Views From The Turnbuckle: WWE's Seth Rollins Problem

The views in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of WrestlingInc or its staff.

On paper, there is nothing wrong with Seth Rollins. He was a top figure on the independent scene, WWE brought him in with high hopes and made him the first ever NXT Champion. A big debut on the main roster with The Shield, he became a part of one of the most popular acts in WWE right from the get go. After leaving The Shield, he quickly won Money in the Bank and at Wrestlemania, he cashed in his contract and won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. As a performer he is as good as anybody else, a premier worker he has charisma and cuts very good promos, playing his character of an elite scumbag as to a tee. Everything would indicate that he has been a tremendous success in WWE, and that is definitely true to a certain extent, but WWE is also making the mistake of handicapping one of its biggest stars.

A wrestler's value comes from fans buying into them as a legitimate threat to whoever they are wrestling. Fans loved Steve Austin for many reasons, but one of the biggest was because they believed in him as a legitimate ass-kicker. The same with The Rock or The Undertaker or even John Cena. Heels like Triple H or Brock Lesnar got over as well. Rollins doesn't have the physical size of any of those guys, but both Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho got over despite lacking the stereotypical physical tools.

Michaels and Jericho were accepted to be legitimate top wrestlers mainly because they were allowed to win matches consistently. In a lot of ways, wins and losses don't really matter all that much, but when you get to the very top of the card where all of the guys have the skills in the ring and on the microphone to be the best, winning and losing and how you win and lose assumes a great importance.

When it comes to booking Seth Rollins, WWE has failed him in that regard. It is very clear that they want him to be a sneaky heel who backs down from challenges from the John Cenas and Brock Lesnars of the world, someone who wins more often with his brains than his brawn. All of that is fine, but WWE has ignored the final step: That as much as you can book him as a cowardly heel who avoids fair fights with the babyfaces, the fact of the matter is that you have to allow him to pick up relatively clean victories in big matches here and there, otherwise fans will lose faith in him as an actual threat to anything, even if he does have the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

Ric Flair is probably the most famous portrayer of the cowardly heel champion, and he worked it to perhaps the greatest wrestling career of all-time. The difference between Flair and Rollins is that once the babyface got through all of Flair's antics and finally got him into a fair match, it was still made clear that he was dealing with a tough customer in the ring, someone that was highly skilled in defeating his opponents and that only someone really special would take the championship away from him. Rollins lacks many clean victories over big opponents, and the implication given off from that is that once someone gets him in a fair match, Rollins doesn't stand a chance.

A perfect example of this was what happened on Monday Night Raw, when Rollins faced
John Cena in the main event. Now, Cena and Rollins are set to wrestle at Summerslam, and obviously Cena is the favorite. John Cena has won 93 percent of his matches in 2015, while Rollinns has only won 24 percent of his matches. Cena cleanly wins virtually every single big match he partakes in, while Rollins nervously skates through most of them. If you were to poll fans on who would win a match between John Cena and Seth Rollins, probably about 85 percent of the fans would say Cena. Having a major match where a massive majority of the fans believe one man is going to win isn't a good thing, ideally you would want the fans to believe that either man had an equal chance at victory, but with Cena's reputation not even Stephen A. Smith would believe that.

So what does WWE do? Instead of having Rollins pick up a win over Cena, they confirm many fan's beliefs that Rollins doesn't stand a chance against Cena, having Rollins tap out in the middle of the ring. Not only did they do that, but it happened after Cena buried Rollins' on the microphone earlier on the show, calling Rollins' among other things "a joke of a champion." So Cena called out Rollins, told him he was an unworthy champion, and then confirmed that statement by defeating Rollins cleanly later that night. Instead of possibly putting Rollins over, changing the narrative from being "LOL Cena Wins" to "Well, Seth was able to hold his own, maybe he has a chance at Summerslam", they decided to do the same thing they have been doing for the last twelve years. This worst part is that this isn't particularly difficult booking, all you need to do is to look at things a little bit objectively and put yourself in the position of the fan, but WWE has unequivocally failed to do that.

Another thing that is hurting Rollins is The Authority's current role in the company. When Rollins first claimed the world title, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon were the biggest heels in the company and Rollins was their chosen champion. But now, The Authority is a tweener group that has no real identity. On Monday they cut a bizarre promo where they were clearly babyfaces, announcing a slate of quality matches for the show, only to switch back over to the heel side when it came to satisfying Cena and denying his title shot for tonight. So for 90 percent of the promo they were babyfaces, but the final 10 percent they were heels. The fans have no idea to react to that and thus they have no idea how to react to Rollins. At this point he may as well be better off getting away from The Authority and being a smarmy heel on his own.

Now, it should be stated that WWE has handled Rollins' career pretty well up until this point. They took someone who debuted on the roster in 2012 and by 2015 he was a legitimate world champion. They helped Rollins firmly climb the mountain and now he is at the peak of it. But if WWE isn't careful he is going to be blown off the top of mountain, they have to firmly put some stakes in the ground to make sure he stays there, and right now that isn't what they are doing.

You can follow Jesse Collings on Twitter @JesseCollings