411 Fact or Fiction 04.13.06: RVD, ECW, Carlito, More

Posted by Ashish on 04.13.2006

It's week SEVENTY SIX of Fact or Fiction with Ryan Byers, JP Prag, and whether the Vince McMahon church skit went too far....

Welcome back to Fact or Fiction! This week, the man who loves Hidden Highlights, JP Prag, takes on the man who loves Cheap Wrestling, Ryan Byers!


1. Rob Van Dam is one of the worst talkers in WWE today.

Ryan Byers: FACT. I don't think that there's ever been a statement in this column that I agreed with more. What made Rob Van Dam stand out in ECW was that he was able to work a kind of match that nobody had seen before. The Philadelphia zombies lapped it up because they loved anything that involved a professional wrestler taking unnecessary risks and nearly crippling himself on a nightly basis. Because they liked Rob for this, they decided that they had to love everything surrounding Van Dam, including his incredibly lame promos. Here's the real deal on RVD's mic work: Wrestlers are supposed to use their interviews to convey emotion . . . emotion that gets the fans riled up and gets them to buy tickets or PPVs. Ric Flair did that. Terry Funk did that. Dusty Rhodes did that. Rob Van Dam just droned on and on in a grating monotone and periodically stumbled over his words because of the vast amount of THC built up in his body. Sadly, it's what he's still doing today, except now burn out boy is being forced to read from a script, thus increasing the chances of him screwing things up.

JP Prag: FICTION. While RVD is no Rock, Austin, or Jericho on the mic, he is far better than we (or should I say Byers) gives him credit. Yes, the hardcore ECW fans (which were very far flung by the time RVD came on the scene, not just Philly local) were into his moveset and that helped get attention. But it was his cocky attitude that really got him over with the crowd. He turned face without every dropping a single thing from his gimmick, including his "I'm the best" promos. I think Joey Styles used to say RVD is as good as he says he is, and probably a little better. That sums up to me the gimmick RVD got over through his promos. Besides, worst talker? Aren't people like Viscera, Lance Cade, Danny Basham, Cloe, and Gymini II on the roster? There are far, far, far worse talkers than RVD.

Score: 0 for 1


2. Carlito will be a WWE/World Champion by January of 2007.

Ryan Byers: FICTION. Though he has shown flashes of brilliance on the mic in the past, I think the Great Carlito Experiment has officially failed. In order for a man to be a truly successful World Champion, he needs to be able to go out and do something special with just about any other man on the roster. We have seen Carlito share some magical moments with wrestlers who are much more experienced than he is. His matches with Flair, for example, were surprisingly good, while his interaction on the mic with the likes of Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, and Roddy Piper has also been memorable. However, in recent months, we've seen Carlito paired with people who just don't have "it," people that are on roughly the same level as he is in terms of talent. He's worked with Kane, Chris Masters, and the Big Show . . . and the result has been a tremendous failure in all cases. Until Carly figures out how to take guys like that and shine them up in to something special, he will be nowhere near the caliber of a World Champion.

JP Prag: FICTION. Ummm... what show have you been watching? Carlito has been a failure? Not by my Hidden Highlights and straight in your face counts. Carlito has done excellent work with the aforementioned three, and is getting the "heel who people pop for" reaction. That said, Carlito has not been in the WWE long enough to warrant a WWE/World Title reign anytime this year. Also, there are a lot more programs to do on the top of both divisions that there just is no room for Carlito right now. He might get a title shot or two, but he's certainly not in line to take the ball and run with it. Carlito is young, and although experienced, can easily spend another couple of years floating in the upper mid-card until the trigger is pulled.

Score: 1 for 2


3. The Vince/Shane McMahon skit at the church on RAW was funny, not over the top.

Ryan Byers: FICTION. I don't know what exactly the question is getting at since "funny" and "over the top" are not mutually exclusive terms. Hell, I'd say some of the funniest things that I've ever seen have been over the top. However, I ultimately chose fiction because the skit was not funny in the least. It was Vince McMahon going on television trying to be controversial and outrageous, just like he did a few months ago with his Dr. Heiny shtick. It's got all the charm of a three year old child who throws a temper tantrum in order to get his couch potato father to pay attention to him. The father might react the first time. He might react the second time. However, by the time the kid is in his sixties and has appeared on the cover of Muscle & Fitness magazine, chances are good that daddy will just turn his head away and completely ignore the little bastard's acting up. That's what I had to do to Vince on Monday night.

JP Prag: FICTION. For a rarity among rarities, I really have to agree with Byers on this one. I did not find the skit funny at all except for one line (which we'll get to this week in Hidden Highlights). But it wasn't that it was so childish, it was that it was so transparent. It was an obvious ploy to be "controversial" and to get a reaction and to make people boo. Because it was so obvious, it was just ineffectual. It did not make me want to boo of laugh or do anything. Actually, this is the exact moment when I fell asleep watching my DVR of RAW. Vince is missing organic responses and skits, and when he does have those he does not follow up on them. Just let the crowd do what they want and stop trying to be controversial and let people who have controversy surrounding them take on those roles. Why force what isn't there?

Score: 2 for 3


---SWITCHAROO!!!---


4. The first Thursday Impact will draw at least a 1.3 rating.

JP Prag: FICTION. As much as I love TNA and wish it were true, the highest rating >we have ever seen from them is a 1.1. Even if the Ultimate Fighter gets a 3.0 rating, that does not translate into everyone coming over to watch TNA. It is still 11:00pm at night. Also, you need to understand how Nielson ratings are calculated. Since college students (probably the largest group that would watch TNA at that time) are not counted, TNA's numbers are mostly reflected by middle-aged mid-west families. The vast majority of these people have to wake up for work/school in the morning, so TNA with little branding might not keep them awake until midnight.

Ryan Byers: FACT. Though I don't think it will go much higher than the 1.3, if at all. History has shown us that TNA's ratings are strongest when one of two things occur 1.) Sting is in a major role or 2.) there is a strong UFC lead-in. We're going to have both of those factors present on Thursday night, and the UFC lead will probably be the strongest of all time given that last week's debut did a whopping 1.95 household rating. The Sting factor is also as strong as it possibly could be, with his first free TV match in five years taking place. On top of that, there's the Joe/Daniels match that will essentially guarantee all of TNA's core audience tuning in, and the elimination of the Monday night replay will result in more of a "must see" factor for those same individuals. Though my esteemed colleague claims that the rating will be hurt by college students not being factored in, he fails to mention why exactly this would set a ceiling for the rating at 1.1 of all figures.

Score: 2 for 4


5. Having Triple H beat Rob Van Dam at the ECW PPV would ruin the entire show and spit on everything ECW stands for.

JP Prag: FACT. Having Triple H on the show goes against what the ECW PPV should be. I thought it's supposed to be Paul E's show where he is allowed to do what he does best: make great matches and hide the flaws. How does a WWE storyline fit into that? That is just another way to bastardize the true history of ECW, something that no tape library in the world can ever replicate.

Ryan Byers: FICTION. The show doesn't stand for a damn thing other than Vince McMahon making a quick buck, so I fail to see how booking one WWE wrestler to go over in the rumored main event kills its spirit. If you want a true representation of the ECW legacy, go buy some tapes. The real deal is where it belongs: Dead and buried six feet underground. It's a shame that it didn't get there sooner.

Score: 2 for 5


6. Smackdown has improved greatly over the past few weeks and is now on par with RAW.

JP Prag: FACT. But with reservations. I never felt SmackDown! was particularly below RAW. SmackDown! has had some of my favorite storylines and characters, so that was not a concern. I did not believe the main event scene was so depleted when Batista left that they needed Angle, but that's fine with me. Now we have programs that involve Rey, Angle, Orton (until the end of this week), and later we can add JBL, Benoit, and (hopefully) Booker T back into the mix. That sounds like a great place to start, and that's where we are now!

Ryan Byers: FICTION. Like Prag, I never though that Smackdown was below Raw's level. Message board posters can proclaim Raw was the stronger show all that they want, but to do so is to be sucked in to Vince McMahon's propaganda machine. BOTH shows were horrible leading in to Wrestlemania. On the Raw side you had Gang Green of Masters, Cena, and Carlito taking up the majority of the ring time to atrocious results. Meanwhile, on Smackdown, the wrestling was a bit better but Randy Orton was sucking the life out of crowds on a weekly basis with his bland, irritating promos. Neither show could get its main event program to click with crowds, as HHH/Cena had to play second fiddle to HBK/Vince and the SD Three-Way was a battle of guys who had jobbed to midcarders for a month straight. Though both shows had lower card acts that delivered in their roles - Booker T, Mickie James, Fit Finlay, The Spirit Squad, etc. - neither brand could do a damn thing when it came to putting together the programs that are actually supposed to draw viewers and lead to PPV buys. That's what you should actually be judging the show's "strength" on, folks. Now that we're three episodes of TV past Wrestlemania, it looks like both shows could be turning the corner thanks to the great promo work of Triple H/Edge and what has the potential to be a very sold King of the Ring tournament. However, it's far too soon to judge either show's post-WM efforts, especially when it comes to making blanket statements about which program is better.

Score: 2 for 6


These two finish 2 for 6! Join us next week for more Fact or Fiction!