Welcome back to 411mania Wrestling Fact or Fiction. I am your host Jake Chambers.
This week we have a very special guest! You know him, you love him, the welcoming voice of the comment section and a friend to all, the indomitable 411 Wrestling Superfan: Maurizio RC!
MRC is witty and quick, so I threw out a whole bunch of “Quick Hit” style statements about him… and tried to keep up myself!
So, go, go, go!
Statement No. 1: Swerve Strickland is the TOP attraction in AEW.
Maurizio RC: FICTION – No. He is just the world champion in a company where the world champion is presented like anyone else who wears a belt. That is 70% of the participants.
Jake Chambers: FICTION – The more I feel like people are trying to tell me it’s him, the less I feel like it is. Ospreay is closer to being the top attraction than Swerve.
Statement No. 2: CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre, Hell in a Cell – bad idea.
Maurizio RC: FICTION – Great idea if it is the third and final game in the trilogy that I imagine in my funny head.
Jake Chambers: FACT -If they didn’t want October’s PLE to be called “Hell in a Cell,” they shouldn’t have called it “Bad Blood” and main evented it with any Hell in a Cell match.
Statement No. 3: In 5 years you will have forgotten that Nia Jax was the WWE Smackdown Women’s Champion in 2025.
Maurizio RC: FICTION – Nia is great. She plays her role perfectly, which means even more people are going to hate her. What makes me mad is that people ignore how much she’s improved since she came back and instead resort to easy jokes about her constantly hurting people. And that’s HOLE I’m going to say about that!
Jake Chambers: FACT – I forgot that I wrote this statement 5 days ago.
Statement No. 4: If Logan Paul loses the US title to LA Knight, that will mean even fewer US title matches at WWE PLEs.
Maurizio RC: FICTION – The exact opposite. And we don’t have to worry about some idiot posting stupid statements about things that are way beyond their competence.
Jake Chambers: FACT – Before a PLE, there was a competitor for the main event slot on SmackDown for the tag team titles.
Statement No. 5: You’re embarrassed to tell new people you meet in real life that you’re obsessed with pro wrestling.
Maurizio RC: FICTION – Nothing socially relevant. Actually, being a wrestling fan is the most harmless thing. Have you seen what people are into these days?!
Jake Chambers: FICTION – Wrestling is still not cool for most normal people, but I’m just too old to care.
Statement No. 6: The Wyatt Sicks is a stupid name
Maurizio RC: FICTION – No, it’s great. And it’s Sick6.
… RUN!
Jake Chambers: FACT – They don’t seem “sick” to me, just too sweet. They’re a bit like the Oddities or something.
(WWE YouTube spells it as “Sicks,” but maybe it looks like a “6” in the logo?)
Statement No. 7: If pro wrestling became an Olympic sport, AEW and WWE would work together to try to win gold for the USA.
Maurizio RC: FICTION – Professional wrestling will never be an Olympic discipline.
Jake Chambers: FACT – HHH and Tony would definitely do that deal. Although I’m not sure if that’s the best American AEW could send?
Statement No. 8: You cried because of the wrestling.
Maurizio RC: FACT -I can’t count how many times I started watching this in 1989 when I was 9. Damn, I cried when Cody finally won the world title at WM 40 because it was the beautiful ending to a beautiful story that hit us all at the moment when it mattered most. Elizabeth reuniting with Randy Savage at WM VII… Bryan Danielson talking about his late father in his farewell speech… the fans going crazy when Hogan started acting like the Hulk at WM 18… so many, man. The day I stop crying at wrestling is the day I’m dead.
Jake Chambers: FACT – Damn, I cried the other day when I listened to the G1 intro. There’s something about the bridge in the middle where Naito is the focus that always touches me.
Statement No. 9: The timeless Toni Storm continues to entertain.
Maurizio RC: FACT – She is. The only problem I have with it is that AEW’s most popular female character is a comedy gimmick that makes no sense unless someone explains that she had so many concussions that she woke up thinking she was an actress from Hollywood circa 1930. Other than that, she’s fine.
Jake Chambers: FICTION -I think I finally understand the character after reading MRC’s response. But still not entertaining.
Statement No. 10: It’s still impressive to see someone pushed through the WWE ring barrier.
Maurizio RC: FACT – It sure as hell is when you have great camera work, and god knows the WWE in particular has done a great job since Dunn left.
Jake Chambers: FICTION – Come on, at this point it looks about as dangerous as putting someone to bed.
SWITCH!
Statement No. 11: Rhea Ripley should be glad to be rid of Dominick Mysterio – the guy is a loser, in reality AND kayfabe!
Jake Chambers: FICTION – Dominick is great…but he could win some games at some point.
Maurizio RC: FICTION – Look at Dom’s real wife. His character is a sex pawn that Rhea and Liv fight over. Loser, no way.
Statement No. 12: We will never again have a towering and dominant big man wrestler like Andre the Giant or Yokozuna.
Jake Chambers: FICTION -I think with the WWE NIL and NXT programs doing so well, they can train non-fans to become pretty great pro wrestlers, so we’ll see a lot more diversity in sizes and shapes in the future.
Maurizio RC: FICTION – GUNTHER is technically a “big man” unless he’s standing side by side with other people. I say let’s keep that myth alive.
Statement No. 13: Randy Orton deserves a fight for the world title, even though he clearly lost to Gunther in the King of the Ring final.
Jake Chambers: FICTION – Not only does he not deserve it, we all know he is 100% not going to win. You have to win at least your last PLE singles match to qualify for a world title, especially when you are an old guy that nobody takes seriously as a winner anymore.
Maurizio RC: FACT – But only because I want my damn Cody vs. Randal show NOW.
Statement No. 14: You know how we can end the curse of multiplayer ranked play.
Jake Chambers: FICTION – I always hope that they will go away at some point, like COVID, but I don’t think they will ever go away.
Maurizio RC: FICTION – Great, but that will never happen. Wrestling fans love to see lots of bodies in lots of different positions in ladder matches. The days of Shawn vs. Razor or Benoit vs. Jericho are over.
Statement No. 15: Let’s face it, people really don’t care about tag team wrestling.
Jake Chambers: FACT – WWE and AEW could eliminate tag team wrestling completely and in a few months no one would even notice.
Maurizio RC: FICTION – Personally, I care. People don’t care about tag teams.
Statement No. 15: It’s odd that arguably TNA’s most over-contracted star is now a regular mid-carder on WWE’s C-brand.
Jake Chambers: FACT -Why is WWE even interested in working with them and why does TNA want to be seen as basically the equivalent of a training brand? I don’t get it!
Maurizio RC: FICTION – No. It’s really great.
Statement No. 17: They always know exactly when WWE TV commercials are coming on and it sucks.
Jake Chambers: FACT – FACT, FACT, SUPER FACT. Commercials have made WWE TV wrestling matches completely unbearable. And they’re just going to add commercials to RAW on Netflix too, right?
Maurizio RC: FICTION – We do, and I think that’s OK. That way I know when to run out and get more junk food. Junk food is great, man.
Statement No. 18: It is only fair that all male wrestlers must wear shirts or undershirts that cover their nipples while wrestling.
Jake Chambers: FACT – Why do I have to see men shirtless in wrestling? Just because that’s the way it’s always been done? Is it more comfortable? OK, but then what about comfort equality for women? Cover your nipples, boys.
Maurizio RC: FICTION – Actually, they were supposed to wear batsuits with bat nipples.
Statement No. 19: Bryan Danielson will never truly retire.
Jake Chambers: FACT – I think we are in Bryan’s “retirement phase” where he retires (or at least alludes to it) and comes back again and again for the next 15 years.
Maurizio RC: FACT -Nobody in wrestling ever really retires. Bryan, on the other hand, I can imagine sticking to a part-time schedule and eventually returning to a full-time schedule because for some reason he thinks he still owes the fans something or some romantic stuff like that. Basically Ric Flair. Just without the alcohol.
Statement No. 20: You understand why Roman Reigns, the super-evil villain, would help his arch-nemesis and all-enemy of the Bloodline, Cody Rhodes, defeat Solo Sikoa and cost him the WWE Title, even though he claimed that the championship was what fed their entire extended family and he publicly said on multiple occasions that Solo would become the next Tribal Chief.
Jake Chambers: FICTION – Makes no sense. Story and character ruined (for me). I think the reason we all liked Bloodline Roman was because he was a huge jerk who demeaned everyone around him. Now we’re supposed to like a Roman with no logic that pits a babyface against the weakest team of heels imaginable – isn’t that the Roman everyone hated at some point?
Maurizio RC: FACT -Because Cody always respected Roman and his lineage. Solo, on the other hand, acted like a backstabbing piece of shit, just waiting for Roman to walk away to try and steal the leadership position.
Cody and Roman are just like Rocky and Apollo in Rocky III.
Unfortunately, I am not an Apollo to MRC’s Rocky! Many thanks to Maurizio RC for participating this week – great stuff! Hope to have him back here soon.
Don’t forget to give him a shout out in the comments section where you see him next!
I’m always open to anyone who wants to join in and give it a try… with the FoF! So let me know in the comments and I’ll get in touch!
