WWE’s Seth Rollins: ”There’s a Lot of Life Left in The Shield”
The WWE star on The Shield’s success and their recent face turn.
By Eric Goldman (May 1st, 2014)

The Shield have been an increasingly popular part of WWE programming the past two years, with fan reaction strong nearly from the start. I sat down with one of The Shield’s members, Seth Rollins, to discuss the group’s success, their recent shift from heels to face and more.
I should mention I spoke to Rollins right before the current story-line involving The Shield and Evolution kicked off, hence us not discussing that situation. You can see those two groups square off at WWE’s Extreme Rules event, this Sunday on the WWE Network and Pay-Per-View.

IGN TV: For the three of you, did it just seem like you knew early on, “This is working”? Could you feel that everything was coming together?
Seth Rollins: Yeah, and I can’t really pinpoint an exact moment when we knew it was going to be good. For whatever reason, man, it was just clicked with the three of us. We all had the same work ethic and the same goal in mind from day one. We wanted to be the best, and we wanted work as hard as possible to get there. For whatever reason, it just all seemed to come together. We complemented each other very well, not just as performers, but as people too. It’s good for everybody.

IGN: When I spoke to Roman, I asked about your entrance, because obviously it really stands out. Does it still have that special excitement, the way you come in that way through the crowd?
Rollins: Yeah, I like it a lot. It’ll be weird if we ever have to come through the stage. That’ll be strange! But it’s cool, man. Every time we go up there and we’re waiting to come down, we get a little crowd that kind of surrounds us, and there’s a lot of energy there. As soon as that music hits, man, it’s just like, “Boom!” You know what I mean? Everybody turns around and stands up. It’s just a crazy energy. I can’t really describe it. It’s awesome.

IGN: Obviously the crowd has been backing you more and more, but now you’ve fully made a shift. Does it feel different for you? The energy’s always been there, and now it’s aimed a different way.
Rollins: Yeah, I think that’s the best way to describe it. We’re just doing what we do. I don’t think we’ve necessarily changed that much about us. We’re still black-clad, we’re still out there kicking ass, taking names. For whatever reason, the crowd seems to be on our side at this point. It feels good. It’s nice. The energy levels definitely haven’t gone down at all. If anything, they’ve risen up. It’s a different kind of energy. It’s awesome. I think people have always appreciated what we do, but I feel like for whatever reason now, they just feel like it’s okay to cheer us. So that’s cool. I dig that.

IGN: You had some fun interactions with the Wyatts for awhile. It seems like your two groups — while very different — also played well of each other.
Rollins: Yeah, definitely. From the first time we had any sort of interaction with them, when we were over in the UK last November, there was definitely some crazy electricity that was going on. We knew that once we got into it that it was going to be awesome. I think it exceeded whatever hype it had laid in front of it, and that’s really tough to do nowadays, to have a match where people wanted to see that. They were genuinely like, “Damn, I want to see that. That’s going to be awesome.” So I was really happy we got the opportunity to do that with those guys.

IGN: I remember the end of that RAW when you guys had your first mini-confrontation, the crowd got so pumped up. Obviously, you’re in the ring, you’ve got to perform, and you have to be on, but at the same time, you’re hearing the crowd. Does it really just energize you more when you get a moment like that where you just feel, “Oh, man. They are really into what’s going on right now”?
Rollins: Yeah, that’s what we live for. Those moments are what we do it for. That’s what keeps us coming back. It’s a rush every time we come down the stairs and through the crowd and get in the ring and have a great match. It’s special moments like that where you can’t describe the electricity; it’s a lighting-in-a-bottle sort of thing. That’s what keeps you coming back and really why you do it. Make people really feel something; that’s pretty impressive. That’s an awesome thing to be able to do.

IGN: In wrestling, even the best of stables eventually seem to split up. For awhile people were wondering if you guys were heading towards a split. Right now, it seems like it’s shifted back. Would you like to stay together for awhile more?
Rollins: I definitely do. I think there’s a lot of life left in The Shield, especially with the different direction the crowd has taken on with us. I think there’s a long way to go for us as a group — as individuals as well. There’s no reason we can’t advance in both situations. I think people assume that for whatever reason there’s an exclusivity to being a single star and a great stable. But for me it’s never about that. We can all grow as individuals, and we can all be big stars in our own right. The Shield can be as big as it’s ever been. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.

IGN: You’re doing this professionally, you’re having a lot of success, but do you still have your own moments as a fan; whether it’s someone returning or just seeing an in-ring moment, where you get to just step aside for a second and see through that perspective?
Rollins: Yeah, getting to have conversations actually with guys that I idolized or being across the ring from someone like an Undertaker, that’s crazy stuff. That’s stuff you never ever think’s going to happen to you. I always wanted to be a wrestler, and I always thought that this was a place I was going to end up, just because that was the goal for me. But some of these things that we’ve done over the past year and a half have been really surreal, just being in a WrestleMania, wrestling guys like Undertaker and being in the ring with The Rock. You think those guys are going to be long gone by the time you get here. For them to be around and having a WrestleMania match with the Outlaws and Kane, who I watched when I was 12 years old, that’s just crazy stuff, man. That’s stuff you can write chapters in your book, you know what I mean? It’s just crazy.

Source: ca.ign.com
Follow Eric @EricIGN

Thank you to @MidnightRayne11 and @GHPortraits for these gorgeous new fan art submissions to the gallery!
If anyone reading this wants to submit their art please contact me on twitter @SethRollinsWeb

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