411 Fact or Fiction 11.15.07: The Undertaker Winning the Title, Cage as a WWE Champion, Hornswoggle vs. Khali and More!

1. WWE made a big error on Monday Night, as they used The Undertaker and various other stars from other brands, virtually unannounced.

Ryan Byers: FICTION. In a perfect world, it probably would have been better to advertise the presence of the Smackdown crew on Raw to drive up ratings. However, we’re not living in a perfect world, and the WWE creative team probably didn’t even realize during last week’s TV tapings that they were going to use as many SD guys as they did on this week’s show. Thus, there would have been no time to effectively advertise their appearances. Besides, the real purpose of the Smackdown talent being present wasn’t ratings. It was to get over their feuds for the pay per view and entice viewers to buy the Survivor Series. By and large, I think that WWE accomplished that goal, so I’m not willing to go as far as calling this a “big error.” If there was any error at all, it was slight.

Randall Harrison: FACT. At a time when there is a lot of external pressure to push the ratings up and at the beginning of a November sweeps period rocked by the WGA strike, every little bit could help. During the entire show they were referring to it as the kick-off to Survivor Series and the whole show I was thinking that it would have been a good idea to possibly, I don’t know, let us know AHEAD OF TIME! Build to it a little like you’ve done with the Raw Homecoming show, the upcoming Raw Anniversary show, or any of the other “event” Raw’s they’ve had in the past couple of years. Raw with the Undertaker, Rey Mysterio, MVP, Matt Hardy et al, along with the usual cast of characters and a little pre-promotion could have been a good chance for them to sustain any boost they got last week from DX and Stone Cold or even build on it going into next week with the return of Chris Jericho. If you’re going to have stars from all three brands on the show and not promote them, what was the point of having them on to begin with? And don’t even get me started on the tearing down of the “fourth wall” of the Brand Extension, or else I’ll be here until next week.

Score: 0 for 1

2. The Undertaker should win the World Title at Survivor Series this Sunday.

Ryan Byers : FACT. If you look up and down the current Smackdown roster, the only heel capable of challenging for the World Title at WrestleMania is Edge. If the choice is between an Edge/Taker program and a Batista/Taker program, I think that Edge/Taker is the obvious choice. It’s something that hasn’t been done before, Edge is the guy who caused the abrupt end of Taker’s last title reign, and they’ve got the added bonus of building in a “streak versus streak” storyline if they chose to do so. (Yes, Edge did lose last year, but that can be explained away by the fact that he wasn’t pinned.) Plus if you’re going to do a killer storyline between the two heading in to WM, it’ll need at least six months to build, so putting the title on UT sooner rather than later is the smart move.

Randall Harrison : FACT. He was going to get a good long run with the belt before his shoulder injury forced him to relinquish the strap and he deserves to get one more long run as champion leading into WrestleMania and beyond. He’s not getting any younger and the time is starting to run out on him getting another chance at being a long-term champion so if it’s going to happen the time is now. Not to mention that like Byers said, Taker/Edge at WrestleMania 24 for the World Heavyweight Title with “Streak vs. Streak” pretty much writes itself and would be a great storyline to pay off in front of sixty or seventy thousand people in the Citrus Bowl. I have no earthly idea what they would do with Taker and the belt until then, which is why I sadly think that him actually winning the title on Sunday is probably not going to happen. The same situation that plagues Batista with no heel challengers also would plague the Undertaker unless Batista turned but really that feud is played out at this point and not even a change in the heel/face dynamic would spice it up. I really think that he SHOULD win the title this weekend, but whether he actually comes through and does or not is a completely different story.

Score: 1 for 2

3. The Great Khali vs. Hornswoggle has no right to be on a major PPV like Survivor Series.

Ryan Byers : FICTION. It’s not a match I want to see and it’s probably not a match that I’m going to enjoy, but I’m not going to agree with a statement as pretentious as “WWE has NO RIGHT to do it.” WWE can put whatever it wants on its major PPVs, and, if fans hate it that much, they can refuse to buy the show. On paper, though, this is a strong enough card that anybody who is going to complain about one brief comedy match needs to reexamine his priorities.

Randall Harrison : FACT. All pretension aside, this thing has no right to be on a major PPV, a minor PPV, or any type of PPV they could come up with. They have time for this monstrosity and yet the World Tag Team Titles go undefended, they’ve completely disbanded the Cruiserweight Division, and guys that could be having great matches like London and Kendrick sit on the sidelines? I get that it will probably get like two or three minutes and that it will totally be played for comedy as opposed to any sort of legitimate contest, but for Christ’s sake this is supposed to be one of the “Big Four”. They have three rosters swollen with talent (well 2 1/2 since ECW can’t possibly be considered a full roster) and some of them are ending up being sacrificed and missing out on a PPV payday so this bullshit can happen? Save this type of garbage for Smackdown or Raw and not for when I’m spending forty bucks and trying not to put my foot through the front of my television in anger.

Score: 1 for 3

4. TNA bringing back “The Outsiders” is a great move.

Randall Harrison : FICTION. Fiction, Fiction, Fiction to the millionth power. It was barely a good idea when they reformed the NWO the eight times they did it in WCW. It was a horrible idea when they reunited the Outsiders to align with Jeff Jarrett in TNA a few years ago. What could possibly make them think that this could be a good idea now? Nash, while entertaining as an on-camera personality, is old and broken down. Hall, a bit less of an entertaining on-camera personality, is fat, old and broken down. Neither of them could wrestle a credible main event match to save their lives at this point and yet you know that they’re going to get a ton of segments and a ton of attention on Impact. Those segments and that attention could clearly be used by TNA to promote the new stars like Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Christian Cage, Kaz, Sabin and Shelley and others, so that they can carry the brand for the next 5-10 years as main event stars that put on exciting matches and have compelling storylines. Giving that time to Nash and Hall is like flushing it down the crapper because their time to draw buys or ratings was over about 8 years ago and they will do nothing to help TNA in the present or in the future. TNA really needs to get their heads out of their collective asses, stop letting the younger, hungrier, more talented stars bash their heads against the glass ceiling, and figure out a way to get this new, exciting talent over more than the tired old has-beens or they’re going to be doomed to extinction once Dixie’s deep pockets run dry.

Ryan Byers : FICTION. I’ve refused for several months now to jump on the “Drop the WWE rejects and push the homegrown talent” bandwagon as it relates to TNA. The fact of the matter is that you can put on an entertaining show no matter which group of talent you utilize so long as the writing is good and the wrestlers are skilled. Hell, if you ask me, the Steiner Brothers vs. The Dudley Boys is the best feud that TNA put together all year, and there wasn’t a single piece of “homegrown talent” involved in that. However, I disagree with TNA reuniting Scott Hall and Kevin Nash for different reasons. I disagree with it because, after years of watching TNA, I know exactly how they’re going to push the match. They’re going to treat it as though it’s the most important thing in the history of wrestling, and they’re more likely than not going to push it ahead of every other angle in the company. They’re then going to expect this to get them a higher than average buyrate or bump their television ratings. This will not happen. History has shown that it will not happen. Bringing in Christian had no appreciable effect on the company’s business. Bringing in Sting had no appreciable effect on the company’s business. Bringing in Kurt Angle had no appreciable effect on the company’s business. All three of those men were bigger stars in 2007 than they Outsiders, so I somehow doubt that Hall and Nash will be able to do what Cage, Sting, and Angle could not.

Score: 2 for 4

5. The X-Division is currently no better than the last days of the WWE Cruiserweight Division.

Randall Harrison : FICTION. The X-Division currently is better than the last days of the WWE Crusierweight Division by a mile. Hell, the X-Division now is better than the HEIGHT of the WWE Crusierweight Division, whenever that would have been. The X-Division, despite the recent burial, has always been a major part of TNA and on some cards in the past the X-Division Title has been defended in the main event instead of the TNA World Title. The WWE has NEVER been able to book little guys as evidenced by their numerous attempts at getting lighter wrestlers over failing miserably (Taka Michinoku anyone?). Name me one time when the WWE had the Crusierweight Title headline a show other than Heat or Velocity. The last days of the WWE Cruiserweight Division had a midget holding the title and never defending it, and virtually no attention on the division at all except for the odd reach-around match on Smackdown. Furthermore, the Cruiserweight Championship was practically never defended on any of the PPV shows, while the X-Division has always been able to be counted on to deliver at least ten minutes and sometimes twenty or thirty minutes of solid wrestling whenever TNA hits the airwaves on a Sunday night. While it pains me to see the X-Division in the shambles it’s in right now, some of the guys are at least still getting time on PPV to show their wares and are still getting the chance to put on great matches, something that the WWE Cruiserweights never got a chance to do at any time, unless Rey Mysterio was slumming it in their division.

Ryan Byers : FACT. As much as I hate to disagree with my esteemed colleague, he’s dead wrong. Yes, guys like Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt do periodically get a decent amount of time to come out on pay per view and put on a good X Division match. However, good matches and good matches alone mean nothing when it comes to getting talent or divisions over in 2007. You need compelling characters and you need well-booked storylines in addition to the awesome in-ring payoffs. In that regard, the X Division is exactly where the Cruiserweight Division was before it got put on ice. You can say that Hornswoggle was a terrible choice for Cruiserweight Champion and that therefore the X Division is better off, but is there really that much of a difference between Hornswoggle and Jay Lethal when you think about it? Both are guy who a crowd will pop for when they come out and do thirty seconds worth of their comedy, but does “Black Machismo” really get that much better of a reaction for his extended segments than the midget does? Sure, Lethal has more potential to be a legitimate wrestling star than Horny, but all of the potential in the world is worthless if the promotion is not going to get behind him. Like it or not, TNA has proven time and time again that they’re not going to capitalize on the potential of Lethal or any other current X Division wrestler.

Score: 2 for 5

6. Due to all the recent injuries and suspensions, if Christian Cage has never left the WWE, he would have been a WWE World Champion at one point in the last two-years.

Randall Harrison : FACT. He has the in-ring chops, the charisma on the microphone, and has never even had a hint of needing a “Wellness” vacation. Christian Cage would have definitely been a WWE World Champion if he had stayed with the company. Do you honestly think that given the choice between making The Great Khali champion or giving it to Captain Charisma earlier this year that they would have let Khali even have a sniff of that title belt? Not in a million years, because Cage was over when he left and getting bigger by the week, and if he had stayed and bided his time I really think they would have given him the ball to see what he could do with it. He had his peeps, he had the crowd in the palm of his hand spouting his catchphrases, and I honestly think that if the timing had been right he could have turned into someone almost as popular, if not just as popular as The Rock. That’s right I said it, if he had stayed with WWE and been able to have a real chance to rise through the main event picture, his personality and his character could have exploded huge and been a license for them to start printing money in Stamford. All that being said there’s no telling that he wouldn’t have gotten stale waiting for his chance or wouldn’t have had the same type of problems that Chris Jericho had when he was given his World Title reign, but it damn sure would have been interesting to find out.

Ryan Byers : FICTION. I could not disagree more about Christian Cage. Is the guy a good wrestler? Sure. Is the guy a decent promo? Sure. Is he a performer the caliber of the greatest WWE Champions of all time? Dear god no. You need to look no further than his time in TNA to see that. Yes, his great matches are still there, but something is missing. That something is the persona necessary for a guy to be taken seriously on the main event level. The simple fact of the matter is that the biggest thing that Christian had going for him in WWE was his sense of humor. He was able to parlay that in to some funny lines and cute catchphrases, and it turned him in to one of the most over midcard acts in the company. But when he jumped to TNA, he and/or the creative team realized that, in order to be a main event talent, you need more than just funny. You have to get a crowd to take you seriously as a guy who will walk in to that ring and inflict some damage on your opponent. Christian lacks that quality, as every “badass” promo he cuts sounds horribly forced. He’s not the Rock or Steve Austin or even Randy Orton for whom that sort of thing comes naturally. Instead, he sounds like the ninth grade class clown who somehow got cast as a hardened mobster in the high school’s production of Guys and Dolls. I’d be amazed if WWE hadn’t realized this, and I’d be amazed if it wasn’t one of the reasons that he never got a bigger run in that company. Great Khali was absolutely a better choice for champion than Cage would have been had he remained in WWE.

Score: 2 for 6

These two finish 2 for 6! Come on back next week for more of 411 Fact or Fiction: Wrestling Edition!