CBS's Greg Gumbel and WWE's Seth Rollins | SI Media Podcast
Greg Gumbel, who is in this 50th year as a sports broadcaster talks about the challenges of doing studio for the NCAA Tournament, how coverage of the Tournament has changed over the years and what it's like to work with Charles Barkley. Other topics discussed with Gumbel include his love of the Rolling Stones, his time doing sports radio at WFAN in New York, working with Bill Walton and Terry Bradshaw, what he thinks of the massive salaries current NFL broadcasters are making and much more.
Following Gumbel, Seth Rollins joins the podcast to talk about WrestleMania 38, his current storyline where he has no opponent for Mania, his thoughts on AEW mentioning WWE superstars on their show, working with Roman Reigns, why Vince McMahon axed something Rollins wanted to do, how he's handling fatherhood and more.
Following Rollins's interview, Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY in New York, joins Jimmy for the weekly ""Traina Thoughts"" segment. This week's topics include issues with MLB's streaming, JImmy's visiting to the diner featured on Seinfeld and reading reviews of the podcast.
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The following transcript is an excerpt from The SI Media Podcast. Listen to the full episode on podcast players everywhere or on SI.com.
Jimmy Traina: Since you mentioned Mox, two things happened with you fairly recently that caused a big stir. And I think one of the reasons why so many people enjoy you, your character, watching you, is you, quote unquote, "go there." You mentioned Moxley during a promo on WWE TV where people thought, the earth would burn down if that happened. Was there any backstage reaction to that? Any fallout from that? Everything was good after that? What happened when you mentioned John Moxley on WWE TV in that promo with Roman?
Seth Rollins: Not one single thing, nobody said anything to me about it. And everyone knows he's a part of our history. You can't do Seth and Roman without Dean or Mox, you can't do it. So to ignore that part of our history and to just try to put him aside and focused on Roman and Seth, you know, the focus was Roman and Seth that was the story, but he's a part of that. And so to just ignore that and completely pretend it didn't exist, it's just silly. So you know, I referred to him by the name that he prefers to go by and so that's where we're at with that. But I heard nothing in response to it backstage at all.
Jimmy Traina: Obviously there's this big whole thing with WWE vs. AEW and you know, Cody Rhodes left AEW, he's supposedly in WWE. CM Punk has mentioned WWE performers during promo scenes etc. As a superstar in the WWE, do you think you guys should be going at it during promos and mentioning the other promotion? Or do you think, don't acknowledge the other promotion? I don't know if this is considered a bad thing backstage with the boys, quote unquote. But if you want some attention, go mention AEW on WWE TV, if you want. Is that a bad thing or what's your philosophy on that?
Seth Rollins: To me, it's one of those things where if I think it's very useful, it's fine. To me, the references you spoke of just now are two kind of different things, right? I didn't use the reference to mock or to talk down to somebody. I wasn't trying to diminish anybody's accomplishments. It wasn't like that. It was, he's a part of our story. Roman wouldn't be the same if it wasn't for him and I. The other side of that coin is the way that it can be used by those guys. And look, they can do whatever they want. I find it very tacky and very low brow, personally. I think that it looks and reeks of desperation. And I just don't think it's anything on our television show that we need to go there and talk down about those guys. They're doing their thing, they're doing it very well, we're very happy for them. Are they on our level? No, they've got a long way to go to catch up to us and that's fine, and they know that. And I think they do things differently, but in my perspective, I think it's just a step down for us to kind of use it as an insult. And so that's my perspective on it, but people may not share that opinion.
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