Seth Rollins Recalls When WWE Banned The Stomp – “WTF!”
Seth Rollins has discussed how he felt after being banned from using his Curb Stomp finish that he won his very first WWE Championship with.
Rollins shocked the world at WrestleMania 31 when he cashed in his Money In The Bank contract during the main event for the WWE Title between Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar. With the match turned into a Triple Threat encounter, Rollins completed the “heist of the century” when he hit Reigns with a Curb Stomp for the win.
Appearing on Loudwire’s ‘Wikipedia: Fact Or Fiction?’ Seth Rollins recalled Vince McMahon wanting to ban the move because he felt it was too cruel for a top champion:
“That is pretty much true. He thought it was too violent. I was going to do The Today Show, then the following morning after I had won the title with that move. And obviously, they are replaying me winning the title, and whether he saw it or anybody else saw it, or there was a conversation that involved him. He decided that we’ll do something different. I’ve been using it for a few years up to that point and won the title with it, but we went a different direction the following night. [Interviewer asks about where his mind went and if it was easy to think of a new finisher].”
For Rollins, he was initially confused about why he was being stopped from using the move, but he knew he wouldn’t be replacing it with one from the top rope:
“My mind went to WTF? What are you talking about? You’re out of your mind, come on. His big concern was that kids can do it to each other. I’m like it’s pro wrestling, it’s every pro wrestling move ever invented. Come on man, this argument is flat. But at the end of the day, he’s the boss, he signs the cheques, it’s his deal, so you figure it out. I didn’t have much in the back of my head but I was a bit of a high flyer, I still do some high flying stuff now. They kept trying to make me do high-flying stuff as a finish. I’m like no. What top guy ever had a move off the top rope? You gotta have a move you can do to anybody at anytime a bunch of different ways.”
Rollins ended up using The Pedigree as a finisher, which was Triple H’s finisher. Rollins explained why he used that move.
“There’s a full setup for it. Eddie Guerrero and Rob Van Dam might be the only two that pop into my head with the Frog Splash. While I do have a nice Frog Splash, I don’t want to do a Frog Splash every night. So I had to try and come up with some different stuff. And fortunately, I was under the tutelage of Triple H at the time, and so it made sense, he was the only one in the company who had ever used the Pedigree. So being a bad guy, being a heel, and being his apprentice, it seemed very much like a good moment and good thing to use and try to move it forward.”
After a spell using the Pedigree, Rollins was able to bring the Curb Stomp back, but it is now only referred to on WWE television as The Stomp.