411 Fact or Fiction 06.09.11: Mick Foley, Tough Enough, Slimmersary, More

Howdy, people! It’s time for 411’s Wrestling Fact or Fiction of the second week of June! Jeremy Thomas here as always, and some big news on the eve of TNA Slammiversary as Mick Foley signs off from TNA TV for good! Meanwhile in WWE land, Big Andy won WWE Tough Enough a panned segment involving Alberto Del Rio aired on Raw, an NXT alumni has been cast in WWE’s next film and more! Joining us on the panel this week we have the man behind our Raw and Impact Instant Analysis, Chad Nevett, taking on the one and only Steve Cook! We’re ready to go and the questions are prepped, so let’s do it!

Questions were sent out Monday.

Participants were told to expect WWE & TNA-related questions.

1. Mick Foley will come back to WWE by the end of the year.

Chad Nevett: FACT. When Mick Foley’s latest book came out, Vince McMahon made sure it got mentioned on Raw despite Foley leaving the WWE for TNA. Obviously whatever problems are there between the two aren’t that big. Foley didn’t like the way the announcer role is handled in the WWE and that seemed to be the only problem. The WWE is big on Attitude Era names right now, so why not bring in Foley? Hell, the chance for a Rock ‘n’ Sock Connection reunion promo is something they’d definitely want in the build-up to John Cena vs. the Rock at WrestleMania.

Steve Cook: FACT. I originally wanted to say Fiction because I don’t think they’re going to bring him back right away, and they might save him for a WrestleMania run. That’d give him enough time to get into shape if they want him to wrestle, and it’d give us enough time to get the horrible taste of his TNA run out of our mouths. But then I remembered that they do the Tribute to the Troops show every December, and if there’s one show that Foley would want to be involved in it’d be that one. I’m expecting him to be involved in that in some capacity, but I make no promises on what else he may be doing.

Score: 1 for 1

2. TNA Slammiversary has a good, solid card to it.

Chad Nevett: FICTION. Looking at the card, there’s maybe two matches I have any interest in. Sting vs. Mr. Anderson has had a horrible build with Anderson dressing up as Sting from the ’80s/early ’90s and… not really doing anything entertaining at all. Angle/Jarrett FINALLY ends and should be a decent match. I’m interested in seeing the team of James Storm and Alex Shelley wrestle. What else is there? Samoa Joe/Crimson, Matt Morgan/Scott Steiner, AJ Styles/Bully Ray, Angelina Love/Mickie James… none of those stand out as matches I’m dying to see. It’s a mediocre card.

Steve Cook: FICTION. Sting vs. Anderson is a main event that I didn’t have much interest in seeing before the angle started, and now I have even less interest in seeing it. Storm & Shelley vs. the British Invasion should be good action, but the BI don’t matter enough to make it interesting. Morgan vs. Steiner should be dreadful. The Knockouts matches should be average. Crimson vs. Joe will be Joe trying to have a good match. Any prospective X Division title match does not seem worth watching since it’ll be an Abyss match. Jarrett vs. Angle should be really good. I’d feel better about an AJ Styles match being good if Bully Ray wasn’t in it.

So we’ve got one really good match. Doesn’t seem like a good, solid card to me. I think all that really needs to be said is that the best build they’ve done for a match over the last few weeks is Gunner vs. Eric Young.

Score: 2 for 2

3. Matt Striker will find more success as a manager than he has as a commentator.

Chad Nevett: FICTION. For a time, he was the best commentator the WWE had and, right now, we don’t know how long this new push for managers will last. It could be done in a month when Vince decides he actually hates managers on second thought. I hope it works, but it’s too early to tell.

Steve Cook: FICTION. This is kind of a tough question to answer because Striker hasn’t had much success as a commentator lately. I was excited when Michael Hayes came out as Tyson Kidd’s manager one week on Superstars and there was word that there were going to be more managers in WWE to cut promos for guys that can’t cut promos. Since then, we’ve seen Hayes, Armando Estrada & Matt Striker emerge as managers, which is fine except they’ve all managed the same guy. Who’s to say that Striker will last longer than two weeks in the role? It’s ok though…if it doesn’t work out he’ll still have his hosting role on NXT & his interviewing gig on SmackDown.

Score: 3 for 3

4. TNA is hypocritical for cutting Chyna out of a contract for doing pornography when several of their talent have done nude or fetish films in the past.

Chad Nevett: FICTION. Different context and different time. Who cares what they’ve done in the past? If they want to grow their business and decide right now that doing porn isn’t what they want from an employee, that’s their decision. Nothing hypocritical about it. If there was someone else currently doing porn and they kept them aboard, that would be hypocrisy.

Steve Cook: FACT. I think. Thing is, I’m racking my brains thinking of who on the TNA roster has done nude or fetish films in the past, and I’m not really coming up with anybody. Obviously JT has done more studying in this area than I have, which is hard for anybody familiar with my columns to believe. So I’m not saying TNA is hypocritical because of that point, I am saying they’re hypocritical because they’re a haven for drug addicts and I think drug addiction is a more detrimental vice than porn.

The funny thing here is that I’m perfectly fine with TNA not offering Chyna a contract, and I’d accept most reasons not to do such a thing. I just think it’s silly for them to say it’s because she did a porno. They came to the right conclusion for the wrong reasons.

Score: 3 for 4

SWITCH!

5. The right person won WWE Tough Enough.

Steve Cook: FACT? In all fairness, the right person got injured. Andy though…I like the fact that he’s a Family Guy and he’s trying to put food on his plate. He seems like a really nice guy and I wish him the best of luck with his WWE career. With that being said…”Silent Rage” is a pretty darn goofy name, and the poor kid soiled himself when Vince McMahon talked to him. Not saying that I might not have done the same thing, but I’m not getting a WWE contract anytime soon. He was obviously nervous in front of that Richmond crowd, and his first impression on Raw wasn’t a good one. Fortunately, he’s got plenty of time for people to forget about that, and he could still become a valued member of the WWE roster.

Chad Nevett: FICTION. I don’t know, I didn’t watch the show. But, I’ll assume that the WWE picked the right person. I hope they did.

Score: 3 for 5

6. The Mr. Anderson/Eric Young match, billed as “Sting vs. Not-So-Great Muta,” was a bad idea given worse booking.

Steve Cook: FACT. Somebody please tell me what about that segment was supposed to make people want to purchase Slammiversary and see Mr. Anderson challenge Sting for the World title. Listen, it was a bad idea to have Anderson dressing up as Sting anyway, and most things involving Eric Young are bad ideas. But you’d think the whole purpose of Anderson mocking Sting would be to get fans mad at Anderson and want to see Sting get revenge. Eric Young’s already gotten the revenge for Sting! Anderson’s already been beaten and made a fool, so why will people pay to see it now?

I don’t think it’s the dumbest thing they’ve ever done, but I keep seeing people using that defense for TNA and it’s a ridiculous defense. So just because they do dumber things seemingly on a weekly basis, we’re supposed to let stupidity like this fly? Sorry folks, my expectations just aren’t that low. I know, it’s silly to expect wrestling promotions to want to make money and produce wrestling shows that people want to see, but I’m pretty sure one or two companies have done it before.

Chad Nevett: FACT. I don’t think the idea was that bad, but booking Eric Young as not wanting to do it was strange. Then why did he do it at all? To set up a tag match for this week’s Impact? That’s all the match seemed to exist for. Instead of being an entertaining, fun match in its own rights, it was just a stepping stone to a tag match that’s a stepping stone to the pay per view. There was the pleasant surprise of Young reminding people that he can wrestle, but it was just ill-conceived on every level.

Score: 4 for 6

7. Brodus Clay is a bizarre choice for the next talent to appear in a WWE Studios film.

Steve Cook: FICTION. It might seem a little strange because Brodus is fairly new to the company and is pretty far down on the roster pecking order. But there aren’t many people higher than him on the monster pecking order. Dude looks like a freak, and in a good way. I think it even helps him that he’s not already established on the WWE roster, as people will be more interested to see what he can bring to whatever his role is. We already knew what Kane & John Cena would be like, but we don’t know if Brodus Clay has acting chops or not. If nothing else, he’s going to be a believable monster because of his look.

Chad Nevett: FICTION. Normally, I’d say ‘fact,’ but this is a horror movie. They already used Kane, so who’s the next weirdest-looking guy they have on the roster? I’ve always thought Clay looks like a cartoon monster/villain and that suits a horror movie perfectly.

Score: 5 for 7

8. The Alberto Del Rio/”Big Show” segment was the worst one that Raw has seen in a while.

Steve Cook: FACT. See kids, the problem with getting old is that your short-term memory begins to fail you and you can’t remember anything that happened more than a couple of weeks ago. I’m sure there’s been sillier stuff on Raw recently, but nothing’s coming to mind. I thought about the R-Truth promo from last week, but that was more of a technical issue than a creative one. This segment was pretty bad, and my fears that a feud with the Big Show is exactly what Alberto Del Rio doesn’t need seem to be justified. Even when Show’s not around to throw him around and make him look like a fool in the ring, ADR’s doing lame comedy segments that aren’t making anybody laugh that isn’t backstage. I don’t fault Del Rio, and I think he realized that he was in a lose/lose situation with that promo. Honestly, I think I’ve seen enough people dressing up like somebody else in order to mock them for one year. Bring it back in 2012 and maybe I’ll care.

Chad Nevett: FACT. It’s a tough contest between that and a lot of the Michael Cole stuff before he lost to Jerry Lawler, but those segments usually had a moment or two that worked. The Del Rio segment was just awful. It was lazy and unimaginative, and didn’t seem to be the sort of thing Del Rio would do. He has a history of mocking his opponents through his wealth and throwing money around, and this was at odds with that approach. Pure LCD bullshit.

Final Score: 6 for 8

And there it is…we have a third straight week where our competitors go 6 for 8! I’d like to thank them for their answers, and you the readers for seeing what they had to say! For Chad Nevett and Steve Cook, this is Jeremy Thomas saying join us next week for more Wrestling Fact or Fiction!

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