411 Fact or Fiction 05.04.06: ECW, DX, The Coach, More

Posted by Ashish on 05.04.2006

It's week SEVENTY NINE of Fact or Fiction with Larry Csonka, Stephen Randle, and more ECW madness!

Welcome back to Fact or Fiction! It's been an eventful week in wrestling and who better to debate the hottest topics going around this week than 411 icons Larry Csonka and Stephen Randle!


1. The Spirit Squad needs to go.

Stephen Randle: FICTION. Oh, man, Ashish is breaking my balls here. I hate the Spirit Squad gimmick for so many reasons. It's hackneyed, it's irritating, and it's not funny. But what it has done is gotten five talented guys from OVW, a couple of whom would probably be considered "too small" for a more serious gimmick, gratuitous TV time and had them rubbing up against the top guys on Raw. This is a Vince pet project, which means that he must have more in mind for at least two or three of the guys than a dead-end cheerleader gimmick eventually. But given the choice between being in an annoying group of male cheerleaders and being like former OVW grad Rob Conway, stuck on Heat and occasionally jobbing to Kane, which do you think Ken Doane, Nick Nemeth, Nick Mitchell, Mike Mondo and Johnny Jeter would rather have? I can stomach the gimmick as long as they actually wrestle, which they seem to be finally getting around to, because all five can go in the ring.

Larry Csonka: FICTION. Ken Doane, Nick Nemeth, Nick Mitchell, Mike Mondo and Johnny Jeter have all be a fun part of Raw for me because they are so wacky, so over the top and different than about anything else on TV. As Randle said, they are Vince's pet project, which is why they have been such a big part of the Vince vs. HBK feud. They are learning on the job, and Jeter and Doane have so much upside and potential to be great that this could help them. How many other 20-year olds have gotten to work with HBK as much as Doane has? He and Jeter will be something as long as they don't get Ortonitus. The other three will most likely be solid contributors to the mid-card or tag ranks, and will be good there. As much as the whole ideal was stupid to me when I heard it, it is helping these guys and actually making for some fun segments. Rob Conway wished he was a fn male cheerleader right about now. WELLNESS~!

Score: 1 for 1


2. All the HBK/Triple H stuff is leading up to DX's return.

Stephen Randle: FACT. And yet a month ago I would have said Fiction. The stuff that happened this week on Raw has just made it very blatant that a Trip-HBK alliance is in the offing. The clincher? It wasn't the staredown, or the crotch chopping, or even his comical refereeing. It was Trip playing complete DX-face-Hunter to Mr. McMahon, breaking from his normal persona who is all about buddying up to Vince. There's something a-brewing there, and the only question remaining is where does John Cena, WWE Champion end up in all this?

Larry Csonka: FACT. And I actually am happy about it. HHH seems revitalized as of late, and if returning to DX HHH has to happen for him to get refreshed, so be it. He and HBK were great in their ref roles on Monday and "the moment" at the top of the ramp Monday had the place buzzing. As long as X-Suk stays in Wrestling Society X smoking crack with Justin Credible and they do some fun stuff, make it so.

Score: 2 for 2


3. MTV's new wrestling show, Wrestling Society X, will cater to the MTV audience, not WWE or TNA's audience.

Stephen Randle: FACT. This is actually the first time I've heard of WSX in a while, which shows how far under the average wrestling fan's radar this thing is. That's not to say that it WON'T attract the same audience that watches WWE and TNA (pretending they aren't mostly one and the same audience is asinine), but I suspect MTV is planning this to be more in the vein of their millions of reality shows, as opposed to an actual legitimate wrestling promotion. That is, creating stories out of the real people backstage as opposed to fictional storylines that take place in the context of a wrestling show. I don't have any data to back that up, that's just what I suspect MTV's motivations are.

Larry Csonka: FACT. It's not under the radar chief, you're just too much of a WWE HOMER to realize that there is other wrestling. But we agree, MTV is going to niche this thing to their genre of TV style. They are going to incorporate the music into the shows, and I can just see some up close confessionals with New Jack and a bottle of whiskey. Of course they will try to add some wrestling after that, ad we all know that there are some that will watch any and all wrestling (WWE/TNA Fans) so they will play off of that last. Should be interesting, and another thing for me to recap.

Score: 3 for 3


---SWITCHAROO!!!---


4. The ECW angle will end up being a bust.

Larry Csonka: FACT. At the end of the day, fact. This has nothing to do with the fact that I don't think an ECW rebirth is a good idea (they SHOULD have done it last year with all of the momentum) but is the fact that I have no faith in Vince McMahon. Why should I have any faith in him to do this the right way? In 2001 Vince McMahon was handed a virtual mint, a license to print his own money with his own face on it. He could have gone down as THE man in the history of wrestling. He was handed years worth of storylines, feuds and fresh matches. And he pissed it all away in the matter of 9-months. The purchase of WCW, the new war, invasion, eventual alliance and climax all pissed away in 9-FN-months. The saddest part is that WCW never got a leg up on him because his ego wouldn't allow it. He defeated WCW, bought it, owned it but just couldn't let it go.

Now some will say, "This is ECW, Vince never was against it. He helped Paul and ECW with money and talent." Of course he also did that for himself as well, but that is besides the point. What is the point? Vince will only allow this thing to get so big. If it grows and starts to overshadow his shows and his guys, he will simply put them on WWE programming. ECW coming back is just for money and something else for Vince to play with. This isn't a reward for Paul, Dreamer, RVD or anyone else. Plus, if he can bring back a few ECW favorites from TNA and hurt them, it's just an added bonus for him. ECW will thrive at first, but once they get too big for their britches or do something that Vince doesn't like, it's over yet again.

Stephen Randle: FACT. Because like Larry said, at the end of the day, which side do you think Vince is really on? Sure, he's not averse to having more money, which a successful ECW revival is capable of providing, but if he were really serious about ECW's success, I think they'd be getting a little more out of it than replacing Velocity matches with "ECW" ones. This is an outlet where Paul Heyman can book to his heart's content without pissing off anyone in Creative, plus it's just an extension of why they sent Heyman to OVW in the first place: to train guys to be ready for television appearances. Sticking them in "ECW" puts them in a TV-like environment every week with a larger audience than OVW alone can provide, but restricting it to online-only means they can cover for screw-ups, and also means that everything that happens there is outside of WWE canon, so they can completely rewrite a character when he "graduates" to Raw or Smackdown. Like I said, Vince loves more money, and he can sell ECW shirts, DVD's, hats, commemorative magazines, all that stuff to an eager fanbase right now. But creatively, realistically, in the long-term, the ECW revival probably won't make it any farther than what is being planned now.

Score: 4 for 4


5. The Joey Styles "shoot" promo was a good way to start the ECW angle.

Larry Csonka: FACT. It was a damn good way of kicking things off. They have had the perfect story behind it as well, that is why it worked. Joey has been mocked on air by King and Coach in the past. They always knock ECW. He was pulled from WrestleMania and given a pitty match to call for the most part. Then, he is pulled from Backlash. Earlier in Raw Edge slammed him saying that his "3rd rate ECW announcing" ruined his shining moment at WrestleMania. Then he gets embarrassed by the Spirit Squad and insulted by his tag team partner in the booth. He snapped. When he came back out he said everything that he honestly believes. He started out by saying that he didn't call WWE, WWE called him and that he didn't need the job. That is completely true and a point that needed to be stressed. He hates sports entertainment, "superstars," God used in storylines, boogers, semen, story telling instead of commentary, he IS embarrassed by Vince McMahon, does respect the guys that bust their ass in the ring and thinks a troop of cheerleaders sucks. That was Joey Styles speaking and he meant it. The other think that was great is that it was that simple. He didn't "shoot" with a bunch of insider terms that only 16% of the audience would get. Many think his turn on the crowd was bad, but it wasn't. ECW never kissed anyone's ass. They did their thing and the crowd replied how they wanted to. He didn't kiss their ass, Vince's ass or anyone's ass. It was a damn fine way to kick things off, and IF they let Joey be Joey it will only be for the best. I want him and JR in the booth for that ECW vs. WWE special. JR's pissed off deal against "shooting Styles" will be spectacular.

Stephen Randle: FACT. Because taken on its own, it doesn't necessarily start the ECW angle. By which I mean, sure, we insider fans know One Night Stand 2 and the ECW revival are coming, and we also "know" about Joey's backstage problems, but Joe Twelve-Pack watching Raw every week just sees Joey Styles, the character, getting pissed off for storyline reasons that play out on TV. After taking abuse all day, after getting publicly bumped from Backlash and WrestleMania, and getting mocked by Jerry "Puppies" Lawler, It's logical that Joey should quit in that situation, and now the casual fan wonders "well, what's going to happen next in this storyline?" It's intriguing, and worked on enough levels to hook the insiders (with the "shoot" comments), the ECW fans (who love Joey Styles), and the casuals (who recognize a story developing).

Score: 5 for 5


6. Jonathan Coachman will be better used as a manager/on-air character than as an announcer.

Larry Csonka: FACT. A thousand times a fact. Coach is passable, barely on commentary, but has a great presence and look. The few times they have let him do anything different, with Cade, Vader/Goldust and others he has done very well. His work as Bishoff's lackey I also enjoyed. I think having him move to a managerial role would not only be good for him, but good for the person he is with. Plus I think managers should be used much more. Rock on with manager Coach!

Stephen Randle: FACT. But then, he'd be a better anything than an announcer. Coach has serious heel charisma and a great character, plus fans want to see him get his ass kicked on a daily basis. That's great for being a manager. As an announcer, what he lacks is a) any sort of credibility with the fans to do play-by-play or color, and b) the ability to know when he should shut the hell up. Seriously, every time Coach was out there, it's not that he wasn't funny, or didn't have good heel mannerisms, it was that he just completely dominated the commentary, often stealing focus from the match. Okay, that happens anyway with all the "storytelling" they're supposed to do, but often it was Coach going off on tangents about himself and how great he was. It's great stuff for a guy doing guest commentating for a single match, but two hours of random Coach stuff, when there's matches going on, is just too much. Also, when you have a guy like Coach, with genuine heel heat but no wrestling ability, the first thing you SHOULD think of doing is pairing him with a hot new heel as a manager to help get him over, not sticking him out in commentary where all he can do is annoy the other announcers.

Score: 6 for 6


These two finish with the first perfect score in awhile! Join us next week for more Fact or Fiction!