When The Rock came back to WWE for his part-time run, most of the wrestlers on the roster recognized it for what it was -- an opportunity to get more eyes on the product, and as such, become more profitable. It was, in many cases, money directly in their pockets -- The Rock appears on a PPV, more people order a PPV, the PPV payoffs are higher. There were those, however, who angrily spoke up about The Rock "taking the spot" of an up-and-coming talent, apparently under the impression that there are a limited number of slots on each show and putting The Rock at the top of the list knocks off the fellow at the bottom. Punk was, allegedly, one of the people not thrilled with The Rock's return, though whether it was a legitimate gripe or an attempt to work his own angle is unknown. To be fair, if The Rock hadn't come back, Punk wouldn't have lost the title to him at the 2013 Royal Rumble. To be equally fair, he probably would have lost it to Cena sometime in 2012, as Cena's fall-then-rise storyline wouldn't have taken place. Either way, and whether or not he was misguided, Punk wasn't happy.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
