411’s Wrestler of the Week 06.23.08: Week 12

Welcome to Week 12, Year-FOUR, of 411’s Wrestler of the Week. A quick overview to kick things off as we have some new rules for year four…

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

If you are wondering how some of the writers decide who to vote for, please check out our Wrestler of the Week Supplemental Column!

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 at WrestleMania. This will be posted every Monday. Let’s see who wins this week…

The Voting~!
Michael O
1) CM Punk
In case you missed it, (and judging from the ratings, you probably did) he beat John Morrison in the second best WWE match of the week on ECW.

2) Jeff Hardy: Why not? Nobody had a super week, and I still feel bad about his dog dying. Plus, there’s an outside chance he’ll find himself in the WWE title match.
3) Lance Cade: By virtue of coming out of nowhere and participating in a main event beat down. That’s a big step up from jobbing in dark matches.
4) John Cena
5) Umaga

Shawn S Lealos
1) AJ Styles
This is just spectacular. TNA has made A.J. Styles mean something again. They avoid the problems that came with a guy turning good due to a beat down by lighting a fire under his ass. He is delivering some great promos and has beaten Kurt Angle and Tomko in past weeks. He lost to Angle thanks to interference last week but recovered this week to take out Tomko in a backstage attack and then took out Frank Trigg by accident (how creepy is it that Trigg looks so much like Angle?). Then Christian chooses A.J. to team with him after Rhino gets taken out and A.J. ends up picking up the pinfall over a freakin’ Dudley Boy. A.J. is on fire. Sure, he lost that video game match to Samoa Joe, but his commentary with the Samoan cements his top spot in my picks for the week.

2) Lance Cade – Looks like they are actually serious about pushing Cade. Either that or he’s part of a new Spirit Squad, sent out to help the actual star (Jericho). I think since he is a former HBK student, he is a good addition to the feud (if they mention it). Maybe they can turn Londrick bad as well and all Shawn’s former students can join Y2J.
3) Motor City Machine Guns – It looks like their punishment is officially over with. They have been the shining stars of this lead in to the World X-Cup and, in a completely different style to last week’s amazingly fast match, took on a more grounded team, adapted their style, and still looked like a million bucks. I love LAX, but it is about time the MCMG got a title run.
4) Evan Bourne
5) John Cena

Michael Bauer
1) KENTA & Taiji Ishimori
For me, it is not always about who’s stock went up the most, especially when they didn’t wrestle. KENTA and Taiji successfully defended the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Titles against Bryan Danielson and Eddie Edwards in what is being considered a MOTY Candidate. In a week where NOTHING happened at all with the big two, I have to give the nod to Japan in their European tour.

2) Evan Bourne: His stock keeps rising, like his leaps. You see that Shooting Star?
3) CM Punk: Punk looks to maybe start a winning streak now?
4) John Cena
5) Lance Cade

Ryan Byers
1) Lance Cade
People were laughing at me when I voted for him a few weeks ago, but apparently I wasn’t the only person impressed by Lance Cade’s foray in to the world of singles wrestling, because he’s now found himself slotted in to the main event picture on Monday Night Raw. Whether he remains in that position or gets bumped back down to the midcard in a couple of weeks remains to be seen, but he’s got every attribute that WWE looks for in a top level talent and will have a hell of a mentor if he continues to be in cahoots with Chris Jericho, which seems to be the direction of the storyline based on the glances Y2J was shooting the HBK trainee during the final seconds of Raw.

2) John Cena – The build for Night of Champions hasn’t been doing a lot for me personally, but Cena’s promo on Monday night really whipped the Utah crowd in to a frenzy, probably doing the same to many others who were watching on television. Combine that with a one night only rekindling of his uber-fun rivalry with Umaga, and you’ve got a solid week for the former champion.
3) Wataru Inoue – I have to respectfully disagree with Mr. Bauer and state that if any Japanese wrestler’s stock went up this week, it was, for the second week in a row, Wataru Inoue. After winning the Best of the Super Juniors Tournament last week, Inoue vacated his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title and announced that he would officially begin competing in New Japan’s heavyweight division. This was the first step on a possible journey from midcarder to superstar for Inoue, and step number two took place on 6/22, when he won his first match as a heavyweight by making a very game Tomoaki Honman tap out.
4) Umaga
5) Doug Williams

Andy Clark
1) Lance Cade
While I don’t really think Cade is going to fit in well with the main eventers he was thrown in there with this week, the fact that WWE allowed Cade to help in a beat down of the two biggest stars in the wrestling industry is a good sign for Cade’s future.

2) Ric Flair- The Nature Boy surprised us all with his return and more importantly ended that awful Chris Jericho promo on Monday night.
3) John Cena & Triple H (tie)- Finally, after a week of seeing these two kiss each other’s ass and some lame stunts, we see these two tear into each other verbally and really put over their match the way it should have been all along. Cena’s match with Umaga was also pretty good and Triple H’s involvement in the Jericho-Flair altercation came off well.
4) KENTA & Taiji Ishimori
5) Wataru Inoue

ARI
1) Lance Cade & Chris Jericho
I don’t like Cade–he’s just one of the guys where when he is on the screen I feel the urgent need to change the channel. But maybe hanging out with Chris Jericho and taking on the main eventers can change all of that. Maybe. We’ll see, but for now these two laying out Cena and Triple H to end Raw is enough to win WotW in a very slow news week.

2) Doug Williams: Officially signs a contract with TNA and looks to become involved in upcoming rounds of the World X Cup. Also won a match along with Nigel McGuinness for NOAH’s show in Coventry, England. They defeated Suzuki & Suguiera.
3) Ric Flair: A surprise appearance on Raw and a fun one at that. Flair walking in the back and egging Jericho on was priceless entertainment.
4) Umaga & John Cena
5) Amazing Kong

Christi Csonka
1) The Motor City Machine Guns
I love little men doing flippidy’s in the ring, and in back to back weeks these guys have impressed me the most. Seriously, these guys are so great and are the reason I am watching the program these days.

2) Amazing Kong: This was SO awesome. It was Kong killing, but I actually thought the little chick had a chance. That was great TV.
3) Kaz: Kaz also had another great week, lord I hope that they do something with him soon.
4) John Cena
5) Lance Cade

Jarrod Westerfeld
1) KENTA & Taiji Ishimori (Tag Team)
Just for the record, I hate putting over title retentions as title victories mean so much more, but it’s one of those weeks where a title hasn’t changed any hands. Then you add into the fact that this was a huge show for NOAH as they were outside of Japan. Defending their GHC Junior Heavyweight Titles in what is being called a Match of the Year candidate match against the team of Bryan Danielson and Eddie Edwards, I think that’s a big enough accomplishment to note in the number one slot of a rather slow week in wrestling.

2) Evan Bourne: Call it “smark” love, but seriously, I wanted to vote for this guy about 2 weeks ago when his matches with Kofi Kingston against Shelton Benjamin and Mike Knox, and then his match with Matt Striker was originally filmed, as that meant two straight tapings within a week where he won matches. Can we safely give him credit now, loyal readers? The man still has yet to be pinned or submitted on WWE television, which should speak volumes of how the WWE looks at the talents that come out of ROH – for fuck’s sake, they put an unsigned Danielson over a guy that ran in on the main event of Raw last week; a guy who is signed and going to be pushed soon.
3) Ric Flair: Last chance to give Ric some votes, as I can’t see him or the WWE bringing him back on TV anytime soon, if not for the remainder of the year – but then again, they are starting to realize that giving away money has no affect on the ratings, so maybe they’ll have to after all, thus ruining his sign off. Though it was only a cameo, it was still a slow week so he gets extra kudos points from me: I’m a Flair mark, what can I say? Oh, and seriously, Lance Cade? Anyone else think that was just completely random?
4) John Cena
5) Watarou Inoue

Matt Short
1) Lance Cade
Elevation is the name of the game here people. The biggest gripe against the WWE these days is how they never try to push different people. But this Monday we got Lance Cade potentially getting that chance to step up as he helped Chris Jericho in laying out John Cena and Triple H at the end of Raw this week. It might end up being a red herring of course. He might just be getting thrown up into the main event picture for a brief period just to job, but right now he’s gotten people to notice him. If they follow up well in how they explain his actions it will go a long way in appearing much less random.

2) KENTA & Taiji Ishimori: Put on what is being called a hell of a match at the Coventry Skydome during Pro Wrestling NOAH’s first ever excursion to the United Kingdom. They defeated Bryan Danielson & Eddie Edwards to retain their GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles.
3) Katie Lea: Her mixed tag match with Paul Burchill against Mr. Kennedy and Mickie James was one of my favorite parts of Raw this week, due to the fact that they put on a fun little match at a part of the show that would normally be thought of as dead. She pinned the Women’s Champion to win that match and it’s enough for 3rd place for me.
4) Wataru Inoue
5) Doug Williams

JT
1) Lance Cade
Wow, the comments section will probably implode this week. That being said, I have to agree. The man made a statement this week on RAW and if nothing else, “attempted” to insert himself into/around the main event scene. Bottom line, people took notice. Lance Cade?

2) John Cena: Managed to even get the ever-conservative Utah crowd into it with his “5 year old” humor (…whatever that means) with a pretty great promo, and had a pretty good street fight with Umaga.
3) Ric Flair: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That is all.
4) KENTA & Taiji Ishimori
5) AJ Styles / Evan Bourne

Samuel Berman
1) KENTA & Taiji Ishimori and Bryan Danielson & Eddie Edwards (tie)
These four put on a reported Match of the Year Candidate on Pro Wrestling NOAH’s tour of Europe. KENTA & Ishimori have been on an absolute roll this year, including their GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title win in March against Shingo & BxB Hulk. If this match indeed lives up to its billing, it will be yet another notch in a year filled with fantastic tag team wrestling worldwide.

2) Yoshinobu Kanemaru: Retained his GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title with a win over Jay Briscoe.
3) Gamma: Continues his run as the Open the Gamma Gate Champion by dispatching with the only remaining member of the Muscle Outlaw’z, Dr. Muscle.
4) Doug Williams
5) Shingo Takagi

Bayani Domingo
1) Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley
Started the World X-Cup off with a win for Team TNA.

2) CM Punk: So his REAL push starts…tonight?
3) Lance Cade: The win vs. Trevor Murdoch wasn’t his career highlight? Who knew. Maybe this will lead to bigger and better things. Or at least…something.
4) KENTA & Taiji Ishimori
5) AJ Styles

Jeremy Thomas
1) Lance Cade
No question here. A couple weeks ago, I said in my guest spot for the R’s that Cade was probably going to follow up his feud with Murdoch by singles jobbing. Apparently, I was quite wrong. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t see him doing much more than becoming Jericho’s flunkie and a jobber to the stars now. But the fact remains that moving from glorified jobber to jobber to the stars is a huge career advancement, and hey, who knows? Maybe if Cade does really well, he’ll get more then that. Either way, it was definitely Cade’s best week ever.

2) AJ Styles: Styles got a big step toward futher face legitimacy on Impact, and for that, you’ve got to give it up for him. I’m excited as hell to watch the AJ of old back on TV.
3) Chris Jericho: No doubt, his promo work was weak. But he was made to look pretty good against Triple H, and it looks like they finally have a real direction for Y2J. I predict only good things coming out of this, and it’s about damn time.
4) Motor City Machine Guns
5) CM Punk

Daniel Wilcox
1) Triple H and John Cena
No doubt, it was a slow week for the WWE and TNA, and most foreign and indy promotions too, so we’ll go with the two men who finally kicked their program into gear with some good promo work at the start of Raw this week. Like Clark said, they finally stopped kissing each other’s asses and tore into each other on the mic before going at it in the ring at the end of the night. Good stuff from both men.

2) Chris Jericho: His promo wasn’t as bad as some are saying, but he gets the number two slot for having a new direction and becoming the number one heel on Raw.
3) AJ Styles: AJ continues to roll and got a big win in a tag team match to close out Impact.
4) Edge
5) CM Punk

Larry Csonka
1) Lance Cade
The booking could ruin it and the fans could completely shit on it, but I like it, I like it a lot.

2) Awesome Kong: Kong killed a bitch in the most entertaining Kong challenge segment yet.
3) The Motor City Machineguns: These guys continue to bust their ass, and are apparently off of punishment. This is a good thing as it will only make the X-Cup a better thing.
4) John Cena
5) AJ Styles

THE WINNERS~!

Year-End Rankings Key:

WWE, Raw, ECW and Smackdown 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.

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**PREVIOUS WINNERS** Year One Winner: Ric Flair Year Two Winner: Samoa Joe Year Three Winner: John Cena