Seth Rollins won WWE’s new World Heavyweight Championship to open Saturday’s Night of Champions event, pinning AJ Styles with a Curb Stomp. Rollins tweaked his knee midway through the match on a dive, prompting Styles to repeatedly target his leg with his Calf Crusher submission. The last of his attempts gave Rollins the opening to roll through and hit a Pedigree and a Curb Stomp for the pin.
The victory gives Rollins his first world title reign since 2019 and the fifth of his WWE career. “The Visionary” also made history by being the first man in the company to compete in the inaugural matches for three different championships, previously becoming the inaugural NXT Champion (2012) and fighting Finn Balor for the Universal Championship when it was first introduced in 2016. He’s also the second man in WWE history to become a two-time Grand Slam Champion under its modern format, joining The Miz last year when he finally won the United States Championship for a second time.ย
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But despite Rollins’ impressive resume, he has openly talked in interviews about not feeling like WWE’s top guy as his WWE career has consistently overlapped with Roman Reigns.ย
“I just feel like I’ve never, in some ways, I’ve never gotten my just due. There’s always like… I’ve never been the guy, you know? I’ve never been the one on the marquee at WrestleMania,”ย Rollins told Ariel Helwani last year. “It was John (Cena), it was Roman (Reigns). In some regards when I was at Ring of Honor it was Nigel (McGuinness), it was Bryan (Danielson). And I was always the guy on the come up, or underneath. I was kind of the second or the next big thing type thing, you know? That always just eats at me. It eats at me so much. I don’t know where that competitive spark comes from but it drives me insane. The thing is if I was that guy I don’t know if it would just go away. I would always find some way to put the chip there. It’s just the way I operate best. I have to have it for some reason, in everything. For better or worse sometimes.”
“I don’t know, man,” he later added. “I wonder often if because I live in the Roman Era that that’s just never going to happen. The only time I was even considered, I think, for the main event of WrestleMania was when Roman got leukemia and he was out from August until January whatever or February it was. I was kind of second behind in the little babyface column there and, you know, I got slotted in. I feel like it’s one of those things, I’m like the… the best I can hope for is to be the Edge to his Cena, or the Savage to his Hogan. Sometimes I just feel like that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. It doesn’t mean that I don’t think 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.”
