Seth Rollins Says He Wanted To Strangle Vince McMahon After 2019 HIAC Match
Seth Rollins is the latest guest on Steve Austin's Broken Skull Sessions, which is now available on Peacock/WWE Network.
During their near two-hour conversation, Austin brought up the infamous 2019 Hell in a Cell Match against "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt. Then-WWE Universal Champion Rollins used almost any weapon he could to keep Wyatt down, including a sledgehammer, which ultimately got the referee to stop the match.
Not only did Wyatt lose (a majority of fans wanted to see a victory) but a Hell in a Cell Match was stopped without a clear winner. Critics panned the match and it received "Worst Match of the Year" honors on some lists. Rollins said initially what he wanted to do ended up being very different from what he was told to do.
"My vision for what that was going to be was a lot different than what we had to go out there and do," Rollins recalled. "We went out there, and did what we were told to do, to the best of our ability."
Rollins continued that as the boos picked up from the crowd and then got louder with the finish — it wasn't a fun at all in that moment. Rollins has since been able to put a positive spin on the match, but at that moment, he was so enraged that strangling Vince McMahon came to mind when he got to the backstage area.
"I put a positive spin on it now that I can look back at it a year and a half later, but at the time — I came through that curtain and I was ready to strangle Vince McMahon," Rollins said. "I'm not kidding you. I'm not kidding you, TJ Willson was there to hold me back. I stared right into Vince's eyes — you know where he sits in that chair over there [in Gorilla] — I look at him, he looked at me, we didn't say a single word to each other and he walked out.
"I sat there with Paul Heyman — and also, he was Creative Director at the time of RAW — so I sat down there with him and we had a conversation. He was 'Paul Heyman'ing' me, if you will. Then, the next day I went into Vince's office — much calmer — and I said, 'Let's talk about this. We need to figure out what we're doing here, because that can't happen again.' It was civil, but it took me a night [to calm down], but I was ready to go. Man, if somebody wasn't there making sure I was okay — my temper, I mean, the adrenaline. In my head, if you go back to that match, I'm convinced if it would have went our way, this wouldn't be on that [worst matches] list."
You can check out a clip below and the full interview on Peacock/WWE Network.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Broken Skull Sessions and give a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Seth saying he was ready to strike at vince for the hiac match against the fiend cause he was so mad lol. pic.twitter.com/PFieRJ2RMa
— Tash🏳️🌈 (@TashaXXRollins) September 26, 2021