Seth Rollins addresses knee injury angle: ‘I fooled the entire world’

During a Monday appearance on the Rich Eisen Show, new World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins addressed the ruse he pulled off at WWE SummerSlam.

Rollins — who had faked a knee injury for weeks — cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win the World Heavyweight title from CM Punk at night one of SummerSlam. Punk had just won the belt from Gunther in the main event before Rollins emerged to cut his arch rival’s title reign short.

There were reports that Rollins’ injury was just an angle, but he kept kayfabe everywhere in the three weeks since losing to LA Knight at Saturday Night’s Main Event. That included Rollins wearing a leg brace and using crutches when he guest hosted the Rich Eisen Show last month.

Today, he returned to the program to address his “injury.”

“Well, look, Rich, as much as I love you. And I love you. I love all of you guys,” Rollins responded when asked if he was actually hurt. “I cannot divulge my secrets right now. Tonight, tune in to Netflix. We will be live 8 p.m. Eastern/5 Pacific. Live globally. You can hear all of it, but I can’t get into too much here. 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 the payoff to the ruse was more beautiful than he could have expected, which makes up for the “excruciating” pain he experienced limping around on crutches everywhere for three weeks trying to make everyone believe he was injured.

To keep up appearances, Rollins enlisted the help of his wife Becky Lynch and their four-year-old daughter Roux, with Lynch even posting an Instagram video last month that showed Rollins limping on crutches as he tried to keep up with Roux.

“My wife is an unwilling participant in this ruse. She was very upset with me for making her lie to all of her friends and family for the better part of three weeks,” Rollins said. “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. 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.”

Rollins is in New York City for tonight’s Raw, which is being held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. It appears that his faction with Paul Heyman, Bron Breakker, and Bronson Reed is going to be named “The Vision” with WWE recently filing a trademark for that term.