The superstars of WWE are not, generally, short on confidence. Former heroes such as Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock were hardly shy, retiring types, after all. Still, it takes a certain kind of self-assured wrestler – or astounding arrogance, take your pick – to deliver a victory speech before his match with one of the biggest names in the business has even started.
Yet this was exactly how Seth Rollins kicked off last weekend’s big Tables, Ladders and Chairs bout in Cleveland, Ohio, against John Cena. Maybe he had reason to be so confident. After all, Rollins is the man who would, later in the show, be called “the undisputed future of WWE”.
But despite Rollins repeatedly pummelling him into near submission, Cena managed to take advantage of late chaos in the ring and put Rollins through a fold-up table. Rollins was dazed and ultimately defeated.
But this minor setback is unlikely to leave permanent scars on one of the villains of WWE.
“My character is very polarising, sure,” says Rollins. “There’s a lot of stuff I’ve done over the past year that people haven’t been too pleased about – and to be the best at anything, you’ve gotta make some enemies.
“So call me number 1 villain, call me hero, call me top guy in WWE. Whatever you want, it doesn’t matter to me. I’m happy with what I’ve done to get here.”
Rollins certainly caused a stir when, in June, he took out his own teammates in The Shield faction with a steel chair. It might be understood that in wrestling, it’s every man for himself – but there was still a sense of betrayal. After all, Rollins had made his name with the group.
“Look, it had got to the point where it was time to make a statement for me,” he says. “The Shield had run its course as a three-man group, and we’ll go down in history as one of the greatest factions of all time.
“So I wanted to stand out, and now we’re three separate, successful entities. The others didn’t like the way it happened, sure, but maybe they’d look back at it a little differently now.”
Rollins is undoubtedly the former Shield member with the most star power.
The wrestler is due to fight at the WWE Live show in Abu Dhabi in February. The event will come at an interesting time for him, just a month before WrestleMania 31 – wrestling’s flagship, Super Bowl-style event.
Who would he like to face? “Whoever the WWE World Heavyweight Champion is at that point, it doesn’t matter,” he says. “As long as the title’s on the line, that’s the match I want to be in.”
The champion could actually be Rollins himself. The highlight of his career was winning the Money in the Bank contest in June, which allows him to take a shot at the title within a year. Ask him if he’s close to WWE domination, though, and he gets just a little tetchy.
“I’ve already been close, man,” he says. “If it hadn’t been for John Cena at the Night Of Champions, I’d have defeated [current champion] Brock Lesnar. I was seconds away. That’s been weighing heavily on my mind. But I’m a patient man.”
Watching Rollins pace around the ring at TLC, he doesn’t look very patient. Although he admits he’d be a fighting champion, in the vein of Shawn Michaels or The Nature Boy Ric Flair – “those were the guys who went out every night, gave the up-and-coming punks a chance and then shut the door on them” – he argues that his style is very deliberate.
“I’m well-versed on the mat, but I can pick up people much bigger than me,” he says. “I can hang with anybody, I can trade power moves, I can fly through the air. Maybe there’s no one in the history of WWE who can say they can do all those things.”
All of this makes his booking to appear at WWE Live in Abu Dhabi exciting. He has entertained crowds in the UAE before and is looking forward to a return.
“It’s incredible – when I was a kid all I wanted to do was to travel the world and wrestle in front of different crowds and cultures,” he says. “And the UAE fans are amazing, so die-hard and energetic – and knowledgeable, too.
“I promise you, if you’ve never been or if you’re sceptical, come to WWE with an open mind. There’s nothing like the live experience – and it’s a testament to how captivating we are as performers.”
And none more captivating than Seth Rollins?
“Maybe. That’s why I call myself the future of WWE.”
• WWE Live will be at Zayed Sports City Tennis Stadium from February 12 to 14. Tickets, from Dh300, are available from www.ticketmaster.ae
artslife@thenational.ae
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Zayed Sustainability Prize
House-hunting
Top 10 locations for inquiries from US house hunters, according to Rightmove
- Edinburgh, Scotland
- Westminster, London
- Camden, London
- Glasgow, Scotland
- Islington, London
- Kensington and Chelsea, London
- Highlands, Scotland
- Argyll and Bute, Scotland
- Fife, Scotland
- Tower Hamlets, London
Managing the separation process
- Choose your nursery carefully in the first place
- Relax – and hopefully your child will follow suit
- Inform the staff in advance of your child’s likes and dislikes.
- If you need some extra time to talk to the teachers, make an appointment a few days in advance, rather than attempting to chat on your child’s first day
- The longer you stay, the more upset your child will become. As difficult as it is, walk away. Say a proper goodbye and reassure your child that you will be back
- Be patient. Your child might love it one day and hate it the next
- Stick at it. Don’t give up after the first day or week. It takes time for children to settle into a new routine.And, finally, don’t feel guilty.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
