411 Fact or Fiction 03.29.12: Build to WM, Punk & Bryan’s Chance to Retain, Hogan as Impact GM, More

1. Monday night’s Raw episode was an effective go-home show for WrestleMania XXVIII.

Ryan Byers: FACT. Don’t get me wrong, I think that, in the grand scheme of go-home shows, it could have been better. However, the fact that it could have been better does not mean that it wasn’t effective. I was a big fan of the use of video packages throughout the show in order to remind people of why they’re supposed to care about the top two matches on the show, i.e. Rock/Cena and Taker/HHH. Yes, nothing uber-exciting happened in either of those programs to put potential buyers over the top, but, in terms of Rock/Cena, I don’t think you needed anything else on top of the hour long Countdown-style special, and, in terms of HHH/Taker, I agree with the reported sentiment of Vince McMahon that the angle really peaked with last week’s interaction between the two men (and Shawn Michaels) and that you weren’t going to to be able to top it no matter how hard you tried this week. Top that off with another solid round of Punk/Jericho interaction, and you’ve got a show that sent me into the PPV happy. The only thing that I really didn’t like was the constant shuffling of the Teddy Long/Johnny Ace teams, because it felt like far too much time was wasted on midcarders who aren’t going to convince anybody to plunk down their hard-earned money on WM no matter what they do.

Tony Acero: FICTION. The show was extremely scattershot in my opinion. The first match really was a good start, even if it wasn’t anything new, as it placed two Mania matches into one, and made sense. After that, things got a little sketchy. With the rumor that Vince re-wrote the show numerous times, it only makes sense that RAW wasn’t everything it was supposed to be. While I’m not saying that RAW was crap, because it wasn’t, it damned sure wasn’t a pre-Mania RAW. The lack of actual matches didn’t surprise me, but at the same time, it made for a bad middle of the show. We had Santino vs. Otunga for the third week straight, yet another Brodus squash, a match between Christian and CM Punk that was anything but (although, this is somewhat excusable), a Big Show squash (against the Tag Team Champs, no less!), a Mark Henry squash, and an end segment that went far too long. To think that any of this would be acceptable on the RAW before Mania seems asinine to me. It felt rushed and thrown together, which apparently was not too far from the truth.

Score: 0 for 1

2. CM Punk will be overcome by Chris Jericho’s mind games and lose the WWE Championship at WrestleMania.

Ryan Byers: FACT. The report that came out this week which indicates that Jericho signed an extension to his original six month contract that will see him stay in the company through the summer leads me to believe that Y2J is going to walk out of Wrestlemania with the championship. He and CM Punk haven proven to have some good chemistry on the mic (and their matches from a few years ago show they can gel in the ring), and I think the company realizes that it would be a shame if their feud came to an end at Mania as opposed to getting more room to breathe and grow. The only sensible way to keep the rivalry alive is to have Jericho win the championship and have Punk chase, and, with the added time that our favorite Manitoban has in the company, there’s plenty of room to do it.

Tony Acero: FICTION. I’d like to think that CM Punk holding onto the title would make sense, although I wouldn’t be completely upset if Jericho won and continued the mind-fuckery he’s been committing. I’m not 100% sure why, but I don’t think that Punk is going to lose. For whatever reason, I see Punk beating the odds and going on as Champion well after Mania. If anything, the heel here is such a heel that for Jericho to win would mean anything but happiness for the fans that aren’t jaded. CM Punk losing means the possibility of leading Punk to drink, go crazy, or beat up Chris Brown and although there are a number of us that would enjoy either of those options, I don’t think the main audience would. Yeah, I don’t see Punk losing his belt. The interesting is that last night on The Greg DeMarco show, I believe I chose Jericho to win this match. I suppose my mind is as fucked here as Punk’s is by Jericho.

Score: 012 for 2

3. Daniel Bryan should retain his World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania.

Ryan Byers: FICTION. As the question above indicates, I strongly believe that Chris Jericho can and should win the WWE Championship from CM Punk at Wrestlemania. If that’s the case, in order to keep tradition alive, you’ve got to have the other major title switch hands to a babyface. On top of that, though they haven’t been over the top with pushing him hard, if you’ve tracked Sheamus over the course of the past year or so, the company has had him winning far more than he’s been losing, and the fans are realizing this and rallying behind him. Given the level of his push, he’s going to look like a real choke artist if he doesn’t bring home the gold. Plus, as much as I like Daniel Bryan, he’s had a run with the championship much longer than I ever expected him to, and he’s at a point where he’s developed an entertaining heel persona (YES! YES! YES!) that doesn’t need the belt in order to bring the awesome. So, with Sheamus needing the title and Bryan not really needing it, there’s no reason to keep the thing on the American Dragon.

Tony Acero: FACT. I’m a little bit conflicted with this one, because I could see the merit in giving the title to either Bryan or Sheamus. Bryan has deserved his reign, as he is becoming the perfect heel champion and still puts on some good matches. Sheamus has really made a name for himself in the tail end of 2011 up until now, as he keeps shit interesting in the ring and continues to add a few moves so as to not get stale. I go with Fact simply because this match is lacking the emotional draw that other matches on the card have. It is like the 4th spot Main Event, which is akin to saying it’s the uppermost mid-card match. Either way, it’s not that big of a deal, and it’d be a shame for Daniel to drop the belt and us lose that great YES YES YES chant!

Score: 0 for 3

4. Teddy Long will not be General Manager after WrestleMania.

Ryan Byers: FACT. WWE seems to be really high on the Johnny Ace character, so I’ve never seen this GM vs. GM match as anything other than an excuse to make him the top dog on both shows. However, even though this is what I expect to happen, it’s the exact opposite of what I want to have happen. I’m sick and tired of prominent authority figures on professional wrestling TV shows. It’s been done to death ever since the Mr. McMahon character first took off in the late 1990’s, and I’m ready for a format for these shows that doesn’t rely so heavily on them. I think that the perfect opportunity to do that would be to have Teddy Long – who is already the more understated of the two GMs – win control of both brands and then slowly fade into the background until he’s a Jack Tunney-esque character who only shows up every few months when something major is getting ready to go down. Unfortunately, the promotion seems happy in its authority figure rut, and I have a feeling that they’re not going to do anything the rock the boat.

Tony Acero: FACT. But I don’t have to like it. For the most part, I’ve enjoyed Teddy’s work. He’s the non-invasive boss that – more often than not – moves any story along rather than interjecting into it. Sure, there have been a few stories he’s been a part of, and they haven’t been all that great. But, the facts usually point to Teddy being more of a background figure, while the focus is on wrestling. For whatever reason, I think that the WWE sees Johnny Ace’s character as having plenty off legs left, and will do what they do best with oversaturated characters: shove them down our throats. I don’t see why they can’t rid themselves of an “evil authority figure” for some time and put the focus more on wrestling or new stories. What troubles me the most is that this is the most opportune moment to get rid of Ace, as it’s in the stipulation. I’d really like to see Long as the GM, but chances are I’ve seen my last HOLLA HOLLA HOLLA dance, and that makes me a sad man.

Score: 1 for 4

SWITCH!

5. Maria Menounos will not have the worst in-ring performance at WrestleMania.

Tony Acero: FACT. Lest we forget, David Otunga is on the card for Wrestlemania, and so is The Great Khali. From what we’ve seen in the past, Menounos is servicable enough in the ring to put something together, and considering that every Diva’s match for the past 3-5 years has been the most basic match strung together (and I recap NXT), I can see Maria catching on rather quickly. Taking all this into consideration, plus the fact that her ribs may very well be damaged, there is a high probability that she will hardly even be in the ring. It’s unfortunate, but I doubt that Ms. Menounos will be a detriment to Wrestlemania’s wrestling acumen.

Ryan Byers: FACT. Menounos will be in the ring for one or two spots maximum and, even if she screws up everything that she does in those one or two spots, I have a very hard time arguing that somebody has the worst in-ring performance on a show when she sees such limited action and isn’t a trained wrestler anyway. I consider it much more insulting and therefore “worse” when somebody who the company considers to be a full-time part of their roster can’t deliver the goods. To that end, I’ll put my “worst performance” money on the immobile Great Khali or the delveoping-as-a-personality-but-still-green-as-goose-shit-in-the-ring David Otunga.

Score: 2 for 5

6. Hulk Hogan as General Manager would get you more interested in Impact Wrestling.

Tony Acero: FICTION. If anything, this will turn me off, and considering my fandom at this particular moment, TNA is walking on thin ice. No, no, no I am not interested in this at all. Can’t Hogan just go away already? I swear, he’s anything but incoherent, and is a horrible person on the microphone. I strongly feel they’re stretching the orange skin of the man far too thin in terms of creativity and tv time. Alright, enough Hogan bashing. The question asks if I would be more interested, and the answer is no. I watch TNA now, and that’s due to the great showing they had overseas, but the moment it begins feeling like a chore is the moment that I’ll have to give them a two week notice, and hope for the best. This….this is a very close call.

Ryan Byers: FICTION. See what I said above about pro wrestling authority figures. I’m so sick of the authority figure character playing a pivotal role in storylines that nothing you can do with a general manager will make me more likely to watch any professional wrestling show. Plus, it’s TNA, and, though I have heard through the grapevine that the shows have gotten better as of late, I’m still going to want to hear consistent good reports for an extended period of time before I give them another shot.

Score: 3 for 6

7. The best match on WrestleMania Weekend will take place outside of WWE.

Tony Acero: FICTION. And really, if it does, I won’t know or care. It’s Wrestlemania, and even with the amount of wrestling found outside of the PPV, there’s a high probability that I won’t be seeing any of it. I’m sorry, but the spectacle of Wrestlemania, tied with the abilities that Jericho, Punk, Bryan and even Orton have, I expect Mania to be way more spectacular than anything else going on. I don’t see how any match outside of this card can be better than anything on the card, simply because a match is made not just by what’s in the ring, but by the athmosphere just as much. It’s Wrestlemania weekend, and that’s all that wrestling fans will be focusing on.

Ryan Byers: FICTION. Call me a WWE fan boy, but, as great as some of the Ring of Honor/Drgaon Gate USA stuff from Wrestlemania has been over the years, I’ve never walked away from a Mania weekend feeling that the independents upstaged the best match from the big leagues. Yes, if I was going to sit there and break it down as a workrate-heavy nerd like I would have fifteen years ago, I probably could get behind something involving Eddie Edwards or Shingo Takagi much more than I could HHH/Undertaker. However, I’ve matured as a wrestling fan a good deal since then and come to realize that the industry is more about the spectacle and the total package than it is about who can do the most nearfalls in five minutes or who can remember to sell a kick to the knee they took two minutes into the match some twenty minutes later. I fully anticipate that, because of the atmosphere, because of the history, and because of the spectacle, HHH vs. The Undertaker will be significantly better than anything any of the independents produces, and you might even be able to say the same about the Rock vs. John Cena depending on how well they click.

Score: 4 for 7

8. You have hope for the return of Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling.

Tony Acero: FICTION. I’d say Fact, but I have little care at this present time, since my vision of GLOW is limited. The limited scope that I see it through is not a pretty one, either. I’d say the only real positive is that some of them may be hot, but the chances of me actually catching an episode are highly unlikely, unless, of course, I’m asked to by the powers that be, or have a drunken night of curiosity.

Ryan Byers: FICTION. I hate to blow my gimmick as the guy who constantly watches crappy, low rent wrestling and loves every minute of it, but I honestly hadn’t even heard that somebody was trying to revive GLOW until I read this question. Here’s the thing . . . Wrestlicious was on the air roughly two years ago now, and it essentially stole the old GLOW format and ever-so-slightly updated it. I watched every episode that aired and recapped the majority of them for this very website. That sated my appetite for any sort of GLOW revival, as, after thirteen episodes, it got a little bit grating. I don’t see a new GLOW with that name doing anything that Wrestlicious didn’t already do, aside from giving us some of the original GLOW girls, now middle aged, running around the ring pretending to be jungle girls and farmers’ daughters a couple of decades past their prime. Hmmm . . . okay, scratch that. After writing that last sentence, I might be able to find some camp value in a new version of GLOW after all.

Final Score: 5 for 8

Man, I had my hopes up for a very contentious edition of this column when Ryan & Tony went different ways on the first three questions, but they got back in line real quick-like. Oh well, it was good times anyway and both men brought sound reasoning. Feel free to travel into the comment section and let us know your opinions on these questions & the answers provided by Ryan & Tony. Thanks to Mr. Byers & Mr. Acero for participating, and we’ll see you back here next week with more Fact or Fiction!