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) Now that we know the men and women hoping to qualify for the Elimination Chamber spots, who do you think will be the remaining Superstars to compete in those 2 matches?
- Women = Tiffany Stratton beats Shotzi, Naomi beats Zelina Vega, Liv Morgan beats Zoey Stark, and the remainder seemingly is Jade Cargill
- Men = Bronson Reed beats Bobby Lashley, LA Knight beats Ivar, Kevin Owens beats Dominik Mysterio, Logan Paul beats The Miz
2) Mercedes Mone, Kazuchika Okada, seemingly Kamille…after Deonna Purrazzo and so many others joined AEW, why do you think WWE is losing out on these talents? Low ball offers? Not enough actual interest in signing them? Other reasons?
I think it’s a combination of factors that ultimately come down to one underlying reason: WWE thinks it is so big that no name is worth fussing over. If they can get them, sure, but they’re so focused on numbers that they have a low amount that they’re willing to risk to sign someone and invest in them, compared to how much they think not having them will cause them a headache.
For instance, Mercedes was probably asking for a lot of money that WWE didn’t think she’s worth. They offered her a lower amount and went back and forth, but at the end of the day, weren’t willing to match her hopeful amount.
Meanwhile, I think Tony Khan is spending a TON of money to bring people in just so he can effectively have those action figures to play with, even if he doesn’t necessarily have any ironed out plans for them. Just look at how many people have come into AEW and been a big deal for 2 months before fizzling out quickly and becoming sidelined. They’re seemingly all making really good money.
When you factor in a big contract with an inflated ego pitch AND you don’t have to work that often, it’s hard to turn that down when WWE is saying “That’s our offer. Take it, or leave it. We don’t really think you going to the competition is going to get in the way of our success.”
It’s a shame, as I’d like to see WWE bring in these people. I want Okada against Gunther way more than I want Okada to just wrestle Kenny Omega another dozen times, for instance. But until WWE feels like they have to pick these people up, and as long as they’re doing record numbers without them, I think they’re firmly in the “WWE as a brand is the draw and not the wrestlers” mentality they’ve had for some time, while Tony Khan’s approach is very much “I’ll give you whatever you want if you join our team and not theirs.”
3) With Scott D’Amore being fired from TNA Wrestling, do you think that will be better/worse/no difference when it comes to Impact going forward? Also, where do you think he might pop up next or would like to see him go?
As an outsider (in the sense that I don’t watch TNA and haven’t for years), it seems like he did a good job steering the ship, all things considered. Somehow, he kept that company afloat when it was so obviously sinking.
Assuming there isn’t anything else to this that would be problematic, I think a place like NWA could definitely use his help. He could potentially draw some of the TNA talent into NWA through loyalty and use his experience to help tweak aspects of the shows that aren’t working all that well.
AEW could hire him, too, sure. WWE doesn’t stand out to me like much of an option. However, Jeremy Borash is a perfect example of not counting that idea out.
But regardless of where D’Amore ends up, that’s not going to influence my habits with TNA. I still don’t plan on watching. Too much wrestling as it is.
4) WWE Speed has been clarified as coming to Twitter/X. Will you be watching? Do you have any interest in 5 minute matches on that platform?
It sounds so rough to say “probably not”, but I’m being realistic. Look at how WWE has treated these shows in the past. Tell me that you really think it’s going to be more than what Main Event and Superstars and 205 Live and such were.
Here’s how I imagine things will go down, based off history’s examples.
The first few weeks of this, WWE will put on matches that involve Superstars people care to see. You’ll have things like AJ Styles against Carlito or whatever. It still don’t feature anything absolutely huge, like the United States Championship being defended or anything, but they’ll try to put at least one semi-major name in there.
By week 5 or 6, they’ll have already downgraded to using people who are lower on the totem pole. We’ll see matches with Ashante “Thee” Adonis against someone like Myles Borne from NXT. Things that will give people something to do, but not distract anything whatsoever from the writing of the show that anyone actually cares about.
If there’s a championship involved, I’ll check it out. Even though the WWE Speed Championship sounds lame. But by then, at least I’ll be invested in a potential title change, since it’s only 5 minutes.
However, I’ll also say that when and how they tape and air this could be a big factor, too. If they record it a few minutes before SmackDown and air it at 7:55pm, I’m more likely to check it out by just having that channel on. On the other hand, if they tape multiple episodes in advance and we get spoilers, I’m not going to feel any need to watch them. I’ll take those 5 minutes to go do something else.
5) What are your overall impressions and thoughts about WWE’s press conference for the WrestleMania XL Kickoff?
It was a bit of a mess at some spots, but I felt way more excited about that than I thought I would be.
Some of the parts were odd. Bianca Belair coming out to effectively say she has nothing going on for WrestleMania, but whatever, didn’t hit for me. And yes, I know she’s there to promote her reality show and being on the 2K cover and to be a great PR person. But as far as that segment, it was weird as this was a WrestleMania dedicated thing.
Becky Lynch and Rhea Ripley really spoils that Elimination Chamber even more than it had already been, right?
All the stuff with Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, The Rock and Roman Reigns was so close to being awesome, but missing a few elements for me. If I’m going to nitpick, I’d ask why there was no explanation for what happened on SmackDown, why they didn’t go with the “wrestling has more than one royal family” line after a perfect setup, and what in the hell Rollins is going to do other than stand there and look like an idiot when everyone badmouths him as irrelevant.
But generally speaking, I’m so glad they went with Cody challenging Roman, it gives me more hope the right decision will be made as far as Rhodes beating Reigns to win the title in the main event of night 2, and I’m curious where they go from here. Teasing The Rock and Triple H getting involved has me coming up with a lot of predictive fantasy booking ideas of where this is going, that’s for sure.
Let us know your thoughts about these questions by answering them in the comments!
