Tossing Salt Presents:
Ultimate Wrestling Q&A
Corey Graves, T-Shirts, The Wrestling Album & More
DougMaynard.com
Doug Maynard

Welcome to the show. It’s the only pro wrestling Q&A that matters. You have questions and I have answers. It’s the Ultimate Wrestling Q&A. I’m Doug, your party host and Guiding Light. Are you ready? Let’s do this.

So, how about this at Mania? Paul Heyman turns on CM Punk and Roman Reigns and joins Seth Rollins as his new advisor. Thoughts?

It would be an interesting spin of things and certainly shock the world of pro wrestling. But, I just can’t see Seth as a Paul Heyman guy. I’m not saying that it can’t happen, but it just doesn’t feel right to me. I think we have a better chance of seeing Brock Lesnar crash the match and lay everyone out than seeing Seth aligned with the Wiseman. Stranger things have happened, but it doesn’t work for me, brother.

Bill Mercer passed away. What are your thoughts and memories of the legendary World Class announcer?

A competent announcer and steady presence for World Class Championship Wrestling. I never watched much World Class back in the day, being more of a Crockett and Georgia guy, but I’ve heard the tributes and heard the talk. Mercer was one of the best of his era. Condolences to his family, friends, and fans for their loss.

Who had the best clothesline? Stan Hansen and his Lariat, or JBL with the Clothesline from Hell?

These two had the absolute best clotheslines in the business, bar none. As for the best, JBL’s looked better. It was almost always a thing of beauty. But Hansen’s was more effective, mainly because he was nearsighted and couldn’t see. When he laid it in, he was really laying it in for real. I’ll go with Hansen and the lariat.

Where do you think is the best place for Corey Graves: WWE RAW, WWE NXT, or SmackDown?

If we have to choose, I’d go with Smackdown. Graves and Wade Barrett had a great chemistry and as good as Joe Tessatore is, having the experience of a smooth hand like Graves wouldn’t hurt in the slightest. So, Smackdown and the PLEs work best in my opinion.

Should WBD be worried about the level of violence AEW puts on TV? Or is this exactly what edge wrestling needs today?

AEW has featured just in the last few months on their television Moxley with the spikes in the back, houses being burned to the ground, people set on fire, people being chained up and attempted murder by poisoning, and scissors being shoved into the head. All it takes is one complaint or the wrong person tuning in at the wrong moment and AEW is royally screwed. I’m sure that WBD has said something about the violence and dangerous stunts, and if by some chance they haven’t noticed yet, it’s just a matter of time before they do. And when the wrong person notices at WBD, the shit will hit the fan. ‘Nuff said!

Do you want to see Saraya return to WWE as Paige when her AEW deal expires?

I think the days of seeing Saraya, aka Paige, in WWE have passed and are long over with. Given her health, she’d be too much of a liability for the company. Besides, any credibility she had left has been destroyed by her AEW run of the past few years. I doubt WWE would ever bring her back.

Did you have an Austin 3:16 t-shirt? What wrestling t-shirts did or do you own and wear regularly?

I did have the Austin 3:16 shirt. I think every wrestling fan in existence needed to own and wear that shirt. As for what I regularly wore or do wear, I have my ‘Jim Cornette Guy’ shirt, a few nWo shirts, both black & white and red & black, my two 4 Horseman shirts, one for Christian, a couple of DX shirts, and more recently, shirts for The Fashion Police (Breezango), and Lars Sullivan. I also own and wear t-shirts for local stars The Fallen Artist, Derk Douglas, The Monster Brad Branson, and Sammy Love.

How would WWE programming be different if Triple H never needed to stop wrestling? Would he have been the final boss before the current Final Boss?

Being forced to stop wrestling forced Triple H to take a step back and give up his spot, allowing him to focus on other wrestlers and what’s best for the company and telling stories. If he was still wrestling, intentionally or not, the focus would always be on himself, booking himself in the best positions and stories, and everyone else would be afterthoughts. Having an active talent handling the booking has never been best for business, and with Triple H, given the ego that we know he once had, it wouldn’t work in WWE either.

Would you like to see WWE do an updated version of the Wrestling Album from 1985, but with the current WWE roster? Can you imagine how the video for Land of 1000 Dances would be with Chelsea, R-Truth, Miz, Solo, CM Punk, and the current WWE stars?

That would be, as Miz would say, AWESOME! I’d love to see WWE bring in Jim Johnston, bring in some of their more musically inclined fans, like Jelly Roll, Kid Rock, Cardi B., and whoever else is available, and do something like this. The Wrestling Album 2, forty years later, would be incredible.

Fenix will allegedly be featured on Smackdown, while his brother Penta remains on Raw. Is WWE right to keep them apart, or should they be on the same show and used as a team?

This is the right move. Let Penta make his name on RAW, while Fenix builds his brand on Smackdown. And then, if needed, they can bring them together much as they did with the Usos on RAW yesterday. But, it’s far better to let them build their characters and brands, allowing the WWE fans to get used to them, before throwing them out there in a tag team role.

And there you go. My thanks for reading. Comments, thoughts, and 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 foreign objects, and I’ll see you at the matches.

Ubuntu!