It seems that the words of WWE Chairman Vince McMahon really hit hard in the WWE locker room. Vince was on the Stone Cold Steve Austin podcast a little while back. WWE had the podcast live on the WWE Network for a while, then the two spoke off the air for just Austin’s podcast. While on the network, Austin asked a lot of big questions regarding the WWE.
He mentioned that there is a different feel in the locker room today versus when he was around. Vince agreed, and said that it seems millennials lack the same ambition that the former generation had. He said that there aren’t enough people reaching for the brass ring, and the last person to truly reach for it was probably John Cena. This really set the locker room on fire, and although Vince mentioned that guys like Seth Rollins , Bray Wyatt, Roman Reigns, and Dean Ambrose all seem to want to reach for it, it’s not the same.
A lot of people on the internet claimed that this seemed pretty biased on Vince McMahon’s part, as others have reached and ripped down the supposed brass ring. Guys like CM Punk and Daniel Bryan alone in the past few years have grabbed every ring from brass to gold that WWE has put above them. Clearly, like Punk and others have claimed, Vince’s only focus tends to always be on John Cena and no one else.
Seth Rollins spoke out, sending a message to the WWE Chairman. WWE is in Cleveland, Ohio, this week for the TLC PPV. Rollins spoke with WOIO-TV CBS-19 entertainment reporter Chris Van Vliet about the lack of ambition in the WWE locker room, CM Punk, and more.
Regarding CM Punk, Rollins was asked how he think Punk might do in the UFC.
“Punk is a goal oriented kind of guy and he’s very driven, very focused, very passionate about what he puts his mind to and if he’s in love with something he’ll go after it 100%. He’s never had any experience from what I understand in an Octagon, I know that’s not going to sit too pretty with too many of the UFC fighters who have really worked their butts off to earn those contracts but Punk is a draw and he will prove that I promise you that when he fights people will pay to see it. As far as how well he’s going to fair, I can’t make any predictions. I’m not one to doubt the guy, he may pull through but he also may end in some sort of chokehold that he regrets. Either way I’m going to pay to see it and I think that’s the whole point.”
As most know by now, Brock Lesnar is the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. This is bad for the current Money in the Bank briefcase holder Seth Rollins. Lesnar is rarely around, so when he is, it’s a big deal for Seth. Van Vliet said that if Rollins cashed in and won, he’d be there every week, so why not Lesnar?
“He’s in a different situation. You’re entirely right that if I cash in on him and become the Champion, I’ll be there every single night, every single live event, every single Monday Night Raw and Friday Night Smackdown and every Pay Per View. He’s in a different place right now and that’s not the kind of schedule he wants to keep at his ripe old age but that’s neither here nor there and that’s not my call so I just do what I can to make the best of my situation and try not to worry about what he’s up to.”
Finally, Rollins was asked about Vince claiming the current crop of talent doesn’t have ambition. Rollins was quick to not only defend himself, but the entire roster.
“Vince was very kind to mention my name after he made that comment as one of the guys who is reaching for that proverbial brass ring. But at the same time to me, that really lit a fire under me and there’s a bunch of other ways I can say that but I don’t like hearing that. Even though I appreciate the fact that he did kind of separate a few of us from the pack when talking about that situation, at the same time you have to understand how badly I do want it and how ambitious I’ve been my entire life in getting to this point. It hasn’t just been for me a situation where I went from A to Z, I’ve had all of these letter in between and all of these opportunities in between that I’ve been able to turn into successful situations for me.
“Now here we are and I’m main eventing with John Cena at TLC in a tables match. So for anyone to say that I’m not reaching for a brass ring or whatever you want to call it is just asinine at this point. All I’ve ever done my entire life is dedicate it to professional wrestling, to WWE and if I’m certainly if not holding onto that brass ring, I’m reaching to grab it. I know what Vince was doing and I understand what he was saying. Do I agree with it? Not so much.”
Rollins responded as best he could to the question, and we saw WWE NXT stars respond to it by delivering arguably the best wrestling show of 2014 in WWE NXT: R Evolution . Meanwhile, Rollins and others are doing similar by showing that this crop of WWE Superstars and Divas are just as good as others were in the 90s at the same stage. Will these men and women go down as better than the Attitude Era talent? Time will tell.
[IMG Credits: justprowrestling.blogspot.com, thisisinfamous.com, fansided.com]