411 Fact or Fiction 6.17.10: Daniel Bryan’s Release, Fatal Four-Way, Slammiversary, the Knockouts Division and more!

1. Whether it is a work or a legit firing, Bryan Danielson will be back in the WWE by Survivor Series.

Jeff Small: FACT. Well if it’s a work, then of course, he will be back by Survivor Series. If it’s indeed legit, I still believe that Bryan Danielson will be back in the WWE. Why? Because he knows he can make it in the WWE. He probably knew that his wrestling ability would get him a roster spot in the WWE, but after NXT, I think he, along with the rest of the world, realizes that he has the total package to make it. Even though Danielson did not win the competition, he was easily the breakout star of the show thanks to an early feud with the Miz and a later feud with Michael Cole. Sure a 90 day firing halts some of his momentum but if the NXT stable works, he has a readymade feud for his return.

Ronnie LaFianza: FACT. Hell, I think Danielson will be back before SummerSlam. And just for the record, this most definitely seems legit. Bryan’s currently the hottest free agent around, and when the 3 months have expired for Bryan, there’s a chance that he could sign with TNA. Whether the chances are good or bad, this is something the WWE probably doesn’t want. Plus, the sooner they get him back, the sooner they can have him involved in the NXT storyline, whether teaming with or against the rookies.

Score: 1 for 1

2. Slammiversary was TNA’s best Pay-Per-View of the year to date.

Jeff Small: FICTION. Right now, I still have Lockdown as TNA’s PPV of the year. Slammiversary was a solid show but was lacking that one match to put it over the top. In fact, Slammiversary peaked in its opening match as Angle vs. Kaz, while a great way to kick off the show, was better than anything after it. Plus, Sting vs. RVD was nothing I’d want to see again or would want to close a show on. On the other hand, Lockdown has the blow off between Angle and Ken Anderson which topped everything at Slammiversary along with a fun main event spectacle. Sure Slammiversary might have been the better wrestling show, but I enjoyed Lockdown more.

Ronnie LaFianza: FACT. Yeah, I guess. It wasn’t the greatest thing ever, but it was good. Plus, TNA has had a lot of shitty PPV’s already. Genesis and Destination X were nothing to brag about, while AAO, Lockdown and Sacrifice were all decent. Lethal going over Styles, Abyss going over Wolfe, and Beer Money losing are all questionable outcomes, you still can’t argue that a lot of the wrestling was good. So I guess it was their best. But they’re definitely capable of better.

Score: 1 for 2

3. Between Raw last week and this week, the NXT angle is the best-run wrestling angle on a nationwide level of the last few years.

Jeff Small: FICTION. Tough question as the NXT kickoff was one of the best angles I’ve seen on television in years. This past week’s Raw’s beatdown of Bret Hart wasn’t nearly as effective (especially since the limo driver will be fired on Friday). My favorite wrestling angle of the last few years was the Shawn Michaels saga from the early retirement of Flair to Batista’s involvement to Jericho and Michaels’ blood feud. Now if the NXT angle has similar legs than perhaps I will change my mind on this statement.

Ronnie LaFianza: FACT. Screw it, why not? The kickoff of the angle last week had the wrestling world talking more than any event in recent history. The follow up that happened this week wasn’t bad either. People are complaining that the follow up wasn’t great, but I’m going to disagree. How do you honestly follow up something as awesome as what we witnessed last week? As of now, all WWE is doing is just building the storyline, and I’m totally fine with that. There are still a lot of questions that need answering, and I’m very curious to see what those answers are. And keeping the interest of the fans is what counts.

Score: 1 for 3

4. With Roxxi and ODB’s departure, the TNA Knockouts Division has hit a new low from which it will be difficult to recover.

Jeff Small: FACT. The Knockouts Division used to be the best part of Impact during the days of Gail Kim, Awesome Kong, etc. Now it can still be entertaining (especially since I like the Beautiful People) but there are no faces left for me to pull for.

Ronnie LaFianza: FICTION. Look, I have varying opinions on this question. While I have varying opinions on both of these women, there’s no denying that they’re both good workers. The thing is though that Roxxi was never a main stay in the title picture while ODB hasn’t been involved in the title picture since she lost the belt in January. The Knockout’s Division hit a low when Kong left, and an even bigger low when Tara left. Even though both of these women are good, their departure isn’t going to impact the division by that much. Recovering from this really doesn’t seem that hard though. TNA just needs to start pushing the right Knockouts into the title picture, like Daffney, Hamada, Wilde and Sarita.

Score: 1 for 4

SWITCH!

5. Fatal Four-Way promises to be a good Pay-Per-View for the WWE.

Ronnie LaFianza: FICTION. Let’s get one thing straight, no PPV ever promises to be good. Ever. While PPV’s can have good cards, they can still fail miserably. And the fact that this only has 4 matches announced as of me writing this doesn’t help matters. I will say that I so far like this, but I’ll wait until the final card is announced till I think if it can be really good. Both Four Ways for the World Titles look promising, while Miz/Truth and Kingston/McIntyre definitely have the potential to be good. The Diva’s title match will be exactly what any fan will expect going into it. Overall, so far the card is solid, but this PPV still has the potential to fail.

Jeff Small: FICTION. Regardless of if Fatal Four Way had a good build (which it did not), the whole premise of the show is fucked to start as fatal four way matches are not normally great. Off the top of my head, I can remember two excellent fatal four way between Benoit/Jericho/X-Pac/Guerrero at No Way Out 2001 and Jericho/Douglas/2 Cold Scorpio/Pitbull #2 that I watched off of some ECW DVD. Outside of that, fatal four ways have been really hit or miss as unlike their superior triple threat cousins, fatal four way matches are really tough to book. Normally, it’s a lot of pin breakups and two and two fighting. That’s fine for one match but across a whole PPV? I’m not optimistic.

Score: 2 for 5

6. Hot-shotting the US Title onto the Miz less than a week before his match with R-Truth for the title at Fatal Four-Way was a mistake.

Ronnie LaFianza: FACT. While I like title changes on free TV, I don’t agree with having unnecessary title changes on free TV. With Miz’s win last week in the tag match, WWE easily could have set up a one on one match with him and R-Truth for the belt at the PPV and have Miz win it there. Hell, they could have just made it a Four Way match for the PPV and switched the title there. Seriously, when was the last time the U.S. Championship changed hands on PPV? Still, there could be an actual reason for switching the title on Raw, such as some storyline angle or something going down at the PPV (like Truth getting beat down and Morrison replacing him), but that seems like a stretch.

Jeff Small: FACT. Look I love the Miz and agree that he’s much better off with a title. However, the way the WWE went about it helped no one. R-Truth did not receive enough time with the belt, which is a shame considering that I think he was doing a good job with the title. Sadly, he did not even get a full feud with his title before dropping it back to Miz. The WWE would have been smarter doing a fatal four way #1 contender’s match to set up the Miz beating R-Truth at the PPV. This way, they could still promote the PPV concept on Raw while having people pay to see a title change. Why pay $40 for a PPV when all title changes happen on free TV?

Score: 3 for 6

7. TNA would be making a smart move by leaving off with Pay-Per-Views and going instead to live specials on Spike TV.

Ronnie LaFianza: FACT. I was actually just thinking the other day about how a company should just have a live special on free TV. I didn’t expect for a company to do it permanently though. As a fan, I’m totally behind this as it means we’re essentially getting free PPV’s. But if TNA is smart, they’ll keep a few of the events as PPV’s (BFG and Lockdown come to mind). No one really seems to be paying for TNA PPV’s. I don’t know the numbers for recent events, but I did see a few of them for last years, and they definitely didn’t look good. Live specials seems like a win for everyone, so why not?

Jeff Small: FACT. Let’s face facts – neither TNA nor the WWE is setting the world on fire with their PPV buyrates. And unlike the WWE, which has the resources to pull off a PPV while still being profitable, I am not sure if TNA has those resources. Plus their buyrates are nowhere near as good as the WWE so I doubt they are making any money from PPV. If that’s the case, then live specials would make a ton more sense. They would pull in more viewers (especially with a good card) and could charge more for ads during the show. Makes total sense to me.

Score: 4 for 7

8. Based on the way he’s being put over in the last few weeks, Evan Bourne has a legitimate shot at making it permanently into the upper midcard.

Ronnie LaFianza: FICTION. In this day in age, no midcarder has a legitimate shot at making it to the upper midcard. All these young guys are getting pushes every now and then, and sooner than later they get demoted back to the midcard. I’m under the assumption the same will happen to Bourne. The fact that he has Cena backing him up though probably increases his chances, but I’m under the assumption Bourne will at the most become a mainstay in the Intercontinental/United States Championship division (which isn‘t a bad thing). Whether I think Bourne deserves it or not (which I do), I just don’t see it happening. I hope I’m proved wrong though.

Jeff Small: FICTION. What are you smoking here? Let’s wait until Evan Bourne has and more importantly WINS a feud with someone other than Chavo Guerrero. We all thought Kofi Kingston would have a legitimate shot in the upper midcard but he couldn’t buy a singles win off of Randy Orton. I feel the same is in effect for Bourne.

Score: 5 for 8

After a contentious first half, Ronnie and Jeff go perfect on the back four to end up 5 for 8! I’d like to thank both of them for their answers and you the readers for checking out their thoughts. For Jeff Small and Ronnie LaFianza, this is Jeremy Thomas saying join us next week for more Wrestling Fact or Fiction!