"I got more heat than they did in their whole career" - Former WWE star comments on Social Outcasts controversy (Exclusive)
Former WWE Tough Enough winner Josh Bredl appeared on Sportskeeda Wrestling's UnSKripted, and during the Q&A session, he addressed the controversial Social Outcasts tweet that contributed to his failed WWE stint.
Bredl's WWE career hit a major roadblock after he called the Social Outcasts "Social Jobbers" in a tweet following an episode of RAW in 2016. The Tough Enough product received a lot of heat from the WWE locker room for the tweet, and now Bredl has finally explained his side of the story.
While Bredl wrote the tweet intending on drawing heat as a heel, his move backfired as WWE officials were unhappy with the response.
The 30-year-old star added that he got more heat in one tweet than members of the Social Outcasts (Heath Slater, Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel, and Adam Rose) received in their entire careers.
"At the end of the day, as a grown man, who cares, bro? My tweet was trending; everybody was tripping about it. At the end of the day, I got more heat in one tweet than some clowns get in their whole careers. I put one tweet out, and I got more heat than some of these fools in their whole career to this day. Some of the guys who were the jobbers, the Social Outcasts, I got more heat than they did in their whole career with WWE. They are no longer with WWE, and here we are on a podcast still talking about it, bro," Bredl revealed.
The former WWE star noted that he was given the name 'Bronson Matthews' and told to be a heel after Tough Enough came to an end. Bredl was focused on his training and recalled watching the Social Outcasts on an episode of RAW.
"Yeah, yeah. It was a controversial tweet that, like, really like put one nail in my coffin for real. It was shortly after they gave me the name Bronson Matthews; they were like, we want you to be a heel. We want you to take the heel angle, and I was doing such, and I was at home. Not on RAW, watching RAW, and I was clocked in because I'm watching it, and then the Social Outcasts came out. I think it might have been their first time; they might have been debuting, right? They came out four guys, kind of looking like they are YMCA guys. I don't even know those guys, but here's a little tidbit," recalled Bredl.
I didn't really understand I was like disrespecting these guys: Former WWE star Josh Bredl
Josh Bredl explained that he became familiarized with the term 'jobber' during his time at the Performance Center. The former WWE wrestler was under the impression that rookies were referred to as jobbers, and there was nothing wrong in using the word.
Bredl claimed he knew about the verbal hazing and the process of getting new faces 'vetted into the system.' There was no malice on Josh Bredl's end as he didn't mean to be disrespectful to the stars with his tweet and was merely trying to stay in character.
"Before all this, any rookie that comes in," continued Bredl, "depending on where you're at, if you're coming from the indie scene or you're coming from like NFL, or whatever, you may or may not know the lingo of WWE. So when all these guys are calling you jobbers in the locker room, you kind of associate that to the word rookie or somebody that sucks, right? So I'm getting called jobber left and right, and I'm cool with it because I understand, like, you know, hazing and getting vetted into a system, but so now when I use the word, I use it on a larger scale immediately, and I didn't really understand I was like disrespecting these guys on such a deep level."
Bredl felt it was a shame that WWE didn't capitalize on the controversy by giving him TV time. He also would not have been against losing and revealed he was beaten in almost all of his NXT matches. Bredl added that he left his ego outside the ring and tried to do something concrete with his life.
Josh Bredl made the tweet after The Big Show (Paul Wight) clobbered the Social Outcasts during a WWE RAW segment. Bredl explained that he was developing a heel character at the time, where he used the catchphrase 'Yup, I like it.'
Bredl incorporated the phrase in his tweet and added the #SocialJobbers, and his social media activity became a trending topic overnight.
The star admitted that he added fuel to the fire and hoped that the WWE trainers would appreciate his actions. However, contrary to expectations, WWE head coach Matt Bloom informed Bredl that he had massive heat.
"So then I tweeted, 'Yup, I like it,' because I had this gimmick like where I would get cocky in the ring and making my arms big and hitting the referee, and I'll be like, 'Yup, I like it.' You know I was like checking the ring out before the match and, so I put, 'Yup, I like it...#SocialJobbers.' And then boom. So I was in character. Being a heel, this is go-time. So I'm pouring gas on it all night. Then I pull up to the Performance Center the next day, and Matt Bloom comes up to me saying, 'Were you drunk last night?' I'm like, what are you talking about? What's up with that tweet? I was like, 'That was good; I thought I did good. People were tripping.' He is like, 'No, you've got a lot of heat, buddy.' And then I went to wrestling court. That wasn't on air. They put me in wrestling court for that, bro. Mark Henry was the judge, bro. It was crazy," concluded Bredl.
Bredl had to attend a ruthless wrestlers' court session with Mark Henry as a judge, and the former WWE star spoke about the experience during the latest UnSKripted with Dr. Chris Featherstone, which you can view here.
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