The Misunderstood Genius Of WWE’s Seth Rollins
The long road to the gimmick Rollins plays today started shortly after he was dethroned by The Fiend in the second of their wretched PLE matches in late-2019. The titular main event of the year's Hell In A Cell show should have been a career-killer for both, but Seth survived. He might have lost the title at the next show, but it had been damaged so badly by their first offering that he was best kept away from it anyway.
He rolled into that year's Survivor Series as the babyface captain of Team Raw, but it was clear the monkey of a year he'd had wasn't yet shaken off his back. More than Jon Moxley - a man so desperate to breathe the fresh air of a new organisation that it was one of the first things he did when he entered an AEW ring just weeks after his WWE release - Rollins was dying out there, and one last loss triggered a heel turn that didn't completely work but wasn't a total bust either.
His best trumped WWE's worst in the pandemic. He was a cult-like figure leading flawed groups with the likes of AOP, Buddy Murphy and Austin Theory, but the steak was better than the sizzle. A powerful offering against Kevin Owens at the empty gym WrestleMania was one of the few memorable matches from a strange night, he was superb in matches against Drew McIntyre, Aleister Black and others, and it took a five-tool player to emerge from his feud with Mysterio Family in such rude health.
"Eye For An Eye" was one of several new nadirs for the organisation during that bleak time, but Rollins' work couldn't be faulted. Quite the opposite in fact - his matches with Rey Mysterio were top-tier for the time, and the minor miracle at SummerSlam for Dominik's debut cemented his place as a contemporary general. Gone at last were unfavourable comparisons to fellow flyers with more spring in their steps or in-ring doyens with slightly tighter technical games. The bizarre gimmicks shifts and insane storylines weren't obscuring the facts behind absurd fiction - Seth at last graduated from middleman to measuring stick.
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