10 Last-Minute WWE Champions
9. CM Punk (2011)
CM Punk winning his first WWE Championship at Money In The Bank 2011 is still seen as one of the greatest angles in recent WWE memory and a huge opportunity squandered. As much as WWE may have dropped the ball with CM Punk and CM Punk's first WWE title reign, the fact is that the entire angle, which ended up anchoring WWE's summer of 2011, was decided upon at the last minute.
You see, CM Punk was legitimately considering leaving the company in mid-2011 and WWE wisely decided to turn that fact into a storyline when Punk was booked to challenge John Cena for the WWE Championship at the July pay-per-view.
WWE was able to persuade Punk to re-sign and a last-minute decision was made to give him the title at Money In The Bank. Obviously, WWE kept fans in the dark about Punk's new deal, and they ran with the angle of Punk "leaving with the title" that was arguably the most exciting two weeks since the Attitude Era.
It may be hard to imagine, but as hot as this storyline was, it almost never happened and only came to fruition once Punk decided to sign with WWE for another three years.