Although Randy Orton will be defending his WWE Championship this Sunday at Backlash, his other fight has garnered more attention.
This week, Orton sent out tweets heavily criticizing the “Indy” style of wrestling. The hot take sprung opinions from throughout the wrestling world and Jerry “The King” Lawler just joined the conversation.
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On his podcast, Dinner With the King, Lawler expanded on Orton’s point of view.
“I think that the problem Rip [Rogers] and Randy [Orton] have is what the young guys think they need to do to get noticed. It’s what the young guys do in these matches that bothers guys who have been in the business for a while. The young guys, like they said, they have a tendency to go out there and try to squeeze in every single move that they know. Every dive. Every flip. Every flop. Everything they can put in one 15-minute match. So in order to do that, if you are going to put all those moves in, you’re not going to have time to sell anything. It’s just going to be one move after another until the match is over.”
Lawler went on to continue:
“That is not the way wrestling became what it is today. Not what I think veterans look at and not what the business is supposed to be. It’s not that really entertaining for fans. I think that’s Rip’s and Randy’s point they are trying to make there.”
Clearly, lines have been drawn, but it seems like little progress will be made. This group of younger Indy wrestlers seems to be totally fine with ignoring the criticism. If anything, a WWE Champion like Orton taking time out of his day to post inflammatory tweets serves as a bizarro advertisement for their product.
While Orton and Lawler make valid points, little change will come of it. This feels more like a big brother picking on little brother. Although they are both wrestling, the circumstances WWE the Indies perform under are vastly different.
If anything, we should acknowledge that wrestling is a growing world that offers several different products. There likely isn’t a right or wrong here, it just comes down to a matter of taste. Really maybe Randy ought to check out an Indy match here and there and draw some inspiration instead of poking holes. Frankly, he could use a new idea or two as he’s been cranking out the same matches for about 10 years now.
