Daily DDT Mailbag #1: Who should be on the WWE 2k20 cover, fave matches and more!

In the first edition of the Daily DDT Mailbag, the team’s editors answer YOUR fan questions concerning our favorite wrestling matches and storylines, as well who should be on the cover of WWE 2K20!

We at Daily DDT pride ourselves on interacting with our fans and connecting with the readers who support us from behind a computer screen (or phone screen, however you get your fix). Whether we’re talking about WWE, AEW, Impact, etc, we enjoy connecting with the wrestling community as a whole and hope to make that window separating our team from our readers a little less thin.

Which is why we crafted the Daily DDT Mailbag!

Every edition of the Mailbag will see the editors behind Daily DDT – Joe Anthony Myrick, Brett Grega and Patches Chance – answer questions that you fans ask us. We first asked earlier this week if anyone had any questions for us. The people have spoken and now, we have responses:

JAM: Booking the rest of the year is tough. I don’t even know how to book the rest of my life, yet alone a wrestling show. I’ll just sit back, relax and leave the booking to the bookers. Until the bookers book something stupid, then I’m ready to complain online with my buddy, Mark.

BG: Booking the rest of 2019 is quite the task to accomplish in one response. I’ll keep it simple, and give my WrestleMania main event.

Assuming we’re working with the main roster we have today, Roman Reigns versus Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship should main event WrestleMania. Rollins is best as a heel, and I can’t help but think WWE could come up with a great slow build for a rivalry between those 2 if they take that direction.

At the same time, there’s so many other matches I would love to see get made at some point in 2019. Lots are dependent on call-ups, or drastic character changes from people like EC3 though, so I’ll stick with Reigns versus Rollins as the match WWE should devote the most time to building towards.

PC: Becky Lynch, Bayley, The IIconics, and Kofi Kingston should continue their championship reigns into 2020. Other than that, honestly the best booking move for WWE would be to remember the power of consistency.

There’s a chance with the addition of Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff that things could be boosted, but that’s no guarantee. There already seems to be a push for unpredictability and edginess, but predictability isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Just look at NXT.

It’s taped, half the results are known going into shows, it’s often easy to guess who will walk out victorious, but none of that matters. NXT still delivers good stories, good wrestling, and great moments. Who cares if you guessed the winner going in as long as the event delivers?

JAM: Again, tough question since there’s so many good ones out there. More recently, I loved following Kofi Kingston’s road to the WWE Championship. Back in the day, ROH had some feuds – KO’s SCUM storyline and feud with El Generico, Bullet Club vs Jay Lethal and Adam Cole vs Kyle O’Reilly – that were masterfully done as well.

And I absolutely love Batista’s road to WrestleMania 21 storyline breaking out of Evolution. Hell, I’ll even throw the MVP vs Matt Hardy “I’m better than you” story from 2007-8 in there. Even if it doesn’t get enough love these days, I loved it as a kid.

As far as favorite wrestlers of all time, it’s a tie between Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels. Angle had the best in-ring work to me while HBK was the perfect package of character charisma and in-ring stuff.

BG: My favorite storyline ever has to be CM Punk’s heel turn when he was WWE Champion. It took me completely by surprise at the time, and led to one of the best heel runs in recent WWE history in my opinion. That moment from Raw 1000 alone will forever be etched into my mind.

Speaking of CM Punk, my favorite wrestlers of all time are some combination of Punk, John Cena, Kevin Owens and Goldberg. Who I put at number 1 honestly depends on the day you ask.

Today, I would give an incredibly slight edge to Cena. His whole body of work is spectacular, and he was the top star for my formative years of wrestling watching.

PC: For favorite storyline, I’ve gotta go with Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano’s saga in NXT. For me, that had absolutely everything. Wrestling is all about timing, and while I wouldn’t wish injury on anyone, injuries ultimately pushed this rivalry and story to a level it couldn’t have reached without them.

My favorite wrestler of all time is Edge, and it’s not even a contest. The Ultimate Opportunist is among my favorite characters WWE has ever seen. That being said, I could list off other favorites for what feels like an eternity.

Let’s see. There’s Shinsuke Nakamura, Beth Phoenix, William Regal, Fit Finlay, Rhyno, Nikki Cross, Jordynne Grace, Toru Yano, and…alright I’m getting out of hand. Edge will always be my number one, but the rest of the list is constantly evolving and growing.

https://twitter.com/_Heavyy/status/1146504846880776193

JAM: First off, thank you. We’ve got a fantastic Twitter account manager who always does their thing.

Second, because I am the Chidi Anagonye of the wrestling community who can’t make a decision to save his life, I can’t choose just one best match. Gotta go with a four way tie between Kurt Angle vs Shawn Michaels from Mania, Angle vs Taker from No Way Out 06, Shield vs The Wyatt Family from Elimination Chamber (that last one was the feud/match that got me back into wrestling after about a six year hiatus) and Kofi Kingston vs Daniel Bryan from Mania.

Worst match? Off top, just because I saw it recently for the first time, Tomko vs Stevie Richards from Unforgiven 2004. The angle was that Tomko was pummeling Stevie for wearing drag and beating him up for calling him “the f word.” Not “f*ck,” but you know, the big f word.

The match is only 5 minutes, but it feels like forever watching. Even by 2004 standards, the crowd looked uncomfortable; they were dead silent like they were watching a hate crime. Probably because they were, quite frankly. I also don’t think that it was made clear to the crowd that Tomko wasn’t actually punching a woman in the face over and over, which added to why the audience was uncomfortable. Everything about this match and angle just gets a big yikes from me, dawg.

BG: Thanks for the kind words. I’ll take a bit of a different approach to this question, and give the best and worst match I’ve seen in person. There’s just too many matches to have to sort through if you make me go with every match I’ve ever seen.

With that being said, the best match I’ve seen live has to be Kevin Steen versus Jay Lethal at ROH 11th Anniversary. It was one of my first exposures to a major independent wrestling main event, and absolutely blew my mind as a result. It also cemented Steen/Owens as one of my favorite wrestlers of all time.

On the other hand, I’ve seen The Great Khali versus Primo and Epico, not once, but twice in person. Need I say more?

PC: Thank you for the words of appreciation, it always helps to know that fans are enjoying the work we’re doing. As for best and worst match, it’s a really difficult call. I’m gonna steal Brett’s idea and go with the ones I’ve seen live, but also a favorite and worst overall.

Live, the best I’ve ever seen was Aleister Black vs. Velveteen Dream at NXT TakeOver: WarGames in Houston. That whole show was spectacular, but Black and Dream had us straight up mesmerized. The best overall, to me, has to be Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada from Dominion in 2018.

On the note of worst, it’s a lot more difficult for me. I have so much respect for the skill and sheer force of will it takes for professional wrestlers to compete and succeed in this business, but sometimes matches just suck.

To me, worst has to be The Undertaker vs Giant Gonzalez from WrestleMania 9, and the worst I’ve seen live was the 2017 Royal Rumble Match, primarily because all that hype ended with an Orton win after a day that went on for an eternity.

JAM: The only reasonable way to respond to “what it do?” is with a big, loud “Yerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.”

BG: The best response, I don’t know if it’s the correct response, is to go into an uninterrupted rendition of the Steiner Math promo on whoever asked the question.

When in doubt, all questions can be answered with Steiner Math.

PC: Everything. It do literally everything.

JAM: First off, mark my words, a woman will be on the cover and her name’s Becky Lynch. If she doesn’t get the cover, I’m going to eat my shorts. Or just complain online with my main man, Mark.

I like the idea of taking it back to the SvR days with multiple folks on the cover. Since I think the cover star should be the most over star from the previous year, it’d be cool to get the most over star from both main roster brands (or all the brands) on the cover. But since being the first women’s cover star is a big deal, I say give Becky her sole spot on the cover to shine on for this year.

BG: I actually like the idea of having multiple women on the cover. I think you could make the case for both Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch as cover stars, at the very least. Their respective storylines, which defined the past year of WWE TV, were too intertwined to not give both of them the proper acknowledgment they deserve.

On a side note, I hope they go with the same designer that did the new NBA 2K20 covers. The Dwayne Wade one is especially amazing.

PC: In general, I have no problem with multiple women being on the cover and doing style of design. That being said, WWE 2K20 should be “The Man” Becky Lynch. Period.

JAM: What.

BG: Brett Fact: Brett prefers to use Colgate toothpaste over all other brands.

PC: Anything cinnamon flavored.

Got any questions you’ve been dying to ask the Daily DDT crew? Comment below, or ask us on Twitter and we’ll be sure to answer them on the next Mailbag!