8. Johnny Nitro Wins The ECW Championship
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtcyfy3GGfc CM Punk continued to earn the crowd's favor and started getting pushed again in the first half of 2007. He had a strong showing in the Money in the Bank Ladder Match at Wrestlemania 23 and went over in an ECW singles feud with Elijah Burke. When ECW Champion Bobby Lashley was drafted to Raw and forced to leave his title behind, a tournament was held and Punk made it to the finals. He was scheduled to face Chris Benoit at Vengeance: Night of Champions for the gold. As we all unfortunately know, Chris Benoit never made it to that pay-per-view. Johnny Nitro stepped in and faced Punk for the ECW Championship, besting Punk for the title. For the record, Punk was not supposed to win the belt that night. He was supposed to lose to Benoit and then feud with the new champion over the summer. No one would ever feel slighted by not going over Benoit, but it's fair to question Punk not going over a last-minute replacement. What made matters worse was Punk's repeated losses to Nitro, who subsequently became John Morrison, over the summer 2007. What WWE never admits, and hopes fans forget, is that Punk was only afforded his long overdue ECW Championship victory over Morrison after the latter was set to be suspended under WWE's Wellness Policy. There was no belief that this was Punk's time to shine. He was the next available #1 contender when a belt had to be dropped.