Seth Rollins on being the top guy: “I don’t make those decisions”
During an interview with Ariel Helwani of BTSport.com, Seth Rollins commented on never being “the guy” in WWE…
“I always felt like a little bit of impostor syndrome with my first title run. I was young, 26, maybe 28, something like that. I was young, and I was working with guys who after I’d won the title that was a lot more experienced than I was. And not that I wasn’t adding anything to the stories, but I didn’t feel like I was thinking about it the way, and this is all in retrospect, I don’t feel like I was thinking about it in the way that says I would think about it now seven-eight years later, whatever it is. And so yeah, I never felt like even when I had won the title at WrestleMania, cashed in, great moment, I still felt like I was second fiddle to Roman [Reigns]. I still felt like he was the guy, we’re just gonna — you’re the placeholder until he’s totally ready, and we’re totally ready to put the ball in his hands. But for now, you’re a step ahead, so we’re going to give you this. And then you know we’ll move on to what we really want to be, but it’s going to take a few months. So no, I’ve never ever felt like I’ve in my time in WWE that the company was like, ‘Yep, he’s our guy, put his face on everything.’”
Rollins was also asked if he ever felt close to being the top guy…
“I don’t know man. I wonder often if it’s because I live in the Roman Era that that’s just never going to happen, you know. The only time I was even considered I think for the main event of WrestleMania, Roman when he got leukemia, and he was out for from August till January or whatever. February it was, and I was kind of second behind in the little babyface column there, and so you know, I got slotted in. I feel like it’s one of those things, I’m like the, you know, the best I can hope for is to be the Edge to his Cena, or like the Savage to his Hogan. Sometimes I just feel like that’s just the way the way the cookie crumbles. Doesn’t mean I don’t think that I’m better than he is, or that I can perform, or that I can draw at that level. I certainly think all those things, but it’s not my sandbox. I don’t make those decisions.”
(quotes source: 411Mania.com)
Remarkably clear-eyed analysis from a talented guy who’s a victim of being in the business at the same time as another guy the guys at the top like more. The ironic thing is that for all that everyone was bashing Triple H at the time, that was the time in recent history where there wasn’t one guy (Reigns, Cena, Hogan) unquestionably at the top to the near exclusion of everyone else. Sure, Trips frequently dominated the scene, but you also had the Rock, Austin and Undertaker who could all claim “top guy” status. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but maybe Triple H coming to power might slowly start to get back to that.