Wrestling without pageantry is like pizza without mozzarella, Formula 1 without Ferrari or Glastonbury without magic mushrooms. It’s missing something borderline essential to its sense of pomp and spectacle. Few men know this better than Seth Rollins, whose lately been channelling the hyper-vivid legacies of Rick Flair and Randy Savage with a series of ‘fits that straddle between the sublime and ridiculous – often setting TikTok alight in the process. When the WWE’s reigning World Heavyweight Champion isn’t pulling off a superkick while draped in a black string vest and a pair of MSCHF’s Big Red Boots, his home life is a little more lowkey.
Calling GQ from the back of a cab as he preps for this weekend’s Money In The Bank pay-per-view – the WWE’s biggest event in London since 1992’s Summerslam at Wembley Stadium – Rollins is itching for a moment back at his garden grill with a beer in hand and some homespun Iowa steaks cooking under the gas. Here the uniform of choice is less hypey sneakers and neon suit jackets, and more CrossFit shoes and workout shorts. Likely with some of Moana’s greatest hits on the stereo to help entertain his two-year-old daughter. Because even the self-proclaimed “drip god” needs a day off or two.
Fear not, there are still plenty of extravagances left in Seth Rollins’ home life. If you’ve ever wondered how the WWE Grand Slam champion maintains that lustrous blonde hair or about the famed metalhead’s home stereo setup, GQ’s latest At Home With interview should make for essential reading…
When you're on camera with WWE you're in “drip god” mode with the crazy jackets, coloured suits and MSCHF boots. Before then you were a black jeans and a hoodie kind of guy. What are you wearing when you're at home?
Man, when I have downtime when I'm at home, I'm as relaxed as humanly possible. I’m a sweatpants and T-shirt type of guy. We spend so much time at the gym, whether it's training or I have my wrestling school as well. Either way, I'm in shorts, a tank top and some trainers so I am very no frills, no fuss when it comes to fashion in my own time,
There's a company called Chubbies that sends me some really nice workout shorts. They kind of have like a lining so it's all one layer as opposed to and they have like some fun styles as well. As far as the other stuff goes, No Bull has really good athletic stuff with a lot of different varieties in its shoe colours. Tyr Athletics also does a good job as well – it has a good CrossFit shoe that I like to use.
That’s all very low-key gear. What made you want to reinvent your character with such an extroverted look?
It's funny because when I was a teenager, I was very extroverted with my style. I wanted to stand out kind of as much as I could, and I used to wear bright neon, orange or purple baggy pants. Tight black shirts… anything you could find that would be not gothic, but borderline weird and kind of funky, you know. To stand out, I would put colour in my hair when I was a kid as well. And then I went through just a stage where I wore nothing but black and I was just opposed to any sort of colour.
When the time came to change it up, I wanted to do some of the wildest looks that I could possibly possibly come up with and I couldn't do that on my own. I'm not I don't have the time to source. So I got my stylist to help me out – he’s called Troy Haynes – and I will go all in. He's actually a little more worried about it than I am.
So where did the idea to wear the MSCHF Big Red Boots come from?
Troy said, “I've got these shoes, you’ve gotta check them out. They’re ‘the moment’.”
I was like, “I don’t know what that means, but it sounds good to me.”
So he shows up with this extra bag, like they needed to be guarded by the police. Then I put them on and they’re shockingly comfortable. They just feel like normal boots when you're wearing them and I was able to like kind of do some wrestling moves in them which was pretty wild.
You’ve been wrestling professionally for around 20 years now, and so has your wife [WWE wrestler Becky Lynch]. That’s a lot of ‘fits to accumulate between the two of you. There must be some tussling over wardrobe space at home…
Oh, absolutely, but it's all her fault. She was using Troy as a stylist before me, so it's her fault. If she’s jealous of any of my looks, that's on her. I got this red sequined tracksuit in the mail and she was furious that she didn’t get to wear it. If I have a different look that I feel like, I’ll keep a jacket or a pair of shoes and reuse them. But I've also donated quite a few for a charity auction we did at WrestleMania this year for Connor’s Cure, which is a paediatric cancer charity.
Wrestlers tend to have a lot of hair to deal with. Do you have any go-to products for when you're grooming, shaving and doing all that stuff?
I would be lying to you if I said I did any of that myself. We're very fortunate that we have a wonderful team of barbers that kind of rotates on the road with us and they take care of my beard for me. As far as haircare is concerned, I kind of keep it as blonde as I can without like turning to gold. There’s this brand called Kérastase, and they have this Ultra Violet shampoo that’s purple and smells real good. So I have to kind of bust that sucker out a few times a week to keep this blonde from turning into a mess. But that's really about it. When it comes to my hair. I'm still very, very rock and roll.
You love metal and your band T-shirts. What do you make of the new Metallica record?
I love Metallica, but I have not been able to get into their last couple of records the way that I would have when I was younger. I don't know if it's because I'm just not into heavier music as much, I’m mellowing out in my old age. There's this band called Trophy Eyes, they’re from Australia and they put out a new record [Suicide and Sunshine] that is fabulous – I think it's up there with one of the best records of the year so far.
What do you listen to with your daughter, Roux? Is she in her Disney phase yet?
Oh, yeah, she loves nursery rhymes and she loves Disney. So we're always jamming on like Moana and Encanto – we went through a phase where the bedtime routine consisted of us dancing to the first half of the Moana soundtrack. One thing that's cool about her is that she's two and a half, and she's already making up her own songs. And then you know, kids these days are into YouTube like crazy. There's this YouTube show called Ms Rachel. She's got some songs and they get stuck in my head quite a bit.
And how do you listen to music at home? Are you a record player guy? Do you have a Sonos?
Both actually. I’ve got a record player that’s plugged into the Sonos, but my preferred method is still headphones. I still like to experience the music as an album. Maybe that's just my childhood and how I grew up with a stereo alone in my room. A new CD would come out and you’d just want to sit and listen to it straight through, read all the lyrics and really attach yourself to a song.
I don't know what record player I have. I bought at a local record shop years ago and still it rocks, but for headphones, I'm good with the AirPods Pro. They really do a great job of keeping the sound in and muffling all the outside noise without having the hindrance of those giant Beats-sized headphones, you know?
You co-own a couple of coffee shops. You must have a serious coffee machine at home?
Oh, there's no such thing as coffee at home? We don't do that.
Not at all?
So in our house in Los Angeles, we do have a La Marzocco espresso machine that we will use occasionally. My wife likes it more than I do, but she's a headache person. So she gets a caffeine headache if she doesn't have it quickly when she wakes up. As addicted to it as I am, I don't have that problem. So I'll wait till we go out to a coffee shop to get it and I love going out for coffee.
I love the experience of going to a shop. I love tasting a new bean or even a different pull of the same shot. We’re in London right now and we went to a place called Saint Nine, and it was just fantastic. I got some espresso and a cortado as well, and they were both wonderful. I'm a fruit-forward guy, so an Ethiopian coffee is probably going to be the first one that jumps off the page to me. I like a bright flavour and a little bit of tartness.
So no coffee at home, but do you cook?
A little bit, yeah. I'm more of a grill guy, especially in the summertime – I love to get out have a beer, and throw on either some burgers. We have a nice gas grill that gets the job done and gives you an even, solid flavour. I don't have the capacity at this moment in time to learn how to do with the coal and not to mess the whole thing up.
If you were to ask me what do I want to grill tonight? Honestly, I’m a Midwestern dude, so you're gonna get just a nice big steak. I don't season it was anything but salt, a little olive oil. Then I'll grill some corn and big potatoes, and that's it. Give me a beer and that’s as Iowa as it gets.
Since you spend so much time on the road, you must have a pretty specific taste in travel essentials?
This is a weird one, but I like to have matching luggage. You know, I come from a small town in Iowa. We weren’t poor by any means but we didn't make a lot of money, so I'm always kind of looking for a bargain and for me Away suitcases are fantastic. I love they had like a larger version and then a smaller carry-on luggage version and they have suited me well. They're reliable, they’re inexpensive and they last for a long time. They come in kind of cool colours – you can get to the metal ones if you want – but I’ve got some plain black ones. That's my jam.
All items here were recommended by Seth Rollins. When a product wasn't available for purchase, we've provided an alternative.
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