FanPost

The traitor Seth Rollins is a sociopath: An armchair diagnosis

WWE.com

One thing that’s really been bugging me since The Vile Betrayal is my lingering confusion about Seth Rollins’ massive character change. He spent two years as the smart, supportive leader of the Shield; it was "brother" this and "my man" that, self-sacrifice and "believe in the Shield" and bro-hugs for all.

Then, overnight, he transformed into a muscle-twirling, cackling fiend, claiming he never saw the Shield members as anything but business partners. Well, I can only come up with one answer that makes any sense.

He’s a sociopath.

Yep, I think the only way to interpret this iteration of the Seth Rollins character is to assume that he’s supposed to have a massive mental/emotional disorder. Can you do the things he did and be a healthy, balanced personality? I don’t think so. With tongue firmly in cheek, come with me on this journey into armchair psychiatry.

Here’s the dictionary.com definition of "sociopath": "a person with a psychopathic personality whose behavior is antisocial, often criminal, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience."

So what’s the evidence?

  • Seth lied to the Shield for two years. In his interview with Michael Cole a week after The Incident, he said that every time he put his fist in and said "Believe in the Shield," he meant "Believe in Seth Rollins." He traveled with Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns, strategized with them, hugged them. You can hear him shouting encouragement – including calling them "brother" – from the apron during matches. How does a person keep up a façade of deep, brotherly friendship with two people for almost two years, while internally holding them at arm’s length? Just Google "sociopath liar" and see how many results you get.
  • His lies extended beyond the Shield and out into the WWE universe. Did you notice the spin that he gave to the group’s mission statement over time? At the beginning, they were there to bring "justice" to the WWE. But as time went on, Seth ended up giving a speech telling us all that justice had always been a metaphor. What people "failed to understand," he told us – subtly blaming us for not understanding, not himself for changing his story – was that the Shield never stood for justice; it always stood for excellence. He felt the need to reposition his group’s mission statement, and he did so in a carefully worded, charismatic speech that left his listeners with a new catchphrase – "symbol of excellence" – while telling us to believe that what he’d said before was never what we thought we’d heard. It was perhaps the greatest foreshadowing of his dangerous manipulation of the truth.
  • Seth has shown repeatedly since the attack that he lacks a social conscience. He’s started multiple in-ring promos with, "Why are you all mad at me? I don’t get it" and went on to state that he’s "over" the incident and doesn’t see why everyone else isn’t. He’s watched the replay footage of his chair attack on Ambrose and Reigns with a big smile and followed it up with, "I never get tired of seeing that." It’s the chilling response of a sociopath.
  • He chose to end what he viewed as a business relationship with a violent physical attack. In normal society, business relationships are severed in writing, via phone call, or through a business meeting. Seth’s extreme and antisocial response could technically be considered a criminal act.

In short, Rollins’ behavior is abnormal, unhealthy, and unstable. He needs to be committed to the WWE’s asylum, to be watched over 24/7 by concerned WWE trainers until he can demonstrate that he is no longer a danger to other pro-wrestlers or to folding chairs.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.