10 Wrestlers Who Actually Asked To Drop The Title!

3. CM Punk – ROH World Championship

‘The Summer of Punk’ is remembered fondly as one of the greatest angles ever executed in Ring of Honor. CM Punk in 2005 had accepted a WWE deal after years on the indie circuit and was set to depart ROH at their ‘Death Before Dishonor III’ show taking on Austin Aries for the ROH World Championship in the main event in what was billed as Punk’s final match for the promotion. Fans wholeheartedly expected Punk to lose but Punk cleanly beat Aries for the title at the event. In a fiery promo after the match Punk turned heel and chastised fans at ringside, claiming he was now going to bring the ROH title with him to WWE. He went so far as signing his WWE contact on the ROH belt.

Punk orchestrated the ‘Summer of Punk’ and him winning the ROH title only under agreed circumstances it would elevate ROH (a promotion he loved) on the whole with press/attention and that he would cleanly lose the title rather than simply vacate it. Over the next few months he defended the title against Jay Lethal, Roderick Strong and Christopher Daniels before finally dropping it to James Gibson (Jaime Noble).