Friday, March 29, 2024
EditorialAEW Grand Slam Reactions and More (Monday Morning Q&A)

AEW Grand Slam Reactions and More (Monday Morning Q&A)

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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) Chris Jericho is the new Ring of Honor champion. Given his sports entertainer gimmick, which more traditional pure wrestler would you like to see dethrone him down the line?

Assuming the next champion is someone already in AEW, rather than an ROH signing or a wrestler yet to be brought on board, I would have gone with Daniel Garcia if he wasn’t already the pure champion. Then again, maybe that’s your story to tell. You could unify those titles, if you wanted, and make it so what differentiates ROH from the other titles are those rules, making them universal across those belts.

I wouldn’t do that, for the record. It’s just an idea.

For my own personal tastes, I’d like the next champion to be Bryan Danielson, if he’s not going to win the AEW title any time soon. He’d fit a similar role as Claudio Castagnoli, who I’m not sure I even agree with losing the title, mind you.

Another option could be Jungle Boy. He doesn’t seem to be in line to sniff that TNT Championship or All-Atlantic Championship, so let’s give him the ROH title as a stepping stone.

2) Saraya (formerly Paige) has joined the AEW roster. Realistically, what do you think her contributions will be? Do you expect great things and a possible title reign? Is she not even on your radar to wrestle at all?

While I hope I’m wrong, I have my doubts that this is a safe idea letting her step back into the ring. Granted, Edge and some others have been able to wrestle after neck injuries, but I’m always nervous about them, too. I’m not a doctor, so even if I got clarification on how healed up she is, I would still be concerned.

Between those injuries, the ring rust, all the other baggage and personal issues she’s gone through in these years weighing her down and more, I don’t have high hopes for anything amazing to come out of this. But if she’s able to actually go, I think they will CERTAINLY put the title on her. She’s an established name and a bigger star than anyone in the women’s division right now. Minus the risk of putting it on someone with her health conditions, you’d be a fool not to put the belt on her, right?

My guess is she eases into it, predominantly with a feud against Britt Baker. By this time next year, she’s holding the title, no questions.

3) Speculation ran this week that Paul Wight would bring up the Captain Insano character from The Waterboy at Grand Slam. Were you fond of that film? Do you want to see him translate that to AEW?

As a 10-year-old when it came out, I thought it was funny, but it wasn’t even my favorite of the Adam Sandler movies. That distinction went to Billy Madison. These days, I’m sure if I tried to watch it, I wouldn’t be able to comfortably sit through it. A lot of the humor I’ve most likely aged out of or just moved on from with new tastes, but it probably does have some gems worth laughing about.

When I had first heard a long while back about AEW trademarking Captain Insano, I thought it was crazy. Why would they bring back something over 20 years old like that? Surely, it had to be just Tony Khan jumping at the bit to do something from his childhood and not much more than that, right?

If this ever manifests beyond the trademark—and I say that because I don’t think it will—I’d imagine it will go over like a lead balloon. You’ve got people watching Dynamite and Rampage who weren’t even born when the movie was released. Even though some will say it’s a “classic”, we’re not talking The Godfather or Star Wars here, folks. It’s no more of a classic than Encino Man and I don’t hear many people talking about Pauly Shore these days.

Side note: Encino Man is not my favorite Pauly Shore movie. 10 points to whoever corectly guesses in the comments the one and only Pauly Shore film I used to own on VHS and watched way too many times back in the day.

4) Solo Sikoa vacated the NXT North American Championship. Do you like this “swerve for the sake of a surprise, then abandon it” approach to storytelling? Where is this leading and was it all worth it?

Except for extremely rare occasions, I hate this. It feels so cheap. Going with an out-of-nowhere last-second replacement to a fan vote who wins the title just to relinquish it the following week and hit the reset button seems like WWE wanting to get people talking as the top priority.

Sikoa having the title on SmackDown would have been odd, but it could have done some good, too. Showcasing an NXT championship on a more popular show might have convinced people to tune in on Tuesdays. Now, what? He checks off that title reign in the history books so they can say “former champion” and that’s it?

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Carmelo Hayes regaining the title in the first place. He should have moved on from that. Since he’s battling it out in another ladder match for the belt at Halloween Havoc, I have to root against him just so he’s not stuck in the same holding pattern.

My guess is they want Wes Lee to be champion, but didn’t want him to beat Hayes, and they also figured they’d put that belt on Sikoa to give him some clout and to just create buzz before going back to the original plan. But maybe Lee isn’t their preferred choice, even though he won the fan vote. I could see someone like Tyler Bate winning the title, instead.

Of course, maybe this is all a ruse to put the title on another heel outside of Hayes, like Charlie Dempsey.

5) Who do you think the White Rabbit teases will turn out to be in WWE?

Definitely Bray Wyatt. I know Karrion Kross has ties to that moniker, but it makes no sense to me to have him shift gimmicks like this while actively being something else. If he were away, then maybe.

This 100% strikes me as something Wyatt would do to play around with iconography and symbolism. It uses an older song, much like how he liked to use Time is on My Side by The Rolling Stones years ago.

As far as when he’ll pop up, I think Extreme Rules is a strong likelihood in order to set up something for Crown Jewel.

Let us know your thoughts about these questions by answering them in the comments!