wrestling / Columns

411’s Wrestler of the Week 11.24.08: Week 34

November 24, 2008 | Posted by Larry Csonka

Welcome to Week 34, 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…

The Voting~!
ARI
1) Nigel McGuinness & Bryan Danielson
The title match that ROH fans have been waiting for took place on Saturday, with both men tearing it up in a climactic battle. This was said to have gone a half-hour and was filled with tons of drama and great wrestling action. I give both men kudos for their effort, for helping to contribute to an excellent ROH show at a time when they needed to show they can still deliver, and of course to Nigel for retaining the title and moving on with his run with the belt.

2) John Cena: In his first match back from injury Cena returns into his own hometown and wins the World Heavyweight Title. Sounds good to me.
3) Edge: In his first match back from hell Edge returned to stir up the shit and wins the WWE Title. Sounds good to me (although the Jeff Hardy injury angle does not).
4) Jeff Hardy
5) Austin Aries

Jarrod Westerfeld
1) Edge
If you weren’t expecting his return at last night’s pay-per-view then you either completely forgot about him or simply stuck on the idea of him returning just in time to enter the Royal Rumble. Either way, the options laid out for his return were stuck between continuing his rivalry with Undertaker, or the highly talked about idea that I didn’t buy into, his feuding with Jeff Hardy, apparently. The end result is Edge is back with Vickie, giving her a crutch for her weakening character, and delivering the best moment of the entire night on Survivor Series. He’s now the new WWE Champion in a match he wasn’t even scheduled to have taken part in, and was involved in a moment that was highly energized that the fans were ready to feed off of. All of this adds up to one thing: Wrestler of the Week.

2) Samoa Joe – A strong week for the superstar as on Impact this week he and AJ Styles picked up wins over the MCMG to get the slot in the main event of the upcoming Final Resolution PPV, but he also scored big in ROH by getting a win over huge time new favorite of the company Tyler Black. Two big wins should do him nicely for this slot.
3) John Cena – A title win is important, and while it should go over Joe here, I felt that Joe’s two wins in the week were just as big an accomplishment as Cena’s first every World Heavyweight Championship victory. As it stands this accomplishment just loss out on the runner-up spot for this list.
4) Genba Hirayanagi
5) Nigel McGuinness

Robert S. Leighty Jr
1) John Cena
I was torn between Edge and Cena since both won a World Title on a PPV. Edge is my favorite wrestler and has been for years now. However, I will give the nod to Cena because he wrestled in the stronger match and didn’t show up to steal a pin with only 1 minute or so of actual in ring time. I also give the nod to Cena because I know it will piss a friend off.

2) Edge: It’s so great to have my boy back, and it’s nice to see the WWE Title on him again. The way he won the title fits perfectly with his character, and it gives us lots of options as we build to the Rumble and WrestleMania.
3) Jeff Hardy: He pinned HHH clean on SmackDown to get put into the WWE Title Match at Survivor Series. Sure the Edge angle took him out, but he showed up, popped the crowd huge, and unintentionally cost HHH the title. That’s a good week in my book.
4) Randy Orton
5) Samoa Joe

Andy Clark
1) Edge
I’m the biggest John Cena fan around these parts, but even I have to give Edge the, well, edge over Cena here. Not only did Edge save us from a stale Triple H title reign, not only did he save us from a boring Triple H-Kozlov match, but he also injected some life into a PPV that had fallen off a tall cliff some time ago. Edge is the master of the cheap-but-memorable title victory, plus he’s rocking a cool lumberjack beard.

2) John Cena: THE. CHAMP. IS. HERE. Yes, my day just got that much brighter and I will be rocking the John Cena baseball cap all day, thank you very much. Cena returned to WWE in his hometown and captured the World Heavyweight Title, no doubt stabilizing the title scene for a while and delivering a special moment for the Chain Gang. And a note to Cena: You look good with the big gold belt, please don’t make it spin.
3) Jeff Hardy: Hardy being “screwed” out of the title match tonight bodes extremely well for young Jeffery, as it indicates WWE has bigger things in mind for him. He defeated Triple H on SmackDown and got one hell of a pop during his Survivor Series run in, what’s next for the Charismatic Enigma?
4) Nigel McGuinness
5) Matt Striker

Christi Csonka
1) Edge
I love a good surprise, and this was it. The HHH vs. Kozlov match sucked big time, and this to me was a breath of fresh air. Crazy Edge is cool and this was great!

2) Randy Orton: Randy Orton was the ultimate sneaky heel as he led his team to victory.
3) Nigel McGuinness: I like Nigel, and I figured his title run was going to be over this weekend, but he was able to defeat Bryan Danielson to keep the title.
4) John Cena
5) Samoa Joe

Jeremy Thomas
1) Edge
Cena may have won the gold too, but he was at least booked in the match in which he won it. Edge came out of NOWHERE and, in his typical opportunistic fashion, claimed the WWE Heavyweight Title by pinning ‘H after a Day-Glo Warrior tantrum. It’s nice to see the man back, even if it’s with that nutty beard, and the fact that he’s on top of SmackDown makes it so much sweeter.

2) John Cena: Nearly everyone on the 411Mania Survivor Series Roundtable had Chris Jericho walking away with the title. It may have been wishful thinking on our part, and it certainly didn’t come to pass as Cena made his return to the ‘E a successful one by taking the top Raw belt in a great match.
3) Nigel McGuinness: Nigel successfully defended the ROH World Title in Chicago against none other then Bryan Danielson himself in a hard-fought match. K-Money may think it’s a whole buncha bullshit, but that means something and he gets my third place spot.
4) Chris Jericho/Jeff Hardy
5) Austin Aries

Samuel Berman
1) Austin Aries and Jimmy Jacobs (tie)
With Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho getting the headlines all Summer, the epic feud between Aries and Jacobs has flown a bit under the radar. Still, the ultimate encounter between the two happened Saturday night in Chicago Ridge with Aries coming out the better man in an “I Quit” match rife with storyline. Jacobs’ former flame Lacey made an unexpected return to counter Age of the Fall member Tyler Black, allowing the two competitors to go toe-to-toe in one of the most hellacious brawls in ROH history. The finish, which saw Aries repeatedly stab Jacobs in the face with his own spike, will no doubt become an iconic moment in ROH lore, and the two will be hard-pressed to follow this issue in their respective next programs.

2) Nigel McGuinness: Bested longtime rival and top contender Bryan Danielson to retain the ROH World Title.
3) John Cena: Returned from injury to win the WWE Title from Chris Jericho
4) Edge
5) Samoa Joe

Bayani Domingo
1) Edge
I’ll take the surprise return of Edge and the odd drama that was the soap opera Main Event over Cena’s win for no other reason than it intrigues me more than Cena’s over publicized return.

2) John Cena: The man is back on top of THE “A” show in the “E”, although when you look at who’s on the “B” show it doesn’t seem all that “B” after all.
3) Samoa Joe: Kicked ass in the two “other companies” that some of us still care about. Welcome back to RoH Joe…now if you have a free weekend how’s about coming back to SoCal. You remember us right? You used to live here.
4) Austin Aries
5) Nigel McGuinness

Michael Bauer
1) Edge and John Cena (Tie)
Considering I have other people I wish to showcase AND I really don’t want to choose between the two, I’ll call it a tie. John Cena did the one thing that nobody seems to do often… win in front of the home crowd to regain the World Heavyweight Title. But Edge making his return and winning the WWE Title was as much of a shock, if not a bigger one. Like I said, I can’t choose and I’ll take the short cut here.

2) Austin Aries: Defeated Jimmy Jacobs in a blood fest, pinned Tyler Black the night before, and brought back Lacey. I can’t complain, especially on the last one.
3) Nigel McGuinness: I thought his reign was over, but Nigel went out and beat Danielson on a PPV taping in an epic match.
4) Samoa Joe
5) Jeff Hardy

Matt Short
1) Edge
Like others, I had a hard time choosing who would go in first place considering Survivor Series featured two title changes. I’m going with Edge because when the day started, no one had any idea he would even be on the show much less winning the title. It was a wild day leading up to the match where Jeff Hardy was mysteriously injured and removed from the title bout against Triple H and Kozlov. I’ve got to give credit to the WWE for putting one over on the fans, even if it drew disturbing parallels with past instances of WWE stars being found dead. That aside, this worked and I support Edge as champion.

2) John Cena: He looked pretty good in his return last night, and the fact that he actually went over in his hometown is enough for second place. I’m slightly less excited about this title change compared to Edge’s, but it’s really just a matter of preference. Cena’s match with Jericho was better, but Edge’s win had a real kick to it and felt like it was a bigger deal.
3) Nigel McGuinness: I haven’t normally been voting for Nigel when he retains his title, but the fact that he did it this weekend against his long-time rival Bryan Danielson is enough to do it for me this week. Danielson has always seemed to have Nigel’s number in the past, but this time out we had the title retained in a great match.
4) Jeff Hardy
5) Randy Orton

Andrew Critchell
1) Edge
Simply put, Edge made the biggest impact of anyone this week. He makes his surprising return, gets involved in the Triple H/Kozlov match, and wins the best on his first night back. Plus he ended a long title reign, a Triple H title reign no less. That still means something in my book. Once again, it’s Edge’s world and we’re all just visiting.

2) John Cena – The only things separating Cena & Edge are the facts that Cena’s return was hyped (I think surprises have much more impact) and that Cena won a belt that has been bounced around quite a bit of late. That being said, any other week Cena would probably win and rightfully so; the biggest star in wrestling winning a belt his first night back, but not this week.
3) Randall K Orton, Esq – Orton had a big week. He was all over Raw and is really being treated like the biggest star of the show. Plus he got a relatively clean win in the main event. Then he led his team to victory as its captain by picking up the pin fall on Batista. Not to shabby for the man from St. Louis.
4) MORRISON
5) Beth Phoenix

Ryan Byers
1) John Cena
A lot of people are giving Edge the, well, edge because his appearance was a big surprise, but a lot of times what works best long-term in wrestling is not a surprise but rather what everybody was expecting from the beginning. You may love him or you may hate him, but you cannot deny that between his victory on Sunday and his hype leading in to it, he’s being set up for yet another big run.

2) Edge – Yes, Edge is back. What people are neglecting to mention, though, is that Edge’s career is going to benefit greatly from the fact that he has reunited with Vickie Guerrero, the most entertaining heel in all of professional wrestling.
3) Randy Orton – With the way he’s been put over this past week, I’d be amazed if we weren’t going to see young Randall in a very prominent role on this year’s Wrestlemania.
4) Genba Hirayanagi
5) Lacey

Daniel Wilcox
1) Edge and John Cena
Two of the greatest performers in wrestling today make big comebacks and pick up World Championships. It’s not going to take much more than that to take top spot, and unlike most I see no reason why one should be above the other.

2) Jeff Hardy – While Hardy didn’t win the WWE Championship like most were expecting, he still got a pretty clean win over Triple H and made his presence felt at Survivor Series.
3) John Morrison – It may have been Miz who got the pin, and Michaels may have got a measure of revenge at Survivor Series, but John Morrison has been looking phenomenally lately, notably using his own variation of Sweet Chin Music to beat Shawn Michaels on Raw.
4) Randy Orton
5) Samoa Joe

Larry Csonka
1) THE BEARDED MENACE Edge
HE IS BACK FROM HELL, WON THE TITLE AND HE HAS A BEARD~! MANY BUYS!!

2) Nigel McGuinness: Nigel retains his ROH Title in a match people were positive he would be losing in.
3) Chris Jericho and John Cena: Cena gets the points for winning the title, but Jericho made the match.
4) Samoa Joe
5) Randy Orton

THE WINNERS~!

Special Mention…Randy Orton – 16 Votes

Fifth Place…Jeff Hardy – 17 Votes

Fourth Place…Samoa Joe – 18 Votes

Third Place…Nigel McGuinness – 30 Votes

Nigel kept his title by defeating Bryan Danielson in a match everyone expected him to lose.

Second Place…John Cena – 59 Votes

John Cena returns from surgery to win the World Title!

Wrestler of the Week…Edge – 69 Votes

Edge and HIS BEARD returned out of nowhere to win the WWE Title!

Yearend Standings~!
Edge returns from hell to take a very important victory in the Wrestler of the Week standings. Chris Jericho has a huge lead, and the Bearded Menace has a lot of work to do if he wants to catch him. Nigel McGuinness, Samoa Joe and John Cena all made moves in the top 15 as well.

Let’s check out the Yearend Standings!

1. Chris Jericho – 116 (RAW)

2. The Bearded Menace Edge – 79 (Smackdown)

3. Batista – 74 (Raw)

4. Matt Hardy – 61 (ECW)

5. Samoa Joe – 54 (TNA)

6. Shawn Michaels – 52 (RAW)

7. HHH – 48 (Smackdown)

8. AJ Styles – 42 (TNA)
8. Sting – 42 (TNA)

10. Nigel McGuinness – 38 (ROH)

11. The Undertaker – 36 (Smackdown)
11. CM Punk – 36 (Raw)

13. William Regal – 34 (RAW)

14. Masato Yoshino – 33 (Dragon Gate)

15. John Cena – 31 (RAW)

Naruki Doi – 30 (Dragon Gate)
Evan Bourne – 30 (ECW) {Injured}
Jeff Hardy – 30 (Smackdown)

Low Ki – 27 (US Independent)
Lance Cade – 27 (US Independent)
Kofi Kingston – 27 (RAW)

KENTA – 25 (NOAH)
James Storm – 25 (TNA)
Robert Roode – 25 (TNA)

Suwama – 24 (All Japan)
Jimmy Jacobs – 24 (ROH)

Alex Shelley – 21 (TNA)
Keiji Mutoh – 21 (All Japan)
John Morrison – 21 (ECW)
The Miz – 21 (ECW)
Kevin Steen – 21 (ROH)
El Generico – 21 (ROH)

Jeff Jarrett – 20 (TNA)

Bryan Danielson – 19 (ROH)>

Kaz – 18 (TNA) {“Retired”}
Chris Sabin – 18 (TNA)

Kurt Angle – 16 (TNA)

Taylor Wilde – 15 (TNA)
Homicide – 15 (TNA)
Hernandez – 15 (TNA)
Petey Williams – 15 (TNA)
Mick Foley – 15 (TNA)
Ric Flair – 15 (US Independent)
Shelton Benjamin – 15 (Smackdown)
Mickie James – 15 (RAW)
Yuji Nagata– 15 (New Japan)
Bison Smith – 15 (NOAH)
Akitoshi Saito – 15 (NOAH)

Tyler Black – 13 (ROH)
Brent Albright – 13 (ROH)
Chris Hero – 13 (US Independent)
THE Brian Kendrick – 13 (Smackdown)

Sheik Abdul Bashir – 12 (TNA)
The Big Show – 12 (Smackdown)
The Great Khali – 12 (Smackdown)
Jay Briscoe – 12 (ROH)
Mark Briscoe – 12 (ROH)
Roderick Strong – 12 (ROH)
Jimmy Olsen – 12 (US Independent)
MsChif – 12 (US Independent)
Jack Evans – 12 (US Independent)
Taiji Ishimori – 12 (NOAH)

Randy Orton – 11 (RAW)

Mark Henry – 10 (ECW)

Scott Steiner – 9 (TNA)
Ashley Lane – 9 (US Independent)
Nevaeh – 9 (US Independent)
Chuck Taylor – 9 (US Independent)
Volador Jr. – 9 (Mexico)
Mistico – 9 (Mexico)
Hector Garza – 9 (Mexico)
Go Shiozaki – 9 (NOAH)
Kensuke Sasaki – 9 (NOAH)
Shingo Takagi – 9 (Dragon Gate)
Michelle McCool – 9 (Smackdown)
Drake Younger – 9 (US Independent)

Awesome Kong – 7 (TNA)

Masato Tanaka – 6 (Zero One Max)
Tiger Mask IV – 6 (NOAH)
Wataru Inoue – 6 (New Japan)
Rey Mysterio – 6 (RAW)
Mr. Kennedy – 6 (Smackdown) {Injured}
Incognito – 6 (Mexico)
Erick Stevens – 6 (ROH)

Villano V – 3 (Mexico)
Blue Demon Jr. – 3 (Mexico)
Claudio Castagnoli – 3 (ROH)
Hiroshi Tenzan –3 (New Japan)
Hirooki Goto –3 (New Japan)
Ryuji Hijikata –3 (All Japan)
Ophidian – 3 (US Independent)
Amasis – 3 (US Independent)
Fire Ant – 3 (US Independent)
Player Uno – 3 (US Independent)
Player Dos – 3 (US Independent)
Beth Phoenix – 3 (RAW)
JBL – 3 (RAW)
Carlito Colon – 3 (Smackdown)
Primo Colon – 3 (Smackdown)

Naomichi Marufuji – 2 (NOAH)

Vladimir Kozlov – 1 (Smackdown)
Ted DiBiase – 1 (RAW)
Cody Rhodes – 1 (RAW)
Sonjay Dutt – 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)
Zack Ryder – 1 (Smackdown)
Curt Hawkins – 1 (Smackdown)