Tossing Salt Presents:
Ultimate Wrestling Q&A
Joey Ryan, Sid Vicious, The Usos and More
October 31, 2019
DougMaynard.com

Happy Halloween. I have a few more questions from Jesse and another edition of the Ultimate Wrestling Q&A. Let’s do this…

Joey Ryan has signed with Impact Wrestling. Thoughts?

I’m happy for Ryan, but I’m not sure how his gimmick can work long term in a company like Impact Wrestling? He’s not television friendly and hearing chants of “touch his dick” from the audience is going to turn off parents and people with a stick up their ass. Ryan is a good wrestler who can work comedy or serious equally as well, but his act is not something that works for long term. At first, it’s shocking and fun, but after a while, it will turn into a “this again… yawn” act. I hope that Impact has plans for Ryan and this all works out for the man, but it seems as more of an impulse signing to me and I can’t see a Ryan relationship with Impact lasting for long.

AEW Dynamite has now been on for over a month. Is it getting better, worse, or staying the same? Thoughts?

It’s still good and different, but it’s not getting any better and is, in my opinon, getting worse. Some of the matches, I get it why they’re having them after all every match can’t be Jericho versus Cody, but it’s becoming obvious why a lot of these people never worked the big companies before. They’re local promotion level talent and aren’t ready to be major players for a billion dollar company. I like AEW, but it’s not “must see” and I’ll read the recaps and go watch what sounds good on YouTube rather than wasting a Wednesday night. I do the same thing for NXT and Smackdown too. The ratings have fallen each week of airing and unless AEW finds a way to catch the attention of the casual fans again and become consistent, things are not looking good for the upstart promotion.

Thoughts on Sid Vicious?

A great look, a so-so performer and a laughable promo more often than not. On looks alone, Sid could be a top star, but some of his promos, especially when he had to wing it on live TV or else when he was trying to be “Psycho”, oh vey! If only he had worked a Brock Lesnar style where he stands there and looks imposing, but had a manager do the talking for him. That would have worked so much well. Sid was often lucky as the right man at the right time and I commend him for that. And the way he weas injured in WCW, snapping his ankle when he jumped off the rope. OUCH! I still cringe thinking about that. Sid will never be a favorite of mine, but he belongs in the WWE Hall of Fame.

If you were told to rebuild Mike Kanellis for a push in WWE, how would you do it?

Totally ignore and forget about the stupid Maria being a bitch and punking him out story that WWE has been doing and let the memories die as Maria goes off to have her new baby. Meanwhile, Mike gets to start winning matches and getting better and better and either find a partner and win some tag team gold or else get involved in a feud with the Cruiserweight Champion where he comes this close again and again, but looks great in losing. And then, when Maria is ready to come back, she’s a surprise and helps him win the Cruiserweight title and they go on to defend the title for a long reign portraying the characters they were in ROH rather than the WWE version we’ve been forced to see for the past couple of years. Mike Bennett is a damn good wrestler and deserves better than the shit WWE has been giving him thus better.

Which weekly wrestling program do you feel is the best and most entertaining?

RAW is consistent and I usually try to watch it if I can. But the best, from start to finish show on right now is NWA Powerr, available on YouTube. Impact Wrestling is pretty damn good on a regular basis too.

Who is the best current “World Champion”?

As of this writing, the “World Champions” are Bray Wyatt & Brock Lesnar in WWE, Chris Jericho in AEW, Sami Callihan for Impact Wrestling, RUSH for Ring of Honor, Jacob Fatu for Major League Wrestling and of course, NWA World Champion Nick Aldis. Of this group, I think that Nick Aldis is the strongest and best representative for his company. It’s just my opinion, but he’s like an old-school title holder and wrestles well, speaks well and has an air of professionalism about him that refreshing to see.

WWE has The Usos and Naomi on the shelf for the time being and don’t seem to have any future plans for them. Thoughts?

Both of the Usos have been arrested and charged with DWI in the past couple of years and Jimmy also had an altercation with police in a different incident so there is a problem here that needs to be taken care of. With this in mind, I understand why WWE has decided to pull the tag team from shows and TV for the time being. Give them time to get their issues worked out and also remove them from the public eye as they do so. WWE is a very public company and what the employees do reflects back on the company and ever since the Benoit mess, no legal mess can or should overlooked. I do hate it that Naomi is being punished along with her hubby and brother-in-law since she hasn’t done anything wrong, but who knows? This may be a decision of her own to stand by her man rather than go on the road with the company and leaving Jimmy alone. I expect that once the legal problems are straightened out, we’ll see the Usos back in action in the WWE, probably during the build to Wrestlemania. But for now, this is probably the best thing for all parties involved.

And that’s all for now. My thanks for reading. Any thoughts, comments or questions (I always need questions), please comment or drop me a line at Doug28352@yahoo.com. Until the next time, take care and stay safe. I’ll see you at the matches.

Ubuntu!