Tossing Salt Presents:
Wrestling Q&A
May 17, 2017

It’s time to do a little Q&A about the greatest sport in the world, the “King of Sports”, pro wrestling. Not many questions tonight to work with. Three come from my cousin, Theresa and the other two, I found on Facebook at the KOK. Let’s just do this…

All of the following come from my lovely cousin, Theresa…

If Vince decided to bring back and put you in charge of booking the “King of the Ring” tournament, how would you book it?

It wasn’t clarified in the question if I was booking for RAW or Smackdown Live with this revival of the King of the Ring so unless we’re having this as part of one of the “Big 4” multi-brand events, I suppose I should just do two tournaments, one for each brand. Let’s do RAW first. My eight participants would be: Big Cass, Goldust, Kalisto, Apollo Crews, Luke Gallows, Samoa Joe, Cesaro and Elias Sampson. I’d do Cass over Gallows, Goldust over Cesaro, Samoa Joe over Kalisto and Elias Sampson over Crews. Round 2 would have Cass go over Joe and Goldust sneaking by Sampson. And the main event for KOTR would be Big Cass versus Goldust with the wily veteran, Goldust, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat to become the KOTR.

And if I was doing this for the Smackdown Live brand, my eight men would be: Aiden English, Jinder Mahal, Luke Harper, Mojo Rawley, Rusev, Sami Zayn, Tye Dillinger and Dolph Ziggler. Round 1 would have Mojo over Aiden English, Jinder over Tye Dillinger, Harper over Dolph Ziggler and Rusev over Zayn. Round 2 would put Mojo over Rusev and Jinder getting by Harper. And in the finals, I’d have Mojo beat Jinder to capture the crown and become the new Smackdown Live KOTR. And there you go.

What are you thoughts on Nia Jax?

For me, the jury is still out on Nia. Sometimes, she looks strong and good in that ring and other times, she seems to be lost and awkward. I think she is getting better and more consistent inside that ring, and her promos are decent, so I can’t really talk too bad about her. I think she could have used a few more months working at NXT and in the Performance Center before being brought up to the main roster, but she’s a work in progress. She’ll never be a Natayla or a Charlotte, for example, but she has a spot and role in the Women’s Division and so long as she keeps improving, I’m cool with that.

What is the best “wrestling theme song” that really fits the wrestler in your opinion?

For me to answer this question, we have to go way back to before when wrestlers having their own “music” was common and to the Carolina’s where “Handsome” Jimmy Valiant made a transition from being “Handsome” to being the “Boogie Woogie Man”. He acquired the use of a song called “Boy From New York City”, by the Manhattan Transfer, and the rest was, as they say, history.

Eric Lawson asks, “I’m thinking about ordering Ole’s book. Would you recommend it?”

Get it. It’s one of the best wrestling themed books ever written in my opinion. Ole is blunt and to the point as always, but he provides great insights and a true education of how professional wrestling used to be and used to work that few others could even begin to know. It’s a great read by an amazing legend of our sport.

Axl Batdorf says, “Goldust is in my top 10, WWE superstars who never won the “big” belt. Who’s on your list?”

Top ten who have never won that “big belt” while in the WWE? I’m going to use all three major “World, WWE and Universal) titles as criteria for the “big belt”. Some of these men may have been recognized as the “World Heavyweight Champion” in some other group (NWA, AWA, WCW, ECW), but never were recognized as the “Top Dog” during their time in the WWF / WWE and in my opinion, should have been given the chance and honor at least once. And my “Top Ten” would be Roddy Piper, “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig, Rick Steamboat, Harley Race, Larry Zbyszko, Dusty Rhodes, Vader, Scott Hall, Ernie “The Cat” Ladd and William Regal.

And there you go. Another Q&A in the books. Sorry it’s so short, but I couldn’t find many good questions and also, it’s 4:30 in the morning and I’m getting tired. Have a great night, thanks for reading and I’ll catch you on the flip side. Take care…

Ubuntu!