Bully Ray: Seth Rollins & CM Punk Feud In WWE Embodies 'Next Evolution' Of Wrestling

When Seth Rollins and CM Punk traded verbal barbs on "WWE Raw" this past Monday, the wrestling world stood at attention, witnessing the blending of some real-life hard feelings and a storyline feud for the ages, primed to draw some serious eyeballs and dollars for WWE. WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray believes we'll be seeing a lot more of this kind of wrestling creative moving forward.

On the latest episode of "Busted Open Radio," host Dave LaGreca referenced "NXT" Champion Ilja Dragunov's promos as "sounding like a professional wrestling promo," which inspired Bully to provide a counterexample in the form of Rollins and Punk.

"The reality of things like a Punk and a Seth Rollins and how you could hear it in their voice how things were very real, that's what people want to hear," said Bubba. "I thoroughly believe that the next evolution of wrestling should be very reality-based on all levels."

While Punk and Rollins aired their grievances, teasing a future WrestleMania match, according to the prevailing punditry, another blend of real life and storyline happened on the very same episode between Nia Jax and Becky Lynch. 

"When you hear real vitriol for one another, that sucks you in and then you hear something that's canned or scripted and you know now, we're getting [staged] pro wrestling," he explained. "I thought Nia and Becky did a great job of taking something that really happened and making it feel real the other night."

With Rollins-Punk and Jax-Lynch, WWE is offering the mix of reality that Bully and many others want to see, and it will be interesting to see if that trends industry-wide before too long as well.

If you use quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" and provide an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.