411 Fact or Fiction 02.10.11: Vince’s Return, Punk vs. Orton, Fourtune, TNA Films, More

1. Putting Booker T at the commentary booth with occasional wrestling is a good choice for him.

Leonard Hayhurst: FACT. I don’t know if Booker T becoming the black Jerry Lawler is going to work in the long run. However, taking the color position on Smackdown with occasional matches is probably the best move for him. At 45, Booker only has so many years left in him where he can compete in the ring with the athletic brawling style that has been his signature. Sadly, I don’t think we’ll probably see the Harlem Hangover again. Booker proved in his Royal Rumble appearance that he can still go in short bursts and is still well liked by fans. I do think it will take time for Booker to adjust to the broadcast table. He has to be able to take his years of wrestling knowledge and relate that to fans while being entertaining and developing chemistry with his broadcast partners. Just from lack of experience that might take time to come, but I hope it will for him.

Jeffrey Harris: FACT. I’ve always enjoyed Booker T on commentary and one of my favorite Booker T moments ever was when he was doing commentary for a match: “Batista is down! Batista is down! BATISTA IS DOWN!” I do think he should be more of a face or neutral announcer instead of a face one though. It just sounds too forced and not at all as funny as King Booker was. Plus he doesn’t have all the great natural catchphrases as a face like Stevie Ray, “Suckas gots to know!” and “Fruit booty!”

Score: 1 for 1

2. TNA would be jumping the gun by a pretty significant amount in starting their own film company.

Leonard Hayhurst: FACT. Considering Kurt Angle’s award winning acting career, like End Game, he’s probably the guy you want fronting a fledgling movie production company. I know, sarcasm doesn’t come out well in writing. Unless TNA can broker a deal with SPIKE TV where they have an outlet for churned out low-budget B action fare, I don’t see this being successful for them in getting their name out or making money. It’s not like WWE Films is setting the world on fire. WWE also has more disposable income and more outlets for promotion, I would think. TNA needs to channel all their money and energy on beefing up the wrestling side of the company before trying to branch out.

Jeffrey Harris: FACT. TNA can barely even run a wrestling company, not sure what they are thinking investing in some cheap Wal-Mart bin movies no one is ever going to see or watch. TNA should be investing in paying their Knockouts better or giving their veteran talent raises so they don’t go running back to WWE. But TNA has always foolishly booked their company around guys who are not working for TNA under contract.

Score: 2 for 2

3. CM Punk’s explanation for why he cost Randy Orton the WWE Title was a weak and lazy justification for the feud.

Leonard Hayhurst: FACT. I appreciate the attempt at maintaining continuity and CM Punk doing his best to get the feud concept over. Yet, even the biggest mark could probably tell WWE was reaching to build an instant feud between the two. I think originally they were building to Punk vs. John Cena at Wrestlemania. Then when it was decided to keep the WWE title on The Miz they realized they couldn’t put Randy Orton against him for the 100th time and they had no other main event faces. Cena will win the Elimination Chamber and face Miz. This leaves the biggest high profile match left for RAW being Orton vs. Punk. Hard to say right now where Triple H will fall into things. There’s a difference between building a storyline over three years and just pulling something out of your rear from three years ago to justify what’s going on now.

Jeffrey Harris: FACT. It made sense when Nexus first started because Nexus was staging a type of hostile takeover of WWE. That has basically fizzled and Nexus have all but forgotten about John Cena which is foolish and ridiculous. Orton/Punk would’ve been a big feud after Orton screwed Punk out of the title in 2008. They didn’t go in that direction. This feud just lacks the fire and sizzle that Cena/Punk did and that would’ve been a much more compelling Wrestlemania feud and blowoff match. Instead we are treated to a boring and predictable Cena/Miz feud and Alberto del Rio/Edge for the title bouts at Wrestlemania. This will be one of the weakest and most dull Wrestlemanias ever. It’s no wonder WWE PPV business are in severe decline and getting their butts handed to them by UFC.

Score: 3 for 3

4. Fourtune was the best possible realistic choice to emerge as the group that is going after Immortal.

Leonard Hayhurst: FACT. It doesn’t mean I like it, but the question was if Fortune makes the best realistic choice to battle Immortal and they do. In the best case scenario we get some great matches and the TNA main event scene will be shored up for several months. However, it smacks of the old WCW feud between the New Blood and the Millionaire’s Club or the Main Event Mafia vs. the TNA Frontline, which both ultimately went nowhere. Stable vs. stable feuds can just be a bit unwieldy to maintain. Additionally, watching the beginning of Impact I thought ‘They’ would be some group of Scott Steiner, Kurt Angle, Crimson and a few other to be announced guys. It’s one beef I have with Impact. They don’t come out and promise matches and angles in the opening segment, but they do stuff to get you leaning one way before going in a totally different direction later on. It’s not a swerve, maybe more of a slurve.

Jeffrey Harris: FACT. I say fact in the sense that TNA stupidly once again hedged their bets on the WCW/WWE country club in the Main Event Mafia which was a tremendously screwed angle when they first went through with that stable. And once again it fell through here because Booker T and Kevin Nash signed with WWE. Fortune joining Immortal in the first place didn’t really make any sense. But once again TNA will book the “homegrowns” to be inferior and lacking against the “established” stars that used to work for WCW and WWE and no one will be elevated as a result.

Score: 3 for 3

SWITCH!

5. Bringing Vince McMahon back from his coma to announce that the guest host for WrestleMania would be revealed next week was a waste of a good potential storyline hook.

Jeffrey Harris: FICTION. I really don’t care about Vince McMahon or McMahon being in storylines anymore. I was sick of McMahon being booked constantly for years so it’s nice to see less of the McMahon family on TV these days. Also, wasn’t McMahon already out of his coma before election day last year? I think the boat has already sailed on this storyline and no one really cares anymore.

Leonard Hayhurst: FACT. Last fans knew storyline wise, Vince McMahon was in a coma. He then shows up on RAW Monday just fine with no mention of the supposed coma or any other explanation as to where he’s been or what he’s been doing. His big announcement is that next week there will be a big announcement. Couldn’t Jerry Lawler have done that? Lawler makes the announcement about the Wrestlemania host coming next week and this allows Miz to come out and confront Lawler. You kill two birds with one stone. Miz asking Lawler to meet him in the ring to congratulate Lawler on facing him at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view just felt a bit contrived. McMahon strolling out on RAW and saying nothing of real note wastes his return for a time where it might have been really shocking or significant storyline wise.

Score: 4 for 5

6. Inserting Divas into the World Heavyweight Title match on SmackDown hurt the show’s finish.

Jeffrey Harris: FICTION. It was a TV main event and it served its purpose in getting Kelly Kelly over. Kelly Kelly looked good and took a couple good bumps and did well in being put over LayCool. I think “firing” Kelly Kelly was a mistake instead of capitalizing on the heat and having her go against LayCool more. I think its fine to do variations and lesser matches like this on TV as long as the PPV ones deliver a lot better. Far too often WWE would book weak matches on PPV and then do rematches that were much better and longer on their free TV shows. That’s idiotic.

Leonard Hayhurst: FICTION. As a match that was mostly focused on the divas it wasn’t great. However, the match did help to advance storylines and character development. It prolongs the Edge vs. Dolph Ziggler feud. It advances the heat between Kelly Kelly and Vickie Guerrero. It reinforces Guerrero’s ties to LayCool. Kelly’s win did get a nice pop and she sold her firing well to make the fans care about it. On paper it looks bad, but in execution it did everything it needed to do to move things forward.

Score: 5 for 6

7. Bringing Kurt Angle and Karen Jarrett’s kids into the Angle/Jarrett feud via the Jarrett Home Tour was a tasteless and poor decision.

Jeffrey Harris: FACT. Unfortunately it was not the first time and it won’t be the last. Jeff Jarrett has never been above tastelessly bringing his family into wrestling angles. He made his wife’s death into a wrestling angle. Kurt Angle airing his dirty laundry with this angle is hilarious claiming he was a “GOOD HUSBAND,” when there’s plenty of evidence to the contrary. Kurt Angle even admitted on a reality show video that he cheated on his wife with a woman that started stalking Karen. It’s disgusting, but pro-wrestling has never been above things like this.

Leonard Hayhurst: FACT. I think even TNA defenders would have a hard time justifying this one. Can Kurt Angle and Jeff Jarrett put on a good match? Yes. Can they cut good promos against each other leading up to a match? Yes. Is having Jarrett schtupping Kurt’s ex-wife Karen a good basis for a feud between them? Yes. Is bringing the kids into it a good idea? No. It’s just exploitative. The vignettes on Impact would have been funny if they weren’t so creepy. Jeff Jarrett basically brainwashing the Angle children takes the angle to a silly level that undercuts the potential of a good feud and series of matches. In watching the vignettes you can see the kids are trying hard not to crack up. They even know how stupid it is. Sure, Sylvester Stallone had to arm wrestle for the custody of his son in Over the Top, but it doesn’t mean Kurt Angle has to grapple for his kids. The match stipulations sound like someone trying to spoof ‘Russo-booking.’ I’m surprised the kids aren’t on a fork lift or Jarrett has to beat a blood sample out of Kurt to prove he’s their real father.

Score: 6 for 7

8. Abdullah the Butcher is a great choice for a WWE Hall of Fame inductee.

Jeffrey Harris: FACT. Abdullah was a longtime veteran and was a mainstay in the early days of WCW. I remember his pairing up with Cactus Jack was classic including when the two waged war on the company’s #1 face in Sting. Not to mention when Abdullah was eating a birthday cake. Abdullah the Butcher belongs in the WWE Hall of Fame in a WCW themed year.

Leonard Hayhurst: FACT. Abdullah the Butcher never wrestled for WWE, but that’s never stopped them in the past. Abdullah lives in the Atlanta area, so it makes a good local tie in for the Hall of Fame ceremonies. He even owns a restaurant in the area called Abdullah’s House of Ribs and Chinese Food. I would like to be buried there when I die. Abdullah, real name Larry Shreve, is 70 and has been wrestling since he was 17 in 1958. He’s worked all over the world for a variety of different promotions and has been in the ring with numerous legends. He’s also inspired a few himself. His violent, brawling style which often saw him using foreign objects and spending plenty of time fighting outside the ring, makes him the original hardcore wrestler. The popularity of ECW and the Attitude Era boom period can be traced back to Abdullah. I think he’s given a lot to the sport over the years and as someone who committed his life to professional wrestling and entertaining fans I think he deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame.

Final Score: 7 for 8

So close, but not quite…Leonard and Jeffrey are nearly perfect but Vince McMahon trips them up and they go 7 for 8! I’d like to thank both for their answers, and you the readers for seeing what they had to say! For Leonard Hayhurst and Jeffrey Harris, this is Jeremy Thomas saying join us next week for more Wrestling Fact or Fiction!

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