Welcome to another eWrestlingNews Question of the Day!
Swerve Strickland put out a challenge at the end of AEW Dynamite for Double or Nothing, calling for Anarchy in the Arena to return again. However, there were lots of people in the fight at the time, and some others are implied despite their absence (Katsuyori Shibata, for example).
Theoretically, the heel side could consist of Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta, Claudio Castagnoli, PAC if and when he’s able to return, Marina Shafir, Gabe Kidd, Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, and Kazuchika Okada—and we’ve seen others randomly inserted into the mix after the initial announcement, too. On the babyface side, we’ve got Swerve Strickland, Willow Nightingale, Samoa Joe, Shibata possibly, Powerhouse Hobbs, Kenny Omega, and even “Speedball” Mike Bailey, as well as, again, the potential for others, like if HOOK were to return.
My question for you today is “Who do you think should make up the two teams this year?”
Remember to answer with your response in the comments below.
As far as my answer…
I’m intrigued about the intergender aspect in the sense of how they would properly balance that out, and I think they’ve effectively said that too loudly to backtrack on it now. People are expecting it. That puts Shafir and Nightingale into the match by default.
Obviously, Swerve needs to be in it. It’d be strange if he wasn’t, since he’s the one making the announcement. To balance him out, I think you count Jon Moxley as the leader of that team, especially since it will put him on the card without needing to defend the AEW World Championship. He just did that in a steel cage match, and they need to stretch out some opponents for other future events.
That leaves only three spots left on each team for such a big group of people.
Just like how Bailey and Okada ended up fighting away from the rest of the cast, I’d keep them separate. Book a Continental Championship match between the two instead and keep them away from this match.
I’m assuming PAC and HOOK won’t in fact be back for it, and I’m curious about Shibata’s absence. That makes me think he’s not going to be involved, either.
That would leave Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Kenny Omega to make up the babyfaces, while Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, Gabe Kidd, and The Young Bucks have to be whittled down to just 3 out of those 5.
I can’t see having just one of Matt/Nick Jackson without the other, so either you put them both in and only one of those others (which would be odd to put Claudio and not Wheeler, or vice versa, and it would be odd to go with Kidd and not have two of Moxley’s partners with him), or you go with Castagnoli/Yuta and Kidd, and you leave The Young Bucks out of it.
But if you leave them out, and they’re some of the primary instigators, then how does that work? There would need to be another tag team or duo of sorts to fight them elsewhere on the card, and no one has joined the fray in that fashion as of last night.
Unless they’re extending this to 6-on-6 or 7-on-7 and we do have HOOK and/or Shibata back in action, I think they’re setting up at least one person to feel like the odd man out. Whether that’s taken care of by not having Kidd involved (in which case, why have him here?) and to boot out a guy like Yuta with another attack angle, or if it’s just glazed over and we’re not supposed to think about it, I’d much rather them expand past the 5-v-5 to get everyone involved and hope that the injured wrestlers are back in action in time.
What do you think? Drop your thoughts below!
