Though an injury provided a brief scare, Seth Rollins is at full strength for WrestleMania 40.
Rollins is set for two big matches this weekend. He's teaming with Cody Rhodes against The Rock & Roman Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania 40 night one this Saturday. On the second night, Rollins will defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Drew McIntyre.
A knee injury that Rollins suffered on the road to WrestleMania threatened to prevent this all from happening. Rollins hurt his knee while facing Jinder Mahal on the January 15 episode of Raw. But the injury wasn't as bad as Rollins initially feared. He suffered a torn MCL and partially torn meniscus but did not tear his ACL. Rollins was cleared to return to the ring this March.
In a new interview with Sports Illustrated, Rollins discussed the injury:
It was not as serious as it could have been. My biggest fear when I felt my knee go in the direction it wasn’t supposed to go was that it was going to be a repeat of 2015 [when he tore the ACL, MCL, and medial meniscus in his knee during a match]. I’d have had to vacate the title, miss WrestleMania, all the hard work from the past few years was going up in smoke, and I’d have to start all over. That wasn’t the case. I was able to continue to work on the injury, continue to tell stories and continue to build rivalries. I always looked at it from a glass half full situation.
The fact that we missed out on a few Seth Rollins matches on Raw breaks my heart as much as it does yours, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s all working out in the way it was intended to. I’m happy at full strength and ready to go for not one but two nights of WrestleMania.
This Monday, Rollins wrestled on WWE television for the first time since his knee injury. He had been working house show matches since being cleared to return.
Rollins faced Solo Sikoa in a Bloodline Rules match on Raw. It ended without a finish after The Bloodline got involved. Following the match, there was an angle where The Rock and Reigns beat down Rhodes and Rollins and whipped them with a weight belt.
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