Seth Rollins Opens Up About Never Being 'Handed The Ball' In WWE Like Others

Seth Rollins has been one of the most successful WWE stars of the modern era, having won virtually every singles accolade there is to win. However, some fans believe Rollins has never been seen as the company's "top guy" compared to people like John Cena, Roman Reigns, and most recently, Cody Rhodes. During a recent appearance on the "Insight" podcast, Rollins opened up to host Chris Van Vliet about what it was like to watch Rhodes win the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 40."

"I felt joy, probably a little bit of jealousy," Rollins admitted. "But I don't know, I've never really been the guy that's been handed the ball that way. For the last 10 years it's been Roman for the most part, and then Cody comes back and he kind of gets that treatment as well. I've always felt like I wanted to be that person, and I could be that guy, but it just wasn't for me in the eyes of the people who were making those decisions. So there was this joy and this happiness that we kind of crossed a proverbial finish line, certainly a little bit of professional jealousy as well."

Rollins went on to claim that without him, the likes of Reigns and Rhodes wouldn't have had anywhere near the same level of success, but allowed that this attitude comes from putting the needs of the business and WWE as a company ahead of his own. Rollins feels that if he does that, everyone in the business can benefit.

Rollins isn't the only top WWE star who has yet to feel like the man the whole company revolves around. One example Rollins gave was Drew McIntyre, who defeated Rollins at WrestleMania 40 to become WWE World Heavyweight Champion, but was dethroned just a few minutes later by Damian Priest.

"There's some things that don't go your way all the time when you're kind of wrapped up in yourself, but Drew had a really good year after that," Rollins said. "He does deserve the spotlight. He works really hard. He's a guy who got fired and came back. He didn't leave on his own, he got let go because he didn't know what he was doing, and he went and put in the work and then came back a totally different version of himself and has continued to improve. Say what you will about him being a super troll online, when you get him out there in the ring, whether it's with a microphone or in a match, he's one of the best there is."

Both McIntyre and Rollins have had a common enemy over the past few months in the form of CM Punk, with McIntyre having most of his 2024 taken up by his quest of taking the former AEW World Champion out for good, while Rollins lost to Punk on the January 6 episode of "WWE Raw."

Please credit "Insight" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.