Every WWE fan is holding their breath right now, because Seth Rollins has been injured, and it could be serious enough to cause him to miss his second straight WrestleMania. Everything had been building up for over a year to finally have him and Triple H face off at the biggest show of the year, but now those plans may have to be scuttled.
During the latest Bischoff On Wrestling podcast, former WCW bigwig Eric Bischoff expressed his sympathy for Rollins, but pointed out that if the Architect of the Shield is out for any significant amount of time — and god forbid, if he has to miss WrestleMania again — this tragic injury would end up creating a rare opportunity for both talent and creative to step up in a big, bad way.
“I feel bad for Seth. I can only imagine, especially in today’s environment, getting that opportunity to step on that main stage. At the biggest show on Earth in this industry and probably others. To lose that opportunity so close to the date has to be emotionally devastating. I never met Seth Rollins but I feel for him. I hope he does the work, keeps his chin up and comes back and proves that third time is a charm.
“I think the opportunity that it creates as much for other performers in the WWE that are going to have to step in to that slot is the opportunity for the writers to really get their heads together and put as much pressure on themselves as some of talent feels some times to come up with a story and an angle that allows that transition to be as seamless as possible. If I was a fly and could pick my wall that would be the wall I would want to be on. The one where I could watch the writers work their way around that. That’s when injuries bring out the best or the worst on the creative team.”
If Rollins does indeed miss out on WrestleMania, that would truly be awful. But Bischoff does have a salient point, although it may not be the one we want to hear right now: WWE often does very well when its back is up against the wall and they have to come up with something special on short notice. Triple H is reportedly dead-set on having a match at Mania, and it will be interesting to see who they position against him if Rollins is out of the picture.
Meanwhile, if WWE fans were sympathetic to Rollins’ return from injury the first time, that might be nothing compared to the next time he comes back … and hopefully the next time, he won’t be inexplicably positioned as a heel.
