Smark Out Moment

Welcome to another edition of Triple Threat from Smark Out Moment, where three of us get together to discuss three questions based on one big topic going down in the week of professional wrestling.

This week, Robert DeFelice, Greg Coleman, and Aryan Malhotra will be giving their thoughts on portions of WWE's major stories heading into WrestleMania 35 weekend!

We're rapidly approaching WrestleMania 35 weekend. This will be part one of a three-part preview of all of the WWE festivities for the biggest wrestling weekend of the year.


DeFELICE: Talk about underwhelming. Here's the thing, and I'm going to try to come to the defense of this match announcement, I think this would have gone over really well in another era. Kurt Angle is the weathered Superstar who has a long-standing personal issue with Baron Corbin and it would be a great send-off during the territorial era, but not in today's wrestling scene.

In today's wrestling scene, retirement matches mean something and they usually until going out with a bang with the most marquee matchup possible. I like Corbin, but to put it simply, this ain't it, chief. Kurt Angle goes out with a victory in quick fashion I think.

MALHOTRA: It might just be the optimistic side of me speaking but I seriously don’t think they will go ahead with Angle vs Corbin for Mania. I mean we have already seen this match on Raw, Corbin was beaten by Apollo Crews after the announcement of this match which seems odd if he’s going to be in a high profile Mania match, and there has been a large amount of public acknowledgment by Angle, his family and even the WWE that this is an underwhelming matchup. I see someone replacing Corbin in the match either the week before Mania or at Mania itself as a surprise, maybe by Cena or Ambrose or Shelton Benjamin or even Jason Jordan. But in that match I see Angle putting up a 10-minute fight before going out on a loss.

COLEMAN: Normally when a wrestler retires or leaves a company they lose to provide a rub to the guy who beats them. If Angle’s opponent is really going to be Corbin, then Angle should win and go out on top. If his opponent was someone different like maybe John Cena then I think he should lose.


COLEMAN: I am not very familiar with Sue but from what I’ve heard she is more than deserving. I think it is a great idea to provide this honor to an employee that has done great work for many years.

DeFELICE: I loved this announcement. Finally, it seems like the Warrior Award is being used for what it was intended to be used for. Congratulations to this longtime employee who, by all accounts, is an absolute angel.

MALHOTRA: This announcement makes me really happy. Of course, this is what the Warrior Award was supposed to be for according to the man behind the award himself. Other than that too, Sue Aitchison is a name I had never heard before despite her being such a prominent figure in the WWE. Therefore the induction lets her be rewarded for her long tenure as essentially an unsung hero while her story gets out there and reaches all the fans out there. Really good news.


MALHOTRA: The NXT Championship scene is the most affected by this of course. The recent main roster stints didn’t make much storyline sense anyways and since nothing much had been established, it doesn’t really get affected. But the long term rivalry with Gargano had just gotten into a whole new stage with Gargano turning on Ciampa when this injury happened. The whole focus of NXT is going to suffer severely due to this unfortunate event.

COLEMAN: Ciampa’s injury is a major blow to pro wrestling as a whole because it robbed wrestling fans of the ending of one of the greatest rivalries and stories in wrestling history. However, the biggest loss is to NXT. Gargano finally winning the NXT title and beating Ciampa to do it would’ve been arguably the best moment in Takeover history.

DeFELICE: I didn't buy into Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano being on the main roster. So for me, the thing that was hurt the most was the personal rivalry in NXT between Ciampa and Gargano. However, on the back of this, we now have Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole in a 2 out of 3 Falls match at NXT TakeOver: New York to crown a new NXT Champion. So, you take the good with the bad.