411 Fact or Fiction 8.24.07: Brock to TNA, WWE Title Changes at Summerslam, Angle Controlling TNA and More!

1. TNA should do everything in their power to sign Brock Lesnar.

Ryan Mancuso: FICTION. This is a bad situation for TNA because Brock has all of the leverage in this deal. Brock Lesnar does not come cheap. He was making a reported $30,000 per match during his New Japan stint. He made $500,000 just to show up to fight for the K-1 Dynamite!! USA show this past June. If they are going to have Brock under a one-year deal, then they will have to fork over at least $500K to him. If a deal is made, then TNA will allow Brock to take time off to pursue his MMA career. Anyone who is serious about MMA will take two or three months to train themselves for a big fight. Brock does take MMA seriously. One scenario would be if Brock agreed to fight for K-1 on their December 31 show, then he would not be at TV tapings for TNA from October to January. Brock would collect checks from both TNA and K-1. There is no way that Brock would agree to a deal where TNA does not pay him while he is in training.

Also, what does Brock Lesnar bring to TNA that will improve their business? They brought in Sting, who was one of WCW’s biggest stars in the 90’s, and he did not improve PPV buyrates or TV ratings. They brought in Kurt Angle, who was a top star for the WWE for over half a decade, and his first match with Joe did improve the PPV buyrates. Now that it has almost been a year later with Angle, TV ratings have remained the same and the June PPV had buyrates that matched the days of the weekly $10 PPV’s for TNA. Brock Lesnar has been off TV longer than his 2 year run as a top star in the WWE. I don’t recall him being a huge draw for WWE during his short stint. If he was this huge draw and the story about him willing to do a high profile job for WWE at WM 23 was true, then all the legal battles would have been forgotten temporarily and the two sides would have done business. Brock isn’t as big of a draw than what he, TNA or others have been lead to believe. The only appeal that Brock would have for me in TNA is if he feuded with Scott Steiner over who has the dumber chest tattoo. A deal between Brock Lesnar and TNA would benefit Lesnar’s bank account much more than it would for TNA.

Ryan Byers : FICTION. I can guarantee you that, if I didn’t have the opportunity to view my esteemed colleague’s answer before drafting this, my answer would match the second paragraph virtually word-for-word. Sting has done nothing for TNA’s business, Christian has done nothing for TNA’s business, and Kurt Angle, despite being the biggest star of the three, has done NOTHING for TNA’s business. Signing names is a strategy that has gotten this company nowhere fast, and it’s one that they need to abandon, as it’s hurting their bottom line.

Aside from the business reasons for not bringing in Brock, I also have to ask myself what he would be able to do in TNA that we haven’t already seen him do in WWE. He’s already feuded extensively with Kurt Angle to the point that the match would no longer be fresh or exciting to fans. He could feud with Christian, but what exactly would that prove? It would be a WWE main eventer versus a WWE midcarder, and I can’t imagine that fans would be any more interested in seeing the match in TNA than they would have been in WWE. TNA has damaged Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, and Christopher Daniels to the point that they’re not credible main eventers who could go up against a guy like Brock. Scott Steiner? I already saw Goldberg versus Lesnar, and I imagine that Brock and Scotty would have largely the same match. The only opponents for the former Golden Gopher who might be capable of producing vaguely interesting feuds are Sting and Abyss, and, if I’m looking to bring in a high priced wrestler like Brock, I’m also looking to get many more than two programs out of him.

Score: 1 for 1

2. Kurt Angle is gaining too much power within TNA.

Ryan Mancuso : FACT. I went to the TNA homepage and clicked for the roster page. I scrolled down a little bit and saw Kurt Angle listed as every champion in the company. His picture was across that championship-listing area that you thought someone in TNA was playing tic-tac-toe with Kurt Angle’s picture and won. It’s ridiculous. It feels like Jarrett’s run as top heel with a lot of the limited TV time TNA has to be focused solely him, but it is even worse now that Angle holds all the titles. Angle isn’t helping TNA in trying to shed the image of it being the place of ex-WWE stars with his suggestions of Brock Lesnar and Vito. While this makes him a good husband for getting his wife a contract and extra cash in the family, but there is no need for Karen Angle to be on TV anymore. She and Kurt pulled the swerve that everyone, except for Samoa Joe, saw coming at the last PPV. That should be it for her in the TNA world. Instead, she has a deal and will be a regular on TV. I wonder if Kurt Angle has any stock in Panda Energy.

Ryan Byers : FACT. First of all, the trio of Angle pictures on TNA’s roster page does not look like a tic-tac-toe game. It looks like somebody hit the jackpot on the world’s lamest slot machine. Let’s get our similes straight. As far as the man’s backstage power is concerned, it needs to be checked. Immediately. I have no problem with Kurt Angle being one of the focuses of TNA television. After all, he’s the biggest star in the promotion, so it probably should be built at least in part around him. However, the manner in which he insists on being booked is what I find ridiculous. The man is no longer in his prime, be it in the ring, on the microphone, or in terms of star power. As his steady decline continues, what he needs to be concerned with is helping to establish new stars within this fledgling company, not with making sure that the 20,000 people who regularly buy TNA’s pay per views think that he’s the greatest thing since Sliced Bread #2. Furthermore, it’s as though Angle has no clue what actually managed to make him in to a star in WWE and what actually made the company money when they were using him as a top guy. Angle’s focus in TNA recently has been on comedy. Yes, he did certainly do some funny skits way back when with Edge, Christian, Mick Foley, and many more. However, Kurt Angle was not WWE’s top heel when those skits took place. He was an underneath guy who, though he kept fans entertained when they tuned in, certainly wasn’t meant to be the sole reason that they either watched TV or bought pay per views. When WWE DID need him to generate money for the promotion, the character became much more serious. (See, for example, his run leading in to Wrestlemania XIX.) Why was this the case? Because, believe it or not, comedy in wrestling DOES NOT DRAW. Comedy has its place in the sport, don’t get me wrong. However, there has never been one comedic angle or primarily comedic wrestler that has ever made one red cent for a promotion, and there probably never will be. Until Kurt Angle realizes this, he immediately needs to have his creative input in to TNA curtailed.

Score: 2 for 2

3. TNA focuses way too much time “shooting on” and mentioning WWE on their TV and through special videos, when they should be concerned with their own product.

Ryan Mancuso : FACT. With every mention of WWE on their programming, it shows to me that WWE is the big time and TNA is the minor leagues who think they are cool by attacking the WWE. The VKM skits in their “war” against Vince McMahon, DX and WWE came off like they had sour grapes because they were no longer in the WWE. They talked about how lame those DX skits were and felt the only way to beat them was to have even lamer skits. At least, they beat WWE in that department. Outside of the milk reference, I didn’t care too much about the recent Kurt Angle video of him in Connecticut beating people that are assumed to be from the WWE. Vince McMahon is the biggest heel in the history of TNA and not Jeff Jarrett. The only time WWE should be mentioned on TV is if they brought someone in and talk about all of the titles won in his career as a way putting over that this is newcomer is a big deal. That’s it.

TNA should definitely be more concerned in making themselves better because Impact has become unwatchable for me in the last few months. There have been times when I actually do watch Impact that I am ask myself “How much longer until Ultimate Fighter or UFC Unleashed comes on?” TNA should be focusing themselves as a true alternative for wrestling fans and not as the WWE #4 brand. Ever since I got Galavision over a year ago, AAA is a much better WWE alternative than TNA for my weekly TV wrestling fix.

Ryan Byers : FICTION. …for now. I agree that there was a period during which TNA was focusing way too much on mentioning WWE, namely the period during which the Voodoo Kin Mafia was at “war” with DX. (Of course, the war wound up resembling an ant flicking an elephant on the ankle and expecting the big mammal to care, but that’s another story for another time.) In recent months, though, the mentions of WWE have decreased drastically. Granted, TNA and SpikeTV recently did produce their short film in which Kurt Angle was taking some jabs at “Connecticut” and got in to a fight with a group of heavies who were taking orders from a guy doing the world’s worst Vince McMahon impression. However, I have a hard time getting upset about that video because I’m guessing it was watched by roughly ten people, most of whom are already laboring under the false impression that TNA will be bringing WWE to its knees within a matter of months. A few people got up in arms about a recent interview involving the Dudleys, the Steiners, and the New Age Outlaws in which the teams talked a lot about their respective histories in ECW, WCW, and the WWF, but that didn’t bother me either. Granted, I’d rather that those mentions were left out, but that particular promo did so many things right that the aforementioned flaw was relatively minor in comparison.

So, at this very moment in time, I do not think that TNA mentions WWE too frequently. Of course, that opinion will most likely change the second that the next former WWE star shows up on Impact and does an interview in which, according to Mike Tenay, “You won’t believe what he says about his former employer!” Based on recent patterns, that should be happening at the next set of tapings.

Score: 2 for 3

4. In an effort to shake things up WWE have title changes in the WWE Championship, World Championship and ECW Championship matches at Summerslam.

Ryan Byers : FICTION. I’m not a big fan of doing things just for the sake of a “shake up.” Instead, what companies should focus on doing is making the right decision at the right time for the particular title program in question. WWE has been very good about doing exactly that over the course of the last several years as opposed to hotshotting belts just to create the sort of “excitement” that supposedly existed during the Crash TV era. I would guess that only two of the three titles are changing hands, with Orton triumphing over Cena (to set up the much-rumored feud with HHH) and Punk finally beating Morrison for the strap (because the program has gone on long enough without the face succeeding). I can’t imagine Batista going over Khali simply because the sort of unstoppable monster gimmick that Khali is doing needs to go on longer than a couple of months in order to reach its maximum level of effectiveness. Besides, the Undertaker is a far better choice to end that particular title reign.

Ryan Mancuso: FICTION. The last few years has shown that if WWE is going to shake things up with title switches, then it is under their terms and not out of desperation. I don’t see that mentality changing with Summerslam this Sunday. I think it is a good thing because it makes a title switch feel important rather than viewing a title belt as a prop. My predictions for those matches are Punk defeating Morrison for the ECW Title, Batista and Khali is a crapshoot and only picked Batista because I flipped a coin, and Cena retains over Orton. However, I think Cena will drop the title to Orton in the fall. Any decision made in those matches will most likely have been planned well beforehand.

Score: 3 for 4

5. With recent downward trend in WWE PPV Buyrate Numbers, and with UFC 74 with Saturday, Summerslam will under-perform and be a disappointment for the company.

Ryan Byers : FACT. For some high comedy, check out Linda McMahons’s response to a question about UFC 74 affecting Summerslam buyrates, in which she tried to claim that the two promotions running the same weekend was a good thing because the UFC program being the day before the WWE program would somehow “train” people to buy pay per views. Newsflash, Linda, your company has been doing PPV for twenty years. If fans aren’t trained to order by this point, they never will be. As to UFC’s actual impact on Summerslam, I don’t think that it will cause the number to completely tank, simply because a.) there is still some separation between the pro wrestling and MMA fanbases and b.) this is a pretty damn big show for WWE, whereas the UFC program hasn’t gotten quite the same level of hype as their most successful events. Yet, even though the WWE number won’t be abysmal, I can see UFC taking a small chunk of their buys away, likely leading to this Summerslam under-performing when compared to other recent “big four” pay per views.

Ryan Mancuso : FACT. There are reasons within WWE that Summerslam could disappoint in the buyrates. Holding 15-16 PPV’s a year at $40 each is one. Unless there is a change in plans, the biggest angle in the WWE will not have a payoff at Summerslam. Of course, the negative stigma wrestling has had since the Benoit family tragedy. Onto the UFC part of this question, those who are on the fence know that some of the matches at Summerslam will happen again in some form in the next month at a RAW, SD!, ECW or PPV. The chances that Randy Couture will fight Gabriel Gonzaga for the UFC Heavyweight Title are very likely to be one time only. That feeling is the main reason why I feel the majority of fans in both genres will pick UFC 74 over Summerslam. I think UFC 74 will have an affect on the Summerslam buyrates. How much of an affect is something I don’t know. Summerslam will do fine and should get the second highest buyrates of the year, but I don’t think they’ll get the numbers they got for 2005 and 2006.

Score: 4 for 5

6. WWE is smart for not publicly answering shots and comments from TNA, because it would just give TNA free publicity.

Ryan Byers : FACT. Sometimes, burying your competition on-air works. Paul Heyman got it to work for ECW because they were smaller than both the WWF and WCW and because they legitimately were offering a product that was a complete alternative to the shows presented by the “Big Two.” TNA’s attempts at WWE potshots have failed miserably. Why? Though they are the underdogs in this fight, they’re not a true alternative to WWE in the sense that ECW was. Instead, they’re a small company offering virtually the same product as their larger competitor. If WWE is Coke, TNA is R.C. Cola. Because so few people buy them as an actual alternative, their attempts to put down WWE come off as lame, because, despite the insults, the similarity of the products makes it clear that TNA would sell Jeff Jarrett’s vital organs if it meant that they could be more like Vince and company. Given that fact, the only way for TNA’s shots to appear effective would be if WWE actually acknowledged them. Fortunately, they have chosen not to do so.

Ryan Mancuso: FACT. The whole TNA taking shots at WWE is similar to the time when I was working on a project at school with this annoying jerk who did not contribute to the success of the group. When I ignored him, he quieted down and I could focus on my work. When I did acknowledge him, then it was like a victory for him and encouraged him to be more annoying. TNA is this annoying jerk who is trying to steer WWE off their path and hope for public retaliation. There is no need for WWE to retaliate because they know that TNA will continue to find ways to shoot themselves in the foot with their booking and bush league antics. WWE should continue to view them as this unrecognized developmental territory that will groom the ECW, OVW and DCW stars of the future.

Score: 5 for 6

These two finish 5 for 6! Join us next week for more Fact or Fiction!