Randy Orton has taken his fair share of shots at the NXT roster (most notably Tommaso Ciampa) in the past. And based on his latest interview with Sports Illustrated, those feelings haven’t changed. When discussing his personal philosophy for what makes great wrestling, the subject of NXT came back in regards to how the wrestlers do (and don’t) sell the impact of moves.
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“All those guys sell, but they need to turn up the selling meter and take a page out of some of these old-school guys’ books,” Orton said. “You need to sell.”
He then criticized the roster for how they chase after certain fan chants.
“I can’t stand when I see 10 false finishes in a row, where a guy takes a powerbomb and then he’s up and then he’s delivering a knee, and then the other guy ducks, and then it’s boom, boom, boom, boom,” Orton said. “It’s too much. But because these guys are capable of doing it, because the fans are going to chant ‘Fight For-Ev-Er!’ and all that crap, they’re going to keep doing it because they think that’s what they’ve got to do to get that reaction. But sometimes the fans don’t need to make noise to be reacting. Sometimes they’re sitting and they’re watching with their mouths open, not saying a word, and they’re invested and paying attention. They want to see what you’re going to do or say next. That’s the disconnect between a lot of the main roster guys and the younger guys in NXT. They’re just hungry, they’re addicted to that chant from the crowd. They want the roof to come off the top of that building every single spot that they do. There’s no build to that.”
“You’ve got to build to that,” he continued. “There’s a crescendo. You’ve got to start slower and then pick up the pace, then settle back down. It’s like a director of a symphony. It’s an art. We do it so much, and guys get injured so much, there’s a smarter way to do business. That’s my main concern.”
This week’s Monday Night Raw saw Orton officially challenge Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam next month. McIntyre accepted later in the night and wound up on the receiving end of an RKO at the end of the episode.
