Eric Bischoff, Dave Meltzer, More on Randy Orton’s Indie Tweets

As previously reported, Randy Orton has been currently dealing with online backlash in regards to his tweets against indie wrestling earlier in the week. While some wrestlers have already given their input to the statements made by Orton, others recently joined in on the controversy.

During a recent episode of the Bischoff on Wrestling podcast show, Eric Bischoff stated he didn’t agree with Orton’s opinions and sided with those who felt Orton benefited a lot by his family’s connections with the WWE. Also stated if he was a young wrestler in the indies, he would have felt very insulted by Orton’s comments because it came off as just someone trying to downplay the hard work of others while in a very comfortable position himself.

““Drawing more money, what does that mean anymore? Again, I like Randy a lot and I have a ton of respect for him so I do not mean this to be any kind of a shot at Randy. But Randy has the luxury of having a very successful career with for what is in all intents and purposes — it wasn’t intentional but [WWE’s] a monopoly.

Yes, WWE makes a lot of money and as a result so does Randy. Randy hasn’t had to change his style because he has the privilege of working for a company that is able to pay Randy a lot of money. And he doesn’t have to go out and make his living on the independent circuit. Randy doesn’t have to go out and create new fans. All Randy has to do is stay on the treadmill.”

[Randy] has that luxury, that privilege of getting [his] seven figures and having a check show up in the mail once a month for things [he] don’t even remember doing, and getting merchandise money because [he has] this machine behind [him] that prints that money. And a lot of people don’t, the vast majority of people don’t. It’s a little bit like the music industry where 2% of the people make 98% of the money. Well, I don’t think that 2% of the people who are making 98% of the money should necessarily look down their nose at the other 98% who are trying to craft a living.”

The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer also recently gave his opinion on Orton’s comments and similar to Eric Bischoff, he felt it made Orton look really bad. Both in regards to him insulting others for making less money and ignoring the criticisms over the years in regards to his own style of wrestling.

Besides, if you look at the statement for what it is without the wrestling bubble blinders on, Orton is the actor in the major franchise movie, not the draw or top star, but a major regular part of the ensemble cast, bragging about his money and his winning fake choreographed fights and running down people making their name with no studio help who have managed by garner a worldwide following of their own and steady work and solid or in some cases even very good money doing independent movies that are getting significant critical acclaim. Would Dwayne Johnson make fun of award nominated movie stars and publicly brag about his box office numbers while making fun of their box office numbers, and then, in the end, brag that he gets to win his fake fight scenes in the movie? If he did, to the public, the reaction would be a whole lot worse than any that Orton got, both from the masses who don’t have a clue, and those who do.

During a recent episode of The Buzzards Wrestling Podcast show, John Morrison also gave his opinion which was more lighthearted in reply. Morrison said he had a chuckle at Orton’s comments and wrestling styles shouldn’t matter as long as the fans themselves are having fun watching matches.

“I read his tweet and laughed at it. It’s classic Randy. Ultimately, as far as Randy goes and his career, he’s clearly one of the most successful wrestlers of all time. He’s never been a guy that’s done dives because he’s never had to and it’s his prerogative too. That’s not the style of wrestling that he wanted to do. I think there are instances where people take it too far but ultimately in my opinion, wrestling is for the people and if everyone keeps that in mind, what’s happening in the ring and the energy that’s being exchanged between the performers in the ring and the fans and capturing that on TV as your televised wrestling but because wrestling is for the people, everything is subjective and just opinions.

There’s going to be your Randy Orton, your Vader, your Jim Cornette, your Will Ospreay, your Richochet and all those people have different fortes and different strong suits and tell different stories. I feel like I like to blend all that stuff, like grounded storytelling but also I liked watching guys like Rey Mysterio and Rob Van Dam in ECW and they were doing all kinds of crazy stuff. I was jumping off the couch when I was watching those guys, so to me there’s a place for everything. Ultimately, it’s not even really up to me or any of the wrestlers. It should be up to the fans to cheer for what they like.”

Recently signed Ring of Honor star Travis “Flip” Gordon also gave his opinion during a recent interview with Wrestle:List website. Similar to Morrison, Gordon didn’t take the comments seriously and stated Orton should have at least considered the hard work done by most in the indies who are just trying to make a decent living and name for themselves when bragging about the money he makes.

I actually just laughed at it. It makes a lot of sense but at the same time it doesn’t. The whole rant pretty much says he makes more money doing less and he’s right. He has a big platform, he has never wrestled on the Indies, and he’s a third generation superstar. He didn’t have to go through the Indies to get where he is. When you’re on the independent circuit it’s a lot harder to make a name for yourself. You aren’t on national television every week. On the Indies you have to show everything you have to get that fan base. I have to show people that this is Flip Gordon – this is what I can do – that way people want to come and see me and book me. It is getting easier as I am getting a huge following and my name is getting out there. I did a lot in the beginning to make a highlight video and that really helped get my name out there.