wrestling / Columns
411 Fact or Fiction Wrestling: Will The Shield Fully Reunite at Summerslam?
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 Justin Watry and Jake Chambers!
1. The Shield will fully reunite at Summerslam to help Roman Reigns win the Universal title.
Justin Watry: FICTION – That is not going to happen for three reasons. First of all, Brock Lesnar is my prediction to retain the Universal Championship at Summerslam. Sorry Samoa Joe, get ready to take another pinfall loss. Braun Strowman and Roman Reigns are in there for the name value boost to the title match. Secondly, there is no ‘full’ reunion of The Shield until down the road, if ever. Reigns has his own stuff going on right now, and if you recall, he wasn’t even involved with either man when the initial split went down in summer 2014. He may join for Survivor Series or something but no – nothing is imminent. Third reason and most importantly is I still suspect all of these teases end with Dean Ambrose turning on Seth Rollins. Kinda like the mini-DX reunion in July 2002. All together, this spells out FICTION.
Jake Chambers: FICTION – The WWE just spent four weeks pointing and yelling at the most obvious outcome of the whole “will they or won’t they” kiss and make up Rollins/Ambrose angle. Not for one second did anyone believe there was a chance these two weren’t going to be in a SummerSlam tag team title match, especially since there were no other challengers for the belts and no alternative storylines for Cesaro & Sheamus anyways. As usual, WWE comes up with an idea that would be cool for maybe a week or two, then drag it out 4x too long just to fill up all this ungodly TV time they don’t know what else to do with. So considering this slowly-pound-you-over-the-head-with-a-fucking-hammer style of storytelling is now the trademark of WWE creative, you can assume they are certainly not planning to do something like a full-on Shield reunion without first teasing it in the most obvious way over and over for weeks.
2. John Cena will defeat Baron Corbin at Summerslam.
Justin Watry: FICTION – Ugh. Maybe the toughest match to predict on the entire WWE Summerslam 2017 card. On one hand, you have the up and coming Money in the Bank heel. On the other hand, you have a part-time legend who just lost clean on television to Shinsuke Nakamura and could arguably use a nice win before leaving the brand to join Raw. Critics will say Cena does not NEED any wins due to his tenure, and while that is true, the guy can’t keep losing and suddenly show up on Monday night ready to talk trash (my guess is he faces Joe first). That would seem kinda hollow. I will pick Corbin to win now on his road to the main event scene and with Cena exiting the brand in a week but likely have my mind changed by the time Summerslam arrives. Flip a coin.
Jake Chambers: FACT – There are so few things left about the WWE that are likeable or make any sense to me, and John Cena wrestling and winning is still one of them. So I must believe that all will be right in the world come Monday morning with John Cena getting another good win under his heavy, decorated, golden belt. Sure, he doesn’t have an actual championship belt anymore, but Cena wears the metaphorical belt of “Most Important Wrestler Alive”, passed down from Bruno to Hogan to Hart to Austin to Rock and vacated by Brock Lesnar when this supposed badass was too sensitive to handle the WWE schedule and pressures. Cena has held that REAL status as uber-star while pretenders crumbled all around him, from Batista to Orton to Punk and Bryan, and even that crybaby Lesnar who had to come crawling back to “fake wrestling” after he washed out of MMA because he straight sucked! In fact, many were in awe at Lesnar’s main event squash of Cena at SummerSlam 3 years ago, but that will eventually go down as one of Cena’s greatest moments when the history books are written. It’s one thing to through a bunch of suplexes and look like a badass, but it’s another level of skill entirely to take those suplexes and make it important to be beaten that way, but to then actually stay and work, carrying the load in two subsequent Lesnar matches, and months of PPV, TV and house shows. Baron Corbin, win or lose – and he should lose – is just gonna be another tick on Cena’s list of guys who he’s given their best match to, as he continues on carrying the burden as this generations greatest superstar.
SWITCH!
3. Jinder Mahal will leave Summerslam as the WWE Champion.
Jake Chambers: FACT – I’m going to say FACT, assuming the betting odds released the day of the show support Mahal winning. If they turn to favor Nakamura, then I’m go with him. Something legitimately criminal is going on with the manipulation of betting odds for the outcome of this scripted performance, where said odds change when the day of those creative decisions are most likely being made. Someone is clearly making money off of this rigged game, while some poor dopes are clearly losing money. Why there isn’t an investigation into this gambling crime by some kind of law enforcement in the United States is a bit strange, however, that country also has that loopy stock market, notoriously corrupt banks, and a crooked criminal justice system, so I’m not gonna hold my breath on seeing that get sorted out anytime soon. Anyways, I’d just direct anyone’s attention to the 411mania newswire for when these betting odds start changing on Sunday if they are looking to successfully predict the outcome of WWE PPV matches.
Justin Watry: FICTION – If Jinder Mahal was wrestling John Cena, I’d be going with FACT. Since it is against Shinsuke Nakamura, my gut feeling is that the company is going to crown a new WWE Champion. Nakamura debuted in NXT during WrestleMania 32 weekend. He then debuted on the main roster one year later. Nakamura won the NXT Title during Summerslam weekend in 2016. Now he is poised to win the WWE Title one year later. Lots of symmetry there and would be quite fitting timing wise. My only hang up is if the higher ups are truly going to throw in the towel on the Mahal Experiment just before the India tour. I suppose he could still headline, just as a challenger rather than holding the belt but still! Tough decision to be had. Next to Cena/Corbin, this is the hardest bout to predict. Head says WWE will drag out the Jinder title run a little bit longer. Gut says pull the trigger on Shinsuke now and follow up on the big win over Cena.
4. WWE made a mistake by giving away both Neville vs. Tozawa & Wyatt vs. Balor on Monday’s Raw.
Jake Chambers: FICTION – To say “WWE made a mistake…” about anything is like saying the Japanese made a mistake building Tokyo on a fault line, the Italians made a mistake building Venice on a lagoon, or the French made a mistake building New Orleans six feet below sea level. This shit is already a fucking disaster, but it’s built now so what are you gonna do?
Justin Watry: FICTION – Yet another FICTION from yours truly but with a stipulation. I think it was a bit jarring to have the WWE Cruiserweight Championship match on RAW. That felt out of place, rushed, and really sucked for Neville’s great run. To just end on a random show with little hype? Eh. Not a fan of that, even if it was a cool moment for Akira Tozawa. As for Bray Wyatt vs. Finn Balor, the feud needed some juice. No, not the red cranberry juice used by Bray. I mean it had to have that extra “something” before Summerslam. Many of us suspected The Demon would appear anyways, so it was a welcome addition to the story line. Balor gets the victory, forgets about Monday’s loss and heads towards a potential Universal Title match? Maybe?
5. What is your current level of excitement for WWE Summerslam?
Jake Chambers: 0 out of 10 – Let me tell you a little something about how I spent last weekend up here in gorgeous Canada. On Friday, while America was being whipped up into a paranoid frenzy by the irresponsibly exaggerated media about an imminent nuclear war, I was sleeping all day so that I could later enjoy the final night of Block A competition in New Japan G1 Climax tournament. And it was a phenomenal show, produced in an actual country within the dangerous range of North Korea yet amazingly not cowering in their bunkers – because there’s nothing to worry about! Then on Saturday, the network here that plays Lucha Underground (TLN), while once way behind El Rey Network continuity, amazingly caught up and even jumped two episodes ahead last weekend, meaning I was able to watch 3 full hours of brand new LU content, including the Cueto Cup Finals and the incredibly well built Johnny Mundo/Rey Mysterio championship match. This show is so fantastic and deeply influenced by lucha libre style, a rich tradition in professional wrestling still thriving creatively in Mexico, the same country so often vilified by certain American politicians as being this poor, criminal nation that only wants to invade and pillage the US. So a great weekend of pro-wrestling was enjoyed by me, almost too good, all while America raged on from one hate-filled apocalypse to the next, but hey, at least it all ended in time for the highest-rated new episode of Game of Thrones ever! We’re seeing an economic system that has divided and then stifled real creativity with such vigilance, that people have become as frustrated and confused as farm animals while simultaneously being indoctrinated into believing they are these thriving know-it-alls.
Now, what the fuck does all this have to do with SummerSlam? Well, I’ll put it like this: the WWE is NOT the only or best way to produce pro-wrestling in the world, despite all superficially logical evidence to the contrary. We are told that because they are have been biggest company for so long that they must be the best; however, the true intentions of the WWE are no longer about creative expression but the extension of gross cannibalistic capitalist business practices. The hobby industry that has sprung up around this parasitic, engine of anti-wrestling is now so vast with podcasts and corporate-sponsored blog recaps that it seems like the irrational decisions made between the increasingly longer commercial breaks on WWE television are of paramount importance to the creative success of an art-form many grew up loving with a passion. But I’m afraid the WWE does not care about you or your passions, American peoples, any more than CNN, Fox News, the New York Times, Breitbart, McDonald’s or Disneyland do. You are data to be controlled. The chaos you perceive around you is but a trick of the light from the powers that be, no more than a poorly executed pull-apart segment on the “go-home” RAW before SummerSlam: lazy, flashy, and pointless, meant only to dazzle you over here while they pull out your soul over there. I be not excited for this PPV, and would hope that I could enjoy a summer’s evening reading a book, walking in a park, or watching some Lucha Underground and New Japan. However, I – like so many – have become addicted a “brand” that will force me to sit through a show that I know will suck, because no matter how many fantastic Canadian/Japanese/Mexican wrestling weekends I spend, I will continue to be pulled back into an American pit of true, blinding cultural kayfabe.
Justin Watry: 8 out of 10 – As we inch closer to the weekend, my rankings will probably go up a bit. There is that pesky two hour Kickoff Show to deal with, but there is also the option to skip it. Something I like to do with pay-per-view events anyways. Besides that, this is very deserving of a four-hour spectacle. A stacked lineup should get plenty of time to deliver. Brock Lesnar has a fatal four way match, Baron Corbin gets a huge marquee battle against Cena, Nakamura is going for the WWE Title, AJ Styles and Kevin Owens will wrestle one more time, Orton and Rusev finally feud, two different women’s matches, two different tag team title matches, and more! Yeah, it may be tiring come Sunday. However, nobody can deny that is a loaded show.
