CM Punk's 10 Greatest Rivals

2. Jeff Hardy

Prior to the CM Punk feud with Jeff Hardy in the summer of 2009, Punk was considered a very good performer that could have good matches regularly, but he wasn't seen as a true top guy. By the time the feud was over, he was headlining a major show like SummerSlam 2009 because of how incredible his performances were. It's not like WWE went into the Punk/Hardy feud thinking they were going to have the feud of the year and it would main event over whatever the likes of Cena, HHH and Orton were doing. They earned it and they deserved it. What was great about the feud is that Punk ended up going from a stale babyface into the heel role that he's always been better at. There were so many incredible like when he turned heel after weeks of build up or when he dressed up in body paint the way that Hardy did as a way to mess with him. It made fans want Hardy to absolutely destroy Punk. After CM Punk cashed in Money in the Bank at Extreme Rules 2009 to become the World Champion, he turned heel. From there, they had three more PPV matches that saw Hardy win by DQ, then he won the title back and then Punk was able to get it back at SummerSlam 2009 in a TLC match that was the best match they had. One more cage match followed and that was the end of Hardy in WWE. This feud made Smackdown the top show during that period in 2009 because of the work of these two guys. They weren't just having incredible matches. The promos were terrific also because Punk was this straight edge guy living a clean life while Hardy was all about living on the edge. The fact that they were total opposites personality wise made them better in the ring together. If Hardy never left WWE in 2009 they probably would have had more matches together because the feud was just too good not to go back to it again. It's a shame that we only got to see them battle for about three months because they could have created many more awesome memories.