Top 7 Memorable Seth Rollins Moments

We’ve spent the last two weeks here looking at the most magnificent moments in the career of Brock Lesnar. Fun times have been had by all. This week, I feel it’s only fair that we take a look at the career of his opponent at the upcoming Summerslam extravaganza.

I saw the man eventually known as Seth Rollins come up through Ring of Honor. He had solid matches and a certain unspoken charisma about him, but I doubted he would have too many memorable moments in WWE.

Boy was I wrong!

Seth Rollins has had as many memorable moments as anybody else in WWE during his time with the company. Here are the top seven from where I sit.

7. Beating Miz & Finn Balor for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 34

Some people will tell you that this is the best opening match in WrestleMania history. I can only assume that some people have not watched WrestleMania X, which is entirely possible since it took place twenty-five years ago. Nevertheless, Rollins, Miz & Balor helped get this show off to a tremendous pace, telling a good story with some incredible moves thrown in for good measure. Rollins’ Intercontinental Championship run during 2018 led to a tremendous amount of goodwill from wrestling fans due to the good to great matches he had to fill time every week on Raw. Revisionist history aside, plenty of IWC pundits & comment section veterans were calling for a Seth Rollins main event push last year.

6. Defeating Jinder Mahal to become the first NXT Champion

Rollins arrived in WWE developmental in 2010 and wasted no time establishing himself. He won every Florida Championship Wrestling championship that was available to the men. Once the changeover to NXT happened, he was the obvious choice to become the first NXT Champion.

Being the first champion of any brand or company is a big deal. The higher-ups obviously have a great deal of confidence in you to succeed. In the case of a WWE developmental territory, it means that somebody thinks you’re going to be one of the top stars in WWE someday, and your status as the first champion will give that title more rub. Rollins’ status in WWE definitely enhances NXT’s reputation as a breeding ground for WWE Superstars.

5. Slaying Triple H at WrestleMania 33

After a couple of years of bring Triple H’s golden boy, it was only a matter of time before Seth Rollins would have to face The Game in a big time situation. Hunter’s not known for patience with his minions, which is why he turned against Rollins in order to make Kevin Owens Universal Champion. Rollins wanted revenge at WrestleMania, and in spite of a knee injury he was able to defeat the King of Kings and score the biggest victory of his career.

Sure, Rollins has won zillions of championships and there were none on the line here. But the man beat Triple H! That’s like the equivalent of ten victories over Dolph Ziggler.

4. Becoming WWE & United States Champion at SummerSlam 2015

Rollins was receiving the push of all pushes in 2015. He was the chosen champion of the Authority, getting to roll over everybody in his path with the help of his friends. For the second biggest show of the year, he got to wrestle John Cena in a match where the winner would get the WWE & United States Championships. Jon Stewart, of all people, interfered & helped the Architect beat the Greatest WWE Superstar of This Time. It wasn’t a clean victory, that wasn’t what Rollins specialized in at the time, but it was still an impressive thing to defeat John Cena on such a stage.

Then again, this was the fifth straight time that John Cena had lost a match at SummerSlam. Cena has an overall record of 5-9 at the Biggest Party of the Summer. If you want to start a feud with John Cena, the summer is the best time to do it.

3. Winning the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 35

Rollins had won the 2019 Royal Rumble & opted to face Universal Champion Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. This didn’t seem like the most intelligent of ideas at the time, and Brock’s attack on Seth after the challenge made it seem even sillier.

Somehow, Seth managed to summon all of his babyface fire, overcome all odds and defeat Brock for the Universal Championship in a mere 2:30 at WrestleMania. At the time, people actually thought that Brock might be done with this whole wrestling thing. Seth called himself the “Beast Slayer” and took the top spot on Monday Night Raw as the face of WWE & official spokesperson.

Only problem? The Beast wasn’t quite slayed. Brock was back by Money in the Bank and claimed his Universal Championship back at Extreme Rules. Now Rollins will need another crowning moment in a WWE career full of them so far in order to get it back.

2. Cashing in Money in the Bank at WrestleMania 31

WrestleMania 31 wasn’t the first time the event ended with a heel as WWE Champion. Nor was it the first time that somebody not previously advertised to be in the main event had ended up winning it. It was the first time that somebody had cashed in the Money in the Bank briefcase during the biggest match of the year. You would think that somebody else would have thought of that, but previous MITB briefcase holders were not known for their patience.

The Architect was. After Brock Lesnar & Roman Reigns had spent over twenty minutes beating the heck out of each other, Seth Rollins came down, delievered a curb stomp to the Big Dog, and won the WWE Championship. Brilliant move. Some would argue it took away from the match, and hurt Roman’s cause, but it certainly helped Seth’s.

1. Destroying The Shield

The Shield was an amazing thing, but we knew it wasn’t going to last forever. Whoever landed the first blow to break the trio up was sure to get an incredible chance to get over. Most of us assumed it would be Dean Ambrose, as he seemed to work best as a heel cutting vicious promos while Rollins could have fun matches as a babyface. Instead, it was Rollins who hit Roman Reigns with the steel chair to the back, then decimated Ambrose with said chair. We knew it was coming, but we didn’t think it would be so soon. Nor did we think Seth Rollins would be the one to destroy the Shield. Soon enough, we would learn just how dastardly he could be.

I feel like a lot of people would put the WrestleMania 31 moment in this slot. To me, this is the moment that launched Seth Rollins’ career as one of WWE’s top guys. Rollins was expected to be the third most successful member of the Shield when they all came in. Now…well he’s at least second place within WWE. He’s won more titles than Reigns, so you could make the argument he’s been the most successful.

No wonder Rollins has taken it upon himself to be the company spokesperson. They haven’t done him wrong yet.