411 Fact or Fiction Wrestling: Should Daniel Bryan Win The Rumble?

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 Jeremy Lambert! He battles Jeremy Thomas!

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 and hydroponics.

1. Daniel Bryan should win the 2015 Royal Rumble.

Jeremy Lambert: FACT – The story here is pretty simple. Daniel Bryan never really lost the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, but it doesn’t seem like he’s going to get a shot at the title because that would just be too logical. Instead, Bryan has to enter the Royal Rumble in order to get a shot at the belt that he never lost. It’s another chapter in the tale of the ultimate underdog and Bryan’s never ending fight against The Authority. Bryan once again overcomes the odds and wins the Royal Rumble, otherwise fans are going to be pissed. We saw how they reacted last year when Bryan wasn’t even in the Rumble. It might be even worse this year if Bryan is in, but doesn’t win. WWE needs to immediately re-establish Bryan as one of the top guys in the company. He was the champion and most popular guy on the roster when he got hurt. He lost the title, but his popularity hasn’t waned, and if it has, it’ll likely shoot back up upon his in-ring return. Having him win the Rumble puts him one step closer to where he was and where he should be.

Jeremy Thomas: FACT – I really went back and forth on this one. I honestly don’t feel like winning the Rumble would be in Bryan’s best interests, or probably WWE’s. I’m elated that he’s back and I want to see him have a big match at WrestleMania but he did just get back and there is the possibility the injury could come up again. He also has more interesting options in other matches and I don’t think he needs to win the title in consecutive WrestleManias (although I certainly wouldn’t mind). But since WWE has put Bryan in the Rumble, they’ve painted themselves into a corner. If they have him get tossed in any way that doesn’t make him look like a gajillion dollars, the Philly crowd is going to vehemently turn on the match. If they boo the ever-loving crap out of Roman Reigns, Reigns will be screwed and he won’t be able to get over as a babyface going into WrestleMania. So I think at this point yes, Bryan should win it and Reigns can go on to face Cena perhaps, in a Hogan-Warrior type match that doesn’t need a title on it.

2. Rusev is more prepared as an all around performer for a main event push than Roman Reigns is.

Jeremy Lambert: FACT – I never really thought about this, but now I’m far more interested in seeing Rusev climb to the top than Roman Reigns. A couple of things work in Rusev’s favor over Reigns. First off, he hasn’t been as protected. And by that I mean he’s had long matches by himself where he’s proven to be a capable performer. Reigns was always a background player in Shield matches, coming in for the hot tag and delivering all of his big stuff. He hasn’t had to do too many long matches, and when he has, they haven’t been all that great. His injury definitely stunted his growth as an in-ring performer as well. Second, Rusev has Lana, which means they can limit his talking. Lana is a strong presence on the mic and carries herself very well. Reigns is very bland on the mic and you can tell that he’s just reciting memorized lines. Until Reigns is more comfortable on the mic or not so scripted and can deliver a main event caliber match, it’s tough to envision him as a top guy.

Jeremy Thomas: FICTION – Honestly, I’m just not sold on Rusev. I think Reigns is better in the ring than Rusev. While both of them are not good on the mic, the only real difference is that Rusev has Lana as a mouthpiece. If they could get Reigns a good manager to take the stick, he’d be well above Rusev’s level in terms of being ready. That isn’t to say that either of them are completely prepared, but without Lana skewing things I think Reigns is more ready.

3. WWE is completely misusing Dean Ambrose at this time.

Jeremy Lambert: FACT – Ambrose was the hottest guy in the company during his feud with Seth Rollins. Then they had him do a bunch of Mickey Mouse antics and insert John Cena into the feud to lessen his heat before pairing him with Bray Wyatt. The Wyatt feud didn’t make a lot of sense from the jump, but there was still some hope given that both men are good performers and workers. Then the feud happened. They had a bunch of gimmick matches, Ambrose looked like a geek in all of them, and he eventually lost. I don’t know where he goes from here, but who can take him seriously after this Wyatt feud? He’s essentially a midcard jobber. I don’t care if he’s main evented two of the last three PPVs. He’s a loser.

Jeremy Thomas: FACT – I can’t honestly believe that their best idea for Ambrose is “make him lose constantly to Bray Wyatt.” I get that Wyatt needs to be strong if they want to put him in a big WrestleMania match (rumored to be against Undertaker), but why put him against another rising star in Ambrose? As it stands, it’s completely destroying Ambrose’s chances at credibility and it’s incomprehensible to me. Give Wyatt some other midcarder to beat on constantly, that will still keep him strong and move Ambrose onto something else. This isn’t rocket science, guys…you do have other roster members, remember?

SWITCH!

4. Monday’s Raw was a poor way for WWE to kick off the year.

Jeremy Thomas: FACT – This is pretty much universal. I don’t hate that the Authority came back last week, for the record; I think I expected it to be sooner to be honest. Their return didn’t completely invalidate Ziggler or Sting’s stuff at Survivor Series the way I’ve seen some claim because they are still heroic turns; the effort is what mattered and what fans got behind. The problem is that their return show was a mess that did do a lot of damage to the current storylines. The Authority’s stuff was tired, cliché and obvious and no one seemed to care much about what they were doing. They definitely need to pick things up from here, and quickly.

Jeremy Lambert: FACT – Honestly, besides the opening segment, which I watched with the volume low, I didn’t watch the show. I was promised that the opening segment was going to be some super big angle that would pave the Road to WrestleMania. Instead, it was the same “The Authority makes a couple of announcements” segment that we saw all throughout 2014. After that, I found better ways to spend my Monday night. I watched Anime with my girlfriend and talked about the big NBA trade with Samer Kadi.

5. WWE made the right call by having Wade Barrett win back the IC Title on Raw.

Jeremy Thomas: FACT – I think the way he won it was poorly executed, but I have no problem with Barrett taking the belt. We all wish that the IC Title meant more but it just doesn’t right now and WWE doesn’t seem willing to change that. As such, I think their mindset was “get the belt off Ziggler so he can rise above that level” and then they threw him into this supposedly major Road to WrestleMania angle. I think the impromptu two-of-three falls match thing was stupid because it didn’t really stack the deck much, and there were other ways to put Ziggler over stronger than this in a loss. But Barrett is coming back and he could use a belt to give him something to do, so why not?

Jeremy Lambert: FACT – Honestly. Does it really matter? Ziggler was doing fine with the IC Title, but Ziggler is over because of his work, not because of the title. Barrett never lost the title so it was nice that he had his chance to get it back and The Authority made sure to screw over Ziggler, but when was the last time the IC Title was important? It’s been swapped around so much over the years and there hasn’t been a defining IC Title feud in forever that it’s just tough to really care about the belt. So sure, they made the right call in putting the belt back on Barrett because Ziggler doesn’t really need it, but at the end of the day the belt is just a prop and not anything important.

6. The WWE Network will not hit 1 million subscribers at any point in 2015.

Jeremy Thomas: FICTION – It may not, but I think there’s a solid chance of it happening. Growth has been slow to be sure, but the more stuff gets on the Network and the more interesting original programming like Monday Night Wars and Rivalries, the more people will sign up. More importantly, further international expansion will push it higher just by sheer availability. I have my doubts as to whether it will hit the level it needs to get into the black, but one million subscribers should be accomplishable.

Jeremy Lambert: FICTION – I’ll be optimistic here since I’m really enjoying the Network and I think WWE knows that they need to up the number of subscribers. They’ve slowly been adding previous episodes of Raw and Nitro and they’re getting better with their original content. Let’s not forget that the Network is less than a year old and they made a lot of mistakes at launch. I think as the year progresses they’ll continue to add strong original programming and more back episodes. Plus they’ll always have NXT, which is the best program on WWE TV right now. The only thing they need to do better is promote the Network. Aside from pushing the price, they haven’t really told you why you should spend $9.99.