Rovibrational states of four dimers formed by the light and the heavy isotopologues of the methane and water molecules are computed using a potential energy surface taken from the literature. The general rovibrational energy-level pattern characteristic to all systems studied is analyzed employing two models of a dimer: the rigidly rotating complex and the coupled system of two rigidly rotating monomers. The rigid-rotor model highlights the presence of rovibrational sequences corresponding to formally negative rotational excitation energies, which is explained in terms of the coupled-rotors picture.