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) Tuesday night, the wrestling world went into panic mode over reports WWE had sold to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. If that comes to pass, will it change your habits as a fan in any way? Are you for/against this?
I’d have to seriously consider whether or not I would keep doing this as my job, or if I would at least try to wait it out and see what the changes would be. I’m concerned the product would become even worse (as I think Vince McMahon would step back into creative control and double-down on the things that I didn’t like from his output, like the whole “people not having their full names” nonsense) and the show could become overly political (as in, I don’t want to watch a program that is dedicated toward advertising how wonderful and amazing Saudi Arabia is, like the ads that ran during Greatest Royal Rumble).
If any of those things happened, I don’t know how I could continue to embrace being a fan of it and tell people that what I do for a living is to write about it. I deal with enough stigma with public perception of pro wrestling to begin with. Adding the SA stuff to it just would make it too much of a headache.
I don’t want WWE to sell at all, but if they do, I’d rather them sell to something like Comcast (most likely bidder) or FOX or Disney than SA.
2) It seems WWE intends to split the Raw and SmackDown Tag Team Championship. How are you hoping this will go down (or do you think they should be fully unified, instead?)
This is a weird time to do it, isn’t it? Not around a draft or Survivor Series or anything to do with the brands?
I’m 50/50 on the split, funny enough. Part of me says “opposite brands should have their own titles” and another part of me says “but WWE doesn’t have enough tag teams to make it worthwhile, and the brand split is barely a thing anymore, so why bother?”
If they’re going to split them up, I would probably have The Judgment Day win the Raw titles at Royal Rumble via Kevin Owens interfering to cost The Usos. Then, The Usos interfere in the universal title match to cost KO, but Sami Zayn does something that leads to him being booted out of The Bloodline. Zayn gets a title shot against Roman Reigns at Elimination Chamber in Montreal (while The Usos defend the SmackDown tag titles against whoever those #1 contenders are) while we set up Zayn and Owens reforming their alliance to fight The Usos for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania, wherein they beat them. The Raw after WrestleMania, new belt designs for Owens/Zayn and The Judgment Day are unveiled.
3) Were you thinking Mercedes Moné or some other swerve would happen with Toni Storm teaming with Saraya? If so, were you disappointed it was just Toni Storm?
Despite AEW knowingly setting themselves up for people to think Sasha Banks would pop up with the mystery in general around this time as well as tossing out the phrasing “the boss”, I didn’t actually think it would be her. More so, I thought Thunder Rosa would return as the big surprise.
Therefore, I wasn’t disappointed with the lack of Mercedes Moné. The segment itself and everything leading up to it weren’t any good, though, so I wasn’t pleased with any of this in general—but it has nothing to do with Moné.
4) Jinder Mahal, Stevie Turner, NXT_Anonymous, Tyler Bate’s return, the end of the battle royal, Dijak beating Tony D’Angelo, Grayson Waller’s count-out…what was your biggest takeaway from NXT New Year’s Evil?
All of that was interesting, but to me, the most standout of them all was how they decided to have Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne fight each other for the end of the battle royal. I hope that isn’t the start of splitting them up as a tag team, as I think they’re better together than they’d be apart.
My hope is for Toxic Attraction to move on to the main roster, but also potentially add a new third member. Chelsea Green is a good candidate, if she’s going to be in WWE going forward. Alexa Bliss could have potentially filled that role, too, but she seems to be hell bent on going back to the Bray Wyatt stuff.
My guess is this was done just to settle on the dynamics of the Triple Threat at Vengeance Day. They’ll fight then, lose, and then stay a team.
5) Rare question from Impact Wrestling! Who do you think Mickie James will drop the Knockouts Championship to for her retirement?
I don’t watch Impact Wrestling and haven’t for years, so I’m not well-versed in any of the storylines or the roster pool, for the most part. But since Mickie has this thing going on where she’ll retire when she loses a match, whoever beats her for the title is going to retire her, too. That’s a lot to put on just any random person.
On the roster itself, nobody stands out to me. I guess if it had to be one of them, it would be Deonna Purrazzo, if she ends up sticking around? But if they bring someone else into the company, Kamille from NWA could be a possibility.
Let us know your thoughts about these questions by answering them in the comments!
