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411 Fact or Fiction Wrestling: Is Styles vs. Joe The Most Anticipated Summerslam Match?
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 Ken Hill & Len Archibald.
1. How exited are you for the 2018 Mae Young Classic?
Len Archibald: 10 out of 10 – First off, I am rocked out by the reader response last week…perhaps Ken and I have something here for a permanent collabo in some capacity! Last week, I caught some flak for saying my excitement level for Evolution is at a 10. So, I’m giving 10s everywhere! Honestly, the reason my excitement is at its peak for MYC2 is because of the success of last year’s edition, and because the tournament this year is absolutely stacked. Look at the main participants of the field: Io Shirai, Toni Storm, Mercedes Martinez, Mia Yim, Killer Kelly, Madison Rayne, Deonna Purrazzo, Kaitlyn, Jinny, Rhea Ripley, Lacey Lane and Meiko F’N Satomura – and those are just the ones I’ve seen in action. Others like Hiroyo Matsumoto I have heard tremendous things about and I am buzzing with anticipation. I am hoping for a Storm/Shirai final, which just may explode my brain Scanners style. My body is ready. P.S.: Kenny, please don’t quit your day job and leave the rapping to Kendrick Lamar.
Ken Hill: 9 out of 10 – A returning, refocused Kaitlyn, a healthy Io Shirai, the return of two of last year’s popular participants in Toni Storm and Mercedes Martinez, the highly-touted Deonna Purrazzo, the former “Queen Bee” Ashley ‘Madison’ Rayne, as well as the shocking signing of Japanese legend and Joshi Strong Style master Meiko Satomura? YES PLEASE! Mauro Ranallo being penciled in to announce the tournament is the cherry on top, as we know he will be plenty dedicated to putting each and every competitor over throughout the proceedings. I have great respect for both Lita and Good Ol’ JR, but their commentary was lackluster at best last year and took away from what was otherwise an overall great first outing for the Mae Young Classic. There’s also a solid blend of stateside and international talents signed for the tournament, so no doubt we’ll be in store for some very intriguing match-ups. Based on her well-done performance against Baszler at WWE’s 2018 UK Tourney, I’d love to see Toni Storm go the distance here so she can rematch for the NXT Women’s Title down the line against Shayna.
2. Main roster stars like Tyler Breeze, with nothing to do, popping up and working NXT live events is a great idea.
Len Archibald: FACT – This should have been an option as soon as a talent like Breeze made it to the main roster. I don’t like admitting it to myself sometimes, but some acts just don’t fit on the main roster compared to NXT or get lost in the shuffle because of the number of talents on Raw and Smackdown. You can’t fit everyone in. I stated a while back that WWE should have always fostered a baseball club program, where veterans who can coach, a returning performer that needs to shed some ring rust, or acts that aren’t connecting as well as anticipated make the trek back down to NXT. A talent like Breeze is an NXT favorite and is able to pop the crowd – and, as someone who has worked on the main roster, is able to take on a player/coach role to younger talents, give them the do’s and dont’s of how to present themselves and just give them better preparation as to what to expect when they are called up. This goes for Tye Dillinger, Curtis Hawkins (even though he isn’t primarily an NXT talent) and even The Revival. Breeze has a tremendous understanding of character work and would be a great mentor for someone like Velveteen Dream in a nice Takeover-bound feud. Man, I didn’t know how much I wanted this until I typed it.
Ken Hill: FACT – I’d say so, especially in Breeze’s case since Fandango is on the mend and he’s literally doing nothing but jobber work on RAW and a stint here or there on Main Event. There’s going to be a lot of down time for low-tier superstars like him, Rhyno, The Ascension, and sadly Gable at the moment, so why not make the most of them by having them work the NXT live event circuit, give a little boost to ticket sales by having “former NXT greats returning for one night only”, and have them put over some of the newer crop of talent on the NXT roster? It’ll give the main roster’s jobbers a chance to stretch their wings in more fleshed-out matches and segments and it’ll be fun for the fans to see familiar faces of NXT’s past mix it up with future prospects.
3. The Drew Gulak vs. Cedric Alexander Cruiserweight title match will end up on the Summerslam pre-show.
Len Archibald: FACT – IMO, this should have been billed as one of the marquee matches at Summerslam. Cedric has been a great fighting champ and Gulak has played the role of pretzel-twisting sadistic heel perfectly. I never realized how great these two have contrasted each other, but all hail a Triple H produced 205 Live. But Hunter doesn’t have the keys to the kingdom, so the cruiserweights are still an afterthought. I do expect this to go the way of Neville vs. Aries at WrestleMania and nearly steal the show…in the pre-show. Someday, guys. I’m honestly rooting for you.
Ken Hill: FACT – Should it end up on the pre-show? Probably not. Will it? Most likely. This has been one the glaringly frustrating aspects of the 205 Live revival, in that it hasn’t gotten a lot of recognition on PPV or from either of the two main shows, aside from the show-ending advert on Smackdown and when either set of announcers preview the PPV card. I can understand Triple H wanting to keep the Cruiserweights close to the vest and not let them get lost in the shuffle on RAW, like getting put on RAW’s back-burner third hour as I pointed out back in June, but there has to come a point where you take that sort of risk to get these guys, guys who have worked hard to get 205 Live back to what it should’ve been following the CW Classic, onto either show (Smackdown, preferably, as it’s far more quality in terms of actual wrestling) for some “mainstream” exposure. As I also indicated back then, however, having the Cruiserweights kick the night off isn’t necessarily a bad thing either, as it gives them a chance to not only pop the live crowd, but hopefully set the pace in terms of match quality for the evening.
SWITCH!
4. The Authors of Pain’s main roster run has been a disaster thus far.
Ken Hill: FICTION – I think it’s too soon to write off AOP’s main roster stint as an unmitigated disaster. Their stint on Main Event and ongoing feud with Titus Worldwide that kicked off with, you know, AOP winning the first match, is far less likely another burned bridge concerning NXT call-ups and more of an extended holding pattern (partly due to one member’s visa issues) since the focus of the RAW tag division is on the B-Team, Wyatt and Hardy, and The Revival. Let’s say that the B-Team squeaks out a win over The Revival in their likely match at SummerSlam. Axel and Dallas feel super-confident, being undefeated and all, so they throw out a challenge on the post-SummerSlam RAW to any team they haven’t beaten yet. Here comes AOP, they run through the B-Team like Stephanie and a pair of clippers through the entire male RAW roster, and boom, new dominant tag champs to kick off the second half of WWE’s 2018 season. If AOP doesn’t have SOME sort of impact on the tag division in the next couple months, then it would be a little more appropriate to start going all “end is nigh, end is nigh” concerning their run on RAW. For now, though, I’m not at all concerned with their position on the main roster. What has me admittedly perplexed about their main roster run is that they split Paul Ellering from AOP the moment they hit the main roster. I understand WWE wants a veteran presence like Ellering down in NXT to help groom and prepare the latest crop of WWE talent. At the same time, though, AOP needs a solid mouthpiece like Ellering, someone who can put over Akam and Rezar’s brutal style and build them up as nigh-unstoppable monsters like Paul did in NXT while covering for the duo’s simple, but lacking mic skills. Len and I were in agreement last week on the notion that good managers like Zelina Vega and Paul Heyman are a premium nowadays and should certainly have more of a presence in the modern-day era of professional wrestling, especially for younger superstars like the AOP that don’t necessarily have all of the best verbal tools to get themselves over.
Len Archibald: FACT – HOW THE FUCK DO YOU SCREW THIS UP??? It’s not that hard to do. You have a big, burly team with a charismatic manager (and one with a legacy of managing one of the greatest teams of all time) that can talk for them, and they go in and wreck shit. I would have thought of this when I was five: “oh, those guys are big and can beat my dad up!” I am absolutely stunned. I know that some are pissed at how The Revival has been treated since they made the main roster, but the AOP’s treatment is unforgivable. They arrived, disappeared, came in and looked like they were going to be rehabbed, then disappeared again, only for them to be in a heatless feud with goddamn Titus Worldwide. AKAM LOST TO APOLLO CREWS IN LESS THAN TWO MINUTES. Apollo fucking Crews. Let that sink in. These guys should have obliterated Titus Worldwide, then everyone else and be tag champs already. Ellering never should have left them. Even if the Ellering pairing could not work on a logistical standpoint, get someone else to manage them. This is like, baseline level shit. It’s not fantasy booking when it’s booking that has existed from the 1970s.
5. What is your most anticipated Summerslam match right now?
Ken Hill: AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe -I’m almost tempted to pull a Watry and post Styles and Joe’s Turning Point 2005 match or one of their superb triple threat matches with Christopher Daniels and include the caption “No Explanation Needed”…
…but why stop there? These two gentlemen not only have an established background and amazing chemistry with one another, but have developed over the last 15 years into two of the most well rounded, dynamic performers in the squared circle today. TNA/Impact capitalized on the pure talent of AJ and Joe to have a great series of matches from their hard-hitting, lightning-fast barnburners in 2005 to their amazing three-way encounters with the “Fallen Angel”, and to their technically savvy back-and-forth exchanges in the 2012 and 2013 Bound For Glory series. As you can tell from the amount of time between these matches and the different qualities, it’s been a feud with great longevity and variety, yet every encounter leaves the fans wanting more, and their long-awaited match-up at SummerSlam 2018 is no different. This time, though, it’s spiced up with the promo skills both men have cultivated in the last few years; Styles speaks from the heart as a determined champion, a family man always fighting from the ground up, tireless and always willing to go the extra mile to succeed and show everyone why Smackdown is truly the house he’s built in the last two years. Joe has developed an amazing, intense cadence to his words, never taking his eyes off the camera like he’s looking right into the eyes of his opponent-to-be and the TV audience’s collective eyes as well, making us believe that what he says is almost a gospel truth, and his promo from the most recent episode of Smackdown is a prime example of such. This could very well be the show-stealer at SummerSlam.
Len Archibald: AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe – After the disappointment of the Styles/Nakamura feud, I admit that my expectations are reserved. But, AJ isn’t going to be in the ring with a showman like Nakamura, he’s going to be working with a beast, a wrecker, someone who since arriving to WWE has been working and giving promo work like it’s his mission to be noticed by Vince McMahon. Seth Rollins may be WWE’s MVP, but Samoa Joe is making a case for being the most compelling character on the main roster. Everything he does is sold as completely believable and may be the only one other than Brock Lesnar on the main roster who carries the old school mentality of “I’m a killer, I’m paid to beat people up, but I like beating people up anyway” mentality. With Joe’s intensity, AJ’s penchant for storytelling, and even a challenge between the two to try and top anything they did in Impact, this match could be fire. I *want* Joe to win because his work since he’s arrived has warranted being a true destroyer champion…and I’m sure he could be-be a better Brock Lesnar than Brock Lesnar. But…My expectations are reserved.
6. Matt Riddle is a great signing for WWE.
Ken Hill: FACT – How could it not be? Riddle was probably the hottest free agent on the indy scene up until his announced signing, with excellent performance reviews and success across a vast spectrum of wrestling promotions in his few years on the wrestling circuit (even picking up WON’s “Rookie of the Year” Award in 2016), as well as a pretty damn solid MMA background, something WWE’s been attuned to as of late with Ronda Rousey being signed and Lashley being welcomed back into the WWE fold after his time in Bellator. The key problem with all of this, however, seems to hinge on Riddle’s publicly-known marijuana usage, something he believes kept WWE from going in on a deal with him the past couple years. While WWE’s policy now merely fines a superstar for testing positive rather than suspend or release them, it wouldn’t be a stretch for Triple H and company to try and encourage Riddle to be a more discrete user so as to avoid the same kind of fallacies he fell into during his MMA career, after having a couple wins overturned due to testing positive for pot. I know it’s been over a decade since the unfortunate incident surrounding RVD’s drug possession arrest that led to the early dismissal of his main event run and WWE’s aforementioned by-laws concerning marijuana have changed since then, but I just don’t want to see Riddle make a similar public faux pas and not get the proper chance to wrestle on the biggest stage.
Other than that, I’m very excited to see Riddle come to NXT; after seeing him in person mixing it up with high-flyer extraordinaire AR Fox at Evolve 107, there’s the potential for Riddle and Ricochet, Riddle and Velveteen Dream (An acknowledged pot user and a Prince expy? Only “Chaos and Disorder” could ensue, haha!), as well as seeing him and Kyle O’Reilly mix it up in what could be considered a wrestling purist’s dream, not that we haven’t seen it go down before… FRIENDLY BLATANT PLUG TIME!
Check out Len’s hilarious take on “Trump” vs. “Rosie” and more of his fun, unique views on wrestling’s god-awful snafus on Ring Riffs!
Len Archibald: FACT – Riddle is someone I’ve watched for a long time and always believed he had something very special about him. It’s that “it” factor that you can’t put your finger on and is reserved for a very rare and select talents. Now, I’m not making some bold claim that he’s someone that will springboard WWE into some new golden age, but he has something that if molded the right way, and placed in the right circumstance, could propel Riddle into the stratosphere. He has a Kurt Angle vibe about him, someone who came into the wrestling business cold and only had amateur fighting to his name but has taken to every aspect of the art form like a fish to water and his evolution into the performer he has become is something only a few has achieved. He will probably appear at NXT Takeover and debut to massive fanfare. The only prediction I will make: he won’t be in NXT for long. I think he has everything that may work on the main roster. Until then, put that man in the ring with Black, Ricochet, Gargano, EC3, Dream, Cole and Ciampa, dammit!
Need someplace to get your wrestling fix? The Wrestling Kennection is your jam. Thoughts on news, events and even the ins-and outs of Pro Wrestling 101! Check out episode 229!
