Seth Rollins and Shinsuke Nakamura’s face-off on last week’s Monday Night Raw ended on a bizarre note as Nakamura whispered something in Rollins’ ear, upsetting the World Heavyweight Champion long enough for Nakamura to nail him with a Kinshasa. In a sinister pre-taped promo on this week’s Raw, Nakamura revealed what he said to the champion — “I know about your back.” Nakamura went on to explain that Rollins has been dealing with a broken back for years and that he’ll use that weakness to take his world title at the Payback pay-per-view. WWE then officially confirmed the match would occur on the Sept. 2 premium live event in Pittsburgh.
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Rollins actually confirmed his back injury in a recent appearance on the Impaulsive podcast, noting the injury has been bothering him since 2019. He teased the idea of getting surgery to fix the issue in the near future.
Seth Rollins Confirms His Back Injury
“I try to change my training up based on how I feel. There are constant injuries. My knee has been bugging me since before WrestleMania (39). I was having an issue with that. My neck acting up. My lower back has been at me since 2019 [and I] probably should get some surgery on that,” Rollins said. “[I’m] trying to just do whatever I can to make sure I don’t need it because I have a couple of stress fractures back there.”
“I tried some stem cells, I’ve done a couple of stem cell treatments. I found that they were temporarily helpful,” Rollins continued. “I wasn’t taking time off. I wasn’t just idling while I was on the stem cells, I was still working pretty much a full time schedule with WWE. I found it temporarily helpful, but long-term it kind of faded off a little bit.”
Do you think Rollins’ injury could prompt WWE to have Nakamura win the title from him next month? Tell us your predictions for the match below!
WWE’s Premium Live Event Schedule for The Rest of 2023
WWE has four premium live events left for the remainder of 2023. That includes Payback at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh (Sept. 2), Fastlane at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis (Oct. 7), a yet-to-be-named Saudi Arabia show on Nov. 4 and the annual Survivor Series show at Allstate Arena in Rosemont (Chicago), Illinois on Nov. 25.
