Heading into Stomping Grounds on Sunday (June 23), Universal champion Seth Rollins sent a couple of tweets proclaiming WWE as the home of the “best pro wrestling on the planet”. He took on a few folks who disagreed with his statement, including some dorks who run a wrestling blog, and ignored advice from a comic book creator who suggested he “dial it down a notch”.
There are plenty of discussion points that stem just from those two exchanges. For example... is Rollins defending people who aren’t even being criticized? Who (other than Velveteen Dream) blames talent for their issues with WWE? Do you have to be a trained wrestler to critique wrestling and wrestling shows?
Another issue emerged from the tweets, however. New Japan’s Will Ospreay specifically took issue with Seth’s dare to “Find anyone else alive who does what I do as well as I do it as often as I do it. Ya can’t.” The IWGP Jr. Heavyweight champ offered his own existence as an answer to the Architect. And, to paraphrase a fast food chain with a wrestling-obsessed Twitter, we have a beef:
Ahhhh I’m sorry little guy. We already have a better version of you here and he just won his first US Title tonight (Congrats @KingRicochet). Keep working hard though buddy! https://t.co/JwB36iWaIg
— Seth Rollins (@WWERollins) June 24, 2019
I mean if you wanna talk numbers we can compare bank accounts too.
— Seth Rollins (@WWERollins) June 25, 2019
P.S. That’s counting a month off with a broken back... buddy.
You love adding stuff don’t ya. I mean the original question was
— ᵂⁱˡˡ ᴼˢᵖʳᵉᵃʸ • ウィル・オスプレイ (@WillOspreay) June 25, 2019
“Find anyone else alive who does what I do as well as I do it as often as I do it”
No talk of money. No talk of Ricochet. You said anyone.
Here I am.
Just as consistent, just as good.
Hope the back heals up. https://t.co/dfwkKVlyR4
The man Seth’s currently feuding with, and a talent who does get blamed for issues with WWE’s product (but even that has more to do with management’s stubborn insistence on pushing him as a main eventer, but I digress...), joined in. Baron Corbin had numbers of his own. Then Ospreay joined in on blaming him for Raw’s malaise:
No wonder Raw sucks. https://t.co/WwBqvSpwdF
— ᵂⁱˡˡ ᴼˢᵖʳᵉᵃʸ • ウィル・オスプレイ (@WillOspreay) June 25, 2019
AEW’s Chris Jericho also weighed in, fact checking the Ospreay/Rollins fight:
Umm.... He’s actually taller and bigger than you. Just sayin. #devilsadvocate https://t.co/IMKdSwz8kM
— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) June 25, 2019
And doing some trolling of Seth’s original claim:
#BestWrestlingOnThePlanet https://t.co/CzTh8s0CjY
— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) June 25, 2019
Of course, everyone involved - from the Universal champ to the BOSJ 26 winner, Fozzy’s frontman to smartass web writers - is in the business of promotion. So these beefs, and whatever attention they’ve merited, is all in the game.
The Aerial Assassin knows it. And he’s already got a sale on his first stab at monetizing it!
Sign me up for an Extra Medium please! https://t.co/aTQ7KM7o1V
— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) June 25, 2019