Tossing Salt Presents:
Ultimate Wrestling Q&A
Saraya, Velveteen Dream, The ICP & More
June 5, 2023
DougMaynard.com

Are you ready to talk about the King of Sports? It’s the Ultimate Wrestling Q&A, where we keep it real and nothing is off limits. Let’s roll.

Glad people are starting to see through Saraya. She’s overpaid and under-skilled. She’s got Tony Khan hoodwinked! Thoughts?

Compared to what she was before her injuries, she’s just a shadow of her former self both in the ring and on the mic. WWE wouldn’t clear her for a reason and it’s pretty easy now to see that they were right in that decision. She doesn’t belong in the ring anymore and most weekend Indy show women with less than a year of experience could do better than what Saraya’s shown since her big return to AEW. I’m sure that Tony thought he was getting a valuable addition to the AEW Women’s roster when he hired Saraya. Tony was wrong.

What was your favorite version of The Horsemen?

For me, the original grouping of Ole, Ric, Arn, and Tully was and always will be the best. I did love it though when Barry Windham joined the group, and to be honest, Brian Pillman, Chris Benoit, and Steve “Mongo” McMichael were made to be Horsemen as well. I never really got into Sid, Roma, or Curt Hennig as Horsemen, but all of the rest were good in their roles at the time.

Col. DeBeers & Playboy Buddy Rose versus Hook & Jungle Boy. Who wins?

DeBeers & Rose were a great team in the Northeast and AWA territories and after their in-ring careers ended, ran a wrestling school together. Two good friends and great wrestlers. Hook and Jungle Boy? Well, they’ll sell a lot of t-shirts in AEW, but really, in my opinion, aren’t all that nor will they ever be. Rose & DeBeers win.

Ric Flair’s latest claim is that Scott Hall & Kevin Nash are “overrated”. Thoughts?

Anything Ric says these days has to be taken with a grain of salt, but on this, so far as Hall & Nash go, I halfway agree with him. Kevin Nash was never a great wrestler. He’s a guy who was in the right place at the right time, took advantage of the opportunities in front of him, and became a good character. Scott Hall though, if anything, was underrated. The man was great in the ring, on the mic, and behind the scenes. If he hadn’t had his demons and had more of an ego, Hall could easily have been among the very best of all time, and in many ways, better than Ric Flair. So Nash, yes, Flair is right, but on Scott Hall, he’s very, very wrong.

Would you be interested in seeing Patrick Clark, aka The Velveteen Dream, return to wrestling?

He’s an odd character to be sure and Mr. Clark has some issues and demons that need to be dealt with, but if he was to manage to put his life in order and get the baggage behind him, I wouldn’t mind seeing a return of the Velveteen Dream. He was entertaining to watch in NXT. So yeah, if he gets right, give the guy a chance. I’d watch it.

Mustafa Ali and Baron Corbin have both been sent down to NXT from the Main Roster. Do you think this will help their characters or not?

It’s a good move for both men to allow them to spice up their characters and wipe away the memories of the recent months with a fresh start and a new beginning. Plus it adds star power to the NXT events and gives the NXT talent a chance to work with main roster talent and learn what they need to do to take that next step and move up. It’s a win-win for everyone.

War Games Match: Hulk Hogan, The Road Warriors, Randy Savage & The Ultimate Warrior versus Ric Flair, The Steiner Brothers, Sting & Lex Luger. Who wins?

If I’m the man doing the booking, I’d have The Road Warriors do a turn and smash Hogan & Warrior, allowing their former NWA Associates to pick up the win and make The WWF group look like idiots.

Thoughts on the Insane Clown Posse as wrestlers?

For two untrained wrestlers, they were far better than they had any right to be. I wasn’t a big fan at the time, but much like Pat McAfee and Logan Paul today, the ICP respected the business and took it seriously when they were in the ring. They weren’t great by any means, but when paired with folks like Raven, Vampiro, and The Great Muta, the smoke & mirrors could hide their weaknesses and it made for some entertaining television. For the roles they played, they did well.

What was your opinion of the Young Bucks before AEW? I know there’s a lot of backlash toward them and their antics since they’ve been exposed weekly on national TV, but personally, before that, I was ambivalent toward them. “They existed,” were my thoughts. I’m curious about yours.

To be honest, before AEW, I had no idea that the Young Bucks existed. I’m sure that I may have seen their names on show recaps for ROH and some of the West Coast promotions like PWG, but they never stood out to me or seemed to be anything special. And now that they’re “big stars” in AEW, I understand why.

Given that there’s nothing international about the AEW International Championship, but that it’s defended weekly on television, shouldn’t TK re-rename it the AEW Television Championship, in the spirit and purpose of other historic TV titles?

I could go for that and it makes far more sense than being called the International Championship or whatever it was before, the All-Atlantic Championship or something like that. But honestly, it doesn’t matter what they call it. There are far too many titles in AEW as it is and this one doesn’t mean anything in the big picture of things.

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

Ubuntu!