12 matches that need to happen at WrestleMania 36

#3 Seth Rollins vs. CM Punk

At this point, how can it not happen?

From the very moment CM Punk showed up on WWE Backstage a few short weeks ago, the hottest news among wrestling fans became "Punk is back, and he's going after Rollins at WrestleMania!"

So here's the thing about that -- both men are denying it. Punk has made it clear that he works for FOX, not WWE. He has also stated that while he has an open mind and you can "never say never", he claims to have had zero contact with WWE, especially in terms of returning to the ring. If it did happen, they would have to line his pockets quite handsomely.

Seth Rollins appeared on Backstage a few weeks ago and said that in his mind, the match is "not in the cards", especially since Punk decided not to show up on the week that Rollins was announced as a guest on the show.

Granted, there are no guarantees in wrestling, maybe even more so than there are no guarantees in life. This is different from the brief period of time that saw people heavily speculate that Punk was going to have a match with Stone Cold Steve Austin, and those two only had two interactions, which were brief -- and one of them was an interview about a different match. In this case, Punk and Rollins have been at it for 6 weeks now. They haven't actually stood toe-to-toe, eye-to-eye yet, and WWE has been wise to avoid that. Seth keeps blowing Punk off, and Punk keeps taking shots at Seth. There's no way they would continue with all of this if it wasn't going somewhere, right?

Well, to be fair, WWE may be only tangentially involved in any of this in the first place. Punk can say pretty much whatever he wants on Backstage, and so can any Superstar. Twitter is also a free-for-all. Until this hits an episode of RAW in a meaningful way, it still may be a pipe dream -- but pipe dreams are what this is all about.