The only man to beat Roman in almost four years.

That's right.

Now, I have to ask you, Cole, what makes you think this time is going to be any different? What indication does anyone have that I don't own Roman Reigns, that I don't live rent-free in Roman Reigns' head? There is no chance Roman Reigns leaves Summer Slam the World Heavyweight Champion.

That is my title, and it's coming back home, Cole.

Is there any truth to that?

You know what? There was a point in my career where I concerned myself with that, Cole.

Not only did I concern myself with that, but that was the thing that kept me awake at night.

But it occurred to me at some point in the last couple years, Roman Reigns and I, we're not running the same race.

Does that annoy you at all? Do you have an issue with that?

[laughs] I mean, he has to tell himself that.

We all tell, uh, tell ourselves things.

You know, when we look in the mirror, we have to tell each, tell ourselves, like, what, what we need to to get by in the day, and I think that's what Roman has to tell himself is that Seth Rollins is number two to make himself feel like he's number one, you know, acknowledge me.

He's always looking for that acknowledgement, and I think part of him needs to think that that's the way it is.

He needs to believe that.

Whether he actually thinks that or not, I don't know.

Any concern the crowd may still be a little bit upset about how the NFC North turned out last season?

One of the things that me and Dave were talking about before you came on this morning, and not many people can say this other than you, is when it comes to the middle of the ring, when the bell rings to start the match, when the bell rings to end the match, you own Roman Reigns.

Reigns.[laughs] Yes.

Yes, that is a fact.

That is a fact.

Now look, you know, there's been a lot of d- d- discussion about, you know, it's not like I'm undefeated against Roman Reigns, right? We've had some Raw matches here and there where Roman's got the better of me.

But you look at some of the, the real big time moments and the big time matches, I mentioned this is only our third, uh, singles match on pay-per-view.

So the other two I've won.

Yep

And so what does Bron Breakker have on you? Does that give you a little extra confidence heading into this one?

one?You know, uh, you mentioned that, and I actually was unaware that I was undefeated in steel cages until the internet told me so a few days ago.

So, thank you, internet.

You gave me a little extra confidence that I wasn't expecting.

Um, but yeah, you know what? I think going in, I have the experience edge.

Look, Breakker's got something on me.

He's got size, he's got strength, he's got speed.

Seth Rollins, what has Bron Breakker not proven?

You were talking about the physical specimen that Braun Breaker is.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, Brock Lesnar is the only other person that I've been in the ring with who's a specimen the way Braun Breaker is.

And so you're in there with somebody who's extremely dangerous in a very dangerous match.

Luckily for me, it's not my first rodeo.

Braun hasn't had a ton of experience in the cage.

I have.

I'm curious about your hopes and dreams.

Seth, [laughs] you and Bron once close allies, what's the one thing that you want Bron Breakker to learn about you by the end of the night?

Oh man, that's a great question.

I mean, I, I just think I want him to learn, and I want everybody to learn how good I am.

I know that's a broad statement, but I don't think he really understands it.

I understand, he's a young man.

He's got all the physical tools.

He's got everything to put it together.

Sure.

You were talking about the physical specimen that Braun Breaker is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, we, you know, Brock Lesnar is the only other person that I've been in the ring with who's a specimen the way Braun Breaker is.

And so you're in there with somebody who's extremely dangerous and a very dangerous match.

Luckily for me, it's not my first rodeo.

You know, Braun hasn't had a ton of experience in the cage.

I'm curious about your hopes and dreams.

[laughs]

Well, the truth is, Big E, and I really appreciate it, and the fact that these people still believe in me, that means the world to me.

But the truth is, there were moments in that match tonight, and certainly after that match tonight, where I had to ask myself those questions.

Am I still the performer that I have been for the last 12 years? I think when you come back from a long layoff, this injury, six months for me, I was out of action with a torn rotator.

When you come back, th- you have this picture in your mind of how things are gonna go.

All I was thinking about when I was on the shelf was, "Can I get back for WrestleMania?" I made it back, and I lost.

And every single day since that loss, all I have thought about is, "How can I beat Bron Breakker?" I showed up tonight, I gave it everything I had, and I lost.

We know you have to go back to the drawing board, but what is next essentially for you after losing to Bron Breakker?

When that happened, what was running through your mind?

I felt disappointment and sadness and a lot of guilt that I was letting my fans down, that I was letting the company down.

But beneath that, I also felt a lot of angerThe damage done from Breakker and Reed that night is what put me on the shelf, what put me on the operating table.

And it was interesting because I understood it.

I understood what Breakker was doing.

But even through that understanding of why he did what he did, I couldn't shake that, just that visceral anger from taking away something that...

Look, I'm, I'm turning 40 this month.

So once again, he denies you an opportunity to have that show-stealing spotlight at WrestleMania.

Okay.

Come on.

Lumen Field.

This is an obvious answer.

This is the game of the year.

This is the only way, the only way to kick off the season.

You have the fastest rising star and the sexiest NFL team, the Chicago Bears, the Iceman Caleb Williams, coming in against the defending Super Bowl champions.

[laughs]

And what, what's your response to that?

[laughs] You know what? I saw the video.

I saw some of the clips.

I gotta admit, I, it was pretty good.

It was pretty good.

And, and, and, and I believe he believes what he's saying, but at the end of the day, I put in a lot of sweat equity.

And at some point, kid, breaker, the bell's gotta ring.

But so i- if that's the case, Seth Rollins, what's your biggest challenge in preparing for someone like him? How do you deal with somebody like him?

have a worse match as a result in your mind

So there's two types of people.

Some people crumble under that pressure, and some people rise to the occasion.

And I think that's what you're seeing in Chicago with Caleb Williams.

The Bears had quarterback after quarterback that just would crack under pressure, head coach.

They would crack under pressure.

They weren't the guy.

And he's

What is your message to Paul Heyman?

Oh, Paul, I mean, come on now.

You, you, you've told some lies in your life.

You don't really believe half the things that come outta your mouth.

I know you don't believe 100% of what I just saw come out of your mouth.

The end of Seth Rollins? Sir, I am just getting started.

I've got WrestleMania main events in the future lined up for me.

What can they expect from you and Bron Breakker?

Yep.

So it's like, I, I guess, like, a w- what, what major leap are we gonna see in his seventh season? I think this is the Justin Herbert that you're gonna get.

He, he's not the guy that's, uh ...

Like, he's not the problem with the football team.

Like, he's not the reason they're not winning playoff games, you know? He's playing great football.

I think you gotta have a surrounding cast that's gonna get him where he needs to go.

And when I look at the wide receiver, you know, I love Ladd McConkie.

There you go.

Yeah.

And I'm like, if you can do...

If he can do that at that position with as much wear and tear that they put on themselves, running backs, like, okay, I think I can do this as well.

Um, now I'm not gonna pretend to be Adrian Peterson, 'cause that man is an animal when it comes to his training.

Mm-hmm.

And so any time we...

Like, you see the draft coming here, and you see all the people coming here, it's always very cool.

We did it last year in Green Bay, to see everybody coming to kind of a smaller market for the first time.

Exactly.

To a point.

Sure.

Sure.

So let's talk about the other side of that.

In this first round, there's six teams with two picks.

What can we see? Who's looking to put something together to maybe trade up, to get a guy? Uh, are there, is there any sort of trade scenarios that you see percolating on night one of this draft?

Oh.

Mm-hmm.

The Chiefs are in, I don't wanna say, like, desperation mode, but they are in win now mode.

They have got to get it done, and I think they wanna get it done.

You look at someone like Travis Kelce and, and he's made it very clear that he's at th- at the very end of his career.

This might be the last season for him.

Andy Reid, we don't know how much longer he's gonna be wanting to coach this football team.

Um, you've got Pat Mahomes coming back off of a, a bad ACL injury.

Yep, yep

Do you guys, w- when you look at a, a night like this where Triple H is gonna see Stephanie go into the Hall of Fame, does it cross your mind to think about what it's going to be like inevitably when the greatest of all time, and it's not just me that says it, goes into the Hall of Fame? Or, uh, can you even think about what that's gonna be like for you to, to see that moment?

Well, I hadn't thought of it until you mentioned it now.

It, I mean, it's a foregone conclusion.

She's a first ballot headliner Hall of Famer, no question.

But now I'm kinda getting, like, goosebumps thinking about it.

Yeah, that's pretty incredible.

It's really special, and it's, you know...

And a great mother.

Oh, yeah.

What do you think, Cole? What do you guys think? [audience cheering] You know what the truth is? The truth is we don't know if I'm 100%.

I won't know if I'm 100% until after tomorrow night, but that will not stop me from giving.

[audience cheering] [dramatic music]

General.

You know, [clears throat] I don't just believe that I'm the best around here, I believe I am the best wrestler on planet Earth.

[audience cheering] And unlike you, my WrestleMania catalog proves it.

Now, Shawn Michaels may be the all-time Mr. WrestleMania, but I am the Mr. WrestleMania of this generation, Gunther.

How's the shoulder feeling? 'Cause apparently it's been fine for weeks.

Well, look, I don't know if it's been fine for weeks, and I gotta apologize, but look, I c- if I gave it all away to you right there, then I wouldn't have been able to get into the chamber and make sure that Logan Paul didn't win the Elimination Chamber match.

So in reality, by lying to you, I have done you a favor, because I have saved us all the trouble of seeing Logan Paul in a title match at WrestleMania, so whew, thankfully.

As for the shoulder, it feels great.

I don't know that it's 100%, but maybe 80, 90%.

And I'll tell you what, my 80, 90% is pretty good.

Good enough to get us in a position here where we've got a match at WrestleMania, you mentioned it, against Gunther, who, uh, has targeted me, actually, in the last couple of weeks.

Do you think it would be fair to say your match against Gunther for the title of best non-champion wrestler currently in the WWE?

Yeah.

And I've been in this scenario way too many times, to get hurt and then maybe miss WrestleMania.

I missed one WrestleMania in my career, and it was one of my lowest moments, and so I'm very happy to be back and be able to get in the ring, not just do, like, a run-in or anything like that, but actually have a contest, wrestling, uh, one of the best in the world, Gunther, uh, in a match-

Mm-hmm.

He's legitimate.

I mean, you watch his body of work, and I've been...

This is a guy that I've known since he was Walter back in his wXw days in Germany.

I crossed paths with him.

How excited are you to watch her and AJ finally compete one-on-one?

Well, the thing about this, guys, is we gotta understand who she's going up against.

AJ Lee, in her time, great.

Divas Champion, that was a long time ago.

AJ Lee is having her first singles match, one-on-one competition, in over a decade, and she is going in there against a woman who has made her name as the greatest of all time for that last decade, and that is The Man, Big Time Becks, Becky Lynch.

I am looking forward to Becky Lynch proving to the entire world why she is the greatest, the one-of-one, The Man.

There's no doubt in my mind she walks out of Chicago still Intercontinental Champion.

I wanna know, I want you to explain to our audience, what excites you most about that, and what will you be looking out for?

Yep

... which was their training facility at the time, it's now moved to Orlando.

This is pre-NXT.

NXT is, like, the, you know, it's a great minor league facility now, um, with its own brand and its own production.

They did not have that when I went there.

I'm, I'm in Tampa in a warehouse for two years, basically, like, in a holding cell, and, um, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting.

We finally got the call up.

Yeah.

Correct

... and evaluate." But we have to evaluate kind of in real time.

Like, we have to...

It's not a sprint like that.

It's a bit longer, so, like, if something happens, you know, m- my shoulder is a great example of that.

So I- I'm wrestling Cody Rhodes in the main event of a pay-per-view in Perth, Australia, in October.

I do this move that I've never really done where I dive from one side of the cor- ring to the other and give Cody a headbutt, and I land funky.

Mm-hmm.

Um, how did you feel about the Bears this season? What a season they had.

Oh, what a season, man.

I mean, there's a part of me that's a little bittersweet being here, seeing, you know, the Seahawks in the Super Bowl, when I really felt like it could've been Chicago's year.

Um, but-... at the end of the day, I mean, it felt like a house money season.

I, I felt like the Bears were a year ahead of schedule.

Anytime you get a new coach in there with no head coaching experience, and he takes his team from last in the division to first in the division, this is not an easy division, either.

We're talking Green Bay Packers, we're talking Detroit Lions, and the Vikings had a pretty greatly year last year.

So true.