Seth Rollins admits he was caught off guard by Vince McMahon's WWE retirement when the news surfaced back in July.
The longtime WWE veteran recently spoke with Ariel Helwani of BT Sport for an in-depth, one-on-one interview where he spoke about how abrupt the retirement of McMahon was, as well as how much he loves and respects the former WWE CEO and Chairman.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On admitting that he couldn’t believe Vince McMahon retired: “I couldn’t believe it. It was just one of those things you’ll never forget. We were in the airport. We were heading out to a live event. We were flying out on a Friday. The thing went out at like 3 o’clock central or 4:00 pm Eastern roughly. So, I got the text. I was coming through security line, I got the text, ‘Check your app for a note from the chairman or whatever. Sure enough, he was retired. I was just like — Becky [Lynch] was with Roux down looking up at a statue of a deer at the airport in Iowa, and she was looking at the statue and she saw my face from a distance. She said, ‘What’s wrong?’ I’m like, ‘Did you get the text?’ She’s like, ‘No, what?’ I just had her look at it, and she’s like, ‘Oh my god. What, what? Is that, is that it?’ I think both of us were just like, ‘What?’”
On how abrupt the retirement was: “And Vince is older, so I always thought at some point in my tenure with WWE, as I intend to be here for quite a long time, he would retire, be forced out, die on the job, who knows. But when it happened, it was so abrupt, I was not prepared. And it got emotional because I love Vince. He’s been like a father figure to me over the past 10 years. He’s someone that his approval means a lot to me. … When you have such a close relationship with someone, ups and downs, it felt like I was losing a friend and losing a mentor. I didn’t know whether to be excited or not. It kind of felt like a little inappropriate to be excited about something like that.”
On how much he loves McMahon: “I just told him that I loved him and I’m gonna miss him. He was just a mentor to me. This business doesn’t become what it is without him. This business doesn’t become what it is without him. Anyone on Twitter who’s got an opinion about pro wrestling, and it’s global reach, just it doesn’t happen the same way without Vince. Maybe it happens. Maybe pro wrestling survives without somebody taking it national or a company national. Maybe it prospers as it did in the territory days in some areas. But maybe it also just goes to die like Barnum and Bailey. Eventually, that just got smaller and smaller until it was gone. Who knows? The point is, we owe so much to him. Without him hiring me and paying me, I don’t have a wife that I have now, and my kid, all of that. My livelihood is a lot in part to him. He’s given me the opportunity to live out my dream with what he has created. So there is just lot of respect and a lot of love that I have cultivated and a good relationship with him over the years.”
Check out Ariel Helwani's new sit-down interview with Seth "Freakin'" Rollins via the video embedded below courtesy of the official YouTube channel of BT Sport. H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes.
