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Seth Rollins Comments on Jon Moxley’s Complaints About WWE, Why He Feels The Need to Defend WWE

TJR Wrestling

Seth Rollins, the current WWE Universal Champion, was a guest on Monday’s edition of the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina. Rollins, who has been speaking up more on Twitter recently including tweets about WWE having the best wrestling in the world. Since that tweet, Rollins has had a bit of a “feud” with NJPW’s Will Ospreay as well. Rollins talked about a number of different things on the podcast.

The part that is getting the most attention, which we will share below, is when Rollins commented on what his good friend Jon Moxley (the former Dean Ambrose in WWE) recently said during podcast appearances with Chris Jericho and Wade Keller over the last month. Here’s a transcript that Sports Illustrated posted.

Rollins on Moxley/Ambrose being able to say what he wants:

“Ambrose can do what he wants. He’s a big boy. He’s got his big boy pants on, he can go out there and say whatever he wants, but the bottom line is not everyone is equipped to handle the riggers of the WWE and the schedule and how it affects you mentally and emotionally. Ambrose gave everything he had to the company for the entire time he was here. He put his heart and soul into the travel and the schedule and the injuries and the work in the ring and all that stuff, but at the end of the day, he took his ball and he went home, or he went elsewhere, at least.”

Rollins questioned Moxley ripping on WWE considering all that WWE did for him, but he does say he loves him:

“I think it’s a little presumptuous of him to get on a podcast and talk down about the company that gave him such opportunities, and he referenced some of those, he did talk about how he was thankful for the time he spent here and the fact that he was able to learn, meet his wife and all that good stuff. Like I said, I love the guy. I love him, I’ll always love him, but at the end of the day, we share differing perspectives about what we want out of life and where we’re at in our own lives. I hope he does well, I’ve kept enough tabs on him to know he’s doing super well for himself right now and I’m happy for that, but I don’t think there’s any reason to hop on a soapbox and complain after the fact. You need to take the first step and that’s looking in the mirror and asking yourself, did you do every single thing you possibly could to make yourself and your situation what you want it to be. If the answer is yes you did, then you can go elsewhere and complain, and if you feel good about it if that’s where he’s at mentally, then go right ahead, but if he hasn’t done that and looked in the mirror and made that decision, maybe he should look think about that and that goes for any other disgruntled talent, past or present.”

Rollins explained why he felt like speaking up on Twitter and defending WWE:

“You can only sit back and read people bashing something you love for so long and sit there and take it and try to take the high road, so to speak. I’m real proud of what I do every single week, not just Mondays, but every single Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, really. I’m real proud of what I do and what our crew does and the effort they put forward. I’m not just talking about the wrestlers, the guys and girls who you see out in the ring, I’m talking about everybody, from creative all the way up to Vince McMahon.”

“We put a ton of effort into making a product that I think it pretty darn good considering the amount of content we put out there. The fact that people wanna sit on their little soapboxes and their little stupid social media machines and talk down about it really speaks volumes about the generation and where they’re at and so I figured if somebody’s is gonna fight back, it might as well be me since I’m the champ and I consider myself the top guy in our company.”

Rollins was asked if he had talked to Moxley since the podcasts came out with Moxley bashing WWE:

“No. And I don’t need to. Like I said, he’s grown man. He’s got his big boy pants on. He can do whatever he wants do. He can say whatever he wants to say. He filled his contractual obligations here and there’s nothing but mutual love and respect for him. He’s one of my favorite people in the entire world.”

TJR Thoughts: I think that last part says it all. They obviously disagree on what Moxley said and how he went about saying it, but Rollins still said he loved him earlier in the interview and he still said that Moxley is one of his favorite people. The controversial parts will get the headlines, but Rollins made it clear that they are still close friends.

As for Rollins defending WWE, it’s not a surprise that he would do that. It’s what he should do as one of the top guys in the company. With that said, the haters are more than people on social media. It’s factual to say that attendance is down, TV viewership numbers are down and there is less interest in the product, so maybe people within the company should say that things need to change a bit too. I don’t think Moxley said what he said in those interviews out of malice. He did it because he was being honest. Anyway, I also respect Rollins for speaking up because as he said, he’s a leader.

You can listen to the interview with Rollins below. It was really good.