411’s Wrestler of the Week 7.06.09: Week 14

Welcome to Week 14, Year FIVE, of 411’s Wrestler of the Week. A quick overview of the rules to kick things off for us as a reminder…

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~!
Michael Bauer
1) Edge and Chris Jericho
Like them as a team or not, they work amazing together. They get another victory over the Colon brothers to defend the titles, then defeat Jeff Hardy and CM Punk on Smackdown. Edge also got a win over Punk on Superstars, but I still feel like counting them together.

2) Mark Henry: Nobdy improved their standing more than Henry with his face turn and demolishing of Randy Orton on RAW.
3) Kurt Angle: Hate the stipulation of the Tag Match, but he did retain his title.
4) CM Punk
5) Masato Tanaka

Andy Clark
1) Mark Henry
Ass was kicked and wig was split on Monday night. Forget Chris Jericho, Mark Henry has come to Raw to save us.

2) Chris Jericho & Edge: Had a really good title defense against Carlito & Primo on Raw and then beat CM Punk & Jeff Hardy on SmackDown. Plus Edge got a forfeit win over the World Champ on Superstars.
3) Kurt Angle: Successfully defended the TNA World Heavyweight Title in a really good Tag for the Title Match on Impact.
4) John Cena & Triple H (tie)
5) Masato Tanaka

Ryan Byers
1) Mark Henry
Mark Henry was signed by WWE in 1996. I spent the first six years of his career being extremely disappointed every time that he would set foot in to a ring. However, in 2002 or 2003, something clicked and Henry became a GREAT monster heel and an extremely underrated promo. He got a few runs on top as the title contender in which you knew would never win the belt, but, after the first few years, he was shuffled back down the card and then shuttled off to the near-meaningless ECW show. Now he’s back on WWE’s flagship program and got a clean victory over their biggest star to boot. Part of me doubts that this will result in the World’s Strongest Man getting a reign with the most recognized championship in wrestling, but it puts him closer than he’s been at any other point in his career.

2) Prince Fergal Devitt & Rysuke Taguchi – The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles aren’t the most prestigious championships in that company. In fact, I often wonder why they still exist. However, they’ve been out of the promotion for about six months now and around the waists of Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley. This weekend, Devitt and Taguchi brought the straps back in to the NJPW fold, which is particularly important for Devitt, who has been the most entertaining part of the promotion’s junior division for quite some time and will hopefully begin to break out as a result of this win.
3) CM Punk – The heel turn is working, ladies and gents. With his various shenanigans this week, it looks like the WWE version of heel Punk may be even more entertaining than the ROH version of heel Punk, which is a sentence that I never thought I would type.
4) Masato Tanaka
5) Jack Swagger

Larry Csonka LIVE from Vacation~!
1) Masato Tanaka
Masato Tanaka won the ZERO1 World Heavyweight Champion by pinning Ryouji Sai this week. Tanaka is a favorite of mine, and continues to find success long past his ECW days, where most fans reading this would know him from. I am still disappointed the man never got a more high profile US run.

2) Prince Fergal Devitt & Rysuke Taguchi: Prince Fergal Devitt & Rysuke Taguchi defeated The Moto City Machine Guns to become the NEW IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team champions. The Guns run didn’t mean much for TNA, so the change was needed, and Prince Fergal Devitt & Rysuke Taguchi were a good choice to take the titles.
3) Kurt Angle: Retained the TNA Heavyweight Title on Impact.
4) Mark Henry
5) CM Punk

ARI
1) Mark Henry
Some weeks there just comes a pick from all of a sudden and out of the blue. Henry is that pick this week, with a trade that sent him to Raw, where he immediately made an impact, received a massive ovation from the crowd for refusing to take the easy way out (a count out loss against Randy Orton) and defeated the current WWE champion in Orton. Henry won this week’s vote all in about five minutes worth of work.

2) CM Punk: Punk is mastering the art of the slow burn heel turn and his “eye injury” and work surrounding that plot point this week on both Superstars and Smackdown was excellent.
3) Edge & Chris Jericho: The new tag team champions had a great promo at the beginning of Raw and a title retention against Carlito and Primo. I’d have them up higher if not for the (SPOILER) injury to Edge which mitigates their ability to remain champions.
4) Kurt Angle
5) Abyss

Aaron Hubbard
1) Mark Henry
It’s Henry’s week, that’s for sure. An out of nowhere face turn and being the focus of the end of Raw is definately an improvement for The World’s Strongest Man. Whether anything comes of this or if this is a fluke is yet to be seen, but for this week, Mark Henry was the man.

2) Masato Tanaka: Speaking of guys whose careers have flourished post ecw, here’s this guy. Once again, Tanaka is ZERO1 Champ.
3) Chris Jericho & Edge: The title run was short but sweet, and Raw had one of it’s better matches when these guys successfully defended against the Colons.
4) Kurt Angle
5) CM Punk/The Miz

Andy Critchell
1) Mark Henry
Yeah, that’s right. No one had a bigger impact this week. We found out on Monday that the World’s Strongest Man had been traded to Raw and he made a gigantic impact by pinning Randy Orton and turning babyface in the process. Mark Henry did what Mark Henry always does best; namely kicking asses and splitting wigs. Orton was just the first of many I’m sure.

2) THE MIZ: How do you build a career? You have great matches with top wrestlers and that’s exactly what THE MIZ did this week. Granted, he still lost and this was on Raw and not a PPV but this win was very significant and it went a long way to making THE MIZ a legit superstar.
3) Edge: The Rated-R Superstar had a big week. First he picked up a big win over the champ on Superstars in a great match. Then he pinned the champ in a tag match on Smackdown. Sure, both wins came with extenuating circumstances but a win is a win is a win and for this week the record books will show that Edge was 2-0 over the World Heavyweight Champion.
4) CM Punk
5) MORRISON

Samuel Berman
1) Masato Tanaka
Regained the ZERO1 World Heavyweight Title.

2) Prince Fergal Devitt & Rysuke Taguchi: Bested the MCMG for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles.
3) Edge & Chris Jericho: A dominant week from the Undisputed Tag Team Champions.
4) CM Punk
5) Mark Henry

Jeremy Thomas
1) Mark Henry
Man, talk about the difference a week can make for someone. Mizark has gone from barely orbiting the ECW Title picture to getting a pin over the WWE Heavyweight Champion. Sure, it was in a gauntlet match and after the events of THE Bash, but the fact that he pinned Orton and turned face in the process certainly gives Henry the biggest career gain of the week.

2) Masato Tanaka: I wanted to put Tanaka at #1 because I’m a huge fan, but I couldn’t justify putting him over Henry. Nonetheless, winning back the ZERO1 title is a nice little feater in Tanaka’s cap and nothing to shrug about.
3) CM Punk: Punk’s heel turn has been executed brilliantly…just brilliantly. Despite losing two matches this week, the booking and his performances both in the ring and on the mic have been great and with Edge now thoroughly gone for a while, Punk’s looking to be solidly pushed as a heel. Based on his current performance, that will mean fantastic things to come.
4) Kurt Angle
5) Rated Y2J

THE WINNERS~!

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 Year Four Winner: Chris Jericho

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