Seth Rollins Talks WWE Battleground, Tough Enough, Going Solo and More

Seth Rollins is a confident man. And why not? In his young WWE career, he has a resume that most WWE Superstars won't even retire with. Not since Kurt Angle's rookie year have we seen such sustained success this early.

I spoke with Rollins on the PodNasty Wrestling Podcast as he heads into a daunting WWE World Heavyweight Championship match against Brock Lesnar at WWE Battleground.

As WWE World Heavyweight champion, Rollins stands tall at the top of the WWE's current youth movement. For the first time in his WWE career, he will also stand alone for reasons outside of a stipulation. Following the go-home show for WWE Battleground, Lesnar injured Kane, completing his trifecta of Authority annihilation. 

WWE is marketing Rollins' latest challenge as one he will answer by himself. Whether he eventually receives help remains to be seen. But, for now, his confidence is his only ally. Thankfully, he has plenty to spare.

Bleacher Report: You’ve had so many big matches in such a small amount of time on the WWE main roster. It seems kind of crazy to ask this, but you are going against Brock Lesnar. He’s a beast, he’s a future Hall of Famer, you’re the champion and an underdog. So is this the biggest match of your career to this point?

Seth Rollins: I feel like I've had a lot of "biggest matches of my career" up until this point. I would say this one is certainly special.

I mean, there are not a lot of guys who get the opportunity to go one-on-one with Brock Lesnar at this point in his career. To be one of those guys to main event a pay-per-view with Brock Lesnar over a very prestigious title it all adds up to being certainly one of, if not—I'll leave that up to you and the other media pundits to decide what is the biggest match of my career—but it certainly ranks up there with the very, very biggest of my career.

B/R: You’ve been on the main roster for just over two years, you’re already WWE World Heavyweight champion, you’ve technically main evented a WrestleMania—these are goals that are long-term goals for most wrestlers—but you’ve already done them. Do you have any goals left?

Rollins: I mean, win more titles, hold on to this one as long as I can, main event more WrestleManias. At this point I’m just creating a legacy and giving back to the business I love more than anything.

To me, it’s always about what’s next. How do I get better? How do I do something that’s never been done? So I think there’s always stuff to do. There’s always new goals, and once you stop having goals and things to accomplish it’s time to start looking at something else.

B/R: John Cena is currently the United States champion. It’s a competitive, exciting division with the addition of Kevin Owens and Cesaro, and I feel like that’s rivaling the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Is there any pressure to compete with John and establish the WWE title as the most dominant title in the company?

Rollins: (The WWE World Heavyweight Championship) is (the most dominant title in the company) no matter what. No matter who is wearing what other title, this is the big boy. This is the one that everybody wants, and if John tells you any different he's a liar. But the bottom line, though, is that I'm always competing with John Cena.

John's a guy who has set the bar extremely high for the past 10, 12-15 years. He's a guy who—not only in the ring, but outside the ring—is an example of what a WWE Superstar should be. He has put in the work over that period of time to prove that and that's definitely something I strive to be as well.

Don Feria/Associated Press/Associated Press

I strive to have that work ethic and instill that in people around me the way John has over the past decade and a half, so I'm always competing with John Cena in my mind, but my title is the title and there's definitely no doubt about that.

B/R: You talk about the people around you and making them better. You definitely had people around you when you debuted with The Shield, but I feel like WWE continues to mention the fact that you used to be with The Shield, that you turned on The Shield, that you had ties to that group. Do you ever get tired of hearing about the constant references about your ties to The Shield on WWE programming?

Rollins: I don’t think so. I’m pretty proud of The Shield. We accomplished a lot in a very short period of time. You mentioned that I had done that on my own as well, but we did it together and I had a huge part in that, putting that whole thing together and making sure it was successful.

I look at all those successes, including being the one to break all the fangirls’ hearts of the world by destroying The Shield, as a major success.   

Jonathan Bachman/Associated Press/Associated Press

If you look at where all three of us have fallen, and where our careers have taken us since then, I would say that those guys owe me a debt of gratitude. They may have not liked the way it went down but it certainly helped catapult all of our careers into super stardom. At the end of the day, it certainly worked out for the better. I look at it as an accomplishment, not as an insult, when people bring it up.

B/R: Did you have more fun being with The Shield, being with your brothers, and being on the road with those guys, or do you find it more fun living up to the pressures of being this world champion at the top of the company by yourself?

Rollins: This is what I always wanted to do. I always wanted to be the man. The man, not one of the top guys. I wanted to be the only one that everyone looked at.

This is definitely where my heart lies. I had a great time with The Shield. We had a good run, but definitely the last year of my career has been undoubtedly the best time of my life for sure.

B/R: We really haven’t seen you on your own exclusively as a WWE Superstar—you’ve either had The Shield or The Authority—so is this something we’re going to see moving forward or are you going to get more reinforcements?

Rollins: Well, J&J Security are both on the shelf with injuries thanks to Brock Lesnar. As you saw on Monday, Kane is now (sighs), I don’t know where Kane is but he’s not anywhere to be seen. I’m fine with that. I think it’s OK the way it is.

I’ve put on some pretty impressive performances on my own without the other people, whether it be The Shield, whether it be Kane and J&J or anybody else. People like to say that I’ve gotten a lot of help and that’s true. I have. I’ve gotten a lot of help along the way but not everyone can do what I do.

Not everyone can compete on the level that I can compete on, and I think that anyone who looks at me as an underdog in this title match against Brock Lesnar on Sunday is a little bit out of their minds.

I’m younger than Brock Lesnar, I’m faster than Brock Lesnar, I’ve had less injuries than Brock Lesnar—and he may work a lighter schedule than I do—but at the end of the day I am the champion for a reason. I outsmarted Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania and I don’t see any reason why I’m not going to be able to beat him on Sunday at Battleground.

B/R: You recently appeared on an episode of Tough Enough. Did anybody stand out to you among that crop of talent?

Rollins: Not one person stood out to me.

B/R: Not one?!

Rollins: Not a single one, nope, not one. I went down there and I tried to help them out—give them a few pointers here and there—let them know what it takes to be a star. But, let me tell you, those kids got it easy.

They don't know anything about anything when it comes to putting in the time. They think they're going to get through this little three-month course and they're going to be WWE Superstars and they're going to be famous and rich and travel the world.

That's not how it works. It's a whole lot of hard work. I think they're going to figure that out along the way, or they're going to fall by the wayside. For me, I didn't see a whole lot. Maybe as they move along in the process they'll show more personality and a little more guts. But for now I'm not holding my breath.

B/R: Do you think there’s going to be problems between them and the existing WWE and even NXT Superstars when they just walk into WWE with a $250,000 contract?

Rollins: Absolutely, that's what I'm talking about. Tough Enough is phenomenal. It's great. Don't get me wrong. It pushes WWE out into the masses and everyone can see it's physical, and they get an inside look at kind of what it's like to be a WWE Superstar.

But at the same time you've got to understand that's not all that it takes. You don't just get to be on a reality game show and all of a sudden you're just a top star in 12 weeks. They're going to have to put in a lot of time, and a lot of hard work.

They're going to have to sacrifice a lot of relationships, they're going to be injured often. It's going to take a toll on them physically and emotionally that they're not prepared for. I think it will be very interesting to see who comes out of Tough Enough, who really is tough enough when you look at it. Who's going to come out of it alive and who's going to make a success out of themselves?

B/R: To train for that brutal schedule you’ve been very vocal about your CrossFit training and how it prepares you. Former WWE Superstar John Morrison also has unique training regimens and he recently said that he would “destroy Seth Rollins in everything” (from Michael Wonsover of todaysknockout.com). How would you respond to that?

Rollins: (Laughs) I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what that means to destroy me in everything.

Credit: WWE.com

B/R: I think he’s talking CrossFit, I think he’s talking wrestling, I think he’s talking parkour…

Rollins: If I'm not mistaken, I believe John Morrison is a zero-time WWE World Heavyweight champion. Mind you, zero. As in never once did he win the big one.

And I'm, what, not even three years into my WWE career and I've already won Money in the Bank, won the WWE title at WrestleMania, first-ever NXT champion? So there's a lot of things that I've already destroyed John Morrison at and if John Morrison thinks he can take me in any of those endeavors, I would love for John Morrison to step up and say something like that to my face.

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Alfred Konuwa is a featured columnist and on-air host for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @ThisIsNasty and subscribe to his weekly wrestling podcast.