Seth Rollins Was Hurt That He Didn’t Main Event WrestleMania 35, Was Brock Lesnar’s Idea To Open

Seth Rollins had arguably the best Money in the Bank cash in of all-time when he ran down and won the WWE Championship in the main event of WrestleMania 31 by pinning Roman Reigns.

Though Rollins had a main event moment, he didn’t view himself as being in the main event.

Rollins had the opportunity to main event at WrestleMania 35 when he faced Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Championship. In most years, facing Lesnar for a major title would be the main event of the show, but women made history at WrestleMania 35 when Becky Lynch, Ronda Rousey, and Charlotte Flair were the first women to main event the biggest show of the year.

Speaking to Steve Austin on Broken Skull Sessions, Seth Rollins recalled his feud with Lesnar and being upset that he didn’t get the main event spot.

Before talking about WrestleMania 35, Rollins went back to 2015.

“Flashback to 2015, Brock and I have a singles match at a pay-per-view called Battleground and I’ve got all these grand ideas about working with Brock based off our heat from the WrestleMania match. I win the title from him, take it to Battleground, he comes back but no one really remembers the match because at the end of the match, Undertaker comes back and they go on to SummerSlam and do their business. Brock didn’t know that until the day of and he was upset that he was blindsided and he was taking it out on the match. He was like, ‘They’re going to remember me and Undertaker going off, so why do you want to do all this crap and no one is going to care? Let’s tell a simple story, we’ll get to the end, and we’ll do business with Taker. Sorry, that’s how it is.’ I remember being heartbroken. I was like, ‘Man, why is this guy like this? He doesn’t want to work with younger talent. What is this bullcrap?’ I didn’t get it. I didn’t see the bigger picture. Say what you want about Brock Lesnar, from a business perspective, he gets it,” said Rollins.

Rollins then jumped ahead to 2019 and learning that his now-wife would main event WrestleMania.

“Flash forward, we’re doing the program going into [WrestleMania 35] and it’s pretty good, it’s okay, but it’s parallel to Becky, Ronda, and Charlotte. We’re both vying for that main event spot and I remember Becky gets the call that they’re going to put the women on last. I’ll be honest, that hurt me,” he stated. “I thought this was going to be my year. I have a match with Brock. If you have a World Title match with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, 99 out of 100 times, that’s going on last. Except this year when my wife was as hot as any babyface as ever been and she’s got a perfect foil in Ronda Rousey. There’s no question that in 2019 that’s the year that main event has to go on last. There’s no question and I knew it and I felt it for a couple of months leading up to it, but I was holding out hope that for some reason, we were gonna be able to catch some fire to go on last. Talk about all the accolades, I have the moment where I cashed in, but I’ve never been on the marquee as the main event of WrestleMania. I’m not going to let that diminish what else I’ve done, I’ve had a great career, but that’s the one thing that has alluded me in my life. That hurt me really bad. At the same time, I’m so happy for Becky. My God, the first woman to main event WrestleMania and it’s all on her back because she’s the one that put the time and effort to get the character to where she was at. I’m so happy for her, but I’m torn in this personal disappointment that it’s not me. It was a tough spot. How do I navigate this? How do I be upset for myself and feel what I need to feel while also being happy for her and excited for her moment?”

While the women’s triple threat match closed WrestleMania 35, Lesnar vs. Rollins opened the show.

According to Rollins, that was a decision Brock made and Vince agreed to it shortly before the show.

“Initially, when the card came out, we were supposed to go right before them. Brock was like, ‘No, we need to do something different. It’s going to hurt both matches if they are back-to-back. It’s going to take the wind out of the sails of both finishes. We need to switch this up. Let’s do something we’ve never done. Let’s go on first.’ It took some convincing to push Vince in that direction, but within an hour of the show, we didn’t make the switch until an hour of going out,” said Rollins.

Rollins would defeat Lesnar to win the WWE Universal Championship in the match.

It was after the match that Rollins earned Brock’s respect.

“It took some time. He’s a guy who is not just let you come in and, on a shoot, can take anybody in the locker room. It takes time to earn his respect. It took me a cold pack of Coors Light in his locker room after [WrestleMania 35],” he said.

Becky Lynch found success as well at WrestleMania 35, winning the SmackDown and Raw Women’s Championships in the main event.

Elsewhere during the interview, Rollins gave his true feelings on his Hell in a Cell 2019 match against “The Fiend” Bray Wyat. You can find his full comments by clicking here.

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