WWE Superstar Seth Rollins Talks Money in the Bank, Bears & More with Rich

The last time Money in the Bank came around, Seth Rollins brought the briefcase. This time he brought coffee, four bags of it, and a Bears fan's serenity heading into Lambeau that bordered on the unhinged.

"I'm not even nervous, Rich," Rollins said, and the room laughed. He meant it.

**Coffee with notes**

Rollins came bearing gifts from the coffee company he and Becky Lynch run, a passion project with six flavors. He brought four: Spice Cake (his favorite), Black Forest, Candy Apple and Morning Bun. Rich asked if Morning Bun was named for Rollins's hairstyle. Rollins pointed at his head. "This is my morning bun."

When Rollins explained the coffees have flavor notes, Rich couldn't let it go. "Guys, Seth Rollins just told me his coffee has notes." Rollins clarified that the beans aren't infused with anything. "They're just roasted coffee beans with notes," and everyone's palate might conjure something different. The packaging, with bands meant to resemble a wrestling ring, drew raves, along with a debate about whether the green-and-yellow bag skewed Packers or Oregon Ducks. Rollins voted Oregon. "There's no mustard going on there."

He promised it's "high quality, well roasted, expertly crafted coffee." He drinks it black. He's an espresso guy. Rich, who asked about sugar and cream, got called a coffee snob and owned it.

**"I'm not even nervous"**

Then it was Packers week, and Rollins was very calm about it. The Bears were heading into Lambeau Field as favorites, he said, for the first time in 20 years or so, with a backup quarterback.

"Not saying we're going to guarantee a victory," Rollins said, "but if Chicago competes and does well and they don't just get blown out, it's okay. It's our backup quarterback." His faith is in Ben Johnson and the offense to figure it out, and he said the defense has played better the last couple of weeks.

What he's enjoyed most is watching Packers fans work through the stages of grief. Denial first: "They can't admit that their team is just bad. They have a bad football team. They don't know what that looks like." Then bargaining, the trade-for-a-lineman, wait-for-someone-to-come-back phase. "They haven't reached the stage of acceptance yet."

Rich suggested Rollins thinks the Bears are four quarters from delivering that acceptance. Rollins said if the undrafted rookie from Tampa who had a big night against Dallas had done it against Green Bay instead, they'd already be there. He then checked in on TJ, who announced the Packers are going to win the Super Bowl. "He's still in denial," Rollins said.

Rollins felt the season started rocky after Week 2 but the ship got righted with Johnson planting a flag. He said the defense has been better than he expected this early, the rookies have been good, TJ Edwards is finally getting in his groove, Devin Bush looks good, and the pass rush is ahead of schedule. "Very optimistic."

**What Mike Ditka meant to him**

It would also be the first Bears game since Mike Ditka died that Friday at 86. Rollins never met him, but said Ditka had a big influence on his life anyway.

Ditka was his grandfather's idol. Richard Lopez, in Iowa, modeled his mustache and slicked-back hair after him. "You could have thought he was a Mexican Mike Ditka," Rollins said. His grandfather was the first in the family to claim the Bears, passed it down to his kids, who passed it down to him. "His personality kind of mirrored what I saw from Mike Ditka on TV over the years," Rollins said. "In some way, I think my upbringing was heavily influenced by Coach Ditka."

The table noted the irony that Ditka, coach of one of the all-time great defenses, was the first tight end in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Rollins said modern pass-catching tight ends owe their legacy to him. Asked about the edge in a locker room with Ditka and Buddy Ryan, Rollins grinned. "Mean, tough. I love it."

That edge is why Ben Johnson resonates. Rich recalled Johnson cursing out the Packers in the locker room after a wild card win, caught by NFL Films, and his "you know what week it is" line this week. Rollins contrasted it with photos of former Bears coach Matt Eberflus chumming it up with Matt LaFleur at a basketball game, a moment Bears fans took as confirmation they'd accepted never winning. "Matt LaFleur has been reluctantly pulled into this rivalry," Rollins said. "Ben Johnson has just pulled him into this rivalry like, no, we are going to duke this out every time. We are not going to be friends. I love that for the sport."

**Money in the Bank in New Orleans**

Money in the Bank streams Saturday from the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans on the ESPN app, and Rollins was emphatic that he won't be in it. "You will not see me on the screen." He'll make a pre-advertised appearance to meet fans and then sit backstage behind a monitor watching his wife compete in a triple threat match for the women's world championship. "We need some world championship gold in the Rollins-Lynch household. It's been too long."

He admitted he's always a little on edge watching her, though a triple threat is less nerve-racking than a ladder match. Then he revealed something he wasn't sure he was supposed to: Lynch had a small fracture in a vertebra and couldn't wrestle for about six weeks. She had her first match back on Raw against Liv Morgan. "I'm still a little concerned about the back, but it seems like all is well."

On what the briefcase means, Rollins spoke from experience. His first win in 2014 and his cash-in at WrestleMania in 2015 "skyrocketed me really to the top of the card, where I've been fortunate to stay for the past decade or so." For anyone in those matches, it's the place to prove "you are the girl or you are the guy that's going to carry the business forward." He compared the event to the Royal Rumble for the fan speculation it generates: who wins, and who do they cash in on? Roman? Sami Zayn?

TJ, holding the case, added that the cash-in has a 100 percent success rate for the women. On the main event, Rollins called Roman Reigns the best big-match performer there is, citing his run from WrestleMania through CM Punk, Jacob Fatu, Rollins himself at SummerSlam and Penta in Mexico City. The question is LA Knight. "Everybody knows he can talk the talk. Can he walk the walk?"

**Leaving the guillotine chain**

Before letting him go, Rich brought up what Rollins and TJ have in common: both were axed in the show's guillotine fantasy league, and both left the group text immediately. Rollins was out at 8:31 p.m. Pacific.

He had no regrets. "I love everybody in this room," he said, but the chat had a lot of random numbers he didn't know, and he didn't want to come back to his phone to 100-plus notifications. "If I win, I win, but if I lose, the silver lining is that I can escape this group chat." He credited TJ for setting the precedent. His favorite part of the thread was trying to use his powers of deduction to figure out who was in it. "With Rich, it could literally be anybody."

Rich said the group was very offended. Rollins apologized, sort of. "I put my phone down for two minutes, I pick it up, there's 87 texts. It's anxiety."