411 Fact or Fiction 12.15.11: Kane Returns, Slammy Awards, Roode vs. Styles, More

1. You are excited about the return of Kane to WWE television.

Trent Howell: FACT. I have no reason not to be. Kane exists in this weird place where when used even partially correctly he is always over and always considered a threat. His entrance is awesome and is always a way for a GM to get a heel (or face) to shake in their boots while he walks to the ring. Towards the end of his “unmasked” run we were starting to get into a bit more wrestlecrap with some of the stuff in the program with Edge. I think the time off should allow the character to come back fresh for another successful run (though probably not with a belt this time). If there’s one thing the Kane character has shown, it’s that it can be constantly tweaked and as an audience we’ll buy into it, because it’s a pretty cool character.

If you look at the Kane that returned, that’s also worth getting excited about. Having only seen him at the end of RAW, the information we have to go on is that: Kane is back. With a mask. With (fake) hair. And he’s willing to choke slam Super Cena right in the middle of the ring. Why? Kane’s motivations are his own, and the character works best when he doesn’t share them. It’s my hope that his is a return to “destroy everything in his path because he can” Kane, which I think still has a couple good years left in it as a gimmick.

Manu Bumb: FACTION. Excited might be a bit too strong of a word, but yes, I am glad to see Kane back. I’ve been a fan of his for a while, and thought his last title run was disappointing, but I don’t blame that on him. The mask was a little weird, and the wig cracks me up, but overall, I’m glad to see him back.

Score: 0 for 1

2. The Slammy Awards were an entertaining three hours.

Trent Howell: FICTION. There were some entertaining parts, yes. On the positives we had the four man match. Kind of expected from those four but they did not disappoint. Tony Atlas was awesome. Golddust was fun. I liked the Punk/Orton vs. Miz Del Rio match. I really liked the beat down after. Already said I’m an optimist about the Kane return, and I dug the insane welder’s mask. Vader-esqe stuff there and it’s good times. And who could forget the Johnny Ace video with a nice montage of pipe bomb of the year moments? Classic WWE style television, and I mean that in a good way.

However.

On the bad we had the other two hours. I don’t even want to talk about the beginning, but the first hour felt like an Impact. Then, most of the awards were bland and I actually felt they had too many awards this year. Cena even seemed off when he had his little acceptance. And WWE fans, I hope you noticed that Snooki sent in a video and the Rock didn’t. Just saying.

The WWE seems unsure of how to fill three hours of television. And end up cutting things out of two hours. If Steve Cook can figure out timing on a podcast, surely WWE can figure out timing on a show. Or you’d like to think.

Manu Bumb: FACT. I wanted to go with faction, but couldn’t do that twice in a row. One thing I like about the slammys is that it highlights the better parts of the past year, but isn’t strictly a recap show. One thing I don’t like is that they’re really stupid – this year, we had “Tell me I didn’t just see that”, “OMG!” and “Holy $h!+” – basically 3 exact same awards. In the end – “creative” tried to embarrass JR again, and like a champ, he owned it and entertained me, proving he’s more of a man than most of the people that run that company – any time JR gets to stick it to the man, I’m entertained.

Score: 0 for 2

3. CM Punk will retain the WWE title at TLC.

Trent Howell: FACT. Two options here: One, they put it on either Miz or Del Rio, who use the stipulation and the fact they are both evil to their advantage. One of them sneaks out a win over the other and then you either put Punk over at the Rumble to give him another tally mark in the world title column (along with the heel in question) or you have Punk win the Rumble (which as someone who has tickets, is something I would be in favor of). Two, and the one I think they go with: Due to some shenanigans where Miz and Del Rio cost each other the match Punk retains and goes on to a rematch with one of the two at the Rumble. I see Sheamus winning the Rumble, coming on the Smackdown side. That gives Punk the storyline of having to use Elimination Chamber to build a Wrelstmania match, which to me makes more sense given the glut at the top of the card, and possible rumored returns on January Second.

This is the type of situation where WWE likes to use a gimmick to hot shot a title for a month, but I think they are in long term Wrestelmania booking mode starting with this show. Since I see Punk going into Wrestlemania as the champ, I say he keeps the belt here. At some point they are going to have to stabilize the WWE championship, and this seems like an opportune place to start.

Manu Bumb: FACT. I dunno, why not? Jericho is rumored to be returning in a few weeks, might as well keep the title on Punk.

Score: 1 for 3

4. Kaitlyn will end up joining with Beth Phoenix & Natalya despite their segment being cut from SmackDown last week.

Trent Howell: FACT. I say fact because I think that’s where they’re going, not because that’s where I think they should go. They seem to be building that Kaitlyn and AJ are having problems and….

…you know what. I don’t care. And that’s why she shouldn’t be with Pinup Strong. As a fan I was never given a reason to care about either of these two They came from NXT or somewhere at a point when the WWE was using time to actively tell you why it was a horrible show you should feel bad for watching. Now suddenly I’m supposed to care they are breaking up?

Further, they have completely destroyed the booking of the women’s division to the point that it may be at its lowest in a while. And that’s sad, because anyone can tell that the Beth and Nattie story was decent if booked correctly. Instead the whole thing has been in reverse and it’s getting painful to watch.

So sure, she probably joins up. And wrestling fans everywhere will continue to be apathetic to the entire division. Which says nothing about female wrestling, because they have proven they can draw a crowd. It says it all about how WWE treats female wrestling.

Manu Bumb: FACT. Again – why not? Sure, they decided not to air it the first time it happened, but that shows that they were somewhat serious about turning her, so that gives Fact a slight edge over Fiction. Of course, their plans change on a whim, so who really knows? we could try to take all the evidence before us, and treat wrestling as a serious matter where things that happen one week aren’t forgotten about the next week, but WWE doesn’t even do that, so we’d just be wasting our time, and I’ve got deadlines to meet!

Score: 2 for 4

SWITCH!

5. Karen Jarrett is the Jarrett that should be fired on Impact this week.

Manu Bumb: FACT*1,000,000. Yes, firing JJ would probably have more potential storylines than firing a wrestler’s wife, but…..she’s a wrestler’s wife, not a talent. She’s no Vickie Guerrero. Or even Tiffany when she was ECW GM. Her biggest upside is…..what? This is a PG column? With Cook in charge? If you say so….In that case, I’ll just say she drags down any segment she’s in, whereas JJ entertains – in the long hall, JJ being on TV more than KJ would benefit the product, so Karen should be fired. If she’s really a life long fan, then she should realize the disservice she’s doing the business by remaining in front of the camera and take her talents elsewhere.

Trent Howell: FACT. What exactly is the point of having Karen Jarrett on television? Seriously. She’s not hot enough to be eye candy. She can’t talk well enough to actually help anyone get over. She can’t wrestle. She can’t paint. He pancakes are always over done on one side. There really doesn’t seem to be a point.

As it stands now she is the Vice President of the knockouts division (unless TNA has forgotten that storyline) and a hanger on to husband Jeff Jarrett. She serves absolutely no purpose on television programming, helps no one, and would her “firing” would probably serve as a benefit to the company.

So I’m willing to bet money that Jeff gets the can and not her. Luckily the question said “should” so I can talk about what I want to happen, and not what is going to happen.

Score: 3 for 5

6. Ending the 30-minute Iron Man Match between Bobby Roode & AJ Styles in a draw was the right move.

Manu Bumb: FICTION. With a slight caveat. I’m not gonna lie – I’m one of the few that ordered the show, and I was pissed at the ending. Not pissed in a money-making way. I wasn’t pissed at Roode for being a smart chicken**** heel and going with the tie, making me want to order the next show to see him get his comeuppance. I was pissed at TNA for ending the final PPV of the year like this. This is the company that somehow made Sting vs. Abyss in a floating casket match (I forget the name they used) into a really good match. The Impact Zone went from chanting “fire Russo!” to chanting “TNA! TNA! TNA!” I’ve been mostly happy with their main event direction in recent months, with no Immortal screwing things up since Storm won the title, and guys like AJ and Roode and Storm being given more prominent roles. I wasn’t necessarily a fan of them using AJ to give Roode some credibility, because I think AJ truly is f’n phenomenal and deserves to be more than a stepping stone, but I can live with it. But to end the PPV with 8-9 mins left (according to my dvr), on a tie??? Do they have something planned that would make this ending meaningful? Possibly. But as of right now, we don’t have access to that plan (I don’t read spoilers, so my apologies if something at the taping makes the ending meaningful), so I need to give my answer based on what I do know, which is AJ came in injured, and Roode, who needs some wins to establish himself as a heel champ, didn’t win. As much as I dislike faces who turn heel and can only win via cheap means, I would’ve preferred another 5 minutes, building fans’ hopes up that AJ would win it, only to have Roode cheat to win once again. And what do we have next month? Roode vs. Hardy – no offense to either man, but I don’t see how you go from an Iron Man tie to a new challenger, and tossing AJ into that match would just be a repeat of an Impact main event we saw a couple weeks ago where Roode won. So to me, this is a fiction, with the caveat that it might become the right move, depending on what they do next.

Trent Howell: FICTION. TNA cannot use a stipulation to save their life. This is fine if during introductions they say a 30 min time limit and the two go to the limit. Whatever. But when you put the iron man on there, and have them trading falls, the fans want a conclusive winner. The 43 or so people who paid money for a ppv got a commercial to find out what happens next on Impact, and that’s the heart of what is wrong with that company.

Furthermore, Bobby Roode should have won the match. AJ Styles was in my top five just a couple years ago, but now he’s nothing more than a joke. If you are going to be serious about Bobby Roode being your top heel, he needs to get some wins. Without an extended break from television, the AJ Styles character is good for nothing more than helping get other guys over. He’s been treated like a joke, yet Bobby Roode actually getting the win would have helped Roode because fans are conditioned to forget 5 years of AJ Styles booking when a title is involved. Instead Roode is even with a joke, and this experiment of Bobby Roode: TNA Champion goes further down the toilet.

Score: 4 for 6

7. Giving Jeff Hardy a title shot at Genesis is not a good idea.

Manu Bumb: FICTION. I’m torn – on one hand, I ordered Victory Road (I’ve ordered every TNA PPV since….sometime in 2005) and still remember that mess (yes, wrestling fans have memories that last more than a few weeks). On the other, I haven’t heard anything bad about Jeff Hardy since he returned, and if he really is doing well, why not let him move back to the main event? Too often, people are forgiven without earning it, and just as often, people are punished long after earning forgiveness – neither situation is good, so if Jeff is behaving, might as well use him. When Jeff’s on, he’s ON. And as I mentioned above, Roode needs to be fed babyface challengers to establish himself as a heel champ, and who is arguably the top face in TNA? Jeff Hardy. If Roode can retain against him, he’ll have a decent title run under his belt (no pun intended).

Trent Howell: FICTION. Who else are you going to give it to? I mean alright, last time he got a world title shot on pay per view things didn’t work out so well, but we have to assume that things have gotten better since then. Hardy is a legit draw still and some people seem to actually care about who he is. I don’t know why they care, but they do.

With that said, if you’re going to attempt to build Bobby Roode into a legitimate heel champion, he’s going to have to overcome some challengers. In Jeff Hardy you have someone who is still a legit name in the wrestling world that you can use to put over Roode. I mean, no company in 2011 would be stupid enough to actually put a belt on Hardy. Not even TNA. So this match is more Jeff’s chance to prove he’s still somewhat of a draw and allow Roode to get a win over a face. Hardy is a face at this point isn’t he?

Oh who cares. They’ll probably mess this up too.

Score: 5 for 7

8. You will be sad if the ECW Arena closes its doors to pro wrestling.

Manu Bumb: FICTION. I love the old ECW, and the ECW Arena has a ton of history, but ECW is gone. If it’s time for the ECW arena to move on, we should celebrate it, not mourn it. It’s been home to events that wrestling fans hold dear, whether they witnessed it live, on dvd, via youtube, or WWE Classics OnDemand – it’s probably the most famous arena for American wrestling fans outside of MSG. Much like ECW, it wasn’t mainstream, and things that aren’t mainstream don’t live forever, except in the hearts of those that loved it.

Trent Howell: FICTION. Let’s be honest here. The ECW arena was a dump back in the 1990’s, and anyone who has written or spoke honestly about their experience there (Tommy Dreamer and Mick Foley spring to mind as obvious examples) will say the same. In spite of the multiple ownership changes and supposed “restorations” the place is a dump pure and simple. It’s not a good place for the fans or the performers. Further, as someone who actually watched the original ECW when it was happening, the building was not what made it awesome. It was a perfect storm of dedicated workers, dedicated fans, and a booker who knew how to hide the weaknesses and accentuate the strengths. No matter how many independents run the arena, that magic isn’t coming back. It’s time to let this connection to ECW die as well. WWE Network showing ECW from the nineties? Good thing. A North East Indy running the “arena” because of what was going on there in the nineties? Bad thing.

I’d be sad if any of my local arenas quit running wrestling, because it decreases my ability to watch wrestling. I’m not going to be sad about an arena half way across the country.

Final Score: 6 for 8

Our friends got off to a bit of a rocky start, but ended up on the same page in the end. Heh, sounds like my fantasy football season. Thanks to Trent & Manu for participating, and let us know what you think about their opinions in the comment section while giving your own take on these pertinent topics! Join us next week for more Fact or Fiction…I have a feeling it’ll be a good week to bring in some fresh blood!