411 Fact or Fiction 6.12.08: Joe the King, Sydal’s Chances of Success, The Slammiversary Wedding and More!

Welcome back to another week of 411 Fact or Fiction: Wrestling Edition! This week, two men go to battle as Daniel Wilcox enters the 411 Arena to do battle with Tim Livingston!

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1. The creation of a “WWE Diva’s Championship” on Smackdown is a great idea.

Daniel Wilcox : FICTION. In recent weeks, WWE really has shifted the focus of their women from half-dressed models rolling around in the ring to women who can actually put on a decent match; the likes of Ashley and Maria are barely getting any TV time these days (although, a lack of Maria on TV is never a good thing) while Melina and Beth Phoenix are having great “I Quit” matches on pay-per-view without a title even being contested. In Melina, Phoenix, Mickie James and Katie Lea, you have the foundations of a strong division, but the key word there is foundations. WWE would be better off getting the more able workers from SmackDown over to Raw to build a division that could and would rival TNA’s Knockouts. Add Victoria, Natalya and Michelle McCool to what we already have on Raw and that’s a damn good division consisting of seven chicks who can go. Alternatively, they could make the Women’s Champion defend her title across both shows like they did immediately after the brand extension. Instead, what we’re going to get is another half-assed division made up of just three talented workers and some of the most hideous workers the company has in Layla, Maryse, Cherry and Kelly Kelly (although admittedly, Kelly Kelly has improved this year). While it’s a good idea to give these women something to fight over, it’s not a great idea because there are better options and this division is going to be lacking in depth.

Tim Livingston : FACT. I’m all for it. The thing with another Diva’s championship is that it finally allows both the SmackDown! and RAW brands to have separate women’s champions, which is a very good thing, considering the Women’s championship had been on RAW for a really long time. This is the first time in the history of the promotion that they have the horses to do it, and considering that they could basically do a refresh with the upcoming draft and balance out the brands to their desire, it can have a chance to succeed. Of course, this is a direct result of the recent success of the TNA Knockouts division. Considering how well the women of TNA have performed, I think you’re getting to a point where you can let the women step it up a notch. Of course, now you have to perform with this second title. Let’s see if they get the good performances out of it.

Score: 0 for 1

2. Having Samoa Joe become the first man to enter and leave the King of the Mountain Match was the only proper outcome of the Slammiversary Main Event.

Daniel Wilcox : FACT. Pretty much. Rhino, Cage and Roode were never really in the running to win this match, and while I wouldn’t have had a problem with Booker winning, Joe retaining the gold was the right way to go. Had Booker won, it would have been due to some Kevin Nash shenanigans and that would have completely killed what had been a really good show (aside from the wedding fiasco) by giving us yet another swerve (or was the swerve the fact that there was no swerve?). Joe’s title win was two-years in the making and to end it via a Screw job in a King of the Mountain match would be as if Jeff Jarrett was wrestling again. By Joe becoming the first man to retain King of the Mountain, he gets to add another accomplishment to his growing list and he becomes even more of a legitimate champion than he was before. Joe/Booker will be done down the line (probably at Victory Road) and any title change can come there. Joe winning was necessary to keep the fans happy and make Joe look like a bad ass.

Tim Livingston : FACT. The thing with this match was that there wasn’t much about it to make people think that Joe had a true threat to his championship. In fact, Cage and Booker T had been embroiled in other feuds, particularly with each other, which made it a bit unfathomable that either of them would walk out with the belt. I think Joe would be better suited to face somebody like a Robert Roode in a longer feud, mainly because if they want Roode to succeed so bad, doing it against Samoa Joe is the right place to start. From here, there might be a new person who steps up, but Joe winning was definitely the right thing long-term. Hot-shotting the title due to a gimmick match hasn’t really worked out that well in the past (see: Jarrett, Jeff) and this gives Joe some solidarity, even though, much like the Sacrifice defense, the outcome really wasn’t in doubt.

Score: 1 for 2

3. Matt Sydal will never succeed in WWE due to his size and in ring style.

Daniel Wilcox : FICTION. What do we mean by “succeed”? OK, I can’t see the guy being world champion material, and I don’t see him headlining too many pay-per-views in the near future, but I think we can agree that getting over with the crowd and be a good mic-card hand counts as succeeding, right? And I don’t think he’ll have too much of a problem with doing that. I’ll be honest, I don’t know much about the guy but it seems that his move set isn’t your usual WWE guy bag of tricks, but it would seem as if WWE is allowing the guy to utilize the once-banned Shooting Star Press, so that tells me that the company likes the guy and has faith in him to succeed, and that really goes a long way in deciding just how well this kid could do. If he is allowed to use more of his moves, he’ll easily get over with the ECW audience and I consider that succeeding. His size won’t be so much of a problem in ECW where the majority of the guys there aren’t that much bigger than him, and I can easily see him and the likes of Shelton Benjamin, Elijah Burke etc having believable and enjoyable matches. His size and in ring style may be a slight handicap, but if he’s good enough it really shouldn’t be that much of an issue.

Tim Livingston : FICTION. The whole idea with a guy like Sydal in ROH was that he was such an amazing high flyer that he could keep up with the bigger guys thanks to such an innovative style of offense. Obviously, his style will be toned down a lot on ECW, but since Colin Delaney is no longer the plucky babyface, and is instead somebody who is the town punching bag, you can get behind a guy like Sydal, who worked comebacks very well and I think can get the crowd behind him. Also doesn’t hurt that he’s so fluid with his aerial maneuvers. Of course, the level of success will still be determined, but I’m looking forward to seeing just how far they go with him, especially considering down in Ohio Valley Wrestling, he was given a run with their championship. ECW is also lacking in babyfaces, so he will be a welcome addition, especially considering the draft is right around the corner.

Score: 2 for 3

—SWITCH~!—

4. Running the Awesome Kong $25,000 challenge on PPV was a bad move, and came off as nothing but filler.

Tim Livingston : FICTION. See, this is a hard one, because I like the fact they put it on the PPV, but they ran it in a way that just didn’t work. At a PPV, you do one of two things with an angle like this: You put her in a tough situation, but have her still come through thanks to her just being so overwhelming, or you run the flash pin and have her destroy the other woman for getting so lucky. Having her squash Elvis isn’t going to help Kong’s image, considering she’s already a badass. The way things are going, it’s going to lead to somebody on the roster stepping up, and chances are it’s going to be Roxxi. If I had it my way, I would bring over Aja Kong from Japan for a couple of months, who, even though she’s past her prime, would make it such a fun feud between her and Kong (especially with their back story) and would put Kong over as even more of a badass (Yes, it’s possible) for taking down a woman her size.

Daniel Wilcox : FACT. This was pretty much the definition of filler. I didn’t even realize that this was a part of the show until I read the recap of it on Monday morning. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy seeing Kong kill a bitch as much as the next guy, but this was a pay-per-view and this really had no place on the show. I can understand them wanting to get their Knockout’s Champion on the show, but why not have her do something relevant like have her scout potential opponents in the six-woman tag team match? This really was a waste of pay-per-view time that could have gone to another match, or maybe some promo time to build up to the bigger matches of the night. I have to question where these segments are leading too, because I can’t see a random “fan” beating Kong, and this whole deal screams “we’ve got nothing to do with our champ right now.” So if TNA does want to run multiple angles with their women, they may need to invest in bringing in some more Knockouts.

Score: 2 for 4

5. Due to Roddy Piper’s status as a legend, he will overshadow any protégé they set him up with.

Tim Livingston : FICTION. Rodney the Piper is a guy who will defer to whoever he mentors at this time in his career. He doesn’t have to get more over, mainly because he’s been one of the most over people in wrestling for over twenty years. If he can talk for him and let him know the subtle nuances of the business, then he’ll be great with the protégé. I’m also looking forward to this, as this and the rumored second (third?) generation stable makes me a bit more excited for the future. I’m very interested in seeing who this wrestler will be.

Daniel Wilcox : FICTON. This depends on a whole lot of factors really, the most important of which being who the protégé is; if they’re charismatic enough, then I can’t see Roddy being too overshadowing. It also depends on how any feud the guy is in is booked. If it’s a case of some heel going after Piper and this protégé having to defend the guy, then that will more than likely put the focus on Piper, that’s not Piper’s status as a legend effecting it. I think the fact that Piper appears a lot these days’ means that he doesn’t get the massive pops he usually would and much like Mick Foley, he’s seen as a regular on TV so it’s nothing special when he’s out there.

Score: 3 for 5

6. The Jay Lethal/SoCal Val “wedding angle” at Slammiversay was the worst skit of 2008 thus far.

Tim Livingston : FACT. For buildup and for the way it went down, TNA completely slipped on the banana peel with his one. It was so predictable, and it ended up being such a petty, stupid ending that any redeeming quality that could have come from it was immediately lost. If this leads to a blood feud that makes us somewhat forget about how it started (and I mean a true blood feud) then maybe we’ll look back and think a tiny bit better on it. That being said, it’s TNA, and they make the simple look difficult a lot of the time. If they wanted a crowd-killer before the Angle/Styles match, they sure got it, and I hope that they learn from their mistakes and completely forget this wedding ever happened, because I’ll guarantee you that the fans already have.

Daniel Wilcox : FACT. I’m saying this without actually having seen the segment as TNA pay-per-views don’t air in the UK until Wednesday (and they’re free too!) and I’m writing this on Tuesday, but from all accounts, this sounds absolutely awful stuff. This was hyped as a major part of the pay-per-view, and the build for the Sonjay Dutt turn has been going on for months now. We all knew what was going to happen, so that meant that they had to get the execution of it just right, and in the end they didn’t really get anything right here. Dutt makes the big revelation and then he, gets the crap beaten out of him by a bunch of “legends” who only qualify as such because they’re all TNA can really afford. Dutt needed to come off like a bad ass by beating the hell out of Lethal here and it didn’t happen. The crowd weren’t into it and nobody cared. There’s no redeeming factor here and I feel that they’ve already blown this potentially fun feud with a terrible segment. Not only is this the worst skit of 2008 thus far, I can’t see it being beaten for this illustrious award come year’s end.

Score: 4 for 6

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