WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Seth Rollins, was recently needled on his working relationship with CM Punk.
In January of 2023, Seth Rollins told CM Punk to stay far away from him, calling Punk a cancer. In November of 2023, CM Punk made his shocking return to WWE at the Survivor Series PLE, creating quite an awkward scenario for Rollins.
Seth Rollins spoke recently to Jimmy Traina on the SI Media podcast, where Seth detailed his animosity with CM Punk, as well as mentioning that it hurts him to have ill will toward Punk.
“A lot of it is personal. A lot of it is stuff I don’t really want to get into. For the most part, I just think he’s been really selfish when it comes to his perspective on the industry. I think he’s been extremely self-serving, has played the martyr role to a tee and has, for someone who, when I met the guy, and look, I have a lot of good things to say about parts of my relationship with him. He helped me in places when he didn’t have to, whether that was for his own good or not, I’m not entirely sure. Regardless, it helped me get where I needed to go and do the things I needed to do. For a guy who, when I met him, made it seem like he was all about giving back to the business, he really turned into a pretty selfish guy and wanting to take more from the industry. Look, he said some really bad things about me. Talked down about me for years, and the company, for years. I’m talking some really bad stuff. Called me a bootlicker and crap like that. You don’t know me. You don’t know what I stand for. I’m a loyal person, and I felt pretty insulted by a lot of the ways he treated me, treated the place I work for, treated friends that I worked with. I don’t need to get into any of the stuff with Colt Cabana if you want to look at that kind of stuff, that’s out there. Just the way he treated people. The way I felt like he’s only looking out for himself, and then the way he talked about me and my friends and the people who are here putting the hard work in at WWE, trying to make this thing as good as we possibly can because we love the industry, truly love it, not just what it can do for us, we actually love it and want to give back to it and make it the best it could possibly be. I also felt like he’s a fraud in that sense, or at least turned into one at some point in the last decade. That’s the long of it. It’s a deep-rooted, I wouldn’t call it hatred, but there’s animosity there.”
-Seth Rollins
Rollins was asked about the possibility of working with Punk, and if sometimes he feels like it may not be worth it in the long run, with the World Heavyweight Champion believing it to be only a matter of time before they cross paths.
“Of course, and if you’re working with him on essentially intimate levels, the two of you trying to put a story and match together or whatever it may be, it’s not like you can just go out there and wing it. You could, but it’s not going to go too well, most likely, but you have to work with somebody. You figure it out. Sometimes it’s like pulling teeth. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there, luckily we haven’t had to do that yet. I assume it’s only a matter of time, whatever venue it’s at, I don’t know, that’s not my decision to make, I just show up and do the work. It is what it is. You don’t like everybody you work with, I certainly haven’t liked everybody I’ve been in the ring with over the years, but I’ve always found a way to make magic out of it. If it is Seth Rollins vs. CM Punk, somewhere down the road, one way or another, it’s going to be magic.”
-Seth Rollins
Summarily, the WWE World Heavyweight Champ was asked if he was able to avoid working with the newly arrived CM Punk.
“It’s a negotiation. It’s a conversation. No one is forcing something on you, but I’m a businessman, for sure, I’m hoping to do business, if it’s there to be done. I’m open to mending fences, if that’s even possible. I know that might sound crazy, but I’m open to it. I’m almost 38, and I ain’t got time to hold all these grudges. I think it’s a lot of energy to hold that negativity in, and I’d like to put that energy somewhere else and make it positive. I’m open to all different facets of what this could be. There are certain conversations that go on, it’s not a cut and dry, ‘you have to do this.’ Sometimes, it is. I’ve been in positions where it’s like, ‘this is your job, I pay you the check. This is what I want you to do,’ and that’s just how it is. That’s okay too. If you don’t like it, you can skip it and we don’t have to do business. I’m pretty open-minded when it comes to stuff like that. I think there will be a way to make it work for everybody. He says he’s the Best in the World, that ain’t the case, I’m the Best in the World. I’ll make anything work, no matter who it is,”
-Seth Rollins
CM Punk is set to make his second WWE TV appearance since his return on the tonight’s episode of SmackDown after recently appearing on the post-Survivor Series Monday Night RAW, earning quite a heated reaction from Seth Rollins on the night.
Seth Rollins currently reigns as the WWE World Heavyweight Champion, making himself an important part of the fixture on Monday nights, although there’s certainly no shortage of challengers queuing up for a shot at the gold.
H/T to Fightful for the transcription.
