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 any other matches or segments will be added to the Elimination Chamber card? If so, what?
It all depends on how long the Grayson Waller Effect segment is planned for. Right now, there are 4 matches and that promo. It sounds like it could use something else, especially since the Elimination Chamber matches aren’t going to be as long as the Royal Rumble is.
However, with the SmackDown spoilers out there not announcing anything else, I’d imagine this is all WWE has planned. If there were a segment to indicate Bayley and Dakota Kai would be fighting The Kabuki Warriors, for instance, then that might have made sense. The Pride against The Final Testament is pretty much off limits with Bobby Lashley in the chamber match. Gunther can’t travel, Roman’s not wrestling, nor is The Rock.
No one left off the card seems like they would serve any real purpose to be added other than if they wanted to give Bronson Reed a match just for the sake of having him on the lineup. I still think that’s a mistake, not having him perform. Maybe he gets thrown a match against someone like Jey Uso, Ricochet, Sami Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura or someone else on Raw that isn’t already busy.
2) Who do you think will get the last remaining spot in the women’s Elimination Chamber match with the last chance battle royal?
I’m anticipating Jade Cargill. As it stands, they seem to be indicating it isn’t just the losers of the qualifying matches who are competing, but that they are five who automatically got put into the battle royal. For those wondering, those are Shayna Baszler, Michin, Alba Fyre, Zelina Vega and Zoey Stark.
But with Jade Cargill NOT being confirmed to sign with SmackDown, while Bron Breakker was, I think that means she’s likely going to Raw, and that she’ll pop up here.
Plenty other people will, too. Chelsea Green and Piper Niven will compete, Natalya, Tegan Nox, so on and so forth. I just think the big battle royal in and of itself was created to allow Jade to win it and not book her in a singles qualifying match just yet.
If it isn’t Jade, I’m leaning toward a returning Raquel Rodriguez winning the spot.
3) The way The Rock had an L instead of the traditional Bloodline finger salute, and supposedly “pointed at Roman Reigns”…anything to this conspiracy theory about it being foreshadowing? Or is this just bogus tin-foil hat nonsense?
I would love it if this is all a ruse, where Cody Rhodes knew he had to play a different game than last year, so he orchestrated a situation where he lured Roman into a false sense of security and really has The Rock by his side. Solo Sikoa and Jimmy Uso come out to interfere, Randy Orton and Jey Uso fight them off, and just as it seems like The Rock is going to do something to Cody, he turns on Roman, screws him over and Cody gets to beat Reigns while setting up Roman being pissed at The Rock for another time.
HOWEVER…
I do think people are seeing things that aren’t there. In particular, the whole pointing thing is a bit of a leap for me. The angle of the shot is very interesting, and it could certainly be something we look back on and go “Ah, they were hinting at it.” But I think it’s a reach.
The L sign to indicate loser rather than to do the “we the ones” pose could have more to it. But I lean more toward The Rock probably not realizing that’s what he’s doing.
4) With the bracket out and the tournament commencing, who do you think will be in the finals and then ultimately win the ROH Women’s World Television Championship?
I’m not super heavily invested in this, but I do find it interesting what some of the names are and who is missing from the tournament.
I look at the two sides and think the finals will be Billie Starkz against Taya Valkyrie. What I can’t stress enough, though, is that I’m as casual of a viewer for ROH as can be right now. I couldn’t tell you if Red Velvet has more momentum than Leyla Hirsch, for instance. So I might be missing something very obvious.
If Tony Khan is 100% laser focused on Athena and Starkz as the two to run this division, Starkz winning the title is the most obvious outcome. But I could see a major justification to giving it to Valkyrie. She came in with some buzz, quickly fizzled out and has had to climb back up the totem pole since. Giving her this title, where Johnny TV’s girl is the women’s TV champion, makes sense to me to let her start getting back on track.
5) Darby Allin’s promo seems to be controversial this week. Some are very happy/upset over the Cody Rhodes reference. While one set of fans thought this was a great promo to tell the EVP story, others think ignoring last week’s attack was a mistake. Where do you stand?
I do think, in a way, these promos should have been reversed. There should’ve been a segment calling out The Young Bucks as “abusing their power” and all first, likely after they shoehorn themselves into getting the title shot in the first place. Basically, the match gets declared a regular match for the titles, Darby and Sting scoff at it, and then, the brawl happens.
That way, it gets turned into a tornado tag match after, making it seem like things are getting more intense as each week goes by. Now, it’s even more personal.
As far as the Rhodes reference, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. They’re trying to tell a story about Darby being a CM Punk guy and a Cody guy to offset the Jacksons as the “bad guys in charge” who now don’t have those other people to get in their way of “ruining the company.” It works.
Let us know your thoughts about these questions by answering them in the comments!
