411 Fact or Fiction 7.19.07: The Better Half of AMW, Cena vs. Lashley, the Triple X Reunion and More!
Posted by Larry Csonka on 07.19.2007
Week ONE HUNDRED and THIRTY-FIVE features Stuart Carapola and Satir debating the lack of excitement for this weekend’s WWE Great American Bash.
Welcome back to another week of 411 Fact or Fiction: Wrestling Edition! This week, two 411 standouts go head to head as High Road/Low Road's Satir battles Friendly Competition's Stuart Carapola!
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Let's get to it!
1. James Storm will be the breakout star of the AMW tag team.
SAT:FICTION. James Storm is going to be a good wrestler, but he is not going to be the breakout star of the AMW tag team. Chris Harris is going to be the breakout star of the AMW tag team. TNA seems to be interested in turning Chris Harris into a star with the interview segment that they showed on Impact and the pay per view. Plus, I felt that Chris Harris looked better at the pay per view against Christian Cage than James Storm did with Rhino. Also, I can buy Chris Harris has a world title contender, while James Storm is not considered a world title contender right now.
Stuart Carapola :FACT. I don't think it's an issue of how they're being booked as much as the kind of potential that each man has shown since the split. In my opinion, even though I consider them equals as workers, James Storm has shown himself to be the far more entertaining character than Harris, who comes off as very bland to me. I also think that they're so determined to get Harris over as a singles star that they risk rejection from shoving him down people's throats, even if it's not to the degree of a John Cena. Storm, on the other hand, has been able to develop without being pushed so heavily that he's in our faces all the time. He also has the benefit of having had several extra months to build his character while Harris was "injured". I don't necessarily know if I will equate "breakout star" with meaning the more successful of the two in terms of company backing, but I can definitely see fans gravitating toward Storm more than his former partner.
Score:0 for 1
2. WWE is jumping the gun on the Lashley vs. Cena WWE title program
SAT :FACT. The WWE is jumping the gun on the Bobby Lashley vs. John Cena match because John Cena has a ton of viable opponents that he could face instead of Bobby Lashley. John Cena could have faced Randy Orton, King Booker, and Mr. Kennedy. I think the main reason that the WWE decided to do this match is because they feel that this pay per view is not going to do so well. Does anybody want to buy this pay per view because of Edge versus Kane or Johnny Nitro versus CM Punk? The WWE is trying to get fans to buy this pay per view based solely on Cena versus Lashley because it is a battle of two superheroes that haven't been stopped by anybody. Cena and Lashley should have been something that was done down the line.
Stuart Carapola:FICTION. While my first instinct was to agree with Sat, once I actually stopped and thought about it, I realized that I think that it's the King Booker and Kennedy matches, and not that against Lashley, which should be saved for down the line. It's no secret that I don't care for Lashley, but I thought he was fine where he was at the top of ECW because it's the third string brand. I absolutely do not think he is anywhere near ready to hold the REAL big belt, so while I think a series of matches against (and losing to) John Cena will help him in the long run, I don't think that saving a Lashley-Cena match for a few months from now would be a good idea because it would likely come with the expectation that Lashley win, and he's just not ready for it. Besides, they can always revisit the feud somewhere down the line when Lashley's got a little more seasoning and it might be worth thinking about giving him a serious try on top.
Score:0 for 2
3. TNA reuniting Triple X is a smart move.
SAT :FACT. TNA did a good thing by reuniting Triple X because Christopher Daniels and Senshi were doing nothing of impact in TNA. Senshi has been doing nothing of importance since he lost the X-Division Title. Christopher Daniels was going to be a lost cause because of the conclusion of his angle with Sting. There is the problem of the stipulation where they could never team again, but besides that this was an excellent move.
Stuart Carapola :FICTION Gotta disagree again. I can't point to the lack of direction of Christopher Daniels and Senshi as a reason to reunite Triple X. For one, it's revisiting an angle that died years ago, and also it's going to get Senshi and Daniels lost in the shuffle with one another instead of further developing them as singles stars, which is what they should really be doing with these two right now. Besides, what does either man stand to gain by being associated with Elix Skipper at this point? Since the breakup of Triple X after the AMW match, he was a straight-up jobber, and that's what people remember him as. I think that the perception will be that Daniels and Senshi are lowering themselves to be on Skipper's level and not that they're bringing Skipper up to theirs.
Score:0 for 3
---SWITCH~!---
4. There is very little excitement for this Sunday's WWE Great American Bash PPV.
Stuart Carapola :FACT. The Great American Bash is this Sunday? I didn't even realize it. I don't know why, but this PPV is traditionally one of the worst promoted "major" events of the year. Though I think this is large part due to how bad the first couple WWE versions of the show came off, it's also in a dead spot in the middle of the summer when not a lot of people are thinking about wrestling. I think WWE realizes this and handles their promotion accordingly. The only match I knew offhand without having to check was Johnny Nitro vs. CM Punk, and that's only because I cover ECW. Even though I don't watch Raw and Smackdown religiously (or, at times, at all) I at least knew the top matches for those shows on the last several PPVs. If WWE isn't going to try to excite people about one of their PPVs, people aren't going to get excited, simple as that, and that's why there's very little excitement about the GAB.
SAT :FACT. There is no excitement going into the Great American Bash, but that is not a surprise because the Great American Bash is this way every year. As I said above, the WWE knows this and they are trying to bank the entire pay per view on Bobby Lashley versus John Cena. Besides that there is nothing that is going to cause you to buy this pay per view. Edge versus Kane and Johnny Nitro versus CM Punk have no excitement what so ever. The Dusty Rhodes and Randy Orton feud has been well built, but it isn't something to get excited about. The rest of the card is just there to fill in the card and really has nothing that would get you excited.
Score:1 for 4
5. By year's end, the team of Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin (The Murder City Machine Guns) will be recognized as the best tag team in North America
Stuart Carapola :FICTION. Though I heard their match with the Briscoes in ROH was off the charts, I haven't seen it. I also haven't seen much of their work in TNA. In fact, I didn't even know they were a team until the match with the Briscoes was announced, and then all of a sudden I started hearing about what an awesome team they are. The main thing to think about here is that even though the tag team scene is somewhat weak right now across the board, if the MCMG are to be recognized as the best tag team in North America, they've got a LOT of ground to make up, especially if they're starting at the midpoint of the year. I personally think that between the matches they're putting on a regular basis as well as their past reputation, there's no way any team's going to top the Briscoes this year. LAX and Team 3D also are seen as being ahead of everyone else in TNA, where the MCMG are currently working. Basically what I'm saying is that however good their teamwork and matches are, they've got work to do to build up a reputation for themselves outside of the Michigan area before they can even come close to being recognized as the best tag team on the continent.
SAT :FICTION. There is no way that they are going to be recognized as the best tag team in North America by the end of the year. As Stuart said, they have started to team up in the middle of the year and they have a ton of ground to make up. They have so many teams to overtake that it is going to be impossible for them to be considered the best tag team in North America. Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin still have to overtake LAX and Team 3D in TNA, London and Kendrick and Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch in the WWE, and the Briscoes in ROH. That is way too much to overcome in five months. I will say that they did show some signs of excellence against Mr. Backlund and Jerry Lynn, but they still have a ways to go before they can be considered the best tag team in North America.
Score:2 for 5
6. Ken Kennedy and Fit Finlay's recent media appearances did more harm than good for the WWE.
Stuart Carapola : FICTION. While I didn't catch Finlay's appearance, the word I got from reading up on it is that he seemed more like he was towing the company line and wasn't entirely familiar with the important points being discussed. Kennedy, on the other hand, made a TON of great points. The problem is that while there was no harm done, they didn't help either. The thing is that while Finlay came off like a doof to us, and Kennedy came off like a hero to us, it's still how they're coming off to us, the wrestling fans. To the "regular" people, wrestlers are not to be taken seriously and, at the end of the day, they're going to think what they want to think regardless of how well or poorly wrestlers do on talk shows. Kennedy could do such a good job of proving his case that it would get someone out of a Vietnamese POW camp, people are still going to rationalize it with something like "Oh well, he's a wrestler, of course he's going to say these things" or "Oh, he's just saying what WWE is telling him to say." With Finlay, they're just going to look at him and say "What a typical wrestler, doesn't have any idea what's going on and just proved our point." Sadly, what I think it's going to take for people to really (or at least potentially) start changing their minds is for somebody OUTSIDE the industry to take a stand and say, "Hey guys, uh, I think we've got our facts a bit skewed." Only problem is there isn't anybody with no attachment to the business who both knows how things really work and are also willing to stand up and say something. Until then, it's just a bunch of second class citizens speaking to the elites, and nothing anyone on our side of the fence is going to say or do is going to change that, for better or worse.
SAT :FICTION. I think that both guys came out of it looking pretty bad, but no harm was done to the WWE. I think the WWE is in a situation where it can't get any worse for them because everybody already believes that the cause was steroids and that the wrestlers are on steroids and you are not going to change that. Both guys did not know the drug policy, but they both towed the company line by saying that if you test positive you will be suspended. I think all of the people are under the assumption that the wrestlers are on steroids and they have a fake testing policy to make it seem like they are not on steroids and these appearances did nothing to change that.
Score:3 for 6
These two finish 3 for 6! Join us next week for more Fact or Fiction!
