Seth Rollins: I Regret Not Pressing To Take Cesaro Story In Different Directions

When Seth Rollins returned at WWE Royal Rumble 2021 from a brief hiatus after Survivor Series 2020 to be there for Becky Lynch as she gave birth to their child, he entered into a feud with Cesaro (Claudio Castagnoli in AEW). 

The two would have a series of matches, including a WrestleMania 37 bout that was won by Cesaro. Ultimately, Rollins capped off the feud with a victory at WWE Hell in a Cell and a Money in the Bank qualifying bout. 

Speaking to Ryan Satin on Out of Character reflected on the Cesaro feud and changing his character from Messiah to Visionary. 

“I was still trying to gather what the character was going to be coming out of my return from…I got punted in the face at Survivor Series, left the Messiah character behind, came back as this Visionary but wasn’t really certain what it was going to look like. Got into the story with Cesaro. I was still piecing it together. I had ideas of what I thought it could be, but it didn’t really take hold until the Edge story. The Edge story was so deep and I had all these different emotions to play off of. The Cesaro story had so many legs and different directions we could have taken it and one of my biggest regrets is I didn’t press hard enough to do that. I feel that’s an untapped story. If we ever cross paths again, there is such a great story we could get to. It went one way, it was fine and fun and produced a WrestleMania banger, but we had a lot more we could have done there. The Edge story sort of brought out the best. Edge and I are similar, on-screen and backstage, we have similar mindsets and because I was working with him, someone who is very trusted, I was allowed…my character had already planted seeds in the ground, I was allowed to be a little more off the rails. It just blossomed from there,” he said.

Rollins and Edge would feud throughout the summer of 2021. Rollins is coming off a victory over Matt Riddle at WWE Clash at the Castle. 

Cesaro left WWE in February 2022 after his contract expired and joined AEW in June. He is the reigning ROH World Champion. He is set to face Dax Harwood on AEW Rampage. 

If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.