10 Times WWE Totally Blew It With CM Punk
8. No Suit, No Championship
Above we see a picture of CM Punk, pleading with the Undertaker not to screw over his championship run over a flippant backstage remark.
We jest, of course - it's difficult to imagine the headstrong-to-a-fault CM Punk begging for anything, but the fact remains that Punk's final run as World Heavyweight Champion ended on a bum note.
WWE had done a stellar job positioning Punk as the top heel in the industry throughout the summer of 2009. His feud against the massively over Jeff Hardy culminated in Jeff's storyline expulsion from the WWE, marking Punk as public enemy no.1. Fans were desperate to see the smug, self-righteous superstar get his comeuppance but few figured it would come so quickly.
A little more than a month after forcing out of the most popular wrestlers in the company, Punk found himself dropping the belt to the Undertaker at Hell in a Cell.
In a 10 minute match.
During the pre-show.
Punk's sudden fall from grace was attributed to a backstage conversation between him and the Dead Man, where Taker advised Punk to dress up and look the part while he was the champion. Punk's alleged reply boiled down to "Why should I when John Cena get away with wearing jorts and a baseball cap?", and this irked the WWE brass enough to demolish the pedestal they had spent all summer placing Punk on.
Cena, meanwhile, continued to be the face of the company while dressing up as a bowl of fruity pebbles.