The BEST Wrestling Moment Every Year (1989 - 2026)

18. 2009 | CM Punk Mocks Jeff Hardy

The CM Punk Vs. Jeff Hardy programme of 2009 was sensational. 

A great wrestling feud is an exercise in contrasts - the stamina machine playboy Ric Flair versus rotund working class hero Dusty Rhodes being the archetypal example - and Punk Vs. Hardy was perfect. Punk was the sanctimonious straight edge narcissist, Hardy a man with very public substance abuse issues that fans loved regardless. Punk’s incredulity at the dynamic was as great as the dynamic itself. 

The premise was superb, the plotting even better. Punk was magnificent; as much of a cheating, conniving prick as he was, feigning an eye injury to get out of a pay-per-view match, he would always insist that he was a better man and a more reliable role model than his liability of a rival. 

Their match at SummerSlam was the best single Tables, Ladders and Chairs match ever. With blood banned, Punk and Hardy made sure to use every awful jagged edge of the plunder to put over the gruesome intensity of their feud, and the big action set-piece - Hardy’s ill-fated leap from possibly the tallest ladder ever used in a WWE ring - felt more character-based than a spectacular spot for the sake of it. Hardy took risks to his detriment; Punk was too mentally sharp to wade in those waters. 

After falling in the Loser Leaves Town Steel Cage blow-off, Jeff Hardy came out to say goodbye on SmackDown - except, he didn’t. It was CM Punk, cosplaying as Jeff in a fabulous ruse that was convincing for a few, heartbreaking seconds through the use of Hardy’s face paint. 

A classic wrestling feud with actual finality, since Hardy quit WWE as soon as it was over, this exclamation mark was as brutal as any chair spot at SummerSlam.