During the Art of Wrestling podcast, Punk said that he had a 'Harley Race' attitude towards being champion. This meant that no matter how burned out, beat up or sick he was, he had to keep going for the good of the company and to help the boys out. He was the champion and the onus was on him to do every appearance and make every house show. With this attitude in mind, Punk was always going to have a problem with part-timers coming back around WrestleMania season and The Rock was no exception to this. Punk obviously understood that The Rock's return would help business but that didn't stop him from speaking his mind about apparent misconceptions and preferential treatment that The Rock was getting. On the same The Hot Clicks podcast which he discussed The Miz, Punk had this to say about 'Dwayne':
"The problem I have with Dwayne is that he came back, he said he's never leaving again and I don't appreciate all this, 'Oh, the WrestleMania buy rate was up. Oh, it's because of Dwayne.' Was it?"
Punk also claimed that The Rock acted like he was above the other wrestlers and didn't make the time to talk to anyone in the locker room:
"He lives in a fantasy world. No matter if I like or hate whoever I'm working with, I say, 'hello,' to them. I fraternize with them. It's a brotherhood backstage. I'm with these people more than I'm with my little sisters and my family. I just don't appreciate going from limo to dressing room, from dressing room to the ring and not saying 'hi' to any of the boys."
The Rock and Punk and a fruitful series in 2013 but it was one which ultimately led to Rock taking on Cena in the main event of WrestleMania for the second year in a row and, despite lobbying for the match to become a triple threat match instead, Punk was left out again only fuelling his resentment further. For what it's worth, it doesn't look like The Rock is a fan of Punk either, tweeting once that he made more in main events than CM Punk would make in a lifetime.
