Things have changed a lot for Seth Rollins over the past few years within the WWE Universe and outside of it; he's turned heel, had a baby, cycled through about a half dozen different monikers, and became WWE's reigning “Drip King,” at last on the male side of the roster.

Stopping by GQ to talk about his ever-evolving fashion sense both inside and out of the WWE ring, Rollins revealed why, when he dropped the “Monday Night Messiah” moniker, he decided to embrace the wrestling styles of old to become a big, colorful, bombastic individual who has against all odds become the locker room leader and “Captain,” as Kofi Kingston noted he's called by the boys in the back.

“Well, I had just come off paternity leave, and the character I’d been portraying before I had my child—this kind of cult-leader-esque, religious-zealot-type person—that guy was gone. I needed a new angle, something that was going to be more approachable. I looked around, and we were in the ThunderDome [WWE’s bio-secure bubble during the pandemic], and there were no fans. Everything was kind of drab and quiet and soft, and I just wanted to have fun. I wanted to do something different and shake it up,” Seth Rollins told GQ.

“It's very much a throwback to the era that I grew up watching wrestling, which is the late ’80s. You've got your Macho Mans and your Ric Flairs and guys like that who are loud and brash – or even your ‘Heartbreak Kid' Shawn Michaels. Their costumes were bigger and louder and crazier, and I just didn't see that going on anymore. So [my new] character, it started with some suits and sort of just snowballed from there. The end game was always to get to where we're at now. But I wanted to get there slow, and luckily my stylist was on board with that, so it's been a fun transformation.”

Borrowing Becky Lynch's stylist, Troi Anthoni, to help him establish a new style that mixes the flair of 80s wrestling with the drip of today, Rollins has crafted a style all his own. How the boys and girls in the back were going to respond to this new look, however, was far less guaranteed, even if the results ultimately proved positive in the end.

Seth Rollins reveals how his WWE coworkers reacted to his style change.

Asked later in his interview with Yang-Yi Goh of GQ about how the boys in the back reacted to his sudden change from black t-shirts and jeans to blouses and MSCHF Crocs, Rollins reveals that ultimately, WWE's other Superstars accepted it, with some even opting to step up their own game to stay on his level.

“I think now that it's become my thing, it becomes hard to start dipping your toe in that water. People might start looking at you like you're a copycat, and that's the last thing you want. So I'm not sure if there's been any influence,” Rollins told GQ.

“I do know, at least to my face, I get a lot of compliments. Who knows what everybody's saying behind my back, but people seem to dig it. My favorite is when I show up in a slightly more subdued outfit, and some of the guys will be like, ‘Dang, dog! I'd rock that in real life, man! That's a nice fit right there.' They don't expect it. They expect me to roll up in a baked potato suit or something like that.

“But I have had a few people reach out just about Troi in general. They want to know, ‘Where do you find this stuff? Who's your guy? Could I work with them?' All that kind of stuff. So there've been a lot of questions, but like I said, I don't think anybody's… They don't want to take a chance, you know? I'm in the deep water already. They'd have to jump right in, and it'd be a tough swim. It's an interesting vibe backstage, but I think everybody—just like the audience – is mostly just anxious to see what I'm going to pull up in next.”

Huh, well I guess that's why they call Rollins the “Visionary” because he saw the connection between streetwear, classic WWF looks, and high fashion and opted to dive head first into the idea to a degree unimaginable to performers who think showing out in a pair of Jordan 1s that match their ring gear is too much. Call him polarizing, call him “Freakin',” but one suffix you have to affix to Rollins' name is “WWE World Heavyweight Champion,” so something about his current act is clearly working out.