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 are your predictions for New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 17 event coming January 4th?
- Boltin Oleg beats Ryohei Oiwa (No idea)
- I have zero clue who could even compete in the New Japan Ranbo. I don’t follow NJPW. So let’s just say…Tomohiro Ishii???
- Tatsumi Fujinama, Minoru Suzuki and Tiger Mask beat Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima and Togi Makabe
- LiYoh wins the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
- Kairi retains the IWGP Women’s Championship. Sasha Banks (Mercedes Mone) pops up.
- Bishamon wins the IWGP Tag Team Championship from FTR.
- Ren Narita beats Zack Sabre Jr. to win the NJPW World Television Championship.
- Tama Tonga is beating Karl Anderson for the NEVER Openweight Championship.
- Keiji Muto, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Shota Umino beat Los Ingobernables de Japon
- Shot in the dark, I’ll say El Desperado wins the four-way for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.
- Will Ospreay will beat Kenny Omega and retain the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship.
- Jay White will lose the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship to Kazuchika Okada
2) Do you think the WWE Slammy Awards should come back? If so, when and how?
While the Slammy Awards aren’t exactly the most prestigious thing in the world, I do think they’re a fun concept that WWE is frequently sleeping on. In particular, it bothers me that they’re looking for content to fill time on tons of platforms (Peacock, YouTube, network television), but they don’t do the Slammys? What gives?
I’d be fine with a special edition of The Bump like we’ve had before. A Peacock-exclusive special would work for me, too. I don’t think it works super well as an episode of Raw or anything of that sort. Nor should it be a pay-per-view. But film it inside the studios or at the Performance Center and put it on YouTube or Peacock. That’s an easy hour or two of programming.
Ideally, do it the first week or two of the new year, too.
3) “New year, new me.” If you had to pick one wrestler from WWE or AEW to be completely repackaged a la Papa Shango becoming Kama, or Kane not being acknowledged as Isaac Yankem or Fake Diesel in canon, which character would you give this change to and what new character would you give them?
Sadly, we’re in an era where it’s harder to get away with these things. Just look at Reggie trying to be Scrypts and how the crowd chanted the name Reggie instead. Of course, Scrypts is a terrible character, so that’s somewhat justified.
But one name that stands out to me is Shanky. I don’t really anticipate that he has a super bright future, but he certainly doesn’t have one with that name and the gimmick of dancing next to Jinder Mahal.
Maybe if he were to be repackaged and put under a mask, or given a haircut and some entirely different ring gear, along with a different name, they could pass him off as something more akin to how Indus Sher is.
4) Do you have any new year resolutions regarding pro wrestling? Are you looking to watch certain things, go to a particular event, or anything of that nature?
Technically speaking, yes, since this is my job. I’m hoping (possibly foolishly) to find a means this year to dedicate more time toward the fun side of it (podcasts with interesting topics, things like my Mock Draft Fantasy Booking stuff and whatnot) and less time pulling my hair out over the weekly television.
In a look behind the scenes, I’m hoping to make changes to how my site Smark Out Moment functions in many ways, including structurally. I also want to try to bring the best content possible to EWN, and provide some more stability and upgrades to this very site in whatever ways I can positively influence. Maybe our new layout will happen this year?!
I also want to try to make some more time to watch content from New Japan, MLW, Impact, NWA and eventually, ROH. While I doubt that will truly happen, I always want to view more content outside AEW and WWE. I just typically get burned out and prefer to use that time to do anything else than to watch wrestling.
But here’s hoping pro wrestling in 2023 is so good that it’s can’t miss!
5) How would you like to see eWrestlingNews improve in 2023?
I ask this now because I’d love to get as much feedback as possible and some ideas of the content you guys want to see. Do you want more editorials? More coverage of promotions outside of WWE and AEW? Would you like to see more opinions added to the results coverage posts? Maybe some podcasts? Live chat stuff on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter? Should we make a TikTok or anything like that? Give us your wants and desires!
Let us know your thoughts about these questions by answering them in the comments!
