WWE HOFer Rikishi On T-Shirt Controversy: 'CM Punk Is CM Punk'

WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk is no stranger to making headlines, but recently, one of them left him, and many pundits, scratching their heads.

The news story in question came courtesy of WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash, who took issue with Punk, as a reigning champion, wearing a t-shirt while wrestling in a tag team match on the December 22 edition of "WWE Raw." From Punk's perspective, he remains puzzled by Nash's remark due to the fact he doesn't regularly wrestle in shirts. In the eyes of fellow WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi, it may have just been the result of generational differences.

"I think CM Punk is CM Punk," Rikishi said on the "Off The Top" podcast. "There's only one CM Punk. There's only one Kevin Nash. At the time right now, this is CM Punk's time. What CM Punk does, the champ can do whatever he want to do. Obviously, the company believes in him. He has some value to the company. What happened back that way, we're not even paying attention. Because if they were paying attention to that, definitely he probably wouldn't even have gotten the strap.

"Kevin's a good friend of mine. CM Punk's a good friend of mine. I just believe that when it's a person's time, let them do them," he continued. "If [Punk] wants to wear a t-shirt or come out with a gold chain rope or whatever the case it may be, it is what it is. I'm sure Kevin didn't mean anything bad about it, who knows."

During his tag match on "Raw," Punk teamed with Rey Mysterio to take on The Vision's Austin Theory and Bronson Reed. In the final moments, Punk and Reed went tumbling into the timekeeper's area, leaving Mysterio and Theory alone in the ring. Theory capitalized on this opening by driving Mysterio into the mat with a stomp, then pinning him for The Vision's win.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Off The Top" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.