411 Fact or Fiction Wrestling: Was Sting’s Debut Done Well?

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 Kevin Pantoja!

Questions were sent out Monday.

Participants were told to expect wrestling-related content, as well as possible statements on quantum physics, homemade pharmaceuticals and hydroponics.

1. You were pleased with Sting’s WWE debut at the Survivor Series.

Jeremy Lambert: FACT – Sting was always “my guy” in WCW, and after months of rumors about his WWE debut, I was glad to finally see him show up. His debut made sense as well. Sting was always the ultimate babyface throughout his career. When he saw that The Authority were going to regain control of WWE and fire an entire team of WWE superstars, he couldn’t sit back any longer. He appeared, had his face off with Triple H, prevented them from winning by interference, and gave Dolph Ziggler his moment to shine. People will complain that the face-off lasted too long and that Ziggler and Seth Rollins had to act like they were dead, but who cares? Stars know how to milk the crowd, and Sting/HHH milked that crowd and got a “this is awesome” chant out of nothing more than two guys staring at each other.

Kevin Pantoja: FACT – Of course this is a fact. First of all, the main event of Survivor Series was easily one of the best matches of the year and one of the better Survivor Series matches in WWE history. It was an emotional roller coaster made a million times better by the appearance of Sting. I was speechless and having him come out as the savior of sorts, after being that for WCW during the nWo run just worked. I know that everybody wants Sting vs. The Undertaker, but if The Undertaker can’t go, I’m all for Triple H vs. Sting. In 2014, I’ve now witnessed two things that I never thought I’d see. One was The Undertaker’s streak being broken and the other was Sting being in a WWE ring. The appearance was done perfectly as his interference was out of justice, he didn’t fully take away from Dolph’s moment and his stare down with Triple H was one of those “time stood still” moments.

2. Steve Austin’s “live Podcast” with Vince McMahon will end up being a disappointment.

Jeremy Lambert: FICTION – I’m a regular listener of the Steve Austin Show and always find it very enjoyable. We all know that Austin has a charisma about him that makes you want to listen, even if he’s just talking about trying to kill a fly in his trailer. He’s also very honest and a good interviewer on his podcast as well. The big thing is to manage your expectations. I’m expecting Austin and Vince to talk about Austin’s rise, their rivalry, the WM17 turn, Austin walking out, etc…. A lot of it will be rehashed material, but it’ll still be interesting to hear both of them talk about those things together. I don’t expect Austin to challenge Vince on the state of WWE today, although that would be a nice surprise.

Kevin Pantoja: FICTION – I’ll admit that some things on the WWE Network have disappointed, the Monday Night Wars comes to mind, but I don’t think this will. Steve Austin’s podcast is usually damn good and Vince McMahon should make for an interesting interview. While I don’t think that Vince will divulge much in the way of unknown information, he always had great chemistry with Austin so their back and forth should be entertaining. I’ve said for a while that I want the WWE Network to give us things like this. I’d rather something we’ve never seen like a live podcast than our 16th documentary about the Attitude Era. I’ll be watching this.

3. Daniel Bryan as Raw GM for a night was a great surprise.

Jeremy Lambert: FICTION – I would’ve said fact, but I read the spoiler before Raw that Daniel Bryan was backstage and when The Authority opened the show to say their goodbye, I just knew that Bryan would be the one to come out and send them off and run the show. It was still “a nice surprise” but it wasn’t “a great surprise”

Kevin Pantoja: FACT – Daniel Bryan is my favorite wrestler so of course this was a great surprise. WrestleMania XXX was an amazing night to be a Bryan fan and everything has been downhill since, so I was glad to see him. It was a nice surprise and it was the best part of Raw. Having him be the guy to taunt The Authority as they were forced to leave made a ton of sense since they made his life a living hell more than anyone else. I love how they are keeping him off of TV for the most part because when the fans see him it’s a big deal. I like the idea of one off General Managers for the next few weeks and there probably won’t be many better than Bryan. It was a nice change of pace to see the faces come out on top after the heels were in the driver’s seat for months.

SWITCH!

4. Dolph Ziggler’s performance at the Survivor Series PPV proved once again that the WWE should be using him much better than they have been.

Kevin Pantoja: FACT – Do I think that Dolph Ziggler can be the top guy in the company? No. Do I think that Dolph Ziggler can be a main event player? Yes. Survivor Series helped to solidify that for sure. The guy has taken a goofy character and name and made it work. He worked his way up for years, which is something that doesn’t happen as often as it should anymore. He won the Intercontinental and United States Titles while putting on some damn good matches. When he is given the chance, he delivers the goods by stealing the show, pun intended, when he’s asked to go in big title matches. He main evented TLC a few years ago in a good match, won the World Title to a MASSIVE pop and had some really good matches with Alberto Del Rio before his concussion. Dolph deserves to be held in higher regard than he has been and he shows it by always working hard. The start/stop with his push and a lot of other guys hurts them, but if they can build on this, Dolph can be a major player. The WWE needs to have top guys and they can’t afford to let a guy like Dolph slip back to obscurity.

Jeremy Lambert: FACT – It’s pretty much common knowledge that he should be getting used better than he is and he showed why once again on Sunday. Ziggler is a guy that you can put in any situation and he’ll thrive. Despite being horribly booked over the past few years, he’s remained over with the crowd. Having him go 3-on-1 and winning at Survivor Series was definitely a big push, but it’s always the follow-up that matters. If he’s going to be John Cena’s little buddy, then that certainly won’t help him in the long run. But if they actually let him stand on his own and be the fiery babyface like Shawn Michaels in 1996, things could definitely work.

5. Having the Anonymous Raw GM back is worse than having a human authority figure on Raw.

Kevin Pantoja: FICTION – This would be an easy fact if the Anonymous GM was returning on a permanent basis. The annoying chime and heel Michael Cole were two of the worst things in a relatively bad year for the WWE. However, this is fiction because it seems like it’s a one-off thing. On Cyber Monday, we’ll have to deal with the Anonymous GM for three hours. It could be fun even with annoying Michael Cole. We’ll hopefully get some entertaining twists and maybe someone will go all “Edge” on the computer again. While I prefer Daniel Bryan as GM over the computer, I’d rather have this than Larry the Cable Guy or Jesse Jackson again.

Jeremy Lambert: FACT – Who thought this would be a good idea again? Seriously, whoever actually proposed this idea with a straight face should be fired and never allowed to work in wrestling again. This gimmick sucked the first time around and it ended up as Hornswoggle being the Anonymous GM, something I hope they bring up on television. Why should I have any faith that it’ll be better this time around? Authority figure storylines are played out as it is, but using an anonymous authority figure is just a crutch for people who are completely out of ideas.

6. TNA’s new TV deal will lead to the company presenting a better and more focused product in 2015.

Kevin Pantoja: FICTION – As a fan of professional wrestling I want this to be a fact so bad. I would love to see TNA succeed as a company and move in the right direction. They have a fairly talented roster but that’s never really been the issue. It’s been over ten years and TNA has brought me disappointment after disappointment. For every step forward, they seem to take several back and a lot of the reason is because they have a serious lack of direction. Spike TV seemed satisfied with the 1.0 rating that TNA pulled in every week for a long time, so TNA didn’t bother to better themselves. Maybe being on a new channel will give them something to prove and motivate them. Destination America isn’t the biggest station, and I’m sure a 1.0 would be amazing in their eyes, so I don’t see TNA stepping their game up. I hope it does, but until TNA proves me wrong, I’m going against them unfortunately.

Jeremy Lambert: FACT – I’m not going to pretend that I’ve watched more than an hour of Impact for all of 2014, so I don’t know what’s going on in the company right now. I know that they haven’t been focused on their PPVs as Bound For Glory was a bomb in more ways than one, but I guess they are cutting back on PPVs in 2015, which is a good thing. I don’t even know if I get Destination America and even if I did, I probably wouldn’t watch Impact. But I hope that they do well.