411 Wrestling Fact or Fiction: Everything You Thought You Knew Was Wrong

Welcome back to the 411mania Wrestling Fact or Fiction. I’m your host Jake Chambers.

An idea came to me in a dream, so this week we’re going to try something different – REVERSE Fact or Fiction!

The rules are as follows:

– there will be three writers
– you will see only one writer’s Fact or Fiction declaration and the response, but NOT the FoF Statement
– after each blind response, the other two writers will attempt to guess the wording of the FoF statement the writer had in mind
– in the Comments section after the column has been published, the writers will post the original FoF statement

And so since this idea involved the Comments section, I invited two of my favorite Comments section regulars and frequent FoF contributors D2Kvirus and Ryan to help me try it out.. and the results were interesting, for sure!

Play along everybody… can you guess the FoF statements??

Reverse FoF #1 = Jake Chambers: FICTION

The WWE “universe” was (tellingly) brainwashed by oh-so see-through corporate propaganda that had them literally bringing signs to events to call for something completed fabricated like they’d wanted it their whole lives and chanting “You Deserve It” for an accomplishment that was never well earned. There was no “division” to support this kind of honour, no tradition of feuds, and no meaningful matches of this kind on any PPV ever. But we got this forced on us, and years later it’s lucky to even be a bathroom break match, let alone something anyone is carrying a sign or chanting for. Either make something meaningful here for these performers or abandon the whole experiment, because it actually looks worse to have it around because it calls more attention to the lack of depth and talent on the roster rather than the opportunity it was supposedly meant to provide.

D2Kvirus – Statement Guess: I was going back and forth on whether this was related to the Divas division during the #givedivasachance period or how WWE keeps forgetting they have a tag team division, but then like a frisbee which increases in size with every second that’s here it hit me and I realised the statement is about both, or to put it another way the Women’s Tag Titles – which is the Brundlefly of the two. So, with that in mind, I’m going to guess the statement is along the lines of – You not only believe the WWE Women’s Tag Championships are a valid part of their booking, but also remembered who currently holds the titles without checking online.

Ryan – Statement Guess: The WWE has a successful venture on its hands with two Royal Rumble matches and should continue with it every year.

Reverse FoF #2 = Jake Chambers: FACT

If AEW wants to use their popular, (near) mainstream stars as building blocks for their up-and-coming star rather than marquee attractions, then this was a good move. However, is this actually a good strategy? No doubt, AEW has been successful with this tossed salad of Gen Z up-and-comers, indy darlings, pro-wrestling legends, active WWE veterans and non-WWE stars, but do we think they are leaving a whole lot of big money matches on the table? Any combination of Punk, Bryan, Sting, Big Show, Moxley, Christian and Jericho feels like the kind of match, that with their smart booking style, could bring in lapsed fans rather than just continuing to reinforced the passionate feeling of a loyal core of super fans by putting these stars against less well-known names. So while I did agree with that result, and enjoyed the match thoroughly, I do wonder if this experiment is ultimately going to pay off.

D2Kvirus – Statement Guess: I could go Call My Bluff on this one and drag it out for the sake of making my comment a little longer, but it’s clearly in the ballpark of – AEW made the right call having MJF beat CM Punk on an episode of Dynamite rather than saving the match for Revolution in early March.

Ryan – Statement Guess: Although they were awesome matches, Danielson versus Page and Punk versus MJF speaks to AEW’s lack of faith in their homegrown talent and over reliance on signing big name free agents.

Reverse FoF #3 = D2Kvirus: FICTION

There’s two obvious reasons why it simply won’t happen: the first is that there won’t be any stadiums of suitable grandeur available at the time due to the Premier League season still being in full swing and any non-football stadiums of a similar size will be occupied with either the Six Nations or the various cup matches taking place at Wembley, and secondly given how inclement the British weather is at that time of year the odds yet there’s very few stadiums with roofs outside of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Principality Stadium even if they weren’t in use at that time of year anyway meaning there’s a very real chance of the whole thing being washed out, and the potential risk of such bad optics surely puts the kibosh on the whole idea before anything else.

Ryan – Statement Guess: The WWE will finally think outside of the box and take Wrestlemania to London.

Jake Chambers – Statement Guess: AEW will have a REVOLUTION PPV at a stadium in London within the next 5 years.

Reverse FoF #4 = D2Kvirus: FACT

While he won’t be front and centre, there’s no denying he deserves it for not only being an integral part of an important part of wrestling history but also gave so much to the company that he needed to have his testicles drained thanks to Jerry Lawler being reckless with a kendo stick – but his comments on Dark Side of the Ring that’ll probably put it on the backburner for a year or two at least.

Ryan – Statement Guess: Ric Flair deserves one more run in WWE.

Jake Chambers – Statement Guess: Tommy Dreamer will eventually be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Reverse FoF #5 = Ryan: FACT

We don’t know for certain if someone is going to come along and offer a bigger contract to the likes of an MJF or a Wardlow. You can argue that Adam Cole got through the cracks because he wasn’t “Happy” in NXT, but that’s up for debate, as it were with Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly upon their arrival from NXT. Everyone should have expected that, with more companies working together outside of WWE and with more talent becoming available of the company because they hacked and butchered the roster (thanks, Nicky Baby!), that there would be talent all over the place. Future negotiations will always be fun when it comes to AEW’s big names, but I will tell you this, it will be interesting to see who plays what up and how much they play it up for.

Jake Chambers – Statement Guess: One of AEW’s key “homegrown talents” will jump ship for greener pastures at the first opportunity.

D2Kvirus – Statement Guess: Assuming that Ryan didn’t have their email hacked by [insert name of interchangeable “Look at how I hate AEW!!!” poster here] when their back was turned, I’ll take a punt and suggest the statement is along the lines of – WWE will make a play for AEW’s top stars when their contracts are up for renewal – but remember, folks, if MJF or Jungle Boy or Darby Allin do show up in WWE, it’s somehow different when WWE are signing a number of talents who made their names in other companies…

Reverse FoF #6 = Ryan: FICTION

I need to settle this once and for all…it’s not that I feel AEW’s division is better than the one in the WWE, far from it. I mean, the WWE’s division does have bigger names and they have been established, I just feel like their feuds have been recycled and played a lot longer. Plus, they have tag team titles that half of the time, I simply do not remember who the hell even carries them. Unlike in AEW, where there are now two singles titles and the division has potential at the bottom, but perhaps lacks in top of the division, but they have the room to grow it out.

Jake Chambers – Statement Guess: IMPACT has the best women’s division in pro-wrestling.

D2Kvirus – Statement Guess: That’s the second time in this column that somebody has unnecessarily cast shade on the Women’s Tag Championships, and I find it another example of this site’s obvious bias against…oh wait, the first one was me, wasn’t it? Anyway, moving on, that was the hint which led me down the garden path of believing that the statement was in the general vicinity of – AEW’s women’s division is better than WWE’s …okay, one of the hints, the part about feuds being recycled and played out was the other.

There you have it folks, the experimental first edition of REVERSE Fact or Fiction!

Thanks infinitely to the always game Ryan and D2Kvirus for buying into my wackiness and submitting excellent writing, as usual.

What were those FoF Statements, hmm? Was it as easy as you thought it would be? Look to the Comments section for you answers!