411 Fact or Fiction Wrestling: Will Jeff Hardy Win The IC Title on Raw?

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 Brandon Ewing and Andrew Swift 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. Jeff Hardy will defeat the Miz and win the IC Title next week on Raw.

Brandon Ewing: FICTION – I was surprised to see Jeff Hardy win the battle royal to become the new #1 contender to begin with. I believe this is a good way to open up the doors and plant the seeds on a potential Jeff and Matt Hardy split due to typical brotherly jealous and things of that nature for a future storyline. WWE is dying to utilize the “Broken” gimmick The Hardy’s had in GFW, or at least in their own variation of said gimmick. I can see this as a way to give The Miz a good caliber opponent to push him to his limits and a fresh opponent at that. I see The Miz retaining the Intercontinental Championship and moving on to defend the title at No Mercy against someone like Jason Jordan. I see this as a one and done deal between Jeff Hardy and The Miz.

Andrew Swift: FICTION – It’s certainly not out of the question for Jeff to win the title, but what seems more likely is that the Miztourage will get involved, prompting Matt Hardy to enter the fray as well. Expect The Miz to do what he does best by sneaking away with a win, and potential miscommunication between the Hardy Bros to perhaps begin a process of “breaking” Matt.

2. The John Cena/Roman Reigns promo segment on Monday’s Raw was the best segment on the show in a long time.

Brandon Ewing: FACT – Without a doubt. This is by far the most talked about segment all over social media. I credit WWE and their writers for a job well done. I loved the realism aspect behind the segment, making people believe that it was an ad-libbed, non-scripted shoot between Cena and Reigns. Bottom line, when you can make the people believe it is “real” then you got something special.

Andrew Swift: FICTION – Like many others I initially popped for a fair number of the lines traded back and forth between Cena and Reigns, but in hindsight the segment got way too cute and strayed way too far into inside baseball “worked-shoot” material that does not enhance the storyline in any meaningful way. Sure, we’ll pop for the lines, but ultimately it’s all sugar and no substance. With the incessant use of insider terms and reliance on “dirt sheet” material, it bore a striking resemblance to late-era WCW. That’s not a good thing.

3. It was a mistake to have Alexa Bliss win back the WWE Raw women’s championship so soon.

Brandon Ewing: FICTION – I have no problem with Alexa Bliss winning the RAW Women’s Championship back as I do Sasha Banks winning the title in the first place, only to drop it a week later. I have nothing but the utmost love and respect for “The Bo$$” as a wrestler, but I personally would have been more satisfied seeing Sasha and Bliss have a great match, Bliss retaining at SummerSlam, then building toward a program between Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax, with WWE attempting to turn Nia Jax into a babyface or a tweener if need be. Bayley is hurt and out of the picture for the moment. Sasha Banks is a case of been there, done that, and perhaps pushed too fast too soon. Let’s give someone else, even if it is Nia Jax, a legitimate shot at becoming the next Women’s Champion. In closing, hopefully this will end the WWE’s reign of playing “hot potato” with the RAW Women’s Championship for a while.

Andrew Swift: FACT – There’s a reason why literally anyone who works with Sasha Banks gets more over: it’s because she’s far and away the best female talent in the company, and to pretend otherwise is ignoring three years of overwhelming evidence. If Raw had any real interest in creating a sustainable women’s division that got more than 10 percent of air time on a weekly basis, Banks would be the perfect person to help get characters like Emma or Mickie James over in mini-feuds between pay-per-views, at which she could fend off Bliss, Jax, or both. Alexa’s skillset and booking, meanwhile, has made her opponents less appreciated by crowds. Bliss, the heel, has made successive faces less over than they were before working with her, including utterly murdering Bayley’s character and destroying her reactions. That’s a major problem. Having one great talker who can clown opponents on the mic–and then beat them clean–is very handy if you’re not actually interested in promoting women’s wrestling as anything more than an occasionally valuable marketing prop. Raw’s obsession with heel women’s champions who way too often win clean goes back literally years. Since the call up, fans have wanted to get behind Banks as a babyface in a big way, and yet WWE has never pulled the trigger on a sustained push. It’s anyone’s guess why.

SWITCH!

4. Shinsuke Nakamura should be the man to defeat Jinder Mahal for the WWE title.

Andrew Swift: FACT – Honestly, anyone (asides from perhaps Randy Orton) should be the man to end Mahal’s reign. If Nakamura is up next again, then it’s him. If it’s somebody else’s turn, then it’s them. It’s hard to remember, but it was less than a year ago that AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose (ft. James Ellsworth), and John Cena ran an utterly compelling championship program that truly felt like it belonged at the top of the card. But beginning with the downturn in the Wyatt-Orton story (which happened when Luke Harper, the linchpin of that feud, was unceremoniously cast aside), the WWE Championship has increasingly become a joke. Putting the title on Mahal, who has done very little to dissuade the notion that he was well situated down the card, has crippled Smackdown Live’s legitimacy. When your top champion is mediocre at best in the ring, cuts one-note promos at an average level, and is playing the most generic of cheap 80s foreign heel characters, it’s impossible for a program to be taken seriously. It is hard to look at Mahal’s title programs, and then look at the main event scene on Raw, and not notice the vast chasm between the two. Enough is enough. End this experiment.

Brandon Ewing: FACT – Absolutely! Nakamura losing at SummerSlam was a great call on WWE’s part. Let Nakamura chase after the title, while continuing to build up Jinder Mahal as a strong, legit and credible WWE World Champion. Nakamura has lost some steam recently from his NXT run up to his debut for Smackdown Live due to poor booking and creative decisions. Now is a good opportunity to rewrite some wrongs and rebuild Shinsuke Nakamura as the future of WWE and the Smackdown Live brand in general.

5. Enzo Amore will find big success on WWE 205 Live.

Andrew Swift: FICTION – If Enzo Amore finds big success on 205 Live, he will be literally the first person on the program to do so. Neville has been putting in top quality work for months and months now, and nobody could possibly care because the segregation of the cruiserweights and “same but just with smaller guys” WWE-style presentation of 205 Live saps any sustained interest in the show. The genius of the Cruiserweight Classic was that it operated under a legitimately different model than standard WWE programming. It was different, fresh, and unique. 205 Live has been none of those things from its infancy, so despite the good work of wrestlers like Mustafa Ali, Drew Gulak, Cedric Alexander, and Neville, it has completely failed to catch on with the WWE Universe.

Brandon Ewing: FACT – I don’t picture Enzo being a cruiserweight but his size, his big mouth (for better or for worse) and his charisma is a welcomed breath of fresh air to a one dimensional division, with the exception of Neville. I see Enzo in the long run being a great manager or mouthpiece for someone who needs it, or a color commentator when it’s time to hang up the boots and call it a day. In the meantime, I feel this a calculated risk that is worth trying to give Enzo something to do and as an alternative way to utilize his skills.

6. Roman Reigns will defeat John Cena at Mo Mercy.

Andrew Swift: FACT – But it depends. Is this a one-off match, or is it the beginning of a series that could potentially culminate at a show like WrestleMania? If it’s a one-off, Reigns almost certainly will win. As part of a larger series, one could easily see Cena overcoming the odds and getting the first point on the board, as it were. Regardless, the match should be utterly sensational.

Brandon Ewing: FACT – I can picture this moneymaking feud as being a headliner for one of the “big four” events. Be that as it may, WWE has already sparked a lot of attention with two of the most polarizing and controversial figures to ever step foot inside a WWE ring. John Cena will push Roman Reigns to his limits. Both will tell a good story, one that will engage the audience and may very well surprise a few. John Cena seems comfortable in his role as the veteran who can either be used to push other talent or test them to see if they can hang (Baron Corbin). Roman Reigns, love him or hate him, is going to be the top guy in this company for a very long time. He knows it. Cena knows it. Now it’s time to cement that fact in stone and what better way to it then by having your “face of the WWE” put over the man who will be Cena’s successor and heir to the throne, so to speak.