411 Fact or Fiction 02.16.12: Cena Hate, HBK Return, Dangerous Dives, More

1. John Cena will have even more detractors after stealing Zack Ryder’s girlfriend and causing him to be destroyed by Kane.

Nick Marsico: FICTION. None of Cena’s current supporters are going to turn on him due to his actions on Monday. The people that already boo him heavily may pick it up a bit and be even more vocal, but his core fanbase will continue to support him because they trust his claims of integrity. Cena will try to apologize and further explain himself (and will be booed out of the building) but nothing will change unless he starts acting maliciously toward Ryder, which will not happen.

Greg DeMarco: FACT. Despite how he’s been booked, people love Zack Ryder. Damn near universal love. Might as well rename him Pope Ryder he’s so beloved. On top of that, he was in a wheel chair, and he was getting tons of sympathy from the always beautiful Eve Torres. Enter John Cena: Girlfriend Stealer! Sure, Eve kissed him, but men never see it that way. In the eyes of the WWE’s target fans, Ryder was screwed by Cena & Eve. And if you need any indication, look at the reaction to both John Cena and Eve Torres after it happened. If there was ever a chance to turn Cena heel, it was Monday.

Score: 0 for 1

2. You want to see Shawn Michaels have one more match.

Nick Marsico: FICTION. I had to put a little extra thought into this one, but I’ve decided that I’m happy with how he ended his career and I truly believe that he is as well. I would have loved to see him mix it up with CM Punk and Daniel Bryan and it would be great to see another match against Randy Orton with 7 more years of experience under Randy’s belt, but some matches are just not destined to occur. Let’s just be glad that we got to witness all of the great matches he had and pop in one of the many DVDs he’s featured on if we get nostalgic for him.

Greg DeMarco: FICTION. I sat in the US Airways Center and watched Shawn Michaels while sitting next to Greg DeMarco Show co-host Patrick O’Dowd, and we both felt like Shawn really was done. One of the greatest in-ring performers of all time was done in the world of in-ring competition for good. We still get the random Superkick here and there to keep us happy—and that’s all I need. But when a legend to the level of HBK retires, I want it to stick.

Score: 1 for 2

3. The Elimination Chamber debate made you want to see the Raw Chamber match more than you already did.

Nick Marsico: FACT. I may be in the minority as it pertains to this matter, but I enjoyed the segment. As I pointed out in the WedWi, the most interesting part of the debate was how Kofi Kingston responded to being called an afterthought. I believe that it may lead to him finally getting a renewed push higher on the card. I originally just expected him to be in the chamber match so he could do some cool flippies (which he will indeed do), but I’m interested to see how far he gets and who he ends up eliminating. I was already looking forward to the match to see the interactions between Punk and Jericho, plus all 13 (wow) EC matches have been good fun. Now I have one more reason to pay attention.

Greg DeMarco: FICTION. The debate was a great go home sell for the PPV. It was unique, funny, and inspired. In fact, it was way better than it deserved to be! But my interest level didn’t go up. However, it didn’t go down either. My interest level remains the same as it did before the segment. As for the segment itself, the one thing it did best was gave us a reason to care about all six guys, and made all six look like threats to win it. Even Kofi!

Score: 1 for 3

4. After what happened with Miz & R-Truth on the 2/6/12 Raw and with Jesse Sorensen at Against All Odds, wrestlers should do less dives to the outside.

Nick Marsico: FICTION. Absolutely not. I’ll spare everybody my defense of Miz, but what happened with him and Truth is the exception to the rule. Unlike chair shots, which have been proven to cause a lasting effect, wrestlers have been doing dives for 20+ years and have been just fine. Sorensen is inexperienced and seemed to have possibly been a bit unprepared for Ion’s moonsault and instead of taking a step back and catching him with his chest and hands he ducked his head down and took Ion’s knees to the back of his neck. It was a bit of a freak accident where the difference between normal spot and bad injury was measured in centimeters. These guys put their bodies on the line for a living and most of them are well-trained enough to know what they can and cannot do (not a dig at Sorensen). And some of them are dumb but lucky.

Greg DeMarco: FACT. “Bodies have been bruised…” the opening line of the most famous of the WWE’s “don’t try this at home” videos is so easy to remember because we saw it so much in the “Ruthless Aggression” era. But that wasn’t in 2012—and we are. Wrestling is a fake sport—usually choreographed to some degree. Wrestling has the opportunity to ensure the safety of its performers to the highest degree. Failure to do so is simply that…failure. Had R-Truth not completed his dive onto The Miz, and had Jesse Sorenson & Zema Ion not worked in those spots on the PPV opener, the matches would have been fine. So with match quality out the window, it’s obvious those were unnecessary risks. But what do I know…I’m 100% behind having no blood in wrestling.

Score: 1 for 4

SWITCH!

5. Impact Wrestling will be better off without Vince Russo as part of creative.

Greg DeMarco: PUSH. I know, I cheated. But this is a legitimate Push. We’re about to run a present day test on how Impact Wrestling would do without Vince Russo at the helm. How do we do that? We fired Vince Russo! We have a point of reference—Russo’s work in TNA, especially with the current roster—for comparison.

The current state of TNA doesn’t rest squarely on the shoulders of Russo. Based on several reports, the structure with Russo in place was to have the creative team (Russo & two other guys) write the script, and to present it to Bruce Prichard & Eric Bischoff for approval. This is on the day of the show!

What we need now is time. Time to build a comparison for Dave Lagana opposing Vince Russo. We need reports on the backstage hierarchy, changes & all. Because if we are still getting last minute approvals and changes, I don’t see a big shift happening. It’s all in the handling and the comparison.

Nick Marsico: FACT. Anything is better without Vince Russo, with the exception (probably) of RAW in 1998. Although I did like how he pushed to have guys like Jeff Jarrett and Booker T, who never got main event chances in the WWF and WCW respectively, into the spotlight. As far as TNA is concerned, I don’t know how much his role has diminished over the past 2+ months, but Impact Wrestling has been a strong show with a minimal amount of idiocy, so maybe he has been steadily losing power. No matter what the circumstance, Russo is not a guy I would want working for any wrestling promotion that I hope will succeed, so good riddance to bad rubbish, I say. Or however that saying goes.

Score: 1 for 5

6. New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs being on Impact will bring in new viewers.

Greg DeMarco: FICTION.Some of it is the fact that it is TNA. Actually, all of it is that it’s TNA. I’ve already heard a national sports outlet refer to is Brandon Jacobs’ appearance as with “TNA Wrestling, which is apparently sort of like the WWE.” And I’d be shocked if some local outlets weren’t reporting on the Super Bowl champion appearing for the WWE. That’s just TNA’s luck.

Plus, TNA has shown in the past that they lose viewers just as fast as they gain viewers. Their demographics change from time to time, but they consistently pull in the same mildly mediocre rating. So if the plan is to bring in new viewers, then they just need to focus on the things that will really make an impact (pun intended). Things like good long-term booking (which they are doing), creating new stars (which they are doing), and getting the hell out of the Impact Zone (which they’re…yeah.)

Nick Marsico: FICTION. I have actually heard his appearance promoted a number of times on FM radio here in the NYC area, but I doubt it’s being reported on elsewhere in the country. A few more people may check out the show this Thursday (and maybe even next week if the appearance ends as a cliffhanger) but I don’t expect anybody to become a new weekly viewer thanks to Jacobs’ involvement. The idea is mostly for some extra publicity, and once the shows air places like E! and ESPN and the like will pick up the story and show a couple clips, but it won’t have a short term effect. To be clear, I don’t think bringing in a star player (especially a pretty high profile member of the SuperBowl Champions) is a bad move in even the slightest way. People will talk and it will get the TNA/Impact Wrestling name out there, but it’s a process.

Score: 2 for 6

7. Samoa Joe & Brutus Magnus will be good TNA Tag Team Champions.

Greg DeMarco: FICTION. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Samoa Joe & Magnus pairing. I’ve argued that the Wildcard Tag Team Tournament is worth it if the winning team goes on to be a great team. Samoa Joe and Magnus have all of the tools to be a great team. They have natural chemistry, they’re over, and they are both naturally gifted wrestlers.

But there’s one thing that all great teams of the past had in common—great opposition. And that is my biggest concern. Who in the hell can TNA put in front of Samoa Joe & Magnus? Right now the top two contenders are Eric Young & ODB, Devon’s Kids and Gail Kim & Madison Rayne. Followed by Tara & Brooke Tessmacher and maybe The Rob-N-Rob Connection. We don’t really know when Chris Sabin is going to return, thus making the Motor City Machine Guns available. TNA really needed to build some teams in this process, not just build one team. Otherwise that one team will just disappear from television until the week before the upcoming PPV.

Nick Marsico: FACT. Joe and Magnus have looked very strong as a team and they’re fresh. I liked Morgan and Crimson as a tag team (especially because Morgan is below average in the ring as a single) and they could probably have spent even longer dominating the division — they didn’t really face any small guys — but I like Joe and Magnus together and separately more than I like Morgan and Crimson the same. I hope they get some more tag teams developed and going, as Joe and Magnus could lead a new tag division very well.

Score: 2 for 7

8. Davey Richards & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Eddie Edwards & Adam Cole is an acceptable main event for ROH’s 10th Anniversary Show.

Greg DeMarco: FICTION. No. ROH World Champion Davey Richards teaming with mid-carder Kyle O’Reilly to fave main eventer Eddie Edwards and mid-carder Adam Cole is not an acceptable main event for the 10th Anniversary of the third largest promotion in the United States. ROH is slowly morphing into the love child of SMW and New Japan. So while regularly featuring your world champion in a tag team match in the main event of one if your biggest shows of the year sounds strange to us, it’s not strange to those who closely follow Japanese wrestling. Plus, they’re guarding their title shots as if they had a limit of five for all of 2012. Roderick Strong and Jay Lethal have had their shots. Eddie Edwards getting another shot is too soon. El Generico isn’t back yet. Kevin Steen isn’t ready, storyline wise, to make the challenge. Michael Elgin is due a shot, but at the 10th Anniversary? This is where you needed to import a Japanese challenger, someone like KENTA. ROH World Champion Davey Richards vs. KENTA? That’s a suitable main event for the company’s 10th Anniversary.

Nick Marsico: FACT. This is the direction ROH is going right now. Davey is the golden boy and Kyle is his top student/training partner. Edwards is being portrayed as Davey’s equal and Cole is almost the odd man out. He’s mostly being used by Edwards, who is leaning heel, but time will tell what they’ll do with the former other half of FutureShock. I am one of the people who has no problem with the current top guys in ROH and the direction that they’ve been going, so if this is going to be the main event it works well enough for me. It promises to be a damn good wrestling match, and that’s what ROH has always been about, so that makes it fitting to be the main event of the show that marks the end of their 10th full year as a promotion. A one-on-one or even a triple threat might be more fitting, but there’s no fresh one-on-one World Title match right now outside of Steen v. Richards and that one isn’t going to happen for a while. If they don’t have plans to give Cole a featured role in the uppercard from here going forward it would probably better serve them to do a triple threat with Davey, O’Reilly and Edwards, but there’s no telling where they’re headed.

Final Score: 2 for 8

Wow, it’s been awhile since we’ve had this much disagreement among our contestants. I have to say that both men made compelling arguments, and I’m not sure which way to go. Nick didn’t answer “Push” on any of them, so that’s a point in his favor. Let us know in the comment section how you feel on these topics, and who makes the better arguments! Thanks to Greg & Nick for their time and their insight, and I’ll see you again next week for more Wrestling Fact or Fiction!