Jim Ross Fires Back at Seth Rollins for Calling AEW the Minor Leagues

Reigning WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins caused a stir over the weekend when, during a panel at a fan convention, he refereed to All Elite Wrestling as the "minor leagues" of the wrestling business. Rollins was asked by about a possible match with AEW star Kenny Omega, and he sarcastically responded, "When Kenny's done playing in the minor leagues over there, Kenny can come work at the absolute top professional wrestling company in the world, in front of the most people, and make the most money, and have the biggest matches, which is with me at WrestleMania."

Omega never acknowledged the comment on social media (he was down in Mexico for a AAA match with Rey Fenix), but on his Grilling JR podcast this week AEW commentator Jim Ross tore into Rollins dismissing the promotion.

"Our business in general, any promotion in the total of all the pro wrestling business it's bigger than any individual. Now I'm not inferring that Seth thinks he's bigger than the business," Ross said (h/t WrestleZone for transcript), "But by what he says sometimes, you can make that assessment, rightly or wrongly, but it's not a classy thing to say, for an athlete of his designation. Since this came out, I talked to two Hall of Fame guy — off the record cause I'm not going to throw them under the bus — that were embarrassed about those remarks as well," Ross said It doesn't do the business any good and one of these cats even said to me, 'Well maybe Rollins is breaking under the pressure because he's getting a lot of criticism.' You know, here's the deal folks: the WWE today is a whole different world than it was when guys were earning a buck or a downside guarantee significantly, based on what the live events and the PPVs were producing."

He later joked about how Rollins' popularity stacks up to Becky Lynch's

"But Rollins is in a great spot, he's blessed, maybe someday he'll be as over as his girlfriend, I don't know, but nonetheless, I've always liked his work," Ross said. "He's a solid guy, he's a solid guy, but saying things like that make him look bad and for that I feel bad for him. I just do."

This week's edition of AEW Dynamite featured Omega beating Joey Janela, earning a much-needed win ahead of his Full Gear match against Jon Moxley.