Tossing Salt Presents:
Ultimate Wrestling Q&A
Willow Nightingale, Jonathan Coachman, MJF & 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.

Do you want Gabe Kidd to join the Death Riders?

The Death Riders and AEW in general are such a confusing mess, I honestly don’t know who is aligned with whom, who is a face, who is a heel, or anything else. Gabe Kidd is a talented dude who made a reputation trashing AEW, so being a part of AEW’s top heel faction? Yeah, that makes sense to me.

You’re starting your own Wrestling Hall of Fame. Who would be your first batch of ten Inductees?

Ric Flair, The Anderson Brothers (Ole & Gene Anderson), Harley Race, Hulk Hogan, Bobby Heenan, Jim Cornette & the Midnight Express, Jerry Lawler, Fabulous Moolah, Sherri Martel, and Randy Savage & Miss Elizabeth.

Willow Nightingale has re-signed with AEW. Thoughts?

I guess she weighed her options and took the deal she felt was best for her. Honestly, WWE wouldn’t have been a good fit for Willow. She’s not that good, and it most likely would have meant taking a pay cut and working harder. Better to stay a big fish in a little pond and make decent money than to risk it all to venture out into the big lake. Staying with AEW is probably for the best.

Do you think anyone will ever beat Randy Orton (24) as the youngest Champion in WWE history?

Randy is not the youngest WWE World Champion in history. Paige was 21 when she won the Diva’s Championship for the first time. Orton is the youngest on the male side of things, but Paige has him beat. Also, Rene Dupree was 19 years old when he first became one-half of the WWE Tag Team Champions. So, technically, Orton’s record as a singles WWE Champion is safe, but wrong.

MJF has officially joined Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin, and MJF as part of the Hurt Syndicate. Thoughts?

And this will last how long? I give it two months at best, or until Cedric Alexander is brought into the group. And MJF’s mouth and the wrong comment will cause this partnership to end. Watch and see.

Jacob Fatu versus Vader. Who wins?

If it’s the WCW or New Japan version of Vader, then Vader wins. If it’s the WWE version of Vader, then Jacob Fatu wins. And if I were doing the booking, it’d be a double-disqualification, resulting in a no-contest. And the winner? The fans who witness this match.

Where would you rank the team of Rick Steamboat and Jay Youngblood in your all-time Top Ten?

Steamboat and Youngblood were an incredible team that dominated the Crockett territory in the early ’80s with a record-setting five reigns as the NWA Tag Team Champions. My all-time top ten? Yeah, all-time covers a lot of territory and a lot of teams, but Steamboat and Youngblood would fit the criteria, and they belong. I’d rank them probably somewhere between 8 and 10.

Baron Von Raschke versus Swerve Strickland. Who wins?

Swerve would dominate the match and bounce the Baron around the ring, but an illegal low blow and the claw would make all the difference. Baron Von Raschke would steal the win, and that is all the people need to know!

Jonathan Coachman recently said about the WWE Hall of Fame, that it’s “fake and meaningless and is a tick box PR exercise.” Thoughts?

Coach isn’t wrong about anything that he’s saying, but the HOF, and being inducted, still means a great deal to a large number of people, and real or not, it’s considered an honor by most. If Coach were offered a spot, he’d say yes very quickly. We know it and he knows it. He may say differently now, but if it ever happens, watch how quickly he changes his mind.

If you could make a movie about a wrestler, who would it be and why?

For some reason, the lives, the marriage, and the careers of Johnny Weaver and Penny Banner have always fascinated me. I think it would make a great story and book, or movie. A bio-pic about Harley Race would be amazing as well. It’s a real-life Rocky story, but with better characters, more twists and turns, and a better plotline.

And there you go. Thanks for reading. Comments, thoughts, and questions are welcome and appreciated. Reach me by e-mail at Doug28352@yahoo.com or on X at @Doug28352. 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!