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: "If you had to restart WWE and were only able to bring back 5 titles (past or present) which ones would you choose? This may be obvious but there are a lot of titles."

Answer: Assuming NXT doesn't count, I'd very easily go with the WWE Championship, Intercontinental Championship, Tag Team Championship, Women's Championship and as much as I like the Hardcore Championship, the fifth spot would probably go to the Cruiserweight Championship.


Question: "If you could build a stable of one WWE legend (not still wrestling), one current WWE star, one indie legend (not still wrestling and never in WWE), one current indie star (never in WWE) and a manager (any) who would be in it? Male, female or mixed whatever you can be bothered to do haha."

Answer: Oh God, I can't think of any combination of anybody with the indie side of things that could work together.


Question: "Are you familiar with woman wrestler, Viper?"

Answer: Nope, not at all.

Question: "Have you watched The Final Deletion, yet?"

Answer: Nope. I don't plan on watching it until they bring the Broken Matt Hardy character to WWE and then I can do a live Smark Announce Table reaction to it.

Question: "What are your opinions on The Velveteen Dream? Do you think he has a bright future in NXT?"

Answer: Patrick Clark was my favorite out of the Tough Enough season he was on, so I'm really glad he's getting a decent enough shot in NXT. The character is strange, but I don't completely hate it. I don't think there's a ton of potential behind it, but if it gets him noticed and it warms him up to some people backstage where they feel like he's eaten some shit and deserves better, then it will work out.

Question: "Was Okada/Omega the greatest match of all time, in the history of professional wrestling?"

Answer: Definitely not. I think it's overrated. Good, for sure, but not something that I would tout as being something every wrestling fan should watch. I still go for Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker at WrestleMania 25 as my favorite match ever.

Question: "Is Cody Rhodes better off in Ring of Honor/New Japan Pro Wrestling?"

Answer: For now, yeah. In a year or two, I'd like to see Cody come back when WWE really wants him to and then he can be a main event talent. Sometimes, it's good for people to leave and build up more prestige before returning, like Luke Gallows and Drew McIntyre.

Question: "When will TM-61 come back? Will they be the team to beat AOP for the NXT Tag Titles?"

Answer: I'm not really fond of TM-61, so I hope they're not the go-to tag team to dethrone The Authors of Pain. As far as timetable of their return, I've heard absolutely nothing, so I don't know if that's a good thing or a horrible thing.

Question: "What's your opinion on Cameron saying, "I'll Never Date A Black Guy," on TMZ?"

Answer: To each their own. If she doesn't dig black guys, I won't change her mind. That's pretty discriminatory of her to rule out an entire race on principle alone rather than saying something like "I tend to prefer white guys" or "I'm more attracted to Asians than Hispanics" or something, but hey, you like what you like and everyone's entitled to have their preferences. No skin off my back.

Question: "How would you realistically, turn Bayley heel?"

Answer: She has to turn heel on Izzy, the super fan. Make her cry and tell her to fuck off or something. Then, turn Bayley's character into a rebellious teenager, basically, since she acts like a preteen who still plays with her dolls. Transition her into the "I'm a bad girl now, so I'm gonna yell at my parents" type of bitchy teenager. Slowly turn her from there into a depressed and used up emo chick or something and then she can become the crazy college girl and "find herself" and become a babyface again.

Question: "Is a Itami Heel Turn good for him?"

Answer: Definitely! Hideo Itami is bland as hell as a babyface. At least as a heel, he can go out there and just look pissed off and wrestle without having to cut too many promos.

Question: "Do you watch the Big Bang Theory on CBS?"

Answer: I do, but I have to admit that the past few seasons have been more of just a habit to watch and not as much of an enjoyment. I feel like the show is phoning it in..

Question: "Are you pumped for Big Brother returning next week? I'm so excited!"

Answer: Honestly, I'm not as pumped as I had thought I would be, but that's mostly because Over the Top was too hard to follow and they've put all their cast interviews behind a paywall so I don't know anything about the cast. I'm definitely excited, though. Big Brother is the only reality program I watch and the beginning of the season is always the best.

Question: "Do you see a Becky Lynch heel turn, in the future?"

Answer: Somewhere down the line, definitely. I don't think it will happen in 2017, though.

Question: "Does Shaun Walker even watch WWE, anymore?"

Answer: Shaun's been basically off the grid for a while, so I'm not sure. I doubt it.

Question: "Are you a fan of Lana's theme music?"

Answer: Kind of, kind of not. I don't see myself downloading it, but it's catchy. If it gets in my ear enough, I might end up having to put it on my Walkman.

Question: "With Aleister Black doing Cruiserweight Matches on House Shows, do you see Black having a short in in NXT?"

Answer: We've seen a few people do runs on the main roster without moving up, like Oney Lorcan and HoHo Lun recently, so I don't think Black is coming up from NXT too soon. I think they'll use him to fill in the gap of a few others that will leave in the next couple of months.

Question: "Could Mike & Maria pull off a Miz & Maryse gimmick? Is it a could idea for Miz/Maryse to split up?"

Answer: I don't think they'll do as good of a job as Miz and Maryse, who I hope aren't split up. If Miz and Maryse is working, don't take that away from them just because you think it could hurt Mike and Maria. If Mike and Maria aren't able to do something different enough to stand apart, then that's on them, not Miz and Maryse. It's never a good idea to cut something down to make something else look taller as opposed to helping the short thing grow.

Question: "As we approach the mid-way point of he year, had WWE been successful, so far?"

Answer: In some ways, yes, but I think they've really dropped the ball a lot this year. They were too focused on Goldberg and Lesnar at the beginning of the year and after that, they had no true intent, so they've just been stalling. Too much time has passed by with no game plan and I think 2017 is shaping up to be a year where if SummerSlam doesn't pan out, we'll consider it forgettable.

Question: "Finally, who would you want to spend a vacation with, that's on the main roster, right now? Who would you not want to spend time with, that is a highly known name?"

Answer: The New Day would be fun as hell to hang out with. I naturally wouldn't mind hanging out with the entire women's division, for obvious reasons. One person I know I wouldn't want to chill with is Mojo Rawley as I can see myself finding him so annoying after a while, even if he might be a nice guy.


Question: "Do you see Tyson Kidd returning to WWE TV in any capacity?"

Answer: I can imagine he might show up sometime for a random promo or something, but definitely not in the ring in any capacity, that's for sure.

Question: "Would you like to see a Canadian Championship Tournament or a Stu Hart Classic or something along those lines?"

Answer: I'm of the minority opinion that I don't really like the United Kingdom Championship existing, so I wouldn't want to see any more expansion on that concept at all, no matter what the region, but if they did have to do it, Canada would be the best option.

Question: "Would you scrap the 'gimmick match' ppvs (e.g. TLC, Hell in a Cell, MITB), in order to have those matches when they are most appropriate? I would love to see another TLC match at Wrestlemania."

Answer: 100%. The TLC match shouldn't even exist, let alone a pay-per-view built around it, as it's just a regular ladder match. Money in the Bank should be a special match on the SummerSlam card and Hell in a Cell should only pop up when a feud deems it necessary.

Question: "Do you think Kane will come back if he loses the Knox County election, or is his career over?"

Answer: I don't think it will be an immediate return, but I do think if he loses, he'll eventually come back for a short run. I wouldn't place a bet that he'd return to the regular active roster, though. I think if and when he does return, it will be part-time and he'll return soon after.


Question: "I just bought Shawn Michaels' Wrestling for My Life and AJ Lee's Crazy is My Superpower. Any chance of anybody reading either one and do you have a favorite autobiography?"

Answer: I dug the Foley and Jericho books I did the interviews for, but I haven't really read the other books that I have. Reading is fundamental, but boring as fuck. I even have a book on the psychology of Batman that I haven't read yet and I specifically WANT to read that one lol.

Question: "Since Tony is against dogs that die in movies, spoiler: what did you think of John Wick?"

Answer: That's exactly the reason why I've never seen it. A few friends of mine were going on and on about how I had to watch it when it just came out in theaters and they sold me on it, until they got to mentioning that it was all because a puppy gets killed and I pretty much checked out at that point. I do want to watch it and the sequel, but I still have a long list of other movies I have to catch up on, too, and I don't think any of those movies have a dog getting killed haha.


Question: "Tony I know you like to talk, but why don't you let someone less talk during the hot tags or post shows?"

Answer: Not too sure what you're asking, but if you mean why not let someone else take over the podcast for an episode or something, it's mostly a combination of them not having the resources to do it (the images and the editing software and such) and nobody volunteering to take that responsibility off my hands. I can't even get people to join me most of the time, let alone to do all the work themselves.

Question: "Since you guys do a podcast have you ever thought of speech therapy classes?"

Answer: Nope. No time and no money. If I were making more money on YouTube than I am, like I had a professional setup and everything, I'd probably invest in it, but right now this is almost more of a hobby than anything else.

Question: "What kind of podcast do listen to wrestling and non-wrestling? I listen to Wrestle Talk, when Sam Roberts has a wrestler on I'll check it out, A Poketuber does a Podcast Called Ace Trainer Podcast and Renee's Regular Girl's from last time not a wrestling podcast one about life"

Answer: The only podcasts (or podcast-like content) that I watch/listen to is Collider Movie Talk, Schmoes Know, Jedi Council, Screen Junkies Movie Fights, and Cracked's Obsessive Pop Culture Disorder.

Question: "When are we getting Goldust Vs R-Truth?"

Answer: If we don't get it on Raw before Great Balls of Fire, it HAS to happen on at least the pre-show of that pay-per-view.

Question: "Any interest in Total Divas now that Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax are on?"

Answer: A little more, but not enough for me to tune in to maybe more than one episode just out of pure curiosity of how much Bliss puts on the act. I'll probably skip all of the content without her and never watch another episode after that.

Question: "Is Apollo Cruise a face or heel? It's that smile if he is a heel."

Answer: He's sort of a tweener. They're keeping him mostly a babyface, but he's aligned with a mostly heel manager. It's a strange dynamic, but I kind of like it. I'm expecting Titus O'Neil to turn face or for Crews to turn heel sometime soon so they can just make it easier and form a true tag team. Although if I had it my way, they'd keep this exact same dynamic and just let them be tweeners.

Question: "Can you believe Naomi was the only face champion after Extreme Rules?"

Answer: That to me speaks volumes for how WWE's creative team operates. It's easier to write stories for heels and it's easier for heels to retain their titles, and they've clearly been putting less effort into telling stories the past 2 months because they're stalling for SummerSlam. Naomi just happened to be at a point where they couldn't jump on changing the champion yet.

Question: "Did you hear the Jinder Mahal face turn happened? In India the commentators make Randy out to be the heel."

Answer: It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a country to turn Jinder Mahal babyface.

Question: "Do you think Family Guy should rap up soon since they just lost two characters Carrie Fisher (Peter's boss Angela) and Adam West (Mayor Adam West)?"

Answer: Those two aren't big enough members of the cast to really cause the show to falter, similar to when Isaac Hayes left South Park. Chef was a big enough part that it felt weird not having him anymore, but the show moved on and replaced him with other characters and giving a boost of importance to Randy, Butters and so forth. That being said, I haven't watched Family Guy or The Simpsons in years, so I'm not sure what they're up to now, but if they're awful shows, they might as well end anyway.

Question: "When did you stop watching Gothom? Was it before the virus was introduced? I think it got so much better. I think Gothom was my show of the season in my opinion, can't wait for next season now that Catwoman has her whip and Bruce has put a mask on."

Answer: I really wasn't liking Gotham from the start, but I kept sticking it out until the episode where they introduced the Mad Hatter. At that point, I realized that they just don't care at all about how they can keep the mythos in tact and they just want to do a Batman show without Batman. They had an opportunity to do a gripping, awesome Gotham Central inspired GCPD show that could have taken place alongside Batman (who would make cameos) but they opted to do an origin story that only does 50% origin while trying to do 50% a normal Batman series and it just doesn't work. It would be like having a Superman show without Superman. Oh wait, that's what Krypton is going to be. Fuuuuuuuck.

Question: "Who did you want to be the attacker in the attack Enzo/Cass storyline? What is Kurt Angle hiding? Do you think they will be a combined story? I still think Beer Money and Kurt is afraid his legacy will be ruined after people find out Storm beat him in 10 seconds for the world tile."

Answer: I was kind of hoping it would be Kenny Omega, even though I had no doubt that it would be Big Cass. Kurt Angle's story is probably just going to be that Stephanie and Triple H don't like him running Raw and it will lead to a match against Triple H at SummerSlam or WrestleMania.

Question: "Now that Rebecca gave birth do we see the Broken Hardys in WWE?"

Answer: Nope, not until they get the legal issues settled with Anthem.

Question: "Do you think I'm over thinking this or would WWE do better buys by promoting the longest reigning raw vs longest reigning smackdown champions New Day Vs Uso at Money in the bank?"

Answer: I don't think that would make that much of a difference, similar to when they say a match is happening "for the first time ever on SmackDown" that we've seen on Raw before. It sounds better than nothing, but it probably doesn't tick the interest up to anything measurable.

Question: "Do you think WWE has booked Bayley so bad that she is kind of buried now? Would you say Baley is the female John Cena?"

Answer: She still has a way to go before she's buried, but they're certainly not doing her any favors, that's for sure. I don't know why she's that difficult to write for lately (outside of laziness) but having her take a few weeks off doesn't hurt. They need to focus on someone else if they don't know what to do with her.

Question: "Which jobber do you want to get pushed to win the WWE title now that Jinder has? You know Ryder and Mojo my answers"

Answer: I don't want any lower card people to win the title any time soon, but if I had to pick someone who is on the lower spectrum, I'd go with Fandango.

Question: "Do you think WWE saw Lucha Undergrounds Law and Order police station segment my first impression or was the Fashion Files based off Law and Order?"

Answer: No idea. I still haven't seen a single episode of Lucha Underground.

Question: "What is your idea for John Cena Free Agent?"

Answer: I wouldn't have done the free agent thing at all, to be honest. I'd have just kept him on SmackDown unless they were going to trade him for someone on Raw, in which case I'd just have traded him during the Superstar Shake-Up to get it out of the way.

Question: "What is your opinion on fidget spinners? How long till WWE puts their logos on the spinners and John Cena says you can't spin with me as he hits the 5 knuckle shuffle?"

Answer: They seem to be a random fad that has already died out. Honestly, I'm surprised WWE didn't try to release some spinners of their own. That's a good point. They could have done something with the old spinner belt design or the Cesaro swing or something. Hell, they could have just printed up random logos so people can collect them all.

Question: "How can I help fight Youtube because they find wrestling not ad friendly? Can we add Youtube to the Fuck That Guy Club? Is The Fuck that equal to The List of Jericho? You pisted me off welcome to the fuck that guy club we can say"

Answer: YouTube and Google in general have been on the Fuck That Company Club list for years in my mind. They're always messing up their own product and making things problematic. Sadly, since they're all pretty much just automated services for 90% of the people out there and then the 10% that matter to them are the investors and the people that make them the most money, you can't really do anything but complain online and hope enough other people do, too, so they can notice it.