10 Wrestlers Who Were Only World Champion Because Of The Brand Split

2. CM Punk

Like so many on this list, we all know how good CM Punk was (and how sad it is to say that in the past tense).

The thing with CM Punk is that he was never supposed to make it. The decision makers within the WWE didn't see anything in him, and even when he somehow managed to reach near Steve Austin levels of popularity, the WWE was still resistant to fully give him the ball to run with.

If it wasn't for the brand split then it's highly unlikely that Punk would've won Money in the Bank once, let alone twice. In fact, one of those wins was supposed to be Jeff Hardy's before Jeff got suspended. When Punk did win his first World Championship, he surprisingly had the belt taken away from him thanks to a pre-match attack.

CM Punk is one of the very best talents in recent memory to grace a WWE ring, but his rise to the top just simply was not supposed to happen.

The mind boggles at how far Punk would've made it up the card if the WWE didn't have two brands and two World Championships. Worryingly, you could argue that this unique and amazing talent may never have made it past the mid-card.

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.

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