While Seth Rollins is one of WWE’s most beloved stars today, that wasn’t always the case.
The former World Heavyweight Champion signed with WWE in the 2010s after rising to prominence on the independents as Tyler Black. He signed with NXT during the early days of the brand’s developmental program and became Seth Rollins. During his time learning the ropes of everything WWE, Rollins recently revealed that he was butting heads with retired professional wrestler Terry Taylor, a coach for NXT. Because of it, he was pulled into a meeting with Triple H.
“I was sitting in Full Sail University. We taped our early episodes of NXT there. They were a great partner for us. There was like a little auditorium, and I remember sitting in the back, and he was like, ‘Hey, I don’t care how good you are, you’re being difficult with this guy, this guy thinks you’re difficult,’” Rollins recalled on the Mohr Stories podcast (h/t: WrestleZone).
“Terry Taylor, ‘Red Rooster’, he and I butted heads quite a bit when he got down to Florida. Triple H didn’t appreciate it. My attitude wasn’t appreciated, and it was like, ‘If one more negative report comes back, we will fire you,’”
Rollins was ready to walk away from WWE because he wasn’t willing to change who he was for them. It took a conversation with Joey Mercury to change his mind.
“I just felt like, ‘What am I doing here? Why am I wasting my time? This is nonsense,” Rollins says. “I can go make more money elsewhere,’ I was close. I had a mentor down in Florida named Joey Mercury, and he was one of the guys who talked me down and said, ‘Listen, just do this, and good things will happen. Play the game.’
Rollins explains he didn’t want to look like a “sellout,” a “corporate schlub,” or a “bootlicker.” But Mercury helped him see things in a new light.
“He was like, ‘Dude, when you go out to the ring, you’re not yourself. You play a character. It’s the same thing when you’re talking with these people. You’re playing a character. It’s all an act. You’re always playing the game.’ When I framed it that way, it was much easier for me to be like, ‘Oh, okay, I can do that,’ and it worked.”
He went on to become the first NXT Champion and part of one of the greatest stables in wrestling history: The Shield. Rollins has achieved pretty much all there is to do as a WWE superstar and yet, this late in his career, he’s still reinventing the wheel. He’s currently sidelined with an injury and doesn’t expect to be back in the ring until early 2026.
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