Seth Rollins was recently profiled by the largest newspaper in his home state of Iowa, the Des Moines Register . The piece by Courtney Crowder, titled “Seth Rollins: Iowan Brings Championship Title Home,” focuses on a day in Rollins’ life as he travels back to his hometown of Davenport for a recent WWE SmackDown taping (April 28).
The SmackDown taping took place in Moline, Illinois at the I-Wireless Center. Moline is part of a greater metropolitan area known as the Quad Cities, which consists of Davenport (Iowa), Bettendorf (Iowa), Rock Island (Illinois), and Moline (Illinois). The metro has a population of 383,681.
The recent return to the metropolitan area where Rollins grew up (and still lives) made for Seth’s first appearance to his hometown crowd as WWE World Heaveyweight Champion. Though Iowa has long been known nationally for it’s prestige in high school and collegiate wrestling, Rollins is the first major professional wrestling world champion from the state since Frank Gotch (Humboldt, Iowa). Rollins is the only Iowan to ever hold WWE’s top prize.
When asked by the Register about performing as world champion in the arena he grew up going to shows in as fan, Rollins was reflective and excited.
“It will be emotional. This is my place. I’ve lived here my whole life basically, and my family is here, and now I get to walk in as the WWE Heavyweight Champion. It’ll be different than any other (performance).”
The Register piece talks about the whirlwind life that Rollins now lives, doing multiple media appearances as he carries WWE’s top prize. The piece also features some interesting quotes from some figures from Seth’s past.
Rollins attended Davenport West High School, and the Register sought out Seth’s former school counselor, Jennifer O’Hare-Marker, who spoke of Rollins knowing from the time he attended the school that he wanted to be a professional wrestler.
“He would have 2-gallon milk containers filled with water and (would) drink those while he was working out or lifting.”
Seth’s former social studies teacher, Jodi Zimmerman, reflected that Rollins had few interests in school outside of professional wrestling.
“He used to carry a belt around — a wrestling victory belt — to keep himself motivated and focused.”
The Register piece also focuses on Seth’s time in independent wrestling, the local gym and wrestling school he owns in Davenport, as well as some insight from some members of WWE, such as Michael Hayes, on the strides that Rollins had made during career.
As far as his WWE World Heavyweight Title victory at WrestleMania this year, Seth seems to still be on a high from experiencing what was the fulfillment of a life-long dream.
“For me, that was winning the Super Bowl. That was throwing the touchdown pass at the last second in the biggest game of your life… I’m not a guy that believes in faith or destiny, I believe everyone has to make their own way, so I was happy the work paid off.”
[Image via WQAD.com]
