CM Punk and Jeff Hardy had a commercially and critically successful programme over the World Heavyweight Championship in the Summer of 2009. Yielding some great matches, including a stunning TLC contest at SummerSlam, as well as decent buy rates and television ratings, their feud was deemed to be a home run. Hardy left WWE after losing a Loser Leaves WWE cage match to Punk on Smackdown and it was then that cracks began to appear. A lot of what Punk said to Hardy on WWE TV cut close to the bone. Punk, being straight edge, trashed Jeff for his previous issues with drugs and past suspensions. But Punk seemingly went too far after Jeff had left the company when he referenced his September 11th arrest in a promo on the Breaking Point PPV. While some of Jeff's friends in the locker room were miffed that WWE would run the promo and take a shot at Jeff, there was apparently no heat on Punk as he was just following orders. Jeff released a video some time after that in which he was apparently under the influence of something and called Punk a 'nerd' and claimed that he made him a 'motherf***** superstar' before saying 'I just have one message for CM Punk: f*** you'. Punk also had some issues with Jeff's older brother Matt stemming from the fact that Punk dated his one time girlfriend Lita.
