It's a testament to the strength of the CM Punk-Paul Heyman partnership that the two were only together for ten months, but have become inextricably linked. Unlike other charges of Heyman's, Punk never needed the best manager in the world to speak for him, but having the former owner of ECW by his side only made the WWE Champion's presentation more effective. After losing to The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXIX, Punk took two months off to rest and heal injuries. When he came back, he was a babyface, and it was clear that the Heyman partnership had to end. Sure enough, he was attacked by Heyman's other charge, Brock Lesnar, and Heyman was soon revealed to be behind the attack. Lesnar and Punk clashed in a great match at SummerSlam 2013, with Lesnar picking up the win. Unfortunately, the feud didn't end there. Lesnar took a leave of absence after SummerSlam, but the bad blood between Punk and Heyman had yet to be settled, leading to a less-exciting program between the Straight-Edge Superstar and Heyman's final charge, Curtis Axel. Despite Heyman's greatness on promos, the whole feud was uninspired and Axel never presented a believable threat. Punk came out the victor and things were finally put to bed, but the fewer charges (or ex-charges) of Heyman's who run around on TV, the less diluted he gets. Today, Heyman and Lesnar make up the company's hottest act, with nothing standing in the way.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
