This Or That (5/6/2014)

Everybody loves binary decisions, especially wrestling fans! In This Or That, we’ve forced ourselves to choose between two options that relate to wrestling.

Over four questions, @TimWelcomed, @JoeySplashwater and @TomBlackett will have to choose one of two options and give their reasoning on each of their choices. You can then vote on which one you’d choose, giving you the false impression that you’re somehow involved and we care about your opinion chance to join the conversation!

Before we start, here’s last week‘s results:

Which push are you looking forward to more?

Cesaro – 66%, Bad News Barrett– 34%

More likely to have a singles match at Wrestlemania 31?

Rey Mysterio – 68%, Christian – 32%

Who returns to have a match on TV first?

Evan Bourne – 65%, JTG – 35%

Better web browser?

Chrome – 68%, Firefox – 32%

Which continuing feud do you dislike more: Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena or Daniel Bryan vs. Kane?

Both seem to be continuing for another month. If you were able to end of the two, which would you?

 

Tim:

I’m not liking either at all. The way they book around Cena is doing The Wyatt Family no favors and Kane being Kane is doing Daniel Bryan no favors either but I at least have very little doubt that Bryan will walk from the Kane feud still champion. Bray Wyatt needs to come off strong in this feud but I can just see Cena finishing out the feud on top and The Wyatts running out of steam completely at that point. Not to mention the storytelling for Bray and Cena has been very inconsistent.

Bray Wyatt vs John Cena

Joey:

After Extreme Rules, it’s hard to tell. One produced a good match but is like an anchor stopping the Daniel Bryan title reign from taking off as well as hoped. The other is just bizarre and confusing. The next month of WWE TV with these two angles continuing is not a great sign.

If having to pick one, I’ll lean towards Kane vs. Daniel Bryan. I enjoyed Cena vs. Wyatt up until Wrestlemania and wish it ended there. The Kane vs. Bryan is just slighting excitement from Bryan’s title reign after a surreal Wrestlemania moment. It’s also gonna lead to a Buried Alive or Inferno Match in all likelihood. Last night’s horrific segment showed how terrible of TV we have to look forward to for the next month.

Kane vs. Daniel Bryan

Tom:

Honestly, I don’t think I can deal with much more horror movie Kane. You could say that it’s a rite of passage for Bryan to go through at least one dreadful Kane feud as champion, but it’s one that I could do without.

The Wyatt / Cena stuff is dumb, but not on quite such a horrific level, and I don’t think it’s as potentially damaging – if Bryan’s first feud as champ is a real stinker, it could spell trouble for the rest of his reign.

Kane vs. Daniel Bryan

Which English champion loses their title first: Bad News Barrett or Paige?

Shorter reign for the IC champ or Divas champ?

 

Tim:

Wade Barrett will hold the intercontinental title for way longer than Paige will hold the Divas Championship because that’s just how it usually is with those belts. Paige is in a unique position but I still see her losing it as soon as she runs through most of the very small Divas roster. Barrett will hold the IC title until they remember to make him lose it.

Paige

Joey:

Don’t expect Paige to have a super long Divas Championship run as they are coming off of the longest reign in the title’s history with AJ Lee before she lost to Paige. I think Paige will hold it enough to establish herself as a credible champion before losing it in a month or two around Money In The Bank.

As for Barrett, my prediction is that he holds it for a while and loses his luster along the way. Sorry, Bad News fans, but the IC title is an anchor that holds down mid-carders from elevating. However, I do think Barrett holds it for a while until someone becomes flavor of the month or WWE wants to give a Kofi/Ziggler type some run with it again.

Paige

Tom:

Hmm. I mean, they seem intent on making Bad News Barrett a big deal, so that seems to be an indicator that he might not last long as a mid-card champion. It seems like he’s always considered a strong contender for winning Money in the Bank, so maybe this will finally be his year and he’ll drop it around that time?

Paige’s start has been a little shaky, but given that NXT remains a certain COO’s pet project, I can’t imagine he’ll be pushing for her to drop it to Nattie or a Bella any time soon. When she does lose it, I’m guessing it’ll be to another new NXT transplant, and I’m not sure how close any of the women wrestlers there are to being moved to the main roster.

Bad News Barrett

Bigger bust: Batista’s return or Sin Cara’s WWE career?

Which Triple H guy had the bigger fail?

 

Tim:

I was excited for Sin Cara and what he might bring to the WWE product. I was incredibly bummed that he never really got his footing there for whatever reason. You would think that Batista returning would’ve been a little better but that was not the case.

First his return was exposed so they couldn’t pull off a surprise return. Then he just seemed pretty rusty when he cut promos. Then he was getting blown up during his matches and then came the unfortunate timing of him winning the Royal Rumble. There was zero hope for him after this. It was a mixture of timing and Batista just not being very interesting that led to this huge flop.

He hasn’t brought anything positive to the table since he has returned. I think the name “Batista” didn’t bring the excitement they thought it would and quite frankly I would be fine never seeing him in WWE again.

Batista

Joey:

If you recall, Sin Cara was heavily heralded to become the next Rey Mysterio or even more. It did not work out for him to say the least. That being said, I’m still gonna have to say it’s Batista’s return. WWE clearly thought he would be a replacement for The Rock in that fans would look at him with nostalgia and get behind him during Wrestlemania season. The problem is Batista was never 1/10th as big as Rock and fans didn’t really care to see him more than a Jericho or RVD. Actually even significantly less.

Rumors say Batista is leaving soon and if that’s true, his three month return is an all time big flop. Fans booing an entire Rumble match based on him winning, WWE having to reshuffle the deck and pull all kinds of shenanigans to get Daniel Bryan into the WM main event and losing a match to Alberto Del Rio sums up the timeline of Dave Batista’s 2014.

Batista

Tom:

Honestly, I didn’t have particularly high expectations for Batista’s return so the fact that he flopped wasn’t such a big deal to me. I mean, I wasn’t expecting him to flop QUITE as hard as he did, which made for a bizarre few months as WWE desperately tried to make him work before just throwing their hands up in the air and going for Plan B(ryan).

The Sin Cara deal was something else though. I was so psyched for this brand new guy debuting – I can’t remember who the last guy before him was to be planted straight into the main roster, rather than slog through developmental for a year or two, and that really made him feel special.

However, given what a disappointment he ended up , I don’t think we’ll ever see a new guy make it to national TV without being put through NXT first. It’s understandable, but it still kinda sucks. A ‘big debut’ isn’t the same if he’s already been lingering on the fringes of the WWE for ages, so that’s why the Sin Cara situation seems like the bigger bust to me – he ruined it for everyone else.

Sin Cara

Better source of cartoons in your lifetime: Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network?

Do you remember the ’90s? OF COURSE YOU DO, now choose your favorite cartoon #brand.

 

Tim:

I loved both but I’m going to have to side with the channel that brought me things like 2 Stupid Dogs, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Johnny Bravo, and Courage The Cowardly Dog.

Now, I can enjoy and respect the greatness of Rugrats, Doug, and my favorite, Rocko’s Modern Life but for my lifetime I have to go with Cartoon Network because they still create cartoons that appeal to me while I hardly ever find myself watching anything on Nickelodeon or it’s related channels. Cartoon Network has Regular Show and Adventure Time just to name a few. Nickelodeon died with The Fairly Oddparents. RIP.

Cartoon Network

Joey:

Hey Arnold! Rugrats. Doug. Spongebob. Rocket Power. Rocko’s Modern Life. Game over.

Hit the bricks, Cartoon Network. My full analysis of cartoons in general are here for your reading pleasure.

Nick Toons

Tom:

As hard as it is for me to turn my back on Doug and Hey Arnold!, There was a time when I’d watch a dangerous amount of Cartoon Network – my main love was Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, which is still untouchable for me as one of the funniest, weirdest, most unique shows ever. However, I also went through a solid Ed, Edd ‘n’ Eddy obsession for a while and Johnny Bravo and other shows were also pretty fantastic.

What’s more (and like Tim said), they’re still airing shows I really love in Adventure Time and Regular Show, whereas there’s nothing current on Nickelodeon that’s really made it onto my radar. CN F-F-F-F-FOR LIFE.

Cartoon Network