WWE SummerSlam 2018 Is The Culmination Of Seth Rollins’ Redemption Arc

Let’s address the elephant in the room: yes, the jacket of Seth Rollins’s hodgepodge SummerSlam gear is probably a ripoff of everybody’s favorite universe-destroying comic book big bad, Thanos.

But there’s something else going on in this uh, visually arresting aesthetic decision: a look that encapsulates the full run of Seth Rollins’s slow burn face turn since his return at Extreme Rules in 2016.

This has been a long, slow road for Seth. The initial confrontations between Seth, Dean, and Roman in the immediate aftermath showed a remorseful but distracted Seth who was more focused on clawing his way back to the top of a company that seemed to essentially abandon him in the aftermath of his industry.

Though the undisputed future found himself unceremoniously tossed aside by the man who made him champion, Seth was still never quite a full blown babyface. He destroyed a brotherhood — was he sorry for the circumstances he found himself in after his injury, or sorry for becoming a man who would throw everything away for a big gold belt?

Tonight’s gear, garish as it might have been, weaves together the difficult and complicated threads of Seth Rollins’ return into a single look worn proudly in a match where he put his heart and his career in the hands of a man he hadn’t seen in months who still could have had every reason to turn on him.

A hint of black and gold from the undisputed future, the redesigned and rebuilt black and gray of a man without direction, the gold of a kingslayer, a black boot from the Shield or even the newfound burn it down passion of someone who could finally believe in camaraderie and trust again.

Though there’s still the possibility of a rocky road ahead for Seth and Dean’s partnership and rekindled friendship, tonight’s gear synthesizes Seth’s recent looks and all the twists and turns of his transformation from weaselly hateable heel into relateable babyface into something as complicated – and at times, frankly, hard to watch – as this entire arc.

It’s messy and weird and doesn’t make sense, but it means something. Seth Rollins is a man reborn, fully transformed from a man so desperate for a leg up that he sold out his best and only friends. Gone is the derisive sneer — watch the entrance again, watch Seth’s face instead of his gear, and see the softness and openness of someone who seems startled and utterly delighted to know he was able to re-earn the trust and support of someone he hurt as much as Dean Ambrose.

Maybe the gear was a bit off, but at times, so was this storyline, whether due to ill-timed injuries or Raw’s questionable ability to handle storylines with any level of emotional subtlety. The winding road and the look that topped it off may not have been handled with great finesse or subtlety, but both of them mean something special, and with luck, we’ll be able to put this behind us and enjoy Seth’s babyface run with the Intercontinental Title.

Or, based on this frankly heartbreaking post-match interview with Seth on WWE.com, maybe we won’t: after all, as Dean and Seth have proven time and again, what’s a little feuding between friends?

Where is Ambrose, anyway?