411 Fact or Fiction 3.27.08: Flair vs. Michaels, Money in the Bank, Sting and More!

Posted by Larry Csonka on 03.27.2008

Week ONE HUNDRED and SEVENTY-ONE features Ryan Byers, Ramon Aranda and discussion of Konnan’s lawsuit!

Welcome back to another week of 411 Fact or Fiction: Wrestling Edition! This week, two 411 writers go to battle as Ryan Byers enters the 411 Arena to do battle with Ramon Aranda!

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1. The World, WWE and ECW Titles will all change hands this Sunday at WrestleMania.

Ryan Byers : FACT. For better or for worse, the Raw Title match is probably going on last, and you can't have a heel walk away from the final match on Wrestlemania as champion. We all saw that move go over like a lead balloon in 2000, and I think that the company is smart enough not to replicate the mistake. With Orton as a solid heel and HHH having heel tendencies during the build up, I'd imagine that we're getting a new champion in Cena. As far as the Smackdown Title is concerned, there's no reason to end the Undertaker's streak at this point. Edge is established enough that he doesn't need this notch on his belt, and, as he's never had a really memorable title reign, you may as well let UT have his unbeaten run as his big legacy in wrestling. If any title is retained, it'll probably be the ECW strap. This is because the match will be so low down on the card that the fans probably won't remember a heel victory at the end of the night. However, I think that the logical way to go with a battle royal producing a mystery title contender is to establish somebody immediately as a player on the ECDub show, and there's no better way to do that than a title win.

Ramon Aranda : FACT. The WWE needs to have a memorable WrestleMania and given who the champions are, it's only fitting that we have some new ones at the end of the night. I don't' see Orton holding on to the title while I'd hate to think that it would be Edge that would end the Undertaker's streak. Taker was the champion after last year's WM and would it not have been for his injury, who knows how long he would have held onto it. I say this is payback for working hard to get back. Chavo....well, ECW needs a kick in the pants so why not have an unexpected winner of that Battle Royal dethrone Guerrero.

Score: 1 for 1


2. TNA has booked Sting's most recently return smartly by holding him off for the live Impact this week.

Ryan Byers : FACT. Sting appearing has very rarely meant anything to TNA's bottom line, so I doubt that his showing up on this coming Thursday's show will do anything for the company's ratings. I also doubt that his participation in the War Games match will do anything to lift the pay per view's numbers. However, I have to at the very least give TNA credit for trying. Yes, this probably won't affect their bottom line. Yes, it probably would've been better if they'd built up his return for several weeks as opposed to one. You have to keep in mind, though, that this was the promotion who just last year ran an angle in which Sting left the promotion and then made his big return THIRTY MINUTES LATER. They're taking baby steps in the right direction, and I'll give them a thumbs up for that.

Ramon Aranda : FACT. Why give away something as meaningful as Sting's return when you have the big live show coming up this week. It's smart on their part to hold off on some things to make their first live show important. Remember Luger's Nitro debut? What if he had debuted a week or two earlier? It would have meant nothing for that Nitro.

Score: 2 for 2


3. MVP will be the man to win the Money in the Bank Ladder Match this Sunday at WrestleMania.

Ryan Byers : FACT. To answer this question, you need to look no further than how all of the participants have been booked over the last several weeks, as WWE isn't going to give a victory in this sort of match to somebody who they haven't been pushing beforehand. That means you can immediately eliminate all of the ECW guys as possible victors, just by virtue of the fact that they're on ECW. That's a show that regularly gets between a third and a quarter of the viewers of Raw, meaning that the wrestlers don't have the level of recognition necessary for them to immediately get a push on either of the larger brands. Doing so would be the equivalent of WWE stealing Eric Young from TNA and immediately turning him in to a World Title contender. It's just not going to happen. You can also eliminate Kennedy on the basis of his pre-match push. I'm writing this prior to seeing the final Raw before 'Mania, but on the two shows prior to that he was treated like a total jobber by Finlay (in his home state, no less) and then went MIA. Jericho was similarly punked out by the Big Show, while Carlito has been a persona non grata for years. Montel Porter is the only one left of the seven who has been treated like a serious contender over the last couple of months, and that's why he's taking this thing home.

Ramon Aranda : FICTION. Sure the US Champ has been rolling with his current title reign, so why spoil it by giving him the MTIB title shot? I'm thinking Kennedy takes this one to give him another shot...again...here's another guy who was injured and had to give something up ala Taker so give him the shot one more time. He deserves it.

Score: 2 for 3

---SWITCH~!---

4. Due to the respect both men share for each other, the angle going into the match and the fact that it is WrestleMania, Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels will steal the show this Sunday at WrestleMania.

Ramon Aranda : FACT. Aside from the Undertaker's streak, this has to be the only other match where fans will have emotions invested. Will Flair retire? Can HBK hold off Flair's streak? Will Flair keep rolling? I for one am looking forward to this match as much as anything else. We know HBK can put on a helluva match still, and Flair, well he's The Nature Boy, wooooooooooooooooh! Flair in an important WrestleMania match...you know he's bringing his 'A' game.

Ryan Byers : FACT. Ten years from now, when I'm no longer writing these sorts of columns and a new crop of internet writers is analyzing past WrestleManias, I have a feeling that they'll look back on this match and think that it was nothing special. Why? Because neither man is in his athletic prime, meaning that, if you analyze this match in a vacuum, it probably won't be as good technically speaking as either of the major title matches or the ladder match. However, this isn't a match that's built on athleticism. This is a match that's built on emotion. Quite frankly, I don't think that there's another bout on the card that has so many people who care so passionately about what happens, and, unless the in-ring turns in to a total debacle, I have a feeling that the finish here and whatever the two do post-match will receive the largest reaction of the evening. If a memorable Wrestlemania moment which is to be played for decades on end is going to be created at this show, it will be created right here, not in either of the big title matches, which frankly haven't received a build that makes them feel any more important than the title matches on any other WWE pay per view.

Score: 3 for 4


5. You support Konnan lawsuit against TNA.

Ramon Aranda : FICTION. Hey look, I'm Hispanic but Konnan doesn't have much to go on right now. I mean, c'mon, comments from Russo in 2000? It's a game of he said, she said and Konnan isn't going to win on this one. Rarely do you see these types of cases go in favor of the wrestler.

Ryan Byers : FICTION. I cannot say that I support the lawsuit. However, I also cannot say that I do not support the lawsuit. Frankly, I don't have enough information at this point to form an opinion, and I don't think that anybody reading this does either. (Unless, by some freak coincidence, you're Konnan or one of his lawyers.) One of my pet peeves about folks who discuss wrestling on the internet is that the second a legal topic comes up, they all begin throwing opinions out there as though they're Harvard Law educated judges with decades on the bench, not even realizing that they don't have knowledge of ninety percent of the relevant facts or, for that matter, the law. At this point, we don't know where Konnan has filed suit. Thus, we don't know which laws apply. We also have only seen his allegations of fact stated in very general terms. If we don't know which jurisdiction's laws apply and we don't know the facts, we can't provide informed opinions as to whether he has a meritorious case. Period.

Score: 4 for 5


6. While he isn't likely to win, John Morrison will be the man to shine in the Money in the Bank Ladder match this Sunday at WrestleMania.

Ramon Aranda : FACT. I'm not going to lie and say Morrison is my favorite wrestler or anything, but the guy can put on a fantastic match when he's motivated to do so and has the right opponent. With six other guys who can put on a show, Morrison will have a good opportunity to show off his talent and bump taking. You can also throw Jericho and MVP to the list of guys who may shine in this match but Morrison is the young lion and you know he'll get to pull off some acrobatic maneuvers.

Ryan Byers : FICTION. He might do a couple of cool moves, but I have a hard time saying that he's going to "shine" when all of the cool moves in the world won't result in a bigger push for him or any more fans caring about him. If you want an example, look no further than Shelton Benjamin, who has been involved in some of the best looking spots in MITB's history but is still lucky to get a mild reaction from WWE fans. Nobody truly shines in these sorts of matches unless they win and have that win pushed as something important in subsequent weeks and months, and that's not going to happen in Johnny Nitro's case.

Score: 4 for 6


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