wrestling / Columns

411’s Wrestler of the Week Supplemental Column: Year Five Edition

August 3, 2009 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas

One of our favorite weekly columns to do is our 411 Wrestler of the Week column. Published every Monday afternoon, this column highlights who each 411 staffer who participates believes had the best week. And each week, there is usually some sort of controversy as to how a particular individual voted.

Amidst all of that controversy, a point was made last year that 411 had not provided a particularly in-depth explanation of what our voting criteria is for this colum. Obvioulsy, every staffer who votes has their own ways of judging the wrestler of the week. Some of us vote in a kayfabe sense in terms of wins and losses, some vote based on who has advanced their career the most. Consider this column the FAQ where we tell you exactly what and why we vote the way we do each and every week for Wrestler of the Week. Each staffer will give you their frequently watched shows (in order of preferences) and then a few factors that they use to derive their votes.

We hope that if anyone has any questions about how a 411 writer voted and why that he or she will look to this list to understand this information. Ultimately, Wrestler of the Week is supposed to be a fun feature within 411. Here’s hoping both the staffers and the commentors can keep that in mind.

WotW Voters (listed by alphabetical order)

Mike Bauer

-Watches: 1. RoH 2. ECW (by default) 3. Raw 4. Smackdown 5. All Other Indies + Japan 6. TNA

-Judges based on: It is so hard to order it. It really depends. For me, one week a title could be work more than an advancement, pending on both to factor in. And for the record, winning your 10th World Title means very little when compared to your first in any federation. Generally, it is like this.

* Career Advancement
* Titles
* Great matches
* Markout Moment

Ari Berenstein

-Watches: 1. Ring of Honor 2. WWE Raw 3. WWE Smackdown 4. CHIKARA 5. SHIMMER Women’s Athletes

-Follows: 1. WWE ECW on SciFi 2. U.S. Indies 3. Major International Indy News 4. TNA

-Judges based on:
1. Impressive showings in matches / promos
2. Wins and Title Victories / Retentions (cumulative for the week)
3. Quality of Wrestling or Entertainment Provided By The Wrestlers
4. Personal Enjoyment

Samuel Berman

Watches: 1. Ring of Honor 2. Dragon Gate 3. WWE RAW 4. New Japan Pro Wrestling 5. CHIKARA 6. Pro Wrestling NOAH 7. Total Nonstop Action

Follows: 1. Pro Wrestling Guerrilla 2. IWA Mid-South 3. WWE SmackDown! 4. All Japan 5. WWE ECW 6. Various Independent and International Promotions

Judges based on:
*Non-kayfabe career advancement – How much better off is a performer in the scope of THEIR career than they were the week before?
*Title wins and retentions – Who was beaten? In what context? How important was the win/retention in the context of the promotion in which it happened?
*Quality of matches and promos – How did a given match or segment come off to the live crowd and/or on television? How surprising was the quality, either positively or negatively?
*Priority is ALWAYS given to Independent and International talent in an effort to spotlight them – What other important developments took place in the wrestling world that one would miss by only watching WWE or TNA television?

Ryan Byers

-Watches: 1. WWE Raw 2. SHIMMER 3. CHIKARA 4. WWE ECW 5. ROH 6. WWE Smackdown 7. Major Japanese Promotions (usually on extreme tape delay) 8. Minor Japanese Promotions (on an even bigger tape delay)

-Follows: 1. New Japan 2. All Japan 3. WWE Superstars 4. NOAH 5. Dragon Gate 6. Osaka Pro 7. Misc. Japanese Promotions 8. CMLL/AAA

-Judges based on:
1. How much did a particular accomplishment advance a wrestler’s career in non-kayfabe, real world terms? For example, an indy wrestler winning his first championship in ROH means more in my voting than Triple H winning the World Title AGAIN, because the former is a step up in the world and the latter is maintenance of the status quo.
2. How good was a wrestler’s performance? I consider a good in-ring performance to be on equal footing with a good performance on the microphone. Wrestlers who surprise me with a good performance get more credit than those who I expect good performances out of.
3. The size of the promotion the accomplishment occurred in. For this criterion, WWE Raw > WWE Smackdown > AAA > CMLL > New Japan > WWE ECW > NOAH > Dragon Gate > TNA > AJPW > ROH > PWG > CHIKARA > Osaka Pro.
4. How much does an accomplishment means in storyline terms? This is where Triple H’s title win might get some consideration even though we’ve seen it 5,0000 times before. Why is this number four on my list as opposed to number one? Because no other column on this website covers wrestling like it’s “real,” and, in my opinion, Wrestler of the Week shouldn’t either. If you want that kind of content, go to WWE.com.
5. My own personal biases. We all have them . . . may as well own up to the fact that they influence us.

Andy Clark

-Watches: 1. WWE, 2. TNA, 3. ROH

-Follows: Major Japanese, Mexican, and Independent happenings

-Judges based on:
* World Title Victories and/or Major Retentions
* Kayfabe Accomplishment (Singles accomplishments count more than tag team accomplishments and heavyweight accomplishments will almost always count more then lightweight accomplishments)
* Most Entertaining Moment/Match/Promo/Etc. of the Week

Andy Critchell

-Watches: 1. ECW 2. SD 3. Raw 4. Superstars 5. Impact 6. Various indy promotions (ROH, Chikara, etc)

-Follows: Only what I watch

-Judges based on:
1. Who has made the most “noise” in the wrestling world whether by winning, losing, retiring, banging cheerleaders, whatever.
2. Who has entertained ME the most
3. Who has advanced his/her career the most through accomplishments that I choose to find relevant
4. MORRISON

Shawn S. Lelaos

-Watches: 1. TNA 2. WWE Raw 3. ECW on Sci-Fi 4. WWE Smackdown 5. Ring of Honor

-Follows: 1. WWE Superstars 2. US Indies 3. Japan

-Judges based on:
1. Titles
2. Outstanding matches and/or promos
3. Mark Out Moments
4. Career advancement
5. Storyline advancement

Sat

-Watches: 1. SmackDown 2. Superstars 3. Raw 4. ECW on Sci-Fi 5. Impact

-Follows: 1. Ring of Honor

-Judges based on:
* World Title Victories
* Career Advancement
* Impressive Wins
* Secondary Title Wins
* Workrate/Promos

Mathew Sforcina

-Watches: 1. Australian Wrestling 2. WWE 3. ROH 4. TNA 5. American Indy

-Judges based on:
* Storytelling, be it angle, match or promo
* Accomplishments, big wins, title victories, achievements.
* Whether they are Tara or not.

Jeff Small:

-Watches: 1. WWE Raw 2. WWE ECW on SciFi 3. WWE Smackdown 4. TNA Impact

-Follows: 1. WWE Superstars 2. Wrestlicious

Judges based on:
* PPV Wins and Title Victories
* Impressive showings in matches / Title Retentions
* If Khali wins a match… I mean, workrate
* If Randy Orton does not look like a pussy during a brawl

Jeremy Thomas

-Watches: 1. WWE SmackDown 2. WWE Raw 3. ECW on Sci-Fi 4. Ring of Honor 5. TNA Impact 6. SHIMMER

-Follows: 1. WWE Superstars 2. Japan 3. US Indies

-Judges based on:
1. Significant & career-enhancing matches or promos
2. Title Wins or Retentions
3. Outstanding work in matches and promos

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Jeremy Thomas

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