26 Times Wrestling Titles Have Been Disrespected

13. CM Punk Goes Home With The WWE Championship

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Most fans adore CM Punk. The man gave the wrestling business a shot of life that it had not seen since the days of Steve Austin and The Rock in their heyday. Still, at one time he essentially went home with the WWE Championship and left the WWE without one of their World Champions.

It's one thing to have a championship given to a superstar, but it's another thing to have the championship and "leave the company". Storyline-wise, that's exactly what CM Punk did.

Granted, the whole angle of CM Punk dropping "pipebombs" as his contract was running out was the most engaging television that the WWE had produced for a long, long time, but when it came to upping sticks and walking out with the WWE Title, that's depraving the fans of a champion and a massive snub to the company.

Of course, the way this played out led to Punk coming back to challenge then-champ John Cena to determine the "real" WWE Champion. Punk would win and further cement his role as a top, top guy in the company, but still, walking out with the World Championship is never a good thing.

 
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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.