WWE News: Creative Details Behind Seth Rollins And Triple H Angle At ‘NXT Takeover: San Antonio’

Seth Rollins was the protégé. Triple H was the mentor. After earning the distinction as the Architect of The Shield, Seth Rollins turned his back on Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose and deconstructed the stable in favor of a role in The Authority under Triple H’s guidance. It paved the way for a Rollins title reign even though, a few short months later, seeds were planted to dissolve the relationship.

Those seeds were always designed to culminate with a Seth Rollins-Triple H showdown at a WrestleMania, but creative plans originally called for the two to square off at WrestleMania 32 in Dallas instead of the upcoming extravaganza this April in Orlando. But Rollins’ devastating injury in November, 2015, displaced him from that marquee role at AT&T Stadium and paired Triple H, instead, with Roman Reigns.

Seth wasn’t the only main event star to miss last year’s WrestleMania, of course, as John Cena, Randy Orton, Bray Wyatt, and Sting were all forced to the sidelines. As a result, Triple H and Reigns headlined the show in a match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

Rollins returned six months later and was inserted into programs with Reigns and Ambrose before the WWE re-initiated the brand split concept in July. Triple H wouldn’t appear in a WWE ring again until August 29, and his impact was immediate, costing both Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins the newly-created WWE Universal Championship after Finn Balor was forced to relinquish it thanks to his injury suffered at SummerSlam.

Balor’s injury actually made WWE creative re-think their plans for Triple H’s return. Though he was scheduled to return around the time he did, it wasn’t drawn up the way it played out. Seth Rollins was not only slotted to separate from Balor and the Universal Championship at the time, but he was going to be kept apart from Triple H as well, with their paths set to cross later in the year (as it ended up happening) to help build toward their eventual match at WrestleMania.

Rollins was unsuccessful in his Universal title challenges against Kevin Owens throughout the fall, which finally led him to vent his frustrations about his former mentor, Triple H, this winter. His call-outs went unanswered as a way to let the angle build, until this past Monday night. Stephanie McMahon forced Seth to put his spot in the Royal Rumble match on the line against Sami Zayn on RAW, who had yet to earn an entrance himself. As seen, Triple H’s music hit, causing a distraction and allowing Zayn to pin Rollins via a rollup.

Rollins lost his spot in the Rumble so he took matters into his own hands by crashing Saturday night’s NXT Takeover: San Antonio special and once again, calling out Triple H. The Game finally emerged from the back to prevent Seth from taking his show hostage, resulting in the first on-screen interaction between Triple H and Seth Rollins since last August.

According to a new report, Saturday night’s proceedings, which eventually saw Triple H summon several security guards to escort Rollins out of the arena instead of answering his challenge, was booked as the key angle to help set up their match at WrestleMania. There was a belief and ton of speculation that the angle was supposed to go down at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, that was not in the original plans.

While there certainly could be something planned between Seth Rollins and Triple H on the WWE pay-per-view Sunday night, it wasn’t originally scripted that way and WWE officials hoped that the NXT segment would have been enough to get them on the road to WrestleMania. Of course, there is plenty of time for the company to advance the storyline, and the thought is that Rollins will have to entice Triple H into accepting a ‘Mania match.

Back in October, we reported that WWE officials were considering pushing up the Seth Rollins-Triple feud, resulting in a series of matches, the first of which would have gone down at the Royal Rumble. Officials were concerned with a lack of star-power on the show. And now, there’s a distinct chance neither Rollins or Triple H will appear on the show because of the abundance of big names and the fact that they shot the angle the night before on NXT. Stay tuned.

[Featured Image by WWE]