Seth Rollins Peels Back The Curtain On His Fake Knee Injury Ahead Of WWE SummerSlam

Ten years after he pulled off the 'Heist of the Century' at WrestleMania 31, Seth Rollins delivered an equally masterful sequel when he cashed in his Money in the Bank contract at SummerSlam inside MetLife Stadium.

In what has since been dubbed the 'Ruse of the Century', Rollins fully committed himself to a faking a knee injury in order to trick his rivals into letting their guard down. The plan worked like a charm and The Visionary became the new World Heavyweight Champion by beating his longtime rival CM Punk.

The idea for the injury angle was something that was pitched to Rollins about a month before he came up lame in his match against LA Knight at Saturday Night's Main Event in Atlanta. He told ESPN's Andreas Hale that it simply was not going to work unless he went all in on tricking everyone into believing he was really hurt.

"The way I injured myself was something I came up with on the day of and felt like it needed to be something benign and not obvious because that tends to be how injuries happen," Rollins said. "Obviously, I've had trouble with my knees in the past and so I felt like the knee was the obvious way to go. I've had real injuries before and know exactly what I would do in those situations."

The night the 'injury' happened, Rollins went for a springboard moonsault, but landed on his feet. His knee gave out on impact, and he spent the next several minutes in the corner of the ring getting checked on by medical personnel.

Rollins would eventually get to his feet, take a BFT from Knight and promptly lose the match. Many people in the audience, as well as those watching at home, were convinced something had gone wrong.

Seth would spend the next few weeks selling the knee injury everywhere he went, whether it was taking a walk his daughter, going out to dinner or guest hosting the Rich Eisen Show. He didn't know he was in the clear, however, until the moment right before the big reveal at SummerSlam.

"I stopped for quite a while and then I kind of could hear almost like a calm, a quietness hit. I was like, 'OK, I think we're good.' And then everything came off really smooth after that. The crutches dropped perfectly. The jacket came off without a hitch. The pass between me and Heyman was great, and I didn't trip on the run down the ramp. These knee braces came off Forrest Gump style. No rehearsal and everything went as smoothly as you could ask for."

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Rollins told ESPN his biggest concern was finding a way to successfully follow up on his surprise victory in the main event of WrestleMania 31, where he stole the WWE Championship from Roman Reigns. The biggest concern for those closest to him, was not spilling the beans on Seth's secret.

Becky Lynch hated having to play along with Seth Rollins' charade

Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch are the ultimate power couple in WWE. They are two of the most accomplished performers in the modern era of professional wrestling and they are almost always on the same page with another. That said, The Man wasn't exactly thrilled with having to keep such a massive secret under wraps.

"I can't lie to save my life," Lynch told ESPN. "So, when everybody, including my manager and other wrestlers, asked how he was doing after the injury, I became a twitchy weirdo. I was stumbling off my words and not finishing full sentences. His dad, aunts and uncles were texting me, all of our friends and colleagues were wishing him well and I tried not to lie. But then they'd give me follow-up questions about if he was having surgery and had he gone for an MRI. It became very difficult and, honestly, I did not like it."

It turned out to be worth it in the end. Lynch called Rollins' entire month-long journey to recapturing the World Heavyweight Championship a master class.

"Whatever way you want to rank it, my husband's cash-ins at WrestleMania and SummerSlam are No. 1 and 2. But everything we do, we do it as the greatest pro wrestling couple of all time. If you try to dispute that, you're an idiot."

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