wrestling / Columns
411 Fact or Fiction Wrestling: Has Kane Booking Been Absolutely Horrible?
Image Credit: WWE
Welcome back to 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 Steve Cook & Kevin Pantoja debate!
1. The booking of Kane has been absolutely horrible.
Steve Cook: FACT – I already wrote about Kane last week, and that’s about all I have to say about the situation. As it turns out, nothing changed this week on Raw. Kane tombstoned Finn Balor on the stage because he didn’t kill Balor off enough last week. He beat Seth Rollins because Rollins is just a tag team guy/friend of Roman Reigns now and doesn’t need to be protected. He even got credit for giving Daniel Bryan his first beat down since Bryan had to retire due to injury. I’ve got no problem at all with Bryan taking “beat downs” to further angles and put people over. I’m surprised WWE even wants to go down that road, because then people might want to see Bryan wrestle, and God forbid such a thing happen. But when you’re wasting the first one on Kane? It just gets back to the point I was making last week. Kane’s been around for twenty years now. People either buy into him as a monster or they don’t. Nothing he does now is going to change anybody’s mind. We’re sacrificing all of these people at the altar of Kane for no particular reason other than to let the fans know that Kane is on one level and all these little guys are on another. I know the excuse is “But he’s going to put Braun Strowman over!”. OK. My argument is that Kane could do that right now and it would have the same effect that it will whenever it actually happens. Making Finn Balor just another guy and taking the uniqueness away from whenever Bryan actually takes a bump again to further a story is needless collateral damage.
Kevin Pantoja: FACT – I understand wanting to book Kane as a monster, especially if it’s going to lead to a match with Braun Strowman. However, it’s horrible to do it at the expense of valuable stars. It reminds me of the build for Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar at the Live from MSG show in 2015. I remember people saying they wanted Cesaro to face Brock instead, but others argued that nobody wanted to see Cesaro get squashed by Brock. Understandable. Then, Show proceeded to make Cesaro look like a goof as they built him up for the 2000th time. So, we avoided Cesaro getting squashed by Brock, only so he could get squashed by Show. Now, we don’t get Finn Balor getting built up to lose to Brock or Braun, they’re building Kane by having him annihilate Finn. Imagine booking Finn to defeat AJ Styles, only to job to Kane in 2017. Kane owning Dean and Seth didn’t help matters either. 2017 is not the time for Kane to be going over guys like that.
2. You were surprised by the WWE releases of Emma, Summer Rae, and Darren
Steve Cook: FICTION – I don’t have any malice in my heart towards any of these people. I was so saddened by Emma’s release that I wrote an article about it. Summer Rae never got enough of a chance in the ring, I’d say she was just as underutilized as Emma was. Darren Young seems like a good dude. I wasn’t surprised by any of the releases though. Emma’s was a little surprising purely because she’d just put over Asuka in matches that weren’t total squashes, but WWE creative never really had any idea what to do with her. Summer Rae & Darren Young were in the same boat. They got injured, then they disappeared. Whenever they got healthy wasn’t relevant because WWE creative didn’t have any ideas for them. If you’re a WWE superstar and creative doesn’t have any ideas for you, or if you have ideas that don’t get listened to, your best strategy is to hope they forget you’re on the payroll.
Kevin Pantoja: FACT – This could kind of go either way. On one hand, I kind of expected Summer Rae to be let go a while back. I like her and find her underrated, but she was never used in a big capacity. I didn’t think the WWE would let Darren Young or Emma go. The WWE releasing their only openly gay wrestler seemed like something they’d want to avoid. Luckily, nobody has made it any sort of issue. Emma was the toughest to grasp. Sure, she made tons of comments on Twitter and made it known she felt underused, but she just nabbed her first PPV singles match. Not only that, but they had her go 50/50 with Asuka twice. If they knew they were going to cut her, why not let Asuka wreck her? I also haven’t seen the WWE let people go lately, mostly waiting for contracts to expire or when people requested their release (like Austin Aries).
3. Kurt Angle will face Triple H at WrestleMania.
Steve Cook: FACT – Barring Kurt or Hunter getting injured before then, which definitely can’t be ruled out considering their age & injury-prone nature, WrestleMania will almost certainly feature the Olympic Hero against the King of Kings. Which doesn’t really bother me considering that they do have a ton of history. This isn’t like when Triple H took on Sting at WrestleMania because WWE & WCW had a ratings war back in the day. Or when Triple H kept taking on Undertaker because he wanted to end Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak. Triple H & Angle’s characters have personal issues going back to Kurt’s first days in the WWF, when Stephanie McMahon developed a bit of a crush on Angle. There were tons of ups & downs in the years afterward until Angle’s departure. Now that he’s back, it only makes sense that he & Triple H would cross paths at some point.
Kevin Pantoja: FACT – Sure. They have a long history and were part of the best love triangle storyline in wrestling history. I’m also kind of all for part-timers facing each other at Mania. They’re gonna be on the card anyway, so it’s better to have them face each other instead of burning a full time roster member for a loss or something. With Stephanie returning, I assume they build tension between her and Kurt Angle for the next few months. Triple H will return and they’ll set for a big time match at Mania.
SWITCH!
4. You are happy to have Stephanie McMahon on WWE TV.
Kevin Pantoja: FICTION – The only way I’ll be happy with this, is it we get a bunch of fun Angle/Stephanie/HHH segments. But Stephanie really isn’t fun like she was back in 2000. She shows up, has to be the dominating female presence who makes everyone look small compared to her and typically hogs screen time. I’m fully expecting Stephanie to verbally castrate the entire Raw roster and continue to be one of the worst parts of Raw. Raw’s been surprisingly improved over the past few months and part of the reason has been the lack of Stephanie.
Steve Cook: FICTION – I hate to be overdramatic about these kinds of things. There’s nothing we can do about it as long as the McMahons own WWE. There’s always going to be some form of McMahon presence on television. The threat of Stephanie McMahon coming down from Titan Towers to de-ball Raw General Managers & Superstars will always be there. It’s gone on long enough that I don’t get worked up about it when it happens. It was only going to be a matter of time before Stephanie showed up and put Kurt Angle’s testicles in her collection. Not worth getting mad about it. Am I happy about it? Child please.
5. The women on Total Divas get unfairly criticized as being “over pushed & bad wrestlers.”
Kevin Pantoja: FACT – Absolutely. It started back when everyone assumed Nikki Bella held the Divas Title for so long because A) Total Divas and B) to spite AJ Lee. She held the title for long because she had mainstream appeal, was having solid matches and there was nobody else worth winning it (Naomi was a shit heel, Paige hadn’t performed well during that time, the Horsewomen had yet to be called up). The only people on Total Divas who I’d consider flat out bad wrestlers were Rosa Mendes, Eva Marie, Mandy Rose (though she’s still learning), Cameron, Lana and Alicia Fox, none of whom got big pushes. Alicia gets her small pushes because Kevin Dunn loves her, not because of her TD time. Women like Natalya and Naomi got their pushes this year because they’ve worked hard for years and Smackdown has been pushing different people this year. It also makes sense to showcase people that are on the show in hopes of bringing and keeping new fans.
Steve Cook: FACT – I’ll be honest, I haven’t regularly watched the show in years. So the best way for me to answer this question is look at the cast and determine if they’re “over pushed” or “bad wrestlers”.
Alexa Bliss: Absolutely not over pushed or a bad wrestler.
Nia Jax: Nia’s still a bit green. I think she’s figuring it out though. No issue with her push.
Carmella: Like Nia, she needs some work in the ring. I don’t think she’s over pushed though, she’s doing fine with the MITB briefcase.
Maryse: Awesome.
Lana: Definitely not over pushed.
Naomi: Definitely not over pushed, and fun in the ring.
Natalya: Is finally getting a push people might actually complain about being too much. I’m not.
Nikki & Brie Bella: I’ve been Bella Army Ride or Die since Day One.
So, yeah, I’d say any criticism is unwarranted. Now back in the day when you had Cameron, Eva Marie & girls like that whose exposure on the show was all they had going for them at the time, you could make those arguments. In 2017? Not so much.
6. Who should WWE bring up from NXT to replace Emma on the main roster?
Kevin Pantoja: The Iconic Duo – To be honest, I don’t think anyone needs to be called up in place of Emma just yet. The Raw women’s roster is poorly booked, but they’ve also just added Asuka, so she basically replaced Emma. However, if I must pick someone, I’d say the Iconic Duo of Peyton Royce and Billie Kay. Raw would do nothing with them, but they’re the NXT women who stick out as the most ready for the main roster. Ember Moon can go in the ring, but still needs help with her character. Nikki Cross is awesome, but shouldn’t leave SAnitY. Peyton and Billie have the best combination of skill and personality right now. I’m still dying to see them win a title and hold them as co-champions.
Steve Cook: Billie Kay & Peyton Royce – It seems like way too obvious of a choice, doesn’t? Bringing up the Australian heels to replace an Australian heel is the classic lazy wrestling decision. Fortunately, it makes perfect sense. The Iconic Duo has been killing it since they got together a little over a year ago. Their in-ring work is strong and their character work has been even stronger in NXT. Their status as a pair makes it even more likely they’ll succeed. Sure, WWE creative can ignore one ridiculously attractive Australian. Can they ignore two?
