17. The Cult Of Personality
WWE.com
Date: July 25th, 2011 The "Summer Of Punk" in 2011 was a great success for WWE, and although one could argue that the company blew things by having Punk "leave" with the WWE Title and only be gone for a whopping total of two weeks, his return was very memorable. With their champion "gone", WWE held a tournament to crown a new champ. At the start of the July 25th, 2011 episode of Raw, Rey Mysterio defeated The Miz in the finals of the tournament to become the new WWE Champion. Rey's reign lasted all of a couple hours, as he went on to lose the title to John Cena in the episode's main event (Punk leaving meant that Cena never received his title rematch from Money In The Bank, so Rey agreed to give him his shot). With Raw running out of time, and with Cena celebrating in the ring, some unfamiliar (to most) music hit. It was Living Colour's hit "Cult Of Personality". Fans of Ring Of Honor had a hunch as to what was happening, as Punk began using this song in RoH after familiar things happened. Sure enough, Punk walked out with WWE Title in tow, as Cena looked on in surprise. We now had two WWE Champions, but the most important thing was that Punk was back, and things could move forward. The song is great, and if you listen to the lyrics, it really fits Punk, especially when he's a heel or doing heel-ish things. Even if you're a fan of "This Fire Burns" by Killswitch Engage, it's difficult to picture Punk coming out to any other song at this point, and here was the jumping off point for all of that.