WWE Champion Randy Orton recently drew the ire of the independent pro-wrestling fans by re-tweeting a critical post regarding the indie scene by former professional wrestler and current wrestling-trainer Rip Rogers. Orton received a response from Bubba Ray Dudley that the former perceived to be directed toward him, to which The Viper responded.
Randy Orton (Randal Keith Orton) is a third-generation professional wrestler and has been associated with the WWE since the very beginning of his time in the sport. Orton is a 13-time world champion and apparently not a big fan of the current indie pro-wrestling scene. Below are excerpts from Rip Rogers’ post that was re-tweeted by Randy Orton-
“Every Indy match now: handshake, drawn out move exchange, ‘this is awesome’ chant, strike exchange, dive no sell Indy strongstyle, dive, more strikes, no sells, dive, flippy floppy sequence, dive, hit everyone with each other’s finisher then Humpty Dumpty we all fall down.
Fight forever chant, rinse and repeat until every move is useless and means nothing, dive, take unsafe shot that looks like shit and hurts like hell then roll up finish.
Hand shake and hug after match. Everyone’s hands raised. All these guys chant. Go home and type on social media thanking your opponents and company for the match and telling others they should book these guys. ……………dive.”
Orton re-tweeted the message with the caption- “…dive”. Following which Bubba Ray Dudley took what appears to be a subtle shot at the Viper, by tweeting a photo of him diving onto his ROH opponents and captioned the photo ‘Dive’-
Dive… pic.twitter.com/kr4q9iWFWq
— Bubba Ray Dudley (@bullyray5150) May 13, 2017
Not to be outdone, Orton fired back-
Lol there is a difference between a young hungry talent diving and an old outta shape ‘vet’ …….falling https://t.co/RE81C5sm3z
— Randy Orton (@RandyOrton) May 14, 2017
Bubba Ray Dudley aka Bully Ray reverted back by insinuating that his ‘fall’ was still better than Orton’s recent House of Horrors match at WWE Payback-
Dear @RandyOrton … my tweet had ZERO to do with you. Looks like you were wrong…again. You’re still awesome
Falling > House of Horrors https://t.co/IMG4O59wYo
— Bubba Ray Dudley (@bullyray5150) May 14, 2017
The Viper then issued an ‘apology’ to Bubba, which seems to be a tad sarcastic, so to speak-
I really need to issue an apology…. pic.twitter.com/N8NqRZu9Es
— Randy Orton (@RandyOrton) May 14, 2017
Rip Rogers continues to fire shots at the independent pro-wrestling scene, while Orton is busy raking in the millions in WWE. Randy Orton will defend his WWE Championship against Jinder Mahal at the upcoming SmackDown brand-exclusive Backlash PPV at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois on May 21st.
In my opinion, the independent performers deserve just as much respect as we accord to the top-of-the-food-chain global Superstars of the WWE. Rogers and Orton may find the repetitive nature of today’s indie matches a bit boring, as do many casual fans of the sport. Nevertheless, by no means does that give Rogers or Orton the right to discredit the independent professional wrestling competitors. It would be real interesting to see how this controversy shapes up in the days to come, if at all.
