Though it feels like he's been using it forever, Seth Rollins only debuted the song “Visionary” at WrestleMania 37, ditching “The Rising” from his Monday Night Messiah days and “The Second Coming,” which came before it.
Initially, the song was met with a positive response, as fans liked that it began with “Burn it Down” and that it had a fun, upbeat guitar riff, but in the months proceeding, it's taken on a new life as fans have become more and more willing to sing along to the “woahs” as Rollins walks down to the ring, with WWE opting to go so far as to cut the music and almost all of the lights to give the “Visionary” a chance to be serenaded by his fans.
Discussing what it's like to hear fans sing him to the ring on Out of Character, Rollins told Ryan Satin that he isn't so much so hyped up by the sing-along but instead soothed by the war hymn, as it gets him in the right mindset to perform.
“It’s not even adrenaline, it’s almost the opposite,” Seth Rollins told Ryan Satin. “It’s like this soothing experience because the song has a haunting quality to it and so when they’re singing the song in the darkness and I peek through my eyelids sometimes to see if the flashlights are on, and I get the flashlight, it’s very ambient. It almost takes me out of the element, almost out of the, kind of like the big fight feel, in a way. I know it adds to it for them like a live experience. It really amps it up for them, but for me, I just get so relaxed… it's really like a calming moment; really feels like an ‘eye of the hurricane' type of thing.”
Asked if he's aware that some fans have become annoyed by fans singing his song for an overly long period of time, Rollins noted he was but admitted that he doesn't mind the criticism because fans in the areas are having such a good time it's worth the online flack.
“Yeah, I mean, the live experience of it is definitely a couple notches above what it might look like on television, and I know people get kind of like aggravated, especially when it's in promo segments, and they want to hear what somebody's trying to say, but it's amusing to me in a sense that, like, for example, when the crowd like boos Dominik Mysterio relentlessly to the point where you can't hear a word that comes out of his mouth that is, like, one of the funnest things that people like to watch but when the crowd, you know, kind of drowns out one of my opponents promos because they want to sing over them and kind of piss them off so to speak, it's, you know, the internet has something to say about that but I will say, I'm very used to being complained about online, so I'm all for people having their opinion about it, you know, but if you go to these shows live and everybody's having a good time, that's all that I can as for.”
Will the day eventually come when fans don't sing Rollins' song? Maybe yes, maybe no, but right now, the duo have a symbiotic relationship that has proven incredibly useful for the “Visionary's” professional career, as he might just be the biggest babyface in WWE regardless of the brand.
Seth Rollins doesn't believe he started the new version of the “What?” chant.
A few moments later in his conversation with Seth Rollins, Ryan Satin noted that he would much rather hear fans sing “Visionary” than hear ‘What?' chants – the plague unleashed by “Stone Cold” Steve Austin back in the day that may never leave professional wrestling. Rollins, to his credit, did not appreciate the comparison, as he feels the two chants are done for very different reasons.
“Very much more soothing, and I don't think they're the same thing, you know?” Rollins noted. “Like no one is singing my song during other people's (time) right, like they're saying ‘What?' in segments that they're bored by what you're saying, they're going to ‘What?' If they start singing my song during a part of the show that I'm not in then maybe we can have this conversation, but right now, they're doing it because they're partying with me and they want my opponent to get very upset about it and it seems to work.”
Could the day eventually come when fans start singing “Visionary” when they are bored in a show, signifying that they would rather be watching Rollins instead? Maybe yes, maybe no, but for now, the sing-along hasn't quite jumped the shark.