For the first time in years, the WWE product was actually interesting. At 2011's Money in the Bank pay-per-view, CM Punk was successful in defeating John Cena in his hometown of Chicago to become the new WWE champion. He then proceeded to leave company once his contract expired that night... before returning to Raw eight days later. Punk and Cena met in a rematch at SummerSlam to determine an undisputed champion, a match that was won by The Voice of the Voiceless. However, after the matchup, he was attacked Kevin Nash and subsequently cashed-in on by the-then Mr. Money in the Bank Alberto Del Rio, losing his title after only a month. Despite that, Punk's momentum was still hotter than ever. With Nash unable to compete, Punk moved into a feud with Triple H, who was the acting COO of WWE at the time. The two engaged in cutting-edge promos each and every week leading into their No Holds Barred match at Night of Champions, building anticipation for what was shaping up to be an instant classic. While the match was well wrestled and even entertaining at times, it was watered down by constant run-ins from The Miz, R-Truth and Kevin Nash. All the interference prevented Punk and HHH from having the match they were capable of having. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZNJQyXKiqI Worse yet, Punk's hot streak came to an end on that night when HHH scored the victory. Regardless of all the "heat" between the two (in storyline) at the time, they'd put their differences aside a month later to rival Awesome Truth. One will never know if Punk was going to get his win back over The Game in their scheduled match at WrestleMania 30 before Punk abruptly left the company.
Since 2008, Graham has been a diehard pro wrestling fan and, in 2010, he combined his passions for WWE and writing when he joined Bleacher Report. Equipped with a master's in journalism, Graham has contributed to WhatCulture, FanSided's Daily DDT, Sports Betting Dime, and GateHouse Media. Along the way, he has conducted interviews with wrestling superstars like Chris Jericho, Edge, Goldberg, Christian, Diamond Dallas Page, Jim Ross, Adam Cole, Tessa Blanchard, Ryback, and Nick Aldis among others.