CM Punk

Overview

CM Punk lives a straight-edge lifestyle, meaning he does not drink alcohol, smoke, or put any foreign substances. As a face, he uses this to be a role model and drive his addiction of competition. As a heel, he claims that is makes him "better than you" and tries to convert people to follow in his ways.

Ring of Honor

Punk as ROH Champion

CM Punk debuted in Ring of Honor in 2002 as a face, but quickly turned into a heel and feuded with Raven. This lasted until November 2003 at an event called The Conclusion in which he defeated Raven in a Steel Cage Match.

Punk would have success in ROH, making it to the finals of the ROH Pure Championship finals and winning the ROH Tag Team Championship twice with Colt Cabana as the Second City Saints. Punk would have a series of highly-praised matches with Samoa Joe. The first two matches ended in 60-minute time limit draws. The second match was the first match in North American to receive a five-star rating since 1997. Samoa Joe ended up winning the third and final match in December 2004 due to the match not having a time limit.

In June 2005, Punk signed a deal with the WWE and shortly after won the ROH World Championship. He immediately turned heel and began threatening to bring the belt with him to the WWE, even holding a promo for ROH fans where he "signed" his WWE contract on the ROH belt. He ended up losing the championship on his way out of the promotion, with his final match being a non-title, best two-out-of-three falls match against close friend and former tag partner Colt Cabana. After the match, he was greeted by the ROH roster and fans with streamers, chants and a soda toast.

World Wrestling Entertainment

On July 4, 2006, CM Punk debuted in World Wrestling Entertainment in a pre-taped promo on ECW of Syfy, taking place in Philadelphia. He soon after made his in-ring debut at the Hammerstein Ballroom, leading to a short undefeated streak. Hardcore Holly would end his streak on January 9, 2007 and lead into a feud between the two.

In June 2007, a tournament was held for the vacant ECW Championship after Bobby Lashley was drafted to RAW. He lost in the finals at Night of Champions to John Morrison, replacing Chris Benoit who was out for "personal reasons." After feuding for months, CM Punk finally captured the ECW Championship September 4, 2007 by defeating John Morrison in a Last Chance Match. He would later lose the belt to Chavo Guerrero due to Edge's interference.

CM Punk after winning his second consecutive Money in the Bank Ladder Match

CM Punk would win the Money in the Bank Ladder Match at WrestleMania XXIV and The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania. He cashed in his first title shot on the June 24, 2008 episode of RAW on Edge after being attacked by Batista to win the World Heavyweight Championship. He would lose the championship at Unforgiven in September when Randy Orton punted him in the head prior to his title defense, causing him to be unable to defend it. In 2009 he had trouble cashing in his second Money in the Bank title opportunity due to attacks by Umaga whenever he made an attempt. He would finally be able to do it at Extreme Rules against Jeff Hardy to once again win the World Heavyweight Championship. Punk turned heel and feuded with Hardy, condemning him for his drug and alcohol use. In August, he ended their feud and Hardy's WWE career in a Steel Cage Match with the stipulation being "Loser Leaves the WWE." In a memorable moment after Hardy's departure, CM Punk dressed up as Jeff Hardy and performed Hardy's entrance to the delight of the fans, then revealed his true identity and condemned the audience for supporting Hardy & his endeavors.

The Straight Edge Society

In November 2009, Punk formed the group called the Straight Edge Society. He led Luke Gallows, Serena and Joey Mercury as converts to the straight-edge lifestyle and started to preach to the crowd and other superstars about the errors of their ways. He saw himself as savior and messiah. In 2010, Punk feuded with Rey Mysterio and tried to force him to join his group, culminating in a promo in which Punk taunted Mysterio's own children in front of Rey, much to Mysterio's dismay. However, at Over the Limit he lost to Mysterio in a "Máscara contra cabellera" (mask vs. hair) match, meaning that CM Punk would have to shave his head. For months he wore a mask to hide his baldness. During an altercation with The Big Show, CM Punk's mask was removed in a humiliating fashion, leading to a feud between Punk and Big Show. The SES showed signs of dissolution when CM Punk left his teammates (Gallows & Mercury) during a handicap match against Big Show at SummerSlam, leading to a victory for Show. Punk and Show had a one-on-one match at Night of Champions which Punk lost. Serena was released from her contract shortly after the pay-per-view and Mercury was out on injury leave, leaving Punk and Gallows as the only members of the group. Gallows eventually turned on Punk in September 2010, though Punk handily defeated him in a one-on-one match during Smackdown, cutting his ties to the faction permanently.

New Nexus

In late 2010, Punk was drafted to the RAW brand. While CM Punk was healing an injury, he was assigned to play-by-play announcer duties in an episode of WWE Superstars, an episode of NXT Season 3 and multiple episodes of Raw. Punk was in a tweener role (leaning more towards the face side), taking jabs at certain heel superstars, but hinting at his previous acrimonious history with John Cena, Randy Orton and others. In December, after a few weeks of back & forth between himself and the Nexus leader, Wade Barrett, CM Punk kicked Barrett (and other members of the group, including Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel) out of the Nexus, calling his new crew (which included a debuting Mason Ryan) the New Nexus. Punk continued the group's feud with John Cena, though eventually he set his sights on Randy Orton, getting revenge on him for costing him the World Heavyweight Championship during his first reign with the title years ago. This feud lead up to Last Man Standing Match at Extreme Rules, which Orton won as his last match with the RAW brand after having been drafted to the Smackdown brand in the 2011 WWE Draft.

The Voice of the Voiceless & the WWE Champion

After a short feud with Rey Mysterio, culminating in a win at Capital Punishment, CM Punk was entered in a triple-threat match between Mysterio and Alberto Del Rio for the number one contender's spot on the "Power to the People" episode of Raw, taking place on June 20, 2011. CM Punk won the match, guaranteeing a title shot between himself and the current champion, John Cena, at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view in July. After his win, CM Punk made a speech to the WWE universe, stating that his contract with the WWE was to end on July 17th (the night of the PPV), and that he would be leaving that pay-per-view with the WWE Championship in hand.

During the June 27th episode of Raw, after a John Cena/R-Truth tables match, Punk was given a microphone to close out the show, in which he gave an extremely candid and vitrolic speech about Cena, Vince McMahon and the WWE in general. Before Punk could finish his speech, his microphone was cut off and the show ended abruptly. After this, it was announced that WWE had given CM Punk an indefinite suspension on account of his promo, which meant that he lost his number one contendership, as well as his guaranteed match at Money in the Bank for the WWE Title. A week later, John Cena (Punk's rival and would-be opponent) pleaded with the WWE Universe and Vince McMahon to reinstate CM Punk. Reluctantly, McMahon reinstated CM Punk but insisted that if John Cena were to lose to Punk at the pay-per-view, Cena would be fired from the WWE. Punk returned to WWE the Raw before Money in the Bank during a contract signing, using his leverage to insult and further take jabs at his boss, asking for an apology for his actions, asking for more merchandising deals and the reinstatement of the WWF Ice Cream Bars (which has become a running joke in the WWE Universe since). Punk called himself the "voice of the voiceless", declaring that he spoke for those who couldn't stand up to Vince McMahon and his practices.

Punk taunting McMahon after his Money in the Bank win.

At Money in the Bank, CM Punk, in his hometown of Chicago, was able to defeat John Cena and win the WWE Title, his fourth heavyweight title win in the company (first for the WWE Championship). After the match, a completely livid Vince McMahon ordered Alberto Del Rio, the winner of the Raw "Money in the Bank" match, to attack Punk in order to secure the title. Punk was able to knock out Del Rio in the ring before leaving in the stands, never to be seen from again. CM Punk was, storyline-wise, a free agent who still held the WWE Title, and without a champion, Raw held a tournament (finalists: The Miz & Rey Mysterio) to determine a new interim WWE Champion. Throughout the storyline, CM Punk had taunted the WWE through multiple avenues, taking pictures of the WWE belt at specific landmarks that Punk had traveled to (and posting them on Twitter), even crashing a highly anticipated WWE Comic-Con panel with Triple H as the special guest.

CM Punk returned to Monday Night Raw after John Cena's hard-fought win over Rey Mysterio for the WWE Championship. Punk and Cena were both considered the WWE champion at the time, and COO Triple H had no choice but to have a unification battle set for SummerSlam. In a controversial fashion, CM Punk won the match against John Cena (with HHH as the special referee), even though Cena's foot was on the ropes. However, CM Punk's celebration was cut short as Kevin Nash came into the ring, powerbombed Punk and set Punk up for a Money in the Bank cash-in by Alberto Del Rio, who became the new WWE champion by the end of SummerSlam.

Punk began a feud with Kevin Nash & obstensibly, HHH, since he believed that there was a conspiracy (mostly due to the fact that HHH & Nash are long-time friends) that led to his title loss at SummerSlam. This led to a match at Night of Champions between HHH and Punk, HHH's first since WrestleMania 5 months earlier, in which HHH defeated Punk with a pedigree, though both parties were attacked by The Miz, R-Truth and Kevin Nash during the match. At Hell in a Cell, Punk was given a title opportunity in a three-way match with Del Rio & Cena, in which Del Rio remained victorious.

Punk as WWE Champion in his "Best in the World" shirt.

After repeated attacks by The Miz & R-Truth during his matches at Night of Champions and Hell in a Cell respectively, CM Punk teamed up with HHH in a tag team match against Miz & Truth at Vengeance, but came up short as interference from Kevin Nash cost Punk the match. After this, CM Punk had his sights on John Laurinaitis, the interim Raw General Manager, calling out his stature with the company and his seemingly shady practices as the manager of the show. This came to a head as Alberto Del Rio sided against CM Punk, as since CM Punk was still owed a one-on-one title shot against Del Rio after SummerSlam, he was granted said match at Survivor Series after putting a submission on Del Rio and forcing him to comply with his request on an episode of Raw. CM Punk eventually won a hard-fought match against Del Rio with the Anaconda Vise, winning his second WWE Championship title in the process.

At TLC 2011, Punk defended his WWE Title against Alberto Del Rio and The Miz in a triple threat match, emerging victorious in the process. In a Gauntlet Match on the December 26th episode of Raw, Punk was defeated by Dolph Ziggler (who had just lost his U.S. Title to Zack Ryder at TLC), which lead to a feud between the two. Ziggler, in the process, became the #1 contender to Punk's WWE title. Punk's animosity with John Laurinaitis led to Laurinaitis appointing himself the special guest referee for Punk & Ziggler's title match at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view.

Punk defended his title against Dolph Zigger at the 2012 Royal Rumble, with Laurinaitis demoting himself to a "special enforcer" role as to feign impartiality during the match. Punk won the match after a successful Go To Sleep and remained champion, while Laurinaitis & the appointed referee for the match both counted the pinfall at the same time.

After being attacked by the returning Chris Jericho during a match between Punk & the World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan, Punk had his eyes set on defending his title at the upcoming Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. At the pay-per-view, Punk was forced to defend his title against Kofi Kingston, Dolph Ziggler, R-Truth, The Miz and Jericho. During the match, Punk caught Jericho with a nasty headkick, sending Jericho to the arena floor, knocking him & a cameraman out, forcing Jericho to withdraw from the match. Punk then ended up eliminating Miz to retain his title. The next night on Raw, Punk was assigned to commentary during a 10-man over-the-top battle royal, where the winner would become the #1 contender to Punk's championship and face Punk at WrestleMania. Jericho emerged the victor and became the top contender to Punk's title.

ROH Accomplishments

Championships

• ROH World Championship
• ROH Tag Team Championship (x2)

WWE Accomplishments

Championships

• WWE Championship (x2)
• World Heavyweight Championship (x3)
• ECW Championship
• WWE Intercontinental Championship
• World Tag Team Championship

Slammy Awards

• "OMG" Moment of the Year (2008)
• Shocker of the Year (2009)
• Despicable Me (2010)
• Pipebomb of the Year (2011)

Other Highlights

• Money in the Bank Winner (2008, 2009)

"