Seth Rollins On Connecting With WWE Audiences
Seth Rollins and the WWE Universe share a connection like few wrestlers and fanbases in history. Just consider that, during a WWE house show in April, fans in Manchester, England, sang Rollins' song for 10 minutes straight, to the point where his opponent — The Miz — just stood and watched, as Rollins basked in the glory of fans serenading him with love.
In a recent chat with "Out of Character," Rollins spoke on the bond between himself and his fans, something he believes the latter took for granted prior to the empty arenas/ThunderDome era.
"They're having fun, and that's the name of the game," Rollins said of WWE fans. "I feel like it's really been that way for a couple of years with our audiences. I thought there was a period of time when some of the crowds we'd go to, and I'd be like, 'Man, you sure you wanted to come to the show? You spend a lot of money to come to the show. You sure you came to have a good time?' But lately, probably since we came back from the pandemic, people are not taking it for granted anymore, because for a year-and-a-half, we didn't get to do that, you know? We didn't know if we were ever going to be able to do it again."
Rollins added that, just like the fans, he and his fellow wrestlers are not "taking things for granted anymore," and that the outpouring of love pushes them to constantly improve their craft.
'Right now, they're partying with me...'
When asked about the adrenaline he feels every time fans sing his song, Seth Rollins referred to the feeling as "soothing" as opposed to the "What?" chants that are meant to be disrespectful towards the wrestlers. "They're saying 'What?' in segments that they're bored by what you're saying. [If] they start signing my song in parts of the show I'm not in, then we can have a different conversation. Right now, they're partying with me, and want my opponent to get very upset about it."
To augment his "partying" with fans, Rollins — as part of his "The Visionary" persona – has donned outrageous outfits on a weekly basis, earning the title of WWE's resident fashionista. Interestingly, Rollins admits to not being "big on fashion" in his day-to-day attires and struggles to find inspiration to one-up his on-screen attires.
"Unless I'm doing an appearance, or something wild, I ain't got time for all that," Rollins admitted, before praising King Troi and the rest of his crew for designing his kickpads, his outfits, and his entrance.
According to Rollins, there are times when the outfits are way too outrageous even for his taste, pointing to his WrestleMania 39 attire. "It was almost like a pink dominatrix-like Jeff Jarrett-looking thing on me, I don't know what was going on with that. Everything was wild. It's to the point now where I am waiting to go as far as I can, just to see people go, 'Okay, you've gone too far.'"
In conclusion, Rollins hopes that he and the WWE Universe can continue to have a blast for years. "I'm gonna ride this wave for as long as I can," Rollins said. "There are elements of [my past WWE characters] in this, but how it all came to be, I have no real explanation. That's the beauty of art — it just evolves, and it becomes something different every day."