Seth Rollins Recalls Difficult Conversation With WWE Boss
Seth Rollins details having a tough conversation with then-WWE boss Vince McMahon.
Speaking in a new interview on Complex News, Seth Rollins revealed why he had to stop using his finisher, Curb Stomp, in WWE. The then-WWE Chairman made the decision to ban the move because he disapproved of it on national television and feared children would mimic it.
The ban came right after Seth Rollins won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 31 by using the Curb Stomp on Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns. The very next day on RAW, Vince McMahon called him into his office and told him the move was being taken away. He was given no warning and was shocked, since that move had just made him world champion.
“Ah, it sucked. I was given no heads up, and it was right after I won the World Title for the first time, with that move that I’d been using for years as a finish, and that had built up a ton of equity, and then all of a sudden, ‘I mean, so I don’t think we’re gonna use that anymore.’ ‘What the –’ ‘You know, it’s too dangerous. I know you’re not dangerous.
Very safe.’ If anybody can tell, it’s my Vince McMahon impression. ‘Kids can do it too easily at home.’ I don’t know what happened. Somebody got in his ear and said it was a problem. I’m like, ‘Dude, it’s wrestling. If any kid imitates any wrestling move, they’re gonna hurt –’ your armbar. They just snap a shoulder off.
“It’s like, c’mon. A Rock Bottom, any of it, all of it, anything. It’s silly. A punch to the nose, you know what I mean? If they know how to do it, of course it’s gonna hurt somebody. So I thought it was so silly but whatever, you know? It was on a whim.
Literally, I did the move Sunday, won the title, beat Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar and then fly to New York from San Francisco, do the TODAY Show, pet a couple dogs, say hi to Katie (Couric) and Matt (Lauer), fly back to Santa Clara to do Raw and I go and Vince is like, ‘Come in. I gotta talk to you about something.’
He’s like, ‘Ah, we’re not gonna do that anymore.’ I was like, ‘Well, what do you want me to do?’ And then they wanted me to do a frog splash and I’m like, ‘Absolutely not. I’m not doing that every single night.’ I like my knees and I like my elbows. It’s not happening.
Triple H Was Hesitant To Let Seth Rollins Use Pedigree
After the ban, Seth Rollins, who is currently on a hiatus because of an injury, had to find a new finisher, so he went to Triple H to ask to use Pedigree. He said yes, even though he was a bit hesitant.
So then it was the process of trying to figure out a new finisher, and thankfully, I was in the mentorship of Triple H at the time in The Authority and no one else had ever used the Pedigree as a finishing move and he was not an active performer at the time so I was like, ‘I think this would be the perfect –’ he was hesitant about it too. He didn’t like it.
I think he really hates it now because people kick out of it sometimes. Yeah, fully, fully diluted it but I think it worked for the time being. It got the desired reaction and it already had the 20 years of equity to it, which is the hardest thing to do with a finisher because anything can be a finisher. You just have to beat people with it for a while.”