Gotta give credit to the new WWE World Champ, Seth Rollins, for committing almost totally to his kayfabe knee injury, to the point of using crutches at home and in public for the three weeks leading up to his surprise appearance at “SummerSlam” on Saturday night.
My quibble: why not have him hobble to the ring to confront CM Punk before shedding the crutches and the knee brace?
Alright, I’m nitpicking.
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We’ve known since his Money in the Bank cash-in after Punk’s victory over Gunther in the main event of Night 1 of “SummerSlam” that Rollins, and WWE, had been working us, creating the injury angle during the “Saturday Night Main Event” broadcast last month for the purpose of the swerve-to-come.
Rollins spelled out just how much work he put into the swerve in an appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show” on Monday, listing as his co-conspirators his wife, fellow WWE star Becky Lynch, and their 4-year-old daughter, Roux.
“My wife was an unwilling participant in this ruse,” Rollins told Eisen. “She was very upset with me for making her lie to all of her friends and family for the better part of three weeks. She was very upset. I said, Honey, just trust me, the payoff will be great.
“My daughter, she thought it was a game, she thought it was a fun little game,” Rollins said. “I told her, Daddy’s got a pretend boo-boo, let’s put it that way, for the next few weeks. So, let’s just keep that on the low, you know? First thing she did is went and told her preschool teacher Ms. Joy. First thing she did. Immediately.”
Since the word that it was a “pretend boo-boo” didn’t leak out on the interwebs, we can presume that Ms. Joy didn’t blab to anybody.
Rollins, it should be noted, also went out of his way to keep up appearances when he guest-hosted for Eisen last month, wearing a knee brace and using crutches.
Guys used to do this in the territory days.
It’s good to see Rollins pay homage.
“I just wanted to come by and extend my gratitude to you guys and to let you know how much I appreciate you giving me a platform to fool the entire world, really. Fooled the entire world. There’s no other way to slice it. I fooled the entire world,” Rollins said.
As I wrote above, I just wish he’d kept it up for maybe another couple of minutes.
The way it played out at “SummerSlam,” a hobbling Rollins appeared on the stage with his manager, Paul Heyman, after Punk had just won the world title from Gunther.
For a moment, viewers were left to think that Rollins was making the appearance to keep his name and face in the main-event mix as he recovered from his injury, suffered, as far as we knew at the time, in a match with LA Knight.
Rollins turned from the camera, briefly began walking to the back, then dramatically – a bit overdramatically, if you ask me, but still – did an about-face, threw down the crutches, took off the knee brace, then ran to the ring to confront Punk.
The whole scene, and the three weeks of commitment to the bit, would have been better played if Rollins had limped his way into the ring and confronted Punk while still on the crutches, before turning his back on Punk, letting the new champ get his guard down, before looking directly into a camera, and winking, before going on the attack.
I’m free to consult with the agents anytime.
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Chris Graham
