Roman Reigns respects CM Punk despite not seeing eye-to-eye with him.
At WrestleMania 42, Roman Reigns defeated CM Punk to capture the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The pair had a heated rivalry heading into the match, with their issues stemming from comments Punk made about Reigns on Colt Cabana’s podcast shortly after he quit WWE in 2014.
The hard-fought match has given The Tribal Chief a newfound respect for CM Punk, though, and on the WrestleMania 42 Sunday post-show, he said the Second City Saint puts his heart and soul on the line every time the bell rings.
“There’s a reason why in the UFC, after a big fight, you will see that respect that’s laid out, and that’s the thing, the fact that I’m out here as The Tribal Chief and I can still hear a couple people calling for CM Punk, you have to respect that.
“Do I respect the man and his personal life? I don’t know. But when it comes to when he steps into the arena, when the ring’s set up, when the pyro is gonna go off, I got a lot of respect for the man that steps into the arena and performs in front of all these people because he puts his heart and he puts his soul, he puts his physicality on the line.”
While he respects Punk, Reigns still doesn’t necessarily like him. However, he says the former champion backed up his talk at WrestleMania.
“Do we see eye-to-eye? Hell no. Are we cut from the same fabric? Hell no. But at the same time, we’re a part of the same fraternity, just like you (Corey Graves), just like me and (Big) E. There’s very few of us. So, when you can go out there and you can main event and you can put it on the line and you can actually hold your own — CM Punk didn’t just run his mouth. He backed it up. He just ran into a better man today.”
Roman Reigns Addresses ‘Part-Timer’ Criticism
Roman Reigns is going to be around more than usual after WrestleMania 42. On the Sunday post-show, fans chanted “part-timer” at the Head of the Table, and he responded by telling them to expect to “see his a** all summer.” His more active title reign is set to kick off on the April 20th edition of Raw.
H/T to Fightful for the above transcription.
