Welcome back to another Monday Morning Q&A where I toss out some questions to get a feel of how you guys and gals are feeling about certain topics.
So here are 5 questions I’d like to toss out for this week. I’ll give my answers, too, but the key here is that I want to know what YOU think! So make sure you chime in!
1) What was your favorite match from All Out?
Easily the steel cage match. The Lucha Brothers and The Young Bucks always put on a great show, so I assumed I’d enjoy it quite a bit, but that stood out as the best match by far.
That match had not only some of the best bell-to-bell action, but some amazing near-falls that kept bumping up the energy level. I’ll remember the thumbtacks on the sneakers for sure and I loved the series of superkicks to one another, as well as Rey Fenix’s jump from the top of the cage.
Second-place would go to Jericho against MJF, most likely.
2) How would you rank your excitement levels for the four surprises at All Out? (Minoru Suzuki, Ruby Soho, Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson)
Bryan Danielson takes the top spot, as I simply want to see more of his potential matches. There’s no way he doesn’t have a laundry list he wants to check off and they’ll all probably kick ass.
Adam Cole would be #2. I figured he would go to AEW, but I didn’t quite expect this was how they’d bring him into the fold. That was pretty perfect having him as a swerve to offset Danielson. Give me Cole against a lot of people in the future, too. He’s too good to be wasted as a midcard act on the main roster in WWE and I think he made the right decision.
Third would be Ruby Soho. I was never absolutely gaga over her in WWE, but I thought she perpetually got the short end of the stick. To lead a stable and never once feel like a legitimate threat to the championship felt strange. In AEW, she’ll be a much bigger deal and has the mileage in her career to be a veteran who can teach a lot of younger talent while also not being too old that she doesn’t have a proper future.
Last would be Suzuki and that’s mostly due to ignorance. I don’t follow Japanese wrestling much at all, so even the legends aren’t folks I have much knowledge about. In Suzuki’s case, I know absolutely nothing about him, so there’s not much for me to be super hyped about. I’m sure he’s great and I’m interested to see his match with Jon Moxley, but I don’t even know what I’m in for.
3) At the moment, who do you want to beat Kenny Omega for the AEW World Championship? Hangman Page? CM Punk? Bryan Danielson? Someone else?
I’m still sticking to “Hangman” Adam Page as the guy who should beat Kenny Omega.
Punk doesn’t need the championship by any means and can wrestle as a featured act with no title involved. Virtually every one of his matches will feel like a big deal just by the sheer nature it is happening. Sure, Punk vs Jack Evans or Ryzin isn’t going to sell out a pay-per-view, but the big enough names like Darby Allin will be more than fine without that belt getting in the mix.
Danielson would make a lot of sense, but I think I’d rather see him with the TNT title at first. He strikes me as the right fit to hold a title match every week on Dynamite or Rampage and really start whittling down the checklist of opponents he wants to work against. That wouldn’t work as well if he were world champion, who shouldn’t compete as often.
Nobody on the roster makes as much sense to me as Page since the storyline of his redemption is the best arc I can imagine. If it’s just “some guy beats Omega because he was better than him on that night”, it could be anyone. But if Page—Omega’s former partner and friend—goes from failing to win the title at the first All Out to beating his ex-buddy for it, you can’t get much better.
4) Chris Jericho’s career lives on a little while longer. If you had any influence on it and had to pick, who would you want to be Jericho’s final opponent?
Supposedly, Chris Jericho and Lance Storm have a pact to wrestle their final matches against each other. Knowing that, I would want to give them what they want. Who am I to stand in the way of their wishes, even if I’d pick a number of other wrestlers for that role?
Book it in AEW. Jericho can always come back to WWE and do guest spots where he doesn’t actually wrestle a match, but can cut a promo and hit someone with a Codebreaker or something.
However, if we’re going with the fantasy booking idea that it’s someone else, I could see Sammy Guevara filling the role nicely. I used to think The Miz would make sense, but that time has passed. Then, MJF came around and fit the bill even better, but that didn’t happen (and I’m glad it didn’t, as it’s too soon and I still want to see more Jericho matches). With Guevara, he’s got the protege angle that can make sense, he’s young enough to benefit greatly from it and I would love to see a sort of role reversal where instead of Sammy being the heel trying to take out his former mentor, it would be Jericho as the antagonist and Sammy forcing him out.
5) Is there anything from WWE advertised for this week that you feel will equal or surpass the level of joy you’ve gotten from AEW over the past few days?
No. That’s not to come across like some AEW stooge or anything, but it’s just a matter that WWE has absolutely nothing special advertised. At the very least, it’s nothing special compared to what AEW has done at All Out.
Think about it this way. Am I more excited about Andrade vs Pac, which should be a good match even if the feud isn’t the most thrilling thing in the world, or am I more excited to see Charlotte Flair fight Nia Jax for the Raw Women’s Championship in a rematch from last week? Or a rematch between Edge and Seth Rollins? Maybe a rematch between Drew McIntyre and Sheamus? Nope, it’s the contract signing that is supposed to hook me, right?
WWE coasts. I don’t care that Brock Lesnar is going to make an appearance on SmackDown when I know he’s likely not going to do anything noteworthy. But what’s Adam Cole going to do now that he’s in AEW? I want to know, so I’ll tune in to Dynamite with intense curiosity.
Nothing at all that WWE has announced moves the needle for me. At best, they’re tolerable segments to come. At worst, I’ve seen it a thousand times and I wish I could skip it, and if it wasn’t my job to be as informed about this, I definitely wouldn’t bother watching.
Let us know your thoughts about these questions by answering them in the comments!
