411 Fact or Fiction Wrestling: Will Nakamura Make The Main Roster in 2016?

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 Shawn Lealos 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. You’d rather see Dean Ambrose vs. Triple H instead of Roman Reigns vs. Triple H at WrestleMania 32.

Shawn Lealos: FICTION – Changing the main event for WrestleMania 32 from Triple H vs. Roman Reigns to Triple H vs. Dean Ambrose would be a stupid decision. That would ruin the entire years’ worth of storylines, which was Roman Reigns overcoming The Authority and finally beating the man who made his life hell. Sure, IWC fans like to bandwagon hate Roman Reigns, but he was honestly getting over as the champion until the Royal Rumble. Real people at the events were cheering him, although there are still smark crowds here and there. Changing this now would just be bad storytelling and there would be no reason to ever get invested in another story again if they just dropped everything when the going gets tough. Besides, Roman Reigns could win by any means necessary and then turn on Dean Ambrose the next night to start off a new year’s storyline of Roman Reigns as the a-hole corporate champion before Seth Rollins returns as a face to the biggest pop anyone will ever hear. At least, that is my dream.

Sean Garmer: FACT – After Monday’s RAW, when that segment was done I just wanted to see an Ambrose vs. Lesnar match. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. Ambrose is crazy enough to make you believe he would take anything Brock dishes out and continue to get up and go at it with him. Some of his trademark spots would work great with Lesnar and you know the build up with him would get you pumped for the match. It also helps that Ambrose is just so likeable, whereas Roman Reigns really isn’t. Triple H vs. Ambrose would also be great because Ambrose can fit into the Daniel Bryan role much better than Reigns ever dreamed about doing. HHH already made fun of his stature on RAW and unlike with Bryan, Ambrose just doesn’t give a crap so he would get right in H’s face and anytime you put an obstacle in front of him, you want him to succeed, you want to see him overcome, but there’s also a belief that he may not. Once again, unlike with Roman Reigns where it is just a forgone conclusion. So, why should anyone care when you do that stuff with him? Look, we all know they are doing Reigns vs. HHH, but if they did pull the trigger on Ambrose vs. HHH, I bet you get more people watching WrestleMania.

2. Kalisto will lose the US Title to Alberto Del Rio at WWE Fastlane.

Shawn Lealos: FICTION – Kalisto beat Alberto Del Rio on Raw for the title and then lost it back to him immediately on Smackdown. Kalisto beat Del Rio at the Royal Rumble for the title, and if he loses it back to him at Fast Lane, it is the same thing with just a longer holding time and Kalisto will have his legs cut out from under him. It also devalues a title to have it ping pong back and forth between champions. Look, Rusev brought a lot of prestige to the title. John Cena elevated it even more. Del Rio and Kalisto playing catch with the title makes it look stupid. One of them needs to grab it and hold onto it. Let Kalisto keep it until Cena is ready to come back and then have him lose it to a transitional champion to return it to Cena. That would make Kalisto look good before he is pushed back to tag team land.

Sean Garmer: FICTION – I just don’t see why you would give it back to Del Rio? What the hell did he do with the title that makes a US Championship match between him and someone else at WrestleMania viable? Since they’ve only done Kalisto vs. Neville on SmackDown, which we all know that rule about SmackDown, a US Title match between those two at WrestleMania could be an absolute spectacle. It is something you could build up and people would want to see it. Del Rio has been decent in this feud with Kalisto, but unless you are going to do some big stipulation match between Kalisto and Del Rio at WM 32 for the belt, I just don’t see why you take the belt off Kalisto. WWE is building Kalisto pretty well right now and you already gave him the big win at the Royal Rumble. Are you going to take it off of him to give him another big win at WrestleMania in match number 7 or 8 between Del Rio and Kalisto in a matter of months? So, no I think they keep the belt on Kalisto.

3. Shinsuke Nakamura will report to the WWE Performance Center soon, and is set for a debut at the NXT Dallas event. He will not make the main roster by the end of 2016.

Shawn Lealos: FICTION – I think that the Bullet Club will debut at the Monday Night Raw after WrestleMania 32 with AJ Styles as the leader. By that time, Styles will have gotten some quality wins and at least one feud out of the way at WrestleMania before bringing in his boys. While Shinsuke Nakamura will debut at NXT Dallas the Friday before WrestleMania, that doesn’t mean he can’t immediately come up with Anderson and Gallows three nights later on Raw to join Styles. Besides, he is right up there with Styles as the two best wrestlers in the WWE.

Sean Garmer: FICTION – I think he makes his main roster debut by Summerslam, if not even earlier. He’s not going to be at the Performance Center or NXT very long. He knows English well enough, he is probably the most charismatic wrestler in the world, other than adjusting to looking at certain cameras and all that stuff, there isn’t a whole lot he needs to learn. They probably need him to tone down his style a bit, but Nakamura is as sports-entertainment ready as you can get. He also doesn’t do a ton of moves he couldn’t really do in WWE, I mean a big part of his moveset are variations on the Boma-Ye. I’d imagine there are a few matches Triple H probably wants to get out of him down there to show Vince what he can do. Then around Summerslam you debut him and he has his first big match on the main roster.

SWITCH!

4. Lets be honest, the card for NXT Takeover: Dallas has you way more excited than anything WrestleMania 32 related.

Sean Garmer: FACT – I will be at both NXT Takeover Dallas and WrestleMania 32, and I can tell you right now I am much more excited about NXT Takeover Dallas. Aries vs. Corbin could be good, Nakamura vs. Zayn, Askua vs. Bayley, and Joe vs. Balor II could all be MOTYC matches. Let me say this again, I get to watch Shinsuke Nakamura’s first match ever in a WWE branded ring and it is against Sami Zayn? How awesome is that. Nakamura is the reason I love NJPW, that I branched out to other Japanese wrestling, his T-Shirt is also the only non-WWE shirt that I own. So, that makes my whole weekend. But honestly, when you look at the card, how could you not be excited about it? For WM 32 we don’t know anything right now and it will most likely be headlined by HHH vs. Reigns? Yeah I think I’ll go with NXT.

Shawn Lealos: FICTION – I don’t bash the main product. Let’s see, I am VERY excited about NXT Dallas (and I’m still pissed that I missed out on tickets, which sold out incredibly fast). I can’t wait to see Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn and I think Samoa Joe vs. Finn Balor will be awesome. But, that is the extent of my mark out excitement for the show at this time. As for WrestleMania 32, I am excited to see Triple H vs. Roman Reigns (screw the haters), Dean Ambrose hopefully taking on someone important, maybe Kevin Steen vs. Sami Zayn (please), and Brock Lesnar killing someone. I guess the two NXT Dallas matches I mentioned are ones I anticipate more than the announced WrestleMania matches so far, but I am always excited about WrestleMania and I can’t act like I don’t care.

5. Considering that TNA Impact has been growing viewership since their debut on POP TV (up to 339,000 last week), you expect that the promotion will be averaging over 500,000 viewers a week by the end of 2016.

Sean Garmer: FACT – I review TNA every week along with my co-hosts on the Wrestling 2 the MAX podcast and trust me, for everyone involved, you want this to be the case. If they are getting better ratings they get more freedom to explore and maybe try to make themselves different than WWE and accentuate things like the X-Division that’s totally lacking right now. Who would have ever thought that WWE would be killing TNA with their women’s division? I think with CBS and all those involved getting POP TV more clearances on cable companies, the ratings will keep going up. I don’t like the idea of EC3 being turned in favor of Matt Hardy. However it is hard to say that Matt doesn’t know what he’s doing cause he’s killing it playing something similar to his ROH character. I’m gonna ahead and say TNA could even surpass that 500,000 level at some point this year. But if you are averaging those numbers by the end of 2016 you have to be happy.

Shawn Lealos: FACT – At least I hope so. These first few episodes of TNA Impact Wrestling on Pop TV have been great. Honestly, Matt Hardy is a fantastic heel champion and someone fans can hate in the way they are supposed to hate heels (plus Reby Sky is a total bitch naturally). Mike Bennett and Maria are fresh. I can’t wait to see how EC3 does as the main face of the company. The shows are flying by, the storytelling actually makes sense, and the wrestling is still pretty damn good. I like what I see and if they keep it up and don’t mess up (like TNA usually does), they will win a lot of fans back who like professional wrestling (although there will always be fanboys who love one and hate all others).

6. The season two debut on Lucha Underground receiving rave reviews along with the announcement from El Rey that season three is officially a go is great news for wrestling fans.

Sean Garmer: FACT – Unless you are Jim Cornette or you hate Lucha for some reason, how is this not good news? In a world where a lot of these weekly wrestling shows can be very lacking and even NXT has weeks were it’s just there. Lucha Underground kills it every week and you can just enjoy it as a TV novella with wrestling, where it doesn’t matter how much people bitch, you aren’t changing any storylines because it isn’t based on normal wrestling booking. They are trying to tell a season long story. I love it and if you haven’t watched it, you need to check it out.

Shawn Lealos: FACT – Of course this is great. It means more wrestling on television for the national audience to enjoy. With WWE, TNA Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honor, New Japan on AXS, and Lucha Underground, this is an awesome time to be a wrestling fan because there is something for everyone, which is how it should be. WWE has the mainstream crowds as the king of the mountain, TNA has the basic wrestling fans who like something a little different, Ring of Honor has the pure wrestling fans, New Japan has the people who like hard hitting action, and Lucha Underground has the product for fans who love something unique. They all provide a different experience, but they all offer great wrestling and that is what a fan should want – more wrestling, not just more of the same old same old.