[7][8] He was the first wrestler to cash in a Money in the Bank contract at a WrestleMania event and holds the record for the longest televised match in WWE history, performing for 65 minutes whilst defeating Reigns and John Cena in the same night.

[1][15][16] He then joined Ian Rotten's Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South (IWA) under the name Tyler Black, and entered the Ted Petty Invitational Tournament, defeating Sal Thomaselli before being eliminated by Matt Sydal in the quarterfinals in Hammond, Indiana on September 23, 2005.

The two retained the NWA Midwest Tag Team Championship against Ryan Boz and Danny Daniels, Brett Wayne and Hype Gotti and Jayson Reign and Marco Cordova several times in early 2006.

[18] He briefly appeared in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) and teamed with Jeff Luxon in a loss to The Latin American Xchange (Homicide and Hernandez) on Impact!

[19] On May 25, 2007, while in a match with then Full Impact Pro (FIP) Tag Team Champions The Briscoe Brothers (Jay and Mark Briscoe) in Melbourne, Florida, Black's tag team partner Marek Brave suffered a legitimate back injury,[20] leading Black to pursue a singles career by competing in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), where he defeated Joey Ryan in his debut on June 10.

[28] They lost the championship one month later on January 26, 2008, to the No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards and Rocky Romero) when competing in an Ultimate Endurance match also involving The Hangmen 3 (Brent Albright and B. J. Whitmer), and the team of Austin Aries and Bryan Danielson.

[47][49] At a house show on March 25, Rollins and Steamboat defeated Damien Sandow and Titus O'Neil to win the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship,[50] which they later dropped to Big E Langston and Calvin Raines.

[89] They retained their titles against The Usos at the Money in the Bank pre-show on July 14,[90] and against The Prime Time Players (Darren Young and Titus O'Neil) at Night of Champions on September 15.

[121] At Royal Rumble on January 25, Rollins failed to win a triple threat match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Cena and champion Brock Lesnar.

[133][134] At Live from Madison Square Garden on October 3, Rollins failed to regain the United States Championship from Cena in a steel cage match.

[136] On November 4, during a match against Kane at a WWE live event in Dublin, Ireland, Rollins tore the ACL, MCL and medial meniscus in his knee while attempting to execute a sunset flip powerbomb.

[140] At Extreme Rules on May 22, 2016, Rollins returned from injury, attacking Roman Reigns with a Pedigree after his WWE World Heavyweight Championship defense against AJ Styles.

[146] At Battleground on July 24, Rollins unsuccessfully competed in a triple threat match against Ambrose and Reigns for the newly renamed WWE World Championship, which became exclusive to the SmackDown brand.

[153] Rollins failed to win the title from Owens at Clash of Champions on September 25 and Hell in a Cell on October 30 due to several interferences from Chris Jericho.

[166] After failing to gain Ambrose's trust for several weeks,[167][168][169] the two argued in the ring on the August 14 episode of Raw and brawled with each other before fighting off Cesaro and Sheamus, reuniting the team in the process.

[170] At SummerSlam on August 20, Ambrose and Rollins defeated Cesaro and Sheamus to win the Raw Tag Team Championship,[171] successfully defending the titles in a rematch at No Mercy on September 24.

[183] After their tag team dissolved due to Jordan having neck surgery,[184] Rollins was named as a competitor in the Elimination Chamber match to determine the #1 contender for the Universal Championship.

[205] Soon after, Rollins reconciled with Ambrose and the recently returned Reigns to reform The Shield for the third time,[206] defeating McIntyre, Lashley and Baron Corbin on March 10 at Fastlane.

[214] The following night on Raw, Rollins won a ten-man battle royal for the right to face Lesnar for the championship at SummerSlam by last eliminating Randy Orton.

[226] After this, Rollins began calling himself the "Monday Night Messiah" while stating that he was "sacrificing" his opponents for "the greater good" and created a faction with AOP and Buddy Murphy.

[259] On the October 25 episode of Raw, Rollins defeated Finn Bálor, Kevin Owens, and Rey Mysterio in a fatal four-way ladder match to become the #1 contender for the WWE Championship against Big E at Day 1 on January 1, 2022.

[283] At Survivor Series WarGames on November 26, Rollins lost the United States Championship to Theory in a triple threat match also involving Lashley, ending his reign at 47 days.

[295] Rollins then entered into a feud with Shinsuke Nakamura,[296][297] whom he defeated to retain the title on September 2 at Payback[298] and at Fastlane on October 7 in a Last Man Standing match.

[307] On the March 4 episode of Raw, Rollins announced that he was medically cleared to compete again and would team up with Rhodes against Roman Reigns and The Rock in the main event of Night 1 of WrestleMania XL on April 6,[308] but they were defeated.

[316][317] After a month-long absence, Rollins returned on the September 30 episode of Raw to help Braun Strowman defeat Reed in a Last Monster Standing match.

[322] His finisher during his time in FCW was a superkick to a kneeling opponent's head called Avada Kedavra, named after a magic spell that kills people in Harry Potter.

[329] Rollins' character throughout his time as a member of The Shield was that of an "out-spoken hot-head who will do crazy things" to help the team, though his methodical approach to their matches earned him the nickname of "The Architect".

[330] Following his turn into a villainous character and the team's initial split, he began claiming that he played the single most important role in forming The Shield, referring to himself as the group's creator and emphasizing his "Architect" nickname.

In late 2019, after turning into a different kind of villainous character and aligning himself with the AOP, he began to dub himself the "Monday Night Messiah" and compare himself to Jesus while debuting a new entrance song.

[228][331] In 2021, he added "Freakin" to his ring name as a way of emphasizing his importance and adopted a persona nicknamed "The Visionary", a boastful and delusional egomaniac with an eccentric personality and outlandish fashion sense.