At Survivor Series: WarGames, CM Punk made his long-awaited return to WWE. Later, footage supposedly captured by fans found its way online showing a furious Seth Rollins being held back by Michael Cole (yes, that Michael Cole) as he swore at and threatened the Best in the World.
The prevailing opinion is that this is all storyline-based, with WWE setting out to make fans believe there's legitimate heat between Punk and Rollins. Not only does that mirror what the former WWE Champion went through in AEW, but it also ensures any feud between them is red hot heading into their expected WrestleMania match.
In an interview with the SI Media Podcast (via WrestlingNews.co), Rollins claimed he wasn't given a heads up about Punk's WWE return and commented on whether his reaction was a work or a shoot.
"It was an extremely emotional moment for me. Everyone knows how I feel about CM Punk. I've not made it any more transparent over the past few years. Nothing has changed in that regard, and in that moment, I was extremely emotional and you got a lot of real, raw emotion from me. I don't usually get that worked up about much, but you caught me off guard and there was a lot of real emotion there. So that's probably about as much as I can say on that without going too far."
As for the profanity he used in those videos (a decidedly un-PG reaction for a WWE Superstar), Rollins added:
"I regret that part of it because I do take my responsibility as a role model for our younger audience pretty seriously, and so that part of it I do have regrets over it. I wish I would have handled myself with a little bit more composure. But like I said, I can't take it back. I can apologize to our younger audience and their families if I offended anybody, but you know, it was what it was, a moment in time."
Explaining that he didn't cross paths with Punk backstage and that his wife, Becky Lynch, was there to ensure he didn't get into trouble, the World Heavyweight Champion went on to expand on why he takes issue with the former AEW star.
Much of this does sound real and both WWE and Rollins are doing an undeniably phenomenal job of blurring the line between what's real and what's not. That mention of Colt Cabana is particularly surprising given Punk's legal battle with his old friend, but it's remarks like this which are quickly making this one of the hottest budding feuds in the whole pro wrestling landscape.
"I mean, a lot of it's personal. A lot of it is stuff that I don't really want to get into, but for the most part, I just think he's been really selfish when it comes to his perspective on the industry. I think he's been extremely self serving, has played the martyr role to a tee, and has for someone who, when I met the guy, and look, I got a lot of good things to say about parts of my relationship with him. You know, he helped me in places when he didn't have to, whether that was for his own good or not, I'm not entirely sure, but regardless, it helped me get where I needed to go and do the things I needed to do. For a guy who, when I met him, kind of made it seem like he was all about giving back to the business, he really turned into a pretty selfish guy and really wanted to take more from the industry. He said some really bad things about me. He talked down about me for years and the company for years. I'm talking about some really bad stuff. He called me like a bootlicker and crap like that."
"You don't know me. You don't know what I stand for. I'm a loyal person and I felt pretty insulted by a lot of the ways he treated me, treated the place that I worked, treated friends that I worked with. I don't need to get into any of the stuff with Colt Cabana. If you want to go and look at that kind of stuff, that's out there. But yeah, I mean, just the way he treated people, the way I felt like he was only looking out for himself, and then the way he talked down about me and my friends and the people who are here putting the hard work in WWE trying to make this thing as good as we possibly could because we love the industry. We truly love it, not just what it can do for us, but we actually love it and want to give back to it and want to make it the best it can possibly be. I always just felt like he was a fraud in that sense, or at least turned into one at some point in the last decade. That's the long of it. It's deep-rooted, I wouldn't call it a hatred, but there's animosity there, no doubt about it."
Only time will tell where this goes, but with Punk confirmed to appear on SmackDown tonight and RAW on Monday, it surely won't be too long before he has some sort of response for Rollins!
As always, keep checking back here for updates as we have them.