Tossing Salt Presents:
Ultimate Wrestling Q&A
Chris Jericho, Lacey Evan’s Privates, Greg Gagne & More
June 11, 2023
DougMaynard.com

Let’s talk about the King of Sports, with nothing off-limits. It’s the Ultimate Wrestling Q&A. Are you ready? I said, ARE YOU READY? Let’s do this.

Has his time in AEW helped or hurt Chris Jericho’s legacy in professional wrestling?

That’s a tough call because he’s made a lot of money and had great success since the formation of All Elite Wrestling, but some of the stuff he’s done over the past few years has been cringe at best. Luckily, wrestling fans are fickle and have extremely short memories and all it will take is one good feud that makes sense or one good moment for Jericho and all will be immediately forgiven. Jericho’s run in AEW is comparable to Flair’s run in TNA. He’s making money and keeping his name out there in a prominent position, but when his career is over, the AEW will be glossed over, have an asterisk next to it, and be mostly forgotten by the fans, as it should be.

Teddy Long recently commented that he thinks Kenny Omega would beat Kurt Angle, even during Angle’s prime. Thoughts?

Compared to his Elite partners, Omega is capable of having good matches when motivated and can be a good wrestler with the right opponent. Angle would be a good opponent and make Omega forget about the silly stuff and man up. It would probably be an amazing match. But that being said, Angle would win.

Thoughts on The Ragin’ Bull, Manny Fernandez?

A tough guy, a decent wrestler with a strong attitude, and a prominent fixture in NWA history. Manny was exciting to me, but he was a strong part of many stories, and teaming with Dusty, fighting The Russians, teaming with Rick Rude as part of Paul Jones’s army to win the NWA Tag Team Championship, etc., could be considered a top mid-card guy for Crockett and the NWA. He’d be a good man to have behind you in a fight.

Thoughts on Greg Gagne?

As a wrestler, Greg was better than he usually gets credit for, but to be fair, if it wasn’t for who his father was, would not have been anything more than a mid-card performer at best if he had been related to anyone else. Greg was in a tough spot, dealing with Verne and the pressures of being the boss’s son, but he rose to the occasion, holding the tag team titles with Brunzell as part of the High Flyers. He’s a smart guy, a talented performer, and an overachiever who did far more in the wrestling business than he probably had any right to.

Mongolian Stomper, Iron Sheik & Baron Von Raschke versus Imperium. Who wins?

As much as I like Imperium, so long as Gunther isn’t the one getting the pin, the old-time version of the League of Nations would take the trip to the pay window and win.

Who had the best clothesline? My Top 3 would be JBL and his clothesline from Hell, Stan Hansen and his Lariat, and Rick Steiner’s Steinerline. Who are your top 3?

JBL and Hansen would certainly be in my Top 2 among the art of performing a clothesline, but my third best would be the legendary Masked Superstar, aka Bill Eadie. The Superstar didn’t do the standard clothesline but had a way where both men went off their feet and it looked amazing.

When you watch wrestling today, are there any wrestlers or moments that when watching, take you back to a different time and era with their characters and moves? If so, who and how?

This happens quite often as I’ll see a match or listen to a promo and my mind automatically goes back to a wrestler I’ve seen or heard from years ago and see the same traits, persona, etc. Two recent times come to mind.

One man I’ve seen wrestle now a few times is The Mob Boss, Phil DeCarlo. Watching DeCarlo perform, I see so much of the late, great Gene Anderson there with the way he moves, the way he plays to the crowd, and the role of a heel that’s easy to underestimate but is extremely dangerous. DeCarlo is a great old-school heel and if the territories were still alive, would be one of the biggest names around.

And the other is a young man named Sammy Love. Sammy isn’t but 19 years old, but already has several years of in-ring experience and gets better every time I see him wrestle. He gets it. During the last match, I saw him wrestle in, a couple of weeks ago here in Laurinburg, he was wrestling Nathan Cross, another excellent talent who has a bright future ahead of him, and during a back-and-forth, Sammy nailed Cross with a bionic elbow. It was so smooth that it didn’t look contrived or fake. It made sense and immediately reminded me of watching Dusty Rhodes do the same thing almost forty years ago against Tully. It took me back and put a smile on my face. Just awesome!

Maria Kanellis recently spoke on how she’d like “one more run” as an active in-ring wrestler. Thoughts?

I can get where she’s coming from, but let’s be honest here. Maria’s career in the ring hasn’t set the world on fire. She was good and it was obvious that she worked hard and was getting better as time progressed, but her biggest time has been as a manager and valet. As she’s getting older, she’d do far better in my opinion to continue in that role and use her influence to make an impact rather than risk physical injuries and the pressure of stepping into that ring again as an active wrestler. If she does wrestle again regularly, I’m sure she’ll kill it and do well, but I’d prefer to see her focus on working with her husband and the folks at AEW/ROH and doing the manager/valet thing.

Do you think the AEW Collision debut will do good ratings and over a million views?

As has been pointed out many times, Saturday night is a rough time slot and to maintain a strong rating will be hard. But for the debut edition at least, I think Collision will do well. I doubt they’ll break a million viewers for the initial broadcast, but the DVRs and online viewership will probably be off the charts. So far as the actual episode, I’m guesstimating about 850,000 viewers will be tuning in. I’m working that night, but when I get home, I’ll probably be one of them.

If Lacey Evans is going to do the Sgt. Slaughter Marine gimmick, should she have some “Privates”?

First, we need to see if Lacey’s newest gimmick is going to get over and stick, but if it does, I think having a couple of “Privates” to order around and use as flunkies would work quite well. Find a couple of young women with some potential and use them as Sgt. Slaughter did Private Nelson and Private Kernodle back in the Mid-Atlantic territory and build them from “jobbers” to strong characters, slowly, until they finally get tired of being subordinate and turn on Lacey, rebelling against their vindictive leader. It worked for Nelson & Kernodle in Crockett. It worked for Virgil against Ted DiBiase. It’s a tried and true program and if Evans can get over with this latest gimmick, it would be a great way to build on it in the future.

And there you go. Thoughts, comments, and any questions are welcome and much appreciated. And with that, let’s wrap things up. Take care and stay well, my friends. Watch out for DeCarlo and that foreign object he’s trying to hide. I’ll see you at the matches.

Ubuntu!