411’s Wrestler of the Week 09.01.08: Week 22

Posted by Larry Csonka on 09.01.2008

HHH defeats the Gold Standard on Smackdown, Sting lays down the law on Impact, Jericho and Shawn deliver again, Speed Muscle won the Dragon Gate's Summer Adventure Tag League and much 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 22, 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

If you are wondering how some of the writers decide who to vote for, please check out our Wrestler of the Week Supplemental Column!

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…

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The Voting~!
Aaron Hubbard
1) Triple H
Finally, the Game stepped it up and had a great match on Smackdown! with Shelton Benjamin. The Game has been slacking for most of the year, but he stepped it up. I'm giving credit to both men, but I don't do ties, so Triple H gets the nod this week.

2) Shelton Benjamin: Continued his roll as the best wrestler on TV, having a great match with the WWE Champion.
3) Matt Hardy: Had a very good match with John Morrison and qualified for the ECW Scramble.
4) Finlay
5) John Cena


Jeremy Thomas
1) Triple H
The Game put on a great match with Shelton Benjamin to main event SmackDown. HHH and Benjamin have always had great chemistry in the ring, and this was a nice way to give ol' H someone new to face and freshen things up. It built things for the Championship Scrabble pretty well between the two, and I approve.

2) CM Punk: He may not have as good of a match as the Game, but his was a Title match, and he retained cleanly. Not only did he do that, he did it against JBL, officially making the man his bitch with two straight clean wins, AND he survived the Clothesline from Hell. Hey look, Punk's starting to look like a real champion!
3) Shelton Benjamin: The other half of the Triple H pick. Benjamin's been on a roll, and he got a lot of time to put on a great match with Triple H, which he did.
4) Shawn Michaels/Chris Jericho
5) Speed Muscle (Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino)


Daniel Wilcox
1) Matt Hardy and John Morrison
It's been a pretty slow week all round and so when that is the case, I vote for the guys who had the best televised match of the week, and that would be Hardy and Morrison who kicked off this week's ECW in fine fashion, putting on a great little match for a place in the ECW Championship Scramble. While Hardy won and booked his spot in the match, Morrison hung with him and looked great even in defeat.

2) Shelton Benjamin: Shelton had a fun match with Triple H on SmackDown but like Morrison, looked great in defeat. The finish may have looked silly but what most people will remember is the fact that Benjamin took The Game to the limit and laid him out after the match.
3) John Cena: Why Cena? Because the guy is a damn machine. That, or he's just very lucky to escape from such a neck injury only needing a few months off.
4) Sting
5) CM Punk


ARI
1) Chris Jericho & Shawn Michaels: The promo they did was a masterpiece and sets the stage for one of the more anticipated grudge matches in WWE in quite some time.

2) CM Punk: Defeated JBL in a fantastic television match that was entertaining to watch and allowed Punk to look like a million bucks as champion.
3) Matt Hardy & John Morrison: The best of the ECW Scramble qualifiers, although Evan Bourne vs. The Miz wasn't that far behind.
4) Evan Bourne
5) The Miz


Shawn S Lealos
1) Sting
As much as Shawn and Chris's recent promo excelled, Sting turned in one of the best promos of the week. The best heal is the man who believes he is right. I don't think fans will boo Sting, but he really turned in his best promo since he returned. Lately, he has seemed a bit boring, which is not what Sting is all about. This week he took it to another level. Then he took out the guy who has received the most votes from me this year, in A.J. Styles.

2) Triple H and CM Punk: They defended their titles in pretty good matches this week, so remain tied at second.
3) Matt Hardy - Won in one of the best matches of the week and qualified for the ECW portion of the scramble.
4) Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho
5) Speed Muscle


Christi Csonka
1) Sting
I am not always high on the guys that just deliver on the mic, but not in the ring during the week. But damn, I have to admit, I am not a huge Sting fan but after that promo he made me care about what will happen next week.

2) Matt Hardy: Matt Hardy earns a spot in the Scramble match, where he hopefully wins the ECW title.
3) HHH: For the first time in a long time I was extremely entertained by a HHH match.
4) Shelton Benjamin
5) Kurt Angle


Andy Clark
1) Sting
While I think the motivation for Sting's character is counterproductive to the story they are trying to tell, the Stinger gave one hell of a promo on Impact and really made me care about what he was saying one way or another. When Sting is on he can prove to still be a very valuable commodity.

2) The Miz: I don't think anybody figured The Miz was winning his Championship Scramble qualifying match against Evan Bourne when he came out on Tuesday, but he did just that. Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that The Miz's tag team partner John Morrison got left out of the title match, allowing The Miz to go solo. The Miz has the opportunity to step out of Morrison's shadow at Unforgiven, a rather unexpected by surely deserved opportunity at that.
3) Chris Hero: In a relatively slow week the biggest show was PWG's All Star Extravaganza, which saw PWG Champion (I'm not deluded enough to call him PWG World Champion) Chris Hero retain his title in two tough matches, and maybe even got involved in a shoot along the way.
4) The Youngbucks
5) Shawn Michaels & Chris Jericho


Matt Short
1) Speed Muscle
Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino continue to rule as a tag team, getting a come from behind victory in Dragon Gate's Summer Adventure Tag League, going through the Open the Twin Gate champions and Shingo Takagi & Dragon Kid in the finals. They win it for the second straight year and are firmly established as one of the top tag teams in Japan following their good showing in TNA's World X-Cup.

2) Chris Jericho/Shawn Michaels: Awesome promo on Monday night. I was already pumped for their Unforgiven match, but they seem to keep on upping the ante for this one.
3) Dragon Rojo Jr.: Gonna give some lucha love this week. Dragon Rojo Jr. defeated Mictlan in a mask vs. mask match, which are of huge importance in Mexico. Best of all when Mictlan was unmasked he was found to be Jonathan de Jesús Jauregui Navarro Jiménez, 26. Which is an awesome name.
4) The Young Bucks
5) CM Punk


JT
1) Chris Jericho and HBK
While Sting showed the start of what could be a fantastic heel turn, Lealos is right in the fact that he won't be booed. Jericho however is in full heel mode, and somehow has managed to get audiences loathing him. He has not been alone in this though; HBK has been the other half of this and if this were ANYONE else I can't see Jericho actually getting booed. Point being, both men have successfully made this potentially the feud of the year and that continued on Monday with their promo. There's really only one thing to say here.


CHRIS JERICHO (on half the staff giving credit to both men instead of just him): DISGUSTING.

2) Triple H: Finally did something on SmackDown! that mattered other than talking. Put on one half of a fantastic main event, and – as he did years ago – did his part in putting Shelton over. This makes him look strong (yet vulnerable) heading into the Scramble and makes Shelton look like quite the credible opponent. Hopefully this leads to a continued push for Shelton and more importantly, leads to Shelton not fucking it up. This is the third time in three years HHH has given him the push he needs, it's up to him now to capitalize.
3) Sting: Gave a promo that seems to be helping kick off a major storyline in TNA, and did so in brilliant fashion.
4) Matt Hardy
5) Shelton Benjamin


Jarrod Westerfeld
1) Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels (Tie)
I hate doing ties, you hate reading about ties but there's really nothing else you can do about this situation: both are riding high off of a feud that is building the career of Chris Jericho as a believable main eventer, while for Shawn Michaels it's further defining an already legendary career. Both will be heading into war at Unforgiven, but the set up to this brawl was done in a way that many are talking high praises of both men.

2) The Youngbucks (Nick and Matt Jackson): After an impressive run in the Dragon Gate Summer Adventure Tag Team League that saw them start off strong with an undefeated streak to give them the leading 8 points, The Youngbucks return to the states for PWG action and proceed to take the titles off of the Age of the Fall solidifying that they're the next young act to keep an eye on.
3) Keiji Mutoh: Successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Hirooki Goto, but his alter ego, Great Muta, may also be in line for a title shot against reigning AJPW Triple Crown Champion Suwama.
4) The Brian Kendrick and CM Punk (Tie)
5) Dragon Rojo Jr.: Read Matt Short's reasoning


Samuel Berman
1) Chris Hero
A pair of PWG World Title defenses is good enough for me in a relatively quiet week. Fan reaction to Hero this weekend was something of an oddity, as he was booed pretty fully after retaining his title on Friday, but regardless of the response, Hero cemented his place as the top man in a company where titles seem to move around at will. Hopefully, this weekend's events will set up a second singles encounter between Hero and Eddie Kingston in PWG, because there are few rivalries in Independent wrestling that can match that duo for intensity and sheer violence.

2) Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino and Nick & Matt Jackson (tie): Speed Muscle comes away from Dragon Gate's Summer Adventure Tag League as winners for the second straight year, while the Young Bucks best Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black for PWG's tag straps.
3) Keiji Muto: Successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Title against would-be defender of New Japan, Hirooki Goto.
4) Suwama and Taiyo Kea (tie)
5) CM Punk


Bayani Domingo
1) The Youngbucks (Nick and Matt Jackson)
The biggest win of these youngster's career came against the crew of the Indy crop in the AoTF for the PWG tag titles.

2) Chris Hero: 2 title defenses against 4 men is impressive, now let's hope he can keep his momentum and the support of the PWG fans.
3) Speed Muscle (Doi/Yoshino): Repeater as Summer Tag Adventure League Champs.
4) Sting
5) The Miz


Michael Bauer
1) The Young Bucks (Nick and Matt Jackson)
Now, unlike most people, I feel that doing something in the ring is worth more than just a great promo. The Young Bucks won the PWG Tag Team Titles beating The Age of the Fall, who are the hottest tag team in the Indies, if not all of wrestling in 2008. The Bucks are parlaying a great showing in Japan into some success in the United States and one can only hope it continues.

2) SpeedMuscle (Doi/Yoshino): Repeat champions of the Summer Tag Adventure League. Not an easy feat, especially coming from behind.
3) Chris Hero: He would be higher with his two PWG World Title defenses if not for the fan reaction.
4) Keiji Mutoh
5) CM Punk


Larry Csonka
1) Sting
I often discuss that the best heels are the ones that feel completely justified in their actions, Sting did that here and not only did he make you believe it, but overall it was a damn great promo from a guy that isn't historically known for delivering great promos. This should work as a good kick off point for the New vs. Old feud, and that could be very fun.

2) Speed Muscle (Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino): Speed Muscle won the Dragon Gate's Summer Adventure Tag League for the second year in a row, and that's good enough to take 2nd place this week.
3) Kurt Angle: Seemingly lost in the shuffle this week was Kurt Angle carrying Nash to a passable match and qualifying for the Four Ways to Glory match at No Surrender. Angle's in ring work has been criminally underrated all year.
4) Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho
5) Shelton Benjamin

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THE WINNERS~!

Special Mention… CM Punk and The Young Bucks - 18 Votes

Fifth Place…Matt Hardy - 20 Votes

Fourth Place…HHH - 21 Votes

Third Place…Speed Muscle (Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino) - 22 Votes

After having to make a big comeback, Speed Muscle won the Dragon Gate's Summer Adventure Tag League for the second year in a row!

Second Place…Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels - 26 Votes

These two men continue to deliver on the mic in what many are already calling the feud of the year.

Wrestler of the Week…Sting - 27 Votes

Sting's return to Impact saw him deliver a great promo to kick off what could possibly be a huge angle with the company.


Yearend Standings~!
In an odd week of voting we end up with a lot of ties in the weekly voting, and that caused some changes for the overall list. Chris Jericho has jumped into second place, HHH into 6th place and a tie with Samoa Joe and HBK to 8th place, in a tie with the Undertaker.

Let's check out the Yearend Standings!

1. Edge – 64 (Smackdown) {Sent to Hell}

2. Chris Jericho – 62 (RAW)

3. Batista – 57 (Raw)

4. Matt Hardy – 49 (ECW)

5. AJ Styles – 42 (TNA)

6. Samoa Joe – 33 (TNA)
6. HHH – 33 (Smackdown)

8. The Undertaker – 27 (Smackdown)
8. Shawn Michaels – 27 (RAW)

10. William Regal – 25 (RAW)


CM Punk – 24 (Raw)
Suwama – 24 (All Japan)
Jimmy Jacobs – 24 (ROH)
Masato Yoshino – 24 (Dragon Gate)
Naruki Doi – 24 (Dragon Gate)

Alex Shelley – 21 (TNA)

Nigel McGuinness – 19 (ROH)
John Cena – 19 (RAW)

Kaz – 18 (TNA) {"Retired"}
Chris Sabin – 18 (TNA)

Sting – 15 (TNA)
Taylor Wilde – 15 (TNA)
Homicide – 15 (TNA)
Hernandez – 15 (TNA)
Petey Williams – 15 (TNA)
Ric Flair – 15 (US Independent)
Shelton Benjamin – 15 (Smackdown)
Kofi Kingston – 15 (RAW)
Lance Cade – 15 (RAW)
Mickie James – 15 (RAW)
John Morrison – 15 (ECW)
The Miz – 15 (ECW)
Bison Smith – 15 (NOAH)
Akitoshi Saito – 15 (NOAH)

Tyler Black – 13 (ROH)
Brent Albright – 13 (ROH)
Kurt Angle – 13 (TNA)

James Storm – 12 (TNA)
Robert Roode – 12 (TNA)
THE Brian Kendrick – 12 (Smackdown)
The Great Khali – 12 (Smackdown)
Jay Briscoe – 12 (ROH)
Mark Briscoe – 12 (ROH)
Roderick Strong – 12 (ROH)
MsChif – 12 (US Independent)
Jack Evans – 12 (US Independent)
Mick Foley – 12 (US Independent)

Randy Orton – 10 (RAW) {INJURED}
Mark Henry – 10 (ECW)
Chris Hero – 10 (US Independent)

Chuck Taylor – 9 (US Independent)
Volador Jr. – 9 (Mexico)
Mistico – 9 (Mexico)
Hector Garza – 9 (Mexico)
KENTA – 9 (NOAH)
Taiji Ishimori – 9 (NOAH)
Go Shiozaki – 9 (NOAH)
Shingo Takagi – 9 (Dragon Gate)
Michelle McCool – 9 (RAW)

Masato Tanaka – 6 (Zero One Max)
Tiger Mask IV - 6 (NOAH)
Keiji Muto – 6 (All Japan)
Wataru Inoue – 6 (New Japan)
Mr. Kennedy – 6 (Smackdown) {Injured}
The Big Show – 6 (Smackdown)
Incognito – 6 (Mexico)
Erick Stevens – 6 (ROH)

Bryan Danielson – 4 (ROH)

Claudio Castagnoli – 3 (ROH)
Hiroshi Tenzan –3 (New Japan)
Hirooki Goto –3 (New Japan)
Ryuji Hijikata –3 (All Japan)
Fire Ant – 3 (US Independent)
Jeff Hardy – 3 (Smackdown)
Beth Phoenix – 3 (RAW)
JBL – 3 (RAW)

Evan Bourne – 2 (ECW)

Zack Ryder – 1 (Smackdown)
Curt Hawkins – 1 (Smackdown)
Ted DiBiase – 1 (RAW)
Cody Rhodes – 1 (RAW)
Awesome Kong – 1 (TNA)
Mike Quackenbush – 1 (US Independent)
Nick Jackson – 1 (US Independent)
Matt Jackson – 1 (US Independent)
Scotty II Hotty – 1 (US Independent)
Joe Doering – 1 (All Japan)
Anthony W. Mori - 1 (Dragon Gate)
GAMMA - 1 (Dragon Gate)
Taiyo Kea - 1 (All Japan)
Minoru Suzuki - 1 (All Japan)
Yoshinobu Kanemaru - 1 (NOAH)
Kotaro Suzuki - 1 (NOAH)

Voting began 4.07.08

Year-End Rankings Key:

WWE, Raw, ECW and Smackdown Contracted Wrestlers are represented in BLUE.

TNA Contracted Wrestlers are represented in GREEN.

ROH Contracted Wrestlers are represented in RED.

US Independent Wrestlers are represented in MAROON.

Japanese Contracted Wrestlers are represented in BLACK.

Mexican Contracted Wrestlers are represented in MAGENTA.

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**PREVIOUS WINNERS**

Year One Winner: Ric Flair


Year Two Winner: Samoa Joe


Year Three Winner: John Cena