Speaking in a new interview, former WWE Champion CM Punk has lavished praise on WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns.
Punk, who has been critical of WWE in recent weeks, described the presentation of Roman Reigns as “the one thing they’re doing right, right now.”
Since returning to WWE at SummerSlam 2020 and turning to the dark side, Reigns has stood at the top of the WWE mountain. With Paul Heyman by his side, Reigns has had a cast-iron grip on the Universal Title since the following August.
During the intervening months, the Tribal Chief has seen off the likes of Daniel Bryan, Edge, Kevin Owens and most recently Cesaro.
Reflecting on Reigns’ recent success on The Wrestling Perspective Podcast, Punk explained that the organic stories are the best. However, the ‘Voice of the Voiceless’ still managed a dig at WWE suggesting that the change of Reigns’ character has come too late.
“A lot of the times the best stuff you also just got to go with the flow with it,” Punk said. “I’ll use Roman Reigns as an example because if we’re talking about good stuff, if the WWE does anything good, this is the one thing they’re doing right right now is Roman Reigns. His character work, his in-ring stuff, it’s all great.
“But I feel like classic WWE, they’re always 5 years, 10 years late. This is something that they should’ve done originally because they tried so hard to get this guy over as a baby face and they gave him x amount of [WrestleMania] main events and said this is the guy, this is the guy and he never really had his moments until now.”
Delving into Reigns’ recent success, CM Punk pondered whether the ‘Head of the Table’ needed to struggle earlier in his career in order to reach the heights that he has now. Punk continued, lavishing praise on Reigns.
“Maybe he needed that adversity and that backlash to finally be this guy but this is the one thing they’re doing right,” Punk said. “What can you say bad about what Roman Reigns is doing right now? He’s far and away the best guy they have. When you talk about storylines, in-ring work and all that stuff, right now he’s the total package. For the first time in his career, and I’m not being mean to Roman Reigns, I just feel like he’s finally where they pushed him to be, it just took a minute.”
Meanwhile, Roman Reigns is reportedly in line to face Rey Mysterio at WWE Hell In A Cell.
H/t to Wrestling Inc for the transcription.