wrestling / Columns
411 Fact or Fiction Wrestling: Will Sheamus Retain at TLC?
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 Sean Garmer and Shawn Lealos!
1. Sheamus will retain the WWE World Title at the TLC PPV.
Sean Garmer: FACT – I think with the League of Nations now setup to assist Sheamus and WWE trying to sort of go the Daniel Bryan route with Roman Reigns also fighting off The Authority, this has to go on for more than one month. I would not be surprised at all if they have Reigns win The Rumble again and keep Sheamus as champion going into Wrestlemania. Having a rematch with Brock at WM 32 is going to get Reigns boos no matter what he does. So, just build up these two, since you know, WWE needs to try to make new stars, and see what happens. You never know, Sheamus might wind up a credible heel by the end of it. I just don’t see why you give Sheamus all this help and also build a short term faction for Roman Reigns, if you are just going to end it all after less than one month. Once Reigns takes the title, no one is going to care about Sheamus at all and if you have Sheamus lose here it will absolutely destroy him. Sheamus keeps the belt through some kind of shenanigans and this thing goes on until Royal Rumble at least. I know this feud has sucked, but WWE has to stay the course with something and just see it through or things will get even worse.
Shawn Lealos: FACT – I was thinking that Roman Reigns would win the title and the WWE would see what he could do with his run with the title. However, things on Monday night made me change my mind. First of all, Reigns destroyed Sheamus as the end of the show, and everyone knows that the person who comes out on top of a beat-down leading into the PPV will lose. Second, there is the thought that the selling point is the chase. If Reigns only chases Sheamus for a few weeks and then wins the title at the very next PPV, that is moving too fast. Reigns needs to win the title, but I think they should have Sheamus get past him a couple of times, by interference, and then have Reigns finally win the title at The Royal Rumble, where we would see both a new champion and his WrestleMania opponent revealed on the same card.
2. While bringing in Rhyno and Tommy Dreamer to team with the Dudleyz makes sense due to their ECW roots, it would have been nice to see WWE use the spots to call up some fresh blood from NXT.
Sean Garmer: FICTION – Who are they going to bring up? Samoa Joe? I guess technically he has history with the Dudley’s from TNA. Sami Zayn could work too I guess, but I just don’t have any faith in WWE anymore when it comes to bringing up NXT talent. Aside from their feud with the New Day that died rather quickly after they over killed it with no positives happening for anyone, The Dudley’s have been doing nothing. Would it be a cool moment to see say NXT Champion Finn Balor come out as the Demon and spook Wyatt, maybe? But I just don’t see what benefit this really gives the NXT talent here. Other than his feud with Ambrose, The Shield and Mini-Shield, if you think about it all Wyatt has done since he’s come to the main roster is go through WWE’s old guard and lose every time. So, I think it makes more sense to continue that theme with old ECW guys going against Wyatt now. At this point, WWE has made me not give one iota about Bray Wyatt. He just says a bunch of words, does creepy stuff, and loses. I have no belief in him and it gives him no edge when he does the creepy stuff or takes Undertaker’s powers or whatever. The NXT talent are better off just debuting on their own in some other manner than in this nothing feud.
Shawn Lealos: FICTION – The reason they are bringing in Tommy Dreamer and Rhyno is to feed them to the Wyatt Family. It may not be a successful rebuilding of the Family since the WWE has made them look too beatable over the last two years, but it is a step in the right direction to put them in a winnable feud. If they bring up NXT guys to throw into this feud, and The Wyatt Family is supposed to win, the NXT guys are buried quicker than The Ascension. Besides, Rhyno is an NXT guy. Now, I have one more thought on this. Look at Adam Rose, Bo Dallas, Neville, and Tyler Breeze. These guys were huge in NXT and even Dallas was big-time over as a heel that fans loved to hate. In the WWE, they are nothing. Do we really want to see beloved NXT stars moved up to get stuck in the rut of the main event roster? Not everyone can be The Shield.
3. With Sami Zayn returning to the ring this week, you expect him to be part of the main roster before WrestleMania 32.
Sean Garmer: FACT – I think he will be because we never really got the end of the Owens vs. Sami Zayn feud in NXT. Zayn is one of these guys that’s been in NXT for a while and he doesn’t need a long NXT title run to legitimize him either. Who’s really out there right now on WWE’s main roster, who’s also actually healthy, that’s going to be a compelling match for Kevin Owens once he gets done with Dean Ambrose? No one, aside from Roman Reigns and they aren’t knocking him out of the main event any time soon. An absolutely perfect Wrestlemania 32 match would be Owens vs. Zayn. There’s history there, there’s already a story from NXT, and it is once again for a title. Imagine Owens beats everyone who is in front of him and he says no one can beat him. Then out comes Sami Zayn and you can roll all the tape used on NXT and there you have it. I think I wanna see that even more than a potential Brock vs. Owens.
Shawn Lealos: FACT – I think that Sami Zayn was ready to be moved up before his injury, and his match with John Cena was proof of that. I mean, he could have been the man to get those big-time matches with Cena before Kevin Owens got them if he hadn’t gotten hurt. As long as Zayn can prove to stay healthy over the next couple of months, I would not be surprised to see him as a surprise entrant in the Royal Rumble, or maybe the person who wins the annual NXT spot in that match. Make him look strong there and then have him use his considerable charisma to get over on the main roster. He has a lot more going for him than the guys I mentioned earlier have struggled to get over. Kevin Owens vs. Sam Zayn for the Intercontinental title at WrestleMania 32 would be awesome.
SWITCH!
4. Alberto Del Rio’s WWE return has been a disappointment so far.
Shawn Lealos: FICTION – Yes, Alberto Del Rio has not been as exciting as I hoped he would be, considering his tremendous success after his termination from the WWE. However, he is the perfect choice for the U.S. title for the same reason that Rusev was. However, I feel the partnership with Zeb Colter was going nowhere fast and his entry into the League of Nations is a perfect spot for him. I loved seeing Wade Barrett and Rusev sticking with Sheamus even after he won the world title, and love that they gave them a name. I like the faction a lot and think that Del Rio is a perfect addition and will make him much more entertaining than just being Zeb Colter’s latest charge. I like Del Rio and think he just needed some time to get his footing.
Sean Garmer: FACT – He’s been an outright abomination. He’s worse now than he was at any point during his previous run. He’s so boring. The guy looks like he’s just absolutely dead inside when he comes to the ring and that Tree of Woe Double Stomp Finish is the worst. What was wrong with the Cross Armbreaker? At this point WWE needs to just have guys be popular with crowds and want to be seen. Who cares if the crowd interacts with him a little bit when he gets ready for his finisher? People do it for Orton no matter whether he’s a face or heel. If they were going to bring back Del Rio it should have been how they debuted him. If the crowd turns him face because they like Ricardo, so what? It’s not like WWE couldn’t use another face on the roster with their main two guys gone right now. Del Rio has been very lethargic and uninspiring. The guy actually has charisma and he showed it in Lucha Underground. I understand that a lot of that is also because he was in a Pro Latino crowd, but it all comes down to enthusiasm. I just don’t understand why you pay a guy all this money for him to just be “a guy.” He’s been somewhat popular before, he’s been a decent heel before that got a reaction, get with Del Rio and try to channel that again. Cause what WWE is doing right now is completely not working.
5. Monday Night Raw is a consistently good TV show.
Shawn Lealos: FICTION – I don’t hate the direction of the WWE as much as others but I do feel that it is bad more often than it is good lately. That is because of the 50/50 booking, essentially making all the matches seem like throwaway matches that don’t mean anything. I heard that the WWE was going to change things up this week, and the only thing that they did different was have much longer matches. This is a good thing, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t care about anyone wrestling. The promos are not up to par and they hurt the promos. The guys that people love, like Dean Ambrose and Kevin Owens, are almost holding back. It is just a show that really doesn’t seem like “must-see TV” right now and that means it is not must-see TV at all. I haven’t regretted missing RAW when I do. That says something.
Sean Garmer: FICTION – How can the answer to this be anything but fiction? Maybe the wrestling and The New Day might be consistently good, but a lot of what airs on the show is not good television. If you are judging WWE based on it being a TV show, it should receive a D or a F consistently. Can you imagine if Breaking Bad was just about the two main characters only making Meth the entire 43 minutes and nothing else happened in it? It can’t be all about the wrestling. There has to be more substance to it than that. The storylines for the most part do not advance anything, wins and losses mean nothing, many of the characters are just jogging in place and have no direction, you have crowds that go to your shows that are really uninterested in your product and I think overall your TV ratings go up and down based on if people cared about watching that week or not. There’s some comedy, there’s really no drama at all and for supposedly being a male soap opera, it should really have a lot more of that. If I didn’t do the Wrestling 2 the MAX Podcast every week, I’d probably just miss RAW for week’s at a time and just catch the highlights. Do you call that good TV? Good TV is something that makes me WANT to watch it every week like Lucha Underground (when it is actually on,) like NXT, like NJPW on AXS, like The Goldbergs, like a few other shows do. I’ve been a WWE fan for a long time and they do have some good things on the show, but when it has more bad than good on it, it isn’t consistently a good show.
6. What is your excitement level for Sunday’s WWE TLC PPV?
Shawn Lealos: 4 out of 10 – I really don’t have a match that I am excited about. Honestly, I am going to have to look up the matches for Sunday just so I can remember. Seriously, I know from memory that Roman Reigns is fighting Sheamus, New Day are defending their tag titles again Lucha Dragons and The Usos, and Ambrose is fighting Kevin Owens. Out of those matches, Dean Ambrose and Kevin Owens is the only one I am really excited about. The tag match should be good as well, and I am excited to see it as a main match on the PPV (unless they move it to pre-show). I just checked. How could I forget about Charlotte vs., Paige? I guess part of it is trying to forget those promos. Alberto Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger makes sense, but if Del Rio has fired Colter, why does this match even matter? Wyatt Family vs. Dudley Boyz, Tommy Dreamer and Rhyno should be good, but they need to have all the extreme stars eliminated to make the Wyatt Family look strong, and they won’t. Just another
Sean Garmer: 5 out of 10 – I’m interested to see if we can finally get a great match from the Divas, the Tag Team 3 Way should be fun, and Owens vs. Ambrose has the potential to be awesome, but Del Rio vs. Swagger we’ve seen a lot, I don’t care about the elimination tag, and the main event feud hasn’t been good, although I’m sure they will have a good match and I wouldn’t be surprised if this PPV actually winds up being one of the better ones in 2015. However, I’m not really that excited actually going into the PPV. But honestly, that’s kind of how it has been for WWE this year. The PPV itself usually winds up over performing, even though the hype wasn’t that great.
