Seth Rollins is one of the biggest and most popular stars in WWE today, but he almost never made it to the main roster. The Visionary routinely clashed with trainers in NXT to the point where Triple H actually threatened to fire him.
Ahead of joining WWE in 2010, Seth Rollins starred for Ring of Honor, becoming ROH World Champion. Once putting pen to paper with the sports entertainment giant Rollins appeared with Florida Championship Wrestling which later became NXT. Although the star later became the first-ever NXT Champion, this success only came after a troubled spell where he butted heads with coach Terry Taylor and Triple H. Interestingly, Taylor had been with IMPACT Wrestling when Rollins went back on a verbal agreement to join the company.
“I Rubbed Some People The Wrong Way” – Seth Rollins
During an appearance on the Broken Skull Sessions with Steve Austin in 2021, Rollins recalled clashing with Taylor and his old-school approach.
“I had to have that confidence to be who I was and to get to where I wanted to go, I knew that, but that would rub some people the wrong way.
“One person who it rubbed the wrong way, and maybe this is some leftover heat from me shunning him during contract talks, is Terry Taylor.
“He ended up coming over from Impact to work with developmental and he and Hunter [Triple H] go back a long way. He was a mentor to Hunter. Hunter brought him in and he was meant to coach the elite class at FCW/NXT and Terry and I just butted heads.
“Terry is a lot like me in that way where, he has confidence to what he did to get to where he was and he was going to instill that on us. His approach was a little hard-nosed at first.”
Rollins explained that he now understands where Taylor was coming from, but at the time he was less than impressed. Continuing on, the former World Champion recalled Triple H threatening to fire him, while Joey Mercury attempted to keep him on the right path.
“When you come into a new job, I understand that now obviously, you need to do that and put your foot down and understand that people need to respect you, otherwise they’re going to walk over you. I understand now where he was coming from.
“At the time, I was just like, ‘Yo bro, don’t get in my face, don’t try to tell me what I’m doing isn’t right.’ This was before the NXT Championship.
“‘I’m going to get to where I want to go, you just let me do me and stay out of my way. Don’t try to change everything that I’m doing.’ I would challenge Terry Taylor in front of the class and he didn’t like that.
“Terry is very old school in the sense that, he thinks a certain way works. Part of that ideology is shunning what is up and coming instead of embracing it.
“I was always like, ‘You have to understand, the business is changing. You have to go with it. If you go against it, it’s not going to help.’ I would challenge him in little ways every day to the point where I was insubordinate.
“Hunter took me aside and was like, ‘Look, I don’t see anything special in you. If you don’t want to play ball and don’t want to work with us, you can go back to Ring of Honor and do things your way, but you need to start doing things our way.’
“I was like, ‘Oh man, my dream is about to go up in smoke here.’
“I go back to Joey Mercury and sat down with him and he’s like, ‘You need to understand how to play the game. It doesn’t mean you have to change who you are, but you have to play a role all the time.
‘You’re not just on when you want to be on, you have to be on all the time. You have to find a way to give them what they want while teaching them how you do things. There is a compromise and you have to figure out how you do that.’
“He sat me down and talked me through that whole process.”
After winning the NXT Championship Seth Rollins arrived on the main roster at Survivor Series 2012 as part of The Shield. He has since gone on to win every major honour available with WWE including four World Titles.
H/t to The Sun