Tossing Salt Presents:
Ultimate Wrestling Q&A
The Rock, Scott Norton, Triple H & More
March 25, 2023
DougMaynard.com

It’s time to do that ‘rasslin’ thing. It’s the Ultimate Wrestling Q&A. Let’s go.

I recently read that former WWE/WCW referee Nick Patrick seems to think Vince McMahon is secretly running AEW. Is this as crazy as it sounds?

Yes, it is as crazy as it sounds and I don’t think Nick Patrick was being serious with this claim. On his worst day, Vince has never been as consistently bad as Tony has been with AEW. Patrick was just trying to be funny.

My question is – do you agree with people saying that Triple H does not know how to correctly book the women’s division?

What do you want? A return to the days of bra & panties matches? Triple H is doing just fine and his work with the Women’s Division is a work in progress, as is his work with the rest of the company. It’s not perfect yet, but have faith. He’s getting there and working on it.

What do you think of this….Cody and Roman got all it in WM only to have The Bloodline come down and interfere. Then out comes Sami with a chair to help Cody…only to hit Cody with it and Roman retains it. They say that it was a ruse all along And Sami is an official Uso. Do you think they would do something like that and would it work?

No, they wouldn’t do that and no, it would not work. Fantasy booking is all well and good, but if that’s the best you can come up with, just give it up already. That’s a Vince Russo level of bad!

Is it my imagination or is the “comedy role” gone in WWE?
I have not seen R Truth in months and Sami has gone from getting pinned in mousetraps to the main event.

You’re right that the comedy spots are few and far between. R-Truth has been out of action due to an injury, while Sami is a serious wrestler now, and there’s a reason for that. Triple H prefers serious wrestling over the juvenile comedy spots that Vince enjoyed so much. A different booker means a different direction for the company and unfortunately, that means sacrifices have to be made, in this case, the comedy. I miss them too, but the overall product for WWE has improved quite a bit so it’s just the price that had to be paid. No complaints.

What in your opinion is wrong with wrestling over the last 20 years? Compared to what we had in the ’80s and before, what do you think is wrong with pro wrestling today?

It’s simple. No competition for WWE, so we only had one style of wrestling to watch for the majority of the past two decades, plus there was no reason for anyone to think outside the box or try anything new. If you wanted to be a big star in the U.S., you did what Vince wants and tried to impress Vince, and that killed originality. Now that there are true alternatives, with AEW, a stronger Indy scene, MLW, Impact, etc., things are getting better.

Why was Scott “Flash” Norton never a main-event star for WCW?

You answered your own question. Because it was WCW. Norton was over big time in Japan and while not the most charismatic personality, he had good matches and was a great power guy. The WCW roster was so crowded though with better talkers and big egos, Norton just got lost in the mix and his best moments in WCW were in tag teams with Ice Train & Buff Bagwell. Too bad because he could have been a big player for the company.

The Harlem Heat (Booker T & Stevie Ray) versus The East-West Connection (Adrian Adonis & Jesse Ventura) versus The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods). Who wins?

This one would go to Booker T & Stevie Ray. Now can you dig that, sucka?

The Rock’s daughter, Ava Raine, will make her official televised in-ring debut at NXT Stand & Deliver in Los Angeles, just a few hours before the first night of Wrestlemania takes place. Do you think the Rock will be there to see his daughter’s first televised match? And since it’s in LA on the same night at Wrestlemania, do you think we might see The Rock show up to confront Roman? Thoughts?

So if the Rock is the great father we all know him to be, he’ll probably be in Los Angeles to see his daughter wrestle her first televised/pay-per-view match. And that will just happen to put him in the same city, at a WWE event, just a few hours before Night One of Wrestlemania. That’s a mighty big coincidence, don’t you think? I’d give The Rock about a 75% chance of making an appearance in some way, shape, or fashion at Mania. Rock versus Roman for the role of the Head of the Table and Tribal Chief? It has to happen at some point so why not plant a few more seeds when the opportunity presents itself? Sounds like a plan to me.

Have you heard about or seen the match with Britt Baker versus Anna Jay from the AEW house show a few days ago? Go watch it. Thoughts?

I heard Cornette talk about this match and then went and watched it on YouTube and it was not good at all. If someone is making big money working for the second-largest wrestling promotion in the country, they should at least know how to do a simple, basic match. I went to a local Indy event a couple of weeks ago and every single match on that show was better than what Britt Baker and Anna Jay, two big wrestling stars, were trying to do in that ring. I think that both women need to go talk to AEW Agents Dean Malenko & Jerry Lynn and go back to wrestling school for a while. That was bad. Just bad!

And there you go. My thanks for reading. Comments, thoughts, and any questions are welcome and appreciated. And with that, take care my friends, and stay well. I’m out of here. Watch out for foreign objects and I’ll see you at the matches.

Ubuntu!