Stop me if this sounds familiar. CM Punk is the world champion of a promotion in which his contract is about to run out. As champion, instead of "doing business" and losing the championship to a worthy contender, he instead leaves the promotion with the championship, whipping the crowd into a worked-shoot frenzy regarding whether or not he will a) re-sign and/or b) return with the championship in order to continue with scheduled defenses. If a Ring of Honor fan in 2005, you remember Punk defeating Austin Aries on June 18th of that year, with many fans in attendance fully aware that Punk was imminently signing with World Wrestling Entertainment. Throughout the summer of 2005, a storyline ensued where Punk threatened to take the ROH World Heavyweight Championship with him to WWE, and went as far as to sign his WWE contract in the middle of ROH's ring, on the ROH Championship itself. Finally, after a two-month storyline, Punk lost the title to James "Jamie Noble" Gibson on August 12, 2005 in a four-corner elimination match featuring Punk, Gibson, Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels. Of course, if a 2005-era ROH fan, in 2011 when Punk stated on the microphone that at the July 17th Money in the Bank Pay-Per-View that he would leave the company with the WWE Championship, and then proceed to bury Triple H, Vince McMahon and WWE's corporate structure (and threaten to take the championship to Ring of Honor - of all places), you should've correctly raised an eyebrow because the "Summer of Punk" had returned. However, dissimilar to Ring of Honor, Punk was both "suspended" and "reinstated" within a week from WWE television, prior to defeating John Cena in his hometown of Chicago and disappearing into the crowd with the WWE Championship. From storing the championship in his refrigerator to appearing at the San Diego Comic Con, to insult Triple H and offer top contender Rey Mysterio a WWE Championship match in Chicago to, yes, appearing at independent promotion All-American Wrestling in support of cerebral palsy-afflicted wrestler Gregory Iron; Punk returned to Raw on July 25th as John Cena was awarded another version of the WWE Championship. At that August's Summerslam Pay-Per-View, the "unification match" scheduled by Triple H was won by Punk, but after Triple H's crony Kevin Nash " the winner" with a Jack Knife Power Bomb, Alberto Del Rio, was able to cash in his Money in the Bank contract and win the championship. CM Punk, gone, but on the landscape of indy and WWE wrestling history, clearly not forgotten.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
