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) As of right now, none of the matches announced for Extreme Rules have any gimmicks or stipulations to them. Why do you think that’s the case? Do you think WWE will add them this week? If so, what do you think will be changed?
WWE hasn’t done anything at all to even hint at any stipulations for these matches, meaning it’s not as though this has been a slow burn. My guess is they care so little that they looked at it as another “we’ll figure it out later” scenario, forgot about it, and they’ve run out of time.
My bet is that they realize this either right before Raw or afterward. Then, they cram in some shoehorned excuses for gimmicks at the last minute, or they do the even worse thing and announce it throughout the week on social media. They love to give things to the Twitter teams and The Bump and such to announce, even at the expense of people not hearing about it and not getting excited.
Since Jeff Hardy has a chance to get in the United States title match to make that a Triple Threat, I guess that takes care of one.
Liv Morgan vs. Carmella could be inside a steel cage if they want to go with the “Carmella can’t run” thing, but that might be reading too much into it. It’s probably just No DQ.
Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss should have something, but I bet they’ll just have it as another No DQ with a gimmicky name (like a Playground Battleground Match).
I really hope they don’t think Finn Balor wearing face paint constitutes a gimmick match.
2) Do you feel WWE is already exposing Finn Balor that won’t win the Universal Championship by looking ahead to Brock Lesnar? Does Big E saying he’d fight Roman Reigns at Survivor Series expose Lesnar will lose, too? Or do you think this is just WWE putting it out there for long-term storytelling and it’s up to the fans to play dumb?
This is absolutely spoiling it for anyone paying any attention, but I’m not going to act like it’s the biggest thing in the world. There are far bigger issues going on in WWE than this.
In an ideal world, every single match—no matter whether it’s for at title on a major pay-per-view or two random people on TV—should matter. Best case scenario, fans legitimately think Balor has a chance, Reigns vs. Lesnar would be non-title since Balor would be champion, and so on.
I feel this is somewhat indicative of WWE being impatient with the things they care about and careless with the things they don’t. They don’t actually give much value to Extreme Rules, nor Balor, so they just want to skip straight to Lesnar vs. Reigns. Crown Jewel means more to them solely because of that match. I’d bet in their minds, Extreme Rules is “extra” and fans should be okay with just imagining “the match will be good and that’s good enough.” Meanwhile, Lesnar is the real draw.
The Survivor Series thing could be a matter of WWE actually thinking ahead and planting some seeds. Maybe someone on WWE Creative woke up and realized how that will be the case and figured they could capitalize on having Big E’s title buzzed about in that regard so when they come back around to it, people are excited.
3) Between everything scheduled for AEW Grand Slam from Dynamite and Rampage, which three things are you most excited for? (ie, what’s your gold medal, silver medal and bronze medal picks)
Bronze Medal = Superkliq vs. Christian Cage and Jurassic Express. I just imagine this is going to be a killer match.
Silver Medal = Minoru Suzuki and Lance Archer vs. Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston. Since this is a Lights Out Match, I’m expecting some brutality. Here’s hoping it’s equal parts safe and simultaneously not anywhere close to the finish of the Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match.
Gold Medal = Kenny Omega vs. Bryan Danielson. Obviously, this is a dream match that has been on the list for years. Even with it being non-title, it should still give us everything we were hoping for.
Every match has something going for it between these two cards, so I’m excited for both shows. They’re going to be great.
4) Who or what do you think was the best standout part of the first episode of this NXT 2.0 era?
Outside of the set and paint splatter stuff making me think this is more akin to Nickelodeon Double Dare or Wild & Crazy Kids mixed with the WTN sound stage from No Holds Barred—a vibe I do not like for NXT going forward—I’d say the biggest standout was Bron Breakker.
In one way, it was bad. The name is awful, particularly as they could have gone with Rex Steiner, which is fundamentally as perfect as possible. But in another way, he seemed like a star with a lot of potential. Going with him to win a kickoff match against LA Knight and stare down the champion to end the show is as big of an indicator as you can get that they see something in him.
By the end of the night, I was left thinking he could potentially be the next champion and I don’t know almost a damn thing about him. That’s saying a lot.
5) Do you think Roderick Strong will win the Cruiserweight Championship from Kushida?
100% absolutely. Not only is WWE in a “change, even if just for the sake of change” period right now, especially with NXT, but it seemed this would have been the case regardless. Strong’s been positioned rather well, Kushida’s had the title long enough and this title is what will make Diamond Mine more legitimate.
By hook or by crook—and I’m honestly assuming it’ll be clean—Strong wins the title. I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t.
Let us know your thoughts about these questions by answering them in the comments!
