"Five years, 10 years late" - CM Punk has major praise for Roman Reigns
Former WWE Superstar CM Punk believes Roman Reigns’ Tribal Chief character is the best thing on WWE television right now.
Reigns often received negative reactions from WWE fans during his six-year run as a babyface singles competitor between 2014 and 2020. Since his heel turn last year, the Universal Champion has produced some of the best work of his 11-year career in the wrestling business.
Speaking on the Wrestling Perspective Podcast, Punk praised Reigns’ character development and in-ring ability. He also gave his opinion that WWE should have allowed the five-time WrestleMania main-eventer to perform more as a bad guy earlier in his career.
“I think a lot of times the best stuff, you’ve also kind of just gotta 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, I mean, this is the one thing that they’re doing right right now, right? Is Roman Reigns.
“His character work, his in-ring stuff. It’s all great but I feel like, classic WWE, they’re always five 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 babyface and they gave him X amount of ‘Mania main events. Like, ‘This is the guy, this is the guy, this is the guy,’ and he never really had his moments until now.”
Roman Reigns defeated Cesaro at WrestleMania Backlash last month to retain his Universal Championship. As of this writing, he has held the title for 281 days.
CM Punk thinks Roman Reigns is the total package
After struggling to win over WWE fans for several years, Roman Reigns has received a lot of plaudits since his August 2020 heel turn.
On the podcast, CM Punk explained that he believes the former Shield member is “far and away” the best male superstar on the WWE roster right now.
“Maybe he needed that adversity and that backlash to finally be this guy, but this is the one thing they’re doing right because what can you say bad about what Roman Reigns is doing right now?” Punk added. “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, you know what I mean?”
Roman Reigns spoke about CM Punk on The Complex Sports Podcast in 2020. He said he “doesn’t like the guy”, but he is prepared to put business first if Punk ever decides to return to WWE.
Please credit the Wrestling Perspective Podcast and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.