Tossing Salt Presents:
Ultimate Wrestling Q&A
Halls of Fame, Royal Rumble, Elias & More
January 27, 2022
DougMaynard.com

Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get ready to Rumble. No, that will be on Saturday. For now, it’s just talking about the Royal Rumble and lots more stuff. It’s the Ultimate Wrestling Q&A. Let’s do this.

We just saw the 1st Ever Independent Wrestling Hall of Fame Saturday Night. Now the WWE Hall of Fame is upon us! Whos going in?

I answered this question a few weeks ago, but let’s do it again with my revised picks, right off the top of my head right now, I’ll go with Paul Heyman, Jim Cornette & the Midnight Express, Victoria, Cyndi Lauper as the Celebrity Inductee, Harlem Heat, William Regal, and Tommy Dreamer. And the Legacy Inductees, I’ll go with Baron Von Raschke, Paul Jones, Mr. Wrestling II, Vivian Vachon, Mad Dog Vachon, Billy Robinson Penny Banner, and Sweet Daddy Siki.

Speaking of Hall’s of Fame, ROH announced that’s it’s starting its own Hall of Fame. Who do you think will be the first five inductees?

For Ring of Honor, I’d go with Samoa Joe, CM Punk, The Briscoes, Bryan Danielson, and founder Rob Feinstein.

Are you looking forward to ELIAS making his return? He had a brand new look, braided beard, and shorter hair and skin color tights. What could this mean?

It sounds as if they’re turning him into a modern-day version of Superstar Billy Graham so maybe they’ll have Superstar Graham, who recently signed a new contract with WWE, do a vignette and introduce Elias as his new protege. That’s one way that it could go, but most likely, it’ll just be Elias coming in, doing something for a few weeks, bombing big time as Vince won’t be happy, and then vanishing again. Elias needs to go back to the first gimmick and character where he played guitar, got a little snarky sometimes, and would get interrupted, leading to a match. That was probably the best Elias has been booked since being with WWE, but then they started to work to improve his character and he’s sucked ever since. So either a new version of Superstar Graham or back to doing concerts. One can only hope.

How would you book a match with Sammy Guevera versus Hook?

I’d play on Hook’s reputation as a shoot fighter and really push it with Hook having a match with Sammy and no winner, but Hook gets DQ’ed with a vicious shot on Sammy and takes him out, beating him so bad that we see the entire VLOG Crew come out to chase Hook off and sell the severity of the injury. Then while Sammy “recovers”, we have Hook in matches each week against Fuego, Aaron Soho, Griff Garrison, Alan Angels, and Marko Stunt. Hook shows a malicious side and tries to send a message to Sammy with each win and it all leads to a title match at one of the big PPVs for AEW between the two men. And there you go.

WWE still hasn’t released Mustafa Ali and now it’s been revealed that Brian Kendrick is waiting on a release as well. Why is WWE stalling so much?

Only WWE knows for sure, but I suspect that they just don’t want Ali to end up in AEW. And as for Kendrick goes, I don’t get why they’re stalling and delaying his release. It’s probably just lost paperwork at the office and just a matter of time.

There are rumors that Ronda Rousey will be back at the Rumble. Thoughts?

From what I understand, the WWE is ready for Ronda to come back and if she’s willing, they’ll have a spot for her waiting. Personally, I’m more interested in seeing Asuka make her return, but having Ronda back would be interesting to see and the women’s division does need something to spice things up a bit. So is Ronda coming back? We’ll probably know something on Saturday and if she does come back, yay!

Lita says she wants to face Becky. Would you like to see this match?

Lita versus Becky? That could be pretty good to see if Lita is able to go in that ring as she used to. Let’s see how she does with the Rumble on Saturday and then her seeming issues with Charlotte and if she looks good with that, then Becky it is. If not, she can quietly head back to the retirement home and tea with her best friend Trish.

Has Chris Jericho overstayed his welcome in AEW?

While I don’t think it would be a major loss for AEW if Jericho was to decide to retire, head out to do Fozzy full-time, or opt to not renew his contract and go to the WWE, I still think he has a lot to offer backstage and in terms of creativity. So he’s not washed up or totally unwelcome, but the places where he would be most valuable for the company may have changed a bit. Less main event matches and more helping to do stories and put together matches for other wrestlers. And there you go.

If you were a wrestling manager who throughout history would you represent and would you prefer a stable or one main client?

I’d prefer a stable, much like Bobby Heenan or Sir Oliver Humperdink did with their families. As for who I’d like to represent, how about four men named Ric, Ole, Arn, and Tully. Works for me.

Who are your picks to win the Men’s and Women’s Royal Rumble matches on Saturday?

There are not really any clean-cut favorites in either match to win so I’ll just go with who I would like to see rather than who most likely will. For the women, I keep hearing Ronda Rousey’s name being mentioned as a surprise and also that, even though she hasn’t been announced, Asuka is medically cleared to return. So my guess would be one of those two ladies. Ronda has unfinished business with Becky so let’s say Ronda will show up, look great, and win to go face Becky at Mania. As for the guys, if Bray Wyatt appears, then he wins, but if he doesn’t, I’ll go with Cesaro. It’s time for him to get a push and Cesaro versus Roman? If we can’t have Rock versus Roman, then this will work just as well for me.

I don’t watch GCW but from what I’ve seen it looks like a newer version of ECW. Is that correct or nah?

I didn’t watch it either but did read as many of the recaps as I could and have seen a few things on YouTube and I think a comparison to ECW is right on track. In fact, from what I’ve seen thus far, they should go ahead and change the name to ECW 2.0. It’s close enough anyhow.

And there you go. My thanks for reading. Comments, thoughts, or any questions you may have, drop me a line, and let’s talk. Until the next time, stay safe and be good. I’ll see you at the matches.

Ubuntu!