WWE Superstar Jack Swagger is locked in a feud with United States Champion Rusev, but took a moment to discuss a more pressing issue with DC 101 this week.
Just following “Monday Night Raw” this past week, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon called out his locker room on “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s live podcast on the WWE Network. Below is an excerpt of his thoughts:
“This is a different group of guys and gals — it’s millennials. They’re not as ambitious, quite frankly. And they’re not trepidatious at all. I just don’t think they necessarily want to reach for that brass ring. The last person to really reach for that brass ring, in all likelihood, was John Cena. There are others coming up now who definitely want to reach for it. (Dean) Ambrose is one of them, Seth Rollins is another one, Roman Reigns is another one, Bray (Wyatt) is another one. So I think you’ve got some people here chomping at the bit to make a difference but when you’re walking around backstage you don’t hear as much camaraderie perhaps and laughter as in your era. But then again there are some other things they do.”
Swagger was asked about his thoughts on the comments in the interview. He had the following:
“This is an environment where literally hundreds of thousands of people want to be on this roster, and there’s what, 75 of us on top? To get here you have to be very ambitious but to stay here you need even more. It takes a lot of drive and a lot of hard work. I can only speak for myself that I have gotten hungrier. As far as the rest of the locker room, you know, it’s tough but you gotta see the finish line and sometimes that’s hard to do.”
The former All-American himself was once “Mr. Money in the Bank” and successfully cashed-in to become the World Heavyweight Champion, beating Chris Jericho on a 2010 episode of “Smackdown.” He has not found major championship success since that point however, despite being in a championship match at WrestleMania 29 alongside Alberto Del Rio.
Editor’s Note
When McMahon said that, I wondered if he was going to piss off his locker room. Did he do it intentionally? Probably.