Tossing Salt Presents:
Ultimate Wrestling Q&A
Tony’s Tweets, Matt Riddle, Booking 101 & More
DougMaynard.com
Doug Maynard

It’s a great day to play catch-up here at the farm. It’s the Ultimate Wrestling Q&A. I’m Doug and I’m so far behind, I feel like AEW Collision when the ratings come out. It’s the Ultimate Wrestling Q&A. Let’s roll.

Thoughts on Nic Nemeth, formerly known as Dolph Ziggler, and his forthcoming run with New Japan Pro Wrestling?

It’s a great way for Dolph to reinvent himself, work the Japanese shows, make some good money, and still have time to do his comedy shows and make TV appearances. It’s a great move for Dolph and I think he’ll do very well.

R-Truth with the comeback of the year, right?

With all due respect to CM Punk and Randy Orton, the highlight of the last several months. Ron Killings is killing it and that’s the truth. ‘Nuff said!

Tony Khan, who’s been getting a lot of criticism about Hook challenging Samo Joe for the AEW World Championship this week, took to social media to claim that there’s a double standard with Jinder Mahal getting a shot at Seth Rollins and the World Championship next week on RAW. Is Tony right that there’s a double standard with how AEW and WWE are reacted to?

Hook is a guy who’s had less than fifty matches in his career. Jinder has been wrestling for over twenty years and is a former WWE Champion. There is a huge difference. And why does Tony care about who or what WWE is doing anyhow? He needs to focus on his show and product and work on their declining ratings and attendance products. Tony is a clown. But I will give him credit for one thing. People say that Tony Khan can’t make stars. With one tweet, he has made Jinder the biggest name in wrestling. Don’t hinder the Jinder. ‘Nuff said!

What are the chances that Tony Khan hires a Vince Russo-type to handle creative so he can concentrate on growing AEW?

Tony needs to hire someone and step away for a bit, but his ego and world of delusion won’t allow him to do that. The chances are absolutely zero unless he is forced into it by either a total mental breakdown or Daddy threatening to cut off the money.

Do you think WWE looks at AEW as kind of a developmental/proving ground for them to scout new or former talent and would be happy for AEW to stick around for the foreseeable future?

I’m sure that Triple H, Nick Khan, and WWE are happy to have Tony Khan and AEW around, for the reasons you mention and because competition, even AEW, makes WWE better in the big picture of things.

Is there a “needle mover/consistent ratings grabber” out there that AEW could bring in to have the weekly ratings move up 100k and stay there?

AEW could be given Roman Reigns, The Rock, Steve Austin, The Undertaker, and Goldberg and they, meaning Tony and his bad booking skills and bad management skills, would still find a way to lose fans and mess things up. I don’t think any one person or team can make a difference until Tony either learns how to properly run a wrestling company or places someone new and experienced in charge.

What are storyline aspects you would utilize to enhance a feud, instead of just having “good” matches between the involved talent from time to time?

I’d stick with the basics of keeping it as real as possible. People fight because of championships and perceived slights, and they just don’t like each other. The best stories in wrestling have been where it’s kept as simple and realistic as possible. Austin versus McMahon was a rebellious employee and a bad boss. Race versus Flair was Race had a belt and Flair was a threat and wanted to protect his title. Dusty versus Ole Anderson. They just didn’t like each other. Bruno versus Zbyszko. The student turned on the teacher. There’s nothing fancy about any of those classic feuds, but they drew fans and made great money. It’s the KISS method of booking, “Keep it simple, stupid!”, and it works.

Do you ever see WWE bidding out Wrestlemania or other PLEs to media companies like the Super Bowl?

They already do this and cities bid on hosting Wrestlemania. Puerto Rico put in a huge bid to host Backlash last year and Australia is paying huge money to host The Elimination Chamber this year. It’s already started.

Matt Riddle, talking about working in Japan, said that his 420 persona and character probably wouldn’t work in Japan and he’d have to change his character up. Thoughts?

Riddle is a good wrestler and he’s right on this. In Japan, the focus is far more on serious wrestling and hard, long matches, rather than the characters. Plus illegal drugs and smoking the Devil’s lettuce in Japan is highly frowned upon. They even threw Paul McCartney in jail for possession and he’s a freaking Beatle. Can you imagine what they’d do to Riddle if he was caught holding? Riddle, as a wrestler, would probably do well in Japan. As a character, not so much. But at least he seems to have already realized this and is working to make the necessary changes. Good for him.

So how about Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill teaming together and winning the Women’s Tag Team Championship titles? They would be unbeatable. Thoughts?

It would be a good combination and as you say, would be nearly unbeatable. It’d also be a great way to introduce Jade to the WWE Universe again and allow her to learn and get better, working with Bianca, who’s one of the better women in WWE. I’m not sure how Bianca would feel about this though as she’s been largely a singles star since debuting in WWE and being tossed into a tag team instead of challenging for the singles titles may not be very appealing to her. It’d be a good team though and I can see many good things in a potential pairing such as this.

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

Ubuntu!