The Chairshot’s Weekly Brainbuster: Matt’s Power Rankings 11/22/19

Welcome to the seventh edition of The Chairshot’s Brainbuster Power Rankings!

This week, I bring to you a Special Edition Tag Team version as we are headed for WarGames and Survivor Series, as well as the NJPW World Tag League! We are discussing the week of 11/15-11/21! We will be comparing WWE (RAW and SDL), NXT (NXTUS, 205 Live, and NXT UK), AEW (Dynamite and DARK), and NJPW! Who had the biggest week?

These rankings are very much based on momentum as well as strength of opponent, weighing out “power rankings” based on head to head results. Each week, I will discuss five difference makers in wrestling and, using science, prove why they had the best week in wrestling! Greg DeMarco and I will compare our lists, giving you all two different types of power rankings!

1) Colt Cabana & Toru Yano +43 [74 Overall Tag Score]
Jeff Cobb & Mikey Nicholls d. Cabana & Yano, World Tag League 11/16
Cabana & Yano d. IWGP Tag Team Champions Guerillas of Destiny, World Tag League 11/17
Cabana & Yano d. IWGP US Champion Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki, World Tag League 11/18
Cabana & Yano d. Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI, World Tag League 11/19

These two screw ball partners end up as the first New Japan entry to win the top spot, but that’s for several reasons. They aren’t even an actual “tag team”, but two comedy relief characters who work extremely well together and have found a groove. They only started teaming in the west coast New Japan Showdown Tour earlier this month, but they find themselves 5-1 overall. So on top of the fact they had a 43 point week, which should always catapult anyone to the top spot, they also beat the IWGP Tag Team Champions and earned 27 points in one match, which is tied for the largest amount of points won in New Japan since 2012 (tied with about eight other matches), because the G.O.D. did have a +301 Tag Score, where are prior to the win this team only had a +14 Tag Score, giving them only a 16% chance to win. Not only did they win, they parleyed that momentum into a match against the undefeated in block match team of Ishii and Yoshi-Hashi, and beat them too. No doubt they were the number one entry in our power rankings!

2) Juice Robinson & David Finlay +30 [132 Tag Score]
Juice Robinson & David Finlay d. Hirooki Goto & Karl Fredericks, World Tag League 11/16
Juice Robinson & David Finlay d. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima, World Tag League 11/17
Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr d. Juice Robinson & David Finlay, World Tag League 11/18
Juice Robinson & David Finlay d. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma, World Tag League 11/19
Juice Robinson & David Finlay d. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toa Henare, World Tag League 11/21

The Lifeblood partners are one of the best tag teams in all of New Japan. That’s pretty good considering they were both Young Lions just a few years ago. What’s even more impressive here is that David Finlay has a -198 Overall Score as a singles competitor! They find themselves leading the entire Tag League with 8 points after this mornings show just finished. Can they win the whole thing? We will find out next month!

3) Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI +27 [71 Overall Tag Score]
Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi d. Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr, World Tag League 11/16
Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi d. Jeff Cobb & Mikey Nicholls, World Tag League 11/17
Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi d. Shingo Takagi & Terrible, World Tag League 11/18
Cabana & Yano d. Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI, World Tag League 11/19

These two go way back, having teamed up several times a dozen times prior to this Tag League, and they showed their familiarity here, decimating the first three teams they came across in brutal fashion. The Stone Pitbull would not be denied, putting away Taichi, Nicholls, and Terrible all with the Brainbuster! Tomohiro Ishii is a former IWGP Tag Team Champion and he wants to be again. If they can win this tournament, they get an opportunity to do so at WrestleKingdom!

4) Asuka +10 [140 Overall Score]
Asuka d. Natalya, WWE RAW

Asuka has not wrestled a singles match since losing the Smackdown Women’s Champioship in March, for that reason, her 140 Overall Score was not listed on any of the leaderboards prior to this article, but, from 2017-2019, she compiled a 130 Overall Score, and led the women’s division most of the time she was a singles star. Also to note, she has the highest Overall Score in NXT history (272 Overall Score). I need to see some more singles competition before she appears on the leaderboard again, but keep this in mind for future articles! The reason she made my top 5 this week was a lack of competition overall, and the fact that the Empress of Tomorrow was such a dominant singles star before moving to the tag division and reinventing herself.

5) NXT UK Champion Kay Lee Ray +22 [124 Overall Score]
Kay Lee Ray d. Xia Brookside, NXT UK
Kay Lee Ray d. Dakota Kai, NXT

The reigning NXT UK Women’s Champion had herself quite a week! After appearing on NXT last week becoming the fourth member of Team Baszler for WarGames, she defeated Xia Brookside and then Dakota Kai, cementing herself as the undisputed top female star in NXT UK! Hopefully we will begin to see more of Kay Lee Ray, as she is a world traveled star! The reason I felt she belonged in the list this week is because of her dominating wins and her position on Team Baszler as we head into WarGames! Watch for Kay Lee Ray to have some dominating moments inside the double cage this Sunday!

Runners Up:

6) Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish +14 [69 Overall Tag Score]
7) The Revival -14 [2 Overall Tag Score]

WWE Men:

• Seth Rollins 200 (+4)
• Roman Reigns 156 (-)
• Buddy Murphy 142 (+8)
• WWE Champion Brock Lesnar 139 (-)
• Braun Strowman 129 (-)
• Aleister Black 110 (-)
• Baron Corbin 85 (-)
• Ricochet 78 (-16)
• IC Champion Shinsuke Nakamura 53 (-)
• +US Champion AJ Styles 49 (-)

WWE Women:

• RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch 189 (-)
• Smackdown Women’s Champion Bayley 170 (-)
• Charlotte 77 (-)
• Natalya 9 (-10)
• Sasha Banks -1 (-)
• Nikki Cross -14 (-)
• Lacey Evans -18 (-)
• Mandy Rose -36 (-)
• Sonya Deville -72 (-)
• Carmella -85 (-)

WWE Tag Team:

• RAW Tag Team Champions The Viking Raiders 151 (+0)
• Smackdown Tag Team Champions The New Day (Big E & Kofi Kingston) 38 (-)
• Heavy Machinery 34 (+11)
• Ziggler & Roode 23 (-18)
• Cesaro & Nakamura 16 (-)
• The Revival 2 (-14)
• The Street Profits 10 (-)
• Ryder & Hawkins -56 (-)
• The O.C. -93 (-)

NXT Men:

• NXT UK Champion WALTER 165 (-)
• Tommaso Ciampa 149 (-)
• Pete Dunne 143 (-)
• Velveteen Dream 122 (-)
• Matt Riddle 118 (+16)
• NXT Champion Adam Cole 116 (+12)
• +Travis Banks 96 (+14)
• Joe Coffey 94 (-)
• Jordan Devlin 90 (-)
• Damian Priest 85 (-)

NXT Women:

• NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler 268 (-)
• Toni Storm 129 (-)
• NXT UK Women’s Champion Kay Lee Ray 124 (+22)
• Rhea Ripley 105 (-)
• Io Shirai 83 (-)
• Jinny 70 (-)
• Piper Niven 64 (-)
• Mia Yim 53 (-)
• Bianca BelAir 23 (-)
• Tegan Nox 12 (-)

NXT Tag Team

• NXT Tag Team Champions The Undisputed Era 69 (+14)
• Imperium 47 (-)
• NXT UK Tag Team Champions Gallus 37 (-)
• Young Grizzled Veterans 28 (-)
• The Forgotten Sons 21 (-11)
• Lorcan & Burch 0 (-)

AEW Men:

• Jon Moxley 77 (+15)
• AEW Champion Chris Jericho 67 (-)
• PAC 47 (-)
• Adam Page 30 (-)
• Cody 29 (-)
• Darby Allin 16 (-15)
• MJF 16 (-)
• +Luchasaurus 15 (+15)
• Shawn Spears 4 (-)
• Kenny Omega -1 (-)
• OUT: Joey Janela

AEW Women:

• AEW Women’s Champion Riho 77 (-)
• +Hikaru Shida 35 (+17)
• Britt Baker 15 (-17)
• +Emi Sakura 2 (-)
• Nyla Rose -1 (-)
• Jamie Hayter -16 (-)
• Leva Bates -33 (-)

AEW Tag Team:

• AEW Tag Team Champions SCU (Kazarian/Sky) 86 (-)
• Private Party 15 (+0)
• The Lucha Bros 15 (-)
• Ortiz & Santana 17 (-15)
• The Young Bucks 14 (+16)
• The Dark Order 14 (-)
• Best Friends 0 (+18)

NJPW Men:

• IWGP Champion Kazuchika Okada 314 (-)
• Kota Ibushi 207 (-)
• IWGP Champion Jay White 198 (-)
• Tetsuya Naito 153 (-)
• IWGP Jr Champion Will Ospreay 149 (-)
• Hiroshi Tanahashi 141 (-)
• British Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr 116 (-)
• IWGP Jr Tag Champion El Phantasmo 105 (-)
• Hirooki Goto 70 (-)
• IWGP Jr Tag Team Champion Taiji Ishimori 64 (-)

NJPW Tag Team:

• IWGP Tag Team Champions Guerrillas of Destiny 289 (-12)
• EVIL & SANADA 264 (+18)
• El Desperado & Yoshinabu Desperado 193 (-)
• Juice Robinson & David Finlay 132 (+30)
• IWGP Jr Tag Team Champions ELP/Ishimori 116 (-)
• Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii 93 (-)
• Roppongi 3K 89 (+41)
• Colt Cabana & Toru Yano 74 (+43)
• Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI 71 (+27)
• Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma 47 (+31)