wrestling / Columns

411 Fact or Fiction Wrestling: Are You Happy Carmella Won MITB Again?

July 2, 2017 | Posted by Larry Csonka
Carmella Image Credit: WWE

Welcome back to the latest edition of 411 Fact or Fiction, Wrestling Edition! Stuff happened, people loved/hated it and let everyone else know. I pick through the interesting/not so interesting tidbits and then make 411 staff members discuss them for your pleasure. Battling this week are 411’s Mitch Nickelson and Sean Garmer!

  • Questions were sent out Monday.
  • Participants were told to expect wrestling-related content, as well as possible statements on quantum physics, homemade pharmaceuticals, the Turtle Total Trip Theorem, pizza and hydroponics.

    1. ROH putting the world title on Cody Rhodes was the right call.

    Mitch Nickelson: FACT – I was happy when Christopher Daniels got his first ever ROH World Title run, but it didn’t need to last forever. Cody’s arrival in ROH and New Japan initially felt a little awkward but he’s since settled in nicely. His place in Bullet Club no longer feels forced and I’m excited to see what he can do with the top title in ROH. Plus, having him face off wearing his belt against Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship just looks good on a marquee. I do not believe that Cody will be a double champ after that G1 special, but it’s another high profile booking that raises his stock even higher. Ring of Honor has a hot commodity, so making him their man works for everybody.

    Sean Garmer: FACT – The story called for Cody Rhodes to win that title. They had been building this for months that “Heaven forbid a part timer, or a guy not all there for ROH” win their major championship. I’ll be the first to raise my hand and say I’ve not been the biggest fan of his matches. They kinda all run into a sameness after about 8-10 minutes. But I can’t deny he’s worked his ass off. He’s been absolutely one of the smartest guys out there in getting himself in the right places. The dude has been able to work pretty much anywhere he wants and work all the big promotions. Not only that, but he works the small ones too. Maybe he didn’t spend months learning the “indy style,” as some wish he did. But no doubt he’s helped ROH, Impact Wrestling, being in Bullet Club and in New Japan. Not to mention, all the indies he’s worked. The match with Christopher Daniels was pretty good. Didn’t think it was out of this world great, but it was worthy of a main event at a PPV. It shows a lot that people booed a guy like Daniels who’s been either in ROH or TNA his whole career. Especially after people went nuts for him finally getting his big ROH Title reign. It shows how far Cody has come in such a short time being away from WWE. I’m sure he didn’t need it, but it helps prove he made the right choice. I’m interested to see what Cody does with this reign.

    2. Mauro Ranallo being back with the WWE is a big positive for the NXT brand.

    Mitch Nickelson: FACT – I already felt that NXT has been on an upswing and has been for quite a while. With Ember Moon, Nikki Cross, and Ruby Riot surrounding Asuka, the women’s division has been strong lately. Bobby Roode is a strong heel character and they’ve been presenting Roderick Strong like the peak babyface with those backstory vignettes, so that’s been super interesting. Also, the Gargano/Ciampa breakup is waiting to resume whenever those guys get healthy again. There’s a whole lot to like about NXT and now they’ve added Mauro as well? We’re one episode in to his new gig and he meshes well alongside Percy & Nigel. This already great hour of wrestling every week might now be the best of all of the weekly shows.

    Sean Garmer: FACT – This is a no brainer. He’s now in his element calling wrestling matches. It’s a much easier gig. He probably got more money to be there. Plus, he has Triple H, and not Vince in his ear. He also gets to work with a great color guy like Nigel. Sadly he still has Percy Watson there, (seriously that dude needs to go away.) He doesn’t have to battle for time in a four man booth. Have to take BS from JBL, or any of that. NXT now has a huge name that does announcing. He brings his own flair and a real sports style to NXT. I think Tom Phillips is actually pretty good, but no doubt he’s also Michael Cole Jr. This continues to set NXT apart and make it feel different from the regular WWE product. This is absolutely great for NXT. He added quite a bit to that Last Man Standing match on NXT this week. More of that is only a good thing.

    3. WWE releasing the Mae Young Classic in “OnDemand” batches instead of a weekly TV show is a bad move.

    Mitch Nickelson: FACT – What’s great about wrestling is that many fans experience it socially. The chances are good that most of you reading this have a Twitter that’s filled with updates from tons of wrestling accounts. When you watch shows, you’re probably looking up the great gifs @totaldivaseps has put out from what happened on Raw ten minutes ago or you’re reading the hot takes from your favorite wrestling talking heads. Putting out a ton of episodes of the Mae Young Classic at once takes away much of that experience. The way it’s set up, I’ll be far more likely to check Larry’s match ratings ahead of time to see what matches I can get away with skipping over if I can. That’s too much to just dump a ton of content at once. If WWE chose to pace it out like with they did with the Cruiserweight Classic, I’d watch every single second of it.

    Sean Garmer: FACT – This one is a little weird for me, but I think ultimately I wind up on the line of being ok with the decision. If doing the Mae Young Classic released in batches allows for more tournaments or different kinds of live events from WWE in the future, I’m totally down with that. You have to think about this from a practical perspective. WWE already has five hours of main WWE content every week, plus a sixth hour with NXT. The Cruiserweight Classic wound up being a big deal, but it was always intended to become a TV Show on its own. So, the weekly format really helped get everyone excited and ready for that. The WWE UK thing hasn’t materialized into the promised TV Show, but even then, they crowned a champion with that intention. This is really just a tournament. People have wanted, or thought it could lead to a Women’s show. However, this feels like more of an extension of NXT. With perhaps whoever wins getting a NXT Women’s Title shot against Asuka in the future. WWE has already done several shows on the WWE Network in the Netflix “batch” style. This is an extension of that as well. Also, let’s not forget how hit and miss the first few weeks of the CWC was. Do you really wanna wait around a whole week for that? Getting all of those out there at once, allows you to watch in binge format or any other way you want. WWE can promote it, but they don’t have to feel compelled to ram it down your throat. They can use this as a true test of the hardcore fanbase and see if they will watch something that’s totally made for the Network and for the Network viewers. They aren’t using this as a reason for you to buy it. It’s like a prize for those that have it. I’m totally ok with that. I think this also keeps people from believing this is going to lead to a Women’s show, or making WWE feel compelled to create one. Yes, you can start getting cynical and say this is the company thinking the “Women don’t draw” or they are really unknown, and they don’t have a way to market the show as a weekly thing. Let’s think about this for a second. With the exception of some of the women like a Toni Storm, Kairi Hojo, Nixon Newel and a few others that have worked Stardom or Progress. Most of the women are either NXT Performance Center standouts, or women coming from a Shimmer, Shine or an indie that you can’t easily watch. Yeah, there are some IPPV’s and Mania Weekend events on WWN Live, but it’s not a lot. Asking your average hardcore guy or woman to buy DVD’s exclusively in 2017 is becoming outdated. I know there are people that religiously do it for PWG, but that’s still a minority of this type of fanbase. Imagine the regular casual fan? At least with most of the high profile men, you could easily buy a streaming service of some type to watch some of their former work. Not the case for many of the women. This will be a first time seeing a lot of these ladies duke it out in this tournament and that’s awesome. I get it, many people want this to have that weekly big time feeling the CWC did. But from the beginning, this hasn’t had that same feeling or buzz around it. Let’s just be happy this is happening.

    SWITCH!

    4. You are pleased that Carmella won MITB again on Smackdown.

    Sean Garmer: FACT – No doubt. In order for this to mean anything at all, Carmella had to win again. So glad they teased Ellsworth, but Carmella wound up climbing and getting the briefcase herself. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the original finish, but what happened worked to make her matter to the audience. Let’s be honest, Carmella wasn’t getting much of a reaction at all before Money in the Bank. I also enjoyed that the match got a lot more time on Smackdown and I thought it was much better overall. Plus, MITB briefcases always work better with heels. Carmella I feel benefits a lot from having it. She probably will cash in on Naomi sooner rather than later. Thus allowing Becky to step in and be a feud for Carmella that already has the built-in heat there. I’m glad they stuck to their guns on the move to do something with Carmella. Smackdown keeps being the land of opportunity and maybe they make a new star out of all this too.

    Mitch Nickelson: FACT – Sure, I’ll give her some credit. The past couple of weeks have been what’s finally erased any feelings I still had that she should’ve gone to Raw to be with Enzo & Cass. I can fully see her without that filter now, so that’s good. She and Ellsworth are an act that gets a huge reaction from the crowd, so that’s good as well. I still think the initial win was a little too controversial for my tastes but at least they stuck with Carmella when the dust finally settled. Either they’re trying to give her a chance to do something or not. I like that she’s getting her chance to prove herself.

    5. You are not excited with Jim Ross & Lita serving as commentators for the Mae Young Classic.

    Sean Garmer: FACT – Look I love JR. I started watching wrestling in the late 90’s and went backwards from there. So, JR and King were the lineup I first heard and love. I also had the biggest crush on Lita being in middle school and high school during that time period. So, as people, as wrestling talent, they are some of my favorites. However, this is 2017. If we are real with ourselves, Jim Ross has lost a step. Nigel helped him out A LOT on the recent UK Special. He was a bit better in the UK Title match on NXT Takeover. PS VUE doesn’t carry AXS TV. So, I haven’t heard JR on that program. Maybe he’s a bit better in a taped environment for NJPW on AXS. I also keep up with NJPW through NJPW World. So, I also have no reason to watch that show. Lita also has not been too good on the pre-shows. I think she’s fine, but she’s not Renee, Daniel Bryan, Corey Graves or Booker T. There’s also the issue of how will they be together. Mauro and Daniel Bryan were wonderful. Michael Cole and Nigel worked wonders too. Lita is not a person that is gonna cover well for when JR makes a flub or is just behind the action. Honestly, Mauro should have gotten that spot. But I get that they need something prominent for JR to do. Especially now that the WWE UK show seems to be on hiatus. It’s just sadly there’s a big possibility this commentary team could be much more of a train wreck, than a stand out thing about this tournament.

    Mitch Nickelson: FICTION – I can say that I’m at least a little excited about Jim Ross & Lita in the booth for this tournament. I’m not convinced that Lita is primed to become the second coming of Bobby Heenan, but with Ross next to her she should be passable. I’ve only seen her in commentary-type roles on pay-per-view pre-shows and none of that is mind-blowing work, but she never was overly terrible from what I remember. Unless there’s some secret option to let Mauro Ranallo & Daniel Bryan call every WWE Network tournament that I’m unaware of then I don’t see any reason to fuss too much about this announce team.

    6. What’s your level of excitement for the Impact Slammiversary PPV?

    Sean Garmer: 6 out of 10 – One of Impact’s two yearly PPV’s that matter. You know they are going to want to put on a show for people to remember. Despite the contrived nature of these title unification matches. Rosemary vs. Sienna could be good. I’m all for the EC3 and James Storm strap match. These two tend to deliver more often than not. Del Rio seems much more into things on Impact and him and Lashley could deliver a damn good match in the main event. You know Davey and Eddie, plus the women in Full Metal Mayhem is gonna be some intense stuff. The Tag Title stuff having different teams is really intriguing. Impact on PPV usually gives you an enjoyable show and I’d expect nothing less here. I said 6 Out of 10, because my eyes and attention are much more into the G1 USA Special shows. Just a few matches in that tournament could easily outdo anything TNA is going to have on their PPV. I’ll be watching all three shows, cause it’s what we do for my podcast Wrestling 2 the MAX. Just hard to compete with the New Japan who has delivered every single time out there. But still some things to check out on the TNA PPV for sure.

    Mitch Nickelson: 3 out of 10 – I don’t plan on watching Slammiversary – that should say something about my excitement level. From memory, I know that James Storm and EC3 are having a strap match that I am actually intrigued about, but that’s really it for me. The Scott Steiner stuff should be a hoot but only if he spends the majority of his time with a microphone. His mouth is still a huge asset for him; Impact should be wise and base most of the show around him talking. I hope Impact has a good night but there’s not much excitement in that brand from my point of view. I’ll still keep watching the weekly shows but I’m not committing to anything more.


  • article topics :

    Carmella, MITB, Smackdown, WWE, Larry Csonka