10 Name-Drops You Never Thought WWE Would Allow (But They Somehow Did)

WWE tend to see themselves as the big dog in the world of Sports Entertainment - as Vince McMahon would have us call it - and therefore make a constant effort to project the image of being incomparable to other wrestling companies by not acknowledging the bumping world outside of their doors.

Yet, as McMahon has proved time and time again, he is not above the odd cheap dig at the expense of some of his competition, and names we never expected to hear on WWE programming have somehow cropped up over the years to pop the unsuspecting audience.

Some of these references are calculated and designed to elicit a nuclear reaction from those in attendance. However, on a few occasions, another company, name or sport has been brought into the limelight completely on a whim and forced fans to question whether said reference would have ever been allowed if McMahon was privy to its impending use.

Regardless of whether it was planned or not, these instances of a name completely detached from McMahon's empire being dropped on WWE television are all ones we never thought could have been made into a reality. But we have a list and this means that somehow they did...

When CM Punk decided to walk out on WWE in 2014 and subsequently found himself embroiled in a civil lawsuit with WWE's Dr. Chris Amann, the very thought of his name being mentioned on the company's broadcast felt unlikely, to say the least.

Yet, that still didn't stop fans reminding Vince McMahon exactly who they wanted to see walk down that ramp again, with a chorus of 'CM PUNK!' chants echoing around arenas across the world in the wake of his departure.

With this much fan attention being given to the 'Voice of the Voiceless' long after his last appearance on the product, WWE did their best to ignore the cries for Punk to return. However, sometimes their best wasn't good enough and they couldn't resist a cheeky shot at the straight edge superstar.

One of the more memorable digs at Chick Magnet Phil's expense came on the 2016 Boxing Day episode of Monday Night RAW.

Stephanie McMahon waltzed down to the ring and in front of a rampant Chicago crowd (Punk's hometown) she was bombarded with the usual 'CM PUNK!' chants.

McMahon would ride out the chants for a while before telling the crowd that if they could keep it up for another 'two minutes and 15 seconds they'd last one second longer than Punk did' in his UFC debut vs. Mickey Gall.

This felt like a quip out of the blue from McMahon, but the mere mention of Punk and his dismal MMA debut was enough to stun the live crowd in Chicago.