Monday Night Raw live from the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, NY came with a surprise that shocked everyone involved at WWE.
After curb-stomping Finn Balor only about an hour into Monday Night Raw, WWE Superstar Seth Rollins was walking back up the ramp to head back to the locker room, business as usual, when suddenly a man came flying out of nowhere at him down the ramp and tackled him. It almost appeared as if he was trying to attempt a popular wrestling move, the “spear”, on Rollins.
This fan got in a good shot on Seth Rollins, but safe to say they won’t be back at another WWE event again #RAW 🤣 pic.twitter.com/nXTvjJBYsZ
— Josh Sánchez (@joshnsanchez) November 23, 2021
Rollins, who originally looked stunned, quickly realized what was happening and attempted to hold down the crazed fan by putting him in a guillotine until security could swarm in.
Here is an alternate angle:
A fan TACKLED Seth Rollins as he was walking backstage. #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/zlmKL5EOzC
— Justin J. Lopez (@stellar_jl319) November 23, 2021
Only the very beginning of the incident was actually caught on the broadcast where the fan can be seen diving at Rollins and taking him down. Commentators, clearly confused, can be heard shouting “who is that?! Who is that?!” before presumably being told by producers that it wasn’t a planned attack. Afterwards the broadcast team moved on, sweeping it under the rug and pretending like it didn’t happen. The next shot of Rollins was of him standing victorious before heading backstage. If you were watching the broadcast, you were likely confused about who the hell that was that just attacked Rollins and why they weren’t talking about it. Here’s what the broadcast looked like:
Seth Rollins just attacked by fan??? #RAW #WWE pic.twitter.com/FIv6csAW28
— Tommy Lavelle (@tomlavelles) November 23, 2021
Attacks of this kind while heading up the ramp to the locker room after a match are not uncommon in actual scripted WWE events, which is likely why commentators and fans were going along with it at first.
According to ESPN’s Marc Raimondi, the man was identified as 24 year old Elisah Spencer. He was arrested by NYPD and charged with attempted assault and attempted “violation of arts and cultural affairs”.
Per police, Rollins suffered swelling to his lip, but refused medical attention. More coming to @espn.
— Marc Raimondi (@marc_raimondi) November 23, 2021
Rollins, a Davenport, Iowa native, is a proud Chicago Bears fan and widely regarded as one of the best performers of his era in the WWE.
