Replicated theoretical attempts of relativistic approaches to the pion self-energy in nuclear matter yield unphysical pion spectra. We demonstrate the crucial dependence of the calculated pion spectra on the correct relativistic accounting for the short-range correlation effects on the pion self-energy in the medium. To do this, we simulate the short-range interactions by phenomenological contact terms in the relativistic Lagrangian density, and derive the pion self-energy by carefully taking into account the relativistic kinematics. The obtained spectrum for the pion-like excitations in cold nuclear matter shows physically meaningful branches, in contrast to those obtained before by different authors by the use of simplified relativistic approaches to the short-range correlations.