Seth Rollins Talks Keeping In Touch With Roman Reigns, Why His WWE World Title Run Was Unfulfilling
Seth Rollins was interviewed by Iridian Fierro before last night's RAW where he talked about his WWE TLC match with Dean Ambrose this past Sunday. After a surprisingly poor audience reaction at WWE TLC on Sunday, and the loss of his Intercontinental Championship to boot, it's understandable that "disappointed" is how Rollins described his feelings the match. The Intercontinental Championship match went 24 minutes and was filled with fans audibly chanting "this is boring" and "Becky" throughout the action.
Rollins expressed his own frustration with the outcome of the match, saying that he thought things were left unaccomplished. He added that he plans to enact his rematch clause to finish what he started, although WWE dropped the automatic rematch stipulation later that night.
"I'm feeling disappointed, to say the least," Rollins admitted. "I let my emotions get the better of me. It really put me in a position where Ambrose was able to capitalize, drop me on my head for the Dirty Deeds and pick up the win. Unfortunately for Dean Ambrose, every champion has a right to a rematch and so sooner or later he's gonna have to answer to me. So, I'm not envious of Dean Ambrose's position right now.
"I have my eye on Dean Ambrose, that's where it's at," Rollins continued. "There's definitely a personal issue there that I don't feel like was resolved last night. Obviously, I got my hands on him, I got to express to him in a very physical manner exactly how I felt about what he did to me, and Roman, and The Shield. At the end of the day, I don't think that I accomplished what I wanted to, so I would definitely love to get back in there with Ambrose and finish what I started."
This past October, fellow Shield member Roman Reigns vacated the WWE Universal Championship and announced he had leukemia to a stunned, silent Monday Night RAW audience. Rollins talked about how he's been keeping up with Reigns, saying that Reigns doesn't want to focus on anything WWE related while he's going through treatment.
"I talk to [Roman] once a week or so just to see how he's doing," Rollins said. "And mostly it's about that, at the end of the day, he doesn't want to worry about work. He doesn't want to deal with that right now, so it's mostly just about how he's doing, seeing how he's feeling, and how his recovery is coming and stuff like that. It's nice to hear from him and every once in a while I do have a question about how things are, but for the most part, it's just two friends keeping up with each other and making sure everyone is doing alright."
Rollins' 220 day WWE World Championship title reign, which began in March 2014, also ended by needing to vacate the title. Rollins discussed his former WWE Championship reign, admitting that his heel tactics of stealing the WWE World Championship in the Wrestlemania main event, using the Authority to keep the title, and similar antics left him feeling unfulfilled at the end of his reign.
"I didn't really feel like [my WWE World Championship reign] was as fulfilling as I would have liked it to be," Rollins admitted. "Based on kinda how I went about things, how I got the title and all that stuff. For me, I think this recent Intercontinental Championship run with two different title runs over the past, since Wrestlemania basically, so the past like 8 months. But with the absence of the Universal Championship on RAW, it's really elevated the Intercontinental Championship being more than this kinda, fiddle-of-the-road title."
Rollins recent run as Intercontinental Champion and his corresponding feud with Ambrose over the title has been the featured feud of Monday Night Raw for the past couple months. Rollins talked about how much he loves working for the red brand and how he feels a sense of responsibility while Reigns is recovering.
"Monday nights are my home, for now," Rollins said. "Obviously, you never know what's gonna happen here in WWE. But truth is, I love it here. I love Mondays and I feel like this is my show, and I feel a lot of pressure now that Roman's on the shelf and trying to get better to carry that load, and to carry that torch. And so, I'm looking forward to 2019. 2018 was a great year for me."
You can listen to the full interview below. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Iridian Fierro with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.