9 WWE Stars Who Were Turned By The Fans

5. CM Punk

CM Punk turned heel in the summer of 2012, a solid year into his epic WWE Title reign. He did so by dropping The Rock with a GTS on the July 23rd Raw. The bastard. From there, Punk had feuds with John Cena, Ryback and The Great One himself, before transitioning into a feud with The Undertaker after dropping the strap at Royal Rumble

Punk really plumbed the depths in his dispute with the Dead Man, taunting him by insulting his recently-deceased former manager (and real-life friend) William 'Paul Bearer' Moody. The upshot was that Punk walked into their WrestleMania clash with the fans really wanting 'Taker to kick his ass.

Which he did, in a show-stealing match that saw Punk continue with the heelish mannerisms. Then he disappeared from WWE, a chance to recover from burnout and heal up from a few nagging injuries. When he returned, against Chris Jericho at Payback, he was fully embraced by the fans (who must have forgiven him for the whole 'spilling Paul Bearer's ashes' bit).

It helped that Payback was held in The Straight Edge Superstar's home city of Chicago, of course, but it's likely that Punk would have been received the way he was whether his return was held in the Windy City or Saskatoon. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that...

Punk's face status was cemented when Paul Heyman turned on him and he began feuding with Heyman's other clients, Brock Lesnar and Curtis Axel (and then Ryback). Although that was a creative decision, it was fan response that got him in that position to begin with.