no Hall of Fame, no tribute shows, no DVD mentions. Benoit's legacy was killed alongside his family and this is one last tribute to a great performer with an unfortunate end to his life and career. Nancy Benoit was a great female manager and thinking of her this week makes me remiss that I didn't give Sherri Martel a vote when she passed. In all the hype over Chris Benoit's demise and actions Nancy's career has gone unnoticed. Daniel Benoit, while not a true part of the wrestling business, is well deserving of recognition. His passing is the saddest in all of this and I see no reason why I can't recognize him here.
2) Kurt Angle- Angle had a big week last week. First he successfully defended the TNA World Heavyweight Title over Rhino and Christian Cage in the longest match in TNA history. Then he defeated Brock Lesnar in a WrestleMania rematch in Japan to win the "disputed IWGP" Title.
3) John Cena- Defeated ECW World Champion Johnny Nitro in an entertaining Champion vs. Champion Match.
4) CIMA
5) Chris Sabin
Mike Bauer
1) Kurt Angle - It was mostly a quiet in-ring week in the world of wrestling. What made the loudest noise was two matches; one taped and one not. Kurt Angle was not in both of them, but he won both of them. Kurt Angle defeated Christian and Rhino in a 42 minute marathon of a match on TNA to retain the TNA World Title and cement his spot on the upcoming Pay per View. Then in Japan, Kurt Angle defeated Brock Lesnar, making him tap out to the ankle lock. That is an impressive week in anyone's book, so he gets the nod.
2) CM Punk - Defeated Elijah Burke in a 2 out of 3 falls match to earn a rematch with Johnny Nitro.
3) Roderick Strong - Had two successful defenses of the FIP Heavyweight Title.
4) CIMA
5) Chris Sabin
Matt Adamson
1) Kurt Angle - This was a tremendous week in Japan for pro wrestling. Not much happened here as far as the wrestling product goes here in the states, so I have managed to have an all puro Wrestler Of The Week poll. There was plenty going on from everybody but the two top companies, but what did happen was significant. Though Kurt Angle won a fake title, he had to beat Brock Lesnar to do so in the big Inoki Genome Federation debut to win that fake "IWGP 3rd belt". Still a heck of an accomplishment and will likely turn out to be quite controversial.
2) CIMA - One of my favorite title wins in a while was when Jushin Liger won the Open The Dream Gate title from Don Fujii back in March. Now CIMA has taken the title away from Liger and it excites me just as much.
3) Chris Sabin - Winner of the All Japan Jr. Heavyweight League. I am very pleased with this as it makes me hope for an All Japan/TNA relationship that can only mean more puro stars on Spike TV.
4) Minoru Suzuki
5) Yasushi Kanda
Daniel Wilcox
1) Kurt Angle - The recently crowned TNA Champion defended his title in a great match on Impact that went 45 minutes with Rhino and Christian Cage, and if that wasn't enough he made Brock Lesnar tap out to "win" the IWGP belt. In a week where not a lot happened in the main companies (in-ring wise) Angle gets the easy nod for Wrestler of the Week as far as I'm concerned.
2) CM Punk - Defeated Elijah Burke in an entertaining 2 out of 3 falls match to earn an ECW Championship shot against Johnny Nitro in the future.
3) John Cena/Batista - Cena had a very good match with Johnny Nitro on ECW and came out on top while Batista pinned World Champion Edge in a good bout on SmackDown.
4) Rhino
5) Christian Cage
Matt Short
1) Kurt Angle- Angle won on TNA this week, but that's not why he gets number one from me. He made Brock Lesnar tap to take the IWPG title. Which by all reports is going to cause quite an uproar since the title he won is quite disputed.
2) CIMA- Beat the legend Jushin Liger on Sunday to win Dragon Gate's Open the Dream Gate title. A win over Liger is one thing, but to win a title out of it is something else. Here's hoping CIMA takes the belt and really makes it into something special with a long run.
3) Ryo Saito & Susumu Yokosuka: Beat Jado and Gedo for the International Jr Heavyweight Tag Team titles in Dragon Gate.
4) Chris Sabin
5) Yasushi Kanda
Meehan
1) Kurt Angle - Olympic gold medalist, and now the proud owner of a big gold belt on not just one but TWO continents -- AT THE SAME TIME!!! Kurt Angle is on a roll right now, and his big win in Japan proves that he's not just our American hero... he's an international one to boot!
2) CM Punk - Wins the #1 contender's spot AND is the next in line for a brand spankin' new WWE t-shirt.
3) John Cena - Beating another show's champ is always a big event.
4) CIMA
5) Chris Sabin
Scott Slimmer
1) Kurt Angle – Kurt Angle gets my first place vote for defeating Christian Cage and Rhino to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in an epic match on Impact and then defeating Brock Lesnar in a wrestling match to win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship… sorta. Look, I'm not a puro guy, so I'm not even going to try and figure out how that all works, but from an outside point of view the IGF version of the IWGP title seems to have all the credibility of Taz's old FTW Championship. We can only pray that Angle uses masking tape and a magic marker to put his name on the belt. Anyway, Angle now has somewhere in the ballpark of 1.5 World Championships to his name, so that's got to count for something. The only way this gets any better is if TNA has Rhino start defending that old ECW World Heavyweight Championship that he never lost and then eventually drop the belt to Angle. Because I would absolutely LOVE to see WWE and New Japan try to figure out what to do when TNA's champion is parading around claiming to be their champion as well.
2) CM Punk – CM Punk gets my second place vote for defeating Elijah Burke to become the Number One Contender to the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. We all know Punk is going to have a run with the belt at some point, so let's just hope his victory this week means it's going to be sooner rather than later.
3) Batista – Batista gets my third place vote for defeating Edge in a non-title match on Smackdown. Batista can't challenge for the World Championship as long as Edge is champion, but a title win by a certain resident of North Carolina could change all that. And yes, I did just hit me that "a certain resident of North Carolina" could now refer to two different stars on Smackdown. But you get the point.
4) John Cena
5) Chris Sabin
Sat
1) Kurt Angle
Kurt Angle gets the top slot because he wins the IGWP title from Brock Lesnar and he successfully defends the TNA World Title against Christian Cage and Rhino
2) Batista - Batista gets the second slot because he pinned the world champion clean
3) CM Punk - CM Punk gets the third slot because he defeats Elijiah Burke to become the number one contender for the ECW Title
4) Chris Sabin
5) John Cena
Samuel Berman
1) CM Punk
Finally, a week where I can vote for Punk at the top spot and don't have to get hate mail about being a ROHbot or being an idiot or saying that I've single-handedly ruined WOTW. A 2/3 falls victory over nemesis Elijah Burke in an important spot (the first show after Monday) seems good enough for me. Good stuff from the Punker this time around.
2) CIMA - The Open the Dream Gate Title is a big deal if you follow Dragon Gate, and CIMA beat legend Jushin Lyger to win it.
3) Roderick Strong - Also a big deal is two successful FIP World Heavyweight Title defenses against Jimmy Rave and Eddie Kingston. (As and aside, I'm becoming a HUGE Kingston fan.)
4) Chris Sabin
5) Erick Stevens
ARI
1) Kurt Angle
Winning the so called "IWGP" title, which isn't officially the legit title...well that's not why Angle is in my top slot. Angle makes it in because he had a very good match against Lesnar in Japan that was like a 'best of" their work in WWE. Angle is becoming very over in Japan and even though the match was only ten minutes it actually made me miss Brock Lesnar in a wrestling ring. Now Lesnar can go on to concentrate on MMA, but Angle is king of the hill in TNA, as his win and title defense on this week's iMPACT will attest.
2) CIMA: defeated Jushin Liger and that is no easy feat (unless you are Samoa Joe at Bound for Glory '05).
3) CM Punk: Punk ups his game to his best match in ECW yet against Elijah Burke. Punk is now the top face of ECW and is in the title hunt for a long time to come.
4) Chris Sabin
5) Roderick Strong
Ryan Byers
1) Chris Sabin - As has already been mentioned, Sabin made a big splash this past weekend by winning All Japan Pro Wrestling's junior heavyweight league tournament. Making it more impressive still was that this tournament was the first time ever that Sabin set foot in to an AJPW ring, and there's already talk that he'll be receiving a shot at their junior title in the very near future. This opens up a major door for the advancement of Sabin's career as, although he's been to Japan before, he is now stepping up to the big leagues.
2) Kurt Angle - Wins a disputed version of the IWGP Title. I had to go with Sabin over Angle just because this sort of accomplishment is to be expected of a man on Angle's level, whereas Sabin is actually making a step up in the wrestling world.
3) CIMA - Reclaims Dragon Gate's top title from the dastardly outsider who was holding it hostage.
4) Dave Batista
5) Amazing Kong
JT
1) Kurt Angle - It has been more than adequately covered by the rest of the staff. He won a title defense on iMPACT to secure his PPV main event slot, then went ahead and made Lesnar tap for the IWGP title - be it a disputed title or not.
2) CM Punk - Put on what is probably the second best match of the week (albeit, an uneventful week in terms of actual wrestling).
3) Batista - Beat the company's top heel, AND the World Heavyweight Champion, and did so cleanly and with relative ease.
4) CIMA
5) Sabin
Bayani Domingo
1) Kurt Angle - He beat Christian and Rhino in TNA, then Brock Lesner in Japan for a title that may or may not exist. Either way, pretty damn impressive on both continents.
2) CIMA - He beat Lyger for the Open the Dream Gate title. Which is THE title in Dragon Gate. To me a title win over a HUGE name in Japan warrants a top spot.
3) Chris Sabin - I never saw him winning the All Japan Jr. Heavyweight title. Then again his time in Zero-1 apparently translated well to a bigger stage.
4) Yasushi Kanda
5) Roderick Strong
Andy Critchell
1) Kurt Angle - Had a successful title defense in a three way and then won the IWGP title from Brock Lesnar in Japan. Sounds like a pretty solid all around week to me.
2) CIMA - Even I know how big and important Jushin Liger in Japan so to win over him for a title is pretty impressive.
3) Batista - The Animal got a big win this week defeating the reigning World Heavyweight Champ is a very solid non-title match.
4) John Cena/Johnny Nitro
5) CM Punk
Larry Csonka
1) Kurt Angle
Angle defeats former nemesis Brock Lesnar, hold s a disputed IWGP title, retained the TNA title in a good match and even challenged Brock to an MMA fight. That crazy bastard is having the best week ever!
2) Chris Sabin - Chris Sabin won the AJPW Jr. Heavyweight League defeating Shuji Kondo in the finals. This is a huge career step for Sabin and he deserves some love for it.
3) CIMA/Yasushi Kanda – Both men took singles titles in Japan this week, big accomplishments, especially since CIMA defeated Liger.
4) Ryo Saito & Susumu Yokosuka
5) CM Punk
THE WINNERS!
Special Mention…John Cena - 14 Votes
Fifth Place…Batista - 18 Votes
Fourth Place…Chris Sabin - 28 Votes
Third Place…CIMA - 37 Votes
CIMA defeated Jushin Thunder Liger for the Open the Dream Gate Title this week, a huge accomplishment and worthy of 3rd place.
Second Place…CM Punk - 43 Votes
CM Punk defeated Elijah Burke in a 2 of 3 falls match on ECW this week to earn a title match with Johnny Nitro.
Wrestler of the Week…Kurt Angle - 63 Votes
Kurt Angle storms into first pace this week with an impressive win on Impact as well as in Japan.
Year-End Standings~!
Thinks have been shaken up. With Angle's win he now leaps into 2nd place in the year end standings. CM Punk jumps into a tie for 7th, CIMA and Sabin debut while John Cena was able to snag another point, keeping himself consistent and ahead of the game.
1. John Cena – 50 (Raw)
2.Kurt Angle – 45 (TNA)
3.Edge – 38 (Raw)
4.Matt Hardy – 33 (Smackdown)
5.Bobby Lashley – 32 (ECW)
6.MVP – 31 (Smackdown)
7.Samoa Joe – 27 (TNA)
7.CM Punk – 27 (ECW)
9.Sara Del Ray – 18 (US Independent)
9.Vince McMahon – 18 (WWE)
