Smark Out Moment

Do you have a question that you want to ask the minds over at Smark Out Moment? Our version of the WWE Inbox is the Smark Out Moment Mailbag. Once a month, we set aside some time to answer any of the questions on your mind, whether they be wrestling related, trivia to try to stump us, or just general questions to get to know Tony Mango and the other members of the team better.

Here are your submissions for this month:


Question: "Would you consider Big Show, Mark Henry, Kane and John Cena part timers?"

Answer: At the rate they've been wrestling, yeah, which is odd because just a year or two ago, none of them were. John Cena in particular is surprising to me. He's spent most of his time on the SmackDown roster MIA instead of being the face of the brand.

Question: "Who is the one to break New Days record and do they break Demolitions other record with there 3 reigns total 698 vs. New Day 2 534+?"

Answer: I don't think The New Day's record will be broken, at least for another ten years or so down the line. As far as the secondary record of title reign length, that's actually somewhat possible, but I'm also going to say that's not going to happen, either. More than likely, I expect them to drop the belts at the beginning of 2017.

Question: "If you could make some trades between brands who would you trade?"

Answer: I could see benefits to Cesaro and Dolph Ziggler switching places. If WWE gave a damn about Apollo Crews and built him up to the point where he could be on par with Sami Zayn, that would have been a good trade, but Zayn is far more valuable right now in comparison. The same goes for Baron Corbin not being at the same level as Braun Strowman.

Question: "Do you consider Rusev a top star? I ask because his two big feuds were with Cena and Reigns and he got attacked by Rock and Goldberg they trust him to be attacked by big stars"

Answer: Nope, he still hasn't hit that mark for me. I place him about two levels above Baron Corbin, one level above Luke Harper, one level below Sheamus, so he's an upper midcarder in my mind but not someone who is a real priority or seems to get enough momentum to really break out into the true higher echelon. I have a feeling he might have peaked.

Question: "Why do you think that Bayley and Sasha are the only two faces on Raw's women's division? At least SmackDown Live has an even 4 to 4 counting Eva and Mickie."

Answer: Poor planning and a lack of foresight on WWE's creative team. I think there's plenty of times throughout the year where we see that they didn't want to spend 15 minutes to grab a pad of paper and a pen and to write up a list to think of some pros and cons, the possible options in the future and the balance of everything. My guess is they were so focused on Charlotte and Sasha that they set their sights only on them and everyone else was an afterthought, so now they're scrambling to figure things out with the injuries and such getting in the way.

Question: "What do you think of Cody Rhodes (if that is his real name) going as The American Nightmare to go against The American Dream name?"

Answer: I appreciate the twist of the pun, but I'm not sure I quite follow how Cody Rhodes of all people is an American Nightmare. He can kick my ass, sure, but he's not a scary character like a Bray Wyatt or Kane. Nightmare just seems a little ghoulish compared to the heel persona he plays up, which is more the cocky jock douchebag type.

Question: "What would you do if you made The List of Jericho?"

Answer: I think I already did during my interview with him a few years ago haha.

Question: "Do you consider Princess Leia a Disney Princess since Disney bought Star Wars?"

Answer: Technically, I suppose she's a Disney Princess, but until I see her packaged in toy lines alongside Cinderella and Snow White and all, there's always going to be a separation to me. Maybe it's because she doesn't sing and everyone else does?

Question: "Do you think in the long run WWE will make 205 Live the exclusive home of the cruiserweights?"

Answer: If it proves to get a ton of views for an extend period of time, definitely. However, I can also see the benefits of keeping them on the Raw circuit as they could use them for house shows and not have to overwork a smaller amount of guys, so maybe they'll keep it as it is..

Question: "How do you feel about having a WWE Hall of Famer for president? Were you at that Hall of Fame for WrestleMania 29?"

Answer: As much as I'm not a fan of Donald Trump at all, I also wasn't a fan of Clinton. Basically, this election was a wash to me. We're screwed no matter what. It's kind of insane to think a WWE Hall of Famer is going to be in the White House just in theory, though. It still just feels like a giant joke. / Nope, I wasn't able to go to the Hall of Fame that year. For budget reasons, I opted to go to Axxess instead, which was kind of a letdown.

Question: "When Tony wish us happy Thanksgiving people made the joke when there's is. So my question how do you feel about having a multi-national audience?"

Answer: I think it's awesome. I love seeing people pop up from all over the place. It's definitely hard to keep track of, and I'm sure references and jokes are lost on some people here and there, but it's pretty interesting to see someone commenting from Australia and another from India and another from Germany, etc.


Question: "What's your favorite holiday movie?"

Answer: Hands down, Home Alone, without a doubt.

Question: "What's your favorite holiday episode of a TV show?"

Answer: Seinfeld's "Festivus" episode is great, The Simpsons have had amazing ones in the first dozen seasons, I LOVE the Batman animated series episode that ends with Batman and Jim Gordon having coffee together, big fan of Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo from South Park.

Question: "What's your favorite comfort food?"

Answer: I'm heavy on pasta, so maybe something like baked ziti or mac & cheese.

Question: "Given the things he did during his wrestling tenure, including to Bret and Macho Man, what's your honest appraisal of Hulk Hogan?"

Answer: Hogan is unquestionably the greatest icon in the history of professional wrestling, although far from the greatest professional wrestler. Someone like HBK far surpasses him on skill level and someone like The Undertaker has both the skills in the ring along with the character work to be on a different level than Hogan, but as far as popularity and pop culture status, there's no argument Hulk is the epitome. He seems to have benefited quite a bit from politics, but also, can you blame him? Anybody else would likely do the same things in his position, however shitty those practices might be, yet nobody else was able to surpass his status. Savage came extremely close—more than anybody, as I view them very close to equals—but I think Hogan also might have been in positions where it's not his fault how much weight was put on his shoulders. Look at how WWE has treated Steve Austin, John Cena and Roman Reigns. Vince and company have proven themselves to be stubborn and to very much enjoy having one primary focal point to dedicate their time to revolve around, so with Hogan being top dog, he both wanted that to continue and so did WWE. They worked in tandem, so they're both at fault. Anything Hogan did to spite other people that was unnecessary is something I can't condone, and of course, if he had any kind of racial discrimination going on, then that's unacceptable on all grounds, but if he was just the product of being a popular guy who had the right tools to shoot himself into superstardom, by all means, my hat's off to you, brother. Terrible haircut though.

Question: "I think this is the first Mailbag since the election. How you guys doing?"

Answer: I thought going into the election that we'd be fucked no matter what the result and it looks like I'm unfortunately correct. Both sides seemed awful and I'm just waiting to see what the next big issue is going to be and hoping it doesn't affect me all too much.