Seth Rollins Explains Sporting Shield Gear At Royal Rumble

WWE superstar Seth Rollins returned to his Shield roots to play mind games with Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble. As part of the famed three-man trio alongside Dean Ambrose, now known as Jon Moxley in AEW, the two stars have a lot of history together, and the Visionary tapped into that on Royal Rumble.

In an interview with Radio Row, Seth Rollins explained why he wore Shield gear for his Royal Rumble match against Roman Reigns. The bout was won by Rollins due to a disqualification. Check below what he had to say.

It was something that was in my mind. Obviously, anytime you enter into a story with Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, you’ve got to know the history of the Shield, you know? So it would’ve been a disservice to our fanbase to not touch on that. And then the more we touched on it, the more that I realized that it really started to bother Roman. There was a piece of him that he hadn’t fully dealt with, you know? It was something, some unrequited regret, something in there that he hasn’t really touched on. And so the more I messed with him, the more it became a real possibility that was going to be something that would get inside of his head. Because, look, the guy’s a super athlete. He’s got a lot of advantages when it comes to size and strength, but when it comes to the mental game of what we do, there’s nobody better than me. So it was maybe not a last-second call, but pretty close to it. Luckily, St. Louis is close to home and I had some backup on the way. I made my presence in a Brock/Roman match once before at WrestleMania so who’s to say I couldn’t do it again. But who knows? We are roughly seven or eight weeks out from WrestleMania at this point now and so, anything can happen between now and then.

The Tribal Chief, who was visibly shaken when his old partner brought up their faction, was first to the ring as their Universal Championship match kicked off the Rumble event. As The Shield’s music began to play, the fans in St. Louis erupted in applause, followed by the familiar sight of Rollins making his way to the ring from the top of the stands.

Seth wore the group’s customary riot gear, adding another layer to his tactics, and Roman was unimpressed. Despite Rollins climbing to the ropes, Reigns retained the gold by refusing to break the guillotine. When Moxley (as Dean Ambrose) debuted alongside Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins at Survivor Series in 2012, the Shield made waves in the industry.

Florida Championship Wrestling, a forerunner to NXT, served as more of a developmental league for WWE at the time, with rising stars honing their craft and character. NXT 2.0 is moving back in that path, with wrestlers like Bron Breakker enjoying weekly TV appearances as their talents grow.

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H/T to WrestlingInc. for transcription.