411’s Wrestler of the Week 3.05.07: Week 48

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!

JT
1) Lashley
First he shows up on RAW as part of one of the four major matches for WrestleMania 23. THEN, he shows up and defends his title on Tuesday while DESTROYING not only Hardcore Holly but the STEEL CAGE they were wrestling in. THEN he shows up on SmackDown and defeats Kennedy, despite the complete “Hardcore Rules” disadvantage that he was working against. Can’t do much more than that when dealing with the biggest wrestling promotion in the world.

2) Naruki Doi & Shingo
3) Tomko

Brad Borchardt
1) Lashley
It is pretty hard not to pick Bobby Lashley this week as he defended his ECW Championship twice, once against Hardcore Holly in a Steel Cage Match and then again against Mr. Kennedy in a match where it was No Holds Barred for Kennedy and Lashley had to follow the rules. Mix that in with Trump picking him as his representative and his wild brawls with Umaga on RAW and ECW and you got yourself an undisputed #1. My #2 pick goes to both Matt Hardy and Finlay. Matt Hardy won the best Money In The Bank Qualifying Match this week and Finlay defeated both Chris Benoit and MVP to win his Money In The Bank Qualifying Match. My #3 goes to…TYSON TOMKO! Any other week he would have been #2 with an outside chance at #1. To my knowledge, he is only the second man to defeat the #1 Contender for the NWA Championship Samoa Joe in a TNA ring. If I’m wrong, somebody e-mail me as I do not follow TNA as I do the WWE.

2) Matt Hardy/Finlay
3) Tomko

Andy Clark
1) Lashley
Hmmm, what did he do this week? Just merely get named to the most heavily promoted match in recent WrestleMania history, successfully defend his ECW World Title twice in one week in matches that stacked the deck against him, appear on three shows, almost make Vince McMahon piss himself, and perform one of the most entertaining spots in recent memory. Pretty good week, huh?

2) Tomko
3) Naruki Doi & Shingo

Sean Garmer
1) Lashley
What is there left to say, this WrestleMania feud is already doing wonders from the silent man from Colorado Springs. He gets his biggest pop ever on RAW when he confronts Umaga and then proceeds to have entertaining brawl. He defended his title against Hardcore Holly on ECW and on SmackDown against Kennedy. He’s the one man wrecking crew in WWE right now.

2) Jeff Hardy/Finlay
3) Shawn Michaels

Mathew Sforcina
1) Naruki Doi & Shingo
And the Puro Invasion continues. While I am slightly concerned about how much Sake the ROH front office is apparently drinking, I will tend to put ROH title wins above mere steller weeks and/or pinning Samoa Joe in TNA.

2) Lashley
3) Tomko

Mike Bauer
1) Lashley
Title wins are starting to become all too common in the Ring of Honor lately, especially with the tag titles changing hands twice in as many weeks. But Lashley has dominated every challenge thrown in his way and made Umaga look like a little bitch n ECW. That is more than enough to be the #1 man this week. I’ll give #s 2 and 3 to the four people who qualified for the Money in the Bank match, based on how much they impressed me this week.

2) Finlay/Mr. Kennedy
3) Matt and Jeff Hardy

MEEHAN
1) Lashley
Without question, this week’s ECW on SciFi was the absolute BEST episode I’ve seen of the show in the past six months. The under card was solid and well paced, but the Lashley/Holly main event with the wildcard stipulation really helped inject the show with a much-lacking aura of “anything can happen” excitement. Though I was confused why Lashley beat Holly with upwards of 40 seconds left before time expired, it most definitely helped solidify the Champ as a certifiable ass-kicker. And with the vault through the cage wall? Just like that, I’m actually looking forward to seeing Bobby Lashley vs. Umaga at WrestleMania… whoda thunk it?

2) Shingo & Naruki Doi
3) Finlay

Furious
1) Lashley
For all the same reasons everyone else listed. He’s finally hitting the kind of facial expressions and in ring presence they’ve wanted from him since he debuted. He’s really had a big week in terms of getting closer to the finished article. He still can’t talk but that’s besides the point.

2) Shawn Michaels/John Cena
3) Shingo & Naruki Doi

Ryan Mancuso
1) Lashley
Had a great week with being Trump’s choice for WrestleMania on Monday with a crazy brawl, amazing jumping cage dive onto Umaga, successful title defenses against Holly in a cage and Kennedy where the rules were restricted for him.

2) Naruki Doi & SHINGO
3) Batista

Daniel Wilcox
1) Lashley
As much as I dislike the guy as a wrestler, and even though I’m still not completely sold on the Umaga/Lashley match, there’s no denying Lashley the top spot this week as he defended the ECW gold twice this week and defied the odds in doing so, plus he got the better of Umaga twice, and made Vinny Mac nearly piss himself.

2) Matt Hardy
3) Kennedy/Finlay/Jeff Hardy

SAT
1) Lashey
The guy has an amazing week. First, he gets named as Trump’s Representative. Then, he main events ECW and SmackDown and in both matches the deck was stacked against him. He definitely deserves the top spot. Shingo & Naruki Doi get the second spot for winning the ROH tag team titles. Tomko gets the third slot for his win against Samoa Joe.

2) Shingo & Naruki Doi
3) Tomko

Zac Calhoun
1) Lashley
If this guy becomes the mega huge superstar they’re training him to be someday, this high-profile WM feud can be pointed to as the first big step in the right direction. The cage spot Tuesday was fantastic, and the bookers are finally having him do something interesting, rather than just beat people every week. No one cares about that stuff, but they do care about Lashley getting one over on Vince. He had a tremendous week to be certain.

2) Abyss
3) Johnny Nitro

JD Dunn
1) Lashley
Finally starting to live up too much of the potential. I still think they put the cart before the horse by giving him the title and then hoping he’d live up to the hype, but this week has been a good one for him.

2) Shingo & Naruki Doi
3) Morshima

Jeff Small
1) Lashley
Hey, the Academy unanimously voted Lashley as this week’s #1 in their Power 25. The Academy can’t be wrong can they? It’s not like any other wrestler appeared on every WWE show and darted himself into a Steel Cage in an awesome moment!

2) Tomko
3) Shingo & Naruki Doi

Samuel Berman
1) Shingo & Naruki Doi
I won’t lie that this weekend’s results make me feel kind of cheated after sitting ringside in Chicago. Jay & Mark Briscoe, champions for a week. Awesome. Regardless, Team Dragon Gate deserves the top spot because (the last three weeks aside) ROH Title changes are a rarity. Spot two is going to Samoa Joe, who ended his full-time ROH tenure with back-to-back wins over Nigel McGuinness & Homicide. And yes, I am ignoring the Russo-pidity from Thursday night. Third place goes to Jay & Mark Briscoe, for reportedly stealing the show in their double count out draw on Sunday. In another world, I’d think about Cena or Michaels for the third spot, but for some reason RAW feels like eons ago for me this week. Lack of impact even just a week later speaks volumes to me.

2) Samoa Joe
3) Mark and Jay Briscoe

ARI
1) SHINGO & Naruki Doi
Remember, you HAVE TO capitalize that name. I guess this is what The Briscoe brothers get for making fun of SHINGO’s name (“SHANGO”!). The Dragon Gate wrestlers was a shocking turn of events in terms of booking but even better Doi and SHINGO delivered in the ring in back to back performances. Their efforts were celebrated in reports from the ROH Liverpool shows. Joe won out in his final two appearances for ROH and delivered spectacular outings, meanwhile PAC, Jay and Mark Briscoe could all be argued as far as who stole the show.

2) Samoa Joe
3) PAC, Jay and Mark Briscoe

Ryan Byers
1) Lashley
Though it sounds like this weekend’s ROH shows produced some great matches, there weren’t a lot of wrestlers with huge accomplishments, so Lashley bucks my normal trend of WWE cynicism and takes my WOTW vote. I’ve always thought that Lashley had just about everything that he needed to succeed except for the fact that he didn’t show enough fire and was too hesitant with his moves. However, when he gets in there against the right guy, he unleashes and comes off like the badass we all know he should. Such has been the case in his interaction with Umaga. The brawl on Monday was wild and made the former serviceman in to twenty times the star that he was before it took place. Cap that off with one of the most memorable original visuals in WWE history and a victory against Ken Kennedy on Friday, and we’ve got an easy winner.

2) SHINGO & Naruki Doi
3) Morshima

Larry Csonka
1) Shawn Michaels
No disrespect to Lashley’s week, which was great but to me HBK is the reason to watch Raw and has me excited about WrestleMania. The teases with Cena and the whole angle is so great and I am looking forward to the match and where it will go. Lashley had the big week and snags an easy second place and the MITB guys will take third.

2) Lashley
3) The Hardy’s/Kennedy/Nitro

THE WINNERS!