411’s Wrestler of the Week 5.21.13: Year Nine, Week 6

Welcome to YEAR NINE, WEEK SIX 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 Tuesday (the voting week runs Monday through Sunday). Let’s see who wins this week…

Larry Csonka
1) The Shield
I feel like a broken record over the last few weeks, but it only makes sense to keep voting for these guys. They continue to perform well, they continue to win, they do not get beaten, and they now have all won their first titles in WWE. Pretty much everything they did wrong they did with NEXUS, they have done right with the Shield and that is pretty cool to see.

2) Pieces of Hate (Jigsaw & The Shard): Defeated Da Soul Touchaz, AC/DC (Arik Cannon & Darin Corbin) and the Young Bucks all in one day to win the CHIKARA Tag World Grand Prix. The win also gives them enough points to challenge for the Campeones De Parejas; which they will due in June at the next CHIKARA iPPV.
3) Brock Lesnar: Defeated Triple H in the main event of the Extreme Rules PPV.
4) Kenny King
5) Ryback

Ryan Byers
1) Brock Lesnar
Brock decisively won his nine month long feud with Triple H this past Sunday, getting a clean-by-cage-match-standards win over the Game and overcoming a big “knee injury” in the process. It will be interesting to see what is next for Lesnar, who has now taken out one of the biggest stars in the modern WWE landscape.

2) The Shield: They dropped some matches by DQ early in the week, but the trio walked out of Extreme Rules with al three members holding championship belts.
3) Pieces of Hate (Jigsaw & The Shard): Former rivals Jigsaw & The Shard won the 2013 installment of the CHIKARA Tag World Grand Prix tournament.
4) Eddie Kingston
5) Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Aoki

Michael Benjamin
1) Brock Lesnar
Brock Lesnar finally looked like an absolute beast at Extreme Rules by defeating a knocked out Triple H with an F5. It was a really good match and I’m excited to see what Lesnar FINALLY moves onto next.

2) The Shield: Aaaand boom goes the dynamite. Every member of The Shield has gold. It was a great image seeing all three men holding their belts after Rollins and Reigns decisively defeated Team Hell No for the tag straps. There was no shenanigans. All three men won their titles clean and looked great doing so.
3) Pieces of Hate (Jigsaw & The Shard): CHIKARA is one of the only places you can find great tag wrestling on a consistent basis. Winning the Tag World Grand Prix is a nice feather in the caps of both men.
4) Alberto Del Rio
5) Sheamus

TJ Hawke
1) The Shield
WWE’s midcard titles tend to become anchors around the wrestlers, but for now, I will be optimistic and say that these title wins represent continued upward momentum in the careers of Tyler Black, Jon Moxley, and Roman Reigns.

2) Jigsaw & The Shard: They won Chikara’s Tag World Grand Prix. Despite the under whelming lineup for the return of the tournament, hopefully this tournament win continues the momentum of the Pieces of Hate. I would like to see these two team up in more promotions.
3) Brock Lesnar: Mercifully ended his feud with Triple H in a victorious fashion.
4) Jay Briscoe
5) Eddie Kingston

Jack McGee
1) The Shield
The Shield continues to be the best thing about WWE. They win matches, they kick asses, they lay out main eventers and now they all hold titles. Believe in the Shield…

2) Brock Lesnar: Defeated Triple H in the main event of the Extreme Rules PPV. Now that this silliness with Triple H is over, maybe we can actually do something of use with Lesnar.
3) Ryback: Easily his best in ring performance to date, and in all reality should be the champion at this time. Last time I checked, if you make it to your feet and your opponent doesn’t, in a last man standing match, you win. Crazy fuckin world I know.
4) Pieces of Hate (Jigsaw & The Shard)
5) Kenny King

Tony Acero
1) Dean Ambrose
I felt like breaking up The Shield namely so that I could write about Ambrose individually, but also so I didn’t have to do much work in choosing others for the list. Ambrose is the package deal, and although I wanted more time in his match with Kofi, he got the win and the belt and this will be the match we look back on as the start of the rise of Ambrose…hopefully.

2) Seth Rollins/Roman Reigns: Team Hell No was finally dethroned, and The Shield is now a gold-totin tandem of bad-assery. I am very frightened for the future of these guys, but for now let’s just celebrate the fact that they have what the deserve, and that a team of superstars that has been built up so well, so consistently, and so sweeeeet is finally holding some gold.
3) Ryback: Like Magee said, probably his best performance to date and I’ve really softened up to him as far as in ring performances go. It appears we’re going to get another PPV match out of these two and even though the end of the match was crappy, I suppose I’ll take it if they can do this again.
4) Brock Lesnar
5) AJ Lee

Jeremy Thomas
1) Brock Lesnar
Brock murdered Triple H to (hopefully) end his feud with the Game in definitive fashion. He looked like an absolute monster in the last few minutes of that match and that is what people will remember. The match was also great, as a side note.

2) The Shield: Continued their assent in WWE by picking up the Tag Team and US Titles. Believe, y’all.
3) Ryback: I put him here largely because I thought he would be completely buried and thrown to the side after this match, but instead he actually got up before Cena and probably should be champion now. Dude should probably Shell-Shock Charles Robinson on Raw tonight for missing out on that.
4) Pieces of Hate (Jigsaw & The Shard)
5) Eddie Kingston

THE WINNERS~!

And 411’s Wrestler of the Week is…

Dean Ambrose – 32 Votes

Defeated Kofi Kingston to win the WWE US Title at the Extreme Rules PPV on Sunday night. The Shield scored the clean sweep and are out to a big lead in the year end voting…

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

Dean Ambrose – 51pts.

Seth Rollins – 39pts
Roman Reigns – 39pts

Brock Lesnar – 18pts

Ryback – 17pts

Dolph Ziggler – 15pts.
Kofi Kingston – 15pts.
Kenta Kobashi – 15pts.

Mark Henry – 12pts.
Bully Ray – 12pts.

Abyss – 9pts.
Wade Barrett – 9pts.
The Undertaker – 9pts
Jun Akiyama – 9pts.

AJ Styles – 6pts.
Fandango – 6pts.
KENTA – 6pts.
Yoshihiro Takayama – 6pts.
Kazuchika Okada – 6pts.
Jigsaw – 6pts.
The Shard – 6pts.

John Morrison – 3pts.
Jack Swagger – 3pts.
Sting – 3pts.
Hernandez – 3pts.
Chavo Guerrero – 3pts.
Seita Sanada – 3pts.

CIMA – 1pt
Mickie James – 1pt
Alberto Del Rio – 1pt
Mikey Nicholls- 1pt
Shane Haste – 1pt
Eddie Kingston – 1pt.

Year-End Rankings Key:

WWE 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 Year Eight Winner: CM Punk