10 Regrets CM Punk Must Be Harbouring

To say 2014 has been a historic year for WWE, for better or for worse, would an understatement. We've witnessed the birth of the WWE Network and the end of The Undertaker's illustrious undefeated streak at WrestleMania, but one of the year's most controversial and talked about stories since January has been CM Punk's abrupt departure from WWE. Many fans figured it was bound to happen at some point, but no one could have ever imagined that it would have happened so soon. It was difficult at first for many members of WWE Universe to cope with Punk's absence from WWE TV, but they moved on as quickly as WWE and Punk apparently have. Nevertheless, it's rare that you venture to a wrestling website and not see Punk's name among the headlines even all these months later. Punk has seldom spoke on his current standing with WWE in interviews and has hardly discussed wrestling at all in. It would appear that wrestling is the farthest thing from Punk's mind at the moment, but it'd be a naive to say that he hasn't contemplated making a return to the ring since he left. Not only that, The Voice of the Voiceless surely must have regrets regarding his run in WWE and the way he departed. Until he issues an official statement on the matter, one can only speculate.

10. Turning Babyface

Some Superstars work better as a babyface, some work better as a heel. Punk happened to fall in the latter category. That isn't to say he was a bad babyface, though. If anything, he was one of if not the most over guy on the entire WWE roster from 2011 to 2012, apparently coming close to surpassing John Cena in terms of merchandise sales on several occasions. He once referred to himself as a "hot commodity" in the wrestling world and he wasn't kidding. In speaking the truth during his "pipebomb" promo on the June 27, 2011 edition of Raw, Punk automatically endeared himself to the WWE Universe. While his face turn was never made official, it's safe to say his run as a fan favorite kicked off at the 2011 Money in the Bank pay-per-view in his hometown of Chicago when he left WWE as champion. Punk spent half of his record-setting 434 day reign as WWE champion as a babyface, but in that time, he headlined only one PPV and wasn't even the focus of Raw more often than not. John Cena was. Everyone, including Punk, knew Cena was never going to be dethroned as the top babyface in the company. Punk figured it'd be better to be the No. 1 heel as opposed to the No. 2 babyface, which is why he went rogue at Raw 1000 and never looked back. Compare and contrast his promos from the first half of 2012 as a babyface and his promos during the latter half of the year as a heel and it's not hard to tell that Punk was in his element as a villain.