Seth Rollins has been the subject of all kinds of discussion recently, following some very public altercations with NJPW sensation Will Ospreay and All Elite Wrestling’s Kenny Omega, and of course the universally panned finish to his recent Hell in a Cell match against The Fiend.
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The Universal Champion spoke on all of these subjects in the debut episode of After The Bell, WWE’s first ever weekly podcast, hosted by Friday Night Smackdown color commentator Corey Graves.
Rollins mentioned that just earlier this year he was one of the most popular wrestlers in the world, and that fans were fully behind him heading into the championship match with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. He noted that “it feels awful” that fans have started turning on him.
“You could go back six months, a year ago from Hell in a Cell – I was everybody’s favorite. The same people panning Hell in a Cell and talking about how Seth Rollins is not cool are the same people clamoring for me to be the guy that faced Brock Lesnar going into WrestleMania. I don’t know what changed, except that I became the person they wanted me to be, and then they hated me for it. It’s a very fickle audience. It is what it is.”
“It feels awful. It’s not a good feeling to go out there and put your body on the line – and not just at Hell in a Cell, but every single night for the past how-many-ever years that I’ve been doing this. I go out and compete at an extremely high level, and dare I say that I’m one of the best at my job. I do what I have to do when I have to do it. It’s not always pretty, but you go out and do your job, and you do it well. People don’t like it, and they forget that it is what it is, and it hurts your feelings. You’re a human being. You go out there and work hard, and it’s fine – it’s art, you can have your opinion on it. But man, it’s a tough pill to swallow sometimes.”
As noted, one of the recent interactions that started putting Rollins in hot water with certain fans came when he took some shots at NJPW star Will Ospreay via Twitter. The so-called “Kingslayer” told Graves that what he said was all in jest and even had some nice things to say about the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion, but also doubles down on why he made said comments in the first place.
“First of all, a ton of respect to him. He works really hard and he loves the industry. He’s an incredible talent. I think one day he and I could have an awesome match if the stars ever aligned. It was one of those things said in jest, and then he responded to it. I said I was like ‘the best wrestler alive’, and he said he was ‘alive’, or something along those lines.”
“You know, to me a big part of being one of the best is being able to draw money. That’s what our industry is at the end of the day, and people don’t like that, for some reason, when it came from my mouth. Now when other people talk about it – say Cody Rhodes, or Sasha Banks, or even Karl Anderson talks about it, and how much money they have; maybe somebody takes a picture in front of a private jet, and they’re cool. That’s the cool thing to do. But if I come right out and say ‘hey man I’ve drawn more money than you over the last whatever years’, then I’m the bad guy.”
“That’s fine. If that’s who the internet wants me to be, that’s fine. But at the end of the day I’ve got nothing but respect for Will Ospreay. … To me it’s the old line from Bischoff – controversy creates cash. If we’re all just buddies, and friends, that’s lame. If you want me to be that guy, I can be that guy. I’ll be the most humble guy on the planet, but that’s boring. Twitter’s supposed to be a place where you can have fun, and if you take it too seriously it’ll eat you alive.”
Check out After The Bell with Corey Graves every Wednesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all your favorite podcast streaming apps.