4 times Seth Rollins as World Champion ended in disaster for him & WWE

Reigning World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins is an overall six-time World Champion in WWE. He has won the WWE Championship, Universal Championship, and the World Heavyweight Championship two times each.

But what is quite interesting to reflect upon is his reigns and realize that anytime he has held the title for more than a few minutes (at MITB 2016, he beat Roman Reigns for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, only for Dean Ambrose to cash-in the contract immediately), it has ended in disaster, regardless of the quality majority of the particular reign itself.

Right now, Rollins is feared to be legitimately and seriously injured, with the future of The Vision anyone's guess after they betrayed him last night on RAW. By extension, the future of CM Punk, Roman Reigns, the renewed Bloodline Saga, and the entirety of RAW's intertwined main event scene has gone for a toss, despite a stunning conclusion to this week's episode, which is what prompts this study.

So, in this article, we shall discuss the remainder of Seth Rollins' World Title reigns— that's right, all four of them — and more specifically, how and why they ended in disaster for Rollins and in some instances the company as a whole.

#1 His first world title reign ended with an ACL injury on a house show

Back in 2015, Seth Rollins cashed in the Money in the Bank contract to win his first World Championship, pulling off the Heist of the Century and leaving perennial foe (and occasional Shield brother) Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar.

Rollins feuded with the likes of Dean Ambrose, Randy Orton, John Cena, Brock Lesnar, John Cena, and Kane during a reign that went on till November, and even became a double champion when he briefly held the United States Title.

During a house show in Dublin, Ireland — the native place of his future wife, the legendary Becky Lynch — however, he tore his ACL, MCL, and medial meniscus in his knee while attempting to sunsey flip powerbomb Kane. He had to relinquish the title following 219 days as champion.

In the decade since, Seth Rollins has matured his in-ring style and upped his overall game to become one of the very biggest stars in the business, but when they talk about pre-2015 Rollins being a beast in the ring, as younger people like AJ Styles might put it, that is indeed "no cap." He was never as explosive in the ring again.

#2 Seth Rollins' first run as the Universal Champion in 2019

After Roman Reigns was diagnosed with leukemia in 2018, WWE finally decided to attempt to make Seth Rollins the franchise player of WWE. Reigns would come back within months, but not before Rollins won the Royal Rumble and challenged Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship in the main event of WrestleMania. After Rollins won the title, post-WrestleMania, Reigns was drafted to SmackDown and stayed on the undercard, and it was clear that WWE was going all-in on Seth.

Unfortunately, the cards they had to play were atrocious. Amid the "Wild Card" rule and the introduction of the 24/7 Championship, Vince McMahon had Rollins feud with Baron Corbin, and paired the Beastslayer with the only more popular star in the company at the time, Becky Lynch (with their relationship just having been made public), which just undermined both characters.

A horrendous creative run overall for the company meant ratings declined, and Lesnar won back the title after cashing in MITB; how he became Mr. MITB being another awful decision. Nevertheless, Lesnar winning the title and Rollins winning a sudden "All-Star Battle Royal" to earn a rematch seemed, only to be kayfabe injured by The Beast, was the most creative WWE was at that time, but Seth Rollins' incredible performance got fans behind him in a major way despite the preposterous booking. But the worst was yet to come.

#3 WWE hits perhaps its all-time low creatively with Seth Rollins' second Universal Title run

Seth Rollins then entered a feud with a babyface Braun Strowman while also becoming tag team champs alongside him, beating Gallows & Anderson. They then dropped the titles to Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre at Clash in Paris before Rollins defeated Strowman in the main event to retain his Universal Championship, only to be attacked by "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt.

Wyatt had been becoming incredibly popular with the WWE Universe with his Firefly Funhouse, and when The Fiend made his debut in front of fans, he was the biggest thing in the business. Naturally, Vince McMahon decided to pit his new most popular creative supernatural gimmick against the man he was building his company around immediately: Rollins' second feud in his second reign as champion and Wyatt's second feud as The Fiend.

And of course, there is no way any of us can forget, despite desperately wishing to, the fact that their first match was a Hell in a Cell match. The match, contested under bright and dark red lights, was awfully slow-paced and ended in REFEREE STOPPAGE after Seth Rollins had his finishing maneuver, Stomp, devalued even further and took everything from a toolbox to a hammer to The Fiend's head.

Rollins was booed out of the arena in perhaps the worst PLE main event in modern wrestling history, only for The Fiend, lying on a stretcher, to then take him out with the Mandible Claw. The crown chanted for refunds and for AEW. Seth Rollins dropped the title to The Fiend the following month at Crown Jewel, and turned heel thereafter, while Bray Wyatt moved to SmackDown AFTER having been drafted BEFORE winning the title.

#4 Seth Rollins' solid World Heavyweight Championship reign established the title, but ended with another injury

At WrestleMania 39, Cody Rhodes failed to finish the story. After a year of Roman Reigns as the part-time Undisputed WWE Universal Champion — the only Men's World Champion — he was set to be featured even more rarely, necessitating the creation of a new World Heavyweight Championship out of thin air.

Despite a premise that would never fly in any legitimate sport, Seth Rollins did a tremendous job with the title as the inaugural champion. While Cody Rhodes was positioned as the face of RAW, essentially the uncrowned WWE Champion, both men carried RAW and led WWE's renaissance, and led from the front, with fellow mega-babyfaces like Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and eventually Jey Uso, while also defending the title against the latter two.

Rollins actively feuded alongside the babyfaces with The Judgment Day and formed a bond with Cody Rhodes as he defended his title against Finn Balor, Shinsuke Nakamura, Damian Priest, and then Drew McIntyre. After CM Punk's monumental WWE return at Survivor Series 2023, the pathway to WrestleMania seemed set. However, Rollins got injured at Day 1 in a title defense against Jinder Mahal. With a lot in the air, Rollins continued to show up as champion, only for CM Punk to also get severely injured in his first match back at the Royal Rumble.

WWE salvaged CM Punk's tricep injury and Seth Rollins' knee injury in the midst of a massive storm caused by The Rock's return, and in perhaps one of the most intriguing roads to WrestleMania ever, had Seth Rollins team up with Cody Rhodes against The Rock and Roman Reigns on Night 1 of WrestleMania, while also having The Visionary defend and drop the World Heavyweight Championship to Drew McIntyre the following night.

Seth then helped Cody win the Undisputed WWE Championship from Roman Reigns in the main event of Night 2 of WrestleMania, and WWE somehow managed to make not just salad, but an absolutely delicious gourmet meal out of nothing but a storm of you-know-what. However, the entire ordeal did end up costing Seth Rollins physically, and delayed his surgery, with him wrestling injured on Mania weekend and on select house shows leading up to it.

Make Sportskeeda your preferred choice for WWE content by clicking here: Source preferences

Edited by Tathya Sachdev