Tossing Salt Presents:
Ultimate Wrestling Q&A
Montez Ford, Wrestlemania, Roman Reigns & More
April 4, 2023
DougMaynard.com

More wrestling questions for another edition of the Ultimate Wrestling Q&A? You’re damn right! Let’s do this.

How many more “breakout performances” can Montez have before fans give up? Feel like we’ve been saying “He’s got big things ahead of him…” for years now, and I have zero faith left in this company elevating those who are over with the fans.

Montez Ford is capable of some amazing things and my thoughts are that they want to give Montez a push, but there is still a lot of mileage left with the Street Profits as well and WWE wants to milk that for as long as they can too. There are plenty of singles stars to use, but strong tag teams that can fill the New Day spots are few and far between. I look at the Street Profits like the Harlem Heat in that everyone knew that Booker T was a breakout star, but WCW kept Harlem Heat going and Booker & Stevie Ray filled a spot until it wasn’t practical anymore. It’s the same thing here and Montez will get his push eventually, but not until WWE has milked the tag team dry.

Realistically, how does Triple H fix this? Like how do we get back to both shows having champions?

Either a triple-threat match, two out of three falls, where both titles are at stake and different people win each fall and the belts, or an executive decision to strip the title from Roman for whatever reason and declare a new champion. Either of those would work.

Do you think Reigns beating Cody is like Trips beating Sting to make WWE superior to rival companies? Is it a good choice?

I think it’s story development and happened for a reason. Whether it’s a good choice or not is arguable, but I think there was a legit reason for Roman to go over Cody. It was HHH’s call and that’s all we need to know about that.

Question: why Do fans meltdown when “their” wrestler” doesn’t win and shouldn’t we embrace long-term storytelling and where these stories could go next?

Because wrestling fans are fickle and crazy with an immediate need for instant gratification and no patience for a good story or getting involved in and caring about a story.

I’ve seen some suggest that Cody needed to lose because his story needs to go deeper than one year. Do you think it’s possible to catch lightning in a bottle twice, or has the moment now truly passed? If the latter… who the hell beats Roman now?

If the story is good enough, then yes, it can happen again. And Cody and Roman are good enough to do it again and the old cliche is true in that we haven’t seen anything yet. And if it’s not in his destiny of Cody to live out his dream and beat Roman, what about a final title run for Randy Orton? Works for me.

What is your feeling about not getting the open challenge from Bobby Lashley with Bron Breakker coming out and getting over? Do you think they’ll just save it for Raw?

I was surprised that WWE dropped the ball with Lashley and Bron Breakker would have been an excellent choice to answer the call. RAW was last night and it didn’t happen then although we did get Lashley versus Mustafa Ali. My guess about Bron is that after the breaking news about Bron’s Uncle Rick this weekend, the push and debut on the main roster might have been put on hold for a while. It’s hard to figure out what WWE is doing right now.

Your thoughts on Roman “retiring” as a way to split the belts? Then next month Premium live events can crown the new champs.

Roman retiring? Nah, that doesn’t work for me.

To me, it feels like both nights were booked by different people. Do you think that Triple H and Vince McMahon made a bet to book Night 1 and Night 2 respectively to see whose night gets a better reception?

I don’t think we had any gambling going on behind the scenes regarding what night was better. Both nights were well done and all in all, it was a good show. Both men may have been involved in the booking, but it was pretty consistent and a fun show.

Raw after Mania. Are we expecting any main roster debuts? Bron Breakker seems likely after having just dropped the NXT Championship.

Well, RAW was last night and there were no main roster debuts. The only surprise was Bad Bunny, who went through a table, but aside from that, no big surprises.

Do you think this could build a rematch at Mania 40 between Roman and Cody where Cody puts his career on the line like Shawn and Taker?

It could happen, but I don’t think that WWE will make us wait that long. I think that either the Saudi show or SummerSlam is where we’ll get the big payoff for Cody versus Roman. A title versus career would be a good way to wrap this story up.

And there you go. My thanks for reading. Comments, thoughts, and any questions are welcome and appreciated. And with that, it’s time to wrap things up. Take care and be well, my friends. I’ll see you at the matches.

Ubuntu!