Observations using SDO/HMI are used to show that high-energy flaring regions are typically indicative of significant (> 30°) sunspot rotation. Twenty-four X-class flare producing active regions, observed by SDO/HMI between 13th February 2011 and 21st December 2014, are analysed. These produced a total of 40 X-class solar flares. The corresponding active regions contain a total of 60 sunspots, 45 of which exhibiting significant rotation. Of the 24 active regions analysed, 23 contain at least one sunspot with significant rotation. Two X-class flare producing active regions (AR 11158 and AR 11429) and two non-X-class flare producing regions (AR 11743 and AR 11772) are presented to outline the difference in rotational dynamics of highly energetic, magnetically complicated regions compared with low-energy, magnetically simple regions. Statistically significant results are drawn from analysis of the complete sample.