6. Punk Drops The World Heavyweight Championship To No One
On June 30, 2008, CM Punk cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win his first World Heavyweight Championship over a freshly Batista-Bombed Edge. Finally, CM Punk was the champion on the "A" show, Monday Night Raw. John Cena's time was up; Punk's time was now. WWE knew better apparently. Punk's first pay-per-view title defense came at the Great American Bash, where he and Batista fought to a double disqualification. Remember, Punk wasn't allowed to go over bigger superstars yet and wouldn't be allowed to very often afterward. Punk was then able to actually go over in a title defense against JBL at SummerSlam. Any hope that this would be a turning point for Punk proved false. His paper championship reign ended without even so much as a whimper. Punk, scheduled to defend his title in a Championship Scramble match at Unforgiven in September 2008, wound up getting punted in the head by Randy Orton earlier in the show and did not even participate in the match where his championship was won by another wrestler. So this set up a hot chase for the title, right? No. Punk lost his obligatory rematch to then World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho and was out of the title picture for the next several months.