411s Wrestler of the Week 10.22.07: Week 29
Posted by Larry Csonka on 10.22.2007
Chris Hero dominates ROHs Survival of the Fittest, D Lo Brown and Bull Buchanan won the NOAH GHC Tag Team Titles, MVP and Matt Hardy are the main reason to watch Smackdown and more happened this week! But who took the WOTW title? CLICK!
Welcome to Week 29 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!
Michael Bauer
1) Chris Hero
Wow, I don't really think anyone saw this coming, but Chris Hero has now established himself as a top name in Ring of Honor by winning the Survival of the Fittest Tournament. It's not just the fact that he won, but he eliminated all 5 opponents in the match! That's some impressive stuff.
2) Nigel McGuiness: Nigel goes to a time limit draw with Danielson and then has a good 1st defense against Jay Briscoe.
3) Christian Cage - Gets his win back over Samoa Joe, as ugly as it looked.
4) D-Lo Brown & Buchanan
5) Matt Hardy/MVP
Steve Sullivan
1) Nigel McGuiness
Nigel had a very impressive night for his first round as ROH Champion. He retains against Jay Briscoe and takes Bryan Danielson to the draw. Those are two big names in ROH and Nigel is really looking impressive in his reign thus far. Congrats to ROH for continuing to send a buzz across the Internet.
2) Chris Hero- Dominated the Survival of the Fittest Tourny. And like Bauer said, he eliminated every opponent. It seems safe to bet that Hero will be in the ROH World Title picture soon.
3) Matt Hardy- Is anyone really having a better year than Matt Hardy? Hardy continues to make Smackdown worth watching and continues his tremendous run through the U.S. Title contenders by beating Finlay.
4) Kaz
5) Disco Inferno
Samuel Berman
1) Chris Hero
I mean he went over six men in one night en route to the 2007 Survival of the Fittest crown and then followed up with another win over Human Tornado in San Francisco. Ring of Honor's West Coast debut may not have gone exactly as planned, but Hero had the kind of week that most are forced to dream about. Hopefully this is the beginning of a big run for Hero and ideally Ring of Honor already has plans for his push, rather than the often spotty booking that has plagued him over the last year (as well as the on-again, off-again push that last year's SOTF winner Delirious has experienced). Everyone who reads pretty much anything I write knows that I'm a big mark for Hero, so as far as I'm concerned, this whole thing is awesome. And any reference in last week's column to me giving up on Hero getting a push was obviously a figment of your imagination. That is all.
2) Jimmy Jacobs & Necro Butcher: A pair of high-profile wins over the No Remorse Corps and the ROH World Tag Team Champions Jay & Mark Briscoe is good enough for second this week.
3) Nigel McGuinness: Despite the draw with Danielson, Nigel did successfully retain his ROH World Title against one of the company's other standard bearers in Jay Briscoe.
4) "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson
5) Roderick Strong
Chris Lansdell
1) Chris Hero
Positioned himself for the nest shot at McGuinness, which should be epic, and went over 6 people in one night. And he eliminated ALL of them!
2) Matt Hardy & MVP: Shading it over the #3 entry due to the limitations on them with MVP's injury/condition. The likely MMA fight at Cyber Sunday should be...interesting.
3) D-Lo and B-Squared: WWE-jects who can actually go, go over big in Japan.
4) Nigel McGuinness
5) Kaz
ARI
1) Chris Hero
You hero, Chris Jericho's hero, not my hero, but certainly someone who earned the WOTW by launching a clean sweep of Survival of the Fittest 2007. Hell he not only swept the tournament but he swept the weekend in ROH. Hero came off like a massive hit here and still continues to prove he can be a quality heel in ROH.
2) Jimmy Jacobs & Necro Butcher: The Age of the Fall continues a dominant run in ROH and stirs the pot some by attacking and then dominating a heel stable in ROH. Face or heel, if you are with ROH then you are a target to Age of the Fall.
3) D-Lo Brown and Bull Buchanan: It's always an upset and a matter of interest when a gaijin wins a title in Japan. NOAH can be a bit stingy with its treatment of foreign talent, but RO&D had a built in presence in Japan and the previous build of contendership for the GHC titles to work with. Congrats go to one of my favorite mid carders of the late 90's in D-Lo and I'm glad that both he and Buchanan have found success in Japan at this level.
4) Randy Orton
5) Christian Cage
Ryan Byers
1) Chris Hero
It's not often that a professional wrestler can say that he beat the vast majority of a promotion's upper card guys all on one show. However, Hero did just that, pinning five men during the Survival of the Fittest match and, by proxy, beating all of the men that they had beaten earlier in the evening. Given that the current ROH scene seems to be devoid of credible title contenders (with the exception of a man named Danielson), this victory is of particular importance to Hero, as it separates him from the midcard pack and moves him towards a shot at McGuinness.
2) D-Lo Brown & Bull Buchanan - Though I'd bet money that it's just a transitional reign, the two Americans can officially call themselves GHC Tag Team Champions.
3) Roddy Piper - Managed to finally get a check at the Wrestle Fan Fest convention that didn't bounce.
4) Brock Lesnar
5) Randy Orton
JT~!
1) Nigel McGuinness
Had himself a heck of a week. Now, I know it is late in the year, but last I checked, Bryan Danielson was still the runner up to the 411 2006 Wrestler of the Year (and yes kids, that's against everyone on the mainstream rosters as well). To take him to a time limit draw is impressive enough; but that was not enough for Nigel. He then put on a Hell of a match against Jay Briscoe to retain his ROH Championship. You win.
2) Chris Hero - Went over five guys (by personally eliminating them mind you) to position himself as the #1 contender for the ROH title via the Survival of the Fittest tourney. In addition to that, went ahead and got himself another victory over the weekend.
3) Christian Cage - Before you yell at me and call me a homer, allow me to explain. What everyone seems to forget is that the loss Christian Cage took at the PPV was his first official *loss/pin/submission* in the record books for TNA. That is a LONG time to not be defeated (less than month shy of two years if you're wondering). Rather than have it lead to further Joe domination, he came right back and got his win back to show that Sunday's loss may have been a fluke. I don't care how it looked, I care how it pertains to WOTW.
4) Randy Orton
5) Matt Hardy/MVP
Bayani Domingo
1) Chris Hero
You really had to be there live to appreciate it but after Hero stole every single pin in the finals it was almost a GIVEN that Claudio would get the pinfall. It only made sense, Hero looks like a genius for eliminating 5 great competitors and Claudio gets the win in the end. Luckily they didn't go that route and Hero unbelievably swept SotF. Is it now the "Winter of Hero"?
2) Panic! at the Necro: They beat the Briscoes and the NRC this weekend. Well it looks like at least ONE of these stables are going to emerge from the pack.
3) D'lo and Bull: Yeah, it feels like 1999 all over again.
4) Christian Cage
5) Nigel McGuinness
Matt Short
1) Chris Hero
I've always been a strong proponent of Chris Hero in ROH, especially after he picked up Larry Sweeney as a manager (TWELVE LARGE, BROTHER!). Unfortunately, he has yet to really make it off the ground. Until now, where he won ROH's Survival of the Fittest. And it's not just that he's won the thing, but he did it in such styling fashion that one can't help but be impressed. A clean sweep at SotF gets Hero number one this week for me.
2) RO&D (D'Lo Brown & Buchanan): When they first announced that one of Japan's finest gaijin stables was coming to NOAH I was excited, but didn't think much would come out of it. I was proven right as RO&D did nothing after they first appeared. Saturday, they lived up to the hype and won the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team titles after beating Akira Taue & Go Shiozaki to earn the final points necessary to take the belts. Yeah, they're not likely to get past next weekend's Budokan show but it's not everyday you see two gaijin holding belts in NOAH.
3) Nigel McGuinness: He had a strong showing in his first weekend as ROH World Champion.
4) Christian Cage
5) Randy Orton
Randy Harrison
1) Chris Hero
To pull off the sweep the way that he did and in one night essentially give himself instant credibility in the ROH World Title picture is impressive to say the least. Add to that that it wasn't his only victory of the weekend and he's got Number One written all over him.
2) Nigel McGuinness: Proved he earned his right to be called ROH champion with two great matches this weekend against two of the best ROH has to offer. A draw with the Dragon and a win over Jay Briscoe in your first two defenses is nothing to sneeze at.
3) Christian Cage/Samoa Joe: Great Impact main event this week that was marred by the shitty ending. I really think that if they built off of these two and guys like Styles and Daniels they could have something special but then again, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.
4) D-Lo and B Squared, bitches!
5) Jimmy Jacobs/Necro Butcher
Brad Garoon
1) Chris Hero
He beat the Human Tornado twice out west. Oh right and he also beat Karl Anderson, Roderick Strong, Rocky Romero, Austin Aries and Claudio Castagnoli. His feud with Claudio finally seems to be in full swing as well, so things are finally looking up for Hero.
2) Jimmy Jacobs & Necro Butcher: They continue to dominate whether it's as part of a team or in singles competition. This weekend they were joined at the hip and put down both the Briscoes and the No Remorse Corp.
3) Nigel McGuinness: Had his first successful title defense against Jay Briscoe and kept Danielson from pinning him in a non-title match.
4) Brock Lesnar
5) Roderick Strong
Larry Csonka
1) Chris Hero
Love him or hate him, you have to respect the path of destruction Hero laid out this past weekend. He beat Tornado, Romero, Aries, Strong and Claudio en route to winning Survival of the Fittest. A most excellent weekend for Mr. Hero.
2) D-Lo Brown and Bull Buchanan: They won the NOAH Tag Title tournament and walked out with the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team titles. ARE YOU DOWN WITH THE BROWN? NOAH apparently is.
3) Christian Cage/Kaz: Cage and Kaz are in the Fight for the Right tournament and had big wins this week.
4) Awesome Kong
5) Nigel McGuinness
THE WINNERS!
Special Mention MVP, Randy Orton and Kaz - 6 Votes
Fifth Place Matt Hardy - 9 Votes
Fourth Place Jimmy Jacobs, Necro Butcher and Christian Cage - 17 Votes
Third Place D Lo Brown and Bull Buchanan - 25 Votes
They won the NOAH Tag Title tournament and walked out with the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team titles. A hell of a week for the team and that earned then the third spot this week.
Second Place Nigel McGuinness - 32 Votes
Nigel has a great weekend as ROH champion with string wins and title defenses. Nigel is on a roll and snags the second spot this week.
Wrestler of the Week Chris Hero - 58 Votes
Chris Hero not only won all of his matches this weekend, and not only won the ROH Survival of the Fittest title, but he also beat EVERYONE IN THE MATCH. He beat Tornado, Romero, Aries, Strong and Claudio! Hero is now a top notch guy in ROH and they needed that.
Year-End Standings~!
With John Cena out for the rest of the voting year (they don't expect him back before WrestleMania) the voting will continue to get very interesting. D Lo, Bull Buchanan and Christian Cage all debuted this week on the yearend standings, while Nigel, MVP, Orton and Hardy all gained valuable points as they work to gain the top spot.
-The top 15 spots are marked
1. John Cena 78 (Raw) {INJURED}
2. Matt Hardy 66 (Smackdown)
3. Kurt Angle 63 (TNA)
4. CM Punk 61 (ECW)
5. Samoa Joe 52 (TNA)
6. Mark Briscoe 46 (ROH)
6. Jay Briscoe 46 (ROH)
