411 Fact or Fiction 1.31.08: The Return of Elevation X, Lashley’s Possible Departure, The Quality of the Rumble PPV and More!

Posted by Larry Csonka on 01.31.2008

Week ONE HUNDRED and SIXTY-THREE features JD Dunn, Stephen Randle and discussion of STONE COLD SHARK BOY!

Welcome back to another week of 411 Fact or Fiction: Wrestling Edition! This week, two 411 writers go to battle as Stephen Randle enters the 411 Arena to do battle with JD Dunn!

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Let's get to it!

1. John Cena winning the Royal Rumble was not only a complete surprise, but the right call to make.

Stephen Randle: FACT. Especially on the first part, and kudos to WWE for having the brains to do it. One big complaint that's become commonplace about modern pro wrestling is that, with the advent of the Internet and free flowing information, it's nearly impossible to fool the marks who don't want to be fooled anymore. With the John Cena and to a lesser extent Chris Jericho returns, WWE has shown that they're starting to get clever about hiding information that they really don't want known.

Secondly, it's the right call to make as long as Cena is truly healed enough to go like he was in 2007. We never did get the Cena-Orton blow off match to a feud that was starting to get really heated, and thanks to Cena's injury, they managed to delay it just long enough to put it on the biggest stage of them all. Frankly, Cena-Orton at WrestleMania has been on the table for a long time, and this is the best possible time to make it reality

JD Dunn: FACT. I get the feeling that that the WWE wanted to recreate the same aura of the 2000 Royal Rumble. You had the same setting. You had the arrogant heel cleanly pinning the guy that would have been the "feel good" choice. And then you had the #1 superstar in the company winning the Rumble. Granted, remakes are never as good as the original, but this was an admirable effort at giving the fans a good go-home moment after ripping their hearts out with the Jeff Hardy loss.

Score: 1 for 1


2. TNA bringing back the Elevation X match at Destination X is a good idea.

Stephen Randle: FICTION. I joked about it in the Experience this week, but what purpose did the original Elevation X match serve, anyway? While the match was better than expected, realistically everyone was pretty much expecting a massive clusterf***, so clearing the bar on those expectations is no great shakes. Plus, it's another gimmick match from a company that seems to think that every match needs to have one, and wasn't really a great gimmick idea to begin with. I think the problem is that TNA has overused the Ultimate X match that was their trademark for flashy high spot matches, and is now scrambling to find something to replace it.

JD Dunn: FICTION. Tentative fiction. The match just has certain inherent features that make it difficult to have an entertaining match. AJ and Rhino did an excellent job last year making the most out of what they had, but it takes a special kind of creative mind to do that and get away with it, and I'm not sure TNA has the right kind of talent to pull that off again.

Score: 2 for 2


3. It is very likely that Bobby Lashley is parting ways with WWE. That being said, Lashley leaving WWE is no big loss for the company.

Stephen Randle: FACT. Now, Lashley could go to TNA and cause the next big wrestling boom, but I don't see it happening. It's true, WWE is losing a big, fairly credible young Superstar with decent ability, but when you own 95% of the wrestling world, you can always call up another OVW guy to serve the same role. Lashley was a decent wrestler with a marketable image, but poor promo skills and a less-than-masculine voice really hurt his image. I don't know what it is, but Lashley never had the "it" factor with me that suggested he'd ever be anything special in WWE. In many ways, jokes aside, he's exactly like Brock Lesnar: a big young stud with skills who left and will be forgotten by the time the next big young stud with wrestling skills comes along. Because they always do.

JD Dunn: FICTION. In terms of "future cost," sure Lashley is barely a dent in the giant rolling machine that is the WWE, but in terms of all that went in to getting Lashley to where he is today, the cost is huge. Think of all the talent that lined up to put him over. Think of all the storylines they centered on him to get the people to care about him. Most importantly, think about how wary they're going to be to get behind the next guy with a load of potential. Every time a Brock Lesnar or a Bobby Lashley flakes out on them, it just reinforces to the WWE that they have to push the already established guys like HHH, Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker.

Score: 2 for 3

---SWITCH~!---

4. The Royal Rumble was a great PPV.

JD Dunn: FICTION. Ehhhh. I haven't reviewed it yet as of this writing, but from what I've seen I'd say it's a very, very good PPV. "Great" implies that it's up there with Royal Rumble 2000, Backlash 2000, Judgment Day 2000, Canadian Stampede, and WrestleMania X-7. I wouldn't go that far, but it definitely did remind me of why I love watching in the first place.

Stephen Randle: FICTION. "Great" is too strong of an adjective. It was a "good" PPV. It had good matches and an amazing surprise ending. But it wasn't truly mind-blowing or memorable outside of Cena's return. And now that I've given away part of my review of the 2008 Rumble, allow me to fill space by plugging the next two weeks of my "From The Anthology" feature, as I review the 2007 and 2008 Rumbles to bring the feature to a close. That's "From The Anthology", continuing next Monday, right here on 411! *thumbs up*

Score: 3 for 4


5. The proposed "Cruel Intentions" angle for Katie Lea and Paul Burchill will not work and only give the couple a one way ticket back to developmental.

JD Dunn: FICTION. Vince has had a hard-on for this kind of angle for years, so I get the feeling he'll put every bit of his creative juices (or some kind of juices) into getting this angle over. This seems very personal for Vince, for reasons that probably aren't appropriate to go into here. If Lea and Burchill play their parts right, I think it could be a highly provocative angle.

Stephen Randle: FACT. So, in lieu of actually being creative, we're just going to be borderline disgusting now? Plus, we're ripping off a movie from like, seven years ago, and not even a particularly good movie. This falls right into the category of Billy and Chuck's wedding, Hot Lesbian Action, and Vince vs. God of "exploiting social issues in crude fashion so that we deliberately offend uptight people who go on CNN and give us free publicity and allow us to go on the same shows and claim to be progressive and free-thinking, even though it's really just an excuse to make dirty jokes and get paid for it". I continue to ask, why couldn't Paul just be a pirate?

Score: 3 for 5


6. The "Stone Cold Shark Boy" character makes TNA look minor league.

JD Dunn: FACT. Actually, the presence of Shark Boy period makes TNA look minor league, but that's beside the point. The only way these things work is to make them a dig at the other promotion. That doesn't really seem like what they're doing here. It looks more like an homage, and you only pay homage to greatness. When you do that with a jobber, all it does is reminds people that you're not great. Plus, the copying of gimmicks seems to be yet another Russo staple – Fake Razor & Diesel, PerfectShawn Stasiak, The Main Event Chuck Palumbo. All of these were gimmicks based on other, more successful gimmicks, and it's difficult to say any of these guys were better off in the long run for the copycat angle. The one exception is Jay Lethal, but I feel his Black Machismo gimmick will be ultimately limiting as well.

Stephen Randle: FACT. Because nothing says "professional" like doing parodies of characters from other companies, just to show that you have no creativity and create gimmicks based on wrestlers who are able to do decent imitations of other, more popular wrestlers. I'm not saying WWE is immune from this, but the difference is, they actually treat their jokes like jokes. Gillberg was never treated like a legitimate title contender, or even a real wrestler. He was a joke that wasted thirty seconds of airtime. TNA, meanwhile, treats guys like Black Machismo and "Stone Cold" Shark Boy as title contenders. I've got nothing against joke characters, even parody characters, but don't give them to guys you want taken seriously.

Score: 4 for 6


These two finish 4 for 6! Come on back next week for more of 411 Fact or Fiction: Wrestling Edition!