Seth Rollins talks Becky Lynch's advice, WrestleMania, fatherhood and more on “Out of Character”
By Ryan Satin
FOX Sports WWE Analyst
It’s officially WrestleMania week! So who better to kick things off at FOX Sports than a Superstar who has made some fairly long-lasting memories at the event in Seth Rollins?
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There’s the famous RKO from Randy Orton at WrestleMania 31 ...
Seth’s Intercontinental title win at WrestleMania 34 ...
Kevin Owens jumping off the WrestleMania sign last year to put Rollins through a table at the Performance Center ...
And, of course, capturing the top prize in WWE from Brock Lesnar on two separate occasions, the first of which occurred via Money in the Bank cash-in and led to Seth becoming the leading force on Raw for the first time in his career.
"That was definitely learning on the job, for sure," Seth said of becoming the top guy on Raw after winning the title at WrestleMania 31.
"Once I realized what it was going to be – from a week-to-week basis, not really having any idea of what you’re doing until you show up at the building on Monday and then knowing that you’re going to have a two-segment match and three or four backstage segments and maybe a promo to open the show.
"It’s a lot to take in. It’s overwhelming. And it was very overwhelming to me at first, and I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well because I felt like I was given the ball, and I didn’t want to mess up."
Years later, however – after pinning Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship to create another big WrestleMania moment for himself – Seth learned a different lesson at the top.
For whatever reason, a portion of the fanbase began to turn on him after he became champion, and it became harder than he realized to get them back on his side.
"This one, as a babyface, was different because the landscape had changed drastically from when I won the title before," Rollins said.
"When you’re a babyface in this era, it is hard to keep people liking you. It is difficult because I think people’s natural reaction is, for whatever reason, to dislike almost everything, and I don’t know why that is," the former Universal champ said. "That’s what entertainment has turned into. So to be frustrated, unsatisfied or not like something, that’s what’s cool – especially when you’re told you’re supposed to like it – and so it becomes pretty hard not to let that go to your head.
"I would go to live events, our non-televised events, and the response was not what you would see on TV. The crowds were, to me, they were two totally different crowds.
"I’d be main eventing against a, say, Baron Corbin or whatever, and the crowd would be 100 percent, ‘Let’s go, Rollins,’ ‘Burn it down,’ nonstop, and it was a party. Then you’d come to TV, and half the crowd – the louder half of the crowd – would just be up in my throat," Seth continued.
"It was very confusing, and I think sometimes it pushes our creative process in directions we, maybe, shouldn’t be going. But that’s how it is. That’s how the business is these days, and so you gotta figure it out, and you gotta adapt. If you don’t, you’re going to get left by the wayside."
During the 45-minute conversation on "Out of Character" this week, Rollins spoke about another learning curve in his life right now: becoming a father for the first time.
"I never so much as changed a diaper. I was always that guy that when someone had a baby and was like, ‘Hey, you want to hold the kid?’ I’m like, ‘I’m good. I don’t need to. Next time. Next time we’ll get ‘em, when they’re older, and they don’t need to be held.’
"Once it’s your baby, it’s totally different," Seth said. "Now, it’s the best. Already, I can’t wait to get home just to hang out with her and smush her little, chubby face. It’s the best, dude."
As for his fiance, Becky Lynch, just like you’d expect, "The Man" is handling her parental duties like a champ.
"She’s killing it in the mom game," Rollins noted of his fiance. "She’s doing so awesome. That’s really awesome to see, watch her be a mom. It’s really impressive."
It was also Becky who convinced Seth to return to Twitter recently.
Yes, Becky Lynch – who used Twitter in 2018 to help her skyrocketing career – is the one who brought him back to the app after he deleted it from his phone entirely.
"I hate social media. I really dislike it, and you know, I had deleted the Twitter app from my phone for a better part of a few months just cause it was, to me, it created a real toxic environment in my own head, and as I was becoming a new father, I needed to not waste my time on that," Rollins said. "And so, it was actually my fiancée who kind of was like, ‘You know, you should think about it. I know you hate it, and I know you don’t like being on the apps and all that, but you should think about it.’"
"She was like, ‘If you’re gonna do this, you need to understand it needs to not be taken personally. You need to come at it from a different perspective, and I think if you do that, it’ll be a little more freeing.' And it has been. But it’s still hard not to take some things personally."
For a lot more with Seth Rollins on the evolution of his character, running a wrestling school and his "drip" game on SmackDown, listen to the latest episode of "Out of Character with Ryan Satin" on major podcast platforms.
You can also watch the full episode below.
Ryan Satin is a WWE analyst for FOX Sports. Satin previously appeared on FS1's "WWE Backstage" and founded Pro Wrestling Sheet, where he broke countless news stories as editor-in-chief.
