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Submitted by SkittleZ on Tuesday, August 19, 2008 at 1:44 AM EST
 Welcome one and all to the August edition of Fact or Fiction! An interesting mix of talents we have here without question. Of all the groups I could have bunched together, this one takes the cake. Guys from all walks of life. Two Lords Of Pain fossils (one of the true originals and the longest tenured columnist in LOP history), perhaps the greatest sigmaker alive and two columnists who are primed and ready for their Main Page deflowerings. I know its the same song and dance every single month but my job is to inform the uninformed so skip down a few sentences if you know the deal already. In this column, we take five individuals and confront them with five wrestling-related topics. It is their jobs to choose whether a statement is "FACT" or "FICTION" and then must justify their decisions with lengthy explanations. Alrighty then... it's on with the show. Before we officially kick things off, let us introduce the participants. The volunteers for today's proceedings are... Tito author of The WRATH of TITO DaveyBoy author of DaveyBoy's Wrestling Menu Noc heralded sigmaker from the LOP Graphics & Testing Forum EB4 author of Breaking the 4th Wall JoeyShinobi author of The Shinobi Slam ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ FACT or FICTION: Saturday Night's Main Event isn't used properly anymore and should therefore be discontinued. (Tito) I will say FICTION only on the basis that whenever the WWE can obtain a big national TV contract, they should sink their teeth into it no matter what. From a fan's perspective, though, I'll sit on the fence and say FACT. Point is that fans are over-saturated with WWE stuff. Back in the day, you caught highlight shows or watered down syndicated shows that had stars mauling jobbers. Plus, there were less Pay Per Views. When SNME aired, it was like a Pay Per View event and you could finally see star wrestlers fight each other. (DaveyBoy) Suggesting that Saturday Night's Main Event should be discontinued because it hasn't been used properly is akin to saying that gimmick characters should not appear in professional wrestling due to The GobbledyGooker. FICTION. Halting the network televised special is the easy way out. If it hasn't been used properly the last couple of times, surely the brains behind WWE can earn the big bucks they are making, learn from their errors and begin to use the promotional avenue which they have been granted more aptly. In other words: Begin using it properly! Of course, whether the actual network continues to allow WWE the opportunity to make SNME a success is a totally different question. (Noc) Firstly, who the fuck is stupid enough to ask a graphics guy about wrestling opinions? Way to go Skitz :/ (Insert "Laugh Out Loud"). Secondly, and I suppose most importantly, I'm going to hit this straight out and give this to FICTION on a split decision. Partly fact as I don't believe they have been used properly since they were brought back from the perspective of most fans; however as a marketing tool and ploy to grab some extra cash from our rears they have been quite successful. If a fan wants to be immersed, they have to watch all programming... simple as that. They may not be terribly successful but obviously they bring in enough cash to make them worth the expense, and so based on that alone they should stay. (EB4) Well, to be honest I haven't really been watching SNME since like the first two times it returned, probably due to the damned spoilers. As a kid though, I saw when I could. I am seeing now that I'm not missing much, and the SNME I prefer is used to further big feuds before PPVs, with some wrestling sprinkled in. I know they wasted that shot this past edition as well as some others so yes, I find that today's SNME misused to an extent. But, it doesn't mean it should be discontinued, because anything the WWE does can be changed. The thing is that the E is very set in their ways. I guess due to the 'and' in this question, I say FICTION. But, I do find that SNME could be done better. (JoeyShinobi) For me, anything WWE air on television needs to be storyline focused. I think it’s great that the WWE are interested in raising awareness on autism, and that they’ve linked up with some of the big draws in Hollywood to do it, but putting on an exhibition show with a couple of half-hearted matches doesn’t do justice to the cause, or the performers. As for SNME, televised exhibition matches don’t do a lot for that program’s legacy either. Its original success seemed to stem from the exclusivity of being able to watch the biggest stars on free television; now, we can see all of these guys every week anyway. Why would we tune in to see them on a Saturday night now, when we can see them on a Monday, a night where generally, we don’t really have better things to do? Oh yeah, fact or fiction…well, I call fact on the first part, but fiction on the second. The nobility of the cause is something I think the WWE is right to endorse and is right to promote. SNME is so sporadic these days anyway that calling time on it forever may not be the smartest move, because I think it may have a use later on. I’m going with FICTION. FACT or FICTION: The SummerSlam bout between John Cena and Batista is the biggest draw currently available in the WWE. (JoeyShinobi) Well, given that I firmly believe that Cena and Batista are two of the most overrated senior talents the WWE currently have, I have to call FICTION. Although well aware that Cena is probably the biggest star the company have, I don’t think he provides value like Edge, Triple H or The Undertaker, although to be fair to him, he does seem to have spent most of his time since WrestleMania putting JBL over to the Raw crowd. Batista, to me, simply isn’t very interesting. He’s a poor man’s Rock. The other thing that leads me to call fiction is the timing of this ‘feud’, as they are both premier faces on Raw. If one of them were to have turned heel, and then started the feud, I might have a different answer. But SummerSlam’s card features a couple of matches I’m looking forward to seeing far more than Cena and Batista, and at the top of that list is Edge vs. Undertaker. That’s the biggest draw, for me. After that, Triple H vs. Undertaker, that’s a match I’d really like to see. Either could very easily turn heel (I’d wager it would be H) to make this feud a mouth-watering prospect. Cena and Batista don’t have that kind of draw, because their characters are not developed to a point where they can make a feud genuinely interesting – the fact that Creative have had to ‘spice it up’ by making them tag champs (and in the process, shit on two of their hottest next generation prospects) suggests that they aren’t capable of real chemistry just by what they do in the ring and what they say and do to each other in storyline. One day, they will be ready, and the fact that people were hyping this showdown for Houston suggests that one day, this will be the biggest draw. I hope they don’t ruin it now, because to me, this rivalry isn’t ‘ripe’ yet. (Tito) I'll suggest FICTION because Batista has never been a legitimate draw. His many matches with HHH during 2005, I believe (maybe 2006) were total drags in Pay Per View buy rates. He's been getting mixed reactions for years and he doesn't have the work rate to get a superior Pay Per View match out of John Cena. That's where guys like Edge or Shawn Michaels should come in, especially to make SummerSlam, a top tier WWE event, look great. (DaveyBoy) As much as it is one of the true fresh match-up's between WWE main-eventers, I'm calling this FICTION. There is clearly a demand for it due to the 'freshness' factor, but I still don't sense that it lifts the anticipation to the astronomical heights befitting of calling it WWE's current biggest draw. I may have considered it more strongly if the feud had been building up for longer or even if one of the wrestlers was actually a heel, but for fear of being boring I still feel a pay-per-view headlined by Triple H vs Cena would outsell a Batista vs Cena show. In fact, WWE's Big 3 right now are arguably Cena, Triple H & The Undertaker... Any combination of those 3 in a 1 on 1 match would most likely draw better than Cena vs Batista, despite all match-ups already having occurred in the past. (Noc) FICTION alllll the way. Yes it's a huge draw but I'm pretty damn sure Undertaker vs. HHH is a bigger and better draw simply put. Although Batista versus Cena is close, I really doubt people would care as much as 'Taker vs. HHH. There's just something about the Attitude era stars that makes it so appealing I guess. (EB4) I'm gonna say FACT. I say this because this 'big' feud has yet to be done. I mean HHH/Taker now could be bigger, but I like feuds I don't see, or at least portrayed in a different way.(HHH/Orton in 04, HHH/Orton in 08) This one involves arguably the two most dominant guys in the E, save for H. Cena and Batista is a feud that I've wanted to see happen for a while, and I believe I am not the only one with those sentiments. Perennial faces, perennial champs, now feuding over who is better. What could have made this better would be a belt, on the line and if this happened in the springtime. FACT or FICTION: Mike Adamle is without question the most hated General Manager to date. (EB4) FICTION. Vickie Guerrero is the most hated GM in history, no question. Ever. Adamale's hate isn't even based on the GM job but more about the ECW fans who are upset about his announcing, and still are even though he doesn't do the job anymore. Besides, so far I think he's done well, save for the same problem he had while announcing, which is nowhere near as bad as it started out. Eventually, he may become the most hated, but I see him as more of a Tweener, and I think a tweener GM is something the E should have already implemented at least on a trial run. (JoeyShinobi) Interesting question, this. Adamle is in a strange situation in that most of his heat is not derived from storyline actions, but from his supposed ineptness on the announcer’s table. In terms of crowd heat, Vickie Guerrero has this category nailed down, unfortunately for Adamle. Most of her heat has come about from her relationship with Edge, her annoying voice, and the perception by many smarks that she’s cashing in on her late husband’s name. I think she’s proved the majority of those people wrong, because she’s been a key component in one of the better storylines of the year. Vickie has been the top heel in the company for quite some time now, Adamle has really just looked out of depth, however much his perceived ineptness may have been building towards this storyline. On a side note, I think it’s kinda funny that people are still commenting on his lack of preparation and how it detracts from the quality, pointing to his cue cards he used on stage – without considering it might well be a gimmick. On ECW, he was a mediocre announcer on what can be quite fairly called as a mediocre production. But the first Raw in August, where he opened the show, he managed to get a fair number of cheers once he’d started making matches. He won’t be popular, by any means, but seeing as the question involved the words ‘without question’, I’m going with FICTION. Adamle is probably more intensely hated by a much smaller proportion of wrestling viewers. Vickie is generally disliked by everyone – Adamle isn’t a big enough deal yet for a lot of people to care. (Tito) This is complete FICTION. Eric Bischoff had a reign of terror for what, 3 years, and was very much hated because he was the former WCW boss. Plus, he actually had the sleaziness of his old WCW self around. I thought he was great as RAW GM and he kept my interest. The mere shock value of Bischoff running a WWE show is enough alone, but he did a fairly good job in those some odd 3 years or whatever to merit being the most hated GM the WWE ever had since the brand concept was invented in 2002. (DaveyBoy) You usually have to do something to be really hated and Adamle hasn't exactly done much in his role thus far to be so hated, so this is an easy FICTION. And that first sentence can be viewed from both a kayfabe OR real-life view-point! Pretty much any heel GM can book dastardly handicap matches which will see a face battle the odds. But will Adamle do a William Regal and book himself in title matches...??? I think not. Will Adamle do a Vickie Guerrero and physically interfere in a match costing Rey Mysterio the World HeavyWeight Title...??? Maybe, but until he does, he cannot be classified as the most hated General Manager to date. And hey, who can forget Eric Bischoff!?!?!? (Noc) Hated. Very ambiguous word when used in the realm of Pro Wrestling. However, I'll take the good heat version as the definition of choice for this question and therefore give this a resounding FICTION. Uncle Eric was way more successful in getting heat on RAW and was the best, most hated GM in the history of RAW. Maybe after a couple of years, Mikey boy can try to compete with him. However, first off he just needs time and experience in the role. Secondly, he's going to need some good storylines to help him get more hated in a good way. FACT or FICTION: The Big Show will continue to feud with mainly monster heels until 2009. (Noc) I think this depends on the main part of the question as I don't think there are enough of the monsters for him to feud with over the next four months into 2009. I'm highly confident that he will end up swinging between heel and face and put over at least one smaller person if not two by '09. Therefore, I judge thee: FICTION. (EB4) FICTION. He did the Khali feud, there's Kozlov, and possibly Mark Henry. Especially with the release of BDV, there just aren't enough of them and I for one am happy that this is the case. I've personally grown tired of it. But, I think the novelty act is played, and to be honest, this Fiction is more of a hope fiction, because I do think that is the future of Big Show, which would be a shame even though I am interested in a Show/Kozlov feud. (JoeyShinobi) I hope to hell this is fiction. Big Show has proved himself, since his return, to be one of the most versatile and engaging performers the WWE has. He’s dying for a decent storyline, and someone like MVP will provide a far more engaging spectacle to watch than seeing Show against Mark Henry again, and it also represents an opportunity for someone like MVP to perhaps add a big scalp to his resumé. I’ve got a soft spot for Show (no homo), he was involved in the angle that got me into wrestling (the 4-way title match at WrestleMania with Show, Triple H, Foley and The Rock), and his story and his return makes him deserving of more than participating in these freaks of nature matches he consistently gets himself embroiled in. Big Show should be used in one of two ways, for my money; either as the experienced mid-carder, like a Michaels or a Kane or a Jericho, putting on good value feuds and pulling other mid-carders up and onto bigger and better things, or he needs to be used as a bad-ass battering ram, creating chaos around the title scene. Monster heel matches bore the shit out of everyone, they’re slow, they generally involve obviously unfit and immobile performers, but Show is better than that, and deserving of more. In any case, he’s faced them all – Khali, Mark Henry, Kane – since February. The only one left worth bothering with is Umaga, and the big one, Undertaker. Taker will be tied up with Edge and Triple H for a good while yet, so I say FICTION. (Tito) This is FACT. What else is the Big Show going to do? He's too big to make fans believe that a John Cena could ever beat him in a legitimate fight. That's always been the problem with the Big Show dating back to when he was the Giant in WCW. Who can legitimately take him in a fight that's on the WWE roster? I don't see many, if any at all. Thus, the way to book him is to have him act as a circus freak show and pray that it draws. Otherwise, change up his role a bit... Kevin Nash was a loser until he became a cool bodyguard named Diesel. (DaveyBoy) Having just written a column about The Big Show's "Stealth turn" to a face via nothing more than a horrible cheesy grin, nothing would surprise me about how WWE use The Big Show over the next 5 months. Seriously, his comeback has been nothing short of a disaster by my reckoning and WWE shows are better for not including him right at this moment. His feud with Umaga has been put on hold due to an injury to the Samoan Bulldozer, but that feud still appears to be the plan for the next month or so. With Khali, Bam Neely and even ECW's Mark Henry still in the equation, I suppose this comment is FACT and The Big Show will continue to feud with mainly monster heels until 2009. I'm unsure I care to be honest. FACT or FICTION: Kane's latest push will ultimately lead him to a World Heavyweight Championship reign. (DaveyBoy) I have always been a fan of the Big Red Machine. Just as importantly, I have always been a fan of Glenn Jacobs due to his loyalty and ability to take whatever crap WWE have thrown at him and somehow make do to the best of his abilities. But unfortunately that crap over the years has really derailed his character to the point where he should never be in serious World title contention (excluding the ECW Title of course, which simply doesn't count). Unless I am in for a surprise, this latest push does not appear to be anything we have not seen before. So while it could result in him challenging and putting over a reigning champion, I cannot see it resulting in a World Heavyweight Championship reign. Therefore, this is FICTION. (Noc) Nope. Not a chance. FICTION. End of. Kane will at the most get a title shot but even then the whole Psycho part MLVII will most likely culminate in putting over the current face Champion whether that be Punk, Cena, Batista or someone else. Kane just doesn't ever seem to get anywhere anymore and so I'm going to greet history and agree with the mofo; Kane isn't gonna reign. And that makes it 5/5. (EB4) FICTION. Has anything Kane ever done led to a WHC reign? The ECW one doesn't count, that was a "Thanks for jobbing" gift. This may lead to a match, and to be honest I didn't know that this was a push that Kane was getting, I mean he always intimidates people. But, I figure that one day, Kane will get a top title reign, for he doesn't deserve to have a one day reign on his otherwise pretty impressive record. Wow, 4 Fictions and 1 Fact. Did not see that coming. (JoeyShinobi) Is this a push? He was thrown into a number one contenders’ match, and lost it, and he’s not really involved with anyone at the moment. Kane should be dominant if he’s getting a push, and at the moment he’s not really owning anyone. I was really looking forward to where this angle was going, and now I’m a little bit confused by it all. Anyway, it doesn’t make sense for Kane to be given the WHC at the end of all of this, he’s supposed to be confused and distracted and completely unconcerned with winning anything. So, here be the full house – FICTION. (Tito) Ha, whatever... FICTION! Let's run down the embarrassments in Kane's career. First, the guy can shoot fire out of the ground and yet he can't ever kill his own brother, the Undertaker. Paul Bearer is his father and yet that was completely forgotten when the Undertaker killed him a few years ago. Katie Vick, anyone? The unmasking was the biggest joke, ever, especially with the poor haircut. Having to look weak for Shane McMahon... the list goes on. He's been a big victim of Triple H's demolishing of main eventers throughout the year and was thus told to fans that he can't main event. They'll screw up this push as they've screwed up many in the past. If he gets the belt, it won't be for long. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ Well that's going to wrap things up for now. Hopefully, you enjoyed what we brought to the table. If not... go complain about it elsewhere because you'll get no sympathy from us crybabies. A quick shout-out to Noc for providing us with one kick ass column banner. If this wasn't enough to satisfy your taste buds, don't hesitate to check out the LOP Columns Forum for more wrestling goodness. These guys along with many others get the job done on a daily basis down in the forums. Do us a favor and go take a look before they resort to a life of crime and cheap sex. On a happier note, check back this time 30 days from now for the next breathtaking installment of Fact or Fiction. But don't look ahead too soon. Why not tell them exactly what you thought? Sounds like a great idea to me! Below are the emails for the respective participants. Now go and write them if you know what's good for you. Click Here to Email Tito (Good luck fitting that ego in an overhead compartment) Click Here to Email DaveyBoy (The Great Great GREAT Grandfather of the Columns Main Page) Click Here to Email Noc (Completely out of his element but gets an 'E' for effort) Click Here to Email EB4 (Is the Elijah Express even running anymore?) Click Here to Email JoeyShinobi (A European kid with an obvious fetish for dragons)
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