411’s Wrestler of the Week 10.23.12: Year Eight, Week 29

Welcome to WEEK 29, YEAR EIGHT 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

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 around WrestleMania. This will be posted every Monday (the voting week ins Monday through Sunday). Let’s see who wins this week…

Larry Csonka
1) The Ryback
It was made official on Raw last week, The Ryback will main event a WWE PPV, in a match for the WWE Title. That’s a pretty damn big deal, whether you like him or not…

2) Kofi Kingston: Kofi Kingston defeated the Miz twice, the second time for the IC Title this past week. Will this be the run that gets Kofi over the top and into a main event slot? Only time will tell.
3) The Rhodes Scholars (Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow): A good week for the heel team, picking up wins on both Raw and Smackdown, and even attacking the champions on Smackdown just because they could
4) CIMA
5) Samoa Joe

Jeremy Thomas
1) Ryback
Ryback’s push was the most talked-about thing in wrestling this week as he got his first PPV main event match. Sure, he got it as a substitute John Cena, but he got it nonetheless. I’m not quite the huge Ryback fan that a lot of people are but I definitely appreciate his skills and the fact that WWE is giving the ball to someone new, and this was undeniably a great week for him career-wise.

2) Kofi Kingston: I watched the CM Punk Best in the World documentary this weekend and was struck by something. In the documentary, they point out how Punk kept being moved from title reign to title reign (World, Tag, IC, etc.) as placeholders for him because they had no idea what to do with him. I realized that Kofi has that same thing going on. He spends more time in the year with a title than he does without, but it just seems to be that they want him strong yet don’t know where to go with it. Random observation. Anyway, he won another title, which wouldn’t necessarily be #2-worthy except that he did it in the same main event slot that legit main eventers have taken on WWE Main Event so far. I choose to recognize that as faith in Kofi’s (and Miz’s) potential drawing power and not that Main Event is already being minimized. I’m an optimist, what can I say?
3) Devon/Samoa Joe (tie): Joe is continuing to look like a strong TV champion and is giving the title (and himself) some relevance, while the former TV champion continues to be made to look important as he held his own in a main event match against TNA Hall of Famer Sting.
4) CIMA
5) El Generico

James Wright
1) Kofi Kingston
The kick heard around the world on top of winning the IC title on Main Event puts Kofi in first place to me. To me this guy’s potential is only limited by the time that the WWE give him to develop his on air character. Every time Kofi is given the opportunity to speak he doesn’t disappoint, and now as IC champion, he might get just a little bit more time.

2) Ryback: The Cena endorsement means that the Ryback will be facing Punk at Hell in a Cell for the WWE title. There is certainly a lot of buzz around the undefeated powerhouse, but will there be after the PPV?
3) Samoa Joe: Defended the title against Robbie E and seems to be being booked strong as the TV Champion. Tapping out two guys in the middle of the ring helps show Joe to be the true Samoan Submission Machine
4) The Rhodes Scholars
5) Masakatsu Funaki

TJ Hawke
1) CIMA
The Dragon Gate “Icon” continued his dominant reign as Open the Dream Gate champion by successfully defending the belt against Masato Yoshino on the Dragon Gate “Gate of Destiny” PPV.

2) The Ryback: The Ryback seems to be getting the first “chosen one” push in quite a while, and that was solidified by him being booked in the likely main event of the upcoming Hell in a Cell PPV.
3) El Generico: The Generic Luchador successfully defended the KO-D Openweight Title against Kota Ibushi on a DDT show. Generico is now 3-0 against Ibushi in DDT this year.
4) Kofi Kingston
5) Gamma, HUB, & Magnitude Kishiwada

Ryan Byers
1) The Ryback
After being teased for weeks, the Ryback is now officially a part of the WWE Title scene, being given a pay per view championship match in the main event segment of Raw in addition to becoming CM Punk’s house show opponent. Combine that with an endorsement by John Cena as well as a few more television wins, and the Ryback has had a pretty good run in a fairly dull week for professional wrestling.

2) CIMA: CIMA has had a surprisingly lengthy reign with the Open the Dream Gate Title, the top championship in Dragon Gate. He racked up another successful defense this weekend, defeating Masato Yoshino in the main event of DG’s latest pay per view.
3) Masakatsu Funaki: Old Man Funaki is still your Triple Crown Champion after this weekend, retaining the title over Takao Omori on AJPW’s Nagoya show.
4) Sheamus
5) Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka

Jack McGee
1) Ryback
Ryback is getting a title shot, against CM Punk, at Hell in a Cell. That is a HUGE deal as far as career advancement goes, and it doesn’t matter that it was due to Cena’s injury, he is the guy they picked, he is getting the shot, and I think that it is both exciting and cool.

2) Samoa Joe: I am loving Joe as the new TNA TV Champion, the title actually feels like it means something, and Joe is back to killing dudes. I am all for this.
3) Kofi Kingston: Won two big matches over Miz, and is the new IC CHampion
4) The Rhodes Scholars
5) Devon

Greg DeMarco
1) The Miz
This is abnormal for me, but Miz did something incredible this week. He carried the most entertaining MizTV yet, followed by a match where he got legit knocked out. It’s questionable if he was cleared to wrestle the next night—but regardless—he wrestled anyway, twice. One was a 20-minute match where he lost his title, and he followed it up with another hard hitting match for Smackdown. And he likely shouldn’t have wrestled at all. For a guy who has had his toughness questioned in the past, I think he answered those questions.

2) Ryback: Seriously, who had a bigger week? He received an endorsement on television from John Cena, and is now main eventing his first WWE pay-per-view. He has the WWE marketing rocket strapped to him, and he’s being elevated at a Sheamus-like pace.
3) Kofi Kingston: Kofi was inserted into the Intercontinental Championship picture, and won right away. This time it feels different, as his past failures were brought up—this usually means something. We’ll see if it does.
4) Samoa Joe
5) Devon

THE WINNERS~!

Year-End Rankings Key:

WWE, Raw, SmackDown and NXT-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.

Other International Wrestlers are represented in INDIGO.

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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 Year Five Winner: CM Punk Year Six Winner: The Miz Year Seven Winner: CM Punk