Bully Ray Assesses Authenticity Of WWE Star Seth Rollins' Beef With CM Punk
Unsurprisingly, CM Punk's recent return to WWE has sparked a wide variety of responses from wrestling fans, as well as his WWE colleagues. One of the most vocal reactions stemmed from WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, who was seen angrily throwing up his middle fingers at "The Second City Saint" upon his arrival at WWE Survivor Series: WarGames. One day later, Rollins stated that he wasn't going to "waste any more breath" on Punk, adding that Punk had tried to tear down WWE during his near-decade absence from the company.
During a recent episode of "Busted Open Radio," WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray assessed the legitimacy of Rollins' animosity toward Punk. "It's 1,000% real. There's a real animosity there. Seth doesn't like, or disrespects, [Punk]. Whatever word you want to plug in there, you heard the Seth interview from six months ago, he's not a CM Punk fan," Ray said, referring to Rollins' previous comment about Punk being a "cancer."
"There are plenty of people out there who aren't CM Punk fans," Ray continued. "You know what though? There are plenty of guys in the wrestling business who did not like each other. From 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 40 years, 50 years ago, and it'll still keep going on 100 years from now if there's money to be made. I always go back to the same examples because they are the best examples. Jeff Jarrett [and] Kurt Angle did not like each other. Matt Hardy [and] Edge did not like each other, [they] still did business."
While Ray doesn't think the tension between Rollins and Punk is as deep as the other examples, he does believe that Rollins recognizes this as an opportunity to produce a compelling, and ticket-selling, angle in WWE. A recent report from Fightful Select yielded a similar evaluation, noting that while many within WWE are under the impression that Rollins genuinely dislikes Punk, they believe "The Revolutionary" also sees the value of playing into it for the sake of business.
If you use quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" and provide an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.