It appears that Friday Night SmackDown superstar Jaxson Ryker has deleted his Twitter account following a number of posts over the past few months that earned him rebukes from fans and fellow wrestlers alike.
As reported by WrestlingNews.co , Ryker did not provide any explanation for his decision when he apparently deleted his account on the platform on Wednesday. However, the outlet speculated that he likely did this because of the “barrage of negative tweets” he has received for his online comments about the Black Lives Matter movement, among other topics.
Ryker first courted controversy early in June after he took to Twitter to express his support for Donald Trump amid the continued protests over the death of George Floyd. As quoted by Forbes , the wrestler was also found to have previously shared a Facebook post where he expressed his disdain for BLM, adding to the backlash he was already receiving for his supposedly ill-timed pro-Trump tweet.
“Pretty touchy subject but all this black lives mater garbage baffles me. I challenge anyone of any color or race to go watch 12 years a slave, the movie and realize how good you all actually have it. Learn heritage. Christ, Ghandi, Budda; they all Taught love and caring for others. This is getting out of hand. I Pray for this nation daily [sic]”
Not long after, Ryker’s entire faction, The Forgotten Sons , was taken off television. The stable hasn’t returned to the blue brand since, despite its two other members — Wesley Blake and Steve Cutler — attempting to distance themselves from their leader’s remarks. Rumors suggested that they were supposed to be in a feud with The New Day over the SmackDown Tag Team Championships at the time they were pulled from TV.
In addition, Ryker drew flak in September for sharing a tweet that was perceived to be opposed to the practice of wearing a mask as protection against the novel coronavirus.
In the aftermath of Ryker’s apparent departure from Twitter, a number of individuals chimed in with their thoughts about his decision. Most of them seemed glad that the SmackDown star was no longer on the social media platform. A few others pointed to the backlash he had received from wrestling fans over his posts.
“Ryker screwed Ryker. F*ck him,” one person tweeted in a reply to another user, also suggesting that Blake could return to television by reuniting with his former NXT tag team partner Murphy.
“It’d be much better than that boring Forgotten Sons gimmick they were trying to do.”
“I guess Jaxson Ryker got bored of smarks invading his comments,” read another tweet .