Seth Rollins credits Joey Mercury for helping pull off the iconic RKO that took place at WrestleMania 31.
Seth Rollins and Randy Orton faced each other one-on-one in a grudge match at WrestleMania 31 in 2015. A decade later, the RKO that Randy Orton hit when countering Seth Rollins' Curb Stomp to finish the match is still talked about as one of the best RKOs of Randy's career.
Seth Rollins recently reflected on that moment during an appearance on Chris Van Vliet's Insight podcast. Rollins credits wrestling veteran Joey Mercury, who was also on-screen with Rollins at the time as part of his security squad, alongside Jamie Noble, with helping him pull off the amazing spot.
Rollins also noted that they couldn't pull off the spot while they were trying to do it during rehearsals.
"Well, Randy is not a practice guy. Randy is not a guy that wants to fall down when he’s not getting paid in front of people. Joey Mercury is the reason that I felt we could do it. Joey was a mentor for me for a long time in Florida Championship Wrestling and on the main roster. He was a perfect little mechanic and could figure out how to make anything work. Joey is much smaller than Randy. Randy could eat a snack the size of Joey," Rollins joked. "That made it easier for me to step on Joey’s head when we were practicing it. I could do it with Joey. Randy is much stronger, but he didn’t want to fall down and do the RKO. Even if you slide a crash mat under, it just wasn’t working. We had a backup plan in case it didn’t work. Randy was like, ‘screw it, I always take the easy way so I can bat 1.000, let’s just do it and give it a shot. If it screws up, whatever. I’ve had plenty of Mania moments, I don’t care.’ At that time, there was nothing I couldn’t do physically, if I had my mind set on it, we’d figure it out. ‘Ah, the adrenaline will carry it through.’ I did have some reservations about it in the match. When we got out there, it was very hot. In the middle of the day. Very hot and dry. I was more winded than I expected to be. When we got to it, my legs were a bit heavier. All the different ways you don’t want to feel when you’re about to do the grand finale. When I started running towards him, ‘I was like, oh, here we go. Let’s hope for the best.’"
Ultimately, that's not what people remember when they think of Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 31. Later that night, Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win his first WWE Championship. Learn more about that moment at this link.
Check out the full interview embedded below.
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