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According to wrestling veteran Vince Russo, Seth Rollins had to have made a conscious decision during his match on RAW on July 7, and the fact that he made that decision shocked the ex-WWE writer.
On the latest episode of Sportskeeda's The Wrestling Outlaws, longtime veteran Vince Russo discussed a spot from the match between Penta and The Visionary. The spot involved the masked luchador taking a bucklebomb, the move that ended Sting's (WWE) career at Night of Champions 2015. However, despite the devastating nature of the bucklebomb, Penta no-sold it and proceeded to hit the Canadian Destroyer as a counter.
Vince Russo went off on the current Men's Money in the Bank holder, stating that in order for that sequence to happen, Rollins had to have told Penta to no-sell the move:
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"Seth Rollins bucklebombs Penta. Penta no sells it and goes right into a Canadian Destroyer. That's not even the story. The story is a move that ended a legend's career, and Penta no-sells it. Here's the story, Seth Rollins has to tell Penta not to sell that in order to get into the Canadian destroyer! You're a heel, and you're telling the babyface not to sell one of your most devastating moves?" [From 01:12 to 02:00]
Russo was shocked as he felt a veteran like Rollins should not be making such decisions that can affect the sanctity of professional wrestling.
You can watch the full video below:
How the Seth Rollins-Penta spot looked on WWE RAW
To provide more context of the spot that Vince Russo was complaining about, we embedded an X/Twitter post to give you a visual of exactly how it looked, after which we'll discuss it further.
You can see in the post below:
It should be made clear that what Vince Russo was talking about wasn't only about this specific instance. He meant to highlight what it represented, and this is something that has been a larger debate in the professional wrestling world for a while now.
There were the "indie flip flop" periods, which have gone by as well, where "smaller" or leaner wrestlers would perform highly athletic moves, leading to a match resembling a choreographic performance rather than a real, legitimate fight.
One of the biggest examples of this was from a 2016 tournament in New Japan Pro-Wrestling: Best of Super Juniors 23. On the sixth day, there was a now (in)famous match between Ricochet and Will Ospreay, where it resembled a choreographed performance rather than a wrestling match.
This style has seemingly prevailed in the latter part of the 2010s and the first half of the 2020s. While it isn't quite on the level of Ospreay vs. Ricochet, there has been a greater embrace of fast-paced wrestling, which invariably leads to moments of "no-selling," such as the July 7th match between Penta and Seth Rollins.
Let us know if you agree or disagree with Vince Russo in the comments below!
If you use any quotes from the first half of this article, please credit Sportskeeda Wrestling and embed the episode of The Wrestling Outlaws.
