8 years of Seth Rollins in WWE: 1 backstage story from every year

Very few Superstars have achieved as much as Seth Rollins in a WWE ring over the last eight years.

The former Shield member made his main roster debut on November 18, 2012 at Survivor Series alongside Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns. The trio went on to work with almost every top Superstar in WWE before they broke up on the June 2, 2014 episode of RAW.

The man who ultimately destroyed The Shield, Seth Rollins, achieved instant success by winning the Money in the Bank briefcase later that month. He went on to cash in the contract in the main event of WrestleMania 31, where he became WWE Champion for the first time.

Seth Rollins has now won almost every major honor in WWE, including the WWE Championship (x2) and Universal Championship (x2). He also won the 2019 Royal Rumble, Intercontinental Championship, United States Championship, NXT Championship, and Tag Team Championship.

In this article, let’s reflect on Seth Rollins’ career by counting down one backstage story from each of his main-roster years.

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#9 Seth Rollins almost debuted at Hell in a Cell (2012)

Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins were originally supposed to debut one month before Survivor Series 2012 at Hell in a Cell. That pay-per-view ended with CM Punk defeating Ryback following a heel move from referee Brad Maddox.

Seth Rollins recalled on E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness in 2019 that all three Shield members waited around backstage at Hell in a Cell. However, WWE’s decision-makers opted to use Maddox on TV that night instead.

“We were supposed to debut at the Hell in a Cell, like a month before Survivor Series. We were all at the PPV excited, didn't really know what was going on, nobody was really talking to us and we were there, and we were ready to do something but we didn't know what was gonna happen or anything like that.” [H/T eWrestling]

One month later, Seth Rollins finally received his main-roster call-up alongside Ambrose and Reigns at Survivor Series.

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#8 Seth Rollins’ rumored heat with The Big Show (2013)

Seth Rollins reportedly landed himself in some trouble backstage in July 2013. Bryan Alvarez wrote in the F4W Newsletter [H/T Rajah] that The Architect was accused of not knowing how to shake hands properly with other WWE Superstars.

According to one source, the issue was specifically between Rollins and The Big Show.

#7 Vince McMahon sent Seth Rollins back out to redo a match (2014)

Before the 2016 Draft took place, WWE Superstars were allowed to appear on RAW and SmackDown every week. As one of the company’s most prominent on-screen characters, Seth Rollins regularly competed in matches on both shows.

On June 17, 2014, Seth Rollins faced Kofi Kingston at a SmackDown taping. The new Authority member had just turned heel and he was due to win the Money in the Bank contract two weeks later.

Unfortunately, Vince McMahon’s instructions for the match were not followed accurately enough. Seth Rollins gave Kingston too much offense, according to McMahon, and the WWE Chairman sent the two men back out to shoot the match again.

Seth Rollins said on E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness that he was “angry and embarrassed” that he had to redo the match. He also clarified that he learned a valuable lesson and he understood why McMahon was not happy.

"I was so angry and embarrassed. I was almost ready to walk out and not do it, like, 'Never in my life, never should this happen to me,' but it was such a learning experience in retrospect that it's okay to screw up sometimes."

Seth Rollins ended up defeating Kingston in a match lasting just two minutes and 55 seconds.

#6 Seth Rollins pitched his WWE Championship win (2015)

The biggest moment of Seth Rollins’ WWE career so far took place at WrestleMania 31. The then-Authority member cashed in his Money in the Bank contract in the Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns match to become WWE Champion.

Seth Rollins revealed on E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness that he suggested the idea to Triple H a few months earlier. He sensed that fans did not like Reigns’ babyface character, so he made the pitch as a second option instead of Reigns winning.

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#5 Seth Rollins’ WrestleMania 32 role (2016)

Seth Rollins was unable to compete at WrestleMania 32 due to the knee injury he suffered in November 2015. Although he did not feature on the show, the former Shield member still appeared backstage.

Speaking in a WWE 24 episode on the WWE Network, Seth Rollins made it clear that he did not enjoy watching from the sidelines.

“I hated being there. Not being able to be a part, it was very frustrating. Knowing where I ended up [in 2015], WrestleMania, Silicon Valley, and not being on the show at all [in 2016], I helped build that thing. It just ate me alive.”

With the exception of WrestleMania 32, Seth Rollins has competed at every WrestleMania since his main roster debut.

#4 Why Seth Rollins retired his finisher (2017)

Vince McMahon decided to ban Seth Rollins from using the Curb Stomp as his finisher after WrestleMania 31. For the next two years, he used Triple H’s move – the Pedigree – as his go-to WWE finisher instead.

Seth Rollins told The Mirror in 2017 that it made sense for him to use Triple H’s move as part of The Authority. However, he wanted to create his own finisher after ending his storyline with Triple H at WrestleMania 33.

“The Pedigree was a part of my life when I was in The Authority and it made sense for the time being. After sealing the deal and beating Triple H with it at WrestleMania, that was a good place to retire it. At the end of the day, I want to be my own performer, and I want to have a finisher that is synonymous with me, not my mentor.”

After using the Ripcord Knee as his finisher in 2017, Seth Rollins reverted back to using the Stomp (fka the Curb Stomp) in 2018.

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#3 Seth Rollins pitched his WrestleMania match (2018)

In another story from his E&C Pod of Awesomeness appearance, Seth Rollins revealed that he pitched his WrestleMania 34 Triple Threat match.

The show began with Seth Rollins and Finn Balor challenging The Miz for the Intercontinental Championship. Rollins picked up the victory to win the title for the first time in his career.

The four-time World Champion admitted to Edge and Christian that he “was not ready to be the guy yet” at WrestleMania 34. That is why he was happy to be in a secondary title match instead of a World Championship storyline.

#2 Seth Rollins almost passed out before facing Brock Lesnar (2019)

Seth Rollins has had more memorable WrestleMania moments than most Superstars in recent years. One of his biggest triumphs came at WrestleMania 35 when he defeated Brock Lesnar in the first match on the main pay-per-view.

The story about Lesnar changing the position of the match has been told many times. A lesser-known story from that day is that Seth Rollins almost passed out during his entrance.

The man himself said on Break It Down that he became light-headed on the ramp because he was “so amped up” to perform.

“No joke, I don’t know if you can ever catch it but there’s a moment where I’m drifting kind of back to the centre of the ramp, and I’m glossed over because when you get so fired up and it’s that feeling when you’ve been lying down or sitting down for too long and you stand up and you get light-headed.”

Fortunately, everything worked out in the end for Seth Rollins. He won the Universal Championship and continued feuding with Lesnar for the next four months.

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#1 Seth Rollins pitched his alliance with Murphy (2020)

After joining forces with AOP in November 2019, Seth Rollins added Murphy as one of his disciples in January 2020.

The Monday Night Messiah told talkSPORT’s Alex McCarthy that it was his idea to work with Murphy. He felt that the Aussie Superstar had lots of potential but his character needed some improvements.

“That [being a character] is something that he never really thought about before. He thought he was a wrestler from Australia [laughs] and that’s great, he’s awesome at that. But what’s the next step?”

Murphy has worked with Seth Rollins for the majority of 2020. Their recent reunion proved to be short-lived, though, with Murphy choosing to side with the Mysterios instead of Rollins.