Tossing Salt Presents:
Ultimate Wrestling Q&A
Tully Blanchard, Jonathan Gresham, Top 10 Tag Teams & More
July 25, 2022
DougMaynard.com

Time only fears the pyramids and the legends of pro wrestling. Larry Zbyszko once said that and guess what? He’s right. It’s the Ultimate Wrestling Q&A and things are starting to settle down. We’ve only got two Vince/WWE-based questions today. Let’s do this. 

It seems that Tully Blanchard is no longer with AEW/ROH and “sold” Tully Blanchard Enterprises to ROH legend Prince Nana. Thoughts?

In my opinion, Tully has been wasted as an asset at AEW and just got lost in the shuffle and wasted to the point that there was no reason to stick around. He went from managing FTR to an angle that was blown off and forgotten in a week, to being part of ROH, but with no clear direction or purpose. I guess he just got tired of it and I wonder if this is due to the apparent lack of communication between management (Tony Khan) and the wrestlers who are not his top guys. I’ll speak more on that later, but whatever the reason. Tully now moves on to the next chapter of his life, which I’m thinking (hoping) will be popping up with Tessa whenever she returns to wrestling and keeping her in line. We’ll just have to wait and see what’s next. 

NWA wrestler Natalia Markova accused Carmella of stealing her catchphrase, “Badass with a great ass”, and wants her to quit using it. Thoughts?

From what I understand, Markova used the line a few times, then Carmella started using it. It’s not copyrighted or anything, but Markova feels Carmella stole it from her and should quit saying it, even though she has no proof and this is pure speculation. Maybe Carmella did and maybe she didn’t, but to be honest, Markova has no case here and just needs to shut up and eat it. More people see Carmella every week on WWE TV than have seen Markova perform in the past two years. As a regular TV talent, Carmella is constantly looking for ways to refresh her character and entertain and she’s going to pick up comments and sayings from pretty much anywhere and everywhere she can to aid her in her character. I’ll put it like this. In my writing, I often use obscure catchphrases and comments from wrestlers of years past to spice things up. Carmella is doing the same thing. Markova just needs to hush already. 

Would you rank FTR among the ten greatest tag teams of all time? If so, where and who would be the other nine teams?

Of all time, they’ve had a great enough career to crack the top 10, but as to where, I’m not sure. I don’t do well in saying Team A is better than Team B unless it’s the Midnight Express and they’re better than every other team. But as to what place in the pecking order I’d place FTR, I really can’t say. As for my personal Top Ten of Tag Teams of ALL TIME, my list would go as follows.

1. The Midnight Express w/ Jim Cornette
2. The Minnesota Wrecking Crew (Ole & Gene Anderson)
3. The Hart Foundation
4. Rick Steamboat & Jay Youngblood
5. The Usos
6. The Rock & Roll Express
7. Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson
8. Paul Jones & The Masked Superstar
9. FTR
10. The Enforcers (Arn Anderson & Larry Zbyszko)

Does Vince McMahon now go into the WWE Hall of Fame?

Unless more major scandals pop up between now and then, I think that Vince being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame for the next class is a no-brainer. No one deserves it more. 

Both in their prime, The Missing Link versus The One Man Gang. Who wins?

I was always a big fan of the One Man Gang before he went to WWE and discovered his ancestry as a jive-talking, race faker. The Link, aka Dewey Robertson, was an amazing talent and definitely one of a kind, but if these two men clashed in their primes and I was the man with the book, I’d have OMG going over and getting that big win. 

Former ROH Champion Jonathan Gresham has reportedly asked for his release from AEW/ROH due to feeling disrespected and no communication from Tony Khan. Thoughts?

This seems to be a recurring theme with AEW and Tony Khan. He’s said to be a great person and so approachable to his talents until he’s not, and then he’s just hard to communicate with. This happened with Swerve, Marko Stunt, Chavo Guerrero, and now Gresham. To be honest, I think the problem is that Tony has so much going on, that he loses track and doesn’t have the time to properly talk to and deal with each wrestler and talent individually as he should. Khan needs to hire someone as an EVP of Talent Relations to handle the day-to-day communication with the talents so stuff like this doesn’t happen. Jim Ross did the job for WWE for years and would be great in that role. As for Gresham, he is a good wrestler and although he’s not the most charismatic person, he speaks well with his in-ring ability, so he won’t have any problem finding work, but it should never have gotten this far. I think that the bottom line here is that Khan is over-extended and if you’re not one of his go-to guys, you’re going to get lost in the shuffle. Not a good thing at all, but that’s how it is. 

If Bruce Pritchard leaves WWE, do you think he goes to AEW? How about Kevin Dunn?

If Bruce leaves WWE, I think the focus will be on the podcast, and if he returns to work in a wrestling promotion, Impact Wrestling is the most likely place he may pop up. As for Dunn, if he leaves WWE, he moves on from wrestling, never to be seen again. 

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

Ubuntu!