9 Ballsiest WWE Promos Ever

4. CM Punk's Pipe Bomb

This was gutsy on several levels. First of all, dedicating that much airtime to a guy just sitting on the ramp, airing his numerous and varied grievances with the company that currently had a camera pointed at him could have so easily come off as trite. A lot of worked shoots have a tendency to put the viewer in the odd position of trying to believe that the guy on the mic could really get away with breaking kayfabe so audaciously without someone cutting the audio almost immediately. But with Punk's first pipe bomb it felt pretty real. And his motivations were believable and complaints valid.

When he tells John Cena, "I don't hate you... I like you a helluva lot more than I like most people in the back," it somehow makes his assessment of Cena (and other top stars) being proficient ass-kissers even more vitriolic. And speaking of vitriol, who else could spit his venom at the very people who were cheering him on during this rant and still come out the other side more likeable? He called out wrestlers from other promotions and mentioned his love for Paul Heyman, who had, to put it mildly, a lot of bad blood with the company at that time.

Punk said a lot of things that hadn't been said on WWE TV before, and he said them all without the over-the-top anger that usually accompanies a worked shoot, making it feel more realistic.