CM Punk hated working with Ryback. They had two feuds: One of them was in 2012 when Punk was the heel WWE Champion and Ryback was a rising babyface while the other one was in 2013 with Punk in the babyface role and Ryback a heel paired with Paul Heyman. When Punk did his famous shoot interview with Colt Cabana on the Art of Wrestling Podcast in November 2014, he wasn't shy in his criticism of Ryback: "Cena got hurt and they asked me to work with that guy and I was thrilled to have to wrestle steroid guy. One time, he kicked me in my stomach and broke my ribs and never apologized". Punk may have been being sarcastic when he said he was thrilled to wrestle him. There was another time where Punk mentioned that in 2013 he thought he had a clean slate with Ryback and he agreed to work with him again. He mentioned how at one point Ryback hit a gorilla press through a table and he missed the table, so Punk was dumped on the concrete. It messed him up for weeks so much so that he started to have some serious health problems. In terms of the actual feud and their matches, they were below average. Ryback showed that he didn't belong in main events in 2012. For whatever reason, WWE felt the need to give it a try a year later with him in a heel role.The fact that Punk hated working with "steroid guy" coupled with the fact that their matches were never really that good proves that it was definitely one of Punk's worst feuds in WWE.
John wrote at WhatCulture from December 2013 to December 2015. It was fun, but it's over for now. Follow him on Twitter @johnreport. You can also send an email to mrjohncanton@gmail.com with any questions or comments as well.
