Tossing Salt Presents:
Ultimate Wrestling Q&A
Captain Lou Albano, MJF, Bastion Booger & More
July 12, 2022
DougMaynard.com

My man, Erick, decided to send me a few questions via e-mail this morning, plus I spotted a couple of good ones on Twitter. And here we are. It’s the Ultimate Wrestling Q&A. Are you ready? Let’s do this.

If Captain Lou Albano was alive today and in the WWE, who would he be managing?

Captain Lou was a great character and one of the best managers in WWE history. No one can deny that, but in today’s politically correct world, 3/4 of the things he said or did wouldn’t be allowed on television and he’d probably spend more time talking to Human Resources than his fellow wrestlers. But if by some miracle, we were to get Captain Lou in his prime in today’s WWE, I think it would be an awesome thing. And as to who he would be managing, the Captain seemed to specialize in the oddball wrestlers and tag teams. So with today’s WWE roster, I could see the Captain with Veer, Omos, and maybe even Brock after Heyman dumped him. The Captain would do great in today’s WWE if he didn’t get himself fired first, and a Captain Lou-like character wreaking havoc on RAW and Smackdown is probably an idea that WWE Creative needs to look into. Just saying.

Killer Khan, Hulk Hogan & Stan Hansen versus The Fabulous Freebirds. Who wins?

A quick note here. The Hansen/Hogan/Khan team were all managed by Freddie Blassie at the same time in the WWF and so this three-man team was a distinct possibility. And then we have the Freebirds, who wrote the book on three-man teams. Their legacy is incredible. By the way, my Freebird team here is Hayes, Gordy, and Roberts. Nothing against Jimmy Garvin, but for this match, he can go fly a plane with Precious and Ronnie. And this match? If we have to have a clean finish, it’ll be the Blassie-led team of Hogan, Hansen, and Khan taking the win after Hansen lays Roberts out with a lariat.

Finally caught up with MITB yesterday and it really seems to me like Ronda Rousey isn’t very over with the crowd. Am I crazy?

While I can’t attest to your mental health status, I do get what you’re saying about Ronda. Ronda isn’t getting the response that WWE was hoping for, but I think a lot of it is that Ronda is playing the babyface when her natural character is and should be a heel. Ronda is at her best when she puts her game-face on and kicks everyone’s ass. Instead, she’s pandering to the crowd, smiling all the time, and the fans don’t buy it and it’s obvious that Ronda isn’t into it that much either. And the booking hasn’t helped either. When Rousey first came to the WWE, she was special. She was the female Brock Lesnar and lived up to her rep as the baddest woman on the planet. Now she’s just one of the girls. WWE just seems to have dropped the ball with Rousey in every category since she came back to the company after having her baby. She could be doing so much more.

Did you see the video of Natalya completely no-selling a pin by Liv Morgan and leaving the ring after the match? What the hell is that? Very unprofessional.

I agree. It was very unprofessional and I’m assuming that Natalya was having a bad night or was pissed about something. Regardless of the reason, it looks bad and I’m sure that once she went backstage, Natalya heard about it from management. If she didn’t, then she needs to.

Dolph Ziggler turned face and went after Theory last night on RAW. Thoughts? And does this mean we’re going to see the return of a “Glorious” Bobby Roode on Smackdown?

It’s good to see that someone in WWE management remembered that Dolph Ziggler was cracking jokes in catering and decided to put him back to work. I’m glad to see Ziggler back on TV. He’s a guy who can easily be fitted into any place on the card and do a great job with consistently good matches. The main roster for RAW is lacking in top guys on the face side so this is a good move. He and Theory should, in theory anyhow, have some great matches. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next. As for Bobby Roode, if he does show up on Friday at Smackdown and lays into a few of their top guys, that would be, dare I say it, GLORIOUS!

Has the angle with MJF gone totally stale and cold in AEW?

Wrestling fans seem to have moved on and AEW has done, if it’s possible, too good a job at burying MJF and removing him and his antics from the minds and interest of fans. But that being said, when he does show back up and starts raising hell, it is going to blow the roof off of whatever arena they’re working at and the pop is going to be one of the biggest moments in AEW history. We might even get a smile from Cornette when that happens. Okay, let’s not get that crazy, but it’ll be a big moment.

Is Bruiser Brody in the Top Ten of All Time Wrestlers?

The top ten of all time? I’m not sure about that. Brody was a legit tough guy, a great character, and a star everywhere he went, but when you say all-time greats, that covers a lot of ground and a lot of great wrestlers. I would say that Brody belongs in anyone’s Top 20 for sure. Wrestling is subjective and everyone has different opinions on what they like, what they look for in a great wrestler, etc. Brody could do it all and that’s for sure, but so can a lot of other men and women. So Top Ten, maybe? Top twenty, for sure.

Thoughts on Bastion Booger?

Bastion Booger, real name Mike Shaw, had to be someone in WWE’s idea of a major rib and a really sick sense of humor. That character had no redeeming values and made the Red Rooster look like Bryan Danielson or CM Punk by comparison. And it’s a shame because Mike Shaw was a good wrestler, as he proved with several previous gimmicks such as Makhan Singh, Norman the Lunatic, or Aaron Grundy. Hell, even Friar Ferguson was better than the Booger gimmick. Shaw was not a classical great wrestler, but he could do comedy or a character as well as anyone and even wrestled a few matches against Ric Flair for the NWA Championship during his career. But he’s remembered as a guy who didn’t bathe, ate belly button lint, smelled bad, and farted a lot. Anything for a buck, I guess, but he deserved better and that gimmick, in my opinion, sucked!

And there you go. My thanks for reading. Comments, thoughts, and any questions you may have are welcome and appreciated. Talk to me, my peeps. And with that, I’m out of here. Take care and be safe and watch out for foreign objects. I’ll see you at the matches.

Ubuntu!