WWE's Seth Rollins Reveals How He Got Use Of Triple H's Pedigree After Curb Stomp Ban

Before his ouster in 2024, Vince McMahon ruled WWE with an iron fist, and while he could be capricious, it sometimes paid to take your ideas straight to him. That's what WWE star Seth Rollins found out in 2015, after McMahon abruptly banned his finishing move, the Curb Stomp.

"Literally the day after I won my first world title at WrestleMania," Rollins told Shannon Sharpe during an appearance on "Club Shay Shay."

According to Rollins (who has told this story before) after winning the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 31 in San Francisco, he flew to New York, did "The Today Show," then flew back to San Jose for "Raw" the same day, where he was told McMahon wanted to see him. McMahon broke the news about the Curb Stomp in his office, telling Rollins they were going to "move in a different direction," but that they would find something "equally as good." Rollins believes, though he admits he can't confirm it, that somebody in McMahon's inner circle got cold feet about the move (and possibly its name) following the "Today Show" piece.

"He took it away with no explanation," Rollins recalled. "And then left me with no finish, his world champion with no finishing move, for — it took me a couple months before I decided to just steal Triple H's Pedigree."

Rollins says he tried out some different finishers, but "none of them really took." That's when he had the idea to adopt the finisher of his on-screen boss — and to go to his real boss for permission.

"I was afraid — not afraid, but I was like, 'If I ask Triple H if I can use the Pedigree, I feel like he's gonna say no,'" Rollins admitted. "He was the only person who had ever used it. So I was like, 'here's what I'll do: I'll ask Vince about it. And then I know Vince will say yes just to spite Triple H! And Triple H can't say nothing about it!' It was a good idea though, anyway — I was a bad guy, Hunter was my mentor, I was his protege, he wasn't wrestling, I was like, 'It's a good way to carry on the legacy of the move.' So yeah, Vince okayed it. Whether he did it because he liked it or just to take a shot at his son-in-law, I don't know, but either way, it worked."

Rollins got the Curb Stomp back in 2018, though it was renamed to simply "The Stomp." While he's currently on the shelf with an injury, he uses the move to this day when able to perform. Recently, The Stomp has been used by a mysterious masked man who has been plaguing Rollins' former stable, The Vision — an angle that's widely suspected to be leading to Rollins' in-ring return.