For weeks, the legitimacy of Seth Rollins’ knee injury was heavily questioned by fans, insiders, and veterans of the business. At WWE SummerSlam, however, an answer became clear when “The Visionary” dropped his crutches and successfully cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase on CM Punk. As revealed by Rollins on the subsequent episode of “WWE Raw,” all of it totaled up to “Plan B,” which his “Oracle” Paul Heyman expanded upon during an appearance on “The Ariel Helwani Show.”
According to Heyman, The Vision’s initial game plan centered on Rollins claiming the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in a more traditional manner. Amidst their efforts to achieve that goal, however, a major obstacle, namely CM Punk, got in the way, hence the diversion to the faction’s back-up plan — Rollins faking an injury while wrestling LA Knight at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event on July 12.
“Every time Seth Rollins was getting himself in a position to where he could go for the championship, CM Punk kept interfering,” Heyman said, “because Seth Rollins made the statement, ‘As long as I’m here, CM Punk will never be champion.’ Punk decided to reverse that on Seth Rollins. So Seth Rollins realized he’s never gonna be champion as long as CM Punk is around, or at least as long as CM Punk sees Seth Rollins going for a title, so we need plan B. Plan B became get the Money in the Bank briefcase and get out of the way, out of sight, out of mind so Punk never sees it coming.
“… The idea was wait until a champion — GUNTHER, or Punk, or anybody that can beat GUNTHER, and not a lot can — is in a position of vulnerability, cash it in so that Punk can’t interfere in the match to stop Seth Rollins from winning the title.” In an ironic twist, Heyman pointed out that Punk then happened to be primed for a MITB cash-in following his victory over the now-former champion GUNTHER.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “The Ariel Helwani Show” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
