Lopez debuted in 2005 for Scott County Wrestling (SCW). He also worked for Ian Rotten's Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South (IWA) 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. He later won the SCW Heavyweight Championship and spray-painted the championship belt black to mark "The Black Era" in SCW.

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! in October 2006.

Along with Jimmy Jacobs and Necro Butcher, Black wrestled against The Vulture Squad (Jack Evans and Ruckus) in several handicap matches during early October, Black then teamed with The Age of the Fall against Jack Evans, Ruckus and Jigsaw in a six-man tag team match the following month at Glory by Honor VI: Night One on November 1. The following night, Black defeated Alex "Sugarfoot" Payne, but was attacked by The Briscoe Brothers following the match. He appeared with The Age of the Fall in their match against The Briscoe Brothers during the main event. At Final Battle 2007, Black and Jacobs defeated The Briscoe Brothers to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship.

At Final Battle 2008, after Black lost a number one contender match to Austin Aries, Jacobs turned on him, and Black was then attacked by Aries. At Full Circle, Black was given a non-title match against then ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness on January 16, and defeated McGuinness. The following night, number one contender Aries refused to face McGuinness, so Black faced McGuinness instead, but was unsuccessful as the match ended in a time limit draw. On June 26 at Violent Tendencies, Black defeated Jimmy Jacobs in a steel cage match to end their feud.

Prior to signing with WWE, Lopez wrestled as Tyler Black for Ring of Honor (ROH), where he held the ROH World Championship once and the ROH World Tag Team Championship twice (with Jimmy Jacobs), as well as the winner of the 2009 Survival of the Fittest tournament. He also wrestled for various independent promotions including Full Impact Pro (FIP), where he was a one-time FIP World Heavyweight Champion, as well as Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), where he was a one-time PWG World Tag Team Champion (also with Jacobs).

In September 2009, Black had surgery on a bulging disc in his neck. On October 10, Black defeated Kenny King in a first round match and then Claudio Castagnoli, Colt Cabana, Delirious, Chris Hero and Roderick Strong in the finals to win the 2009 Survival of the Fittest tournament, which earned him a match for the ROH World Championship. On December 19 at Final Battle 2009, ROH's first live pay-per-view, Black wrestled then ROH World Champion Austin Aries to a 60-minute time limit draw. Because of this draw, then ROH commissioner Jim Cornette booked the two in a rematch between February 13, 2010 for the company's Eighth Anniversary Show. The booking saw Cornette set up a judging panel with himself on and one person picked by each competitor, in order for there to be a decisive winner in case of another draw. Aries picked Kenny King while Black picked Roderick Strong, whom he guaranteed an ROH World Championship title shot should he win. At the event, Black pinned Aries to win the ROH World Championship.

In July 2011, Rollins began a feud with Dean Ambrose. Ambrose and Rollins had their first match for the FCW 15 Championship in a 15-minute Iron Man match on the August 14 episode of FCW, which ended in a draw with neither men scoring a fall and, as a result, Rollins retained his title. A subsequent 20-minute rematch for the title two weeks later resulted in a similar 0-0 draw. A second 30-minute rematch for the title on the September 18 episode of FCW went to a time limit 2-2 draw and the match was sent into sudden death rules, where Rollins scored a pinfall to win the match 3-2. On September 22, Rollins lost the FCW 15 Championship to Damien Sandow by disqualification after Ambrose attacked Sandow late in the match.

Rollins made a cameo in a video package that aired during the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event in February 2012, where he was shown working out with John Cena in Cena's gym, as well as being featured in a speaking role. On February 23, Rollins defeated Leo Kruger to become the new FCW Florida Heavyweight Champion.

Rollins made his main roster debut on at Survivor Series alongside Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns, attacking Ryback during the triple threat main event for the WWE Championship, allowing CM Punk to pin John Cena and retain the title. The trio declared themselves The Shield, vowed to rally against "injustice" and would deny working for Punk, but they routinely emerged from the crowd to attack Punk's adversaries. This led to a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match being set up for the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view event, where Ambrose, Rollins and Reigns defeated Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane) and Ryback in their debut match. The Shield continued to aid Punk after TLC, attacking both Ryback and The Rock in January 2013. It was revealed on the January 28 episode of Raw that Punk and his manager Paul Heyman had been paying The Shield and Brad Maddox to work for them all along.

In 2014, Lopez and his former tag team partner Marek Brave started The Black & The Brave Wrestling Academy, a professional wrestling school located in Moline, Illinois.

On February 9, 2015, a nude photo of former NXT Wrestler Zahra Schreiber, reportedly Lopez's girlfriend, was posted to his social media accounts, the contents of which are automatically republished by WWE.com. Soon after, nude photos of Lopez were posted on the Twitter page of his then-fiancée, Leighla Schultz. In response, Lopez apologized for "private photographs that were distributed without [his] consent". On February 25, 2016, Lopez revealed that he had broken up with Schreiber, but he did not say what caused the split.

At Extreme Rules on May 22, Rollins returned from injury by attacking Roman Reigns with a Pedigree after his WWE World Heavyweight Championship defense against AJ Styles. The following night on Raw, Rollins addressed the fans and said that he did not need anyone on his side, with Shane McMahon announcing a match between Reigns and Rollins for the title at Money in the Bank. Meanwhile, critics wondered if WWE was "leaving money on the table" by not slotting Rollins as a fan favorite and Reigns as a villain, as this was the opposite of what fans wanted (fans were cheering Rollins and booing Reigns). At Money in the Bank on June 19, Rollins defeated Reigns to win his second WWE World Heavyweight Championship, thus also giving Reigns his first clean loss in singles competition on main roster, only to lose the championship minutes later to Dean Ambrose, who would cash in the Money in the Bank briefcase he won earlier that night and immediately defeat Rollins for the title. In July, Rollins failed to regain the renamed WWE Championship in matches against Ambrose on both Raw and SmackDown before Battleground. In the 2016 WWE draft on July 19, Rollins was drafted to Raw as the brand's first draft pick. At Battleground on July 24, Rollins lost the triple threat match against Ambrose and Reigns for the newly renamed WWE World Championship, which became exclusive of SmackDown. Because of this, the WWE Universal Championship was introduced the following night on Raw and Rollins was scheduled for the inaugural title match against Finn Bálor, who won two qualifying matches on Raw to face Rollins for the title at SummerSlam on August 21, which he failed to win.

Rollins then announced his participation in the 2017 Royal Rumble match via Twitter on January 9, but on the January 23 episode of Raw was defeated by Sami Zayn after a distraction by Triple H's music and thus replaced by him in the match. On January 28, Rollins appeared at NXT TakeOver: San Antonio, interrupting the show and calling out Triple H, who came out only to order security to remove Rollins from the ring, which was successful despite Rollins fighting off the first batch of security guards. On the January 30 episode of Raw, Rollins (who had been banned from the Royal Rumble the night before) confronted Stephanie McMahon and once again called out Triple H, demanding answers. Later that night, Triple H came out explaining that he betrayed Rollins because he felt that he was "a failure on his own" and before Rollins could confront Triple H he was ambushed from behind by the debuting Samoa Joe, who trapped Rollins in the Coquina Clutch and choked him out. During the attack, WWE announced on their website that Rollins re-injured his knee. On the February 27 episode of Raw, Rollins explained his knee injury to Corey Graves inside the ring and confronted Triple H by telling him that he would be at WrestleMania 33. An injured Rollins returned on the March 13 episode of Raw to save Mick Foley from an attack by Triple H, signifying he was cleared by doctors, but was attacked by Triple H once more. In their non-sanctioned match at WrestleMania 33, Rollins defeated Triple H after executing a Pedigree.

On the December 25 episode of Raw, Rollins teamed with Jason Jordan and defeated Cesaro and Sheamus to become the new Raw Tag Team Champions. Rollins would help Jordan defeat Cesaro on the January 1, 2018 episode of Raw. On the January 8 episoide of Raw, Rollins and Jordan would team up with Roman Reigns to take on Bálor Club (Finn Bálor, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson) in a losing effort. The following week on Raw, Rollins faced Bálor in a rematch from SummerSlam and defeated him after interference from Jordan by performing a Blackout (previously known as the Curb Stomp), the first time the move had been used in nearly three years prior. At the Royal Rumble on January 28, Rollins entered at No. 18 in the Royal Rumble match, but he was eliminated by Reigns. Right after the Royal Rumble match, Rollins and Jordan lost the tag team titles to Cesaro and Sheamus, endning their reign at 34 days. Rollins and Jordan's tag team was dissolved on February 6 after Jordan had neck surgery.