Tossing Salt Presents:
Ultimate Wrestling Q&A
The New Day, John Cena, Bulldog Brower & More
December 12, 2022
DougMaynard.com

As the great Blackjack Mulligan would say, “Go get Granny off the porch and Mama from the kitchen. I want everyone to get up close and listen to what I have to say because I’m only saying this once.” And what is it that I have to say? Welcome to the Ultimate Wrestling Q&A. That’s it. That’s my message. Now, let’s do this.

Do you see New Day’s positioning in the Ricochet match as foreshadowing Big E’s return to take the title from Gunther?

I think it was actually more of a way to get the New Day on television and promote the NXT Deadline event that happened the next night. You know, the one where Kofi and Xavier won the NXT Tag Team Championship titles? I haven’t seen or heard anything of Big E being medically cleared or ready to return to the ring and something of that magnitude would have leaked by now. We may see The New Day and Imperium fighting at some point down the road, but so far as the working with Ricochet, I think it was just a way to get them on TV for the night and nothing more.

Do you feel that Roman will drop both titles at Mania? If so, who should be the ones to dethrone the Tribal Chief?

I think he’ll drop one of the belts at Mania and keep possession of the other one, most likely by wrestling two matches, one each night. And who will take one of the Tribal Chief’s valued titles? Most likely Cody Rhodes.

Who do you think should dethrone Gunther for the title? Personally, I think Madcap Moss could do it.

Moss is really coming along and getting more entertaining and better every time he steps into the ring so he’d be a good pick to take the IC title off of Gunther. Another good pick, who I’d love to see have a run against Gunther is Bron Breakker when he makes his move to the main roster.

The person to dethrone Jericho as ROH champion should be someone most closely associated with ROH such as Jonathan Gresham. ROH is losing its identity under AEW just as ECW did under WWE. Thoughts?

Well, Claudio Castagnoli took that ROH Championship away from Jericho yesterday at ROH Final Battle so we know who the man was to dethrone Jericho. Claudio has a history in ROH so he should be accepted as a Champion by the more hardcore ROH fans. And yes, I agree that ROH seems to be losing its identity, but that’s something we have to accept and get used to. What was once ROH is now just Tony Khan’s new toy to do with as he wants. We’re just lucky he hasn’t put it entirely on the shelf.

Should Rampage just be given to ROH?

I don’t think that the deal with Warner Bros. will allow for that. Rampage was created to be an AEW show and to be honest, AEW needs all the TV it can get to promote the talent on the AEW roster. Leave it as it is. ROH needs to be given its own television, but not at the expense of the AEW roster.

Do you think John Cena wrestles on that final Smackdown? Could he be there to enter the Royal Rumble?

If Cena doesn’t have an actual match, I’m pretty sure that he’ll be involved in a physical confrontation or angle with someone. Is Cena going to be in the Rumble? While that could be fun, my hope is that he is there to set up a match for someone and himself at the Rumble event, but leaves the actual Rumble itself to full-time wrestlers who actually deserve a shot at Roman and the titles at Mania.

Taking the booker out of the equation, Magnum vs Luger during their prime. Who would win?

If it’s a match, then you can’t take the booker out of the equation because that’s who makes the match, gives the finish and is the reason for the match to begin with. And if Magnum and Lex were to wrestle, the booker would decide who gets the win. There are no other options for a wrestling match. Now on the other hand, if it’s a shoot or a legit fight, I think I would probably go with Magnum TA to lay Lex out.

Thoughts on Bulldog Brower?

Bulldog Brower was one of the top stars of the 70s and his gimmick was that he was just an absolute mental case. I only really know of him from the wrestling magazines that loved to do stories about how crazy and sadistic Brower was and how his manager in the WWF, Captain Lou Albano, would use and manipulate him in the attempts to destroy Bob Backlund. I’ve seen some videos of Brower engaged in bloody brawls with The Mighty Igor as well. I don’t know much about Brower, but what I do know is that he was not a man to be messed with and always left a strong impression on the fans every time he stepped into that ring.

Of these four, Bret Michaels, HBK, Ric Flair, or The Rock, who was the most overrated?

I’ll probably get some criticism for this, but I would say The Rock. Now hear me out. The Rock was a good wrestler, but most of his appeal was the charisma, the catchphrases, and the energy he brought to the ring. His in-ring work was pretty by the book and repetitive, especially when compared to the other three men listed. Can anyone ever recall a great Rock match based on just pure wrestling skills? With the Rock, he knew his role, played it to the max, and did it better than anyone. But a truly great wrestler? Nope, I don’t think so. Luckily for him, he didn’t need to be.

How do you like Booker T as a commentator down in NXT?

Booker is a good wrestler, a talented man, and a true Hall of Fame legend. He’s not a good color commentator though, at least not in my opinion. I will admit that he’s been better recently down in NXT than he ever was as part of the main roster announce team, but he’s still not in the league of guys like Lawler, JBL, Taz, or Wade Barrett. Personally, I’d like to see Booker stick to the PPV Kickoff Shows and for NXT to bring Aiden English back to work at the announce desk. I doubt it will ever happen, but that’s what I’d like to see.

And with that, I’m out of here. My thanks for reading. Comments, thoughts, or any questions are very welcome and appreciated. And with that, I’m out of here. Take care and be well, my friends. I’ll see you at the matches.

Ubuntu!