411 Fact or Fiction 9.09.10: Six-Pack Challenge, No Surrender, Aloisia, Kaval and More

Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 09.09.2010

Has pulling Chris Jericho out of the Six-Pack Challenge at Night of Champions hurt fan interest? Did No Surrender deliver for TNA? Is it too early for Daniel Bryan to get a US Title shot? 411's Stephen Randle and Mitch Michaels debate these topics and more in this week's 411 Fact or Fiction: Wrestling!



Hello, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to 411 Wrestling Fact or Fiction for the second week of September! This last week TNA had their No Surrender Pay-Per-View, while the WWE began NXT Season Three—but without one of their announced Rookies. In addition Chris Jericho found himself out of the Six-Pack match at Night of Champions, Kaval won NXT Season Two and much, much more! Joining us on the panel this week we have the man behind the "Wrestling News Experience," Stephen Randle stepping up against the Music Zone's almighty editor Mitch Michaels! There's a lot to get into here and our contestants are ready, so let's get right down to it!

Questions were sent out Monday.

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

1. Putting Chris Jericho in the Six-Pack Title match at Night of Champions and then taking him out two weeks later hurts fan interest because of the bait and switch.



Stephen Randle: FICTION. I don't know about other fans, but I'M interested where they're going with the whole Jericho story. Will we see his redemption and a return to the face ranks? Or is this the end of the line for him? And who's going to take his place in the Six Pack Challenge? John Morrison? A certain someone who might finally have an office in Stamford? Or can Jericho regain his place? It's an entire new level of intrigue involving one of the six guys in the match who, let's face it, nobody was giving a serious chance of winning anyway.

Mitch Michaels: FICTION. For a lot of reasons. For one, we have two weeks till the PPV, which are only promoted like a month in advance anyway. You can't really call it a bait and switch until people are actually ordering the show. For two, we've seen these kind of "throw everybody in to one match" matches before, and it's rare that anybody gets to stand out unless it's an up-and-comer making a name for themselves. Chris Jericho? Would have been just another night at the office. Instead, Jericho has his own storyline to work with now of wondering if he can still go. Way better than being just one more guy between Orton and the title. I just hope this isn't leading to Jericho's retirement like it seems to be.

Score: 1 for 1

2. TNA's No Surrender Pay-Per-View delivered on everything it needed to.

Stephen Randle: FICTION. I'm just curious what it needed to deliver on. If it was decent matches, well, then, we can probably change it to a FACT. I guess we're saying "was it a must-see PPV", which is pretty much what anyone should be trying to do in this industry, and I'm going to call it FICTION. The tag title storyline was quickly aborted for some reason, Jarrett/Joe vs. Sting/Nash was anticlimactic, I'm fairly sure no one expected Tommy Dreamer to win, and we finish it off with no World title match, just two semifinal matches for a future PPV. Sure, Angle-Hardy was good, but the finish was silly and insulting, and it wasn't even the main event of the show.

Mitch Michaels: FICTION. This was an AWFUL PPV. I don't know why people were excited for Angle/Hardy to begin with - since when did those styles seem to mesh? This PPV didn't deliver at all. The Sting/Nash/Joe/Jarrett match sucked donkey balls and so did the Rhino/Abyss. And Ken Anderson main eventing? Yeah, no thanks. The AJ Styles match was the only thing worth seeing and it was buried in the middle of the card. Even WWE's most mediocre PPV's have at least SOMETHING going on.

Score: 2 for 2

3. If given a chance, Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes could make for a solid long-term tag team.

Stephen Randle: FACT. They're decent wrestlers and could probably work well together, and their status in WWE would likely get them a decent push as a team. But I'm against it because Cody Rhodes does not need to get stuck in another go-nowhere tag team after suffering under Hardcore Holly and Ted DiBiase since he entered WWE. Cody's got a gimmick that works for him, he's getting a chance to shine as a singles competitor and he's clearly passed Drew by in the SmackDown hierarchy. Sure a pairing would help Drew, but it would put the brakes on Cody's rise, and I don't want to see that unless there's no other way to keep Cody's momentum going.

Mitch Michaels: FACT. I used to hate the random singles wrestler teams, but I guess I've given in and decided to give them a chance. Rhodes and McIntyre don't have the kind of personality similarities of say, Miz and John Morrison - another great mid-card singles team-up. And they're not main eventers like ShowMiz or JeriShow. But they do have a hunger for gold that could make the tag titles look like more than an accessory for people who don't have the world titles. If nothing else, it's good to see there actually be three tag teams in WWE.

Score: 3 for 3

4. EV2.0's momentum is dead after three out of three losses at the Pay-Per-View.

Stephen Randle: FACT. But anyone who thinks the entire storyline purpose was to make EV2.0 the next big thing in TNA is fooling themselves. I'm fairly certain EV2.0 is there to put over Fourtune (yes, that's how they spell it, check the graphics), and that's what they did this PPV. Come on, which did you expect to be the focus, a bunch of guys who have made careers out of losing, or a group that includes some of TNA's best young talents, led by Ric Flair? That's what I thought. I'd expect EV2.0 will be an afterthought pretty much after Bound for Glory, but it's all according to plan.

Mitch Michaels: FICTION. I could be snarky and say EV2.0 hasn't had any momentum since the night they debuted, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. The former Extremists have made pretty good showings at the PPV's, and Tommy Dreamer's match with AJ Styles was no exception. Besides, the spirit of ECW wasn't in who won and lost, anyway, it was the attitude. And EV2.0 just has heart. Sure, TNA has booked them for shit, but sometimes quality manages to show through - even quality approaching its 50's.

Score: 3 for 4


SWITCH!

5. It would make more sense for Kaval to go to SmackDown after winning NXT than to Raw.



Mitch Michaels: FACT. I think Kaval fits better in with the SmackDown landscape right now. Besides, the WWE mentality seems to be to let them build on SmackDown and then switch them to Raw. I guess it's a feather in Kaval's hat that they want him on their flagship show off the bat, but I'd rather see him hanging with Michelle McCool and Layla for a little longer.

Stephen Randle: FACT. Not just because his Pros are there, but there is literally no room on Raw for him to make any impact at all. The main event is full up with Nexus and the usual suspects, the US Title is tied up with Miz and Daniel Bryan, and everything else is Divas and comedy acts. On SmackDown, with the roster so thin right now, there's plenty of room for Kaval to establish himself at a higher level than there would be on Raw.


Score: 4 for 5

6. WWE's handling of the Aloisia situation doesn't speak well for the effort the company is putting into NXT Season Three.

Mitch Michaels: FACT. NOTHING WWE has done has bode well for Season Three of NXT. The sad thing is that they have several weeks of the show guaranteed to air on SyFy - why can't they put some fucking effort into it instead of letting it flounder and go out with a whimper (a la ECW). WWE seems to have the mentality for their TV shows that they had for their Superstars with expiring contracts - bury them on the way out so we won't miss them. The "suggestive photos" thing makes about as much sense as firing Daniel Bryan for choking a guy with a tie.

Stephen Randle: FACT. The likely final season of NXT looks like they spread about three seconds of thought into it. Literally "hey, we have four weeks of show left, let's just throw women on TV until it ends." I bet they even picked the Divas they're using at random, and frankly, had the same response anyone would have to having a 6'9" Amazon under contract: "put her on TV now." The fact that she got all the way to being introduced on NXT proves that nobody who actually makes decisions was really paying attention.

Score: 5 for 6

7. The booking of Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Hardy ruined the in-ring work of the competitors and brought down what could have been a match of the year candidate.

Mitch Michaels: FICTION. Sure, ultimately, the result was a disappointment. But think of the days when Flair would do a Broadway, or even the draws we got from the Triple H/Shawn Michaels feud. You CAN have a good match that ends in a draw. Angle and Hardy, though, was not a match that begged for that much PPV time. Hardy is a great wrestler, sure, but does he have enough in his toolbox to keep anyone interested for a match that long? I think the match was evident of that.

Stephen Randle: FACT. I'm sorry, you don't pull out the "ideas for overbooking a match" manual for a match involving two of the most popular stars of the last decade, especially when one of them is possibly the greatest technical wrestler in history. More importantly, you first don't book yourself into a corner by having Angle declare that he'll "win or retire," when everyone knows he has no intentions of retiring. If you wanted to book a Triple Threat match for Bound For Glory, there are at least seventeen different ways to do it that are less stupid than what TNA did.

Score: 5 for 7

8. It's too early to put Daniel Bryan in a US Title match against The Miz at Night of Champion.



Mitch Michaels: FICTION. No way - the Miz/Daniel Bryan promo was easily the highlight of Raw this week, and if there's chemistry on the mic, there's a good chance there'll be chemistry in the ring. Besides, I've always been of the opinion that, when somebody's hot, you use them. If they can't keep up the heat, you bump them down. Daniel Bryan is hot right now and the US title surely doesn't seem out of his reach at the moment - let's see what he can do with the opportunity before we say he's not ready.

Stephen Randle: FICTION. Why? The storyline is all there, clearly it was all setting Bryan up for a US Title match with Miz from the very first episode of NXT, so that can't be the reason. It can't be that he "hasn't paid his dues," because he's been wrestling on the independent scene longer than half the roster has been wrestling at all, which I believe has always qualified under that statement. We know it'll be a good match, and since this is the one PPV where the US Title has to be defended, there is no better time for it to happen.

Final Score: 6 for 8

For the second week in a row we have a .750 average as Stephen and Mitch go 6 for 8! I'd like to thank both of them for their answers, and you the readers for checking out what they had to say! For Stephen Randle and Mitch Michaels, this is Jeremy Thomas saying join us next week for more Wrestling Fact or Fiction!

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