WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins was interviewed on “Out of Character with Ryan Satin.” Here are the highlights:
On crowds still singing his music after the show has ended:
“It’s not even adrenaline. It’s almost the opposite. It’s like this soothing experience because the song has a haunting quality to it and so when they’re singing the song in the darkness and I peek through my eyelids sometimes to see if the flashlights are on, and I get the flashlight, it’s very ambient. It almost takes me out of the element, almost out of the, kind of like the big fight feel, in a way. I know it adds to it for them like a live experience. It really amps it up for them, but for me, I just get so relaxed.”
On Logan Paul, KSI, and Bad Bunny:
“I knew wrestling against Logan Paul was going to be huge in its own way because there are so many people that know who Logan Paul is that have no idea what WWE is. We’re still in the ongoing stages of melding those two fan bases. I knew that it was going to be a great opportunity for me to have a spotlight with a guy who has just a megaphone on him no matter what he does. To be a part of that and to try to really take my act to the next level and to get it in front of people that may have never seen it before, I was really looking forward to that. Obviously Logan, I didn’t know what to expect entirely. I had not really worked with him at all prior to Royal Rumble, but super athletic, so I knew going in we were going to be able to kind of work with that and it turned out to be one of my favorite WrestleMania matches I’ve ever had actually,”
“Logan Paul and Bad Bunny are two total reasons that I know I’m not hip I am with it no more. I had no idea who these people were before they came to WWE and KSI, same thing. I’m too old man. Too old. I’m not cool anymore, and so, I don’t know what’s going on with the kids, but when he took his little face mask off and that prime bottle, the whole arena knew who he was. We got a nice close up on his face. Kudos to our production team and our cameraman. Everybody thought they all knew who he was and I was like, well, there’s another one. I’m just a cranky old man. That’s me now. I was really happy that he got involved. He did a tremendous job. He was really excited to be a part of WrestleMania and we couldn’t ask for a better Prime bottle
On his outrageous wardrobe in WWE:
“The inspiration for the visionary character was really kind of a throwback in a lot of ways. It’s very much just a larger than life kind of cult personality type character. I had some inspiration from other places outside of wrestling, but like, when I was looking at characters and wrestling, I was just looking at like a Macho Man Randy Savage, I was looking at Ric Flair. I was looking at Superstar Billy Graham, and these people who were just, you know, over the top, Gorgeous George, and I was just looking around, and there just didn’t seem to be anything like that in modern wrestling executed at a high level, so I just started the ball rolling, and it just snowballed, and here we are. It’s probably my most favorite thing I’ve ever done. I’m having the most fun on a week to week basis as I’ve ever had in a wrestling ring, and after 20 years of doing it, that’s pretty awesome for me.”
On people calling his championship a consolation title:
“I mean, I understand where people are coming from. There’s no real right or wrong when it comes to what your opinion is on doing it, but I am a firm believer that it was a necessity, regardless of how you felt about it, or how we got into it, or where it ended up, or whatever, I just believe it was a necessity. I wasn’t offended. I wasn’t annoyed or anything like that. If you’ve watched and followed and saw how Roman has built up the title that he has, it only makes sense, I guess, for you to use the word consolation prize. But for me, again, it didn’t feel that way. It felt like a big deal and like I said, it felt like a big deal because there are so many guys who are able to be in the shoes that I’m in right now, and the fact that it’s me, makes it feel like a big deal to me, and I feel a lot of responsibility to represent them and the industry as well as I can and help everything kind of move forward. It feels sometimes with Roman’s title reigns that, because there’s really only one challenger at a time, and often, only every few months, that we’re in a bit of a holding pattern. A lot of guys were in a holding pattern. So like I said, I am a firm believer that having a title available was a necessity. I feel a lot of humility and responsibility in being the champion that will be there and be available for our audience. So I wasn’t offended by it and I totally understood where people were coming from when they said that.”
On making an appearance in NXT to face Bron Breakker:
“Bron was a hell of an opponent. I was really happy to get down there and get in the ring with him and kind of chit chat with a lot of the other guys and girls and see what they’re experiencing on a day to day basis. It was cool. I felt a lot of hunger to get to the next level. I was happy to see that. I think we had gone through a period in NXT where there was a lot of complacency before talking about, ‘I just would rather stay in NXT. I don’t even want to go to the main roster’, and this and that. That always kind of rubbed me the wrong way. So when I went down there this past time, I felt a different energy. I felt like people were very excited to come to the main roster. They were very excited to come to RAW or SmackDown and kind of take their careers to the next level and that got me pretty hyped.”
You can check out the complete interview below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
