What’s the story?
WWE Superstar Randy Orton was evidently rubbed the wrong way by a tweet that former WWE Superstar Bubba Ray Dudley, AKA Bully Ray of Ring of Honor, had posted on Twitter.
The tweet was a response to an ongoing “Dive” controversy that had been originated by Randy Orton retweeting a critical message to the independent wrestling circuit by wrestling coach Kip Rogers.
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Orton subsequently took to Twitter himself to not only take a shot at Dudley but also issue a sarcastic apology after Bubba replied.
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Bubba Ray Dudley, who left the WWE after a recent one-year stint, has recently signed with Ring of Honor under his former TNA/Impact Wrestling pseudonym “Bully Ray”. He has since been working shows with Ring of Honor.
Dudley had posted a Tweet with an image of him diving onto his Ring of Honor opponents and had captioned the image as “Dive”. The Tweet can be seen below.
This Tweet was believed by some, including Randy Orton, to be directed towards Orton. Orton had previously retweeted a message by former professional wrestler and current wrestling trainer Rip Rogers which criticised the independent wrestling scene and its’ style, the message was as follows:
“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 had retweeted the above message simply captioning it with “.....dive”
The heart of the matter
Following Dudley’s response to Randy Orton’s retweeting of Kip Rogers’ message, Randy Orton decided to fire back on Twitter. The Tweet that Orton decided to respond to Dudley with is as follows:
The Tweet by Orton was a direct response to Bubba Ray Dudley’s Tweet and he insinuated that Dudley was not only “old” and “out of shape”, but wasn’t diving but merely “falling” onto his opponents.
Also read: Bubba Ray Dudley reacts to Roman Reigns’ segment on Raw
Dudley then responded to Orton with a Tweet of his own, stating that him “falling” was still better than Orton’s House of Horrors match. The Tweet can be seen below:
Orton responded to Dudley by tweeting that he needed to issue an apology. The highly sarcastic “apology” by Orton can be seen below:
It appears that Randy Orton indeed does not hold any love for the independent wrestling circuit. At the same time, Kip Rogers has continued firing his criticism towards the independent wrestling scene.
What’s next?
With the controversy still continuing between WWE’s style and the way that the independent wrestling circuit does things, there still seems to be a lot remaining to come out of this by way of trash talking from both sides of the debate.
Regardless, Randy Orton will be defending his WWE Championship against Jinder Mahal at WWE’s Backlash Pay Per View event on 21st May, 2017. Bubba Ray Dudley, AKA Bully Ray, who had stated that his ROH debut was better than Wrestlemania, is probably being lined up for a singles title run on the promotion.
Author’s take
Randy Orton has always been WWE’s proverbial “bad boy” and this recent exchange of messages with Bubba Ray Dudley is nothing but an addition to the long list of controversies that have had his name tied to them.
It doesn’t seem like this controversy will settle down anytime soon, with various indy wrestlers and promoters having also thrown their hat into the mix by tweeting responses of their own. Let’s hope that this doesn’t sour WWE’s relations with independent talent.
Tweet speak
Randy Orton’s former Evolution member Batista seemed to have been in support of him
Bully Ray's wife Velvet Sky wasn't pleased with Orton's comments on her husband's tweet
Former WWE superstar Low-Ki also had his own words to say to The Viper
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