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) Jay White lost his Loser Leaves Japan match at NJPW New Beginning in Osaka. Where do you think he will go next?
My heart wants to see him in WWE. Ultimately, when push comes to shove, I’d rather see more people in that company overall than AEW. Plus, there are a lot of Superstars I want to see him lock horns with, and I think his character could be a bigger deal there.
But my brain tells me AEW. More of his friends (seemingly) are working for that company. AEW already has a working relationship with New Japan to make that easier if he ever wanted to do a guest spot here and there or carry on his feuds. He’s much more accustomed to that in-ring style than learning the WWE methodology. And, after all, he WOULD be a bigger fish in a smaller pond in AEW, despite how there have been bloated roster issues going on in All Elite Wrestling for the past year.
Prediction? AEW. Preference? WWE.
2) Santos Escobar may have turned babyface after SmackDown, based on this digital exclusive video. Good call? Bad direction? How do you feel about it?
I love it. Escobar quickly became one of my favorites in NXT once he arrived. Legado del Fantasma is awesome and I think that stable is incredibly underrated for its potential.
Not only does this open up feuds with Imperium as well as The Judgment Day, but it means a fresh roster of singles opponents for Escobar in particular, and something different for Zelina Vega. When was the last time she was anywhere close to a babyface?
Sign me up. I wish they would have aired this on television, but obviously, there wasn’t enough time left on the show for that.
3) Do you think any more matches will be added to the Elimination Chamber card? If so, what?
Those two Elimination Chamber matches are going to make up the bulk of the card. While they won’t be as long as the Royal Rumble bouts, we can assume they’ll be within that 20-35 minute range. Adding in how long the Roman Reigns vs. Sami Zayn segment will go, there isn’t a ton of other room for the rest of the matches.
Technically, Bobby Lashley vs. Brock Lesnar isn’t official, so that counts as them adding another match to the lineup. But since we all just assume that is a given, I’m not treating it the same.
The way I see it, there are 5 matches on the card (2 cage matches, Reigns/Zayn, Lashley/Lesnar and the mixed tag team match). I do think there will be at least one other match, if not two more. But we can count out The Usos defending their tag titles, Gunther’s already set to fight Madcap Moss on SmackDown instead of here, and I highly doubt the Raw or SmackDown Women’s Championships will be defended (as Charlotte Flair against Sonya Deville AGAIN would be superfluous)
I do still think there’s a chance Roman Reigns sics Solo Sikoa on Cody Rhodes to set up a match between those two.
But even more so, I think we’re getting Becky Lynch and Lita (and possibly Trish Stratus) against Damage CTRL. Trish coming back for a Montreal event makes a lot of sense.
4) The Gunns defeated The Acclaimed for the AEW tag titles this past episode of Dynamite. Looking ahead, who do you think will be the next champions to dethrone Austin and Colten?
I’m not entirely sold on The Gunns as tag team champions, but I’m not opposed to it, either. In any fashion, I don’t expect them to hold the belts long.
Whether that means The Acclaimed win them back, or—in my mind, more likely—this is a transitional reign before another duo takes the titles, I do think we’re getting babyfaces as the next champions, rather than for The Gunns to hold them long enough to turn face on their own.
With the current crop of teams, the two that stand out to me the most are Top Flight and FTR. I would have said Junglehook if Jack Perry hadn’t specifically said recently that he doesn’t want to go down the tag team division route again.
Dante Martin has been consistently pushed as someone to keep an eye on. Darius Martin’s injuries have put their tag team on hold numerous times, but while he’s active, Top Flight is treated like a star team. They just lost a bid at the trios titles alongside AR Fox, which rules them out of those belts for quite some time, I believe. Maybe it was set up that way to gauge the reaction of the crowd to see if they’d be behind Top Flight holding gold.
FTR could very well return and get revenge on The Gunns. That makes a lot of sense. But I do feel like they could be WWE-bound. Private Party has a shot, too. I don’t want to entirely rule them out. The same goes for Dark Order, if they want to go with finally giving some notoriety to John Silver and Alex Reynolds. But I think they’re more likely to get a transitional reign of their own in similar fashion, rather than to be the next in line at this moment.
5) Toxic Attraction has officially broken up after Jacy Jayne turned on Gigi Dolin. Are you excited to see them feud, or do you think they should have remained a team?
Having one match at NXT Stand & Deliver (or worse, dragging this out to be some 3 month feud or something) is definitely not worth splitting up this team. WWE has so few women’s tag teams as it is. They were a good pair who could have come up to the main roster, won those tag titles, and been taken seriously as an act for that division. Now, they’re going to split the difference and end up with two singles stars who aren’t going to be the top priority no matter which brand they end up after WrestleMania.
This gives me vibes of the old regime, where tag teams were mostly put together just so they could split up more than anything else. Plus, it seems like they just gave up on the team once Mandy Rose was gone, instead of either introducing another member or letting Dolin and Jayne exist on their own.
Thumbs down, in my opinion. I think we’ll look back on this as a mistake when Dolin and Jayne find themselves unable to survive on their own right now and either reform their team or start teaming with other random partners.
Let us know your thoughts about these questions by answering them in the comments!
