8 Nuances That Make Seth Rollins So Great
5. Surround Yourself With Positive Role Models
Although Rollins has described choosing WWE over Ring Of Honor and TNA as “an easy choice”, he had help making it.
Matt Sydal had been a veteran of the independent scene for years when he met Lopez. They had similar wrestling ‘upbringings’, just a few years apart - but as a smaller guy, Sydal had made a name for himself as a high flyer. When Ring Of Honor’s Tyler Black was thinking of making the jump, it was Sydal, then working in the midcard and tag team division on WWE’s RAW brand, who told him to aim high.
But growing up in the indies in the mid-2000s was a perfect way to learn from some of the best talent around, many of whom he’d continue to work with when he hit the big time.
In Ring Of Honor, he became close friends with El Generico (better known today as WWE’s Sami Zayn), Claudio Castagnoli (aka Cesaro), independent wrestling’s DIY superstar Colt Cabana, superworker Austin Aries, and one Bryan Danielson, a man who’d later open doors for him and wrestlers like him in the WWE.