Roman Reigns officially made his decision as to who he’ll face in the main 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. In the heated promo, Reigns revealed that he’s not going after Punk because he’s the biggest star on the biggest show, but rather, simply 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.”
“The entire wrestling industry since day one has been built on two emotions, love and hate,” he said. “It’s that simple. It’s as old school as old school gets and it still works. I’m listening to Roman say all these things to Punk, but then he says, ‘I hate you. I’m choosing you because I hate you.’ No other reason. And I want to see that hate come out of Roman Reigns. It’s so simple… ‘I hate you.’ We’ve heard that spoken a million times. You can only hate somebody if you’ve had some kind of appreciation for them at first.”
Bully Ray said Reigns admitting that Punk almost got in his head was a big deal. He explained that as smart as Reigns is after learning from his family in 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 want to see a wrestling match between Punk and Reigns at WrestleMania, he’s more interested in a fight. He wants to see a five star fight, not a five star match, and wants 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 want to see any other wrestling moves from Roman other than his spear and maybe his Superman punch… I would love to see Roman just mount CM Punk time after time, repeatedly punching him in the face. And the announcers saying, ‘Roman Reigns says he hated CM Punk and he’s always hated CM Punk and we are seeing that hatred manifest itself before our eyes in the main event for the world championship at WrestleMania…’ You can’t beat a man down the way Roman Reigns is beating 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 first time since January 2014. They last faced off at WrestleMania last year in a triple threat match involving Seth Rollins, which saw the betrayal of Paul Heyman, who aligned himself with “The Visionary.”
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Busted Open Radio” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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