411 Fact or Fiction 08.15.13: SummerSlam, HHH, Luger, More

Hi, hello & welcome to 411 Fact or Fiction! I’m Steve Cook, and it’s been another crazy week in the world of professional wrestling. SummerSlam takes place this Sunday, and since it’s either WWE’s 2nd or 3rd biggest show of the year depending on who you ask, that covers the bulk of this week’s questions. We’ve also got a little Hardcore Justice & Lex Luger thrown in for your reading pleasure, so let’s get right to it!

Introducing first, the author of Alternate Takes & the 411 Movies Top 5…Shawn S. Lealos!

His opponent does pretty much every live show recap for the MMA Zone. Give it up for Mark Radulich!

Questions were sent out Monday.

Participants were told to expect wrestling-related questions.

1. SummerSlam will be the best WWE PPV event of 2013.

Shawn S. Lealos: FACT. Honestly, I don’t know if it will end up as the best, but it should be the best of the year so far. I really liked two of the matches at Wrestlemania (Punk vs. Undertaker and Triple H vs. Brock), which made the card a letdown. I like The Shield, and feel they have brought it to most of their matches at PPVs so far this year, but they haven’t been utilized enough. However, when it comes to Summerslam, I don’t know if a match this year will be better than John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan. Bryan is one of the best wrestlers in the WWE and John Cena can have great matches when his opponents are good, so this match should be a great one – unless they overbook it. I think Dean Ambrose vs. Rob Van Dam should be an outstanding match and deserves more than a pre-show appearance. CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar should be amazing and will be better than either of his Triple H matches. I also think Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow has a chance to shine. Hate the Diva’s match, don’t care for Christian in the ring since his return, and Kane vs. Bray Wyatt will be a spectacle match, which is never as good as a regular match could be. The truth is, if three matches shine, this will be the best PPV of the year and I see at least four that should be great.

Mark Radulich: FACT. This will be the best show of the year for two reasons. The first is that quite frankly, thus far the bar has not been set particularly high. In my humble opinion the WWE PPV’s for 2013 have been somewhere between just “OK” and “completely forgettable.” All SummerSlam has to do is better than “OK” and ding-ding, we have a winner. Second, unless the superstars involved all have uncharacteristically bad nights in the ring, the matches being featured should be relatively stellar. The two main events feature wrestlers who could pull good matches out of tackling dummies (Bryan and Punk) and the rest of the card is stacked with workers who are usually outstanding. Aside from Cena vs Bryan and Punk vs Lesnar you’ve got Sandow and Rhodes who are both awesome and should put on a contender for MOTN. ADR is wrestling a mechanic who can make just about anybody look, Christian. Kane and Wyatt are wrestling in fire…’nuff said there. The mixed tag is filled with workers who can go so I figure that will be a completely inoffensive 5-10 minutes of entertainment. There’s the women’s match with Natalya and Brie but that might as well be an intermission or a commercial break. Finally you have the pre-show with Ambrose and RVD. If that match doesn’t light the place on fire nothing will. There’s no Big Show, no Sheamus, no Randy Orton, no Mark Henry and no MIZ therefore there’s nobody on the card that could potentially drag it into the mud. Given all of the above, there’s no reason for this PPV not to be the best of the year.

Score: 1 for 1

2. There will be a new WWE Champion after SummerSlam.

Shawn S. Lealos: FICTION. I hate this. I think Daniel Bryan should win the title NOW before people lose interest, but the fact that they are pushing Triple H vs. Mr. McMahon so hard makes me believe there will be an overbooked ending where Triple H costs Bryan the match. Then Bryan will have to fight Triple H down the line, maybe leading to him aligning with Mr. McMahon – or something stupid like that. Anyway, I see John Cena retaining, Bryan getting screwed (in more ways than just one), and even if Randy Orton comes in, I don’t think he wins the belt. If Orton does win the belt, I would say Bryan beats Cena, McMahon brings out Orton, who cashes in and wins and then Orton and McMahon will have a partnership. All the way around, Bryan gets screwed and I leave the PPV pissed.

Mark Radulich: FICTION. That would be the logical conclusion to the story that they are telling. That would be the most satisfying development to the story they have told thus far between Cena, Bryan, Maddox and the McMahon’s. However, when was the last time the WWE gave us a logical, satisfying conclusion or even story development? The pattern has been that they seem to throw a lot of stuff at the wall to see what sticks, given said sticky thing a bit of attention and then immediately retreat to old hat. John Cena is safe. John Cena is old hat. John Cena will be WWE Champion after SummerSlam and Bryan will probably feud with Triple H or some such nonsense. Don’t get me wrong; if Bryan wins I’ll be thrilled that my above answer is wrong. However, I have faith that as per usual, I’ll be disappointed in how this whole Cena-Bryan feud will end.

Score: 2 for 2

3. Triple H will turn heel at SummerSlam.

Shawn S. Lealos: FACT. I mentioned this in the previous answer. And, it pisses me off. Look, Triple H is the only person who has been pushing Bryan while Vince does everything in his power to bury him. Having Triple H turn on Bryan would leave Bryan alone – which could work, I mean Steve Austin fought alone – but Bryan isn’t Stone Cold and I don’t know if he can retain the fan’s support through the shenanigans that the Summerslam main event looks like it will bring. But, I do think either Triple H will turn bad or that McMahon will partner up with Orton when all is said and done.

Mark Radulich: FICTION. I’m not sure how a heel Triple H makes sense at this point. I thought Vince was the heel in the McMahon family drama. Vince was the one who (for some strange reason) was on Vickie’s side and Vickie was also a heel. I was under the impression that the endgame for this whole McMahon feud was to have power consolidated under Triple H. Maybe I’ve missed something here but I just don’t see how turning Triple H heel furthers the story when the person he’s feuding with is still basically a heel. Now if somehow Vince ends up turning face (I’m not sure how that’s going to happen either) then I suppose it makes sense but right now I’m not seeing it.

Score: 2 for 3

4. E! should not air a new episode of Total Divas against SummerSlam.

Shawn S. Lealos: FICTION. I say fiction as someone who doesn’t give a crap about Total Divas. Look, I know there are some pretty big wrestling fans who love the show, but in my eyes it is nothing more than Real Housewives of the WWE. With that said, I would think that a lot of the people who watch the show on E! are not the same people who will buy a WWE PPV. Therefore, I don’t think airing a new episode during Summerslam will hurt anything and it will give those people who don’t buy PPV events anyway their WWE fix on Sunday night. Those who do watch the PPV can record the show on the DVR and watch it later. At the end of the day, the ratings may be down in opposition to Summerslam, but the overall viewers for a WWE product will probably be up.

Mark Radulich: FACT. That certainly would be conventional wisdom. Granted, not everyone who watches that show is necessarily a wrestling fan but if you want to get as many viewers as possible, you probably shouldn’t compete with a wrestling show that is likely to capture the audience you are targeting. I’m not sure I understand the logic in the decision to have this show directly compete with SummerSlam.

Score: 2 for 4

SWITCH!

5. Michael Cole will make it to the top of the Middle Palisades Mountain.

Mark Radulich: FACT. I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t, barring injury or some other calamity. He’ll be with JBL and he seems determined to complete this task so why wouldn’t he?

Shawn S. Lealos: FACT. The only reason I say fact is because he is climbing with JBL and there will also be a camera crew along as well, so he will want to do it to – if nothing else – save face. The fact is that JBL is a master at this by now, so if Cole follows his lead, he will make it up just fine. This isn’t a mountain that is impossible to climb and a lot of people have made the climb, all the way back to the 1920s, so it isn’t like he is setting out to conquer something impossible. Now, Cole did say that he has hopes of trying other bigger mountains after this, like Everest and Kilimanjaro. Well, I think Cole makes this one with JBL by his side, and honestly, ends his career as a mountain climber there. I may be wrong, but I am pretty sure he makes this first one and we don’t hear about another.

Score: 3 for 5

6. Sheamus taking time off with an injury will be good for him long-term.

Mark Radulich: FACT. Besides Randy Orton is there another wrestler in the WWE right now is who more stale than Sheamus? Maybe it is just me but for several months he and Orton have just bored me to tears. I sympathized with the Jersey crowd the night after Wrestlemania when they were chanting nonsense during the Orton-Sheamus match. I would have been too if I was there. Sheamus, much like many WWE superstars, became infinitely less interesting after he became a face. Absence makes the heart grow fonder so hopefully with some time off he can come back freshened up and ready to entertain. He’s a decent enough WWE-style wrestler so I have to believe he’s still got plenty of potential left in the tank. However, I think right now he’s best served sitting on the sidelines figuring out how to best access that potential.

Shawn S. Lealos: FACT. I have a torn labrum in my right shoulder and it HURT like hell. I was just bartending, and I couldn’t lift my arm more than a few inches after a shift bartending, so I can’t imagine how bad it hurt Sheamus to take shots to it. I chose not to undergo surgery and just rehabbed it and eventually quit bartending when I made enough writing to pay my bills. It still “tingles” once in a while, but it doesn’t hurt anymore. Sheamus does not have that luxury. My tear is still there, and just because I rehabbed it doesn’t mean it is fixed. If Sheamus continued to wrestle with it, he could hurt himself much, much worse than he already is. That is from the medical point of view. From his “standing” in the company, it won’t change anything because he will come back in about 6 months and be the exact same boring character that he was before.

Score: 4 for 6

7. Chris Sabin will lose the TNA World Title this week at Hardcore Justice.

Mark Radulich: FACT. “If Bully Ray loses to Sabin, he will never get a heavyweight title opportunity again.” Really that’s all you need to know about this match. Bully Ray is TNA’s big heel and to have him completely out of the title picture (barring injury) would paint them into an unfortunate corner. Besides, they’ve already got somebody doing the “barred from the title” gimmick and that is AJ Styles. It would be a bit redundant to have two of your premier wrestlers in the same predicament.

Shawn S. Lealos: FACT. I like Chris Sabin, but I just don’t buy him as the world champion, and while I like the underdog story, he just doesn’t work in my eyes as a realistic champion. Guys like AJ Styles looked like a champion, but Chris Sabin looks like an angry little boy. I hate to be that way, but you need to look like a legitimate champion in this day and age, and just having skills doesn’t make you a champion. Daniel Bryan is the same size pretty much as Sabin, and I can see Bryan as the champion. If Bryan looked like he did 10 years ago, I could never see him as WWE champion. Even Austin Aries, who is the same size, looks more like a champion. Maybe one day Sabin will look more like a star, but he doesn’t now and it hurts to have him as a champion. Bully Ray will win the belt back and TNA will set up whoever will gun for him at Bound for Glory.

Score: 5 for 7

8. You would read Lex Luger’s auto-biography.

Mark Radulich: FACT. I would definitely listen to it on Audible while driving to and from work. Part of the reason I listen to the Steve Austin podcast is that I enjoy the old wrestling stories. While Lex Luger was not exactly one of my favorite wrestlers, he was popular in a time I enjoy hearing about. I’m also always interested in someone’s perspective of the business. I find commentaries on the inner working of pro-wrestling to be very entertaining and that alone is reason enough to check out Luger’s book.

Shawn S. Lealos: FACT. I have always been a huge Lex Luger fan, and even when other people were dismissing him as someone who “couldn’t wrestle,” I always loved him as one of the best heels in the game. When him and Sting were together, and Luger was acting like a heel behind Sting’s back, that was one of my favorite times to watch him wrestle. For that reason, I would read his book. HOWEVER, I probably won’t pay money for it because I have read reviews that say that he doesn’t approach anything controversial, which means it won’t be anything really new from Lex. That is sad, because these books are best when they are a tell-all and the person holds nothing back. I don’t want him to bury anyone, but I want him to touch on all the aspects of his career.

Final Score: 6 for 8

Mark & Shawn were fairly agreeable this week. Do you agree with them? Let us know down in the comment section! Thanks to Mark & Shawn for participating, and we’ll be back next week with more Fact or Fiction!

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