10 WWE Matches That Defined Each Year Of The 2010s

9. 2011 - CM Punk Vs John Cena

TLC Randy Orton John Cena
WWE.com

CM Punk had always been under-utilised in WWE. He was popular with the fans, but never chosen as the guy by management. That all changed when he dropped his now-infamous "Pipe Bomb".

The Pipe Bomb - a shoot-style promo delivered by Punk that railed against everyone from fickle fans to Vince McMahon himself - was a lightning moment. Punk said things that no WWE wrestler had ever said before and brought thousands of lapsed fans back to the product as a result.

This all led to Punk taking on WWE Champion, John Cena, in his home town of Chicago, with the added caveat that Punk's WWE contract expired that same night. If he won the belt, he was leaving with it.

The match itself was rated five stars by Dave Meltzer, the first WWE match to achieve this accolade in nearly 15 years, but it was the ending that everyone remembers. Punk captured the gold in a shocking victory, before blowing Vince McMahon a kiss and running off through the crowd.

The Punk saga sadly went downhill from here, but this part of it was executed flawlessly. It set in motion a storyline that took up the rest of the year and made a deity out of The Second City Saint.

Contributor
Contributor

Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.