Tossing Salt Presents:
Ultimate Wrestling Q&A
Pat McAfee, Buff Bagwell, Kenny Omega & More
July 8, 2022
DougMaynard.com

I just watched the entrance that Alan Angels got in his debut match at Impact against the X-Division Champion Mike Bailey. It’s obvious that even though Angels lost the match, Impact sees him as a future star. Much love and kudos to Angels. And now, let’s do the Ultimate Wrestling Q&A.

WWE has signed Pat McAfee to a new contract. Good or not? Thoughts?

A great idea in my opinion because McAfee thus far, has been excellent in his role at the Smackdown announce table. He has an energy about him that has been lacking in quite a while in WWE and even Michael Cole seems to have stepped up his game a bit to keep up. Plus McAfee can wrestle, quite well actually, and his interactions with the WWE wrestlers add an air of unpredictability and excitement to the show. So far, he’s been nothing but positive in his role as part of the WWE and there is no reason for that to stop now.

Buff Bagwell has been exposed. He wasn’t running his own Twitter and some fans got ripped off on money. Thoughts?

In all honesty, I was taken in too. I’ve been following Buff and have had many exchanges with him over the past few months and I thought it was the real deal. And now, after many denials, it comes out that another man was running the account and posting as Buff at least part of, if not all the time, and that’s not even taking into account people that ordered merchandise from “Buff” and haven’t gotten what they ordered. Buff made a video addressing the situation and while he seemed sincere, I also heard a lot of excuses and the implication I got towards those who were scammed, sorry about your damn luck. In my opinion, Buff needs to make things right with those who tried to support him by buying merchandise, either by supplying the items ordered or giving a full refund. And as for his Twitter site, it’s a wait-and-see deal to see what happens next. A lot of people have been let down and disappointed by Bagwell. This Mike guy, who was running the site, was very interactive and mostly positive so no one wants to accept that it wasn’t Bagwell. The truth hurts though. Bagwell needs to try and make it right.

Word is that Sasha Banks & Naomi have been removed from internal WWE documents. Thoughts?

I guess WWE is most likely tired of waiting for them to come to their senses and is now ready to just cut them loose and let them go. It’s sad that things have turned out this way, but it won’t hurt WWE that much and as for Sasha and Naomi, they’ll be fine as well. I do think this probably has most likely put a strain on Noami’s marriage to the Uso, but that is their life and business and not ours to worry about. Now we just have to wait and see what comes next.

What should WWE do about the Women’s Tag Team Championship titles? When will we get new champions?

I would suggest just throwing together a multi-woman tag team match or a tournament of some kind, using the current WWE Women’s roster and also bringing up a few women who team together regularly in NXT, and just crown some new champions. The Bellas have talked about returning for another run, plus I know Trish Stratus has said the same thing on occasion, so Trish & Lita can most likely be thrown into the mix. Anyhow, put together a tournament or something and crown some new champions. And then, regardless of who wins, push the new tag team champions strong and hard to prove Sasha and Naomi wrong.

Who do you think has the brighter future, Bron Breakker or Wardlow?

Right now, Bron Breakker. Wardlow looks great in AEW, but given the kind of matches he’s wrestling and the lack of structure that AEW has in place, there is just so far he can go. Breakker is eventually going to be a star on the main roster, but right now, he gets to wrestle more of a variety of opponents and grow and learn with each match. The way AEW is structured, Wardlow is limited in his capacity to grow. WWE has more opportunities and Breakker is just the type, with the extra guidance of his father, to take advantage of each and every one of them. Breakker will be a big star for WWE. Wardlow will eventually be sitting there, wrestling the same guy for the 1000th time, wondering what happened.

Fatal 4-Way Match: The Road Warriors versus Demolition versus The Powers of Pain versus Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson. Who wins?

You have six big muscle guys and two wrestlers. Of course, the two guys who wrestle, using brains over brawn, would take home the win here. The winners would be Arn and Tully.

Kenny Omega recently stated that if he was to suffer another major injury, he was most likely done with pro wrestling. Thoughts?

If I heard him correctly, I think he was talking more about how hard the healing process and rehab are and not necessarily the injuries themselves, but he’s right that the numerous injuries, especially the way they had piled up on him, were devastating and I can see why he feels as he does now. In the same comments, he also talked about slowing it down and working more towards telling a story than hitting big spots and essentially killing himself with every match. I think Omega needs to take a look at Seth Rollins over at WWE. Rollins was a different wrestler several years ago and he was also forced out of action for nearly a year due to injuries, just like Omega currently has been. Seth came back and altered his style a bit, with fewer big moves, but more psychology and story-telling. Seth became more of a character and he’s hotter than ever, having great matches, making impact after impact, and isn’t getting hurt nearly as much. I don’t much care for Omega, but I don’t want to see any wrestler forced to end their career due to injuries. I think Omega finally gets it and if he needs an example of what to and not to do as his career continues, take notes from Seth. It’ll make a big difference. Watch and see.

And there you go for today. My thanks for reading. Any comments, thoughts, or questions you may have are welcome and appreciated. Until the next time, take care and be good, my friends. Watch out for the foreign objects or the small man living under the ring. I’ll see you at the matches.

Ubuntu!