Seth Rollins's Feud With CM Punk Could Boil Over Now That CM Punk Is Back in WWE

The Gist:

• CM Punk was a mentor to Seth Rollins early in Seth's career, but Seth has said that CM has become "self-centered" in more recent years.
• Seth and CM have had a war of words for some time, and Seth's animosity toward CM seems very genuine, as was his disappointment when CM returned to WWE.

After a nine-year absence from WWE, fans were thrilled to see CM Punk when he returned to the league in late November 2023. Following the news of his return, though, old hatred for the wrestler has already emerged both from fans and from fellow wrestlers.

One long-running feud has been between CM Punk and Seth Rollins, and that feud is now threatening to boil over following CM's return to the league. In part because the feud has been around for so long, though, many are confused about where it started and why Seth hates CM so fervently.

When Seth was just coming up, he acknowledged that CM was a mentor who helped him find his footing in WWE. The two seemed to have been on good terms with one another when CM left WWE in 2014, but in the years since, their relationship has undeniably soured.

The feud seems to have started after CM got into commentating. In 2019, he told WWE Backstage "I want my journalistic integrity to be intact, so this isn't the show where you come on and shoot your little angles."

"Seth (Rollins) needs to stop tweeting and realize that sometimes it's better to be viewed as the fool and shut your mouth, or open your mouth and remove all doubt," he added. The two have also sniped back and forth on Twitter, exchanging trash talk, with Seth frequently encouraging CM to face him in the ring.

In 2022, Seth lashed at CM, saying that he was a "cancer" and urging him to stay away from the WWE.

“I’ll end it on a positive note with him, that guy has given my career so much that it pains me to have to say bad things about him because he helped me out, he really did," Seth said.

"He’s been a good guy to me for a lot of my career, but for whatever reason, the past maybe six or seven years, he’s been in a different headspace and we’re not on the same page.”

While plenty of feuds are designed to enhance in-the-ring drama, this one seems to be very very real for both CM and Seth.

"To see what he's done and taken and taken and taken and it's always been about him? I'm just not a fan, I'm not a fan," Seth added "There's a place for him man, he's got a lot to give I just wish his head was in the right spot."

Things are now so bad between the two that, when CM returned to WWE, the camera cut to Seth giving what seemed like a very real middle finger.