Tossing Salt Presents:
Ultimate Wrestling Q&A
Solo Sikoa, Nick Bockwinkel, Trish Stratus & More
DougMaynard.com
Doug Maynard

I’m Doug and this is the Ultimate Wrestling Q&A. Let’s roll.

WWE’s MVP for the women in 2024 is who? How about for the men?

For the women, I want to say Rhea Ripley, but Liv Morgan has stepped up her game over the past several months as well. It’s a tough call. Let’s go with Liv Morgan. As for the men, Solo Sikoa has come so far in the past ten months or so, he’s the most obvious choice.

Who’s better all time? Kurt Angle or Eddie Guerrero?

It’s a tough call because both were so damn good at what they did. I’ll go with Kurt for one reason and one reason only. He won an Olympic Gold Medal with a broken freakin’ neck.

Rikishi says he sees Solo Sikoa as WWE Champion in 2025. Is he right?

A father can always have hopes and dreams for his son. It’s a nice thought and Solo has improved over the past year, but is WWE Champion? I just don’t see it happening.

Define “AURA” but it’s a Wrestling TAG TEAM.

This one is easy. Sweet Stan Lane and Beautiful Bobby Eaton, along with Manager Jim Cornette, aka The Midnight Express.

Today would have been Nick Bockwinkel’s 90th birthday. What are your thoughts and memories of the former AWA World Champion?

Bockwinkel always seemed calm, cool, and collected regardless of the situation. A ring technician and ring general who rarely had a bad match. He was a heel, but he was the classy wrestling champion and a man always deserving of respect.

What are your thoughts on a potential Trish Stratus return in 2025? Would you like to see her face current stars like Tiffany Stratton?

Trish is still in great shape and able to go inside that ring. She and Tiffany teased some stuff last year and during her last comeback, Trish looked great. I’d love to see her return to WWE.

Which one? TK stays on as head booker OR American Dragon takes over, but he is equal co-head with Bully?

If Tony moved to a position where he just signs the checks and allowed Bryan Danielson and Bully Ray to handle the booking and creative for AEW, that would be an excellent move. I’d love to see it happen.

Heel New Day win the tag titles and needs a big feud for Wrestlemania. Who do they face at Mania that’s the best payoff to this story? I want a returning Big E & Dolph Ziggler with AJ Lee as their manager.

I had forgotten about Dolph and AJ Lee and their earlier alliance with Big E. That would be some excellent booking and storytelling. But with Dolph under contract to TNA, plus Dolph’s brother talking junk in the media about AJ’s husband, CM Punk, I doubt even Triple H could pull that reunion together. It would still be fun to see and a great payoff for the story, as you say.

Apologies if this has been addressed before, but why does a live crowd’s behavior affect how you feel about the quality of a match?

If a crowd is lively, making noise and into the match, the energy rubs off and makes the match better. If an audience is bored, restless, and just sitting on their hands, that also affects how you feel about a match. It’s just all about perception.

With the introduction of the Women’s Intercontinental and Women’s US titles, how does WWE make them feel important? They already do poorly with the Women’s Tag Titles because they’ve never felt that important.

The way to make them feel important is to treat those new titles as if they’re important. Give the champions plenty of time on television and strong feuds and opponents. As in the previous question, it’s all about perception. A fighting champion with a strong character, strong matches, and plenty of attention will increase the value and attraction of the belts. If treated as an afterthought, as the tag team titles often are, the belts will seem worthless as well.

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 it up. Take care and be well, my friends. Watch out for that sneaky-ass DIY and I’ll see you at the matches.

Ubuntu!