9 Times CM Punk Bounced Back In His WWE Career

After proving his worth in developmental, in June of 2006 it was finally time for Punk to get a shot on a rather more public stage. Once again though, he was somewhat thwarted by the powers that be; rather than being called up to Raw or SmackDown, Punk was consigned to the company’s ill-fated reboot of the ECW brand.

Still, the situation could have been far bleaker had it not been for that aforementioned saviour, Paul Heyman. Heyman was largely responsible for bringing Punk with him to the ECW fold, with Jim Ross recounting in the Best in the World DVD that Punk was on the “endangered species” list. He speaks of how “there were some in Talent Relations at that time that had actually contemplated cutting Punk”, painting his call-up to ECW as something of a last chance saloon.

Undeterred as ever, Punk seized the opportunity with both hands and soon served the doubters a platter of their own words as he was eventually crowned ECW Champion. After a successful two-year stint with the company’s tertiary brand, a promotion to the dizzying heights of Monday Night Raw was soon presented to the latest 'Paul Heyman guy'.