10 Wrestling Storylines Where Evil Won
3. CM Punk Vs. Jeff Hardy
Evil prevailed for a reason; Jeff Hardy was on the way out, and WWE made sure to get CM Punk over at his expense.
Arguably, this was the best wholly fictional A-Z story has WWE penned post-2001. Virtually every other acclaimed storyline either descended into bullsh*t (Summer of Punk), was plagued by a damning meta premise and a botched final chapter (WWE eventually recognises Becky Lynch as division Ace, throws Charlotte Flair in WrestleMania main event anyway) or was retconned via farce (End of an Era is tarnished through zombified blood money pursuit).
Punk Vs. Hardy was gloriously simple.
Punk was jeered for winning the Money In The Bank briefcase for a second consecutive year. Ironically, given the reaction to his debut at AEW Revolution 2021, Christian was their man. Punk cashed in on the wildly popular Jeff Hardy, further disconnecting him from the fanbase. He used that reaction to inform his exceptional sanctimonious heel act. After a slow-burn turn that was plotted tremendously, Punk raged that Jeff Hardy was no hero. He was an unreliable drug addict who didn't deserve the love of the crowd.
This programme peaked fabulously across a pair of stunning gimmick matches: the best singles TLC match ever, the very genre of which formalised Punk's superiority, and a Loser Leaves Town Cage match.
Still, as effective as it was, the specific beats of the story were jarring. The flawed hero, in the end, was just flawed - and it wasn't that effective, since the Undertaker programme undid everything just months later.
As a self-contained story, however, this was incredible.