411 Fact or Fiction 01.23.14: Steve Austin at WM 30, Daniel Bryan Winning The Rumble, Wolves to TNA, More

Welcome back to the latest edition of 411 Fact or Fiction, Wrestling Edition! Stuff happened, people loved/hated it and let everyone else know. I pick through the interesting/not so interesting tidbits and then make 411 staff members discuss them for your pleasure. Battling this week: First, he is the man in charge of the 411 Games Top 5, he is Mr. Sean Garmer! His opponent is the man behind the revival of the Smackdown Instant Analysis report, he is Mr. Nick Sellers! Lets get to work…

Questions were sent out Monday.

Participants were told to expect wrestling-related questions, possible statements on quantum physics and hydroponics.

1. If Steve Austin does not wrestle at WrestleMania 30, he never will return to the ring.

Sean Garmer: FICTION – If WrestleMania 32 is really going to happen at Jerry World then I think there is still hope that Austin might want to have one more match in his home state of Texas. At this point, it would be a total crap rush job to have Stone Cold wrestle at WrestleMania 30 so I really hope he doesn’t wrestle actually. As a native Texan and someone that has loved watching Austin for a long time it would be great to see him retire there. But if he doesn’t wrestle ever again he will be just fine.

Nick Sellers: FICTION – To a point. Austin has already stated that he needs at least three months to properly prepare for a return match, but has also said that because he’s got so many other commitments, right now just isn’t the best time. But back to my reason for picking fiction; I think Austin will step back into the ring one day, but probably in the same manner as say, Bret Hart during his 2010 run where he did a few bits a pieces and nothing that would hamper his health, or he might do something similar to Ricky Steamboat at WrestleMania 25 and play a part in a tag match after an extended period out of the limelight (swap the arm drags with crossbodys with mudhole stomps and Stunners). That would be cool. You can never say never, hence my picking fiction, but he won’t be locking up with any of the current crop any time soon.

2. At this time, you have no real interest in Randy Orton as the WWE Champion.

Sean Garmer: FICTION – It’s not that I’m not interested, it’s more like I’m confused. The Authority can’t decide if they want to be heels or faces, they can’t decide if they want to support Orton’s actions or not, I mean this is just getting stupid. I like Orton being paranoid and wondering what will happen to him every time he steps into an arena. But that ending on RAW solidified how confusing Orton has looked in this entire storyline. Orton can beat Cena clean in a ladder match to unify the World Titles, but he has to get undressed verbally before the match and then look like a pansy running away from Cena into a random car before the Royal Rumble rematch. I just hope WWE finds a clear direction for Orton heading into WrestleMania because if this wobbly booking continues I won’t care about whatever match he’s involved in, in the future.

Nick Sellers: FICTION – I’m interested, although I’ve got some major reservations about how they’ve handled him. Despite being the holder of the belts, he doesn’t carry himself any differently to how he has previously. You’d think being the champion of champions or whatever, he’d be wearing expensive suits, driving fast cars (not bloody hitching rides with common strangers like he did on Raw!) and being presented like a total Don in light of his status as someone who’s made history. We haven’t had that but as I said, there IS an interest there because he has Batista, Cena and Lesnar at least all gunning for his title, and for those three I think there’s more money to be made in their respective chases for the gold going into WrestleMania. And to be fair to Orton, on his day he can actually do aggression quite well. More aggression, less whining and a sprinkling of that over-bearing self-confidence he used to display and they’re on to a winner.

3. Booking the Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar is a waste of a Brock Lesnar appearance.

Sean Garmer: FICTION – I don’t think it is. These two have history together and they have had some decent matches with each other as well. Big Show used to be involved with Heyman and it adds another layer to the story, which has actually made me pay attention to the segments Big Show and Heyman are involved in together. I’d fully expect Brock to win here, but isn’t that the point? I know Big Show has been through a lot of different phases this year, but he is still a GIANT! If Brock beats the biggest guy in WWE doesn’t that give him instant credibility to his claim that he is THE #1 contender? I think so.

Nick Sellers: FICTION – So far the build has been great, and that alone has made his appearances very worthwhile. We know Paul Heyman is superb on the mic and hypes Brock up as the greatest thing since sliced bread, but Big Show has been holding his own in that department too and the physical interactions between him and Brock have gone down very well. How the match itself will turn out in terms if quality is anyone’s guess, but there’s no faulting the build at all.

4. TNA {reportedly} hiring Tommy Dreamer as a new agent, replacing Jeff Jarrett in that role, was a good choice.

Sean Garmer: FACT – Why not? Tommy Dreamer has been there before and has WWE agent training as well. I’m sure he has lots of ideas for what to do in matches and he can help the booking team too. I think this is a win for TNA.

Nick Sellers: FACT – Can’t see any problems with this: Tommy is well respected and has bags of experience. Although his own personal style of wrestling has never been everyone’s cup of tea, he’s still worked with some of the biggest stars around and would make a valuable resource for talent to extract knowledge from. Good move from TNA.

SWITCH!

5. WWE should bring in Sting, not to wrestle, but to induct the Ultimate Warrior into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Nick Sellers: FICTION – I know they have history, and Sting would be sure to get a great reception in his own right just for coming turning up in any capacity. But I think Hogan would be a much better choice to induct Warrior given their WWE history. That’s not to say I don’t want Sting to join the company, I think it would be brilliant and I’d even encourage them to let him do a match or two. Ideal scenario: Have him come back for the Hall of Fame as an inductee rather than someone doing an induction.

Sean Garmer: FACT – I’ve said this many times on my Wrestling 2 the MAX podcast. It would hurt everyone involved to have Sting come right off a year’s worth of TNA appearances and go straight into a WrestleMania program with Undertaker or anyone else they might have a plan for him to wrestle. Have Sting induct his Bladerunner tag partner at the Hall of Fame. Then if you want to, you can have Sting appear after Taker’s match at WM 30, they have a stare down, maybe even you have Sting speak and challenge Taker to a match in the future right there. Sting vs. Taker should have a year of build and most of all Sting should have a lot of time to rest and work out so that he is at his best whenever he does wrestle for WWE.

6. The WWE creating Divas Tag Team Titles would be a bad idea.

Nick Sellers: FICTION – In the same way that the male tag division has revitalized of late, a divas tag division might not be such a bad thing. For one, it gives the girls more opportunities to get on TV and actually gives them something else to aim for rather than only having one belt they can ever challenge for. The execution of it is a different matter, and there’s a chance it might be used to provide too much filler and/or the quality of matches may vary. But it could provide an avenue for the next generation of divas to make their way into the roster, cutting their teeth in tag outings first before then going on to singles work. So the idea is a good one, but like all good ideas it depends on the execution.

Sean Garmer: FACT – Right now, yes it would be a bad idea. I think in a year or two maybe it could work. WWE has enough divas between what they have on the current roster and NXT to make a Divas tag team division worthwhile. But you can’t just bring up a bunch of divas just to make a tag division. Establish each one of those NXT divas and when you do pair them into teams it means something. If you think about it, WWE already have four teams they’ve established at some point on WWE TV, Funkadactyls, Aksana & Alicia Fox, AJ & Tamina, and The Bellas. You could do Emma & Natalya, Paige & Bayley, and the BFF’s. And I guess you could have the Ryback & Axel equivalent team of Charlotte & Rosa Mendes too. That’s a lot of teams and I could see it working, just not right now.

7. You like the fact that the Wolves (Richards and Edwards) signed with TNA instead of WWE.

Nick Sellers: FICTION – To preface, I have nothing against TNA at all. But I’ve answered fiction because in all brutal honesty I didn’t have a preference either way. Given the choice, and again I must stress that I don’t have anything against TNA, I think WWE would’ve made them both more financially secure and they’d get to perform on a bigger platform. That’s why I went fiction, but good luck to them and I’m sure they’ll prosper there.

Sean Garmer: FACT – TNA may only have three tag teams, well I guess five if you include Spud & EC3 and Fernum & Barnes. Either way, their tag division is hanging on by a thread at this point. It would be great to see The Wolves help revitalize it. Plus with TNA you know they will bring them in as you know them in the indy’s. I wouldn’t let their one time NXT appearance fool you, I wouldn’t be confident that WWE would just change their name and send them out as they are. I think this year in TNA will do them some good and who knows, maybe WWE will take notice and sign them after that.

8. Now that he is medically cleared, Daniel Bryan will win the Royal Rumble on Sunday.

Nick Sellers: FICTION – Totally impossible to say for certain because he’s now booked against Bray Wyatt in a singles match. But to throw something out there: Two ways to get him back into the Rumble match is to either A) Attack either Harper or Rowan backstage before the Rumble and take a spot, or B) Have Haper & Rowan interfere in the earlier singles match, and an authority figure then removes them both from the Rumble as punishment. That leaves two spots left, so you could give one to Bryan and the other to someone else. In all likelihood they’ll stick with what they’ve got and either Punk or Batista will win the Rumble. It’s exciting stuff though whichever route they take.

Sean Garmer: FACT – This is hard for me because I feel like WWE still wants to keep messing with everyone and may have Bryan last all the way to number 2, just to have him be eliminated by Batista at the end. WWE does have a chance to make Bryan look like Willis Reed for the NY Knicks if they have him get the crap beat out of him by The Wyatts after he beats Bray by pin, submission, or DQ in their match. Then you wait until about number 25 or later and have WWE say that Bryan’s status for The Rumble is uncertain, only for him to show up as an entrant and end up winning. He’d look pretty awesome in my view and it would keep with the “Bryan overcoming the odds” storyline he’s been in off and on for a long time.

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