This past Sunday, we reported that NXT Superstar Velveteen Dream‘s late February Twitter attack on indie wrestling was rumored to be setting up an NXT Takeover: New Orleans feud with one of NXT’s latest indie star signees, that being Ricochet. Well Velveteen Dream only fuelled those rumors more in the early hours of the morning today, when he sent a seeming Twitter attack at Ricochet.
https://twitter.com/VelveteenWWE/status/970923323390595073
In the GIF he used to gain Ricochet’s attention, he showed the scene from the Disney film The Lion King, where the evil Scar sends King Mufasa to his death, effectively becoming the king of the Pride Lands. Along the bottom, it included the words “Long Live the King” before Scar sends Mufasa to his death. The king reference is a point towards Ricochet’s indie moniker as “King Ricochet”.
https://twitter.com/KingRicochet/status/969657492761399297
Ricochet has long been a staunch defender of indie wrestling, and all it’s varied styles. During his two year feud with Will Ospreay in NJPW Battle of the Super Juniors, critics like Jim Cornette and Vader attacked the duos brand of wrestling, which branded Ospreay and Ricochet as nothing more than glorified gymnasts. Ricochet responded with a Tweet that explained his thoughts on the changing styles of independent wrestling:
People don’t understand that “professional wrestling” is an art. And much like ANY art, there are endless ways to express it. It can LITERALLY be anything the performers in the ring want it to be. If two guys wants to go out there and use light tubes and light each other on fire, then that is their way of expressing their style of wrestling. If they want to go out there and go hold for hold and keep it mat based, then that is their way of expressing their style of wrestling. If two guys want to go out there and clothesline each other real hard and chop each other for 5 minutes straight, then that is their way of expressing their style of wrestling. If two guys want to go out there and use comedy and make the people happy and laugh, then that is their way of expressing their style of wrestling. If two guys want to go out there and use aerial maneuvers and acrobatics to “wow” the crowd…then guess what??? That is THEIR way of expressing their style of wrestling. Although you may not agree or like a certain style, does not mean that it isn’t wrestling. Did it used to be a certain way?? Yeah. But just like anything it changed, it evolved.
It would appear that Velveteen Dream is channeling some of those attacks from the old school wrestlers and promoters into his current attacks on indie wrestling, and in particular NXT’s current penchant for signing such top indie stars like EC3, War Machine, Candice LeRae and now seemingly, Ricochet, the King of the indies himself.
