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 are your predictions for the 2024 Slammy Awards? (Find the full list of nominees here)
- Female Superstar = Rhea Ripley
- Male Superstar = Cody Rhodes
- Best Entrance = Cody Rhodes or Seth Rollins; not sure about that one
- Return of the Year = CM Punk
- Faction of the Year = The Judgment Day
- Rivalry of the Year = Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes
- NXT Superstar of the Year = Carmelo Hayes
- Match of the Year = San Juan Street Fight
- OMG Moment = CM Punk returns
- Social Star = Liv Morgan (I can see her stans coming out in droves) or Logan Paul (depending on if he promotes it)
- Breakout Superstar = It’s gotta be either Jey Uso or LA Knight. I lean more toward Knight at this particular moment.
2) Is SmackDown the best fit for Jade Cargill, or should she have gone to Raw or even NXT?
Ultimately, I think what matters more is how the next WWE Draft is going to play out. It might seem like a good or bad fit now for someone to be on either roster, only to have the whole division turned upside down and be a different scenario after that.
My gut tells me she’s not sticking on SmackDown, but she’s going to be temporarily there to set up a 3-on-3 Bianca Belair, Naomi and Cargill against Asuka, Kairi Sane and Dakota Kai match for WrestleMania. Once that six-woman tag is out of the way, then I think we’ll see Jade be drafted over to Raw.
But will the landscape be that she’s positioned opposite a champion like Rhea Ripley or Becky Lynch? Or will she be the go-to option to dethrone Bayley instead? The latter could certainly work, but the former two ideas would draw more attention, I feel. Then again, if Charlotte Flair is back in action and on SmackDown, that’ll be Jade’s big feud for a while without being in the title hunt.
Overall, I think she’ll be a better fit for Raw. But for now, SmackDown will suit her just fine.
3) Last call for the tag teams to be added to WrestleMania. New Catch Republic or Legado del Fantasma? A-Town Down Under or The Street Profits?
I fully expect New Catch Republic and A-Town Down Under to win. Austin Theory and Grayson Waller will only beat Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford due to some sort of interference on behalf of The Final Testament as payback for The Street Profits beating AOP last week. New Catch Republic will either win outright clean, or they’ll take advantage of some distraction from the Latino World Order, since they’re still feuding with LDF.
Any other scenario than those two teams coming out on top will shock me.
4) Toss a prediction out there super early. Who will take the titles off our new champions in AEW and beat Kazuchika Okada for the Continental Championship as well as who will beat Adam Copeland for the TNT Championship?
I’ll go Jay White for the TNT title, but I’m not 100% confident in that, to be honest. It just seems like eventually, they’ll have to give that guy a singles belt. The open challenge thing will either result in a lot of one-off matches where only a few of the contenders will seem like viable threats, like a Daniel Garcia or a Powerhouse Hobbs, but once Bullet Club Gold gets Juice Robinson back and moves on from the trios titles, I think White is in Copeland’s future.
Okada I expect to keep retaining his title until well into the year. The first time I’m going to consider it in danger will be whenever Kenny Omega comes back into the fold. Up until that point, I’ll be fully anticipating Okada coming out on top, even against some big names like if he has a feud with Orange Cassidy or Chris Jericho or Jon Moxley. Omega is definitely my prediction from out of the gate.
5) Have you settled on your WrestleMania plans? Do you have any yearly traditions?
I miss the days when I used to gather a whole bunch of friends around, order lots of food, set up a white board with our predictions and really sink into it as a fan. These days, I’m in another state from everyone, and with people having kids and whatnot, it’s too hard to get that going like the old days. Instead, I just expect to barely sleep that whole week, work myself into oblivion and hopefully end the weekend happy about the shows (particularly Cody beating Roman). I’ll at least still be getting pizza, that’s for sure.
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Let us know your thoughts about these questions by answering them in the comments!