Could Seth Rollins’ MCU Role Actually Hurt His Chances of Winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship?

Seth Rollins’ new role in Captain America: New World Order was widely celebrated on Tuesday morning as leaked photos and videos from the film’s set made their way online. But while this is huge for Rollins, it might actually hurt his chances of becoming a five-time world champion back in the WWE. “The Visionary” recently made it to the finals of the World Heavyweight Championship Tournament and will face AJ Styles at Night of Champions next week to crown the inaugural champion. While Rollins was seen as the frontrunner to win the title from the beginning, @WRKDWrestling is now reporting that there’s some hesitation in crowning him. 

“Seth Rollins’ #WWERaw segment last night was pretaped due to filming @Marvel’s ‘Captain America: New World Order.’ While many backstage are very happy for him, there is hesitancy when it comes to putting the new title on him should these roles continue,” the insider tweeted.

However, a spot in an MCU franchise would boost Rollins’ stock in the eyes of many fans. While the two-time Grand Slam Champion already has a Hall-of-Fame-worthy career in the WWE, he has often taken a back seat to other stars like Roman Reigns.

“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,” 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.”