10 Wrestlers Too Good To Be Ruined By WWE's Bad Booking

Given how he started in the WWE, it's incredible that CM Punk reached the heights he did.

Not to put too fine a point on it, CM Punk's first few years in the company were spent being dicked around by the office, the Straight Edge Superstar being made to look like a joke even when he was World Heavyweight Champion. Punk spent a good chunk of his reign portrayed as an underdog against an over-the-hill JBL and would eventually lose the title in a backstage beatdown, not even being granted the dignity of losing his belt in the ring.

Things picked up after Punk turned heel against the ever-popular Jeff Hardy and headed his own stable, the sadly short-lived Straight Edge Society, but it wasn't until he decided to quit WWE that the company passed the torch to him. A torch he used to burn Vince McMahon and his cronies to cinders in arguably the greatest promo of all time.

That one unscripted promo pushed Punk into the stratosphere and made WWE desperate to re-sign him. Punk obliged, and although relations between the company and the wrestler would disintegrate completely, Punk made the most of his remaining years, holding the WWE championship for a record-breaking 434 days. (A record that, amazingly, still stands despite the antipathy between Punk and WWE management).

Punk's time in the spotlight may have been over too soon, but it's a testament to the man's innate star power that he ever made it there at all.