Seth Rollins: I Wanted To Return To WWE As A Babyface In 2016

Seth Rollins has revealed he pushed to return as a babyface upon his comeback to WWE in 2016 following a lengthy injury lay-off.

Rollins was forced to vacate the WWE Title in late 2015 after he suffered a serious knee injury in a live event match with Kane, keeping the Architect off television until mid-2016. Rollins would then return at Extreme Rules, attacking Roman Reigns after his successful WWE Championship defence against AJ Styles.

With fans not accepting of Reigns as the top babyface in the company, and sentiment turning in Rollins' favour after a documentary about his rehab, the former Shield member was eager to capitalise on his momentum and return with a face turn upon his comeback, only for WWE to keep him heel.

Discussing his return with Steve Austin on Broken Skull Sessions, Rollins said: "[The fans are] so happy to see me. They had not fully accepted Roman as the top babyface champion. They weren't ready for it. I came back for the title that I never lost. It made perfect sense.

"I thought for sure that I'd be coming back as a babyface, but company had other plans and that didn't jive with where I was mentally. I had envisioned myself as a babyface coming back. I could see the momentum as I was coming back like, 'they're going to cheer me.' AJ Styles was a babyface in that match. People wanted AJ to win because they loved him and they hadn't accepted Roman in that role. I was like, 'When I come out, they're going to cheer me. Why don't we go in that direction?' We never did.

"I wanted (to go babyface). I thought that was the natural progression. The people were ready for it. it was an easy story to tell and we never got to tell it.

"I think it hurt us in the long run. It certainly hurt me. It left me in no man's land for awhile because you go to the next month, Money in the Bank, me and Roman for the title and we do the Ambrose cash in at the end of it. I'm the heel, he's the babyface.

"At the end of the day, it left me in no man's land for quite some time where I was the heel, but people were like...we just saw the Network special about my surgery and return and (people) liked that guy. They were like, 'I don't want to boo him. He's trying hard to make me boo him, but I like him.'"

H/T Fightful