411’s Wrestler of the Week 05.05.08: Week 5
Posted by Larry Csonka on 05.05.2008
King Regal rules Raw, Suwama wins the AJPW Triple Crown, Hardy defends the US Title, Awesome Kong in the Deuces Wild, Chuck Taylor wins the IWA title, Ryuji Hijikata wins the AJPW World Jr. Heavyweight Title and more! But who had the goods to take home the WOTW award? Check out the latest edition of 411's Wrestler of the Week for all the details!
Welcome to Week , Year-FOUR, of 411's Wrestler of the Week. A quick overview to kick things off as we have some new rules for year four…
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) Suwama
Fresh off his Champion's Carnivale victory Suwama takes an even bigger win: the All Japan Triple Crown. This has been a hell of a last few weeks for this Japanese star.
2) William Regal: While winning King of the Ring was the start of what looks like a push for Mr. Regal, this Monday's Raw went a long way in getting him over as a main event heel.
3) Triple H: Had a good match with Randy Orton on Raw and did something that no one has been able to do since last June: make me believe that a match could actually end with the Crippler Crossface.
4) John Morrison & The Miz
5) Matt Striker & Samoa Joe
Jerome Cusson
1) William Regal
How could I possibly give him wrestler of the week even though he I didn't give it to him for King of the Ring? Easy. His actions have caused one of the biggest uproars and controversies in the history of RAW. Not to mention he's about to embark on a major rivalry with Kennedy that will be a huge step in Kennedy being taken seriously in the upper mid card.
2) Matt Hardy- He successfully defended his United States title against MVP and also appears ready to be preparing himself for an upper card push as well.
3) Suwama - I'm pretty unfamiliar with a lot of Japanese wrestling, but I understand the value of this championship. Because it's such a slow week, I feel far less guilty slotting the three-five positions for the guys who won or defended their titles in All Japan this last week.
4) Keiji Muto & Joe Doering
5) Ryuji Hijikata
Michael Bauer
1) Suwama
When it comes to being on a major roll in Japan, it's not just about how many wins you have, it's not just about who you have beaten, but it is 100% about what the event was. Suwama won the Carnivale two weeks ago and now is the New All Japan Triple Crown title-holder. He has been a bigger roll than ANY WRESTLER in ANY COMPANY and deserves this spot.
2) Chuck Taylor - Claudio and Jimmy Jacobs. Just beating those two in back to back nights to win and retain the IWA:MS Title is a big deal... and he had 2 other wins also.
3) Matt Hardy - The U.S. Champ gets another win over MVP in the best WWE Match this week. (Not saying much, I know)
4) Ryuji Hijikata
5) Mr. Kennedy / William Regal
John Gregory
1) Chuck Taylor
Went through Vito Thomaselli, Michael Elgin, and Claudio in one night to win the vacant IWA title for the 2nd time. Afterwards, Ian Rotten invited him into the 2008 TPI and asked him to defend the belt with honor.
2) Suwama- Even with All Japan the way it's been, winning the Triple Crown is a very big deal.
3) William Regal- The man succeeded where Eric Bischoff failed. He got RAW off the air. ZING!
4) Hirooki Goto
5) Matt Hardy
Christi Csonka
1) Suwama
I will freely admit that I know net to nothing about the Japanese scene, but what I do know is that the All Japan Triple Crown IS a major deal and that Suwama capturing this title is a major deal, so he'll take my top spot.
2) Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe: I really enjoyed their interaction on Impact and the tag match that they won.
3) Awesome Kong: Kong is the 8th person is the weird tournament that they are running. I want to see Kong kill people!
4) William Regal
5) Mr. Kennedy
SAT
1) Suwama
Suwama gets the top slot for winning the New All Japan Triple Crown from Kensuke Sasaki.
2) Ryuji Hijikata: Ryuji Hijikata gets the second slot for defeating Silver King and winning the AJPW World Jr. Heavyweight Title.
3) Chuck Taylor: Chuck Taylor gets the third slot for winning the vacant IWA Mid-South World Heavyweight Title and for his defense against Jimmy Jacobs
4) Matt Hardy
5) John Morrison & The Miz
Bayani Domingo
1) Suwama
New AJPW Triple Crown winner after beating Kensuke Sasaki. In a "light week" for wrestling this was enough for the top spot.
2) Chuck Taylor: New IWA:MS champion outlasted a trio of competitors and later beat Jimmy Jacobs. For those of you who believed the rumors of IWA's premature demise...well...stay tuned.
3) Ryuji Hijikata: New AJPWG World Jr. Heavyweight Champion. No, I'm not sure what that means...but I'll be damned if doesn't sound impressive. More importantly the man beat Silver King...SILVER KING for the belt. Yeah. Silver King.
4) Cheerleader Melissa
5) Matt Hardy
Matt Short
1) Suwama
Made the most out of his Champion's Carnival win and defeated Kensuke Sasaki to win the All Japan Triple Crown Championship. It's a huge win for the young guy and hopefully he won't drop the ball.
2) William Regal: Regal was damn entertaining this week on Raw. The coronation segment was a lot of fun and the blackout made the show for me. Regal's going to go on a major power trip and is getting some great heat for it.
3) Chuck Taylor: Sexy Chucky T reclaims the IWA-MS Championship. Good for him. Now he just needs to stop threatening to punch children and blow up fans.
4) Ryuji Hijikata
5) Keiji Muto & Joe Doering
Jarrod Westerfeld
1) Chuck Taylor
Thinking about it, while Suwama wins a major title, it's in a company that has been hitting the skids for almost a decade, now. Following up his success at the Carnivale with this big title win is something, but Taylor is really turning some heads taking the vacated IWA championship by beating on Vito Thomaselli, Michael Eigen, and Claudio Castagnoli in a single night. He was then invited by Ian Rotten to take part in the Ted Petty Invitational. He also successfully defended the title against Jimmy Jacobs the very next night. That calls for nods as the wrestler of the week.
2) Suwama - A big week for this man as he took down the AJPW Triple Crown Championship as he defeated Kensuke Sasaki. That's a big enough accomplishment to note this week, which has been very light from just about everyone.
3) Awesome Kong - I've debated myself on this vote a lot all day, but I'm going to run with it. Though she didn't wrestle, defend a title, or win a championship, she did get a big mention for the big Sacrifice pay-per-view as being a part of the 8 singles wrestlers competing in the tournament to crown the new TNA Tag Team Champions. She's breaking down the barriers and reinventing women's wrestling in America, something Jazz wishes she could've done had the WWE pushed her seriously enough, or had ECW survived long enough. Who needs looks when you've got raw ability and great talent on your side to help get you the fans respect and the recognition you deserve?
4) Matt Hardy
5) Ryuji Hijikata
ARI
1) Mr. Kennedy & William Regal
KENNEDY! A face? Holy heck, but it was pulled off on this week's Monday Night Raw. William Regal is awesome anyway you slice it, but the villainy of stuffing the fans of a finish to the end of Raw is absolutely a conversation piece for the week. Hey... can I put Mike Adamle on the list?
2) Chuck Taylor: Sexy Chucky T made IWA:MS his kingdom from mid 2006 to mid 2007 with a full year's title reign at the top. Now he is back on tap as new IWA: Mid South champion and beat four wrestlers in two shows, including Jimmy Jacobs.
3) Matt Hardy: Retained the WWE United States Championship and continues to make the most of his return from injury.
4) Amazing Kong
5) Cheerleader Melissa & Daizee Haze
Samuel Berman
1) Chuck Taylor
By besting Vito Thomaselli, Michael Elgin, and Claudio Castagnoli in one night, Taylor won his second IWA Mid-South World Heavyweight Title. After a first reign that lasted nearly a year, Taylor has been somewhat listless in IWA recently, even losing the company's Light Heavyweight Title in recent weeks. Now, Taylor is back on top of Mid-South, taking advantage of the title's vacancy, a result of Eddie Kingston's recent and unfortunate no-shows. With a successful defense over Jimmy Jacobs already under his belt, Taylor looks to be holding onto the belt at least until the 2008 Ted Petty Invitational, as he was announced as a participant this weekend.
2) Suwama: Beating Kensuke Sasaki for the AJPW Triple Crown Championship would merit mentioning even in a busier week.
3) Matt Hardy: A big week for the United States Champion, who seems poised for a bigger role in the coming months.
4) Ryuji Hijikata
5) Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino
JT
1) William Regal
William Regal had a pretty basic but very meaning series of events on Monday.
A. Announce he would remain as GM
B. Let the world know his King of the Ring win wasn't a fluke.
C. Took no lip from Kennedy, resulting in an attack kicking off that feud.
D. Showed that he was in fact THE MAN as he cut the ending of the main event, which happened to be a WWE title match with two of the company's most important roster members.
E. Did something that had people talking all week.
The Age of Orton may have taken a hit, but the Age of Regal seems to be in full swing.
2) Suwama: Beat Kensuke Sasaki to win the All Japan Triple Crown to further his recent roll.
3) Chuck Taylor: Went through a field of opponents (including Claudio Castagnoli and Jimmy Jacobs) to not only win, but also defend the IWA:MS World Heavyweight title.
4) Matt Hardy
5) Ryuji Hijikata / Amazing Kong
Chris Lansdell
1) Suwama
It will be interesting to see how the Comments section handles the results this week, because nobody did more than he did this week, continuing his role by beating Kensuke Sasaki for the prestigious Triple Crown.
2) Chuck Taylor: In this day and age, with the biggest Indy names like Danielson, Aries and McGuinness doing very little outside of RoH, there are few bigger than Claudio Castagnoli and Jimmy Jacobs. Chuck Taylor beat them both to win and then retain the IWA title.
3) William Regal: The blackout is the most talked-about angle on Raw in I don't know how long, and his feud with Kennedy is going to be hot. Not bad for a guy who was suspended last year and is in his 40s...
4) Awesome KONG!
5) Matt Hardy
Jeremy Thomas
1) William Regal
What, Regal gets another first place vote? Damn skippy. He has a great segment pitting him against Kennedy, and was part of the most talked-about segment on RAW since Flair's retirement. I know, not that long, but it had everyone buzzing, and for that, he's my wrestler of the week.
2) Suwama: What more can be said that hasn't already been by the others? The Triple Crown is a huge accomplishment, and he's only the 37th person to hold it. Big win for the man, and a well-deserving showing in WOTW
3) Matt Hardy: Matt proved his win over MVP wasn't gonna be a fluke, and beat the man in his first defense of the US Title, in the best WWE match of the week.
4) Awesome Kong
5) Mike Adamle/Tazz
Shawn S. Lealos
1) WILLIAM REGAL
Let's see, the King of the Ring started with an over-the-top coronation and then when Ken Kennedy made his return to go face-to-face with the King, Regal responded by interrupting his "Mr. Kennedy" spiel and then bloodied up Mr. Kennedy a bit. However, the biggest thing Regal did was piss off many WWE fans by cutting off the broadcast before the Championship match had a chance to conclude. Then he went out and actually stopped the match, screwing Randy Orton out of his fair title shot. Regal might end up being the best a*hole in the WWE before all is said and done.
2) SUWAMA: Winning the Triple Crown is a pretty big deal, so he gets this spot with his win over Kensuke Sasaki
3) MATT HARDY: Matt won the biggest title of his career and then got the immediate rematch with the man he won it from. He beat MVP again and this looks to be the start of hopefully a nice title run for Hardy.
4) CHUCK TAYLOR
5) AWESOME KONG
Stuart James
1) William Regal & Mr. Kennedy
Regal: Caused the biggest uproar of the week as he cut off Raw, as well as making some very important impacts by having his coronation ceremony and jumping straight into a feud with Mr. Kennedy, which should benefit each person. Kennedy: returned this week, presumably heading into a good face run, which is great as he is taking similar routes to The Rock and Stone Cold, which fills me with optimism. Kennedy = world champion by the end of 2009.
2) Matt Hardy: In a slow week, Matt Hardy successfully defended the United States title in a fine match with MVP. I hope this continues to a big gimmick match at Judgment Day before moving MVP up the card, and Hardy feuding with other wrestlers.
3) Chuck Taylor: Defeated four wrestlers to win the vacant IWA championship beating Thomaselli, Elgin, and Castagnoli in one night. He then went on to defend successfully against Jimmy Jacobs the next night, I hear, so he deserves a spot on WotW.
4) Suwama
5) Awesome Kong
Larry Csonka
1) Suwama
Suwama took full advantage of the Carnival win as he is now YOUR All Japan Triple Crown Champion. He is having a great year thus far, and I think that he could be in for a career year at this rate.
2) Ryuji Hijikata: Winning the AJPW World Jr. Heavyweight Title is an easy top three for me.
3) Cheerleader Melissa and Daizee Haze: For the fact that they worked so hard to get on National TV and that they are two of my favorites.
4) Chuck Taylor
5) Keiji Muto & Joe Doering
THE WINNERS!
Special Mention…Awesome Kong - 15 Votes
Fifth Place… Ryuji Hijikata - 20 Votes
Fourth Place…Matt Hardy - 32 Votes
Third Place…Chuck Taylor - 44 Votes
Chuck Taylor had to battle Vito Thomaselli, Michael Elgin, and Claudio in one night to win the vacant IWA title for the 2nd time. After that he had a successful defense against Jimmy Jacobs, and was then invited to be in the 2008 TPI Tournament; that's a damn fine week for Chuck.
Second Place…William Regal - 47 Votes
William Regal is power hungry on Raw, and had some fun interaction with Mr. Kennedy. King Regal is on a roll right now, more than he has been in years and it is being rewarded. Kennedy.
Wrestler of the Week… Suwama - 70 Votes
Suwama makes the Champion's Carnival victory mean something as he turns that big victory into an even bigger one as he defeated Kensuke Sasaki to win the All Japan Triple Crown.
Yearend Standings~!
Mat Hardy extends his early lead with his 4th place finish this week. King Regal is doing enough to turn heads and garner votes and it has him in a tie for 2nd place. Suwama is the big winner for the week, winning the Tripe Crown and leaping into a tie for 2nd place along with the king.
Matt Hardy – 30 (Smackdown)
Suwama – 24 (All Japan) King William Regal – 24 (RAW)
Samoa Joe – 15 (TNA) Ric Flair – 15 (WWE) {Retired} Mickie James – 15 (RAW) HHH – 15 (RAW)
Jimmy Jacobs – 12 (ROH) Jay Briscoe – 12 (ROH) Mark Briscoe – 12 (ROH)
Batista – 9 (Smackdown) Randy Orton – 9 (RAW) Petey Williams – 9 (TNA) Chuck Taylor – 9 (US Independent)
just who in the blue hell is Suwama???? you guys must have very boring weeks watching puro without understanding a single word on commentary!!!
Posted By: armin (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 02:56 PM
Who or What is a Suwama
Posted By: Who? What? (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 02:56 PM
Prepare for the inpending ****storm once people see that Suwama was WOTW... You know, even if he deserves it.
Posted By: soulpower (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 02:58 PM
Suwama who??? "wrestler of the week for fanboys" should be the name of the column
Posted By: chris hyatte (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 03:06 PM
who the fuck is Suwama?
Posted By: natedoggcata (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 03:32 PM
I really think people shouldn't be able to vote for a wrestler if they don't actually see why they are voting for them. When sports writers vote for MVP's they aren't just handed a stat sheet at the end of the year.
Posted By: BuDDyLighT021 (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 03:34 PM
Suwama...I think I through some of that up when I ate some at a japanese restaurant the other night.
Posted By: ted g (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 03:44 PM
Considering other sports are based highly upon stats, I don't see how that's the same as voting upon a subjective matter as "wrestler of the week". There isn't a whole lot of objectivity in this considering this isn't a sport derived in statistics.
So if a sports writer had to vote for the best player of the week, stats would be vital as it's the only objective thing they can all conclude upon as a universal understanding for the vote. From there they can add their own opinions upon the matters such as who had the bigger impact for their team and did the most to help out their team. But by this point, they're still miles away from what we have to do, which is basically pick and choose who had a more impressive sounding week.
Posted By: Jarrod Westerfeld (Registered) on May 05, 2008 at 03:45 PM
Suwama deserves it no matter what these people say.
Posted By: Mr1700 (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 03:46 PM
411 readers are retarded
Posted By: Haptastic (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 03:48 PM
It's quite simple people. Tell me who deserved it over a guy who won a major title in Japan and a major US indy title and I'll consider editing my votes.
Posted By: Bauer (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 04:24 PM
I havent watched AJPW in years and am not upm on the company or product but to win the All Japan Triple Crown is a big deal imho
Posted By: Guest#0587 (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 04:42 PM
WAHHH!!!! You put indy wrestlers that nobody's heard of over WWE wrestlers! Boo fucking hoo!!!!
Posted By: Typical 411mania Commentator (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 04:42 PM
Jarrod speaks the truth. Simple as that.
But keep the shitstorm coming guys, you're making this column one of the best around.
Posted By: Kevin F. (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 04:47 PM
How big of an impact can something make if you don't watch it? It can't be that important if know one sees it. The home run champion or the player with the most touchdowns doesn't always win the MVP. For anyone who didn't even see these matches would have no idea that match sucked or the guy missed 4 spots in the match. This Suwama may have had a great match but I don't understand how people can vote for him if they didn't see the reason for voting for him.
Posted By: BuDDyLighT021 (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 05:18 PM
HARDY! HARDY! HARDY! Could he actually do it?
Posted By: Capt. Smooth (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 05:23 PM
Sometimes it make me wonder if wrestling fans from USA even know anything about other countries. And with exception of William Regal, who have any major actions in WWE? No one. Even Matt Hardy and Mr Kennedy have some important steps, or something what looks like important steps. They both get buried many times in the past, and Matt's wins over MVP can be bigger... if WWE want it.
Posted By: L'Mago (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 05:27 PM
So Hayatte, have you talked to Trish Stratus lately?
For everyone else wondering 'Who is Suwama?' try reading the blurb under his name. He's the wrestler who just won the All Japan Triple Crown. If you want some sort of bio on him, google is your friend.
Posted By: Mike Campbell (Registered) on May 05, 2008 at 05:34 PM
Umm, you guys all know that wrestling isn't exclusive to North America, right?
Besides, the Internet is for more than whining about some guy you've never heard of. Go look him up and maybe you won't wonder anymore.
Posted By: Bman (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 05:48 PM
Everyone knows there is wrestling outside of North America. But this site on others concentrates and makes it's money off North American wrestling. Sorry, but Japanese and US Indy wrestling aren't known to the average wrestling fan.
I think WOTW should be kept to television which means WWE and TNA workers. It makes the award much less smarky.
Posted By: Steve (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 06:01 PM
I don't know a whole lot about Chuck Taylor, but if he doesn't lead a stable called The All-Stars, he should!
Posted By: Les (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 06:07 PM
Steve, but what would be the justification for alienating a portion of our readers and ignoring the rest of the industry just to focus solely on the media wrestling products? There isn't a rule like that established now, and there isn't a rule established that this is based purely upon who put on the better matches viewed by the most people, it's based entirely on the results - did the person have a good weekend worth noting or didn't they. That's all the criteria required to get a nod here. It's not that big a deal if we didn't see them put on a ***** match, or that they botched 50 times in a match. The concept is purely based upon whether or not they did something big enough to warrant the acclaim. In this case Suwama did just that.
Posted By: Jarrod Westerfeld (Registered) on May 05, 2008 at 06:15 PM
Who? Fuck Suwama, Chuck Taylor, and Ryuji Hijikata.
Posted By: K-Money (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 06:16 PM
Who? Fuck ALL these choices! You know who is wrestler of the week? JOHN CENA!!!!!
Posted By: Ari Berenstein (Registered) on May 05, 2008 at 06:36 PM
Hate to break it to all of you whiners, but not all of the best wrestlers in the world work for the WWE. So, if you don't want to read other peoples opinions on who should win WOTW no one is making you. Grow up a little bit and broaden your horizons, I say. Never know, you might like it.
Posted By: Riiight... (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 06:36 PM
Hate to break it to you guys, but there's more than one wrestling organization in the world. Try watching them sometime
Posted By: Michael (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 07:40 PM
If it's not a big deal to most of the people that read your columns, is it really a big deal? I know there is good stuff besides the main three North American promotions, but seriously, do you really think Chuck Taylor's accomplishment has any significance? You guys are writing for an audience, and if the majority of your audience doesn't know or care about who you're writing about, what's the point?
Posted By: Chopper (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 07:57 PM
No one is denying that there is wrestling outside of North American. What people don't understand is how people can vote for things they don't know anything about. People here are voting for winners of matches or tournaments they have never heard of and I'm damn sure have never seen. These unheard of wrestlers are only being voted for so this site and/or writers can seem more smart then they really are.
Posted By: BuDDyLighT021 (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 08:05 PM
Chopper, you're going off the assumption that everyone who reads this is only interested in the big American wrestling media product promotions. What would there be to base this this on? Just the comments on this article? Not every reader posts a comment in the column, so it's harder to gage exactly what kind of audience we're catering to. Why bother alienating any of them just to appease what could be a minority?
Posted By: Jarrod Westerfeld (Registered) on May 05, 2008 at 08:11 PM
What the hell is a Suwama? And what kind of moron puts blue in front of hell?
Posted By: David (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 08:13 PM
Either the WOTW rules change to only North America, or everyone who bitches stops reading. Simple as that.
Posted By: The 778 (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 08:20 PM
The 778 that is not the goal we're trying to achieve here. We don't want to discourage any of our readers away from the column. But it would be nice if we could incite them to open up to more experiences outside of the American wrestling media products. Instead, we're stuck with fans being narrow minded and close minded into thinking that this is all just a means to expand our own ego.
Posted By: Jarrod Westerfeld (Registered) on May 05, 2008 at 08:32 PM
If I need to google a wrestler to know who he is then I'm pretty sure I could give a fuck less. I've seen japanese wrestling and sorry, not that impressed. The only decent highlights usually come from the japanese wrestler going shoot on the dumbshit/green american wrestler after he blows 3 spots in a row.
Posted By: Scrotum Pole (Registered) on May 05, 2008 at 08:36 PM
Scrotum Pole, if you're close minded and could give a fuck less, don't bitch to people who DO give a fuck about Suwama. I have no problem with this. Even though he isn't as well known as, say Undertaker or HHH, he's the top guy in one of the top promotions in Japan, and had a far better week than Undertaker, who was stripped of his title.
Posted By: JJ (Guest) on May 05, 2008 at 09:18 PM
Chuck Taylor beat Claudio Castagnoli and Jimmy Jacobs, two of Ring of Honor's hottest stars. Ever heard of Ring of Honor? Suwama had the biggest title win with of the week with the Triple Crown, which most intelligent wrestling fans knows is a pretty big deal. To refuse to aknowledge Japanese wrestler's existence seems a bit jingoistic to me.
Posted By: Shawn Lealos (Registered) on May 05, 2008 at 10:57 PM
so. samoa joe defends his world title and matt hardy defends the us title and matt hardy gets votes?
Posted By: Guest#0063 (Guest) on May 06, 2008 at 01:05 AM
Samoa Joe was in a tag team match. He didn't defend his title. Matt Hardy beating MVP again is greater than Joe beating Little Petey Pump in a tag team match.
Posted By: Shawn Lealos (Registered) on May 06, 2008 at 02:06 AM
Samoa Joe didn't defend his title this week.
Posted By: Stuart James (Registered) on May 06, 2008 at 03:11 AM
When I read wrestler of the week, I want to hear about the entire spectrum of professional wrestling. All wrestling, including japan, mexico, and the indies. Even if I don't know much about them compared to WWE and TNA, this column helps to spread those wrestlers achievements for that week. 411mania.com's wrestling section is about professional wrestling right? This isn't 411mania.com/WWE.
This is a really good column to highlight wrestlers achievements , if I were Jimmy Jacobs and one day on retirement some how come across this I might say "Hey! Some fans acknowledged my work, ah yes, my career was worth something." All wrestlers deserve something for the work they do to entertain us. And this week, those 5 wrestlers did. So here is their acknowledgment. If you don't like the picks, then make a constructive comment on who would be better.
But really, there is always next week... I'm pretty sure the WWE or TNA wrestlers will do something again to dominate the list.
Posted By: guest (Guest) on May 06, 2008 at 04:00 AM
My first rejected post! I'll always treasure this day. Someone didn't like the part about the goats? But seriously guys, great job.. you had to know 411 readers would throw this one back into your faces, and you did it anyway. BRA... VO! Now if you excuse me I have a bowl of egg noodles with deep fried suwama waiting for me.
Posted By: poffo316 (Guest) on May 06, 2008 at 04:19 AM
I'm in agreement with everyone else.....if you didn't see it how can you vote for him?
Posted By: Jake_Fury (Registered) on May 06, 2008 at 09:09 AM
ok I took the advice of the wrestling Oracles and went to the Google for knowledge.
Suwama was recently apart of the Voodoo Murders stable alongside several of Japan's top pro wrestlers.
Suwama was sent by the group to Orlando, Florida on July 2, 2007, in order to secure TNA Wrestling star "Big Poppa Pump" Scott Steiner for All Japan's Pro Wrestling Love in Ryogoku, Vol. 3 event in Sumo Hall on August 26, 2007; Suwama had observed Steiner's match and shortly afterwards came to an agreement with Steiner to team with him and face the team of The Great Muta and TAJIRI.
At AJPW's 1/3/2008 Show, Suwama saved Keiji Mutoh and Joe Doering from an after match attack by Voodoo Murders stable. Suwama removed his VM shirt and shook hands with Mutoh, signaling his return to the AJPW Army. On April 29, 2008 Suwama defeated Kensuke Sasaki to win the All Japan Triple Crown Championship
Posted By: Jake_Fury (Registered) on May 06, 2008 at 09:11 AM
Rather than bash these guys for their choices, I'm finally just going to ask the simple question...
How/when do you guys get to see these international wrestlers when you do? Is it simply a reliance on DVDs, or are there some American TV outlets to see some of this stuff (i.e. through Directv, cable, etc.?
I would be VERY interested to check some of this stuff out, but don't know how. Thanks
Posted By: Everyone Calm Down (Guest) on May 06, 2008 at 11:41 AM
lolol
Anyone who watches Japanese wrestling watches entirely way too much wrestling. Go get a tan, it's nice outside~!
Posted By: Guest#9533 (Guest) on May 06, 2008 at 01:10 PM
EveryoneCalmDown: You can watch lots of matches from Japan hours after they air by going to the matches forum at http://www.deathvalleydriver.com. A number of individuals upload matches to watch.
Posted By: Mike Campbell (Registered) on May 06, 2008 at 01:48 PM
Also, WOTW voting isn't based on match quality. It's based purely on results, accomplishments, etc. and how each 411 writer who participates in the voting deems how important that the accomplishment is.
If John Cena's next movie winds up being the #1 movie in America for a week, it's the #1 movie regardless of how many of you have heard of it or how good the movie actually is.
Not a difficult concept to grasp really.
Posted By: Mike Campbell (Registered) on May 06, 2008 at 01:56 PM
How can anyone justify giving Kennedy even a single point. All he did last week was ruin a potentially good segment by once again showing us his awful mic work.
Posted By: McTavish (Guest) on May 06, 2008 at 06:18 PM
Suwama! HA! HA! HA! A guy who I have never heard of,have never cared, and will never care gets Wrestler of the Week! Ha! Ha! Ha! That's why these rankings mean JACKSHIT. I hope you guys enjoy your feeling of eliteness of having watched things we will never care about. All of YOU are elitists. ENJOY being bigger as*holes than Regal.
Posted By: Arnab (Guest) on May 07, 2008 at 02:51 PM
You're the one being all high and mighty and saying SUWAMA didn't deserve the honor because you've never heard of him and don't care about him. But the ones doing the voting are the elitists. *rolls eyes*
Posted By: Mike Campbell (Registered) on May 08, 2008 at 11:51 AM
