411 Fact or Fiction Wrestling: Will Undertaker Wrestle For WWE in 2018?

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!

Questions were sent out Tuesday.

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. Rey Mysterio will return to WWE in some capacity to WWE in 2018.

Steve Cook: FACT – It just feels like it’s time for Rey to go back to WWE, if only for a brief farewell run. He’s been gone a couple of years now. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and people will be happy to see him back. He did an interview with ESPN where he said he wanted to go back at some point, and WWE.com had a video mentioning him as a possible Royal Rumble surprise. Both parties seem interested, so let’s make the love connection!

Kevin Pantoja: FACT – He wants to come back, he’s in good shape and had some high quality matches in Lucha Underground. I doubt he’ll be back in full time capacity. He’ll most likely show up, work a few big matches and maybe give a jolt to the cruiserweight division. Once that’s over, he could go into some sort of backstage role or as a coach in the Performance Center. He has a ton of experience that could come in handy for the future of the business.

2. Dolph Ziggler relinquishing the US Title “and walking away” will result in a complete turn around for his career when he returns.

Steve Cook: FICTION – Dolph Ziggler is what he is at this point. He’s a solid hand. He’s not the guy, but you can get a good match out of the guy with him. There’s a certain charisma about him, but it isn’t main event charisma. When he comes back it’ll be to challenge whoever wins the US Championship tournament, who I assume will be Bobby Roode. It’ll probably be pretty good. Will it turn his career around? Probably not, in fact it might even be his last hurrah. I do think writing guys into time off is a good idea in general though, and can keep them fresh in the long run. WWE’s roster is big enough at this point that they should be able to give most of their guys periods of time off without much of an effect on the overall product.

Kevin Pantoja: FICTION – In 2012, I was all in on the Dolph train. I got excited again when he got his small push at the end of 2014. Once 2015 hit, he became one of the most boring parts of the show weekly. The only person to rejuvenate him for a short time was the Miz, because Miz is great. 2017 has been even worse for Dolph, to the point where I don’t care if he ever shows up again. He won the US Title in a surprisingly good match, but it still didn’t get me or anyone I know to care about him again. Dolph’s done and dead in the water. I’d like to see him turn things around, but I can’t see it happening. His career won’t have the big turn around.

3. Who is your pick, as of today, to win the men’s Royal Rumble?

Steve Cook: Roman Reigns – Reigns is always in the WrestleMania main event. They already did his John Cena win so they can’t just close with that for no reason. There isn’t really another big star they can randomly book against him. He’ll be going for the Universal Title in the main event of WrestleMania. Might as well give him another Rumble win to bump that number up.

Kevin Pantoja: Shinsuke Nakamura – Let me preface this by saying I don’t want Shinsuke Nakamura to win. His entire main roster run (and honestly, his NXT run other than the Sami and Finn matches) have all felt like he was on cruise control at best. I understand that people want he and AJ Styles to wrestle at WrestleMania, which is what I’m thinking will happen. I just personally don’t care for it. The safest option seems like Roman Reigns, but I get the feeling he wins the Elimination Chamber, since that’s a Raw PPV this year, to set up his match with Brock Lesnar. I don’t see any other Smackdown guys winning.

SWITCH!

4. The Nationwide Arena has announced a Fatal Five-Way WWE Championship match for WWE Fastlane on March 11th, 2018 featuring AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn; this means that a Raw star will win the Royal Rumble.

Kevin Pantoja: FICTION – A Smackdown star won the Royal Rumble in 2017 and they still pulled out an awesome six man Elimination Chamber the following month. Now, the only issue is that if a Smackdown guy won the Rumble, I’d think it would be one of these guys. With cards always subject to change, maybe if Nakamura wins the Rumble, his spot in this match would go to someone like Jinder Mahal or Bobby Roode. Either way, I don’t think the main events of Fastlane and Elimination Chamber are going to have anything to do with the outcome of the Royal Rumble.

Steve Cook: FACT – This is more to do with my confidence in Roman Reigns than this match announcement. As we all know: card is subject to change. But if this is the match SmackDown presents at Fastlane, I think we can say that a SD star won’t win the Rumble. I expect Styles & Owens to face off for the title at the Rumble. Orton & Nakamura seem to be circling one another…even if they’re friends now we know that Randy usually stabs his friends in the back during the early part of the year. I think one of them eliminates the other to push that forward. Sami winning the Rumble would be cute.

5. The Undertaker WILL NOT return to wrestle for WWE in 2018.

Kevin Pantoja: FICTION – I don’t think he should. He looked rough the past two years and his match with Roman Reigns at WrestleMania sucked. He also go to leave in a cool way, by leaving his gear in the ring behind. Returning after all that would be lame. That being said, I could totally see it happening. There have been rumors of John Cena getting a massive Mania match and there aren’t many left for him. He’s already faced guys like AJ Styles and Roman Reigns. Maybe Braun. But I think Taker comes back for one match to face Cena at the biggest show of the year.

Steve Cook: FACT – I just have the feeling that his last match was with Roman Reigns. It wasn’t the best note to go out on, and maybe that’s reason enough to give it one more try. But dude left his gear in the ring. I took that to mean he was done, and he seems like the kind of guy that sticks to his original decisions. I’m not going to waste my time wondering about who he’ll feud with this year unless it actually happens.

6. Who is your pick, as of today, to win the women’s Royal Rumble?

Kevin Pantoja: Ronda Rousey – I probably sound like a broken record, but I don’t want this to happen. I think the match should go to someone who is a full time roster member. Asuka’s been booked great and she should win the Women’s Title at WrestleMania. She doesn’t have to win the Rumble for that, but it would be good. Predictable booking works for someone like her for now. Becky Lynch would be a personal favorite for the win. However, with the talk of Rousey coming in, I suspect she takes the win to set up a match with Charlotte at WrestleMania. It would be newsworthy and the kind of shitty thing I’d expect.

Steve Cook: Asuka – Like with my choice in the men’s Royal Rumble, sometimes the easiest choice is the right choice. Sending Asuka into WrestleMania as the undefeated top contender to the Raw Women’s Championship makes perfect sense to me. This, of course, is barring some crazy scenario with Ronda Rousey that will be breathlessly speculated on up until the show itself. I just don’t see that happening. Nia Jax might be a bit of a dark horse if they want to build up to a “BFFs colliding” feud with her & Alexa Bliss. Or maybe they let Sasha Banks win & she pulls a swerve by challenging Charlotte Flair instead of Bliss.