Roman Reigns Rips CM Punk for His Past Comments, But Would Still Have a WWE Match With Him

Roman Reigns appeared on the latest episode of Complex Sports’ Load Management podcast, in which he was asked about the highly-speculated dream match with The Rock. Reigns once again expressed his support for the match, but then shifted his attention to another possible dream match with CM Punk. The two briefly crossed paths in Punk’s final years with the company, but fans have kept the two linked thanks to Punk’s notorious 2014 interview on The Art of Wrestling Podcast, in which he talked about Reigns being anointed as WWE’s next top guy and how WWE officials repeatedly told him backstage “ya gotta make Roman look really, really strong.”

Those comments helped fuel certain portions of the WWE fan base to reject Reigns once his main event push began in 2015. Reigns said despite his personal feelings towards the former WWE Champion, he’d still be willing to do business if the situation was right.

“If you’d watched wrestling for the past 10 to 15 years, and you love it, and it’s within your blood, the you probably have some kind of feelings about that guy. I know I do; just by doing one of these things, he made my job a lot harder,” Reigns said.

“If it’s something that the fans can get behind, and that it can really make them sink their teeth into the product, and really dive into the creative with us, I’m willing to do it,” he continued. “I don’t like the guy, I don’t know many people who do, but I’m willing to put business first and make really good content if that’s the case. He’d probably have to be slapped around a few times in order to get his mind right, but if [he’s] willing, and the fans and the audience [are] going to like it and be into it, then most likely I’m going to be into it.”

Punk hasn’t wrestled since his departure from WWE in 2014, though he did dip his toe back into the wrestling world late last year by joining the now-canceled FS1 show WWE Backstage.

Reigns closed out the Clash of Champions pay-per-view on Sunday by successfully defending his WWE Universal Championship against Jey Uso.