10 Best CM Punk Matches In WWE
The Straight-Edge Superstar's elite WWE bouts...
If the speculation proves to be correct (and all indications are that it will be), CM Punk will make his return to wrestling tonight when he debuts on AEW Rampage.
The Second City Saint's return to the business has been highly anticipated since he decided to walk away from WWE in early 2014.
The prospect of Punk working with a new roster full of talented performers like Kenny Omega, MJF, Darby Allin, Hangman Page, Jungle Boy and others is an alluring one and it'll be interesting to see the dynamic he has with them both on the microphone and in the ring.
As celebrated as Punk is as a personality and talker, he will be expected to keep up and produce the goods with a roster that is, by and large, a lot younger and without the ring rust he is sure to have accumulated during his time away.
When he's on his game, though, there are few better than Punk, as evidenced by his resume of classic matches that span various indies, Ring of Honor and WWE.
In order to whet the appetite for the Straight Edge Superstar's return, I've went back and looked at ten of his best matches from his WWE run.
If Punk can produce anything close to these belters for Tony Khan's promotion, then it's safe to say that AEW fans are in for a treat...
10. Vs. John Morrison - ECW (September 4, 2007)
Chosen as two the faces of the rebooted and revamped ECW, CM Punk and John Morrison had a trilogy of ECW Title matches on pay-per-view in the summer of 2007.
In the first, The Shaman of Sexy beat the Straight-Edge Superstar to win the vacant belt at Vengeance: Night of Champions, before he retained in consecutive bouts at the Great American Bash and SummerSlam.
Regrettably, the matches weren't great, hampered by time constraints and with Punk admitting years later that they were trying to do too much stuff in the few minutes they had to play with.
Luckily, it all came together on the September 4, 2007 episode of ECW on Sci-Fi when Punk was granted a final opportunity at the championship.
On that night, everything clicked and they had a very compelling TV main event. It helped that they were given a considerate sixteen minutes to work with and were thus able to draw the crowd in more effectively by slowing down the pace a little while telling their story.
There were some really neat false finishes and Punk even kicked out of Starship Pain before rallying and hitting the GTS to win his first title in WWE.
Those paying attention to the behind-the-scenes happenings at the time wouldn't have been surprised to see Morrison lose, of course, since he was about to sit out a 30-day suspension after being implicated in the Signature Pharmacy scandal, but the two managed to produce much drama despite the inevitability of the result.
Written by Lewis Howse
Features journalist for Cultaholic.com and script writer for the Cultaholic YouTube Channel.
