411 Fact or Fiction 10.19.06: Angle, Jericho, RAW Celebs, More

Welcome back to another week of 411 Fact or Fiction! This week, 411’s JP Prag and Jeff Small debate some of wrestling’s hottest topics! Let’s get to it!

1. Kurt Angle should accept a MMA fight with Brock Lesnar.

JP Prag: FICTION. As great of a draw as that may be, and as how nice it would be to see a fight that consisted of moves and not just hugging, Kurt needs to stay focused on what he is doing. I do agree with Angle that pro-wrestling takes a much larger toll on your body than shoot fighting does. Shoot fighters train for weeks or months while wrestlers are out there every week. But this is the exact reason he shouldn’t fight Brock now. Brock will be completely fresh and could spend the months up to the fight staying that way, while Kurt would at least have to wrestle a dozen times. In that way, Kurt would not be at his best to face Brock, and could do serious damage to himself. If Angle is serious about helping to grow TNA and make it the top wrestling show in the world, then he should concentrate on that for now. Losing to Brock Lesner or getting hurt or just not having focus in TNA while training for the fight does not help the company grow.

Jeff Small: FICTION. While Kurt believes that he might be 100% healthy, there’s no way he would be after a MMA fight. Over the past two years (since Lesnar left the WWE), Lesnar has only gotten larger thanks to training for the NFL and a brief stint in Japan. Like my counterpart JP said, Lesnar’s fresh and would demolish a broken-down Kurt Angle. Furthermore, Kurt is now the new face of TNA and he has to be completely dedicated to the company. That’s why they are paying him major money and he has to be respectful to his new employer.

Score: 1 for 1

2. Kurt Angle claims that after The Rock and Steve Austin left WWE, he should have been pushed as the focal point of the promotion. WWE made the right decision not making him the focus.

JP Prag: FICTION. The year was 2002. The inVasion had come to an end, the Rock was set to go off and make movies, and Austin was ready to admit that his injuries were so bad that he couldn’t wrestle anymore. The brand split was about to happen, but who were your top players?

• Triple H: long time nemesis of the Rock and former DXer.
• The Undertaker: Veteran of the squared circle, but only working a part time schedule even then.
• The Big Show: Huge man that made others look good, but had been buried too much to be the top guy.
• Kane: A merchandise seller for sure, but rarely ever champion.
• Booker T: Had risen to the top of WCW, but the WWF/E management had no faith in him yet.
• Chris Benoit: A great wrestler but little charisma or merchandise ability.
• Chris Jericho: First Undisputed Champion, but an unproven player.
• DDP: Older guy that was on the shelf.
• RVD: A long time player in ECW who was way over with the crowds, but was unproven on a large stage.

Ok, so you had a few older guys, a few been around too long guys, and a few unproven guys. So that left Triple H and Kurt Angle (with RVD a close third, but they weren’t ready for him yet). Both were technically sound, knew how to control the crowds, could be faces or heels, and were solid on the mic and in character. But Kurt had a level of legitimacy that could have changed the direction of the WWE and the image they projected, while Triple H represented what was successful during the attitude era. Instead of changing with the times, Vince and company decided it would be best to stick with what they knew was successful and try to recreate it. Also, Triple H was more dedicated to wrestling, was tied directly to the McMahon family, and didn’t have any additional outside distractions (re: a family). Plus he had proved in the past that he could sell merchandise (see: DX), so that made him the choice from the McMahon side. They didn’t have faith in Angle nor wanted to change what they didn’t perceive as broken, so Triple H became the logical choice for them to take the top spot. Kurt Angle would have been a risk, a risk that this public company seemed unwilling to take just then.

Jeff Small: FACT. JP, how could you miss the person who the company did push to the moon: Brock Lesnar? The WWE did an excellent job handling Brock Lesnar’s first title reign after the Rock (who put over Lesnar immensely) and Austin left. From defeating the Undertaker in a bloody Hell in the Cell to actually making the Big Show (a laughingstock on Raw) into a legitimate threat, I think Lesnar was the correct person to build the Smackdown roster around. And actually, if I remember correctly, Kurt Angle got a HUGE push leading into another title reign and a Wrestlemania Main Event! You know while we all pick on Triple H for having a big ego (and he very well did especially in 2002), Angle’s not far behind him in believing his own hype.

Score: 1 for 2

3. WWE will release at least 15 major motion pictures in theaters under the WWE Films brand.

JP Prag: FACT. Let me count… Austin is signed for three movies, John Cena for two more, and I’ve heard rumors of a few more. The WWE has surprised me in their ability to get their films widely distributed. Look at Artie Lange’s Beer League; that movie only got a limited release in about 300 screens. Very few movies nowadays make their money in the theaters. Only about 45% of initial (re: first thee years) of revenue comes from the theaters, and theaters don’t make money on movies (they make money on food and drinks). Given that these movies are low budget deals, the WWE is sitting on $280 million in cash that they don’t know what to do with, and that they told investors not to even look for profits from these films until 2008, that leaves plenty of time to get out 15 films. So long as they do OK in the theaters for a few weeks, the WWE will make something off of them. The rest will be made up in DVD, PPV, and distribution deals. Plus, it is additional advertising for the WWE every time one of their movies comes out, so they are are getting two for the price of one. I may not agree that they should be releasing these films (I’d love for them to focus on wrestling, making the brands more defined, and expanding the territory/development system), but that doesn’t mean they do not have the ability to do it.

Jeff Small: FICTION. 15 major motion pictures is a hell of a lot of movies. Sure JP has mentioned the possibility of maybe six more movies but there’s only so far the company can take their movie brand before coming a straight-to-DVD distributor. Frankly, after See No Evil and the Marine, that’s exactly where they belong. The mediocre grosses for See No Evil and the Marine (which will be somewhere around the same level) shows that the majority of the public have no interest in these movies. While the movies will probably become profitable in the DVD market, the company will not produce any more than 12 movies. That and I won’t see a WWE movie unless its a fantasy movie with King Booker.

Score: 1 for 3

—SWITCHAROO!!!—

4. Bringing in B-List celebrities like Kevin Federline does more to hurt WWE’s image than help.

Jeff Small: FICTION. Bringing in B-listers HELPS the WWE’s image in the eyes of the media, which is really all that Vince cares about. While John Cena’s FU to K-fed is meaningless in the long run, it will at least give the WWE a couple more minutes of fame on such “hit” shows as Entertainment Tonight and Talk Soup. But more importantly, last night’s segment gets people talking about the WWE once again. If I mention wrestling to my friends, I will surely bring up this moment rather than anything DX has done since they have returned. The segment was HOT thanks to K-fed giving a better heel promo than most of the roster (including Johnny Nitro) and taking a solid bump. I was thoroughly entertained by Mr. White Trash and I bet many others were too. Plus, it’s not like the WWE put the title around K-fed’s waist (at least not yet). Lastly, I just wanted to point out that my favorite Jeff Jarrett segment in the WWE was when he had a similar moment with Ben Stiller. Stiller, at that time, was not nearly as huge as he became and there was nothing better than seeing Stiller loving some puppies. Not only did it get people talking about the entertaining value of the E, but it also gave D’lo Brown his biggest push.

JP Prag: FICTION. Now, I haven’t seen RAW yet, but everything in me would say that this is fiction. There is nothing wrong with having celebrities of any caliber involved in a show, and vice versa. You don’t hear people saying, “Mad TV has lost its credibility as a satire because John Cena–A WRESTLER–was the host.” K-fed may not be anyone’s cup of tea outside of Britney Spears, but he is known. This story will be picked up by a number of sources, as Small mentioned. The important part is that K-fed has come out of the closet as a wrestling fan, and it always good to hear someone admit to being a fan. It’s taboo to like wrestling again, so hopefully even hearing some B-level (and that’s being nice Ashish, he’s only B because of his marriage) star and other talk about it again will start to change the public perception of wrestling in general. Now if he started wrestling, that would be a different story. But a one-off appearance doesn’t really do any damage.

Score: 2 for 4

5. The 0.9 rating for TNA Impact last week featuring the Kurt Angle interview has to be considered a big disappointment.

Jeff Small: FACT. While most talk about ratings is meaningless, this one does have some merit. Granted a 0.9 rating is good for TNA. But after hyping Angle’s interview on every UFC show, I was surprised to see it did not cross over the 1.0 mark. Maybe Kurt Angle is not nearly as important as he thinks he is.

JP Prag: FICTION. This is going to come as a huge shock, but most wrestling fans don’t care at all about back stage politics. They accept kayfabe for what it is and call it a day, not really thinking more about it. We are the obsessed ones. TNA already had a large portion of the hardcore/internet audience who care about why Kurt Angle jumped and wanted to hear him speak on it, so there really was not going to be that large of a jump. TNA has done as well as a 1.1 in the past, but their 11pm timeslot is not beneficial. Most casual fans are not going to be browsing the channels at 11:40pm and happen to come across Kurt Angle talking. They are either going to be asleep, watching Adult Swim or the news, or doing something completely unrelated. Plus, there was no way to get the message out that they now have Kurt Angle to the larger WWE audience. They will depend on word of mouth to help them grow SLOWLY over time. Now, if ratings don’t start to go up when they move to primetime and Kurt Angle’s segments don’t rate high, then THAT will be a disappointment. For now, though, wrestling ratings have overall been down 15%. It’s just happens to be a slow period in wrestling in general (a lot goes on in the Fall) and TNA should be more concerned with playing for the long term then worrying about one week of ratings not setting the world on fire.

Score: 2 for 5

6. TNA is stupid for promoting a Chris Jericho music video on Impact when he doesn’t even work for them.

Jeff Small: FICTION. It’s a music video, who cares? Jericho’s not employed with the WWE anymore and while he has no desire to wrestle at this time, he might change his mind. So kudos to TNA for giving Jericho exactly what he yearns for: Fozzy exposure. And after Fozzy once again fails (just like Jericho on Celebrity Duets), there might be a chance for Impact is Jericho. Before Kurt Angle’s jump, I would say that there was no chance, but all of that has now changed. Funny how both TNA and the WWE are catering to the veterans once again.

JP Prag: FICTION. Stupid? No. Is it a waste to spend 8% of iMPACT on a person not involved with the program and not promoting the PPV? Probably. But it does create that stir of maybe… JUST MAYBE… Jericho will get involved with TNA down the road at some point. Plus, it does put another stamp of approval on TNA that a veteran like Jericho (beloved by smarks) is willing to be associated with them. On top of that, I’m sure TNA would love that if Jericho decided to wrestle again he’d be willing to do it in TNA. Now Dixie Carter and Jeff Jarrett will have a direct line to Jericho and talks can begin. And with Jericho’s good friend Christian in the company, you know Jericho has to at the very least be a little tempted.

Score: 3 for 6

These two 411 pros finish 3 for 6! Join us next week for more Fact or Fiction!