10 Times Wrestlers Pulled Back The Curtain

2. CM Punk's Pipe Bomb

The Rock
WWE

CM Punk ticked off just about known insider No-No as he sat cross-legged on the WWE stage doing the polar opposite of what every WWE superstar had been rigorously instructed to do for the prior several years.

The jacked up towers of power Johnny Ace was supposed to be developing might have passed Vince McMahon's airport test, but the biggest stars were travelling by personalised busses by then anyway. Punk found this out for himself not long after giving his incendiary, iconic, megastar-making speech in 2011.

Without pulling back the curtain, the promo probably wouldn't have pulled quite so many people in. Punk found every single loose thread sticking out of a fraying organisation and pulled at them all. Revisited relentlessly ever since, the "Pipe Bomb" has taken on greater potency as - a decade after the dirty laundry was aired - Punk gets set to debut on a show that only exists because WWE's moribund monopoly failed.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett