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411’s Wrestler of the Week 2.12.07: Week 45
Welcome to Week 45, Year-Two, of 411’s Wrestler of the Week. A quick overview for those who don’t know the deal…
Each writer chooses three wrestlers from any promotion and each wrestler gets a vote attached to that ranking. It looks a little like this…
1st – 5
2nd – 3
3rd – 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 five vote getters get a points value for their ranking which looks something like this…
1st – 15
2nd – 10
3rd – 5
4th – 3
5th – 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!
Mike Bauer
1) Christian Cage
A lot of crazy stuff going on during that match, but Cage is here and the Coalition is around to stay. I think this leads to Joe vs. Steiner though and maybe give us a rematch next month, which is needed. I’ll give Angle the #3 this week, because he still looked awesome and I just wasn’t impressed by anything else this week from TNA. Joining him will be Sting for powerbombing Abyss off the Cage into a Barbed Wire Table! At #2 though is Finlay. Why? Because as much as I like the guy, the Boogeyman should not have been undefeated as long as he was and Finlay did beat The Boogeyman this week.
2) Finlay
3) Angle/Sting
SAT
1) Christian Cage
I decided to go with Christian Cage in the top slot for his win against Kurt Angle. I thought that Abyss was going to defeat Sting. Because of this, the second slot goes to Sting for his win against Abyss. The third spot goes to Abyss for his part in the match against Sting.
2) Sting
3) Abyss
Andy Clark
1) HBK
Christian Cage’s win was nice, but with rumors of the Christian Coalition and the fact that Angle just got there it’s not that surprising. Plus, from the sound of things he couldn’t get it done with any of his own stuff so he doesn’t get the top spot. On the other hand Shawn Michaels made it to the (Raw) main event at WrestleMania by winning a pretty good Triple Threat on Raw. No Triple Threat, no Fatal Four-Way, but a straight one-on-one match with the champ. That gets him the top spot from me this week.
2) Christian Cage
3) Batista
Bayani Domingo
1) El Generico and Quicksilver
Sorry, couldn’t really put Christian on top after all the Russo-riffic booking and this is the best match I’ve seen in the past month. They beat Roderick Strong and Davey Richards, both RoH and FIP standouts. So yeah, my vote…like it or lump it.
2) Christian Cage
3) The Undertaker
ARI
1) HBK
HBK continues his stand out work by ensuring his place in the main event of WrestleMania 23. A huge win over Edge and Randy Orton is good enough for number one this week. I said a hell of a lot of negative things about the TNA pay per view “Against All Odds”, but the show actually ended up being very good overall, with most of the focus on the wrestling and not the illogical and the stupid. Well, except for Big Fat Oily Guy. ENOUGH OF HIM. Anyway the guy who really impressed me the most was Abyss. He took a hell of a lot of punishment in the Prison Yard match, including a powerbomb through barbed wire. He also had some great character moments after the match when he couldn’t help James Mitchell. Sure, he didn’t get the win against the “Worst Christian Ever” Sting, but he’s the real winner in all our hearts and minds. And yes, the number three vote for Bob Backlund IS a serious one. Not only did he almost steal the show with his shenanigans, he has also become the toast of the TNA locker room with his weirdness outside the ring. Walking to your hotel room and passing up on a ride? That’s an exacerbation of the situation, plebian.
2) Abyss
3) Bob Backlund
Scott Slimmer
1) Ric Flair
How has nobody given any love to Flair yet? That is some cold shit. Anyway, this week Flair gave Carlito an absolutely brutal bitch slap without ever even laying a hand on him. Sometimes I think Flair likes to bust out the awesome every once in a while just to show that he still can, on any given night, steal the freaking show. Of course, the true beauty of that promo is that every single word of it was absolutely true. Just like Mick Foley’s rant against the ECW fans and Joey Styles’ tirade against WWE, Flair’s berating of Carlito once again proved that the best promos are those that are firmly rooted in real emotion. You could see that emotion in Flair this week, so he easily gets my vote for WOTW.
2) HBK
3) Sting / Abyss
MEEHAN
1) Ric Flair
For a rare one-week-only, I’m going to have to ignore title defenses, show-stopping main-events and storyline standouts and give the award to the performer who (in my opinion) delivered the single best moment in wrestling television this week. And that honor, my friends, goes to none other than The Nature Boy, who — even in the twilight of his career — continues to deliver better television than 99% of anyone else on a major wrestling roster today.
2) Christian Cage
3) Abyss
Daniel Wilcox
1) HBK
HBK is still on a role and put on another great performance in the main event of Raw this week to ear himself a one on one shot at the WWE Championship at WrestleMania against his tag team partner John Cena. Christian Cage retained his title at AAO against Kurt Angle while Batista did the same against Kennedy on SmackDown.
2) Christian Cage
3) Abyss
Samuel Berman
1) Christian Cage
I’ll be brief this week. Cage gets the top spot for obvious reasons. Shawn won the #1 Contendership in a three-way on RAW. UT got his choice of championship shots and looked like a total badass the whole way.
2) HBK
3) The Undertaker
JT~!
1) Christian Cage
Well, I’m not ignoring shit. Look, I’ll give you that it “seemed” like he couldn’t do anything on his own. But the fact is he hit (I believe) three Unprettiers and (I believe) two Frogslasphes – maybe only one – on Kurt Angle. Against any other person on the roster it would have been over. But they wanted to make both men look strong and therefore in addition to the Captain’s moves Angle got several Angle locks (yeah, I call it that, loathe me) and at one point SEVEN German’s. The fact is both men got MORE than enough in and Russo STILL wouldn’t decide that it was enough. In the end it took 92 ref knockouts and 37 interferences to get it done, but I’m not going to blame Cage for the booking decisions. Fact is he went up against Kurt Angle (and to an extent, his boys vs. Joe) and came out the NWA Champion. Therefore, he gets my vote.
2) HBK
3) Ric Flair
Arnold Furious
1) HBK
He’s headed to WrestleMania. Everyone was speculating as to who Cena would face and most folks had settled on some sort of multiple person match but if there’s one guy the WWE can rely on to turn in a great performance on the big stage it’s HBK. Their loyalty to him continues with his big win over both Randy Orton and Edge on Raw. Elsewhere Cage retained on PPV and Ric Flair cut what was arguably the best promo of the year after losing to Jeff Hardy. Fantastic stuff.
2) Christian Cage
3) Ric Flair
Stuart Carapola
1) HBK
Despite coming up short at the Royal Rumble, Shawn Michaels is now locked in to become the challenger for the WWE Title at WrestleMania. Christian Cage and Sting both picked up big wins at Against All Odds.
2) Christian Cage
3) Sting
Larry Csonka
1) Christian Cage
First you all know I love Flair, but I also usually don’t give WOTW stuff just for promo work, no matter how awesome it was, especially since he buried Carlito. Cage, even though through a lot of shenanigans is establishing himself as the top dog in TNA, in the Flair like power seat and it is fun to watch. Abyss was a beast in the match with Sting so they get some love and HBK is still on a roll and I have to give him some love again this week. Tough week to pick in a lot of ways
2) Abyss/HBK
3) Sting
THE WINNERS!
The big man may have lost, but put on another good performance and that was enough for the spot this week.
Not only did Ric Flair have a pretty good match with Jeff Hardy, but he verbally raped Carlito on air this week on Raw. It was a glorious moment and enough to allow Flair to steal the 3rd place..
The resurrection of the SHOW STOPPA continues as he won a triple threat match to go to WrestleMania, where he will face John Cena for the WWE title. HBK has been on a roll, and has gone from half of the DX gig with almost no notice to into the top 15!
“The Instant Classic” Christian Cage retained the NWA Title this week at Against All Odds over Kurt Angle. He is quickly becoming the top dog since the heel turn, and with the help of his Coalition may be unstoppable.
Year-End Standings!
We had a lot of movement this week. Christian jumps up to 6th place with his win this week, while HBK cracks the top 15 for the first time with his 2nd place victory, putting him in 12th place overall. Abyss moves into a tie for 10th place with Lashley, and in 2007 who would have thought that Sting and Ric Flair would be getting such respect and love from the panel? SEVEN weeks left, THREE PPV’s to go before we can announce our winner for the year. Who knows what will happen?
1. Samoa Joe – 111 (TNA/ROH)
2. KING Booker – 90 (Smackdown)
3. Homicide – 81 (ROH/TNA)
4. RVD – 72 (ECW)
5. John Cena – 71 (Raw)
6. Christian Cage – 68 (TNA)
7. Kurt Angle – 64 (TNA)
8. Edge – 53 (Raw)
9. Jeff Hardy – 47 (Raw)
10. Lashley – 44 (ECW)
10. Abyss – 44 (TNA)
12. Shawn Michaels – 42 (Raw)
13. Hernandez – 41 (TNA)
13. Mr. Kennedy – 41 (Smackdown)
15. AJ Styles – 40 (TNA)
15. Konnan – 40 (TNA)
15. Christopher Daniels – 40 (TNA/ROH)
Chris Benoit – 37 (Smackdown)
Bryan Danielson – 36 (ROH)
Rey Mysterio – 30 (Smackdown)
Fit Finlay – 30 (Smackdown)
Sting – 29 (TNA)
Naomichi Marufuji – 25 (NOAH)
Mick Foley – 25 (Raw)
Ric Flair – 28 (Raw)
HHH – 23(Raw)
The Undertaker – 21 (Smackdown)
Matt Hardy – 21 (Smackdown)
Mistico – 20 (CMLL)
Delirious – 20 (ROH)
Eric Young – 20 (TNA)
Batista – 20 (Smackdown)
JBL – 20 (Smackdown)
Brian Kendrick – 18 (Smackdown)
Paul London – 18 (Smackdown)
CM Punk- 18 (ECW)
Chris Hero – 17 (US Independent)
Mark Briscoe – 15 (ROH/FIP)
Jay Briscoe – 15 (ROH/FIP)
Roderick Strong – 15 (ROH/FIP)
Alex Shelley – 15 (TNA/ROH)
Senshi – 15 (TNA)
Hardcore Holly – 15 (ECW)
Trish Stratus – 15 (US Independent)
Masato Tanaka – 15 (ZERO ONE MAX)
Claudio Castagnoli – 14 (US Independent)
Taiyo Kea – 13 (All Japan)
Kenny Dykstra – 13 (Raw)
The Great Khali – 13 (Raw)
Hiroyoshi Tenzan – 10 (New Japan)
Minoru Suzuki – 10 (All Japan)
Hiroshi Tanahashi – 10 (New Japan)
Umaga – 10 (Raw)
Johnny Nitro – 10 (Raw)
Johnny Jeter – 10 (Raw)
Mikey Mondo – 10 (WWE)
Nicky Nemeth – 10 (WWE)
Mitch – 10 (WWE)
Ron Killings – 10 (TNA)
Jeff Jarrett – 9 (TNA)
Marquis Cor Von – 9 (ECW)
William Regal – 8 (Smackdown)
The Big Show – 8 (US Independent)
Chris Sabin – 6 (TNA)
Rhino – 6 (TNA)
KENTA – 6 (NOAH)
Vampiro – 5 (WSX)
Satoshi Kojima – 5 (All Japan)
Minoru – 5 (New Japan)
BJ Whitmer – 5 (ROH)
Jay Lethal – 5 (TNA)
Mark Henry – 5 (Smackdown)
Joey Mercury – 5 (Smackdown)
Rey Bucanero – 3 (CMLL)
Dave Taylor – 3 (Smackdown)
Roddy Piper – 3 (Raw)
Shelton Benjamin – 3 (Raw)
Icarus – 2 (US Independent)
Kevin Nash – 2 (TNA)
Mitsuhara Misawa – 2 (NOAH)
Kotaro Suzuki – 1 (NOAH)
Ricky Marvin – 1 (NOAH)
Giant Bernard – 1 (New Japan)
Matt Sydal – 1 (WSX)
Johnny Devine – 1 (TNA)
Vince McMahon – 1 (WWE)
Chavo Guerrero – 1 (Smackdown)
Balls Mahoney – 1 (ECW)
Paul Heyman – 1 (ECW)
Davey Richards – 1 (US Independent)
Bobby Heenan – 1 (US Independent)
“Sweet and Sour” Larry Sweeney – 1 (US Independent)
Gran Akuma – 1 (US Independent)
Necro Butcher – 1 (US Independent)
Raw and Smackdown Wrestlers are represented in BLUE.
ECW Wrestlers are represented in GREEN.
TNA and ROH wrestlers are represented in RED.
WSX Wrestlers are represented in MAROON.
Japanese wrestlers are represented in BLACK.
Mexican Wrestlers are represented in MAGENTA.
CZW, FIP, PWG and other US Independent Wrestlers are represented in ORANGE
