Backstage Update On THAT WWE Raw Promo
The real story behind CM Punk, Drew McIntyre, and Seth Rollins' wild show-stealing segment.
The Rock's vicious beatdown of Cody Rhodes was a major talking point from WWE Monday Night Raw, but a slightly unhinged promo battle between CM Punk, Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins generated a ton of buzz coming out of the show.
Speculation ran rampant about whether anyone went off-script, and whether there were any bruised egos as all three men seemingly veered into that work-shoot area that sometimes gets wrestlers into trouble with management, or each other. During that in-arena verbal sparring, Punk torched both his adversaries and indirectly referenced Vince McMahon, McIntyre jabbed at Punk's injury-prone nature, and Rollins suggested Punk would never sniff a world title again.
Fightful Select reports that despite the "much more loose feeling," the electric segment was reportedly as scripted as many others seen on WWE programming in recent times. The internal claim is that while this wasn't scripted verbatim, there was a general outline, and the wrestlers "knew they were all going to just go for it and see what happens."
The one thing that wasn't expected was Punk swearing, which came after fans suggested he guest referee the McIntyre/Rollins World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania 40. Punk admitted that he objectively couldn't be fair with "these two dipsh**s." For what it's worth, a memo had been circulated to talent recently discouraging them from swearing on air.
Perhaps most notably, Fightful indicated they have not heard of any backstage issues surrounding the promo or any heat between the three men, which is positive news considering how off-the-rails the segment seemed at the time.
There was a genuine concern among some coming out of that segment that the verbal jabs from McIntyre and Rollins could rub Punk, who remains sidelined for the next few months with an injury sustained in his first match back with WWE at Royal Rumble, the wrong way.
Thankfully, that doesn't seem to be the case. Punk is set to sit in on commentary during the world title match between Rollins and McIntyre, keeping him in the mix for his first WrestleMania appearance since WrestleMania 29.