Tossing Salt Presents:
Ultimate Wrestling Q&A
Gable Steveson, WWE Smackdown, HulkHogan & More
August 6, 2023
DougMaynard.com

Are you ready for some ‘rassling? It’s the Ultimate Wrestling Q&A. I’m Doug, your host with the most. Let’s do this.

RVD is All Elite. Thoughts?

My thoughts are that AEW wants to get Jack Perry over and are pulling out all of the stops to do so. RVD is an ECW wrestling legend who can still go and he’s a good choice to help get Perry over, plus it gives Rob a nice paycheck and another day in the spotlight. I’m happy for him.

The Elite (Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks) have signed new deals with AEW. Thoughts?

They looked at the bigger picture and realized that they have it made in AEW, compared to WWE where they’d have to wrestle more dates, wouldn’t have creative control, and probably wouldn’t make nearly as much money, and made the decisions to continue losing fans for AEW instead of moving up to the big leagues. Congrats to The Elite for a good business decision. And my condolences to the AEW fans for that same decision.

Hikaru Shida defeated Toni Storm on Dynamite and is the new AEW Women’s Champion. Will this help solve the issues with the AEW Women’s Division? Thoughts?

A woman that no one knows, despite being a former champion, is brought in with no build to beat the champion, who is one of few ladies on the roster with some wrestling talent, albeit not much. Yeah, that’ll fix every problem in the Women’s Division. Good move, Tony. Sighs.

Ron Garvin, Magnum TA & Jimmy Valiant versus Tully Blanchard, Kevin Sullivan & Ivan Koloff. Who wins?

In a match like this, the Babyfaces would always be booked to win, unless the heels were defending a title and could steal a victory. I don’t see any titles mentioned so Garvin, Magnum, and Boogie would definitely take home the victory.

The Dark Order (Evil Uno, John Silver & Alex Reynolds) have all signed multi-year contract extensions with AEW. Thoughts?

Silver is amazing, but he lacks the size to be a top guy in WWE. So where else would The Dark Order go besides AEW? Good for them to continue getting that AEW money and keeping the Dark Order going. I’m happy for them.

So Gable Steveson made his official in-ring debut at NXTs Great American Bash. Thoughts on the debut of the Olympian Gold Medal winner?

He’s not Kurt Angle. That’s for sure. His moves seemed slow and off, and the fans really tore into him during that match. They were cheering for Corbin and that says a lot. Steveson was in over his head during that match and it wasn’t good. If I was WWE, I’d suggest maybe bringing Angle in to work with him and give him a rub to help him improve, plus win some of the fans over. If something isn’t done, I don’t see this Gable Steveson experiment working out very well.

According to Meltzer, WWE is looking for a new home for Smackdown after FOX declined WWEs asking price for the program in their most recent talks. So, do you think Smackdown will have to find a new home or will WWE/FOX work out their issues?

From what I understand, Fox is losing money with Smackdown despite the high ratings because the big-money sponsors don’t want to pay top dollar to advertise on a wrestling program, so that’s a problem that needs to be worked out. I hope and think that WWE and Fox will manage to come together on a deal and keep Smackdown firmly in that spot on Friday nights. Smackdown has changed networks before and if they have to do it again, they’ll be okay. CW would kill to have the kind of ratings that WWE brings in, but I expect that things will get worked out and we won’t see any major changes.

Monster Dozen Battle Royal. Who wins?
Andre the Giant, Abdullah the Butcher, Big John Studd, Sid Vicious, Bruiser Brody, Ernie Ladd, Bam Bam Bigelow, Big Van Vader, Crusher Jerry Blackwell, King Kong Bundy, John Tenta, and Kamala.

Of these twelve men, I’d go with John Studd getting the win.

Singer Taylor Swift was once the babysitter for Jeff Jarrett’s kids. True story. Does this mean that we’ll be seeing Taylor show up at AEW?

It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest. Swift could come out, sing a song about one of the AEW wrestlers that she “dated”, and then Jarrett could come out and bonk her over the head with a guitar. Works for me.

Hulk Hogan has stated that he wished he had chosen a different finisher because he now has terrible back problems. What’s a finisher you would’ve chosen for his character?

For a big man of that size, I’d probably suggest maybe a running power slam as a finisher. A swinging full nelson, as Ken Patera used, would have worked well too.

And there you go. My thanks for reading. Comments, thoughts, and any questions are welcome and appreciated. Be sure to like, subscribe, and share. Thank you. And with that, let’s wrap things up. Take care and be well, my friends. Watch out for the green mist and I’ll see you at the Concession Stand after the matches.

Ubuntu!