Seth Rollins is a Future A+ Player

Seth Rollins turned on his Shield partners Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose in the closing segment of Raw on Monday. And I couldn’t have been happier.

Ever since they entered the WWE, The Shield have been putting on great match after great match, and while Reigns was always the guy rumored to get the big push and Ambrose was the de facto leader, I’ve always viewed Rollins as the guy with the most potential. He was always stealing the show in their matches, he can adapt his style, and he’s improved a lot on the mic. Now that he’s aligned himself with Triple H and Randy Orton, he’ll truly get his chance to shine with two former champions that the company has the utmost faith in.

People wondered why Rollins was the one to turn. I wonder why we weren’t positive that Rollins was the guy when The Shield eventually split.

As mentioned, Reigns is reportedly in line for a big babyface push, possibly culminating at Wrestlemania 31. A heel turn makes no sense for him if that is in fact the plan for Reigns moving forward. Ambrose would seemingly have the least motivation to turn. After all, the Triple H essentially booked him to lose his US Title not too long ago and made him defend it more times in his last month as champion than he did during his first 10 months with the strap.

That would leave Rollins, the third fiddle of the team. When The Shield teased a split late last year, it was Rollins who was caught in the middle of things. Ambrose and Reigns couldn’t get along, leading to Rollins to play peacemaker. Now nothing came of this short-lived tease as The Shield quickly patched things up, turned face, and continued to destroy everyone in their path. But it’s an important point to remember – and hopefully one WWE remembers on Monday – as it could further explain Rollins’ motivation for the turn.

It’s disappointing that The Shield had to split. For years now you could always count on them to deliver an awesome six-man tag team match anytime it was booked. When they turned face, the hot tag to Rollins became one of the highlights of the show. But WWE is in desperate need of tops heels right now.

Before Rollins turned, Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton were the only true top heels. Triple H and Brock Lesnar are part-time guys who couldn’t be counted on to wrestle every week and Batista was always going to leave after the Payback event. While the John Cena feud elevated Bray to a new level, he still came out on the short end of that feud and where he goes from here is up in the air. That essentially left Orton as the only established heel at the top of the card. And no, I don’t count Kane as an established heel that is at the top of the card. Meanwhile on the face side, there was The Shield; all of whom were elevated thanks to the Evolution feud, Daniel Bryan; still the WWE World Heavyweight Champion and appearing on a weekly basis, and John Cena; still John Cena.

The heel side needed someone to fill the void left by Batista and to pick up the slack from the part-time guys Lesnar and Triple H.

So why not Seth Rollins? Despite everyone constantly saying that WWE loves big guys, they’ve shown a strong willingness over to the years to push “smaller Indy guys.” How else would you explain CM Punk having one of the longest world title reigns in WWE history and Daniel Bryan having one of the best Wrestlemania nights in company history? Rollins has already proven his value to the company as a member of The Shield. He’s a well-rounded wrestler, a bumping machine, and getting better on the mic. Now he gets a chance to really showcase and advance his character. He just turned his back on the most dominant faction in the company since Evolution and aligned himself with the boss that everyone hates.

WWE has a real chance to turn Seth Rollins into a future “A+ player” for the rest of his career. They’ve already done a great job building him up along with The Shield over these past few years. They’ve given him and his team the two biggest wins of their career on the last two PPVs. In fact, Rollins had the three most memorable “non-victory” moments in those two matches: His balcony dive at Extreme Rules, his stage dive at Payback, and his flying knee on Triple H at Payback. Now they’ve aligned him with Triple H, which usually works out in that guys favor. When he wants to put guys over, whether in the ring or on the mic, he’s really good at doing so. And as of late, I must admit as a long-time Triple H hater, he’s done a really strong job putting guys over.

This coming Monday is a huge night for Rollins and the company moving forward. He needs to deliver a home run of a promo, explaining why he turned his back on his brothers and joined The Authority. Triple H needs to deliver a home run of a promo, putting over Rollins as “the next guy” just like Orton was “the next guy” in Evolution back in 2003.

Monday might not break Rollins and his future as a top heel, but it could certainly make him.

Image Credit: WWE.com

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