Why The Curb Stomp Can Save Seth Rollins
The REAL Phoenix emerges from the ashes.
As of last week, hard luck and subdued creative seemed to converge to remove Seth Rollins from the major WrestleMania 34 picture. Set to occupy the background of the poster, with just one manoeuvre - and whattamanoeuvre - Rollins has recaptured a level of buzz that has eluded him since his relatively underwhelming return from knee surgery in 2016. The man has propelled himself into the foreground - of the conversation, at least.
On this week’s episode of RAW, Rollins in the main event defeated Finn Bálor not with what was weirdly referred to as “the knee”. That unnamed finisher reflected the problem with Rollins, mired in a sort of upper midcard stasis since 2016, his meandering career trajectory almost comparable to his decelerated in-ring style.
“The knee”.
WWE flirted with naming it ‘King’s Landing’, a choice that was soon dropped - possibly because Vince McMahon isn’t aware of ‘Game Of Thrones’, we can’t be sure. In the months since, “the knee” sufficed just as Rollins sufficed. Prior to the snake-bit Shield reunion, Rollins’ stock had plummeted so drastically that Bray Wyatt defeated him on two consecutive occasions back in July. Neither match truly mattered, nor yielded much entertainment value; Rollins, once the most dynamic and pushed performer on the roster, had been subsumed and normalised by the relentless churn of episodic television. Judging by his relatively lethargic performances, he looked chewed up and spat out by the same machine he promised to shut down.
The move itself was as questionable as the decision to not bother naming it. CONT'D...