411 Fact or Fiction Wrestling: Should Braun Strowman Beat Brock Lesnar at No Mercy?

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 Jeremy Lambert & Sean Garmer debate!

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. Braun Strowman SHOULD defeat Brock Lesnar and win the Universal title at No Mercy.

Jeremy Lambert: FACT – I said he should win the title prior to SummerSlam, so of course I’m going with FACT here. Braun is as hot as he’ll likely ever be right now. He’s destroyed everyone in his path, including Roman Reigns, and has looked strong these past few weeks against Lesnar. At some point, WWE has to capitalize on that. He can still look strong in a loss to Lesnar, but fans are quickly going to wonder if there’s a payoff for his domination and turn if there isn’t. Much like they did with Ryback. Get the belt off Lesnar, let him enjoy hunting season, and ride the Braun wave to WrestleMania.

Sean Garmer: FACT – I swear I was on the last time there was a question like this. So, I’ll repeat myself again. Yes, Braun Strowman should. The dude is mega hot right now, this is the perfect time before you get to the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania season to try out someone as champion. Come on, how long have you had the walking annoyance in Jinder Mahal as champion? Why can’t Braun get a trial run? If there’s one person in WWE that Brock could lose to, and lose really nothing, it’s Braun Strowman. It probably won’t happen, because WWE only has one person in mind to take that belt away from The Beast. I feel like you missed the window with Joe to have him win the belt in that multi-man match. Now you have another opportunity to cement the status of a new talent, put him in a special stratosphere, but they probably go the “Oh My God, Brock came back and beat the Monster” route instead, sadly.

2. Neville will defeat Enzo Amore to retain the cruiserweight title at No Mercy.

Jeremy Lambert: FACT – There are two thoughts here. The first is that Enzo gets dominated, but wins on a fluke/underhand tactic because in terms of storytelling, that makes the most sense. The second is that Enzo gets dominated and beaten clean because in terms of embarrassing the guy, that makes the most sense. I’m gonna go with WWE wanting to embarrass Enzo more than them telling a long-term story.

Sean Garmer: FICTION – It would be idiotic to have Enzo win the belt at No Mercy. Firstly, it’s pretty much a shot at your entire division that the least in-ring talented guy, which is what 205 Live is built around, wins the title on his first try. When Austin Aries, who’s more talented than Enzo in all facets could never win the belt from Neville. I get that you were trying to establish Neville at that point, but you’ve already had Neville lose the belt for a week, for pretty much no reason. Let’s not diminish all the great work that Neville has done, by having Enzo win. This is the same guy that believes the feud is based off of Neville being jealous. I mean, considering what Enzo’s been through recently, I wonder if there are people jealous of him at all. Getting to the point, from a storyline standpoint, Enzo gets reactions from the fans, he can gain sympathy really easily. Both guys are very good on the stick and they could carry a feud for several months. It makes the most sense for Enzo to chase Neville for the title, the entire time. You lose a lot, if Enzo wins it on his first attempt. So Enzo will not win.

3. Bayley will win the Raw women’s title at Sunday’s No Mercy PPV.

Jeremy Lambert: FICTION – According to WWE announcers, Bayley only has a 20 percent chance of winning on Sunday. I’ll take my chances with the other 80 percent. I could see a scenario where Bayley pins Sasha to win the title, finally setting up the dissension between those two and the long rumored heel turn for Banks. I could also see Nia Jax winning because it’s obvious that’s going to happen at some point and I could see Alexa retaining because Alexa should be the champion forever. I really like that there’s no clear-cut winner in this match.

Sean Garmer: FACT – Honestly? Does it really matter who’s women’s champion at this point? Anyone could win the title on Sunday and I don’t think it’s going to matter one iota. The constant flipping of the belt that’s happened for almost the better part of a year has made this belt a physical prop. Bayley has the history with most of the women here, she’s the one that lost to Asuka that started her huge streak, and she also had the injury that put her out of the match she was supposed to be in at the previous event. It makes the most sense to just go back to the original idea. Another person that could work is having Nia Jax win. Although we’ve pretty much seen all the faces against Nia at this point. Nia serves as a great gatekeeper and someone who also has history with Nia Jax. This way, you can save the Bayley and Asuka match for later. Aside from that, you could always have Alexa keep it, to have a very funny yet interesting feud with Asuka.

SWITCH!

4. Even if it is only for a live event, it’s cool that WWE is bringing back the Starrcade name for a show in North Carolina.

Sean Garmer: FICTION – Only because if it winds up being a sole live event, for me, that’s a waste of putting the Starrcade name on it. Not to mention, the event falls on my birthday and it would be nice to see it. If they for sure put it on the WWE Network and make it mean a little something, like maybe have Nakamura win the title on the show, it would be a big deal. It would be so Vince to take a shot at WCW by making Starrcade a live event for the crowd in Greensboro and not something it’s audience at large could see and build around it. Unfortunately I was never a NWA/WCW fan when it was still running. I’ve only really watched events from them thanks to the network, or from DVD’s like both Ric Flair collections. So, I don’t have the historical connection to the name that others might. However, I do understand the sense of nostalgia it brings. Having Ricky Steamboat, and health willing, probably having Ric Flair himself at the event, would be awesome to see. Hardy Boyz being in their home state is also just something that everyone deserves to see. Then you have the Flair vs. Hart rivalry in a cage match as the semi-main? Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens and more. If the world at large gets to see the return of Starrcade, it would be very awesome.

Jeremy Lambert: FACT – If it wasn’t a holiday weekend and I wouldn’t be out of town, I’d likely attend the show. It’s a cool thing to do, but kind of pointless if it’s not going to be on the WWE Network. Remember when they had live specials on the Network? Those were awesome and added some extra value to the Network. I assume they lost a fair amount of money on them, which is why they don’t happen anymore, but they should really re-consider it for Starrcade. Otherwise, what’s the point? It’s nice for the North Carolina fans and the ones that can travel on a holiday weekend, but how about the southern fans that can’t? I’m sure they would love to see the return of Starrcade in some capacity. It’s a missed opportunity if this doesn’t end up on the Network either live or next day.

5. You’re not surprised that Anthem failed to properly finish negotiations for the GFW name and are back to pushing the Impact Wrestling name.

Sean Garmer: FACT – This just proves that no matter who is running this company, they eventually fall into the trappings of TNA. How in the world do you officially announce a merger, a changing of a name, change over the name on television and then you find out that stuff wasn’t signed? I mean, don’t you have lawyers who go over these things? What are you doing? They are worse than the FC Barcelona front office who somehow can’t figure out they still haven’t signed Lionel Messi to a long term contract, cause he hasn’t signed it. The GFW name change actually brought good things to Impact, the partnerships, the addition of wrestlers, and so on. I don’t know that it means too much, cause the show itself was still technically called Impact. It’s just another bonehead thing to add to the turbulent history of TNA/Impact/GFW/ whatever name they are calling themselves.

Jeremy Lambert: FACT – I’m not surprised by anything TNA/GFW/Impact/Anthem do. You could tell me that Ted Turner purchases the company tomorrow and hires Vince Russo, Jim Cornette, and Eric Bischoff to run the company and I wouldn’t be surprised. There’s literally nothing they could do that would shock me. I just assume they’re going to do something stupid, laugh when they do it, and then move on to the next item of business.

6. What is your excitement level for Sunday’s WWE No Mercy PPV?

Sean Garmer: 6 out of 10 – I’m excited for the top two matches for sure. Those both could be very good to great and carry the PPV to something memorable. You know you are going to get good wrestling out of the tag title match as well. I’ve actually very much enjoyed the Rollins and Ambrose reunion and tag title run. Neville and Enzo is gonna be interesting. The women’s match could surprise. I’m sure Miz and Jason Jordan will be fine as well. And I do not give a flip about Finn and Bray at all. But those top two matches have done a great job in building things for this show and they will be what we judge it on, in the end too.

Jeremy Lambert: 10 out of 10 – As always, my excitement level is generally on the higher side just because events are on the Network and easily accessible. But this one is a 10 because the card is really good. Just about every match could go either way, which is the sign of a strong card. The two main events are the two strongest main events on a brand event that we’ve had in quite some time. Braun-Lesnar should be a hard-hitting affair that works to the strengths of both men, Cena-Roman will be good and enhanced by the crowd reactions, and the tag title match should steal the show. Miz-Jordan has a chance to be solid assuming Miz can get the crowd behind Jordan and the women’s match should be fine even though it’ll likely fall into the typical WWE multi-person formula. And either Neville pulls something decent out of Enzo or he kicks the shit out of him. The only match I don’t care about is Finn-Bray because, even though I like Finn, no one could possibly care about Bray at this point. Overall though, it’s a strong show.