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) What was the biggest surprise for the most recent set of releases from NXT?
Even though I was shocked about a number of them (Ari Sterling and Asher Hale for how recently they were signed, Leon Ruff for being a North American champion, Tyler Rust for being in Diamond Mine, Giant Zanjeer for just recently popping up on Superstar Spectacle, Jake Atlas has been regularly utilized and Mercedes Martinez is great) Bronson Reed was easily the biggest surprise for me.
It bugs me that we aren’t getting any information about why these releases are happening other than this generic “budget cuts” excuse. Even more so, it bugs me why THESE releases are happening, in the sense that there’s no explanation about why certain people fall onto the chopping block and others don’t.
Reed was used practically every week. They gave him the North American Championship. He had tryouts to join the main roster. So why release him? Was he on some sort of crazy big price tag deal? I doubt it. Do you really see him as not being worth the time and effort to keep, even though you valued him more than others?
My guess is Vince McMahon and some others pay such little attention to NXT and let Triple H do his thing. However, when there was the tryout situation, they looked at Reed, said “he’s not good enough, no matter what Paul thinks” and just outright let him go as a power move or something.
Nobody knows what the hell is going on, but Reed completely shocked me. It’s all that more of an example that nobody is safe, which is scary.
2) Who do you think will be the first person out of the most recent releases who gets signed to AEW, if any? If nobody, why do you think none of them will go to AEW?
You’d think I would go with Reed, since I put him as the guy above the rest that shocked me WWE would let go. On the contrary, while I wouldn’t be floored if that were to happen, I think some others may have more of an in there and may be even more flexible, while Reed could go to New Japan or elsewhere. Hell, that guy could be Impact’s world champion today and it wouldn’t surprise me.
My guess actually goes to Mercedes Martinez. She was already on AEW’s radar in the past and they not only need more women, but she’s a great veteran who can provide an experienced ear to teach the younger ones. Basically, if she’s brought on board, she’s someone to fill the ranks and a great resource as a trainer.
If not her, I think Jake Atlas or Ari Sterling will pop up on AEW Dark or AEW Dark Elevation. Leon Ruff’s another solid pick for that, too. Tyler Rust wouldn’t surprise me, but I have a random feeling he’ll be elsewhere before some others show up in AEW, and then, might eventually pop up, too, later down the line.
3) Adam Cole and Pete Dunne have expiring contracts. Where do you think they will ultimately end up? Will they stay in NXT, go to Raw or SmackDown, or go to another company altogether?
Supposedly, Cole’s had some meetings about joining the main roster. I do think he’s ultimately going to stay in the WWE family and that his time on NXT is done, as there’s nothing left for him to do there. My guess is he goes to SmackDown, rather than Raw, since the red brand has Karrion Kross.
Dunne is someone I can imagine Triple H fighting for with more fervor than some of the other releases. Unlike Cole, though, I think he still does have more to offer to NXT. He’s been NXT UK champion, but not NXT champion. Maybe he stays on the black and gold brand as one of the bigger fish in the smaller pond so they don’t entirely lose out on their star power. If not, I could see him going to Monday Night Raw and being in the midcard echelon there (at least for now). I do think he re-signs with WWE, rather than taking his exit.
4) What are you hoping for in terms of the debut of AEW Rampage?
If I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t think AEW needs another show at all. Part of the problem with WWE is that there are too many hours to fill and it makes everything stretched out. The more content each week, the less it all matters, since it’s not just the best stuff being put on television. There’s already two shows of Dark that feel like they go on for 20 hours some weeks, as well as Being the Elite on YouTube, two hours of Dynamite and now another hour of Rampage? I just imagine it’s going to be overkill, so I’d rather it not even exist.
However, it does. So what do I want for Rampage? I want it to be different without feeling like it’s different for the sake of it.
By that, I mean that I don’t want it to just be another hour of AEW television on par with Dynamite where it feels like a third hour transported to another evening. On the flip side, I don’t want it to feel like it’s some competition show with a weird points system or the lighting is ridiculously odd or the booking is all over the place.
The original NXT was a competition show, for example. I don’t want anything like that. While that had some fun moments, it was also pretty stupid overall. Don’t give me “different because it’s fresh”, give me “fresh because it’s not just more of the same.”
I don’t expect it to be anything but another hour of Dynamite on a different night, though. And if that’s the case, after this first episode, I’ll likely be less enthusiastic about checking it out every night after going through 2 hours of SmackDown and simultaneously watching 205 Live. There’s too much wrestling and not enough of it is good enough to justify spending this many hours each week on it just for the 2 main companies. We have to be selective about our viewing habits sometimes.
5) Reports say there are changes coming to NXT. What do you hope and/or think this new direction will be?
I think Vince McMahon’s grown tired of NXT. They lost the so-called “ratings war” with AEW, and I can’t help but to imagine Vince almost immediately looked at NXT as a failure, then. That could be why we didn’t see NXT as part of Survivor Series last year, even more so than the pandemic. I think Vince wrote off the brand in his mind months ago and the idea now will be to downplay it as a brand in and of itself similar to Raw and SmackDown, and more so just treat it like it’s a glorified Main Event or Superstars program.
What I want and I’m hoping for, though, is that they’re going to be focusing more on characters and less on just pure wrestling talent. Obviously, I want people who can put on great matches, but I think the character aspect has definitely been missing. As great as someone like Asher Hale or Ari Sterling might be, I can’t tell you a damn thing about them because they were just wrestlers doing wrestling moves. If other people can do those moves and actually have more bombastic personalities, then I’ll remember them. I’m hoping the philosophy is less “fuck NXT” and more “let’s try to keep in mind that generic wrestlers probably don’t draw.”
Let us know your thoughts about these questions by answering them in the comments!
