WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins appeared on Jimmy Traina’s “SI Media Podcast.”
Rollins talked about when he found out CM Punk returned to WWE:
“When I heard his music at Survivor Series.”
If it annoyed him that he wasn’t given a heads up that this was happening:
“Yes. Upon reflection, it’s easy to understand why something like that would be kept as close to the vest as possible. So I understand why very few people knew what was going on that day, but in the moment, I was extremely emotional. We’ll just put it that way. In the moment, after everything we’ve been through and everything the company had been through with that particular person as well, and then the night itself, the match, Randy’s return, all of it, it was very emotional moment for me. Obviously, if you have any amount of social media, you kind of saw how I reacted in the moment and it was a very raw, real, emotional response for me. Did I go too far? Maybe, but it was what it was. I can’t take it back.”
If his reaction was a work or a shoot:
“Like I said, it was an extremely emotional moment for me. Everyone knows how I feel about CM Punk. I’ve not made it any more transparent over the past few years. Nothing has changed in that regard, and in that moment, I was extremely emotional and you got a lot of real, raw emotion from me. I don’t usually get that worked up about much, but you caught me off guard and there was a lot of real emotion there. So that’s probably about as much as I can say on that without going too far.”
On the profanity that he used when he saw CM Punk come out at Survivor Series:
“I regret that part of it because I do take my responsibility as a role model for our younger audience pretty seriously, and so that part of it I do have regrets over it. I wish I would have handled myself with a little bit more composure. But like I said, I can’t take it back. I can apologize to our younger audience and their families if I offended anybody, but you know, it was what it was, a moment in time.”
If Rollins was completely shocked or this is now the reality, but I can’t believe they’re letting Punk back in:
“The latter. I’ve been with WWE for over 10 years now, so nothing surprises me anymore fully. I heard rumblings. Obviously it was something they wanted to keep pretty close to the vest for obvious reasons. Surprises are great in our industry. In this age of social media where everything is spoiled, it’s nice to have surprises. That wasn’t a very nice surprise for me, but it was for a lot of people out there who were fans of that guy for whatever reason. It was mostly just like, ‘Oh man. This is it. This is what we have to deal with. now. This is our future moving forward. How do we navigate this?’ So it was kind of just an emotional reaction to that compounded with, you know, the adrenaline of what we just experienced inside the double cage in WarGames.”
On what happened when he got backstage:
“My wife is pretty good at understanding my temperament and knowing how to make sure that I’m on level when I need to be, so kudos to her. She made sure I didn’t get in any more trouble. But yeah, there were enough people there who knew that I would be upset in the moment and to take care of me and make sure that it didn’t get too chaotic.”
If he saw Punk backstage after the show:
“No. I lost him. I waited for a while, and he was, you know, I’m sure he was somewhere doing interviews or doing whatever, but I didn’t see him.”
Rollins on why he has issues with CM Punk:
“I mean, a lot of it’s personal. A lot of it is stuff that I don’t really want to get into, but 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 got a lot of good things to say about parts of my relationship with him. You know, 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, but 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, kind of made it seem like he was all about giving back to the business, he really turned into a pretty selfish guy and really wanted to take more from the industry. He said some really bad things about me. He talked down about me for years and the company for years. I’m talking about some really bad stuff. He called me like 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 that I worked, treated friends that I worked with. I don’t need to get into any of the stuff with Colt Cabana. If you want to go and look at that kind of stuff, that’s out there. But yeah, I mean, just the way he treated people, the way I felt like he was only looking out for himself, and then the way he talked down about me and my friends and the people who are here putting the hard work in WWE trying to make this thing as good as we possibly could because we love the industry. We truly love it, not just what it can do for us, but we actually love it and want to give back to it and want to make it the best it can possibly be. I always just felt like he was 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 deep-rooted, I wouldn’t call it a hatred, but there’s animosity there, no doubt about it.”
Punk was asked if personal issues come into play when you’re working with somebody like this:
“Of course, of course, and if you’re working with them on, you know, I mean, essentially on an intimate level, it’s the two of you trying to put a story together or a match together or whatever it may be. You’re working with him. It’s not like you can just go out there and wing it. I mean, you could but that’s not gonna go too well, most likely. But you know, you have to work with somebody. You have figured it out yet and 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, you know, I just show up and do the work. But you know, 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. So if it is Seth Rollins versus CM Punk somewhere down the road, one way or another it’s going to be magic.”
If he has the ability to say that he doesn’t want to work with somebody and how much feedback is he allowed to give:
“I mean, it’s a negotiation for sure. It’s a conversation. No one’s forcing something on you, but I am a businessman, for sure. I’m open to do business if it’s there to be done and I’m open to mending fences, if that’s even possible. I know that might sound crazy, but I’m open to it because I mean, I’m 38 now, almost 38. I ain’t got time to hold grudges. So 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. So I’m open to all different facets of what this could be, but yeah, there’s certainly conversations that go on. It’s not like a cut and dry, you have to do this. Now sometimes it is. I’ve been in positions where it’s like, you know, ‘This is your job. I pay you the check. This is what I want you to do’, and that’s just how it is, and that’s okay, too. If you don’t like it, you can skip and we don’t have to do business, but I’m pretty open minded when it comes to stuff like that. So I think there’ll 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.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit The SI Media Podcast with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
