Tossing Salt Presents:
Wrestling Fact or Fiction
All About NXT
DougMaynard.com
Doug Maynard

It’s time again for some Wrestling Fact or Fiction. Thanks to Jake Chambers and 411Mania.com for letting me play with their toys. The statements are from Jake. The replies that follow? That’s all me. Let’s do this.

Statement #1: For the past 3 years, the NXT Dead1ine Iron Survivor Challenge matches have been better than the WWE Survivor Series War Games matches.

FICTION: I’m torn on this one because the Iron Survivor Matches are always excellent and fun to watch. The War Games, at least so far as the in-ring stuff goes, tends to get a bit contrived at times. But War Games has compelling stories and that makes all the difference for me. I usually don’t care for the Women’s War Games match. That seems forced and unnecessary, but the men’s match almost always delivers. I guess the bottom line is even though I enjoy both products, I’m more of a traditionalist main roster guy than an NXT guy. Both are great, but I’ll go with the WCW legacy, War Games: The Match Beyond.

Statement #2: Even in the “Paul Levesque Era”, we still won’t get a one-night King of the Ring tournament on a PLE or a Survivor Series filled with traditional tag team elimination matches.

FICTION: For the King of the Ring, I think a one-night tournament is very possible. Triple H is a traditionalist in many ways and tournaments are a classic wrestling tradition that can make or break a wrestler and take them to the next level. But a whole show of nothing but traditional Survivor Series elimination matches? That would never work for today’s fans. I do think that the Women’s War Games match at Survivor Series should be replaced with a traditional elimination match. That would be better for the women and the fans. If not the women, there should always be at least one elimination-style match at Survivor Series. And with Triple H, I think it will eventually happen.

Statement #3: Guilia should beat Roxanne Perez for the NXT Women’s Title.

FACT: Perez has had her time as the Champion and has been excellent, but everything must eventually end. Guilia has been pushed as a major star since her debut and it’s time to put the star on top of the tree by giving her the title.

Statement #4: Keeping Eddy Thorpe in the Men’s Iron Survivor match at NXT Dead1ine would have been better than switching to Oba Femi.

FICTION: Thorpe pulled a fast one on Ava and ended up with that great match and finish on NXT this week. Classic storytelling at its very best. And inserting Oba Fermi in the Iron Survivor match was great as well. It adds to his story, not that he needs it, and now we have Trick versus Thorpe for the belt and Femi is waiting in the wings. That’s called good television and it wouldn’t have happened without Thorpe being pulled from that match.

Statement #5: A lack of midcard titles was not the problem with the WWE’s main roster women’s division.

FACT: Titles were never the problem and adding more belts to the mix isn’t going to help fix the Women’s division in WWE. The problem is time. There are too many wrestlers and too many stories going on and not nearly enough time to focus fairly on all of them. And when it comes to having to choose between the men and the women for Creative, the women will always come in second place. Adding two titles will hurt more than it will help. It’s almost to the point where the women need their own show. Maybe turn Main Event into an all women’s show? It’s not an easy fix for WWE, but more belts are not the answer.

Statement #6: Trick Williams’s 2024 run was underwhelming.

FACT: I have to be honest here. I’m not a big fan of Trick. His in-ring work tends to get sloppy and his promos are not the strongest. He has charisma and plenty of it, but aside from that, I just don’t feel the vibe.
I have no doubt that he’ll have a great career and be a top guy when he eventually goes to the main roster, but he’s not there yet in my opinion. The feud with Carmelo Hayes was great, but since then, he’s just been “Eh!” at most.

And there you go. My thanks for reading. And thanks again to Jake Chambers over at 411mania.com. Any questions, comments, or thoughts are welcome and appreciated. Be sure to like, share, and subscribe. And I’ll be back later with more stuff. Take care and I’ll see you at the Disco.

Ubuntu!