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) Do you think WWE was justified in firing Mandy Rose, or would you have handled it differently?
I’m of two opinions about this. It all depends on a few unknown elements and information we’re not privy to.
First things first, I think the talent should be allowed to have accounts like what Mandy Rose has going on. It’s behind a paywall that only adults should be able to access, and while you can argue leaks get out and spread around, maybe your priority should be parenting your kid better to avoid the things you think are damaging. Or, on a personal level, I don’t see why sexual content is as vilified, particularly in a culture where violence is more okay to the ratings board and that is a much bigger deal.
But it isn’t all about an argument of morality and PG etiquette. It’s also about business ethics.
Mandy likely had things in her contract that she knew she was pushing the limit on. Taking that risk of potentially being fired is her responsibility and her burden to bear if/when shit hits the fan.
Was Mandy warned at any point that she was pushing that limit and WWE would fire her if she didn’t tone it down and/or stop entirely? If so, and she ignored it, she played with fire and got burned and has nobody to blame but herself.
If there was anything about her firing that revolved around WWE being mad at the amount of money she was making, then that’s ridiculous. But I doubt that is the case now that they don’t have those restrictions on Twitch accounts and such anymore.
I still think maybe she should have been suspended and/or fined, rather than fired. But I could see an argument that this was the first real test of power for the new regime. They might have felt like if they were lenient, it would have shown weakness, whereas firing Mandy proves they’re willing to give people more leeway than Vince McMahon did, but they won’t be pushovers, either.
2) What are your predictions for AEW Holiday Bash?
- Three “will appear” segments pretty much do nothing for me. Ricky Starks and Bryan Danielson will just cut promos. At most, they’ll fight with someone and it probably won’t do much but to set up a match for New Year’s Smash.
- Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland have needed to breakup for months. This face-to-face is probably another glorified tease of that without actually having them pull the trigger.
- FTR will beat The Gunn Club.
- Jamie Hayter is definitely retaining her title over Hikaru Shida. No chance Shida wins that belt.
- The Elite have to score another win in their No DQ match against Death Triangle to keep this going into the ultimate end of the series.
3) Rumors are out that Royal Rumble will feature a Pitch Black match between Bray Wyatt vs. LA Knight and a Hell in a Cell with Edge vs. Finn Balor. Is this gimmick overload or a good idea?
At the very least, I would nix the Hell in a Cell idea. This feud between Edge and Finn Balor has dragged on forever and isn’t good enough to justify it, particularly when Royal Rumble sells itself on that gimmick and Elimination Chamber is a few weeks later. Save Hell in a Cell for WrestleMania, Backlash, or some other event down the line later in 2023. I don’t even want to see Edge and Balor have ANY type of match, if I’m being honest.
The Pitch Black match is probably going to be something I’m not the biggest fan of either, but at least that should have an entirely different feel to it than anything else. I’m down to see that happen. But again, maybe I’d save that for WrestleMania and spread the wealth.
4) Rumor has it some of the talent Triple H hired back have been viewed as underperforming. Do you think this is about any Superstars in particular?
For my tastes, Hit Row has yet to show me anything that proves they were worth bringing back. That’s especially true after Top Dolla’s botch from SmackDown.
But I’d argue Karrion Kross and Scarlett have been underwhelming, too. Part of that blame should be on WWE Creative for having nothing for him to do beyond the Drew McIntyre stuff, but even those positives were mostly on McIntyre’s end, I think.
5) Kevin Owens pitched to Shawn Michaels for him to wrestle one more match. Yea or nay?
Yesssssssss. Absolutely.
Granted, I don’t think this is the year to do it. There’s such a softball plan of The Usos against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn that I feel they need to do and I wouldn’t want this to get in the way of it.
But let’s make WrestleMania 40 extra special by having one more match for Shawn Michaels, and with Kevin Owens as his opponent. I think they could have amazing chemistry and I’ve even specifically pinpointed Owens as my preferred “one more match” opponent for HBK back in 2018.
The only other answer I’d be willing to accept if Michaels returned to wrestling would be a match against AJ Styles. So maybe how about we do THAT this year, and Shawn can face Owens next year, then? Best of both worlds and it would erase the awful Crown Jewel match as the last one from HBK’s record? How about it?
Let us know your thoughts about these questions by answering them in the comments!
