Tossing Salt Presents:
Ultimate Wrestling Q&A
Mickie James, MJF, Kofi Kingston & More
December 22, 2019
DougMaynard.com

Good morning and welcome to the first official day of Winter. It’s a little chilly outside, but otherwise feels great. And guess what? Surprisingly, I feel great as well. Oh well, the day is still young. Welcome to a new edition of the Ultimate Wrestling Q&A, hopefully the first of many things I hope to get put to pen and paper, or keyboard as the case may be, today. Three new readers with three batches of questions about a wide variety of wrestling topics. So are you ready? Let’s do this…

Anto McParland:

Do you think anyone from the New Day will turn heel on the others and if so, which one?

When a group or faction has been together as long as the New Day, there is almost certain to be a changing of the order and eventual membership change at some point. Right now, with Xavier Woods out of action due to injury, I think that Kofi and Big E are pretty safe as a unit, but if I was going to do a heel turn and have a member betray the group, I’d go with Xavier when he returns. He’s the best talker of the group in my opinion and look at how the New Day has kept being successful even with Woods out? He can make the argument that they just forgot about him while he was out, didn’t return his calls and left him out of the loop. He can claim that they “betrayed the brotherhood” and that sets up for a heel turn, with Woods justifying that Kofi and Big E were wrong, not him. It’s a classic wrestling storyline, but it works and I think that New Day would be great at pulling this off if they went in this direction with Woods turning on his partners.

Is there a possibility that the 3 way womens match at Survivor Series could lead to the previously teased Four Horsewomen vs Four Horsewomen match?

In NXT and the WWE, anything is possible. Well, except for a good push for Zack Ryder, who so well deserves it. WWE just doesn’t seem to get it or him and it’s a shame. But as for a fight between the two groups of Horsewomen, I think we’ll get it eventually, but it’s just a matter of when. Maybe this will lead to the match? Who knows?

With Mickie James doing commentary, do you think she is winding down her days as an active wrestler?

Like all of us, Mickie is getting older. She has had a long and fruitful career, but even with the best of them, time will eventually take it’s toll. Well, except for R-Truth, but he’s unique. Mickie has children now and plus she has a fairly successful musical career going on as well, so it makes sense that she would want to slow down a bit on the in-ring activity and move on to other aspects of the business. Working commentary as well as helping out as a trainer and maybe even a producer is a great way to use that experience and knowledge and keep in the business, but not quite as demanding and hard on the body. So yes, she most likely is starting to wind down a bit. It’s a part of life and I think she realizes that.

Did Omega and Moxley go too far in their Death Match?

In my opinion, yes. It was their first major match and what happened. They tried to kill each other, went all out and now, where do you go from here? A Death Match is great to blow off a major feud or rivalry, but doing it right away? Now there’s nothing to build for and anything else they do will be anti-climatic and boring in comparison. AEW could have gotten several months of story out of Omega and Moxley and slowly built towards this match, but now they have two top stars who just suffered from premature match-syndrome and risked life and limb too early for anyone to really have a reason to appreciate their sacrifice.

Chris Zunas

Why do you think MJF waited so long to throw in the towel if he was always gonna betray Cody?

Maybe he was having second thoughts and wanted to see if Cody could succeed? Or maybe he wanted to see Cody take more punishment? Or he was doing as Ole Anderson often talked about in his long time battles against Dusty Rhodes. He was just “picking his spot”. Whatever answer works best for you, there you go.

I thought the Injustice Stable in MLW was boring at first. But after their PPV match I think they might have potential. All three guys seem to have talent too. Thoughts?

Unfortunately, I’m not a big viewer of MLW and though I have much respect for what this promotion is doing, between work, this site and all that is Impact, ROH, AEW and of course the WWE, I don’t have the time to add another promotion to my must-see list except for the occasional match on YouTube and unfortunately, that means I’m not familiar with the Injustice Stable. I’ll go look them up when I get the chance though and see what they’re all about.

Eric from Florida:

1. What happened to Seth Rollins? He’s becoming like John Cena, an uncool dork that the WWE crams down out throat. He was different and cool, but those days seem long gone. What happened?

Seth was falling into the Cena trap – the top face of the company who’s every move and line was dictated by the so-called “Creative Team” and Vince. Hopefully, this heel turn he seems to have taken as of late will help break the cycle. Seth is a far better heel than a face anyways and with AOP at his side, the possibilities are endless. Let’s hope that WWE doesn’t screw this up.

2. I was excited to see Kofi get the Championship because I think some diversity is needed with the top titles, but then he was booked horribly and made to look more lucky then deserving. It got me thinking, what African American man, not named The Rock has Vince ever really gotten behind and made to look like a strong top champion? I can’t think of one! Heck, how long has it been since Vince has gotten behind someone for the top men’s title that wasn’t white? Yokozuna? And he needed to get slammed by flag waiving Lex and pinned by Real American Hulk Hogan.

What about Mark Henry? I agree that Vince hasn’t had as many people of color as the top champion as others and that should be rectified, but there have been other non-whites who got tremendous pushes such as Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Alberto Del Rio, Great Khali, etc and that was because, at least for Eddie and Rey, they deserved it and were over with the fans. Kofi got the title because he deserved it and the fans wanted to see him have a run and I agree that the booking was terrible, but I think that has more to do with the so-called “Creative Teams” than the race of the champion. Look at how they booked Bray Wyatt’s first run as a champion. Hell, look how they’re doing Wyatt now. I personally don’t think that race should matter as to who the top wrestler and champion is, but instead how they get over and how the fans respond to them. Race can be one of the factors involved in booking and choosing a champion, but it shouldn’t be the determining factor. And while the singles scene has been lacking, people of color have dominated the tag team scene. New Day, AOP, The Street Profits, The Usos, etc. And that’s not because of their race, but because they’re top tag teams. Diversity is well and good and WWE does have it going on these days, far more than at any other time in the history of the company, but in the end, it’s the abilities of the wrestlers and getting over with the majority of the fans that should determine their status in the company and push more than anything else.

3. I’ve lost track out of lack of interest, but who’s left to go into the Hall of Fame that could be called a headliner other than Undertaker? Who would you like to see go in this year? Are we really to the point of putting in characters over the person (i.e. Razor Ramon as opposed to Scott Hall) to fill the class?

The WWE has already announced that the nWo and Batista will be going into the Hall of Fame this year. Other potential headliners for me would be Kane, Christian, The Rock, Vince McMahon, Chris Jericho (probably not this year), Lex Lugar, Paul Heyman, Eric Bischoff, The Steiner Brothers, Rob Van Dam & Rey Mysterio. Be it character or real name, I think it depends on the wrestler being inducted. Scott Hall works just as well as either his real name or Razor Ramon, but Jay Reso, that would draw a blank for most wrestling fans, but if you say “Christian”. Who would I like to see go in this year? The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton, Stan Lane and Dennis Condrey) with Jim Cornette, Lisa Marie Varon (Victoria), Christian and Eric Bischoff would be my top choices. And Ole & Gene Anderson under the “Legacy Wing” to give the greatest tag team of all time their just due.

And there you go. My thanks for reading. Any comments, thoughts or questions, just drop me a line and let’s talk. Until the next time, stay safe and have a very Merry Christmas. I’ll see you at the matches.

Ubuntu!