The Story of Wrestling – Seth Rollins

Has there ever been three more consistently booked megastars than The Shield? Ever since their on-screen debut, the legendary trio have never fallen below the upper midcard level, with their very first appearance being interference in a WWE Championship match. The tear that they went on would go from late 2012 to mid-2014, and would prove to define the product we are presented with today.

Roman Reigns has been at the centre of a controversial mega push, Dean Ambrose has become the backbone of the company’s “workhorse” wrestler archetype, and Seth Rollins? Well, that’s what we’re going to be talking about this week. Specifically, his one year run from Shield spoiler to world champion.

We all liked to think that we knew what was going to happen with The Shield after they broke up. I remember the general consensus being Roman Reigns would go on to be the top guy, Dean Ambrose the personality driven top heel, and Seth Rollins being the lost in the shuffle midcard high-flyer. Oh, how wrong we were.

When Seth Rollins opted to destroy The Shield in June 2014, it was a swerve for the ages. Almost nobody anticipated Seth aligning himself with Triple H and The Authority, but he would only continue to rapidly rise up the card.

Throughout the rest of the year, Rollins would be highlighted on a weekly basis as a “chosen one” performer. He had a very similar endorsement to Drew McIntyre back in the day, except it actually went somewhere this time.

Rollins would go on to become Mr. Money in the Bank less than a month after breaking out as a heel solo star, virtually guaranteeing world championship gold in his future. While Roman Reigns went off to do his own thing on the quest for being established as the top dog (of the large variety), Rollins would feud with Dean Ambrose in a highly acclaimed feud.

After Brock Lesnar won the WWE Title from John Cena at SummerSlam, it fell to these new stars to carry the main event scene with an absentee world champion around. Hmm, that sounds familiar. Rollins really went above and beyond during this time, playing the snarky, cowardly heel to a tee. His chemistry with Dean Ambrose was always going to be strong, as they’d spent the previous two years working together.

It was a feud of great matches with so-so finishes, starting with a disappointing “forfeit” at Battleground, continuing with a deflating foreign object win at SummerSlam, before culminating at Hell in a Cell. Despite a hellacious clash, the ending saw Bray Wyatt distract Ambrose with a rather unconvincing hologram effect, before attacking “The Lunatic Fringe” and gifting Rollins an easy win. The feud wouldn’t be revisited until over half a year later, with a very different main event context.

Rollins continued to be placed near the top of the card, tangling with the likes of John Cena and being granted title shots, despite already having a guaranteed world title shot literally in his hands.

The true coming out party for Rollins was his performance at the 2015 Royal Rumble. He would take part in an incredible WWE Title triple threat match against John Cena and the champion, Brock Lesnar. If you’re a newer fan and haven’t seen this match, then I implore that you seek it out. I am not exaggerating when I say it is arguably the greatest triple threat in WWE history, maybe even in wrestling history as a whole. Rollins flew around the ring like a pinball, getting convincing offence in against WWE’s two most protected stars. While Seth would take the pin and not leave as champ, his stock soared and we all knew it was only a matter of time before he was holding that top belt.

Fast-forward to WrestleMania 31, in what will forever be the ultimate career highlight for “The Architect.” After taking a loss earlier on in the night to Randy Orton (at the hands of the greatest RKO of all-time), Rollins would act as the saviour of what stands as one of the best WrestleManias possibly ever.

Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar was surprisingly a phenomenal contest. Both men beat the ever-loving piss out of one another, but it was a lose-lose situation. Nobody wanted Reigns to win, but if Brock walked away victorious, it would be a waste of the time and money invested in Roman. It was either have Mania end in a showering of boos or cut the legs out from underneath one of your top stars.

But in a wonderfully meta piece of storytelling, Rollins would be the “Plan B” for the finish, much like how he was when he ended his own stable a year prior. After Brock nailed Roman with a fourth F-5 and both men lay exhausted in the ring, the crowd came alive with an ungodly roar as Seth Rollins sprinted down the massive ramp with his briefcase in hand.

Here it was, the ace in the hole, the key to ensuring WrestleMania would end on a high note. He was Seth Rollins, an ROH alumnus, capturing the WWE Championship in the main event of WrestleMania from the clutches of Brock Lesnar and the would-be next face of the company.

As Seth stood atop the ramp, swinging his newly won title around like a madman, I felt two things: the first was the terror that he’d lose his grip and unwittingly hurl the belt into the face of a crowd member, the second was that we had entered a new era. An era where WWE’s main event would be a diverse mix of talents, whether they be homegrown or from the indies. We were now post-CM Punk, and Daniel Bryan sadly wasn’t far off retirement. We needed new faces who could be around for the long haul.

Rollins and Ambrose would go on to reheat their feud with the title on the line, where Rollins would set the pace for inexplicably escaping with the belt at every turn. He would hold it for 220 days, the second-longest first time WWE Championship reign of the 21st century. Sadly, he would have to vacate it due to injury in November 2015.

His run has had its critics, the quality of matches was high, but it seemed like 90% of his retentions were through underhanded tactics. It could be argued that it was just classic heel booking, but it isn’t hard to believe that a man as athletic and technically skilled as Rollins could take on all comers just with his sheer prowess. You don’t have to be morally sound in order to be an elite competitor — look at Floyd Mayweather.

It’s irrelevant in the long run when you look at where Rollins is now. His lengthy run on top ensured he would forever be a focal point of WWE television, and he’s never not been chasing a title of some description or involved in a feud with a major player. Rollins is, without a doubt, one of WWE’s biggest success stories of developing someone from respected indie veteran to main event superstar.

Got any wrestlers you’d like me to analyse for The Story of Wrestling? Hit me up on Twitter @TBroomey and you’ll get a shout-out for your troubles. Thanks to Josh Bannister (@Bannister007) for this week’s subject.