Road Warrior Animal: I feel bad for The Ascension

The Ascension, the latest NXT call up, are quite clearly working a tag team gimmick taking elements from the legendary Road Warriors, who worked for WWE as the Legion of Doom. For some reason, the decision was made to have The Ascension run down the Road Warriors in promos, leading to fan backlash.

Heel heat? Or genuine contempt?

Is there a difference?

Either way, Road Warrior Animal was asked about the up-and-coming team and had this to say in a recent interview:

"Do I think they're going to be Road Warrior material, The Ascension? No, I don't. And I'm not saying that against The Ascension, they're two good guys who went to wrestling camp and they all mean well. But there are certain I should say genres or certain levels in pro wrestling that you should not touch. You should not touch a Hulk Hogan, or a Ric Flair, or The Rock, or Stone Cold, and you should not touch The Road Warriors. There's never going to be another Road Warriors because we were the innovators of a lot of things. You cannot... you know, many imitations and no duplications. That's a saying that goes on forever. I feel bad for The Ascension because they're great guys with great attitudes but you don't touch something that was untarnished."

I'm not sure Hawk and Animal belong in the same sentence as Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair. It's also worth noting that his point is not to attempt to rip off major names from the past when both Hogan and Flair did exactly that and became two of the biggest stars in the history of the business.

The problem with The Ascension isn't that they're attempting to rip off The Road Warriors, it's that they're doing such a piss poor job of it.

Right?