Seth Rollins sat down for over an hour on Jay Mohr’s “Mohr Stories” covering his career in WWE, but gained a lot of attention for his comments about performing in Saudi Arabia.
The headlines reflected the attention on Saudi Arabia and Rollins’ response when mentioning the Royal Rumble taking place in Riyadh next month. Mohr jokingly asked if the talent “take shit” as the comedians did for going there, and Rollins responded that they’ve been criticized since the deal began. Instead of pivoting or focusing on the fans in Saudi Arabia as most in his situation have done, he didn’t deny that there was blood money involved, but asked if people believed there wasn’t blood money attached to the U.S. government as a form of equivalency.
WWE entered a ten-year deal with the General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia in 2018 and increased the deal to include two yearly events at roughly $50 million per event.
The relationship has seen many controversies, including WWE opting to return to the country one month after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, and a widely publicized incident the next year when talent was stranded in the country.
WWE will hold three events in the country in 2026, including next month’s Royal Rumble, before bringing WrestleMania to the country in 2027.
Notes from the interview:
- Rollins was asked about the shift in Vince McMahon promoting big men from the Hulk Hogan era to the present. Rollins believed there was a shift after the steroid distribution trial in 1994, and focused on smaller talent like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, but that there was still room for larger guys. (Pollock: The 1991-96 era was certainly a wakeup call for the WWF when they instituted drug testing and were most serious in the early portion of the decade. The bodies either transformed or they left the company, with few exceptions. However, WWF dropped drug testing, and for the majority of the Monday Night War, neither promotion was concerned about testing. It’s very fair to say that McMahon never drifted from the look he coveted and always gave talent an advantage in his eyes.)
- When he signed in 2010 and reported to FCW, the company was still signing bodybuilders, and he felt like an exception on the smaller side, but today, he doesn’t look out of place.
- Mohr argued that McMahon had to be guilty of distributing steroids because he wanted all the guys to look big. Rollins pushed back and felt that talent could see who was being pushed and didn’t need a paper trail or to be told. There was a funny exchange as Rollins tried to compare the ‘80s scene to a smaller operation and running high school gyms and small venues, and Mohr countered that he saw the WWF at the Meadowlands and Madison Square Garden, and Rollins conceded that it was a fair point. (Pollock: I laughed out loud)
- Rollins never met Vince McMahon until he was on the main roster, unless it was in passing, doing extra work.
- He had to learn the political game and patience in development, as he felt he was ready for the main roster the day he signed and blew everyone away. Rollins didn’t see his style of wrestling on the main roster and noted that Triple H didn’t understand his style at the time. He needed to learn to be less combative and had to show them he could be taught.
- Rollins was warned by Paul Levesque that he was close to being fired in FCW because he butted heads with Terry Taylor. He credits Joey Mercury with talking him down. Mercury gave him advice that when he’s on camera, he’s playing a character, and when he’s backstage, he’s also playing a character, and can be himself when he goes home, and that resonated with him.
- John Cena was the best at going into the ring and calling it on the fly
- He is adamant Cena will not wrestle again and has a belief that Cena came up with the ending to his match with Gunther, but doesn’t know that for a fact. If Cena won, no one would be talking about it today, and there would be no money to be made off the finish.
- Rollins had rotator cuff surgery nine weeks ago and gave out a timetable of 3-4 months until he can return. When asked how much wrestling occurred in the match at Crown Jewel after he injured his shoulder, he said, “Too much”.
- Found out he had a half-sister and brother through 23andMe
- The topic of Saudi Arabia didn’t come up until near the end, when mentioning the location of the Royal Rumble. Mohr asked if they would “take shit” as the comedians have for going there. Rollins said they’ve been taking shit since 2018 and “we get paid by America too, what do you think? There isn’t blood money there too”. He was skeptical too when they started going to Saudi Arabia, but he has watched the changes in the country, and now it’s just like another show. (Pollock: It’s the topic that will get the most attention, and rather than play a game of equivalency between the countries, it’s worth noting that WWE doesn’t perform shows for the U.S. government and receive direct funding. You can argue that TKO is an extremely adjacent company to the current administration, UFC actually is hosting an event at the White House, and Levesque is on the president’s fitness council. In many ways, what Rollins said in this interview is, at worst, equal to CM Punk’s tweet in 2019 aimed at The Miz and doesn’t deny the blood money element, and just defended it by equating it to the U.S. It was definitely a different tactic than others, such as Cody Rhodes and John Cena presented in their interview last week. It will be interesting to see how talent handle these situations with the ramp up toward the Royal Rumble and then, WrestleMania in 2027, because there will be tons of promotional appearances and this form of question arising.
- His deal with WWE has another three years on it, but he’s very happy
- On Jim Cornette vs. Vince Russo, he hates them both, but if there’s a gun to his head, he’d hang out with Cornette, as he worked for him in Ring of Honor, but he’s a product of the hot take culture and capitalizing on saying ridiculous things.
- The best entrance he’s ever seen was Bad Bunny at Backlash in Puerto Rico in 2023
