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) Who do you think will be in the final 4 and then, ultimately win the battle royal to crown Lyra Valkyria’s next challenger for NXT Vengeance Day?
It’s strange to me that 18 out of the 20 women are on the graphic, but there are more than 2 women who could fill in those spots. Maybe it’ll just be more than 20 when they toss in women like Dani Palmer. But one noticeable absence from the original graphic is Tiffany Stratton. Considering this is a pay-per-view, rather than just a television episode, I think they’ll have to go with as big of a name as they can get. However, they also have NXT Stand & Deliver coming up soon after, so they might not want to use the biggest name possible.
Lola Vice’s contract and continued feud with Valkyria poses an interesting concept, too. How and when are they pulling the trigger on that?
I’m starting to wonder if Elektra Lopez will win this and they’ll have a Triple Threat at Vengeance Day with her, Vice and Valkyria, while Tatum Paxley will end up getting involved to help Lyra retain. The final four for this match being Paxley, Vice, Lopez and a babyface like Fallon Henley or Gigi Dolin or someone.
Ultimately, I think Cora Jade is winning the title at S&D, and that there’s a chance Roxanne Perez is even tossed into that for star power purposes, but I don’t think either of those two will get this title opportunity.
For now, I’m saying Lopez ultimately wins this, Vice opts in for the match as well, and we get a Triple Threat or Fatal 4-Way somehow.
2) It appears The Young Bucks will face Sting and Darby Allin at Revolution in Sting’s retirement match. Do you think they’re the right opponents for the job?
Given the circumstances, I guess it’s about as good of an option as possible.
Sting wrestling only in tag team bouts isn’t exactly how I would have wanted his career to go down in the first place. I understand the limitations, though. And if he doesn’t have it in him to wrestle a true singles match—wherein he should face Darby Allin—then sure, Young Bucks are the figurehead tag team of this company.
It makes way more sense to me to do this than for Sting to retire fighting Top Flight or The Gates of Agony or some of the other options.
To be honest, since I’ve never enjoyed TNA at all for the most part, and Sting’s WWE run was so bad, and his AEW run wasn’t stellar outside of a few moments here and there, I still somewhat picture Sting’s retirement as the final episode of WCW Nitro, much in the same way that if someone mentions Ric Flair retiring, I think of Shawn Michaels superkicking him at WrestleMania 24, rather than anything he’s done since then.
3) Where do you stand on Tony Khan complaining on Twitter about Jinder Mahal getting a title shot, the response over Hook’s challenge to Samoa Joe, and Eric Bischoff’s reaction to Khan?
I get where Tony Khan is coming from, but dude…shush. For your sake.
People upset over Hook and not upset over Jinder Mahal? I’m pretty sure if anyone thought Mahal stood a legit chance to win that title, people WOULD be upset. And everyone knows Hook isn’t beating Samoa Joe, either.
Relax. Not everyone is as into spreadsheets and numbers as you are. That’s something that Khan needs to wake up and realize, because it’s really starting to take a toll on the product. As a fan, I’m more concerned with enjoying the entertainment you’re providing me with. Telling me that a show is successful and that I should like it because of the gate numbers or the ratings points, or saying I should care about a wrestler because they’ve won X amount of matches, rather than having a legitimately interesting presentation (character, mic, and in-ring) is why I can’t get into things like Ring of Honor.
But even with all that said, what good does it do to complain about it on Twitter? It just makes Tony Khan come off like a whining child. There are much better ways to phrase this. Even something like “If you want to see a real underdog who actually deserves a title shot, check out what Hook has in store for Samoa Joe”. That’s a dig without effectively sniffling and going “But WWE is doing it!!”
Mahal’s “who tf is Hook?” tweet was a bit unnecessary, if he actually knows who he is. No need to bury Hook. He’s done nothing wrong here.
Bischoff commenting on it with the clown emoji made me laugh. Khan’s response didn’t land as well for me as it did other people. I actually think Bischoff’s retort with the “groundbreaking” graphic was the best response out there that put an end to the whole thing.
I want Tony Khan to be better at this sort of thing. He’s embarrassing himself for nothing. I get that he’s passionate, and I appreciate that, but while that passion was originally creating some nice alternative programming, the past 2 years have been more like watching someone’s WWE 2K fantasy booking pro wrestling league.
4) While none have been 100% confirmed, what are your thoughts on the new faction names speculated this week: Twinkle Twins (Katana Chance and Kayden Carter), The Pride (Bobby Lashley and The Street Profits), Final Testament (Karrion Kross and AOP)?
Twinkle Twins is absolutely horrendous. YIKES. I really hope that’s just a random insult and not the actual team name they’re going with. At one point, they were called The Life of the Party, and I’ve long been critical of this whole gimmick, as KC and KC don’t have the charisma to pull off that type of character. But that was still a better name than Twinkle Twins, which sounds like a Nickelodeon cartoon.
The Pride…eh. It could grow on me, but it’s going to take time. Frankly, if this isn’t going to be a particularly long-term thing, The Almighty Prophets could have just worked fine enough for the meantime. How do you really trademark “The Pride” in a way that becomes synonymous with you? Something like The Hart Foundation, D-Generation X, Bullet Club, Blackpool Combat Club, even Right to Censor all are more memorable and better faction names than The Pinnacle, The Shield, The Bloodline, etc.
Final Testament is fine. It’s a little on the nose and generic, “cool-sounding” for me, but it could be way worse. I’ve seen some really bad suggestions out there
5) What do you think of TNA Wrestling’s new championship title belt designs?
By and large, I like them a lot. My only real issue is that I’ve never liked the TNA logo, so having that in the center—especially in red—throws off the design and makes it look like a toy to me.
But I’m also an irregularity in that I love the current WWE Championship design. It’s become on par, if not above, the Winged Eagle, for my favorite title belt (#3 being the Intercontinental Championship design we had prior to the current one). So while I love the WWE logo being in the center of that, the TNA logo doesn’t do it for me because I’m not a big fan of that logo.
I will say, though, that I loooooooooooove the Digital Media Championship design. If they had a different centerpiece to it instead of the TNA logo, it would be one of my absolute favorite belts, for sure. The actual plate shape (not too round, not too angular and sharp, the right type of width) is among my favorites I’ve ever seen, and the detailing with the circuit board design is so good. It makes me almost like the idea of the Digital Media Championship!
Let us know your thoughts about these questions by answering them in the comments!
