Heading into his WWE World Heavyweight title defense against Shinsuke Nakamura at Payback tomorrow night (Sept. 2), Seth Rollins was Corey Graves & Kevin Patrick’s guest on the latest After The Bell.
Rollins spent some of the interview talking about WWE’s women’s division, which of course his wife Becky Lynch is a big part of. Seth wasn’t just advocating for his partner, though. The conversation started with his belief fans are interested in seeing new female stars get a chance on Raw and SmackDown:
“What I sense more than anything is this kind of bubbling little undercurrent from our audience, they want something fresh and new and they want to have people to get behind. I’m not saying these people are coming from NXT, you never know, it might be somebody that steps up, a Chelsea Green, a Piper Niven, you never know. There’s tons of women capable on our main roster at the moment.
“I’m feeling it, it’s very much like this ‘We want something more out of the women and we know it’s there and we can’t wait to see it’ but there’s a growing intrigue, a growing desire to see it.”
He mention Lynch’s main event Last Woman Standing match with Zoey Stark from this past Monday’s Raw, and singled out Stark as someone who could “really lead this next generation of women into the future”.
“It feels like they’re on the cusp of a breakthrough. I felt like Monday was a huge reminder of what their capable of. I’m going to be frank with you, they haven’t been showcased as well as they could have been over the past six months or so — they haven’t been.”
Seth said he’s felt the same way at points in his career, so in his opinion it’s not a gender issue:
“It’s just a commentary on where we’re at right now. There are opportunities and I think Monday was a reminder of how incredible our female talent roster is and can be when given the opportunity to main event, to succeed, and to be the best. I think it’s all there. I just can’t wait to see who steps up and fills that space and grabs that ring.”
Later in the podcast, Rollins was the latest to make the case that the pro wrestling business is booming. And while he didn’t mention Tony Khan’s company by name, he did cite AEW’s success with All In in his argument:
“We are in the boom, man. You’ve got to understand, there is another company that just put 80,000 people in a stadium for one night. A week before that, we sold 90,000 tickets to WrestleMania, broke the all time gate on the first day.
“There are seven, eight different television programs of professional wrestling on a week not counting premium live events or pay-per-views. The talent roster across the board is beyond what any generation has ever put forward. I’m not taking anything away from the guys who paved the way, I stand on the shoulders of these guys.
“The business is bigger than it’s ever been, it makes more money than it’s ever made, it’s healthier. The future of the business is so bright and I’m so happy to be part of it in any capacity.”
The champ also talked about the state of his back, and shared a great deal about his late friend Windham “Bray Wyatt” Rotunda. Give the latest After The Bell a listen here.
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