WWE News: Ryback Mocks CM Punk On ‘RAW’ In Chicago
It’s been well-known for quite some time now that CM Punk and Ryback aren’t very fond of each other, and lately, “The Big Guy” has been trying to do his best impression of the former WWE World Heavyweight Champion by stealing some of his signature moves during his matches.
Just a few weeks ago, completely out of the blue, Ryback began doing CM Punk’s running knees to his opponents in the corner, which has annoyed a good portion of the WWE audience.
This past Monday’s RAW took place at CM Punk’s hometown of Chicago, Illinois, and Ryback decided that Chi-Town would be the perfect place to take his mockery of the former self-proclaimed “Best in the World” up a notch.
During his match with his former tag-team partner Curtis Axel, Ryback did Punk’s running knee to the corner, which he followed up by doing Punk’s “go to sleep” gesture, which Punk used as a preface to his finishing maneuver. You can check out the video of it below.
Of course, with it being Chicago, the audience heavily booed Ryback, and then they broke out into a “CM PUNK!” chant. But, the chant didn’t really phase “The Big Guy,” probably because the chant was exactly what he was hoping for.
The heat between CM Punk and Ryback stems from comments Punk made about “The Big Guy” nearly a year and a half ago on Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast, where he referred to the former Intercontinental Champion as “steroid guy.” He also said that Ryback purposely hurt him multiple times in the ring.
“Wrestling (Ryback) took twenty-years off of my life. I’m already beat up, and I have to wrestle steroid guy. He sometimes deliberately hurt me. There was one time where he kicked me in the stomach as hard as he could and broke my ribs, and I never got an apology for it. He was a real peace of work, that guy.”
CM Punk, who is now a UFC fighter, just recently had his pro MMA debut pushed back yet again due to him needing back surgery. His injury was a lingering one from his pro wrestling days, and after it was announced that he needed surgery, Ryback sarcastically tweeted out that he was the one responsible for Punk’s injury.
According to the Wrestling Observer, Punk’s back injury was, in fact, Ryback’s fault. On the aforementioned Colt Cabana podcast, CM Punk recalled a time when Ryback was supposed to gorilla press-slam him onto a table, but he ended up missing the table and dropping him on the floor, and injured him.
The Observer noted that Punk needing back surgery was pretty much a direct result of Ryback dropping him on the floor instead of onto the table.
So far, CM Punk hasn’t publicly responded to any of Ryback’s imitations of him, and he probably never will. As of this moment, Punk has bigger fish to fry, as he is preparing for his UFC debut, which will probably take place this July at UFC 200.
Apparently, Ryback is in-line for a big push, and he’s going to defeat Kalisto and become the new United States Champion at WrestleMania 32. There’s no telling what WWE will do with “The Big Guy” after he becomes the U.S. Champ, but they’re hoping that he can make the title meaningful again, much like John Cena did when he held the title for the majority of last year.
[Featured image via WWE]
