Seth Rollins on His Resentment Over Not Main Eventing WrestleMania 39

July 12, 2023, 9:00pm

Seth Rollins has been on a hot streak in recent months, having won WWE’s new World Heavyweight Championship back in May and defending it successfully on 12 occasions, including against Finn Balor at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view. But while Rollins has been putting on some of the best work of his career over the past year as “The Visionary,” he was nowhere close to the main event at WrestleMania 39 back in April. That spot went to The Bloodline — The Usos vs. Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens on Night One and Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes on Night Two — while he was preoccupied with a match against Logan Paul. Rollins discussed his mixed emotions towards this year’s WrestleMania while on Out of Character this week, saying it was wrong to say he was “jealous” how Rhode got the main event spot against Reigns over him.

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“Jealousy’s not necessarily the right word. At the end of the day, it’s show business, you know? That’s how it works sometimes. … It’s not always a meritocracy, as much as we would love it to be. It’s just not,” Rollins said (h/t 411Mania).

“Any time you put in the amount of work that I put in last year while somebody else gets the top spot, if you are competitive and you want to be the best, … you’re just gonna have resentment. It’s just gonna be there. And it’s healthy, I think,” he later added.

Seth Rollins on His World Heavyweight Championship Being Labeled a “Consolation Prize”

Elsewhere in the interview, Rollins addressed the elephant in the room regarding how his title was perceived compared to Roman Reigns’ Undisputed WWE Universal Championship — “I wasn’t offended or annoyed. If you watched and followed and saw how Roman has built up the title that he has, it only makes sense to view it as a consolation prize, but for me, it didn’t feel that way. It felt like a big deal, and 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. The fact that it’s me makes it feel like a big deal to me.

“I feel a lot of responsibility to represent them and the industry as well as I can and help everything move forward,” he continued. “It feels, sometimes, with Roman’s title reign, because there is only one challenger at a time and often only every few months, a lot of guys were in a holding pattern. I am a firm believer that having a title available is a necessity and I feel a lot of humility and responsibility in being the champion that will be there and available for our audience. I wasn’t offended by it, and I understood where people are coming from.”