Rivalry is the act of competing for the same thing against another person. Over the years in WWE, we have seen a lot of rivalry that has made history and careers of many superstars. The rivalry is a part of the sport and fans enjoy it.
However, we hardly hear about the rivalries that break the careers of wrestlers. Such was the case when former WWE Superstar Ryback took on CM Punk in 2012. This rivalry took a heated turn due to some actions of Ryback.
What happened between CM Punk and Ryback? Explained
In 2012, Ryback was a beast and was taking over WWE by his fist. Within a few months after making his debut, he beat every Superstar from the roster that put up against him. He was destroying WWE’s biggest names and leaving wrath in his path. Everything was going well for the star until he met CM Punk in the ring.
Punk was the WWE champion at that time, and Ryback had a string of matches planned with him. “The Best in the World” looked like he was going to be beaten by the relentless monster.
However, in the climaxing part of their fallout, CM Punk did something unimaginable. He went to WWE authority and claimed that Ryback was ‘dangerous’ in the ring because he suffered serious injuries due to Ryback’s blows and he also stated that Ryback tried to perform Gorilla Press CM Punk through a table in the match, but instead, he missed and sent Punk crashing to the ground onto the solid concrete.
CM Punk said that he doesn’t want to work with Ryback anymore. Since Punk was the WWE Champion the WWE favored the wish and stopped the storyline immediately. Ryback also injured John Cena once.
Ryback discusses the reason why CM Punk hated him in WWE
In an interview on Disco Inferno and Konnan’s K100 show, Ryback claimed that CM Punk was jealous of how popular he was getting, compared to Punk and John Cena.
“We got along great, I thought, before that. I can tell you, he and [John] Cena were the two [highest] merch sellers when I came up and I got hot, and I’ll never forget he came over to me when the merch guys were showing me the numbers, and Punk became aware of it and he goes, ‘Holy s**t.’ From that point forward, I felt like everything kinda changed with everything,” said Ryback.
He also said, “When you’re in that environment, it brings out the worst in everybody. You know how money is with everything. I understand it. You’re in the top positions, you wanna protect your money. Nobody is gonna go out of their way to make it easier for me, right? So, it’s just the way that it is in that environment.”
Was Ryback unsafe to work with in the ring or was it just CM Punk trying to keep him away from taking the fame? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
