UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier is a huge pro wrestling fan. He’s never been shy about letting this be known, and likes to talk about it a lot. But he seems to be an old-school fan of the action inside the squared circle, because a tweet about some pro wrestling spots in an organization called Ring of Honor earned him some heat from actual pro wrestlers.
And it was all started by UFC heavyweight Chase Sherman.
A video was distributed of some acrobatic spots featuring The Young Bucks, Matt and Nick Jackson, from a recent ROH event. Evidently Sherman wasn’t a fan:
Grown men watch this. pic.twitter.com/7Gej9GSr5L
— Chase Sherman (@ChaseShermanUFC) December 17, 2017
Predictably, one of the Bucks responded with a shot at Sherman, and a few other wrestlers got into the debate as well, including sometimes pro-wrestler and longtime MMA fighter Phil Baroni. It was then that Cormier decided to jump in with his opinion of the spots, which was not complimentary either:
@philbaroni this is actually pathetic. This is what people wanna see? Go to a god dang gymnastics competition. Suplex, bodyslam, piledriver do some old school wrestling man. DDT, I remember when the frankensteiner was the most you’d ever see someone flip. I say Boo to this BS https://t.co/eF4pnCy0SA
— Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) December 17, 2017
This is a very old-school opinion, but still a common one in today’s pro wrestling. While some appreciate the wrestling that Cormier wants, others are big fans of high spots and crazy aerial maneuvers. The former believe that the high spots lack psychology and selling (acting like a move hurts, for lack of a better explanation). He goes on to say later that the match as a whole was good, but that sequence was way too choreographed and didn’t have the appearance of reality at all (I’m guessing he really hates Lucha Libre then, but that’s a question for another day).
Anyway, this led Cody Rhodes to chime in. Rhodes is the son of legendary pro wrestler Dusty Rhodes, and a current member of the Bullet Club with the Young Bucks. So he came to the defense of his boys – but he was pretty stiff about it:
It’s not pathetic. The paying audience enjoyed it. UFC is thriving, and pro-wrestling has been going strong since 1920…besides most of y’all ask hunter for a job when the wheels fall off anyway and most are on the comp list at staples…so lay the fuck off. https://t.co/oqKto3a4TK
— Cody Rhodes (@CodyRhodes) December 17, 2017
DC didn’t take too kindly to that:
I do ask for comps, I am a fan, I didn’t say anything about anything but that sequence of the match. Just be very careful bud! I’ve been a fan of urs too but be very careful. Lay off the cuss words it’s not that serious. And I won’t need a job. I’ll be good. https://t.co/7DuDLbpipp
— Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) December 17, 2017
I highly doubt this will go any further, but it was entertaining and led to a much wider discussion of old-school vs. new-school wrestling than usual. Cormier will return to the Octagon next month when he defends his title against Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 220.
About the author
