What’s the story?
On a recent edition of his podcast Conversation with The Big Guy, former WWE Superstar Ryback gave his take on the recent criticism of the independent pro-wrestling scene.
According to Ryback, indie wrestlers are ruining the sport of professional wrestling.
In case you didn’t know...
As we had previously reported, former WWE champion Randy Orton had re-tweeted a controversial post by his old trainer Rip Rogers, with the tweet severely condemning the current indie wrestling scene.
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That, in turn, led to widespread outrage in the independent wrestling community, with several notable indie wrestlers as well as established WWE Superstars weighing in on the issue.
The heart of the matter
The Big Guy who split from the WWE last year has been highly critical of the company ever since. The 35-year old now competes on the independent circuit and had some critical words for his fellow indie wrestling contemporaries.
“Independent wrestlers are ruining wrestling. It has carried over to WWE, and Hunter (Triple H) and Vince (McMahon) have allowed it to happen. It’s controlled more up there. This isn’t to say that every independent wrestler, but this is one thing that I have ripped on (John) Cena on personal things for the most part, but Cena always was really good at selling the basics really well. One punch and he would sell it, and that is what Rip (Rogers) was alluding to,” said Ryback.
Furthermore, Ryback opined that today’s indie performers are ruining their bodies by taking 5-6 slams and no-selling most of them, just for a few ‘This Is Awesome’ chants from the fans present at the local events. He pointed out that if one is to look at wrestlers like Jeff Hardy, Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat one would notice the importance of the art of ‘selling’ moves in pro-wrestling.
He added that although he respects the independent performers, he doesn’t understand why the WWE, as well as the smaller promotions, push the gymnastic-based smaller wrestlers as invincible stars.
What’s next?
Ryback presently competes on the independent circuit following his departure from WWE last year.
Author’s take
Ryback has been making several bold statements since he parted ways with WWE, and his latest take on the hot topic of debate right now is just another example of the same.
Regardless of what Ryback says, the fans have professed their love for the independent wrestling scene, with several indie darlings who earned fame courtesy the internet making it big in WWE lately. That list includes big names such as Finn Balor, Kevin Owens and Shinsuke Nakamura, to name a few.
