Seth Rollins has closed a WrestleMania three times, but in his own mind, he has never truly headlined the biggest show of the year, and he believes an injury cost him his best chance to change that.
Rollins has been part of the closing match at WrestleMania on three occasions. He cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to win the WWE Championship in the main event of WrestleMania 31 in 2015, teamed with Cody Rhodes against Roman Reigns and The Rock to close night one of WrestleMania 40, and was part of the triple threat with Reigns and CM Punk that closed night one of WrestleMania 41. To him, none of those count the way headlining the final night would.
Speaking on the third season of WWE Unreal, the Netflix docuseries that goes inside WWE’s decision-making, Rollins laid out the distinction. The comments were filmed after he suffered a shoulder injury at Crown Jewel in October 2025.
“In my opinion, I haven’t properly main evented WrestleMania. A couple of night ones and the cash-in, yada yada,” Rollins said. “But for me, being on the marquee and headlining night two, having that is something I’ve always wanted.”
He believed 2026 was set to be his moment, which made the injury especially hard to take.
“I do feel like [WrestleMania 42] was probably the year for it. To know that it’s probably out the window, it’s really difficult to wrap my head around,” Rollins said.
The injury, suffered on the coast-to-coast headbutt that finished his Crown Jewel match with Rhodes, forced him to vacate the World Heavyweight Championship and kept him out until his return at Elimination Chamber. WrestleMania 42’s second night ended up headlined by Reigns beating CM Punk for the World Heavyweight Championship, with Rollins relegated to a singles match against Gunther on the card.
Rollins has since made a full recovery and is back in the title picture, challenging Reigns for the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam, the belt he was forced to give up while hurt.
