9 Times CM Punk Bounced Back In His WWE Career

You might have thought that by the time he’d won that big gold belt for a second time, Punk would have been home and dry. And yet, that very night Punk had been dealt another knockback in the form of a “challenge” from Vince McMahon.

Again, in his Best in the World DVD, Punk recounts how he was called into Vince’s office earlier in the day, with Vince informing him that “we’re eventually going to see if you can run as a heel, and I have my reservations”.

Now, given that he’d excelled as a heel for years in the independent scene, Vince’s comment about having reservations was particularly stinging to Punk. His retort was that “in three months I’ll be the best heel in the company” and looking back at the eventual results, it’s kind of difficult to find fault with that claim.

Punk was given free reign over his Straightedge Saviour shtick, eventually forming the cultish Straight Edge Society and drawing the kind of ire from the audience that most others could only ever dream about. What followed was one of the better chapters in Punk’s entire career, which was surely enough to quell those reservations that Vince had previously spoke of.