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411’s Wrestler of the Week 12.04.12: Year Eight, Week 35

December 4, 2012 | Posted by Larry Csonka

Welcome to WEEK 35, 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 runs Monday through Sunday). Let’s see who wins this week…


Larry Csonka
1) Hirooki Goto & Karl Anderson
Defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima in the semifinals and then Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith (the current champions) in the finals to win the 2012 NJPW World Tag League tournament. While they did not win the titles, since the tournament match was non-title, Goto and Anderson will challenge reigning champions Archer & Smith at WRESTLE KINGDOM 7 on January 4, 2013.

2) Texano Jr.: Defeated El Mesias to become the new AAA Mega-Champion (Heavyweight Champion). Texano Jr. has finally gone from floundering in obscurity to the champion, and he deserves some praise for that.
3) Adam Cole: Beat Kevin Steen to win the PWG Title.
4) John Cena
5) Eddie Kingston

Francisco Ramirez
1) TIE: Texano Jr./Adam Cole
Texano Jr. became the new AAA Mega-Champion aka AAA World Heavyweight Champion on 12/02/2012, after defeating former champ El Mesias. The match wasn’t without shenanigans but in the end all it took was a Sitdown Power Bomb to get the 3 count. Texano Jr. had been floundering in CMLL for some time, he jumped ship a few months back, and is now AAA’s World Champ, not bad. Adam Cole dethroned Kevin Steen become the PWG World Champion. The win comes after Cole won the 2012 BOLA, adding another title, alongside the ROH TV Title, in Cole’s possession. Quite an impressive 2012 for Adam Cole.

2) Daga: Daga walked out of AAA’s Guerra de Titanes PPV with the AAA Cruiserweight Championship. He won the gold by defeating Psicosis, Joe Lider, Fenix, Jack Evans and former champ Juventud Guerrera in a Ladder Match.
3) Hirooki Goto & Karl Anderson: Anderson and Goto are the 2012 World Tag League winners.
4) Terrible
5) Eddie Kingston

Aaron Frame
1) John Cena
In my opinion, John Cena had the best week. A solid win over Ziggler, Sandow, and Del Rio this week. He continues to shine on like the golden god he is often portrayed to be. Had Cesaro not lost to Sheamus, I probably would have put him here. Even though Team Hell No defended their titles, I think Cesaro just had a better week. Only other person who entered a title defense was RVD, but he didn’t exactly win the match even though he retained. Hard to judge this week and I want my vote to count.

2) Antonio Cesaro: Had a pretty good match against Sheamus that didn’t end too well for him. However, he did defend his title against Zach Ryder in my favorite match of the week.
3) Team Hell No: Defended their tag team championships.
4) RVD
5) Austin Aries

Ryan Byers
1) Texano, Jr.
Texano defeated El Mesias (formerly Judas Mesias for you TNA fans) to become the new AAA World Heavyweight Champion. Winning the championship is a big enough accomplishment in its own right, but it’s even bigger when you consider the fact that he beat Mesias clean in the middle to do it, because Mesias has been the face of that championship for most of existence, holding the belt four different times since the championship was created in 2007 with his most recent reign beginning in March of this year.

2) Hirooki Goto & Karl Anderson: Goto & Anderson won the World League tag team tournament in New Japan Pro Wrestling, guaranteeing them an IWPG Tag Team Title match at the January 4 Tokyo Dome show, which lately has been the most important show in Japanese wrestling in any given year.
3) Antonio Cesaro: He may not have won, but Cesaro had his first truly great performance against a main eventer in WWE on Monday night, which will hopefully be a big breakout for him.
4) Takao Omori & Manabu Soya
5) Eddie Kingston

James Wright
1) John Cena
While it should be taken for granted that Cena wins almost every TV match he is in, he doesn’t usually do so three times in one week in what could actually be considered competitive contests. While the WWE champion C.M. Punk is confined to only appearing on Raw, Cena popped up on Raw, Smackdown and even Main Event showcasing some actual wrestling ability. Is this a one week fluke or has Cena’s elbow injury actually made him buck up his ideas and put some actual wrestling back into his weekly repertoire?

2) Antonio Cesaro: Defended his title and went up against Sheamus and looked pretty damn good while doing so. I keep having to remind myself that Sheamus is no longer champion, it concerns me that there is so little distinction between who is the champion and who is the challenger, but I suppose it is just a testament to how far Sheamus has come in the past 12 months, that we are actually praising a guy for simply hanging with him in the ring.
3) Team Hell No: Defended their titles on NXT, once again I’m going to use my vote to praise the voter’s opponents, if only for the fact that Johnny Curtis finally managed to cash in his shot at the tag team titles, despite being unsuccessful it means that at least someone in creative cares enough to remember that he was entitled to a championship match, just in time before he makes his TV redebut as a sparkly dancer.
4) Texano, Jr.
5) Hirooki Goto & Karl Anderson

Trent Howell
1) John Cena
Victories this week over Dolph Ziggler, Damien Sandow and Alberto Del Rio in very good matches make this a no brainier. Plus he’s TRYING to make the AJ/Vickie story line somewhat interesting and that’s got to be worth something right?

2) Team Hell No: In a shocking bit of story-line continuity, successfully defended their tag team titles against Johnny Curtis and Michael McGillicutty down in NXT. Plus they remained the most entertaining part of pro wrestling in late 2012.
3) Antonio Cesaro: Yeah, defended his US title in a good match with Zack Ryder on Main Event, but possibly the biggest thing was a match with Sheamus that made a casual fan buddy of mine text me asking about him. That’s the point of matches like that right? It worked.
4) Texano Jr
5) Dolph Ziggler

Jack McGee
1) John Cena
John Cena was on all the main WWE show this week, defeating Dolph Ziggler on Raw, Damien Sandow on Main Event and then Alberto Del Rio on Smackdown. All three were good performances, and I really enjoyed the matched.

2) Adam Cole: Defeated Kevin Steen to win the PWG Title over the weekend.
3) Eddie Kingston: Defeated Tim Donst to retain the CHIKARA Grand Championship.
4) RVD
5) Antonio Cesaro


THE WINNERS~!

  • Special Mention…Kane and Daniel Bryan – 10 Votes
  • Fifth Place…Adam Cole – 12 Votes
  • Fourth Place…Hiroki Goto and Karl Anderson – 13 Votes
  • Third Place…Antonio Cesaro – 15 Votes

    Impressed the staff with a great showing against Sheamus, and his victory on Main Event.

  • Second Place…Texano Jr. – 18 Votes

    Your NEW AAA Mega-Champion…

  • Wrestler of the Week…John Cena – 22 Votes

    Had a dominant week on WWE TV, defeating Dolph Ziggler, Alberto Del Rio and Damien Sandow…

    Year-End Standings~!
    And here are the standings after week 35…

    1. CM Punk – 131 points (WWE)

    2. Daniel Bryan – 87 points (WWE)

    3. Sheamus – 69 points (WWE)

    4. Samoa Joe – 62 points (TNA)

    5. Austin Aries – 60 points (TNA)

    6. Brock Lesnar – 55 points (WWE)

    7. Dolph Ziggler – 54 points (WWE)
    7. James Storm – 54 points (TNA)

    9. Bobby Roode – 53 points (TNA)

    10. Jeff Hardy – 52 points (TNA)

    Bully Ray- 51 points (TNA)
    Big Show – 51 points (WWE)

    Kevin Steen – 45 points (ROH)

    John Cena – 40 points (WWE)
    The Ryback – 40 points (WWE)
    Kane – 40 points (WWE)

    Hiroshi Tanahashi – 36 points (NJPW)

    Johnny Gargano – 30 points (US Independent)

    Alex Shelley – 27 points (US Independent)
    Kazuchika Okada – 27 points (NJPW)
    Alberto Del Rio – 27 points (WWE)

    Antonio Cesaro – 24 points (WWE)
    KUSHIDA – 24 points (NJPW)

    Kofi Kingston – 21 points (WWE)
    Christopher Daniels – 21 points (TNA)
    Kazarian – 21 points (TNA)
    Kenny King – 21 points (TNA)
    Christian – 21 points (WWE)

    Player Uno – 19 points (US Independent)
    Stupified – 19 points (US Independent)
    Damian Sandow – 19 points (WWE)

    Adam Cole – 18 points (ROH)
    Wade Barrett – 18 points (WWE)
    Chuck Taylor- 18 points (US Independent)

    Hirooki Goto – 15 points (NJPW)
    Masata Tanaka – 15 points (ZERO1)
    CIMA – 15 point (Dragon Gate)
    Ryusuke Taguchi – 15 points (NJPW)
    Nick Jackson- 15 points (US Independent)
    Matt Jackson- 15 points (US Independent)
    Tyson Kidd – 15 points (WWE)
    Rhett Titus – 15 points (ROH)
    Portia Perez – 15 points (US Independent)
    Nicole Mathews – 15 points (US Independent)

    Karl Anderson – 13 point (NJPW)
    The Miz – 13 points (WWE)
    El Generico – 13 point (US Independent)

    Tim Donst – 12 points (US Independent)
    Sweet Saraya Knight – 12 points (US Independent)
    Masakatsu Funaki – 12 points (AJPW)
    Magnus – 12 points (TNA)
    AJ Styles – 12 points (TNA)
    Zema Ion – 12 points (TNA)
    Tensai – 12 points (WWE)
    Dr. Wagner Jr. – 12 points (AAA)
    Texano Jr. – 12 points (AAA)

    RVD – 10 points (TNA)
    Devon – 10 points (TNA)

    Samuri Del Sol (aka Octagon Jr.) – 9 points (US Independent)
    Rey Mysterio – 9 points (WWE)
    R Truth – 9 points (WWE)
    Kurt Angle – 9 points (TNA)

    Low Ki – 7 points (US Independent)
    AR Fox – 7 point (US Independent)
    Cody Rhodes – 7 points (WWE)

    Sting – 6 points (TNA)
    Taiyo Kea – 6 points (AJPW)
    Lance Archer – 6 points (NJPW)
    Davey Boy Smith Jr. – 6 points (NJPW)
    KAI – 6 points (AJPW)
    Adam Pearce – 6 points (US Independent)
    17 – 6 points (US Independent)
    Shard – 6 points (US Independent)
    assailANT – 6 points (US Independent)
    combatANT – 6 points (US Independent)
    Colt Cabana – 6 points (US Independent)
    Ultramantis Black – 6 points (US Independent)
    Hallowicked – 6 points (US Independent)
    Frightmare – 6 points (US Independent)
    Mr. Touchdown Mark Angelosetti – 6 points (US Independent)

    Mark Henry – 4 points (WWE)
    PAC – 4 points (WWE)

    Michael Elgin – 3 point (ROH)
    Paul Heyman – 3 points (WWE)
    Jerry Lawler – 3 points (WWE)
    Gran Akuma – 3 points (US Independent)
    Sara Del Rey – 3 points (WWE)
    Chris Sabin – 3 points (TNA)
    Chavo Guerrero – 3 points (TNA)
    Hernandez – 3 points (TNA)
    Robbie E – 3 points (TNA)
    Christian York – 3 points (TNA)
    Genki Horguchi – 3 point (Dragon Gate)

    Jon Davis – 2 point (US Independent)
    Kota Ibushi – 2 point (NJPW)
    AJ Lee – 2 points (WWE)

    Seth Rollins – 1 points (WWE)
    Dean Ambrose – 1 points (WWE)
    Roman Reigns – 1 points (WWE)
    Mick Foley – 1 points (WWE)
    Shuji Kondo – 1 point (Japan)
    Akebono – 1 point (Japan)
    Dick Togo – 1 point (Japan)
    Yujiro Takahashi – 1 point (NJPW)
    Tara – 1 point (TNA)
    Miss Tessmacher – 1 point (TNA)
    Katsuhiko Nakajima – 1 point (NOAH)
    Charlie Haas – 1 point (ROH)
    Shelton Benjamin – 1 point (ROH)
    Layla – 1 point (WWE)
    Dmitrious “The Greek God” Papadon – 1 point (US Independent)
    Sami Callihan – 1 point (US Independent)
    El Terrible – 1 point (CMLL)
    Rush – 1 point (CMLL)

  • Voting began 4.09.12
  • 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.



    **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

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    Larry Csonka