Who Seth Rollins Credits For Iconic RKO At WWE WrestleMania 31
Seth Rollins has revealed the man who made him believe he and Randy Orton could pull off one of the most memorable RKOs in WWE history.
Almost 10 years ago, Seth Rollins began a rivalry with Randy Orton that culminated in an iconic moment at WrestleMania 31. Towards the end of their match on the Grandest Stage Of Them All, Rollins went to claim victory with a Stomp, but when he got his foot on Orton’s head, The Viper somehow countered him with an unbelievable RKO.
In the years since, the move has become a staple of WrestleMania highlights packages, and now Rollins has given some insight on how it came to be. Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, The Visionary explained that Orton didn’t like to practice matches beforehand, so he had to try it out on Joey Mercury, the veteran wrestler who was part of his onscreen security team at the time.
“Well, Randy is not a practice guy. Randy is not a guy that wants to fall down when he’s not getting paid in front of people. Joey Mercury is the reason that I felt we could do it. Joey was a mentor for me for a long time in Florida Championship Wrestling and on the main roster. He was a perfect little mechanic and could figure out how to make anything work. Joey is much smaller than Randy. Randy could eat a snack the size of Joey. That made it easier for me to step on Joey’s head when we were practicing it.”
After deciding it could be done, Rollins had to persuade Orton, who tends to be cautious about taking big risks in the ring.
“I could do it with Joey. Randy is much stronger, but he didn’t want to fall down and do the RKO. Even if you slide a crash mat under, it just wasn’t working. We had a backup plan in case it didn’t work. Randy was like, ‘Screw it, I always take the easy way so I can bat 1.000, let’s just do it and give it a shot. If it screws up, whatever. I’ve had plenty of Mania moments, I don’t care.’
“At that time, there was nothing I couldn’t do physically, if I had my mind set on it, we’d figure it out. ‘Ah, the adrenaline will carry it through.’ I did have some reservations about it in the match. When we got out there, it was very hot. In the middle of the day. Very hot and dry. I was more winded than I expected to be. When we got to it, my legs were a bit heavier. All the different ways you don’t want to feel when you’re about to do the grand finale. When I started running towards him, ‘I was like, oh, here we go. Let’s hope for the best.’”
While he lost that match, Seth Rollins carried out the ‘Heist of the Century’ in the WrestleMania 31 main event, using his Money In The Bank contract to insert himself into Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar’s title match and walking out with the gold.
Seth Rollins Confirms Royal Rumble 2025 Entry
On the January 13th edition of Raw, Seth Rollins announced his entry for the 2025 Men’s Royal Rumble match. This year, rather than simply wanting a title shot, Rollins has a far more personal goal in mind, to avenge his loss to CM Punk by denying the Voice of the Voiceless his dream of headlining WrestleMania.
H/T to Fightful for the above transcription.