411s Wrestler of the Week 10.01.07: Week 26
Posted by Larry Csonka on 10.01.2007
Quackenbush wins the TPI, Bernard takes down Yuji Nagata, Blue Panther survives the Cage of Death and much more! But who took home the coveted 411 WOTW Award? Click!
Welcome to Week 26 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!
Brad Garoon
1) Giant Bernard.
He and Tomko defended the IWGP Tag Team Championship and along the way he pinned the IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yuji Nagata. If Nagata can get by Hiroshi Tanahashi it would only be fair for him to grant Bernard a shot at his title.
2) Mike Quackenbush: I'd be more impressed with the win if the field of competitors had been what it was before injuries and TNA got in the way. Still, good for Quack.
3) BxB Hulk & Yamato: These two reportedly kept FIP fans on their feet all weekend. Hopefully FIP can have a similar relationship with Dragon gate as ROH does with NOAH.
4) Mitsuharu Misawa
5) Erick Stevens
Samuel Berman
1) Mike Quackenbush
Given the overall importance of the TPI in Independent wrestling, I couldn't imagine putting anyone but Quackenbush at the top of my list. During last year's tournament, IWA Mid-South owner Ian Rotten gave a speech that put Quackenbush over as one of the most important players on the Independent scene both as a performer and as a trainer. It's fitting that, despite a major injury during his second round match, this year saw "The Master of a Thousand Holds" join the prestigious ranks of Ted Petty Invitational winners. For the record, on his way to victory he defeated no less than Billy Roc, Joey Ryan, Josh Abercrombie, Claudio Castagnoli and Chuck Taylor. Also, in defeating Taylor, Quack won the IWA Mid-South World Heavyweight Title, a belt that had rested around Taylor's waist since LAST YEAR'S TPI event.
2) Chuck Taylor: Forced to defend his title throughout the TPI, Taylor made it through Jimmy Jacobs, 2 Cold Scorpio and Human Tornado before being the last man to fall in the three-way finals.
3) Mitsuharu Misawa: Defeated top challenger (and former champion) Naomichi Marufuji to retain the GHC Heavyweight Title and set up a huge dream match with Samoa Joe.
4) Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin
5) BxB Hulk & Yamato
Matt Short
1) Mike Quackenbush
Quack got the much deserved win in the Ted Petty Invitational this year getting by men like Billy Roc, Josh Abercrombie, Joey Ryan, Claudio Castagnoli, and Chuck Taylor. Quack turned in an amazing performance in the TPI and won the IWA-MS Heavyweight title from Chuck Taylor in the process.
2) Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin: The GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team champions roll on with another successful title defense against a Dragon Gate team.
3) Chuck Taylor: Another TPI standout. He made it all the way to the finals of the tournament defending his IWA-MS title against all comers before falling to Quack in the end.
4) Mitsuhara Misawa
5) Tomko & Giant Bernard
Ryan Byers
1) Blue Panther
As much as I may love the Ted Petty Invitational, it wasn't the biggest show of the week. That honor goes to CMLL's 74th Anniversary show down in Mexico City, Mexico. At the top of that card was a multi-man Cage of Death match in which the goal was to escape the cage, with the last two men remaining wrestling a singles match with either their hair or mask on the line. The bout came down to Blue Panther and Lizmark Jr., who had developed a bit of a rivalry over the last several weeks. At the end of the night, it was Panther who got the better of his opponent, unmasking the second-generation wrestler while keeping his own hood intact. For winning the main event of the weekend's biggest show and adding another mask to the list of twelve he had previously taken off of foes, the Panther is an easy choice for my Wrestler of the Week.
2) Giant Bernard (A-Train) - It's not every day that a guy gets to pin the heavyweight champion of the promotion that he works for, but Bernard did just that by defeating IWGP Champ Yuji Nagata in tag action on Monday night.
3) Mike Quackenbush - Most weekends, winning the TPI would be enough to get my number one spot. However, more notable events abroad bump Quack down to number three, as much as I may like him as a performer.
4) BxB Hulk & Yamato
5) Eddie Kingston
Andy Clark
1) Mike Quackenbush- Quack has had a bit of resurgence on the Indy scene this year, breaking out once again as one of the top Indy performers out there. Quack won the Ted Petty Invitational over IWA-MS standout Chuck Taylor and 2007 breakout star Claudio Castagnoli.
2) Blue Panther- I'm not nearly as up to date on my lucha as some of my colleagues, but I recognize that the CMLL Anniversary Show was a big show and that Blue Panther's win is a significant one.
3) Giant Bernard & Tomko- Retained their IWGP Tag Team Titles and defeated IWGP Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi in the process.
4) Masato Tanaka
5) Mitsuharu Misawa
Michael Bauer
1) Mike Quackenbush
Well, this week was crap for the big two, so it's the Indies all the way this week. Quackenbush won the Ted Petty Invitational this weekend and in the process, won the IWA-MS Heavyweight Title. That's good enough even if the big two had good weeks.
2) Blue Panther: Survives and wins the hair vs. mask elimination match.
3) Masato Tanaka: Wins the Jr. Heavyweight Tourney in Zero-One.
4) Mitsuharu Misawa
5) Giant Bernard
Scott Slimmer
1) Mike Quackenbush
Mike Quackenbush gets my first place vote for winning the Ted Petty Invitational Tournament and the IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Championship. My knowledge of independent wrestling is woefully lacking, but even I understand that winning the TPI is one of the most significant accomplishments possible for an independent wrestler. Winning the IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Championship makes Quack's victory all the more impressive and makes him an easy choice for WOTW.
2) Chris Jericho: Chris Jericho gets my second place vote for creating a massive amount of buzz around the internet despite the fact that the SaveUs_222 video might be completely unconnected to him. The fact that so many people are placing such significance on that video only demonstrates how eager they are to see Jericho return to WWE.
3) Chuck Taylor: Chuck Taylor gets my third place vote for having a great showing in the TPI. Taylor successfully defended his IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Championship against Jimmy Jacobs, 2 Cold Scorpio, and Human Tornado before finally losing the title to Mike Quackenbush in the finals of the tournament, but losing the title and the tournament don't make the three previous title defenses any less impressive.
4) Jeff Hardy & Candice Michelle / Shelton Benjamin & Beth Phoenix
5) Blue Panther
Bayani Domingo
1) Mike Quackenbush
Though the TPI has lost some luster since the first line-up was announced due to several key wrestlers not being able to participate, this is still a big deal amongst Indy circles. Not only winning the tournament, but also the IWA:MS title from Chuck Taylor is more than enough to earn Quack the top spot this week.
2) Giant Bernard: Retained his IWGP tag titles alongside partner Tomko and beat the IWGP Heavyweight Champion all in one match, not earth shattering to some, but imagine if Trevor Murdoch pinned Cena clean on RAW. Yeah, that's pretty close.
3) Blue Panther: Took Lizmark Jr's mask. Then again, would it have been more impressive if he was the FIRST guy to escape the cage instead?
4) BxB Hulk and YAMATO
5) Masato Tanaka
ARI
1) Mike Quackenbush
This has been a terrific, career year for Quackenbush. His popularity has skyrocketed, he's won titles of prestige and his exposure across the independent scene has gone up dramatically. Winning the TPI and simultaneously claiming the IWA:MS Heavyweight title (while also being its Light Heavyweight champion)--that is a hell of a week for anyone. Let's do this one time for LMQ: QUACK! QUACK! QUACK! QUACK! QUACK!
2) Giant Bernard & Tomko: I never expected to have these guys on my list much less this high up, but when you defend the IWGP tag belts against the IWGP champion and defeat him, that is an accomplishment that attracts my attention.
3) Chuck Taylor: Taylor almost made it out of the TPI with the tournament win and his title. Even so, the consolation prize was three wins over tough, international quality competition such as 2 Cold Scorpio and Human Tornado.
4) Mitsuhara Misawa
5) Blue Panther
Randy Harrison
1) Mike Quackenbush:
Quack has been one of my favorite Indy guys for a long time so I am loving this career resurgence he is experiencing right now. As all of my colleagues have been saying the TPI is pretty much the most prestigious Indy tournament around (believe me I'm not dissing BOLA or any of the other fine tournaments out there). Add to his tournament win the fact that he unseated Chuck Taylor as the king of IWA-MS and his number one spot is secured rather easily this week.
2) Giant Bernard: The former A-Train retained the IWGP tag titles along with his partner Tomko and in the process he beat the current IWGP heavyweight champ clean. I don't know a lot about Japanese wrestling but I know that if it would be a huge deal over here with the devalued titles, it must mean a TON over there where their heavyweight titles still mean something in the grand scheme. I never thought he'd be this high on my list but then again I never thought I'd like The Notebook either..errr...never mind.
3) Blue Panther: Taking a mask in Mexico is nothing to sneeze at and doing it on CMLL's biggest show of the year definitely deserves a nod from me. While a lot of people think that Lizmark losing wasn't a shock the fact that Panther managed to survive through a who's who of Lucha Libre to get it done more than makes up for the non-surprise at the outcome.
4) Chuck Taylor
5) Masato Tanaka
Jeff Small
1) Mike Quackenbush
For all the same reasons listed above. Anytime you win a prestigious Indy tournament and a Heavyweight belt in the same match should always propel you to the top five. Throw in the fact that this week was pretty insignificant in the WWE and TNA and Quack should be a no-brainer #1 this week.
2) Giant Bernard: Well I'm not nearly in love with the hoss as I was years ago, it's still nice to see that he's doing well in Japan. Never would I have thought to see the former Prince Albert pin a world champion in any type of match.
3) Chuck Taylor: While he will go down as the loser in the IWA-MS tournament, he sure as hell did not look like a loser in the process. He went through three rounds successfully defending his title before putting over the Quackman. In wrestling, it's not always just about the title, but how a wrestler comes out of the match. Even in defeat, Taylor still rose his stock.
4) Blue Panther
5) Elijah Burke
Sat
1) Mike Quackenbush
Mike Quackenbush gets the top slot for winning the Ted Petty Invitational Tournament and winning the IWA:MS Heavyweight title.
2) Blue Panther: Blue Panther gets the second slot for being the one responsible for unmasking Lizmark Jr.
3) Giant Bernard: Giant Bernard gets the third slot for defeating the IWGP champion in a tag team match.
4) Masato Tanaka
5) Elijah Burke
Robbie Brooksbank
1) Mike Quackenbush
Won the Ted Petty Invitational and won the IWA:MS Heavyweight title in doing so, defeating Chuck Taylor who had held the title for the previous year.
2) Chuck Taylor: Defended his title successfully against three men - Jimmy Jacobs, 2 Cold Scorpio and Human Tornado - before falling to Quack.
3) Mitsuhara Misawa: Successfully defended the GHC title against Naomichi Marafuji and will now be challenged by Samoa Joe.
4) Eddie Kingston
5) Giant Bernard
2) Chuck Taylor: Chuck Chuck Chuck Quack!
3) Mastao Tanaka: OK! (Obscure references rule!)
4) Giant Bernard
5) Blue Panther
Larry Csonka
1) Masato Tanaka
Earlier this year Tanaka won the Fire Festival for the second straight year. Now he wins the Tenka-Ichi (World-1) Jr. Heavyweight Tournament. Junior Heavyweight. He dropped weight basically and then defeated the likes of He defeated Dick Togo and Dragon Gate's Masaaki Mochizuki to take his second major tournament of the year. TANAKA FTW~!
2) Blue Panther: Had to go the entire distance in the cage of death mask, but he survived and cost Lizmark Jr. his mask.
3) Giant Bernard and Tomko: A huge win for the team that are rocking Japan right now.
4) Misawa
5) Mike Quackenbush
THE WINNERS!
Special Mention Tomko - 11 Votes
Fifth Place Masato Tanaka and Mitsuharu Misawa - 17 Votes
Fourth Place Chuck Taylor - 26 Votes
Third Place Blue Panther - 32 Votes
Blue Panther survived the Cage of Death and was the reason that Lizmark Jr. lost his mask at the huge CMLL 74th Anniversary show.
Second Place Giant Bernard - 40 Votes
Bernard and Tomko had a great title defense this weekend, but Bernard gets the major credit as Bernard snagged a pin on IWGP Champion Yuji Nagata!
Wrestler of the Week Mike Quackenbush - 67 Votes
Mike Quackenbush is the big winner this week as he won the Ted Petty Invitational. Quack is having a great year and is one to look out for as he climbs towards the top 15.
Year-End Standings~!
There were a lot of changes this week. First of all we are recognizing the top 15 guys now since we are at the half-way point. Next Quackenbush, Taylor and Tanaka all made good moves towards the top 15, with Taylor snagging the 12th spot. Officially we are half way through the voting year, and here are the current standings!
-The top 15 spots are marked
1. John Cena 78 (Raw)
2. Matt Hardy 63 (Smackdown)
2. Kurt Angle 63 (TNA)
4. CM Punk 61 (ECW)
5. Mark Briscoe 46 (ROH)
5. Jay Briscoe 46 (ROH)
