Tossing Salt Presents:
Ultimate Wrestling Q&A
The Dark Order, Matt Hardy, Excalibur & More
January 25, 2021
DougMaynard.com

It’s Monday morning and the week begins anew. Let’s do the Q&A.

Who thought making the Dark Order babyfaces, would be a good idea?

With the death of Brodie Lee, AEW really didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. The Dark Order was already popular, in a guilty-pleasure type of way, and then Lee passed away and the fans decided to fully embrace the group. It’ll be interesting to see if The Dark Order can maintain the momentum and traction they’re gaining at the moment, but it was the fans who made the call. The fans and fate.

Steve Austin versus Jon Moxley in a street-fight. Who wins?

Both men in their prime and relatively injury-free? I’m going to get some hate from this, but I’ll go with Moxley on this one. A normal match would benefit Austin and a battle of words, promo versus promo, would go to Austin as well. But a “street fight” style of match, that works to Moxley’s advantage and I think he’s just a little better with the plunder than Austin.

Thoughts on Marko Stunt as AEW World Champion?

If AEW had a light-heavyweight title or a Cruiserweight title, then Stunt might be a contender. If AEW had a “Midget’s Title”, then Stunt and Swoggle could fight over it all day and yesterday and have some fun times. But Stunt as the AEW World Champion? Not now and not ever.

Can anyone explain the logic behind Matt Hardy’s heel turn, please?

It’s part of the constant evolution and reinvention that is Matt Hardy in his bid to stay relevant. Matt has been many things in the past, but never really a heel and never really a manager. Now, he’s both. And the Matt Hardy brand continues.

Should Excalibur lose the mask while calling matches?

Nope. It’s part of his character and who he is. Wearing a mask doesn’t interfere with his announcing. He’s just naturally bad. He should stay true to himself and keep the gimmick, the mask, in play.

Could a wrestler like Rufus R. Jones make it in today’s business?

On the Indy circuit, sure. Rufus didn’t have a great body, could hardly talk or cut a promo, and was definitely on the low end of the spectrum in so far as in-ring ability goes, but the man had charisma, drew money, and had fans. In one of the major companies, he’d be a novelty act at best and wouldn’t have much of an opportunity, but he would still be able to have a career.

How about WWE bringing in Baby Doll to present the winners of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classics tournaments with their trophies? Since Dustin & Cody aren’t available, I think that would be cool.

That would be cool, especially since, as you said, no members of the Rhodes family are available to come to WWE and present the winners with their rewards. If you can’t have Dusty’s family, have people who were closely aligned with Dusty instead. Baby Doll would be great. Magnum TA would be another. So would Nikita Koloff. I hope that someone from WWE is reading and they do something like this. It would be, as you say, very cool indeed.

And there you go. My thanks for reading. Comments, thoughts, and any questions are welcome and appreciated. Until the next time, stay safe and take care. I’ll see you at the matches.

Ubuntu!