WWE Brings Back Seth Rollins' Curbstomp On RAW Under A Different Name
Seth Rollins brought back his Curb Stomp finisher on this week's WWE RAW and used it to defeat Finn Balor in the main event. They are now calling the move by the Blackout, which is what Rollins called it in NXT and FCW.
The move was previously banned in 2015 by Vince McMahon. Rollins appeared on Sam Roberts' Wrestling Podcast in 2017 and talked about what led to the WWE Chairman banning the move:
"No more blonde and The Curbstomp is gone, guys. It's not my fault. Trust me. It's not like I was [saying], 'oh yes, I want a new finisher.' No, they snatched it from me. They took it from me. No, so this is what happened, okay? After WrestleMania, I had won the [WWE] title, and I flew across the country to do the Today Show. For the Today Show, they put together a package of all of Seth Rollins' awesome maneuvers. At the time, my finish was The Curbstomp.
"So Vince McMahon is sitting wherever Vince McMahon sits on a Monday morning and he's seeing me on the Today Show and I look good in a suit. I'm representing the company. I look good in a suit. And I'm wearing the title and then he sees this package of me stomping another man's head into the ground and it being called The Curbstomp on national television. And he thought to himself, 'well, that's not a good representation of what I want my top guy to do,' so he just had a meeting with some of his people, and they decided, 'well, we don't need it – we can figure out another finish for you' and the rest is history. I get it. I hate it. I think it's silly, but it is what it is and it's not my company. I'm doing the best I can with it.
"I get it from a marketing standpoint. I totally understand it. I hate it because it was such a great finish. It was easy and could do it to everybody, but, hey, so it my cool knee now, so let's start liking that."
Rollins also talking about the move being banned during a 2016 podcast interview with Chris Jericho, noting that Vince banned the move as he could imagine a young Shane McMahon attempting to perform the maneuver on Stephanie McMahon as a child.
For those who missed the match on RAW, below is a GIF of Rollins using Blackout on Balor:
Yes, I'm including the Curb Stomp GIF everywhere I can. It's a good time and I like watching it so it's gonna be everywhere. pic.twitter.com/wICfbiItVd
? Finn (@ThoughtsOn_WWE) January 16, 2018