Tossing Salt Presents:
Wrestling Fact Or Fiction
Survivor Series Edition
November 21, 2021
DougMaynard.com

Welcome to another edition of Wrestling Fact Or Fiction, courtesy of the fine people at 411mania.com and Mr. Jake Chambers. You know the deal. There’s a statement about the world’s greatest form of entertainment not named Alice Cooper and I decide if it’s true or not and explain why. It’s always fun at the parties and the kids love it. So are you ready? Let’s do this.

Statement #1: If Big E loses cleanly to Roman Reigns at Survivor Series he should have to vacate the WWE Championship.

FICTION: While I could see a stipulation like that being added at some point and it would make these brand versus brand matches far more interesting and fun to watch if the competitors actually had something to win or lose besides just bragging rights, but for now, it’s a bad idea. Big E has been doing a good job as the WWE Champion and has still been overshadowed at every turn by Reigns. A loss in itself is bearable, but to lose the title as well would be a major slap in the face and essentially just pull the legs out from any kind of push and momentum that Big E has experienced so far. It would set him back so far in the overall picture of things, his career may never recover. Some wrestlers could take the loss of the match and title and bounce back easily, but Big E hasn’t been established enough to do that yet.

Statement #2: “Brand Supremacy” as a storyline concept should be important to WWE Superstars.

FICTION: Why should the talents care about which brand wins when they all regularly travel back and forth between RAW and Smackdown, and hell, the majority of Team Smackdown was RAW talents two months ago. Why would I team with someone I hate to make my brand look good when we’re going to be fighting again a week later? I don’t get the motivation for each team to want to cooperate and win. If the winning team got cash bonuses or title opportunities as a reward for winning, it would make more sense. But the way it is now, with only bragging rights as the reward, it just doesn’t work for me.

Statement #3: While Hangman Page winning the AEW Championship at Full Gear was the logical end to the “story”, Kenny Omega is clearly the better wrestler and bigger star and should still be champion.

FICTION: Omega may or may not be the better wrestler, but the title change was a good one and it was the right ending to this part of the story. Omega had gotten stale as the champion and a change was needed at the top of the AEW roster. This was a long-term story and took a while to get to the ending, but AEW finally did and it worked perfectly. Besides now there are all sorts of reports that Omega has some injuries that need to be tended to so having Page as the new champion may have been a necessity as well as the perfect ending for the narrative. It works on every level and I’m glad AEW finally pulled the trigger to give the Hangman his due.

Statement #4: The 32nd Annual Survivor Series (featuring Brock Lesnar vs. Daniel Bryan) is the best WWE Survivor Series PPV of all time.

FICTION: I always liked the early shows that had multiple 5-on-5 matches with different teams thrown together for some unique and sometimes very odd pairings. The 32nd one was damn good to be sure, but the best of all time? That’s a totally subjective comment and open to argument, depending upon who you’re talking to. I remember bits and pieces of it, but not enough to call it the best of anything.

Statement #5: Becky Lynch’s current “heel turn” isn’t working, and it looks even worse when she is matched up against a heel Charlotte Flair.

FACT: Becky may be a heel, but no one wants to boo her. And Charlotte, she’s so good at her heel role, that no one wants to cheer her and she will be booed regardless of whoever her opponent may be. “The Man” has too many fans and is way too over to ever be a total heel at this point in her career and WWE continually trying to book her as such is a waste of time and insult to everyone watching. It’s like when Steve Austin turned heel and joined The Alliance back in 2001. It was a dumb move and made no sense. Having Becky as a heel now is the same thing. It makes as much sense as an Ultimate Warrior promo. Becky is going to be cheered regardless and WWE just needs to accept that.

And there you go. My thanks for reading and to Jake Chambers for coming up with the statements. Any comments, thoughts, or questions are welcome and appreciated. Until the next time my friends, stay good and be safe. I’ll see you at the Gorilla Position.

Ubuntu!