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At wrestling parlance, the word “kayfabe” represents the idea of wrestlers or other on-screen characters maintaining the illusion that everything you see happening on screen is real.
Sadly, in the internet era, keeping kayfabe is virtually impossible. That is, unless you’re WWE superstar Seth Rollins, who pulled off the greatest work of kayfabe we’ve seen in years ahead of his legendary return at WWE SummerSlam, where he surprised CM Punk to win the World Heavyweight Championship.
However, Rollins’ 4-year-old daughter Roux very nearly sent the whole thing crashing down before the storyline could ever really get rolling.
Seth Rollins’ Daughter Roux Told Her Teacher About Her Dad’s Fake Injury
Three weeks prior, Rollins appeared to injure his knee in a match against LA Knight at “Saturday Night’s Main Event” in Dallas. The match seemingly ended early, with Knight picking up the win and Rollins being helped to the backstage area.
Nobody knew what happened. Wrestling reporters attempted to find out more information, but all anyone knew was that Rollins was supposedly undergoing more testing. He then hosted “The Rich Eisen Show” with Eisen out of town, and told the audience that the injury would keep him out long-term.
Now, in a new interview with Eisen, Rollins revealed that outside of a few WWE executives and writers, only his wife (fellow WWE superstar Becky Lynch) and his on-screen manager, Paul Heyman, knew the truth about the “injury.” Everyone else was led to believe he was actually injured.
That is, everyone else except one person: Rollins’ and Lynch’s 4-year-old daughter Roux.
“My daughter, she thought it was a game,” Rollins said. “She thought it was a fun little game. I told her ‘daddy’s got a pretend boo-boo for the next few weeks. So let’s keep that on the low.'”
Roux, being a 4-year-old child, did exactly what 4-year-old children do.
“The first thing she did was went and told her preschool teacher, Ms. Joy,” Rollins continued. “First thing she did. Immediately. So then of course, she had to go and tell me that she told Ms. Joy.”
Rollins also noted that Lynch was annoyed that she had to lie to family and friends about the injury for three weeks. But it all worked out in the end and produced one of the best moments in recent WWE history.
More importantly, the storyline re-established that WWE can keep some things under wraps when it wants to, adding an unpredictable element to shows going forward.