Seth Rollins is, on paper, a babyface WWE Universal champ. But Rollins is very much in touch with his inner heel.
It started with Rollins defending the WWE product on Twitter ahead of the “Stomping Grounds” pay-per-view as being the “best pro wrestling on the planet,” then doubling down after the show, which he main-evented, in a meh match with Baron Corbin, challenging the Twitterverse to “find anyone else alive who does what I do as well as I do.”
Will Ospreay, the New Japan Pro Wrestling junior heavyweight champion, responded with a two-word tweet.
I’m alive. https://t.co/l7zxy5yHY9
— ᵂⁱˡˡ ᴼˢᵖʳᵉᵃʸ • ウィル・オスプレイ (@WillOspreay) June 24, 2019
Rollins continued the heel turn:
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
And then came this nugget from Rollins:
I mean if you wanna talk numbers we can compare bank accounts too.
P.S. That’s counting a month off with a broken back…👍🏼 buddy.
— Seth Rollins (@WWERollins) June 25, 2019
Again, this is, in name, the babyface WWE Universal champ, bragging about making more money, calling a guy who is actually an inch taller “little guy,” and, have you noticed that what we’re talking about here is the guy who is the champ on the flagship weekly TV show of WWE is engaging in a back-and-forth with a top star from another company?
WWE traditionally goes out of its way to pretend that it is the entirety of the pro wrestling universe, leaving it to the upstarts to sling arrows to try to get themselves over.
Is this a sign that WWE is feeling the heat from AEW, which is coming off its successful “Double or Nothing” pay-per-view, and is about to debut on TNT in the fall?
Probably, though Ospreay isn’t even affiliated with AEW, which doesn’t have a working relationship, as of now, with New Japan.
This is feeling a bit like the “Monday Night Wars” of the late 1990s playing out again, which, those were the glory days for pro wrestling fans, so, yeah, bring it on, right?
I’m not sure if I’m Vince McMahon that I like my top guy helping the other guys get over, of course.
Column by Chris Graham
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