WWE: Seth Rollins Provides Update on His Shoulder Injury & WrestleMania 42 Status, Roman Reigns Responds to CM Punk’s Comments About Him Being Coddled By WWE Management, Wade Barrett Says WWE Commentators Were “Shocked” By Pat McAfee’s Return

Apr 16, 2026

Seth Rollins Provides Update on His Shoulder Injury & WrestleMania 42 Status

Seth Rollins is currently scheduled to face off against Gunther at Night 1 of WrestleMania 42 on April 18th in Las Vegas, Nevada. This will be Rollins’ first match since this past October due to a shoulder injury and he was medically cleared this past March.

A recent episode of ESPN’s Get Up show featured Rollins as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Rollins providing an update on his shoulder status ahead of his match against Gunther at WrestleMania 42.

“As for the shoulder, it feels great. I don’t know that it’s 100 percent, but maybe 80-90 percent. And I’ll tell you what, my 80-90 percent is pretty good. Good enough to get us in a position here where we’ve got a match at WrestleMania against Gunther.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com

Roman Reigns Responds to CM Punk’s Comments About Him Being Coddled By WWE Management

WWE recently released a new WrestleMania Countdown video featuring WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Punk’s thoughts about him being a fighting champion and Roman Reigns being coddled by WWE management over him being given countless opportunities and failing it.

“Myself and guys like me, this business has evolved and changed so much, but there is still always going to be resentment towards people that are born on third base. I have been friends with and seen dozens of people that I thought had talent that were never afforded a single opportunity Roman got, and I have watched him get opportunity after opportunity after opportunity, and frankly, fail. Failure is your best teacher, but I don’t think he really learned anything from that. He had management and an entire system that was going to shove him down everybody’s throat, and by some miracle, he finally figured it out.”

Following the release of Punk’s interview, Reigns responded on Twitter about Punk’s negative comments directed at him and the claims of him being coddled by management.

“You defended the title three times. You’ve had it the whole year. You’re not a fighting champion. You’re not even a fighter. We’ve seen how that went. Coddled? By management? Because I’m money! And they’ve known that since the beginning. I told them I’m an unsigned billion dollar check. Go back and find it. It’s in the archives.
You don’t have that type of confidence because you’re not the type of man I am. You’re not cut from the same fabric as me. It blows my mind that you think we’re f*cking equals, in which way? It’s only gonna take the first couple of minutes for the whole world to see there’s no way we could ever be on the same level.
Coddled, the whole industry coddles you just by having you in it. You talk about the old times, those were tough guys. We’ve seen what happens when you try to be a tough guy. We put our whole reputation, the whole art form on the line for you, because what 100,000 internet marks love you from the beginning? Let’s go back to your journey days when you were on the Indies, it was the sh*ts, an embarrassment. There’s not a legend in my family that respects you. You’re the reason we don’t let marks in the business. Keep my f*cking name at your mouth on Sunday it ends for you.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com, F4WOnline.com

Wade Barrett Says WWE Commentators Were “Shocked” By Pat McAfee’s Return

Sporf held a recent interview with WWE SmackDown commentator Wade Barrett. One of the topics discussed included Barrett’s thoughts about how his reaction to Pat McAfee’s recent return to WWE and his involvement in the Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton feud was legitimate.

“Well, I was very surprised when Pat McAfee came out with the Randy Orton stuff on SmackDown. Sometimes there are blank pages on the sheet that I get as a commentator. That was blank. I had no idea Pat McAfee was coming out, I didn’t know what he was gonna say, so it was a shock to me, and it was a shock to Joe Tess on commentary, too. We were caught just as cold as the entire audience, and I was scratching my head. I didn’t really understand why Pat was saying certain things. He was taking shots at people who didn’t deserve to have a shot taken at them. He was also coming up with some references to 40-minute Ironman matches, and I don’t know what show he was watching there. So, yeah, I was caught cold by it. I enjoyed Cody when he came out and issued his immediate retort. And then I was laughing so hard when I watched CM Punk on Raw last Monday, one of the funniest promos and retorts that I think I’ve seen in a long time.”

Barrett also gave his praise of the brilliance of the whole situation of McAfee’s addition in the storyline.

“I think the brilliance of this whole situation, it’s gone from an initial head scratcher to now the lines have been completely blurred, and I don’t know what is storyline, what is real life. Are they angry? I think when you get to that point, it just creates buzz, and I think the three of those guys you just mentioned have created some serious buzz going into WrestleMania. I think some people are up in arms about it. Other people are angry that CM Punk said some things that he perhaps shouldn’t have said, and went off-script, as people like to call it. I’ve been watching this game a long time, I’ve been behind the curtain for over 20 years at this point. I don’t know where the reality ends and the story begins at this point, so they’ve got me too. So I think it’s exactly what you need this time of year, heading into WrestleMania. You want buzz, you want people talking, you want eyeballs on it. Whether this is by design or by accident, whatever it is, it’s worked.”