10 Most Infamous Backstage WWE Royal Rumble Moments
3. CM Punk Says Goodbye (2014)
A broken man by the time Royal Rumble 2014 came around, CM Punk was labouring through his wrestling career's dying days as if he was waiting for a straw to come along and break his camel's back, setting him free from a promotion he'd mentally checked out of a long time ago.
Rewatch his Rumble performances. It's everywhere, from his grinning-through-the-pain facial expressions, to his less-than-sprightly movements, to his dishevelled appearance. Punk was done... and so was his body.
Punk walked in carrying a laundry list of physical ailments and almost went all the way to the end, entering a gruelling 49-minute performance before being thrown out by Kane. Oh yeah, Kofi Kingston concussed him with a botched Trouble in Paradise as well. Great.
A tough night for 'The Voice of the Voiceless,' who, upset that WWE planned on booking him to lose to Triple H at WrestleMania, decided to quit the promotion the very next evening. It was the culmination of many, many, frustrations, of course, and Punk wasn't officially let go until 14 June, eventually revealing the true extent of his misery on that Colt Cabana podcast. Somehow, it was even worse than we thought.