wrestling / Columns

411 Fact or Fiction Wrestling: Cena vs. Lesnar, Bound For Glory Build, Giving Away Rollins vs. Reigns, More

September 18, 2014 | Posted by Larry Csonka

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: First up is the one and only Steve Cook! He battles Jack Bramma!

  • Questions were sent out Monday.
  • Participants were told to expect wrestling-related questions, possible statements on quantum physics and hydroponics.

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    1. You are excited for Sunday’s WWE Night of Champions PPV.

    Steve Cook: FICTION – We are firmly in the time of year where WWE does not give a hoot & neither should we. They don’t even try to compete against football anymore! They’ve given up! Now they hype up events that will happen at “halftime” & count on Twitter & other social media to get the word out so people like me that would rather watch Eagles vs. Colts than Raw will flip over to avoid Chris Berman rambling through highlights. The funny part about that is non-football fans wondering why “halftime” isn’t halfway through the wrestling show. There are people that watch wrestling that don’t watch football. I’m not one of them, but they’re out there. WWE sees that those fans will watch no matter what, thus they really don’t need to do anything to keep them around. So we get this stretch of time from September to the Royal Rumble where nothing really matters. Every single year. As for the show itself, there’s nothing really grabbing my attention other than the Lesnar vs. Cena match. Don’t care about Henry rallying America vs. Rusev, don’t care about Jericho vs. Orton, don’t care about Usos vs. Dusts, don’t care about pseudo-lesbian Divas, don’t care about another Ziggler vs. Miz match or another Cesaro vs. Sheamus match. Both could be good but I don’t care. Rollins vs. Reigns is an interesting first-time mat-OH WAIT I CAN WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE.

    Jack Bramma: FACT – I am and yet it has damn near zero to do with the product on TV at present. The WWE is aggravatingly mired in this hell dimension where booking can’t progress and they must consistently throw out the same segments over and over again, week in and week out. In the post-SS fallout, NOC was setting up to be Summerslam Rematch-athon with Brock/Cena, Jericho/Wyatt, Reigns/Orton, Rollins/Ambrose all penciled in. Instead, they blew off Jericho/Wyatt in a cage match and Ambrose was pie faced into a stack of cinderblocks leaving only a couple of weeks for the build to Orton/Jericho and Reigns/Rollins (which was decided cleanly on TV anyway). Meanwhile, Cena and Heyman have given the same promos back and forth for going on three weeks now. It’s just bizarre and maddening. And yet, I am excited for the show, because of the talent in the ring and their potential for amazing matches when they are cut loose. Cena/Brock, Cesaro/Sheamus, Rusev/Mark Henry, Rollins/Reigns, etc. It’s just a stacked card that has the in-ring potential to be amazing and I, for one, will be watching to see if Cena and Brock can top themselves again.

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    2. Charlotte is the future of the WWE Women’s Division.

    Steve Cook: FACT – This was always going to be true regardless of whether or not she caught on to basic wrestling concepts. As the daughter of one of the greatest wrestlers of all time that Triple H holds in very high regard, Charlotte was always destined to receive preferential treatment in comparison to the other WWE Divas. Fortunately for everybody involved, Charlotte is catching on real well to this wrestling thing. I think her matches have been overrated by people that are more used to women wrestling matches looking like Naomi vs. Cameron, but she’s already ahead of most of the Divas currently taking up spots on the main roster & should only get better.

    Jack Bramma: FICTION – She’s a good prospect with potential, but she still has a long ways to go. Moreover, I think the biggest problem with projecting anyone as the future of the Women’s Division is that the company can’t make up its mind what they want the division to look like. Is it the Total Divas/Bellas version or the Sara Del Ray protĂ©gĂ©s or just whatever strikes the writers that month? Beth Phoenix went from dominant to asking for a release. Natayla was going to be the future and then fart jokes and such and no more. Eve Torres was it and then got stuck dancing with R-Truth, turned heel on Zack Ryder to become an afterthought, got married, and left. Kaitlyn was booked to be the face of the division and then was never given the defining win over AJ and then was out of the company before too long. It’s just too unpredictable and kind of a curse to say anyone is the future of the division.

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    3. Taking the title off of Brock Lesnar at WWE Night of Champions would be one of the stupidest booking decisions the company could make.

    Steve Cook: FACT – One of the few things creating interest in WWE during what’s basically their off-season is Brock Lesnar reigning supreme as WWE Champion. This leads to fun PPV matches with Brock destroying people and Paul Heyman cutting promos every week & things that people generally seem to like. Nothing wrong with that. Lesnar defends against John Cena this Sunday, and since it’s John Cena there’s a very strong possibility that Cena will get the title back to become a sixteen-time world champion. You know, I would have guessed that number was higher. John Cena is the status quo, the default position, the security blanket for WWE. Putting the title back on him only means that things are the same as they ever were & there’s nothing to see here. Which seems to be the WWE’s stance these days, so no wonder a lot of people think this is going to happen. I don’t think Cena wins the title, but I think something happens to ensure that they’ll meet in Hell in a Cell at the next PPV we’ll be struggling to care about.

    Jack Bramma: FACT – Brock Lesnar putting the kibosh on the Streak and then squashing Cena at Summerslam is some of the best long-term booking the WWE has done in years. Even this feud has idiotic nonsense in its weekly booking, but big picture it’s been damn near perfect. Taking the title off Brock would be stupid in almost every conceivable scenario. The arguments and possibilities for it are self-serving and shortsighted. Fantasy booking abounds below.

    1. “Brock can’t hold the title because he’s gone most of the time and doesn’t have enough dates.” This is ridiculous. When did we get the idea the champ needs to be there every week defending the belt all the time? Even in recent memory that hasn’t been the case. After NOC last year and the “fast count,” the belt was held in abeyance for 6 weeks with no champion at all. This year, after DB’s neck injury, despite being champ, he was mostly off of the show and not wrestling and the Earth didn’t stop rotating. In fact, Brock not showing up as much makes him more important, not less, even if it does produce weeks of the same meandering promos from Cena.

    2. “Extend the feud into HITC.” Another mostly shortsighted priority. What were the main events to the last 3 HITC? I’m sure you could look them up, but to find out they are DB-Orton with HBK as ref, Punk/Ryback, and Cena/ADR/Punk. But seriously, how many of those matches had long term lasting importance? Why this sudden urgency to make the main event of HITC a WM-caliber match when you could save it? Admittedly, they don’t have to take the belt off Brock to do that, but God help us if they do a double DQ or double countout in this match.

    3. “Cena turns heel.” Not happening.

    4. “Super Cena overcomes the odds.” OK, it’s a possibility but why? It’s blows the Brock-DB/Brock-Taker rematch/Brock-Rock/Brock-Punk/Brock-Reigns WrestleMania main event importance. More importantly, after Brock, there are zero main event heels for Cena to wrestle if he’s champ. Orton-Cena is done to death. Kane is a non-factor. There’s…. Rusev? Sure, but not for the belt. Cena can feud with Rusev to get his confidence back after losing to Brock again.

    5. “Rollins cashes in MITB on Brock.” This is such a strange, twisted idea that doesn’t make any sense right now, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. They could go with a similar scenario where Brock refuses to defend through the Fall and then he gets stripped, Cena wins the belt, and Rollins cashes in on him and Rollins-Cena takes us through the end of the year.

    The only idea that makes any sense is for Brock to beat Cena again. I’d like for it to be dominant again and hopefully make Cena tap, but I’ll take Brock leaving with the belt and a victory any way I can get it.

    SWITCH!

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    4. Vince McMahon’s edict that John Cena be booked strongly so that fans do not look at him as a lost cause is the perfect example of everything wrong with WWE booking.

    Jack Bramma: FACT – There is only one possible way WWE redeems themselves for the awful booking of Cena since Summerslam: he taps clean as a sheet in the middle of the ring for the first time in forever (since he was a heel at NWO 2004?). The beauty of the booking for Starrcade 93 was that Flair showed humility and doubt and regret and lost confidence in himself but he came out on the other side as a champ against Vader. He was the underdog and he came out on top. But Cena isn’t the underdog and hasn’t been booked as such since SS – he’s easily dispatched of the Wyatts and FU’ed Rollins into the announce table, whilst arguing with Triple H without missing a beat. And the only way to funnel his renewed vigor and self-confidence into anything worthwhile is to tear him down yet again in even more humiliating fashion. He has to get demolished and then be made to submit. Those “Never Give Up” towels have to turn into a joke because they represent the man who DID give up in his darkest moments to the Beast Incarnate. IF they do that, the strong booking of Cena since SS and those endless, repetitive promos with he and Heyman were not all for naught. That or he turns heel and becomes Heyman Guy (a ridiculous idea at this point, but it’s not like they haven’t been teasing it to death). Anything else, and then, yes, fact, it’s the perfect example of everything wrong with WWE booking. Obviously, I’m figuring he doesn’t tap clean and doesn’t turn heel.

    Steve Cook: FACT – John Cena has been booked strongly for over a decade now. He’s been WWE’s top guy longer than anybody in history with the exception of Bruno Sammartino. John Cena’s fans are staunch loyalists that will stand behind their man because he never gives up. Yes, there are people out there that don’t support John Cena…and a lot of them don’t because of his dominance over the years. They’re like NASCAR fans that hate Jimmie Johnson, baseball fans that hate the New York Yankees, or late night TV fans that hate The Tonight Show. One defeat at the hands of Brock Lesnar does not erase all of the accomplishments John Cena has attained during his time on top of WWE. The idea that John Cena must be booked strong to remain popular is beyond ridiculous. If people don’t realize at this point that John Cena is always a threat to win a championship or the favorite in pretty much every match he’s in, they’re never going to. Destroying the Wyatt Family or whoever else he’s in the ring with adds nothing to that.

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    5. Giving away Rollins vs. Reigns on Raw just days before the PPV was bad booking.

    Jack Bramma: FACT – It gives marginal hope that something on Sunday will be different, as in they can’t possibly have the same match, right? But I doubt that will amount to anything. That’s more my optimism than any optimism based on the company or the booking. The match they did have on Monday was one of the best Reigns’ singles matches to date, but he’s still learning and needs a little more seasoning. I’m not one of the doomsayers that feel like he’s hopelessly lost and shouldn’t be in his spot. How ready was Batista when he got the ball at WM21? Lashley at WM23? I’m not suggesting that either Batista or Lashley is what Reigns should be shooting for; just that both guys were works in progress but hardly buffoons when thrust into the spotlight and they did fine for themselves. All that being said, I think Reigns is still in a perfect position to take center stage come January and the Reigns-Rollins giveaway will be a distant memory in a few weeks, but it’s still a bad idea in the short term to give away the PPV match… before the PPV.

    Steve Cook: FACT – WWE has a tendency of giving away first-time matchups that could be saved for PPV/WWE Network on television these days, but usually they at least have the common sense to not do it six days before the PPV. If nothing else you’d think they would have had Corporate Kane or Randy Orton or somebody to do the run-in and leave the viewer thinking “Boy, that Roman Reigns was so close to beating Seth Rollins. Maybe he’ll do it at Night of Champions!”. Nah, they just had Reigns get the clean win and leave no doubt about who the better man is. No reason to watch the PPV/special event to find out. Maybe Rollins will cheat to win there? Who cares.

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    6. TNA not having any matches locked in place for the October 12th Bound For Glory PPV is a bad sign.

    Jack Bramma: FICTION – That would be a bad sign if that were their next big show, but they have/had No Surrender this week. It would have been like asking if it was a bad idea that WCW had no matches booked for Superbrawl even though there would have been a loaded Clash going on in mid-January. It’s not as if TNA doesn’t have a plethora of feuds going on that they could/will easily extend into their marquee show. Lashley/Roode, Wolves/Hardys/Dudleys are virtual locks to go another round. Put another way, there are tons of actual bad signs for TNA but this isn’t one of them.

    Steve Cook: FICTION – There are a lot of bad signs surrounding TNA these days, but I don’t think the lack of matches announced for this show is one of them. For one thing, it’s not like wrestling companies are all about booking things months in advance these days. They still got a few weeks before this show happens to throw some matches together with the talent booked. Ticket sales are said to be going well, so that’s a good thing. Also, I don’t think TNA is placing the same level of importance on this show that they normally do. They’re selling it on the Japanese environment more than anything else, which isn’t the worst idea. I don’t expect it to do tremendous business, but it should do fine in comparison to other TNA events.


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