Seth Rollins has revealed the real reason behind the decision to why his SummerSlam match with Matt Riddle was postponed at WWE’s July event. 

At Clash at the Castle on Saturday night Seth Rollins defeated Matt Riddle in one of the highlights on an incredible evening in Cardiff. However, it was a match that was supposed to take place on the SummerSlam card, until a late call to remove the bout from the event.

In storyline terms it was pulled to a Riddle injury, however the real reason behind it being left off the card was down to a sponsorship agreement with the Mysterios. Meaning that Rey and Dominic had to appear on the show, resulting in Rollins and Riddle’s match being bumped.

Speaking in an interview with Ariel Helwai, Seth spoke about the reasoning behind why there was match was chosen to be the one that was removed and his feelings on the situation at the time. 

“It was one of those situations where we had a regime change in the midst of the build to SummerSlam, I believe a week out, we had the biggest change in the history of our industry. When Triple H took over the creative process, he was looking at the hand that was dealt to him.

They ended up having to add what I believe was the Mysterios match based on a sponsorship agreement, I believe Rey and Dom have some sort of deal with an alcohol company, a beer company, there was some money involved and they had to add the match on. To do that, you either have to take out a whole match or you have to cut time from other matches to keep the show at a reasonable time. I think the runtime ended up being almost four hours anyway. Anything beyond that is a little ridiculous in my opinion.

You were looking at the card and you look at the title matches, which we weren’t. You look at the celebrity matches that you only get one chance to do, which we weren’t. We kind of fell into that spot where it was, ‘we could use more weeks to build this story.’ They made the choice to axe our match and make sure all the other matches were maximized with time and story and all that.

Totally understood that and respect it, I was a little upset we advertised the match and not given that to them [the fans] and at the level I have been performing for really the last year, I felt it was a bit of a slap in the face to me as a performer that I wasn’t able to be on what is essentially the second biggest show of the year for us.”

The 36-year-old went on to say that he didn’t react too favourably to the news, and admitted he wasn’t happy that the fans who had paid to see him and Riddle go at it in Las Vegas.

“Of course, I think anybody in my position who takes pride in what they do, I think there’s got to be a little disrespect felt there. Did I go about it the right way? Maybe, maybe not.”

“I got the word that they were killing the match and I didn’t take too kindly to it. I had a couple of days to sit on it before they actually announced that they were going to move it. I was kind of thinking about what I wanted to do. I just feel bad for people who were excited to see the match, who had paid money, maybe, to see that match specifically that we had been building towards for a few weeks and advertised for a week or two.

I felt the need to control my own narrative in that regard. I didn’t feel like letting other people shift the way the story was going was in my best interest. I took things into my own hands,”

Seth did eventually get the win over Riddle on Saturday, but their issues seem far from over and it’s likely the pair will meet again at next month’s Extreme Rules Premium Live Show.