Tossing Salt Presents:
Wrestling Q&A
July 31, 2017
DougMaynard.com

Greetings and welcome to yet another wrestling Q&A. Yes, I do way too many of these things, but what the hell? There are questions and I have answers and what is a man supposed to do? I guess I could just go watch YouTube or Netflix and try to put myself to sleep for a few hours. It’s late at night and I’m tired and have to be up early. That would be the smart thing, but when have I ever claimed to be smart? A “sexy beast” to be sure, and definitely smarter than the average bear, but I still like to occasionally just go with the flow and say to hell with conventional wisdom. This is one of those times, besides, sleep is over-rated anyhow. The questions come from Facebook, both the Jim Crockett Promotions group and the KoK. The answers are from me. Let’s do this…

What is everyone’s moment when they fell in love with wrestling?

It’s hard to pick just one defining moment, but I know of a few from back in my childhood days that were strong factors. How about The Mighty Igor bouncing Crusher Jerry Blackwell around in the ring like a basketball? How about Blackjack Mulligan and Ric Flair teaming, then feuding and having classic battles all over the territory. How about the Anderson Brothers getting a man in the ring and working on that arm, breaking down their opponent piece by piece. How about watching Johnny Weaver and Gene Anderson go thirty minutes in Lumberton, NC and putting on a wrestling clinic, bell to bell. How about the first time seeing Andre the Giant live and in person. That man was freakin’ big. So many great moments to choose from and all of them contributed in some fashion to turn me into the fan I’ve always been and remain today.

Who was the greatest three man team to hold this title (NWA World Six Man Tag Team Championship)?

I had to go look this up because while I certainly remember the six-man tag titles in the NWA, they weren’t around for long (1984 – 1989) and were never really big or important in the overall scheme of things for Crockett or the NWA. They weren’t held by many groups and certainly not the teams like the Freebirds or Midnight Express, who you’d expect to see in six man tag matches. The main teams that held the titles were the Road Warriors and Dusty, The Road Warriors and Tenyru, The Russians (Ivan, Nikita and Krusher Kruschev), Ivan Koloff and the Powers of Pain, and a makeshift team of Sam Houston, Buzz Tyler and Manny Fernandez. WCW had their own six-man tag titles for a while too, but this question was specific about the NWA version. And of the teams that held the title (and mainly because I didn’t like Dusty as a wrestler and refuse to give him any credit for his titles), I’ll go with the first set of “Russians” to hold the titles as the greatest team. That was Ivan, Nikita and Don Kernodle.

Who had the better 1st year in WWE? Angle or Styles?

Different times and different eras, so it’s like comparing apples to oranges in my opinion. Both men have done incredible in their WWE debut years, but AJ has a long professional history behind him, having been a major star all over the world. Kurt was relatively new to the world of professional wrestling and when that is taken into consideration, to do as great as he did and score the success he did, in his rookie year, I have to go with Kurt on this one.

How is it fair in an rumored 13 Match Summerslam card, 8 of the 13 are Raw matches??!!

It doesn’t have to be fair. It’s the WWE and RAW is considered the A-brand and # 1 show by WWE management. That’s just how it is and how Vince McMahon wants it. How we feel about it isn’t important.

Is There a Match that you have seen, that others have not that you would recommend to fans?

I have long said that the match between Ric Flair and Barry Windham w/ James J. Dillon (The Horsemen) versus The Midnight Express (Stan Lane and Bobby Eaton) w/ Jim Cornette at WCW Clash of the Champions IV: Season’s Beatings, is one of the best matches I have ever seen, bar none. I would strongly recommend this match for everyone to see at least once.

Who you think was the strongest man in jcp? I think maybe Superstar Billy Graham.

Superstar Graham was strong to be sure, but during his time with Crockett, he had slimmed down and worked a more martial artist type style than his usual muscle man character. The strongest man I can remember would be the Mighty Igor. He played a character of a simpleton in the ring, but the man was so damn strong and this was pre-steroids. He regularly would perform tests of strength like bending steel bars, breaking cinder blocks or even, with his back braced against a wall or a wrestling ring, use his legs to hold back a moving car. He was billed as “The World’s Strongest Man” and this was twenty-five years before Mark Henry. And like Henry did in the WWE, Igor definitely could live up to the hype with his muscles and power.

In your era of watching jcp, who is your top 5?

You don’t specify singles wrestlers or tag teams so I’ll do both. I’m not going by the best or most titles, but who I enjoyed the most and I loved to watch and see and hear from the most. For singles, it would be in no particular order, Blackjack Mulligan, Ric Flair, Baron Von Raschke, Masked Superstar and The Great Kabuki. As far as Crockett era tag teams, I’ll go with, again in no particular order, The Anderson Brothers, Steamboat and Youngblood, Ray Stevens & Jimmy Snuka, Paul Jones and Baron Von Raschke and finally Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle.

Is that it? I was just starting to get some momentum going and was getting into it. Well, if you have any wrestling questions or any questions of any kind, about anything, send them to me and I’ll do my best to answer. Nothing is off limits around here. I’m at Doug28352yahoo.com or at Twitter at @doug28352.

And thank you for reading. Feedback is welcome and appreciated. I guess I’m going to try that bed thing again. Wish me luck. Have a great night and I’ll catch you later.

Ubuntu!