10 Most Over Wrestlers In The World Right Now

1. CM Punk

HOOK AEW
AEW

CM Punk's Rampage First Dance return drew a staggering number: a monstrous 0.53 in the 18-49 demo.

This rating, generated in a suboptimal time slot on a social night, was consistent with WWE's modern rare RAW triumphs. Prior to the Grand Slam Dynamite and Rampage specials, the First Dance shattered AEW's attendance record by drawing 20,128 fans on the strength of the explicit tease of his appearance. All Out, built largely around his return match versus Darby Allin, boasted the most expensive secondary market price in North American pro wrestling history and drew a company record 205,000 buys. His first t-shirt broke the ProWrestlingTees site, and when it recovered, it registered the highest-ever number for a single design ever.

In arenas, beyond two so-so matches against QT Marshall and Lee Moriarty, Punk is massively over. The First Dance pop was arguably the loudest ever - a bone-chilling atmosphere of roars, tears, and sustained euphoria - and Punk's venomous zingers are so cutting that he elicits reactions of pure, "Oh sh*t!" shock.

The man generates pops for body slams and orchestrated a gladiatorial atmosphere in his incredible war with Eddie Kingston at Full Gear.

Fighting, grappling, verbally incinerating: Punk is so over that he also gets pops by smiling.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!