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) Survivor Series has finally been announced for later this year, but without any mention of WarGames. Do you think that match should return, or should Survivor Series revert back to the traditional elimination matches, or something else? Should the Raw vs. SmackDown competition continue, or should there be a different focus?
Survivor Series used to work really well as the one time a year you’d see certain people team up in multi-wrestler matches. Then, that became the norm so much on television that it lost its edge. We see six-man tags and such all the time. But when the brand split happened and they could do Raw vs. SmackDown, they figured out the simplest, easiest formula that made the most sense: men’s elimination match, women’s elimination match, and champion vs champion showcases.
This hybrid of Bragging Rights and Night of Champions in a sense works so extremely well that there are only three flaws to the system. One is that they need to make sure the champions align in an interesting enough way (and that you don’t get Brock Lesnar vs. Jinder Mahal which almost happened). Two is that WWE hasn’t ever bothered to give any meaning to any of it, as the winning brand gets nothing in return. Three is that without general managers running Raw and SmackDown, there’s no sense of who is competing against who.
WarGames has the same problem as Hell in a Cell, TLC and the other feud-based gimmick match pay-per-views. Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber and Money in the Bank work because it just gets to that time of the year and nobody needs to have a personal feud for it to justify those gimmicks. WarGames should only happen when there’s a logical 4 or 5 person unit with a set of enemies—like The Elite vs. Blackpool Combat Club going on right now with Blood & Guts. To just do that every November will mean WWE will have the same problem as Hell in a Cell, when they’d just manufacture that “this feud I guess is good enough to have the cage match” because it simply was that time of the year, and that diluted it.
Cut WarGames from Survivor Series. Go back to the elimination matches. Put something on the line (like the winning brand gets assured that someone on that show would have the #30 Royal Rumble spot or even just say “they’ll all get pay raises and that’s why they want to win”) and go back to the brand warfare angle. Save WarGames for when you’ve got two factions going against each other and you can make that the selling point of a premium live event that needs some extra pizazz.
2) Speaking of Blood & Guts, who do you think the two mystery partners will be for BCC and The Elite?
It has to be Kota Ibushi for The Elite’s side. If they can’t get him, the only other person that would make any sense to me right now is Mark Briscoe, as he’ll be fighting Claudio Castagnoli for the Ring of Honor World Championship at Death Before Dishonor. But that’s a big drop in comparison to getting Ibushi, so Briscoe should only be the backup option if it is necessary, and not their actual goal.
On the BCC side, it’s a shame it isn’t just Bryan Danielson. I doubt there were any plans whatosever to have a mystery teammate on that side and the injury just got in the way. That forces AEW to have to improvise fast. Chris Jericho could work as he’s a big star and someone who’s competed in these matches before. It’s not the most out there and interesting idea, but it’s the easy call to make and maybe the best option as far as logic. However, I’d be lying if I said that’s my favorite option. I’d rather see Will Ospreay in it, or maybe someone fresh and new brought into the mix, be it Chris Hero or someone that I couldn’t see coming from a mile away.
3) How do you think and/or want AEW’s blind tag team tournament to finish playing out?
I just assume the winning team won’t beat FTR for the tag titles, so I’m booking with that in mind. Darby Allin and Orange Cassidy have other things they should be focused on, so I’d go with Sammy Guevara and Daniel Garcia beating them. While I think both Guevara and Garcia should do something else, too, it seems like AEW is just pivoting from that Jericho/Guevara feud for the time being.
Brian Cage and Big Bill is an interesting combination, but if they just go up against Dax and Cash and lose, then what? Unless Big Bill joined The Mogul Embassy (in which case, I don’t even think anything noteworthy would happen there, as they don’t need him in their lineup), that means Adam Cole and MJF winning is the smarter play as that’s more interesting to watch their dynamic unfold.
Overall, Cole and MJF winning this, getting a tag title shot and falling short of winning the belts before fighting for the AEW World Championship is the most streamlined concept I’d imagine they have for the tournament, so I’d go with that.
I like these types of gimmicks. WWE should do something similar with the strange bedfellows booking.
4) If you were on the WWE Creative team, what would you do to push LA Knight? Or do you think he’s not worth investing in building up?
Money in the Bank is gone. Unless you want to have Knight challenge Priest for the briefcase and effectively undo that decision (which I think would be a mistake), you have to move past it.
Realistically, Knight isn’t winning one of the world titles any time soon. That would derail WWE’s plans. We know they aren’t deviating from the Roman Reigns record books in particular. If your answer is “I’d have Knight challenge Reigns and beat him”, you’re looking for a scorched earth idea and it just isn’t realistic.
But what is realistic, and easy to pull off, is to have Knight become the next challenger for the United States Championship and have him beat Austin Theory at SummerSlam.
There are enough weeks that this can just start with a backstage confrontation or Knight wins a No. 1 contender’s match or anything of the sort. All they have to do is get put in the same environment and start feuding, and you’ve got your push. Knight wins the title, straight-up. Babyface turn. Then, he’s paired off to feud with other people on the blue brand like Karrion Kross, he can beat some low-level talent like Hit Row and all, and then eventually either drop the belt to Solo Sikoa or my personal preference, Grayson Waller.
5) If Shawn Michaels is Mr. WrestleMania, who is Mr. SummerSlam?
My first thought goes to Brock Lesnar. He’s had some huge moments at that event against people like John Cena and Roman Reigns, is regularly featured as a go-to draw to bring in for it without missing many (in the grand scheme) and has a better win-loss record than some others.
John Cena’s another candidate, but wouldn’t be my choice. Bret Hart being someone’s pick would work for me, too, as he has a handful of key spots in that history. I don’t think Davey Boy Smith’s one main event victory trumps everything else, but in a lot of people’s eyes, that is the quintessential SummerSlam moment. Edge has a great overall SummerSlam record and some major moments, Seth Rollins has more wins than losses, etc. I could see an argument for either of them.
Let us know your thoughts about these questions by answering them in the comments!
