411 Fact or Fiction 3.11.10: Impact, Sting’s Heel Turn, Christian’s Money in the Bank Odds, Cena vs. Batista and more!

It’s time for the latest edition of 411 Wrestling Fact or Fiction, so come on down! I’m your host as always, Jeremy Thomas, and coming off the re-renewal of the Monday Night Wars we have plenty of TNA and WWE news to discuss! Our panel this week consists of our Raw and Superstars recapper Rob McNew taking on the one and only Andy Critchell! The questions are ready and the panelists are rearing to go, so let’s get it on!

Questions were sent out Monday.

Participants were told to expect WWE & TNA-related questions.

1. Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy were both poorly utilized on in their respective debut and return on Impact.

Rob McNew: FACT. Monday’s Impact was basically a two hour long face-palm, and these two were near the top of the list. Rob Van Dam being Sting’s mystery opponent was a great idea (except for Taz ruining the surprise), but having him win the match in 15 seconds with a transition move only to be destroyed by the freshly heel turned Sting made less sense than most things TNA does which is really saying something. As for Hardy he makes his big triumphant return to make the save for Hogan and Abyss, but as he’s headed to the top rope to hit his finisher we get a finish straight out of Nitro as they fade out before he connects. I half expected Tenay to yell that we had run out of time but could tune into Thunder to see what happened.

Andy Critchell: FACT. RVD not so much but Jeff Hardy’s return was TOTALLY wasted. They didn’t even show his finisher! It was less than a year ago where Hardy was one of the biggest stars in WWE. He had the belt, he was doing main events, he was selling merch like crazy. He pretty much MADE CM Punk into the uber-heel that he is today. It had appeared that Jeff had FINALLY realized his vast potential. We all know what happened next and how much it sucked. But hey, now he’s with TNA and he’s still super over and super charismatic. He made an appearance on January and TNA has slow played his big return until tonight. But you only knew it was coming if you read some spoilers. There are sometimes where a shocking appearance is good but people already knew Hardy was with TNA so why not pump up his big return? Of course, what they actually did makes me think that either TNA has no faith in him (which is REALLY saying something) or they don’t know how to use him. Either way, an opportunity for a big moment was wasted.

Score: 1 for 1

2. Randy Orton will be able to succeed just as well as an “anti-face” as he did when he was a heel.

Rob McNew: FACT. Orton will work as a babyface provided that the WWE does not make the same mistakes that they made in 2004. He MUST keep the characteristics that made him so popular in the first place. While he has a completely different type of charisma his character is very similar to Steve Austin around the time of his face turn in 1997. Maybe a better example is Jake The Snake around 1987. If Orton starts shaking hands and smiling this will fail miserably. If he remains the viper, but only out for himself and taking out heels instead of faces he could be huge.

Andy Critchell: FACT. Orton has truly reached rarified air, he is one of the few wrestlers working today who doesn’t have to change his character in order to play either heel or face. And it’s not that Orton has changed, it’s just that the crowd has suddenly grown to appreciate just how great he is. Now he’s at the point where the fans are rabid to see him bust out the RKO in any match he’s in. And if he ever does bust out the pose again, I am convinced the crowd will go MOLTEN. As long as he is allowed to continue doing what he’s been doing, Orton will continue to succeed in his new role.

Score: 2 for 2

3. Sting’s apparent heel turn on Monday Night will revitalize his character and work to his and TNA’s benefit.

Rob McNew: FICTION. Quite the opposite. Sting has reached that “legend who you can’t boo” status, and this completely nonsensical heel turn will only serve to prove that. It goes against everything Sting’s character has been for 25 years, and just does not feel natural at all. This is not Hogan in 1996. While it makes sense that he would still harbor some ill will towards Hogan it makes no sense that he would align himself with Ric Flair who has turned on him roughly 713 times in his career. Just another in the line of dumb moves by TNA as they make a poor effort to go to war with WWE.

Andy Critchell: FICTION. Sting has never had success in his career as a heel. The crowd just doesn’t want to root against him. Unless he can deliver some super strong heel promos, and I’m talking Jericho type levels here, then this heel turn will fizzle out just like the others in the past. As far as working to TNA’s benefit, it puts the focus on yet another old man which is the last thing TNA should be doing.

Score: 3 for 3

4. Despite his legendary career, the Undertaker doesn’t need another DVD set.

Rob McNew: FICTION. Couldn’t disagree with this one more. Undertaker’s legendary 20 year career is in need of a really thorough non-kayfabe documentary. After they complete that they can fill in the remainder of the DVD with matches similar to what they did with Shawn and Hogan’s third DVD. Just fill them in with rare never before released matches. There’s never enough wrestling on the DVD market.

Andy Critchell: FACT. Taker doesn’t NEED another DVD set but that doesn’t mean I am opposed to the idea. Taker is one of the few guys that can always move merchandise and another DVD set with just add to WWE’s coffers.

Score: 3 for 4

SWITCH!

5. The new Impact opening is a significant improvement over its predecessor.

Andy Critchell: FICTION. It’s new and it’s flashy but it is not without its flaws; the most obvious being that it cycles through the roster just way too fast. If I’m watching TNA for the first time I would like to have an idea of what the new guys I am seeing are all about instead of everyone just standing around looking various degrees of menacing. I think that in this case less can be more but in typical TNA fashion they decided to try and squeeze as many people in as they could.

Rob McNew: FICTION. I always liked the old opening, and this one seems pretty generic. I usually wouldn’t give it much thought though and in the grand scheme of things the opening song and video are the least of TNA’s troubles.

Score: 4 for 5

6. With the Money in the Bank match now set, Christian is the odds-on favorite to win.

Andy Critchell: FICTION. I think there are reasons for any of the other participants to win MITB that are just as compelling as Christian’s. Hardy & Shelton are in the same boat as Christian in that a win at MITB would help legitimize them above the mid-card. Ziggler, Bourne, and Swagger can use the MITB win to reinvigorate what has been a stalled push up the card. Kane could win and thus set up his yearly main-event run. I would venture to say that this year’s MITB field is the widest open of them all.

Rob McNew: FACT. In fact Christian is easily the biggest favorite since this match’s inception. There is absolutely no one else who I could picture holding the briefcase except maybe MVP. Although even that is a long shot. I don’t mind the lineup at all, because between Bourne and Shelton we should get some memorable spots but the result will never be in doubt. The only shred of drama would be on the off chance that WWE has decided this is the year someone cashes in and loses. In which case they may go with someone else. .

Score: 4 for 6

7. If TNA wants to get the X-Division more credibility, Shannon Moore is not the right person to face Doug Williams at Destination X.

Andy Critchell: FACT. If TNA wants to get the X-Division more credibility then it should have a pretty big star holding the belt or at least trying to get the belt. Shannon Moore doesn’t fit the bill as the kind of star that can bring credibility. Mostly since he has never really done anything of note his entire career aside from being a Hardy flunky. He’s the Brian Knobbs to Jeff Hardy’s Hulk Hogan.

Rob McNew: FACT. Seriously, who has ever at any point cared at all about Shannon Moore? I don’t even think Shannon Moore cares about Shannon Moore. Why TNA insists on trotting this guy out there as if he’s some big star when while in WWE he was probably somewhere between Jimmy Wang Yang and Kung Fu Naki on the importance scale is beyond me. If you really wanted to have people take the X-Division seriously then Daniels should have won the title on Impact and defended against Jeff Hardy.

Score: 5 for 7

8. The Batista/John Cena feud is succeeding far better than could have been expected.

Andy Critchell: FICTION. were people seriously expecting this to fail? On one hand you’ve got Cena who is the most over superstar since The Rock so you know that just about any feud he is in will draw. On the other hand you have Batista who at one point was almost at the same level as Cena in terms of popularity and who has now so fully embraced this heel turn that he looks as fearsome as he has ever looked in his career. So you have two super talented and popular main event level guys who the crowd is heavily invested in. Of course they are having a great feud! if you expected otherwise then you are a moron.

Rob McNew: FACT. I actually thought with clearly defined heel and face elements this would be far better than most anticipated, but I had no idea it would be quite this good. Dave has settled into his role of douchebag heel, and is playing it to perfection. The heel turn has revitalized his career. One thing that different about this feud, and this heel turn is that Dave is playing a different type of heel than we’ve seen in recent years. He is in no way scared of Cena. Quite the opposite. He’s a cocky, arrogant heel who is convinced he’s not only going to win, but dominate. It’s a role he was born to play. Cena actually looks like the underdog (to the marks anyway) and there is actually some doubt on if this is a hill he can overcome. Just brilliant booking all around.

Final Score: 5 for 8

A second week in a row around the .500 mark, as Andy and Rob go five for eight! My only regret is that I had no good opportunity for questions about the Divas, because that would have come out with a very interesting couple of responses here. I’d like to thank both men for their answers, and you guys for clicking and seeing what they had to say! For Rob McNew and Andy Critchell, this is Jeremy Thomas saying join us next week for another edition of 411 Fact or Fiction!

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