Seth Rollins is preparing to face CM Punk as two-thirds of a triple threat match headlining WrestleMania 41 on Saturday but their on screen feud is not just built for television.
In fact, Rollin’s disdain for Punk is so real that he’s actually willing to train and learn MMA just for the chance to settle their beef in an actual fight. Prior to the event where they are joined by Roman Reigns in the match, Rollins pitched the idea about fighting Punk in the UFC after his longtime rival actually tried his hand at MMA a few years ago.
Punk ultimately went 0-1 with one no contest in the UFC, although he technically lost both fights but his second bout against Mike Jackson was overturned after Jackson tested positive for marijuana.
“Sure, yeah, I would [fight him],” Rollins said about Punk on Robert Griffin III’s podcast. “I’m not going to just bust into his locker room backstage and just start lighting him up but if Dana White wanted to book CM Punk vs. Seth Rollins, like first non-UFC fighter [versus] non-UFC fighter fight on one of his cards, I’d put on the gloves and give it a go.
“That might be the only one I do but you put me in there with any of the other guys in my weight class, I’m out. But Dana, you want to make some money, book it, brother.”
While Punk actually supplemented his professional wrestling workouts with cross-training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu for years before actually signing with the UFC, Rollins has no actual martial arts background after he started wrestling when he was still a teenager.
That doesn’t seem to matter much to Rollins, who openly expressed his animosity towards Punk when addressing their rivalry after the now 46-year-old athlete returned to WWE in a shocking move back in 2023.
“When I use the word cancer it’s very strong but cancer is a parasite,” Rollins said when addressing Punk. “It takes. It don’t give nothing. It only cares about itself. It replicates and it only cares about itself. I feel he’s that way because he infiltrates and he tries to replicate by making it seem like he’s helping out all of these people and getting all these younger guys and girls to be like ‘oh yeah, CM Punk is great, CM Punk he helps me out’ but he’s just trying to replicate. He’s just trying to put his ideas into other people’s minds to basically create a little army underneath him of people that buy into his bullcrap.
“At the end of the day, it’s not for the betterment of the industry like he says it is. It’s for the betterment of him. Because he said it himself, he’s not here to make friends, he’s here to make money.”
While it seems unlikely that the UFC CEO would jump at the chance to actually book the fight after Punk’s two appearances in the promotion didn’t exactly showcase high level skill, Rollins knows it would create a lot of buzz and probably earn a huge amount of money at the box office.
As ludicrous as it might sound, Rollins knows that the UFC and WWE are now owned by the same company so you never know what’s possible.
“Give me a few months [to get ready],” Rollins said. “Give me a training camp but I feel like I could handle myself. TKO, we’re all under one umbrella now so. Could be the first.”
