5 Pre-WWE CM Punk Controversies You Need To Know About

4. The Heat 'Debut'

CM Punk worked on WWE B show Sunday Night Heat in 2005 against the likes of Maven, Simon Dean and Val Venis before making his WWE 'debut' on the organisation's ECW show. These matches were a way for WWE officials and agents to see how Punk looked on camera before he got called up to the main roster. Most of these matches were decent, if not ephemeral and didn't exactly show Punk to the best of his abilities. One Heat match in June 2005, however, never made it on the air. Punk, accompanied by Alexis Laree/Mickie James, had a match that was said to be so bad that it couldn't be shown on TV. The story goes that Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Michael Hayes and Arn Anderson sat down and watched the match on a monitor backstage. Well, apparently they huddled around the monitor with the sole intention of mocking everything that Punk did. See, Punk had a reputation as an 'indy darling' because of his acclaimed run in Ring of Honor and other independent leagues and so these influential backstage personalities tried to cut him down to size, so to speak. Triple H was especially venomous with his appraisal of Punk's work, according to witness. Punk and James went back to OVW but Mickie was called up a few months later while Punk toiled under the tutelage of booker Paul Heyman.