Nic Nemeth Assesses WWE Fans' Mindsets In CM Punk-Seth Rollins Feud

CM Punk and Seth Rollins — two beloved babyfaces — kicked off "WWE Raw" this week with a tense faceoff, with the latter expressing a desire to finally address his lingering grievances with the former. CM Punk, however, made it clear he had no interest in facing Rollins, prompting Rollins to spark a brawl between them. TNA World Champion Nic Nemeth (formerly Dolph Ziggler in WWE) assessed this rekindled feud on "Busted Open Radio," including the fan mindsets surrounding it.

According to Nemeth, many fans may be inclined to favor CM Punk, as the excitement of his return, even a year later, continues to fill the air. Meanwhile, Rollins may be subconsciously taken for granted, as he's been a constant fixture for WWE over the last decade.

"When someone leaves and comes back, is gone for a huge injury and comes back, or says he'll never, ever be here, f[***] this place and comes back, you get that moment of the loyal fans going, 'Screw that guy, he's back. Oh my God, we welcome you back,'" Nemeth said. "And it's not being two faced, it's just we love it as fans being able to embrace someone coming back or emerging or surprising or showing us up or just beating an injury and making it back onto our show that we watch. When you have those moments, those stand out more."

"I'm not saying that Seth's never been injured," Nemeth continued, "but to have something when those returns, when it's so understood that you are not coming back and you have no interest to and then you also added in an injury for Punk,so he gets another return or add in even a medium sized injury where it's a couple weeks, couple months, you get that extra return. That makes people jump out of their seats more than their absolute favorite who never got hurt."

From a viewer and wrestler's perspective, Nemeth personally finds himself rooting for Rollins because of his proven history of being a full-time and reliable "anchor" for WWE as part-timers floated in and out of the company over the years, or from a pure viewer's stance, specifically as Punk previously spent 10 years away from WWE. 

"I don't know if it rings true for fans subconsciously, but when I'm thinking of a promo back and forth and it takes me out of the wrestling part and I'm just interested in where they're going character wise and story, then you start to have that in the background like how am I not rooting for this guy?" Nemeth said. "He's the one who's always been here. He's the one who made the play. He's the one who sacrificed the different things to stay. He didn't take off and show up when it was cool, and then just like, 'Oh, guess I'm back in the main event scene ten years later, forget everything I said.' There's something really special about that."

The "Raw" brawl between Punk and Rollins was eventually broken up by Sami Zayn, Jey Uso, and WWE officials, the former of whom later got into a verbal and physical confrontation with Rollins. Rollins ultimately emerged victorious in the physical aspect of his meeting with Zayn by rolling him up for a pinfall in the show's main-event match. As of now, there is no word on if the rivalry between Rollins and Punk will translate to a match as well.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.