Seth Rollins hit Roman Reigns with a steel chair in 2014 and broke apart The Shield, but the fans who watched it happen clearly have not gotten over it.
During an interview with ESPN, Rollins looked back on the infamous betrayal of Reigns and Dean Ambrose, admitting that nobody involved fully grasped how deeply that moment would stick with WWE fans.
The Shield had just come off two major wins over Evolution and looked stronger than ever. That made Rollins’ sudden attack feel even more impossible for the crowd to process in real time.
“I don’t think any of us really understood the gravity of what was about to happen. We knew that it was going to be a moment in time because we were such a beloved group, and there was such a bond between us.”
Rollins remembered the arena reaction being different from ordinary boos. Fans were not immediately screaming at him because they were still trying to understand what they had just watched.
“I remember the moment being like not even boos. It was a shocked silence. People did not even understand what they were seeing. Like, they couldn’t believe that it was happening. Especially, we’d come off of two really incredible six-man tag matches against Evolution. We had never been stronger as a group.”
The moment sent Rollins into The Authority and changed the direction of all three Shield members. Roman Reigns went on to become one of WWE’s biggest stars, while Rollins built much of his own legacy around being the man who destroyed the faction from the inside. More than a decade later, Rollins says some fans still want an explanation from him.
“It was so impactful. I don’t think even to this day — this was in 2014, so we’re talking 12 years later — to this day, I get people that come up to me and ask me, ‘Why did you betray The Shield?’ I still get it to this day.”
Rollins also pointed to the lasting impact of the chair shot on his relationship with Reigns. Their history has continued to follow both men through later storylines because fans never forgot the image of Rollins swinging that chair.
“They still care about the relationship between myself and Roman. They still care about the chair shot to the back. They still care about The Shield. I mean, what other fan base exists in that way?”
Rollins said it still surprises him that one betrayal has remained so important to WWE fans after all this time.
“A decade later, a single moment can define an entire generation, and we can call back to it and everybody understands it. So, it’s just a very cool kind of piece of our canon that I think, like I said when we talked about the initial chair shot, I never expected it to live in infamy for as long as it has.”
The Shield breakup was not just a major twist for one episode of Raw. It became the moment that permanently linked Rollins and Reigns, and fans are still carrying that betrayal with them every time the two cross paths.
Do you still view Seth Rollins differently because of the night he betrayed The Shield, or has enough time passed for fans to let it go? Let us know in the comments.
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