Seth Rollins On How Positive COVID-19 Results Impacted WWE Tapings, Which WWE Stars Stand Out

Seth Rollins recently spoke with Joseph Staszewski of The New York Post and discussed the new COVID-19 testing policy in WWE and how it complicates filming. As we've noted, WWE now requires coronavirus testing ahead of all tapings after an outbreak of positive tests among talent and employees.

Rollins said the process has been a struggle as there have been a lot of decisions that had to be made quickly.

"It's been a struggle in the sense that there have just been a lot of decisions that have to be made quickly as far as travel is concerned," Rollins said. "Because now that we're doing added testing and those swabs every single time before these tapings, that puts you in a little bit of a hole as far as your travel is concerned because now you are going to have to leave a day early, and when you don't know you have to leave a day early until it all comes up it becomes a bit of a hassle. We had to make some changes to the taping schedule last week, which is going to force us to go back down again this week to do some more tapings.

"As we as a country and the world really just start to learn more about this thing, we are just trying to get a protocol in place that makes sense for everybody in WWE. I'm for one extremely happy that we're testing every time before we go in. That will hopefully minimize the risk of people getting sick in the Performance Center and obviously us passing it out into the general population. The fact that we're testing is definitely great."

Rollins continued and described last week as "crazy" after the testing and positive results. He added, "The extra travel days is what it is, not a big deal. But this week was crazy. It was a lot of people scrambling to make decisions and to try to figure out what the best order of operations is regarding this situation since we had not had this problem yet. Luckily, I think we have some good stuff coming up as far as we're gonna handle this. The communication has been a lot better toward the tail end of this than in the beginning. It was (laughs) tricky at first, but we're all along for the ride."

Rollins was also asked about RAW creating new stars and who has stood out to him. He praised WWE United States Champion Apollo Crews and Zelina Vega.

"I think some people who stand out to me probably are Apollo Crews, who is someone who's been kind of been under-appreciated for a long time," Rollins said. "As he gets more experience under his belt on a WWE platform, he's only gonna get better. He needs the opportunity to explore who he is. Who is Apollo Crews, why do we like him, why do we care about him? Clearly, he's a five-tool player. He's got all the necessary attributes. So I think getting in this platform, to step up and deliver, obviously, he can do it in the ring. We'll see what it looks like if he develops into a character down the road.

"I think Zelina Vega as well is someone who's bee given a ton of mic time. Being paired with Andrade and with (Angel) Garza has allowed her to speak more than she's ever spoken in WWE and carry segment on her own with a WWE champion and other people like that."

Rollins is currently leading a stable with Murphy and Austin Theory on the red brand. He was asked why Theory and Murphy were chosen to be The Monday Night Messiah's followers.

"They've got all the tools," Rollins said. "They've got the look, the work ethic, the drive, they've got the mental capacity to be great in this industry and we all need people to help us and guide us along the way. Triple H took me under his wing in 'The Authority' and kind of showed me the ropes.

"So now it's my duty to pass on that information the best way I know how. I learned from Randy (Orton) and Triple H and Kane to an extent, so to be in the opposite position now where I am the teacher, I think Murphy and Theory like I said, they have all the tools and it's just a matter of giving them the right information on guiding them on their path to success. They are both going to be future stars in our industry I hope."