Despite being pinned inside the Elimination Chamber, WWE still referred to Punk as undefeated on television since he had not lost in singles competition. It's a wonder why WWE even cared to make a point about Punk still being "undefeated" when he lost without much fanfare to Hardcore Holly on the January 9, 2007 episode of ECW. With all due respect to Hardcore Holly, he was clearly on the backend of his WWE career at that point. He gained nothing from the win and the storyline between Holly and Punk was very uninspired. The loss really came out of nowhere and felt more like an attempt to stall Punk's momentum in the wake of Paul Heyman's WWE departure after December to Dismember. Additional evidence of someone backstage intentionally trying to hold Punk down came three weeks later when Punk was beaten by the never-pushed Matt Striker.
