CM Punk had some issues working with The Rock in their 2012 matches, saying that planning their angles together was “uncomfortable”.
Punk took on “The People’s Champion” first at the 2013 Royal Rumble, then again at Elimination Chamber that same year.
Both times The Rock came out as the winner, taking home the WWE Champion that the “Best in the World” had held for an astonishing 434 days.
ObviouslyObviously, Punk wasn’t thrilled to be losing his title, and had words to say about “The Great One” and his team during their time working together.
CM Punk on the trouble with working with The Rock in the WWE
CM Punk revealed on his interview at Starrcast 2021 with CM Punk Live that he faced troubles whilst working with the Rock in 2013.
The former WWE Champion wrestled twice against the Brahma Bull, losing his WWE Championship to The Rock at Royal Rumble 2013, then again at Elimination Chamber 2013.
Prior to the pair facing off at the Rumble, CM Punk met with The Rock at his hotel room to discuss their program and figure out what the pair would say to each other when they met on Monday Night Raw.
However, CM Punk revealed that his time working with The Rock was not the easiest.
He talked in his interview about how he was angry at having his promo against The Rock being written for him, and realised that he and The Rock saw wrestling differently and worked in different ways.
“When I wrestled Rock, I remember — I don’t know if I had met him, but he’d been around. The night before it was requested I go to his hotel room and he’s got the entire suite.
It’s him, Brian Gewirtz, it’s his assistant, there’s like two other people in the room and I’m immediately like, ‘F*ck, I’m out numbered.’
“I remember somebody I didn’t know from his team walking up to me and handing me my promo, and I’m like ‘Wooo, buddy!’
“We start talking and I feel like it was a Hollywood kind of setting, like they were doing a table read. This is how this dude operates, but this is me, and this is how I operate.
“This was a crash course of me and Rock getting in front of each other for the first time. It wasn’t negative so to speak, but it was very much like, ‘No, this isn’t how I do things,’ and him being like, ‘Oh okay, well, cool, this is how I do things.’
“I said, ‘Okay, we’ll try and figure it out because if you say this, this, and this about me, then I’m going to say this, this, and this about you.’ And he was like, ‘Well, alright!’ I was like, ‘No offence, I don’t know who these guys are and they’re writing material for me when I think this is the way we should go.’
“So, I think we kind of pushed all that aside, and me and him had kind of a one-on-one conversation in a crowded room, which is f*ckin’ uncomfortable.
“I think he respected the fact that I wasn’t backing down, I wasn’t refusing to do anything, but just like, ‘Hey, could we maybe do this a different way?’
“He was great and he was fun to work with, and I liked working with him.”
CM Punk revealed that he later apologised for the way he handled first meeting The Rock and the differences the pair had in communication skills.
However, The Rock felt no ill will towards CM Punk and the pair soon put their differences aside and had two brilliant matches with each other.
CM Punk said that he texted The Rock one day, saying
“I’m sorry if I rubbed you the wrong way, i know we had that thing the first night”
Luckily The Rock accepted his apology telling Punk that it was”water under the bridge!”.
However, considering how CM Punk’s AEW career went down, we cannot rule out that he is the one that is hard to work with, and not The Rock.