The Real Story Behind CM Punk's Heat With Roman Reigns

In a bit of news that will surprise absolutely no one, CM Punk is a man that has made plenty of enemies over his wrestling career. In fact, Punk made so many enemies during his relatively short stint in AEW, from the Young Bucks to "Hangman" Adam Page to Jack Perry to AEW owner Tony Khan, that it would honestly cover the number of beefs most wrestlers would have in their career. For Punk, it's only the tip of the iceberg, given the former AEW and WWE World Champion has had issues with many other top names dating back to his first go around with WWE. But while conflicts with Triple H and Vince McMahon get the most attention regarding Punk's WWE related beefs, an underrated one is with WWE's top star of the last decade, Roman Reigns.

Reigns and Punk would seem like an odd pairing to have heat with each other at first glance, given the two had hardly interacted since Punk returned in 2023, only becoming entangled during this year's build to WrestleMania. In fact, that storyline, the first time Punk and Reigns had worked together since 2013, would seem to indicate any issues between them were done and dusted. But that wasn't the case for a long-time, as the years in between Punk's return to WWE saw Reigns often taking shots at Punk during media appearances, something that continued even when Punk was in AEW. It begs the question; just what happened to cause the heat between Punk and Reigns? Naturally, the answer is one most already know, and is the reason for many of Punk's other issues; his appearances on Colt Cabana's "The Art of Wrestling" podcast back in the fall of 2014.

The now infamous piece of audio has been the gift that keeps on giving for Punk over the years, as it not only highlighted his grievances with WWE, McMahon, Triple H, Ryback, and others, but it also led to a lawsuit against him and Cabana that torpedoed their friendship, and served as the catalyst for his AEW problems. It also was what caused the fissure between Punk and Reigns, although not in the way most would remember. That's because Punk didn't actually say much about Reigns during the initial podcast, instead saving his remarks for the follow up Punk and Cabana did just days later. The follow up featured less of Punk taking shots at people, but did feature a now famous story where Punk told Cabana about WWE's plans to have Punk defeat Reigns, Jon Moxley, and Seth Rollins in a three on one match, while stressing to Punk that he had to make Reigns "look really, really strong" in the process.

Ironically, Punk's tone during this story would suggest his issues were less with Reigns, and more with WWE's inexplicable booking decision and subsequent micromanaging of the situation. Nevertheless "gotta make Roman look strong" became a rallying cry for fans fed up with Reigns' push over the next few years, and many continued to believe that the quote was Punk taking aim at the future "Tribal Chief." That was certainly how Reigns took it in those aforementioned media appearances where he returned fire at Punk. And so, the heat between Punk and Reigns was born, perhaps from a misunderstanding.