Seth Rollins is getting ready to face CM Punk as two-thirds of a triple risk match headlining WrestleMania 41 on Saturday however their on display feud is not only constructed for tv.
In actual fact, Rollin’s disdain for Punk is so actual that he’s really prepared to coach and be taught MMA only for the possibility to settle their beef in an precise battle. Previous to the occasion the place they’re joined by Roman Reigns within the match, Rollins pitched the thought about combating Punk within the UFC after his longtime rival really tried his hand at MMA a couple of years in the past.
Punk finally went 0-1 with one no contest within the UFC, though he technically misplaced each fights however his second bout in opposition to Mike Jackson was overturned after Jackson examined optimistic for marijuana.
“Positive, yeah, I might [fight him],” Rollins stated about Punk on Robert Griffin III’s podcast. “I’m not going to only bust into his locker room backstage and simply begin lighting him up but when Dana White needed to e-book CM Punk vs. Seth Rollins, like first non-UFC fighter [versus] non-UFC fighter battle on certainly one of his playing cards, I’d placed on the gloves and provides it a go.
“That is perhaps the one one I do however you set me in there with any of the opposite guys in my weight class, I’m out. However Dana, you need to make some cash, e-book it, brother.”
Whereas Punk really supplemented his skilled wrestling exercises with cross-training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu for years earlier than really signing with the UFC, Rollins has no precise martial arts background after he began wrestling when he was nonetheless a teen.
That doesn’t appear to matter a lot to Rollins, who overtly expressed his animosity in the direction of Punk when addressing their rivalry after the now 46-year-old athlete returned to WWE in a surprising transfer again in 2023.
“Once I use the phrase most cancers it’s very sturdy however most cancers is a parasite,” Rollins stated when addressing Punk. “It takes. It don’t give nothing. It solely cares about itself. It replicates and it solely cares about itself. I really feel he’s that approach as a result of he infiltrates and he tries to duplicate by making it seem to be he’s serving to out all of those folks and getting all these youthful guys and ladies to be like ‘oh yeah, CM Punk is nice, CM Punk he helps me out’ however he’s simply attempting to duplicate. He’s simply attempting to place his concepts into different folks’s minds to principally create just a little military beneath him of those who purchase into his bullcrap.
“On the finish of the day, it’s not for the betterment of the trade like he says it’s. It’s for the betterment of him. As a result of he stated it himself, he’s not right here to make mates, he’s right here to earn money.”
Whereas it appears unlikely that the UFC CEO would leap on the likelihood to really e-book the battle after Punk’s two appearances within the promotion didn’t precisely showcase excessive degree talent, Rollins is aware of it could create a variety of buzz and doubtless earn an enormous amount of cash on the field workplace.
As ludicrous as it’d sound, Rollins is aware of that the UFC and WWE at the moment are owned by the identical firm so that you by no means know what’s attainable.
“Give me a couple of months [to get ready],” Rollins stated. “Give me a coaching camp however I really feel like I might deal with myself. TKO, we’re all beneath one umbrella now so. May very well be the primary.”
