Seth Rollins has admitted that he was left a little frustrated after finding out that he would be losing to a returning Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 38.
Heading into WrestleMania 38 the impending return of Cody Rhodes was the worst kept secret in wrestling. For weeks WWE had teased the possibility of the American Nightmare appearing at the spectacular, but there had been no official confirmation from either side.
Come showtime, Seth Rollins stood in the middle of the ring waiting for his mystery opponent to make their entrance, which Rhodes eventually did to a monster ovation. Naturally it as the returning hero who picked up the win, but Rollins has now revealed that despite that being the obvious way to go, he wasn’t totally impressed by the decision.
Speaking in a new interview with Ariel Helwani, Rollins explained that he found out about the match relatively late, adding that he felt a little frustrated at again being used as a launching pad for someone else.
“Um, you know, it was maybe when I heard Cody was coming over when we finally got the news, which was very last minute as far as WrestleMania is concerned. When we finally you know, I knew that that was going to be a match, I think it was pretty obvious to me which way things were going to lean.
It didn’t stop me from being a little frustrated, you know, again, feeling like I was being used to kind of catapult somebody else into a position I felt like I deserved, and so that was pretty, you know, kind of demoralising. But again, that’s just more of a chip on my shoulder so that by the time we got to Wrestlemania, I was ready to just have the match that night. My wife and Bianca would have something to say about that, they kind of tore it up right before us. But we’re in contention, I would say for match of the two night event.”
In the months after WrestleMania, the rivalry between the pair continued and Rollins lost a further two matches to the American Nightmare. He went on to break down how he actually benefited from the matches despite the defeats.
“Then you look at, you know, what, what we want to do accomplished over the next two pay-per-views. And, you know, who knows if things would have been different had he not torn his pec? I don’t know. But that’s just how life works sometimes. And at the end of the day, in retrospect, I definitely think I came out of it a lot better than I went into it. Like, I don’t think in any way that I suffered from losing three times in a row.
I think if anything, I in some ways got more respect for, you know, having the I don’t know the humility to put my own self interests aside to work with someone who needed in coming back into this world from his, you know, past world. He needed it a lot more than I did. My equity is not going anywhere and he needed to re-establish himself.”
Rollins added that due to the work they put in at Hell In A Cell with Rhodes clearly injured he will return to WWE a “made man.” The Visionary commented that it’s the storytelling in wrestling that really matters, more so than wins and losses.
“He fought tooth and nail obviously through one of the most horrific looking injuries you’ll ever see in your life to get himself into a position where now he’s set you know, he’s made man, hopefully, when he comes back from his pec injury whenever that is so yeah, there’s a lot of ups and downs. But at the end of the day, I enjoyed, I enjoyed the process. And you know, pro wrestling is about storytelling. it’s not MMA.
Fortunately, the wins and losses don’t matter as much, you know, to a point they do but not nearly as much. And so there might be some other people and some other companies that tell you wins and losses do matter. But the pro wrestling man stories that’s that’s what matters, making people feel something.”
With Cody Rhodes out of action Seth Rollins entered a feud with Matt Riddle. After the former Shield star scored the win at Clash At The Castle, the pair are set to meet again in a Fight Pit Match at Extreme Rules.
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