wrestling / Columns
411 Fact or Fiction 6.26.08: The 2008 Draft, McMahon’s Millions, Benoit and More!
1. With it being a year since the tragedy, you can watch and enjoy Chris Benoit matches.
Stephen Randle: FACT. People may remember that I was watching Chris Benoit matches during my Rumble reviews earlier this year, so I can still, obviously watch them. As for enjoyment, I think it depends on context. I will not, probably for a long time, sit down and watch my Hard Knocks: Chris Benoit DVD, especially the documentary part. Seeing DVDs with Benoit himself talking is still a bit of a shot to the gut. However, his big matches, I can watch and appreciate as great matches, more for the action than the man involved. I think the best way to say it is that I won’t be going out and watching specific Benoit matches, but if I watch a PPV on DVD and it contains a Benoit match, I won’t skip past it.
Chris Lansdell: FICTION. 2 or 3 months ago, the answer to this was a resounding FACT. My view has changed, and the details should be available shortly on the site…but the gist of it is that Benoit hurt the business with his actions. Apart from no-showing a pay per view, he has caused intense scrutiny to be centered on professional wrestling and is likely the root cause behind falling ratings. In their desire not to make another Benoit, WWE has lessened risky activities in and out of the ring, and gone with outlandish storylines instead of trying to get back to a wrestling-based product. I lay the blame squarely a Benoit’s feet. Flame away.
Score: 0 for 1
2. Rey Mysterio will win the WWE title by the end of 2008.
Stephen Randle : FICTION. I know it’s a serious question, but is that a serious question? I don’t think there’s any way Rey wins the WWE title (insert World Heavyweight title should they switch brands this Sunday) this year, or really ever again. After this Sunday, either John Cena or Batista will be champion, and I suspect they’ll hold that title until either a) Randy Orton returns and possibly wins it, or b) Cena and Batista face each other at WrestleMania 25. Either way, Rey will get his share of shots in the next year, but I don’t see him coming out of it with a victory.
Chris Lansdell : FICTION. Is there anything stronger than just plain fiction? Like EPIC FICTION? Rey will be Intercontinental champion by Survivor Series, but I’d be surprised if he got a title shot this year, let alone won. Cena has to get the belt first, then he has a feud with Jericho and CM Punk in all likelihood, possibly even Kane. Rey MIGHT get in the picture around Rumble time, but that’s about it.
Score: 1 for 2
3. The changing of the RAW and SMACKDOWN announce teams was not a good move.
Stephen Randle : FICTION. If they plan to stick with it, anyway. If they’ve decided that Cole is “groomed” enough and this is the future of commentary, then now is as good a time as any to make the move. Plus, it means we’ve got a month or two where Cole can’t use all the wrestler-specific clichés he’d amassed after years on Smackdown. I also think that a JR-Foley (random Stampede reference FTW!) combination will allow JR to spend more time actually calling the match instead of dealing with his wacky, over-sexed broadcast partner. As a bonus, I think it might refresh Jerry Lawler’s character, who had grown stale in part due to his long-time partnership and respect for JR. With a new partner, one he’s free to insult, Lawler could regain some fire in his role.
Chris Lansdell : FICTION. Again. JR and King are staler than 5-week-old bread, and Cole was not gelling well enough with Foley. For any of the brands to feel different, they needed to shake up the ones who interact with the fans the most: the announcers. Foley and JR have great potential, and Cole and King were not bad when they did Smackdown. I can live with this.
Score: 2 for 3
—SWITCH~!—
4. Monday’s Draft Edition of Raw was one of the most entertaining episodes of Raw this year.
Chris Lansdell : FACT. Even the money giveaways were not so terrible. The matches served their purposes and the number of surprise moves made for very entertaining viewing. Even the interactions between the 6 commentators were funny at times.
Stephen Randle : FICTION. I don’t know if I was particularly excessively entertained. The Million Dollar giveaway just destroys the flow of the show every week, especially with all the massive screw ups involved in calling people live. Seriously, how did Vince forget the password for the very first caller? Anyway, while the matches on the show were, for the most part, good, they didn’t really mean anything other than determining draft picks. And because every match was important in terms of moving the draft along, plus Vince was playing Ed McMahon every other segment, there was no real time for storylines outside of a Jericho-Shawn segment and, of course, the shocking ending. The problem there is that there’s a PPV on Sunday, and the show could have definitely used a little more of a hard sell towards Night of Champions. The worst part is, I’m saying Fiction even though I can’t for the life of me think of a Raw I’d pick over it in the last six months. I mean, I’m sure one exists, but…
Score: 2 for 4
5. When finished, McMahon’s Million Dollar Giveaway will have been nothing but an exercise in throwing away money.
Chris Lansdell : FACT. God, a thousand times Fact. He’s spiked the ratings, sure. How many will stay? There hasn’t been anything outstanding on Raw to grab the attention, nothing new or different, no high-quality matches. Vince has basically given a bunch of money to people who would have watched anyway, without putting anything around it to retain the curiosity viewers.
Stephen Randle : FACT. It was an unashamed ratings ploy that served to raise the ratings…a little. Is a total of 3 million dollars worth 3/10ths of a ratings point? Let’s toss in that the giveaway segments were horribly bad and nearly unwatchable, plus distracted from the show itself. Meanwhile, the writing of the last three shows has been much of the same crap we’ve seen for a while now, creating a mess that most definitely did not serve to garner any new long-term viewers. Now, if this giveaway leading to the second iteration of “who tried to kill Vince” rocks the world, creates a new multi-million dollar-drawing face of the company, or even just manages to hook enough people to substantially raise the ratings consistently for the rest of the year, then maybe it was worth the whole mess. But I sincerely doubt that it will.
Score: 3 for 5
6. At the end of the night, the draft was exactly what the company needed to shake things up.
Chris Lansdell : FACT. I can’t argue with that. I think the commentary change is a lot more important than people realize, as is HHH moving. Remember that Smackdown is going to a new home, and HHH is about to become a father again. He’s likely to debut SmackDown on MyNetworkTV, take some time off, and come back to win the Rumble. JR over there helps establish it too. ECW has an established name to make people care and a belt for young guys to care about. Raw has to show it can make stars too. A lot of changes are coming up. I can’t wait.
Stephen Randle : FACT. The show wasn’t great, but it definitely moved some big-name talent around in meaningful ways. People are already listing the new feuds that could be created out of some of the moves, especially for talent like Umaga and Batista, who had pretty much been circling aimlessly for a while now, having run out of new people to fight. I believe this show will have a decided impact on the rest of the wrestling year, and the crop of new talent on each show (and, additionally, the voids created by losing talent that had been relied upon for a good while now) might inspire some creativity in the writers. I’m not saying we’re looking at the next wrestling boom, but at least there’s something interesting happening again on Raw and Smackdown. Plus, for better or worse, Raw ended the show with the possibility of a storyline that might lead to talent elevation and/or intriguing television. After all, the suspects are endless because seriously, who wouldn’t try and kill Vince given the chance?
Score: 4 for 6
