CM Punk Won't Be on WWE Backstage This Week to Confront Seth Rollins

Seth Rollins will appear on this week's episode of WWE Backstage to "explain himself" following his heelish actions on Raw in recent weeks. Unfortunately CM Punk, the man Rollins has called out numerous times over the past few weeks, won't be there to confront him. The issues between the two former world champions first kicked off when Punk made his surprise arrival on the Fox Sports 1 show, which caused Rollins to challenge him to a fight via Twitter. During his first episode as an analyst Punk advised Rollins should get off Twitter, which only led to more insults from "The Beast Slayer."

When asked by a fan on social media, Punk said he wouldn't be on this week's episode but is fairly certain he'll be back next week.

Nah. Hard pass. Next week though! (90% sure next week)

— CM Pumpkinpie (@CMPunk) December 3, 2019

Along with telling Rollins to avoid making a fool of himself on social media, Punk said on Backstage that he sympathizes with the "top guy" role Rollins has had to play on WWE television.

"It's a hard job," Punk said. "The word oversaturation comes to mind. When you're in the spotlight for as long as they have been, it's hard to stay fresh and constantly reinvent yourself. So I think they're both the top guys and I think sometimes that can wear on fans."

During his first episode, Punk talked about what he dislikes about the current WWE product.

"I think the product is the same as when I left it," Punk said. "Wrestling could be so much better, it could be so much more. Obviously there's a reason myself, yourself, everybody who puts on a pair of boots fell in love with professional wrestling. And regardless of what I think of the product now, the opinion is the same as when I was there.

"Stuff is overproduced, stuff's micromanaged. I think the best characters, the people that fans love the most throughout all of wrestling are the characters that they get to figure stuff out themselves instead of being told what to do by somebody who've never done anything, never been anywhere. 'never drew money, brother.' So I think there's a lot wrong with it, but I see a lot of bright spots."

But not all of his comments were negative.

"I like all the women," Punk said. "I don't like the forced Women's Revolution thing. Let the women be the women, and they'll show you why they kick ass and why they belong. You don't need to put a hashtag label on everything. Selfishly I think I like the NXT thing because I see a lot of myself in a lot of that. I was an Indie wrestling guy, I was in WWE developmental and told I was never going to be brought to television, so I know the struggle. I think those are the characters that are, for lack of a better term, lest tainted. They still feel new, they're like the new toys."