Roman Reigns Rips CM Punk About How Over He Was In WWE
WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns spoke with Ariel Helwani for BT Sport this week, to promote Saturday's WWE SummerSlam main event against John Cena. Reigns took a shot at former WWE Champion CM Punk during the interview.
Helwani mentioned how Punk and other people have talked in the past about part-time Superstars returning to WWE to get main event spots. He asked Reigns how he feels about this, seeing as how he is a full-time performer and Cena is returning to face him in the SummerSlam main event, when we don't exactly know what Cena has planned for his WWE future. Helwani asked Reigns if he's OK with that sort of arrangement.
Reigns responded and talked about how it benefits him being in the ring with a big name like Cena, but he also took a shot at Punk about how over Punk really was.
"I can see it from both perspectives," Reigns responded. "But I think you said it before, that 'high tide raises all the boats' and everybody benefits. So I do think there's that strange threshold, but I think those statements are coming from bitter people who possibly thought they were better than they really were. When it comes down to it, CM Punk was not as good or as over as a John Cena, wasn't as good or as over or moved the needle like The Rock. It just was what it was.
"From a full-time performer, I understand the frustration and wanting more, but like I said before, you gotta take it. I'm a full-time performer but I've done everything that needs to be done to stay in this position, to be in this position, to continue to make the opportunity for myself to be in a man event at SummerSlam against a John Cena. If anybody ever comes along to try to push me out of that scenario, I'm going to fight like hell to keep the ground that I've made. It's just one of those debatable... we can go back and forth, and we can change our perspective, if you're one of those types of people who can see it in a different set of eyes, but I really think if more eye-balls are being brought to our product, and of course it depends on who it is, but a guy like a John Cena, who is starring in multiple movies this summer, and when it comes down to it, earns the right, and he's at that portion of his career where if he is a part-time performer, I'm not going to complain. I'm just going to capitalize on him being here, and everything that he brings with that, and that's my goal, that's the whole gimmick to me, is this is John Cena... why wouldn't I want to be in the ring, why wouldn't I want him to come at me? You know what I mean? This is the biggest movie star of the summer right now, why would I... and he came to me, he came to The Head of The Table, he came to Roman Reigns. He wanted to be in the ring with me, and I'm not going to complain about that."
Reigns continued, "But I think other people who think they should have more or be more, and aren't willing to actually do it, they're going to have a different explanation than what I just did."
Punk is expected to make his AEW debut this Friday night during Rampage from the United Center in Chicago.
Stay tuned for more from Reigns. Below is a clip from the interview with Helwani:
"These statements are coming from people who thought they were better than they were.
CM Punk wasn't as good or over as John Cena, he didn't move the needle like The Rock."@WWERomanReigns talks to @arielhelwani about the fight for main event spots and putting eyes on WWE 👀 pic.twitter.com/0JK37sjkTi
— WWE on TNT Sports (@wweontnt) August 19, 2021