Cain A. Knight is a hardcore number-cruncher who has analyzed and covered pro wrestling for Cageside Seats since 2014, and followed the sport as a fan going back to the 1980's.
During an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Brian "Road Dogg" James said he is trying to become more self aware as he gets older.
One example he provided is about changing his opinion on CM Punk. Prior to Punk's return to WWE in late 2023, Road thought there was bad blood between each other for a decade.
"I thought me and CM Punk hated each other's guts for 10 years. In my head, I hated him, and I thought he hated me too."
Dogg didn't go into much detail about why he felt that way besides saying "a lot of stuff happened" and they butted heads. He said some of it stems from the time when the New Age Outlaws worked with Punk on WWE television in January 2014. For what it's worth, that's the same month that CM walked out of the company. I'm also reminded of Road Dogg being outspoken in defending WWE against Punk's claims from his tell-all podcast with Colt Cabana later that year.
Whatever tension may have been there quickly disappeared after Punk returned at Survivor Series 2023.
"The first time I saw him when he came back here, he stood up and he hugged me. And it broke my ice immediately. It also hit me right then. Hey Brian, he hasn't thought a fucking thing about you. You know what I mean? It doesn't matter what he thinks about me anyway, and it damn sure doesn't matter what I think about him. He realized that. And here I was, 55, and holding onto that. And I was holding onto nothing. There was nothing there. There [were] no bad feelings. I don't know, it was weird.
And he's a different dude today. I told him not long ago, hey man, I really appreciate your attitude. And he said, well that's the first time anybody's ever said that to me. Well, I mean it from the bottom of my heart, 'cause he's a different dude. Me and him butted heads. He butted heads with a lot of people. He says what he means and he means what he says. He don't mind if it ruffles your feathers."
Road Dogg is reportedly once again a co-head writer of WWE SmackDown, so it's probably a good thing that he doesn't have a terrible relationship with one of the top stars in the company, even if CM is mostly on Raw these days.
Do you think CM Punk is a "different dude" today than he was even just a couple years ago when he was involved in multiple backstage fights in AEW? Let me know in the comments below, Cagesiders.