Roman Reigns officially made his decision as to who he’ll face within the foremost event of WrestleMania 42 after winning the 2026 Royal Rumble, and he announced on “WWE Raw” that he’ll be headed for CM Punk and his World Heavyweight Championship. Within the heated promo, Reigns revealed that he is not going after Punk because he’s the largest star on the largest show, but relatively, just because he hates him. That one word, “hate,” is what got WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray all in on the match, which he explained on “Busted Open Radio.”
“Your entire wrestling industry since day one has been built on two emotions, love and hate,” he said. “It’s that easy. It’s as old style as old style gets and it still works. I’m listening to Roman say all these items to Punk, but then he says, ‘I hate you. I’m selecting you because I hate you.’ No other reason. And I need to see that hate come out of Roman Reigns. It is so easy… ‘I hate you.’ We have heard that spoken 1,000,000 times. You possibly can only hate someone should you’ve had some sort of appreciation for them at first.”
Bully Ray said Reigns admitting that Punk almost got in his head was a giant deal. He explained that as smart as Reigns is after learning from his family within the Samoan Dynasty, it was a rebel from Chicago who almost got to him. The Hall of Famer called it “pretty heavy duty.”
Bully Ray Ready for a Fight
Bully Ray said that he doesn’t wish to see a wrestling match between Punk and Reigns at WrestleMania, he’s more all in favour of a fight. He desires to see a five star fight, not a five star match, and needs to see something different from “The Tribal Chief,” brought out by Punk.
“It’s that word, ‘hate,’ that has me fired up,” he explained. “I’m hoping we see that different side of Roman. I don’t desire to see some other wrestling moves from Roman apart from his spear and possibly his Superman punch… I might like to see Roman just mount CM Punk time after time, repeatedly punching him within the face. And the announcers saying, ‘Roman Reigns says he hated CM Punk and he’s at all times hated CM Punk and we’re seeing that hatred present itself before our eyes within the foremost event for the world championship at WrestleMania…’ You possibly can’t beat a person down the best way Roman Reigns is thrashing CM Punk down unless you truly hate him.'”
“The Tribal Chief” and “The Voice of the Voiceless” are set to go one-on-one for the primary time since January 2014. They last faced off at WrestleMania last yr in a triple threat match involving Seth Rollins, which saw the betrayal of Paul Heyman, who aligned himself with “The Visionary.”
When you use any quotes from this text, please credit “Busted Open Radio” and supply a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.