Seth Rollins WrestleMania Build: The good and the bad

Is Seth Rollins going to WrestleMania? Of course, he is. WWE would be foolish to keep one of its best performers off the biggest show of the year. But there’s a lot of discussion around the way, or lack thereof, that he’s being involved with the show this year. Debatable WWE booking is nothing new but picking Rollins’s WrestleMania build shows that there’s some good here, but also some very bad.

For the last few weeks, Rollins has been attempting to find a way to be involved with the biggest professional wrestling event of the year. Ever since he and Kevin Owens failed to capture the tag team championship, each week has been one scheme after another, all failing along the way. He’s threatening to take over the next episode of Monday Night Raw, which should probably lead to hilarity and a great match at the night’s end.

That’s the good about this whole “build.” Rollins is killing it. Each week he makes the best out of what is put in front of him, delivering exceptional moments with his character, making viewers believe that he sees himself as a shining knight even though he’s supposed to be the “heel.” The WWE Champion, Brock Lesnar, hasn’t appeared on Monday Night Raw in weeks, even though he carries that title. Once again, the WWE leans on Rollins to be one of the focal points of the show because it’s a well-known fact that he can deliver when given the opportunity to shine, just as he’s done in the past when Lesnar was an absent champion.

Just recently, Rollins was inserted in a “quick fix” angle against Roman Reigns at Royal Rumble. The 2-3 week build and the match delivered, widely because of Rollins’s involvement at a time when some complained that Reigns’s run was becoming stagnant. Rollins is like a timeless veteran on the court or a musician in the studio – he can be counted on to deliver hit after hit.

But just like Rollins’s can be counted on to deliver, WWE can be counted on, at least in recent years, suboptimal booking for some of its biggest stars.

WWE is three months into 2022 and Rollins has two clean singles victories to date. Yes, he defeated Reigns via DQ at the Royal Rumble, but that isn’t a clean victory. With such a poor performance record to date, why should he get a marquee singles match at the PPV? Isn’t WrestleMania the “show of shows” where WWE highlights the best talent on the roster every year? By that standard alone, Rollins’s booking doesn’t put him in a position to make such a demand.

Plus, there’s the question around why Sonya Deville and Adam Pearce are against him having a match. Shayna Baszler and Natalya have done less than Rollins to this point in 2022, yet Deville had no trouble inserting them into the Women’s tag team title match. Just as with her feud with Naomi, the “why” is often missing in these storylines to make them logical.

Why should fans care other than the fact that Rollins has an exceptional track record as a professional wrestler? Why should fans boo Pearce and Deville who are clearly trying to become adversarial authority figures on both shows? The “why” is often missing in WWE booking but it is a strong part of what makes entertainment, entertaining.

Regardless, Rollins will be involved in WrestleMania. It would be a huge mistake to keep him off the show, and WWE isn’t going to take that route. If Cody Rhodes steps through that curtain to take him on, fans will get a great match that will be on the MOTY list for every voice in the industry. But that doesn’t mean this build is without its criticism as it’s easy to see why some fans shrug in disinterest.