During his time with Steve Austin on Broken Skulls Session, Seth Rollins let it all out there as far as his career and struggles are concerned, and one of the topics that came up was when Triple H nearly fired him.
During their talk, Rollins spoke about Triple H being “a mentor and a half” and how Hunter was also so close to firing him when Rollins would but heads with him and Terry Taylor.
The Dusty advice
In that regard, Rollins referenced the “Dusty advice” Dusty Rhodes gave everyone about being true to themselves and knowing what they wanted.
Special thanks to @wrestling_mpw (https://www.instagram.com/wrestling_mpw/) for the transcript.
“The Dusty advice, it’s a double-edged sword. I had to have that confidence to be who I was and to get to where I wanted to go, I knew that, but that would rub some people the wrong way.
“One person who it rubbed the wrong way, and maybe this is some leftover heat from me shunning him during contract talks, is Terry Taylor. He ended up coming over from IMPACT to work with developmental and he and Hunter go back a long way. He was a mentor to Hunter. Hunter brought him in and he was meant to coach the elite class at FCW/NXT and Terry and I just butted heads. A lot of that had to do with, Terry is a lot like me in that way where, he has confidence to what he did to get to where he was and he was going to instill that on us. His approach was a little hard-nosed at first. When you come into a new job, I understand that now obviously, you need to do that and put your foot down and understand that people need to respect you, otherwise they’re going to walk over you. I understand now where he was coming from. At the time, I was just like, ‘Yo bro, don’t get in my face, don’t try to tell me what I’m doing isn’t right.’ This was before the NXT Championship. ‘I’m going to get to where I want to go, you just let me do me and stay out of my way. Don’t try to change everything that I’m doing.’ I would challenge Terry Taylor in front of the class and he didn’t like that.”
Another factor that may have reared its head from time to time was that while Taylor was with TNA/Impact Wrestling, Rollins has a verbal deal with them to go there.
But since there was never a contract signed Rollins went to the WWE instead.
“I’m of the opinion that wrestling is an art form and is lots of great things. Terry is very old school in the sense that, he thinks a certain way works. Part of that ideology is shunning what is up and coming instead of embracing it. I was always like, ‘You have to understand, the business is changing. You have to go with it. If you go against it, it’s not going to help.’ I would challenge him in little ways every day to the point where, I was insubordiante. Hunter took me aside and was like, ‘Look, I don’t see anything special in you.’ If you don’t want to play ball and don’t want to work with us, you can go back to Ring of Honor and do things your way, but you need to start doing things our way.’ I was like, ‘Oh man, my dream is about to go up in smoke here.’ I go back to Joey Mercury and sat down with him and he’s like, ‘You need to understand how to play the game. It doesn’t mean you have to change who you are, but you have to play a role all the time. You’re not just on when you want to be on, you have to be on all the time. You have to find a way to give them what they want while teaching them how you do things. There is a compromise and you have to figure out how you do that.’ He sat me down and talked me through that whole process.”
We see the arguments between the old and new schools of wrestling online all the time, and there can be some special things happening when they’re mixed correctly.
Rollins is one of those that can meld the two together to tell a in-ring story, and it’s great to see play out as he’s proven to be one of the best in the world.
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