Seth Rollins appears to have little to no regard for his body. Exhibit one:
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| .gif Credit: Jerusalem of Punchsport Pagoda via Brandon Stroud/Best and Worst |
Exhibit two:
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| .gif Credit: Same as above |
The above two articles of evidence were not the first times Rollins has seemingly risked life and limb for our amusement. Starting with being thrown off a ladder onto the floor below the stage by Ryback at TLC last year, Rollins has engaged in a campaign to peg the Ziggler Scale as many times as he can in an attempt at breaking it and establishing his own danger meter, one that goes way past 11 to like 32 billion.
A good bump can go a long way in enhancing a match, but the difference between sparing, big bump used in a critical match setting and going Full Ziggler like it was good for your health does more to hurt the art on the whole than enhance it. Granted, fans like you and I are guilty as anything because we ooh and ahh at these bumps, giving credit to Rollins for completely tearing up the envelope and tossing boxes of new ones around like they were singles at the strip club. I honestly don't care about audiences being desensitized to the bump, because for one, I'm not sure they can be in the long term. More importantly, tropes in a match always are secondary to the health of the wrestlers executing them.
I don't know how Rollins feels after the average RAW. For all I know, he is adept at making his landings look more painful than they are. But I also know the margin for error on landing sharply on one's neck or slamming full speed into a fixed object is slim. Rollins makes it look hairy every night. If the aim is to make discomfort a regular feeling along with amazement, then I guess the mission has been accomplished.
The trouble with criticizing guys for taking these bumps, a problem I fully admit that I have in this case, is that a lot of observers like myself have never taken a wrestling class let alone been in a match. But then I hear stories, as anecdotal as they may be, of people in the business complaining that wrestlers are getting stiffer and having less regard for their own bodies and the bodies of their opponents. Bret Hart once said the proudest part of his career is that he never hurt anybody. That statement is a far cry from how Jerry Lawler described feeling Ziggler's elbow spam feeling against his chest the night he had his heart attack. The thing is that I don't want to make these generalizations because Ziggler may have been having a bad night, or maybe the stiff guys are outnumbered by "safe" workers. I feel a commentary could be written about the cross-generational gap in bumping and stiffness, but that column is not one that should be written by me.
So where does that leave me with my concerns about Rollins? Do I have the right to feel concerned? I'd say yes, if only because the bumps he takes look like they aren't meant to be taken by man or beast. Maybe he's a slave to realism, which makes his bumping that much more admirable. I don't know. Sometimes, the best thing is to admit that you have a lot to learn, but all that uncertainty does nothing to allay my concerns whenever Rollins takes an insane bump with a frequency greater than once a night. Whether he's a master artist or just someone taking a risk with little regard to health, he makes me feel just a tad uncomfortable. Take from that what you will.
A good bump can go a long way in enhancing a match, but the difference between sparing, big bump used in a critical match setting and going Full Ziggler like it was good for your health does more to hurt the art on the whole than enhance it. Granted, fans like you and I are guilty as anything because we ooh and ahh at these bumps, giving credit to Rollins for completely tearing up the envelope and tossing boxes of new ones around like they were singles at the strip club. I honestly don't care about audiences being desensitized to the bump, because for one, I'm not sure they can be in the long term. More importantly, tropes in a match always are secondary to the health of the wrestlers executing them.
I don't know how Rollins feels after the average RAW. For all I know, he is adept at making his landings look more painful than they are. But I also know the margin for error on landing sharply on one's neck or slamming full speed into a fixed object is slim. Rollins makes it look hairy every night. If the aim is to make discomfort a regular feeling along with amazement, then I guess the mission has been accomplished.
The trouble with criticizing guys for taking these bumps, a problem I fully admit that I have in this case, is that a lot of observers like myself have never taken a wrestling class let alone been in a match. But then I hear stories, as anecdotal as they may be, of people in the business complaining that wrestlers are getting stiffer and having less regard for their own bodies and the bodies of their opponents. Bret Hart once said the proudest part of his career is that he never hurt anybody. That statement is a far cry from how Jerry Lawler described feeling Ziggler's elbow spam feeling against his chest the night he had his heart attack. The thing is that I don't want to make these generalizations because Ziggler may have been having a bad night, or maybe the stiff guys are outnumbered by "safe" workers. I feel a commentary could be written about the cross-generational gap in bumping and stiffness, but that column is not one that should be written by me.
So where does that leave me with my concerns about Rollins? Do I have the right to feel concerned? I'd say yes, if only because the bumps he takes look like they aren't meant to be taken by man or beast. Maybe he's a slave to realism, which makes his bumping that much more admirable. I don't know. Sometimes, the best thing is to admit that you have a lot to learn, but all that uncertainty does nothing to allay my concerns whenever Rollins takes an insane bump with a frequency greater than once a night. Whether he's a master artist or just someone taking a risk with little regard to health, he makes me feel just a tad uncomfortable. Take from that what you will.