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.
This time around, so much has happened the past few days that I’m giving you a triple dose. Part 1 will be about NXT In Your House, part 2 about the AEW World Championship scene and part 3 will focus on Hell in a Cell.
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 are your big takeaways from Cody Rhodes wrestling with a torn pec?
Multiple things. First, I don’t understand how WWE let him wrestle with a torn pec. That seems so dangerous not only for Cody, but also for Seth Rollins. Imagine if Cody was unable to properly hold him and accidentally dropped him on his head or something?
Second, if this is a legitimate injury and not a work, Rhodes is a bad ass for going through that match. He’s also an insanely good performer to pull out that great of a match while injured.
Third, I hope this means he has a lot of support backstage and with the fans. This could be a blessing in disguise where the audience can miss him again while he goes away for surgery and can come back ready to win the title without people bitching and moaning that they’re sick of him.
Fourth, I’d imagine this throws WWE’s plans out the window for Money in the Bank, at least. WWE doesn’t seem to be planning much of anything ahead of the day itself anymore, but they probably wanted Rhodes to win that ladder match. Now, they’ll be scrambling for alternative options. I’m currently hoping Sami Zayn wins it, as I think the men’s briefcase will be pointless this year and he’s the best suited to do something comedic with it and The Bloodline. More on that in a future article or two.
2) Hell in a Cell was missing several champions and some major Superstars. Did you miss not having these big names on the card, or are you okay with WWE taking this more relaxed approach to pay-per-views going forward?
I absolutely missed them. This idea that the premium live events are just regular episodes of Raw or SmackDown with one extra selling point to it is bogus. I don’t want Monday Night Raw plus a gimmick match where most things are filler like Ezekiel vs. Kevin Owens or yet another Omos and Bobby Lashley match, while three of the four world titles aren’t represented, the Intercontinental Championship is going to change hands on SmackDown, the tag title match took place on Friday night and so on.
I miss the days where WWE booked television episodes to be as good of shows as possible so fans would tune in next week, all while building up hype for a pay-per-view that would be better than anything on television. This new philosophy that it’s all just blending in together and you’ll either watch it or not is lame.
If I’m supposed to care about Ronda Rousey as champion (which I don’t), put her on the pay-per-view. I’m instantly going to care less about her against Natalya on SmackDown compared to at Hell in a Cell or Money in the Bank, and my biggest complain about Brock Lesnar holding ONE of the titles was that he wasn’t defending it enough, so why wouldn’t I be annoyed that Roman Reigns has BOTH belts and is taking all this time off with no good enough replacements to make up for it?
3) Many people were speculating online that Bray Wyatt would return here. Were you one of those people? If so, are you disappointed and sour that you got your hopes up, or are you okay with it not going down like that?
Not only was I not buying into that, I’m not exactly sure why that caught on so much to begin with. Wishful thinking, perhaps?
I’ll admit that when Rhodes was announced as injure, it started to sound more plausible that WWE might have reached out to Wyatt in the past few days, settled on something, and had him in mind for a surprise replacement, but I still thought to myself “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
No disappointment on my end. Not only was the match better than I expected it to be, particularly with the injury involved, I’m also just not the biggest fan of The Fiend. Too many bad memories of that previous Hell in a Cell match with Seth Rollins, too.
4) Lots more teases that Theory will face John Cena down the road. If that happens, when do you think is the best time for them to have that match?
Of course, not knowing what WWE has in mind for some other feuds going forward makes it hard to judge things in advance rather than in hindsight. They might have some interesting surprises in store for Money in the Bank and so on. But I’m assuming Money in the Bank will be booked wherein the ladder matches are the selling points and nothing else of note happens, SummerSlam will feature Roman Reigns defending his titles against Bobby Lashley, Riddle or Randy Orton, and we all know Clash at the Castle is Drew McIntyre against Reigns. Crown Jewel is an interesting one, as they treat those as such odd shows that sometimes have huge names on them, but I don’t think Cena will participate. Then, we have Survivor Series selling itself (so to speak) on the brand warfare (even though there practically isn’t a brand split anymore) and suddenly, we’re at Day 1 and Royal Rumble.
With that in mind, if you’re going to bring Cena onto the card as a special feature, I think the best strategy is SummerSlam. It is a stadium show, so they need to sell lots of tickets. As the second most important even of the year (arguably Royal Rumble, but that’s a debate for another time), you need an attraction beyond just “Roman hasn’t been around in a while and will finally defend the title for the first time in a few months.”
It will probably be easier for Cena to head over to Nashville for this than to fly out to Cardiff for Clash at the Castle, or Saudi Arabia for Crown Jewel, too.
Plus, who knows if Theory would be able to hold the United States title all the way to WrestleMania? Even then, we can assume The Rock is fighting Reigns. That’s already your big hook. Cena would draw more for the road to SummerSlam than any other time.
5) Going into Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown for this week, what are you most excited about, if anything?
More than anything, I just want Gunther to win the Intercontinental Championship. WWE crapped the bed with Ricochet as champion by forgetting he existed. Putting the belt on Gunther should hopefully save that belt.
I am interested, though, in hearing what they have to say about Money in the Bank qualifying matches. Are we going to get them, or will they just announce all the competitors like has happened in the past? That would be a mistake, in my mind. I’d rather see Liv Morgan vs. Rhea Ripley for a qualifier, Ezekiel against Kevin Owens fighting for a spot and so on.
Let us know your thoughts about these questions by answering them in the comments!
