10 Best WWE Matches Ever (According To The Internet)
4. CM Punk Vs. John Cena (Money In The Bank 2011)
There's (still) perhaps no better match to explain specifically what it is about CM Punk that people love than his iconic Chicago clash with John Cena. He's as good a Sports Entertainer as he a Pro Wrestler, and on occasion he grasps and elevates the magic of the former without neglecting the latter.
The pair had some strong in-ring outings either side of Money In The Bank 2011, but a platonic ideal between excellent work and magnificent spectacle was struck in the 'Second City'.
From Punk's spine-tingling entrance to the kiss he blew to Vince McMahon as he left with his richest prize, the fourth-wall smashing storyline hit all its marks and was performed to utter perfection by the 'Straight Edge Superstar' and 'The Champ'.
Never the cleanest executors, both men found themselves in such a furnace that every move they made was a masterstroke of audience manipulation. It's high end soap more than high end action, but Punk in particular has always excelled more in that arena than he's given credit for. Technique counts for much, but the physical struggle here felt realer than Cena suddenly tightening up his STF for once.
High stakes taken to peaks few believed the pair could reach, this match and its impact actually managed to achieve what almost nothing else about the Summer Of Punk could - it actually made good on Punk's original "Pipe Bomb" promo.