Seth Rollins is a performer who, as the oldheads would say, knows a thing or two about drawing money. In his decade in WWE and time on the indies before it, Rollins has headlined shows all over the world, become one of Paul “Triple H” Levesque's go-to house show main eventers, and has been a world champion for 497 days and counting, considering he's still proudly holding the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
And yet, Rollins doesn't have WWE blinders on when it comes to professional wrestling, as, in conversation with Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick, the “Visionary” let it be known that he saw AEW pack 80,000 fans into Wembley Stadium last weekend – 81,035 paid attendants, to be exact – and is incredibly impressed by the excitement surrounding the sport at the moment.
“We are in the boom. You have to understand, there is another company that just put 80,000 people in a stadium for one night. A week before that, we sold 90,000 tickets to WrestleMania, broke the all-time gate on the first day. There are seven, eight different television programs of pro wrestling on a week, not counting premium live events or pay-per-views. The talent roster, across the board, is beyond what any generation has ever put forward. It's very easy to look back at the past with rose-colored glasses and say, ‘But this, but that,' I'm not taking anything away from the guys who paved the way; I stand on the shoulders of these guys. I don't do what I do without the legends of our industry that have defined their own generations, but they should be proud, and I know they are, because they are the people who got us to where we are now,” Seth Rollins said via Fightful.
“The business is bigger than it's ever been, it makes more money than ever, it's healthier. The future of the business is so bright and I'm so happy to be a part of it in any capacity. I can't tell you the pride I take when I see young cats coming up and succeeding in our industry and pushing the thing forward or guys getting an opportunity to prove their worth, and they do because they are capable and seeing guys like Edge, who is close to deciding to hang it up one way or another, going out there and tear the house down with Sheamus in Toronto. On every level, it's just firing. I can't say enough about our industry right now. I'm so proud of it. It's healthier physically than it's ever been. The longevity for our generation is going to be better than the generation before us because we learned and got smarter. The business as a whole, the money, it's all there. I can't say enough, I really can't.”
Now, for fans out of the know, this isn't the first time Rollins has acknowledged wrestling outside of WWE recently, as he showed up at a GCW event – even though he tried to stay out of eyesight – to show support for his former The Shield faction mate Jon Moxley when he was the GCW World Champion. Still, this is the first time Rollins exposed that knowledge to the WWE Universe, albeit on a peripheral podcast, signifying that maybe, just maybe, hardened fans should consider AEW a legitimate player in this wrestling gold rush after all.
Seth Rollins reveals the extent of his back injury ahead of Payback.
Elsewhere in his appearance on After The Bell, Seth Rollins was asked about the elephant in the room, his broken back, which has become a point of emphasis for his Payback foe, Shinsuke Nakamura.
Though Rollins has no intention to step down from the “King of Strongstyle,” he did acknowledge that his back isn't in the best spot at the moment.
“My back sucks,” Seth Rollins said via Ringside News. “I’ve had these injuries for four or five years now. I have two stress fractures in the lowest vertebrae you can possibly have in my lower back, and occasionally, they flare up. If they accrue too much damage, it can become extremely painful, and it can be very difficult for me to get through matches, and it can be very difficult for me to get up for the morning activities for days sometimes. So there is absolutely a danger in that.”
Can Nakamura use Rollins' back as a cheat code to secure his first world championship since all the way back in 2010, when he held the IWGP Heavyweight Champion for 218 days in New Japan Pro Wrestling? Or will Rollins rally back and keep his title like he has in every other title defense he's worked with the same injury? Fans will have to tune in for Payback to find out.