Randy Orton Rips Soulja Boy; Lashley Talks Retirement; Angle Praises HBK, Styles

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe. 

Randy Orton, T-BAR Call Out Soulja Boy

Rapper Soulja Boy ran afoul of two WWE superstars on Monday night when he tweeted, “Rap game faker than WWE.”

Those comments made their way to Randy Orton and T-BAR, both of whom took exception to seeing their profession called fake (warning: contains NSFW language):

Everyone is aware that outcomes in professional wrestling are scripted, but the notion that what these athletes do every single week isn’t real is very outdated thinking. 

Orton and T-BAR were certainly within their right to get defensive about seeing the job they have dedicated their lives to get disrespected on Twitter. 

Of course, anyone who knows how WWE operates, Soulja Boy’s comments could easily be used as the start of a television angle. It seems unlikely at this point, but you never say never in this business.  

Lashley Talks Retirement

Before winning the WWE Championship for the first time in his career on Monday night, Bobby Lashley revealed his thinking on how much longer he will compete in the squared circle. 

In an interview with B/R’s Graham “GSM” Matthews, the CEO of the Hurt Business talked about the possibility of retirement:

“I know with my career that’s it’s not going to be a thing where I have 10, 15, 20 more years. Some of these guys do, so mine is kind of a sprint right now. I don’t mind that. I don’t mind ramping it up a little bit because, like I said, I don’t have 10 to 15 more years. I have a few more years left. There’s a lot of goals I want to accomplish, so I have to go hard. My body’s been able to take the abuse I’ve given it, and I knew I could keep going, so I knew it was my time.”

Lashley, 44, is in his second run with WWE. He returned to the company in 2018 after a stint working for Impact Wrestling and competing in mixed martial arts. 

Since last year’s WrestleMania, Lashley has been booked as an unstoppable force on television. He’s lost one singles match by pinfall or submission since April 13 (Riddle on Jan. 4). 

WWE paid off that storyline on Monday’s episode of Raw when Lashley submitted The Miz with the Hurt Lock to win the WWE title in the main event. 

Given the way Lashley keeps his physique in peak condition and works a style that doesn’t require him to take significant risks in the ring, there’s no reason to think he can’t keep working at a high level in WWE for several years. 

Kurt Angle Praises HBK, AJ Styles

On the latest episode of The Kurt Angle Show (h/t Marco Rovere of Wrestling Inc.), Kurt Angle praised Shawn Michaels and AJ Styles for being “two of the best of all time” in wrestling history:

“AJ, not being so much in the WWE all these years but what he was able to produce in TNA and what he was able to produce in WWE, gives him the right to be up there. … Doesn’t matter how many times I worked with them, I worked with AJ 300 times, Shawn only three.

“They made you look better than you are and when you wrestled them, you had the night off. If you wanted to work extra hard, you could work extra hard but they did everything for you. AJ and Shawn just had a great psychology and they were incredible athletes. They laid it out in the ring every single time. They were two of the best I ever wrestled.”

Angle also discussed his iconic match against Michaels at WrestleMania 21 in 2005. The WWE Hall of Famer noted that Vince McMahon didn’t have a finish for the bout four days before the show, but it was Michaels’ idea for Angle to go over by submission. 

“Shawn just decided to let me win without the guarantee that we were going to wrestle again,” Angle said. “There weren’t any plans we were going to wrestle after that. Not at that point.”

Angle and Michaels did have a rematch later that year at Vengeance, which the Heartbreak Kid won by pinfall. 

No discussion of the best wrestlers in WWE history can be had without bringing up Angle, Michaels or Styles. 

Even though Styles has only been with the company for five years, the Phenomenal One is often looked at as the superstar who will deliver the best match on any show he’s on. The same thing used to be said about Angle and Michaels when they were at their peak. 

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).