Title Lost: WWE Championship Lost Title To: CM Punk This is a tricky one, as Punk launched himself into superstardom at Money in the Bank 2011 when he beat John Cena for the WWE Championship and then left the company for eight days. In that eight-day span, WWE held a tournament for the vacant title, Rey Mysterio won the tournament, then lost the title to John Cena the same night, and Punk returned with his title in hand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9PIdDXmLgY At Summerslam, Punk and Cena held what could be termed a rematch, or it could be called a title-for-title match. Both men laid claim to the WWE Championship Punk had never lost it, but his leaving left it vacant and Cena had won the title created through the vacancy. Either way, Punk won the match, but he would succumb to Alberto Del Rio cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase. The title flipped around the next three months to Cena, back to Del Rio before Punk would recapture his gold and kick off the longest title reign in modern history.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
