WWE: Seth Rollins Must Be Held Accountable For Normalizing Hate Speech

Although Seth Rollins had a tremendous 2018 inside the ring as one of WWE Raw’s top babyfaces, his horrendous tweets on New Year’s Eve defending “comedian” Louis CK will be the lasting mark of his year.

Seth Rollins has been one of the most popular WWE Superstars over the past several years, producing memorable moments and notable matches with impressive frequency. While 2018 was a banner year for Rollins inside the ring and helped him reach new heights as an entertainer, he made a few tweets on New Year’s Eve that will impact how fans perceive him going forward.

Louis CK, who sexually harassed multiple women, recently had comments leaked that targeted nonbinary people and Parkland student activists (survivors of school shootings). It was another example of disgusting commentary by the disgraced comedian, and his remarks were merely hate speech flying under the thinly-veiled guise of comedy.

On Twitter, Rollins seemed to defend Louis CK’s comments in a series of tweets. He referred to CK’s leaked “bit” as “funny”, and he seemed to normalize CK’s past bits that included offensive language. Louis CK has been caught on camera using the “n-word”.

Defending Louis CK in any capacity is dreadful, and even if Rollins says he is trying to take CK to task for his past comments in a round-about way, he’s merely normalizing CK’s comments. Putting the word offensive in quotation marks, for example, minimizes the impact of using slurs that truly do negatively impact people and harbor hatred against protected groups.

As a WWE Superstar, Rollins is a representative of a global brand that tries to tout its ability to promote social change, whether it’s promoting Titus O’Neil’s humanitarian work or helping children suffering from cancer.

Rollins’s public tweets that defend Louis CK’s words fly in the face of everything WWE says it tries to stand for, and these comments are coming from a man who is attempting to be the company’s top babyface in 2019. The latter part may seem inconsequential, but his comments are a slap in the face to every fan of Rollins who had to see these tweets. Many of his fans are people who are hurt by CK’s words and actions, and Rollins making these tweets is undoubtedly harming them.

Given that Rollins has worked in professional wrestling for years and has been a former world champion in WWE, he can’t plead ignorance here either. He knows that his words on Twitter will be read, he knows they have an impact, and he knows he has to stand for love.

Note that Rollins once posted a picture on Instagram of him and Bayley sitting on a bench with an important, positive message about showing solidarity with the LGBTQ community. Do these recent tweets defending Louis CK’s transphobic comments reflect that message of inclusivity and love? They do not. Period. And it makes Rollins’s tweets all the more disappointing.

These tweets from Rollins, while concerning and potentially dangerous, shouldn’t cause WWE fans to #cancel him, because “cancel culture” ultimately changes nothing. Rollins should be able to grow and learn from this mistake. But in order for that to happen, he needs to be held accountable for these tweets by fans.

Because this is NOT OK. This is NOT what we should stand for. Louis CK’s comments are despicable, bigoted, and are potentially purposefully meant to inflict harm on others. Rollins needs to be taken to task by his fans for these comments, and while it is OK to appreciate his work as a performer, it will become impossible for some fans to root for a guy who may have shown some deep flaws with these tweets.

Hopefully Rollins apologizes and learns why supporting CK in any way is wrong, but, again, the WWE Universe needs to push him to change and not normalize hate speech in any way (whether intentionally or not) for this growth to occur. The fans deserve better than to have one of the top stars in the company make comments like this with the public platform and influence that a wrestler like Rollins has.