The Many Faces Of CM Punk Ranked - From Worst To Best
6. Returning Hero
After his immense World Championship run between 2011 and 2013, CM Punk took a short break from the company to catch his breath and do some good old-fashioned thinking. Despite leaving as a heel, it was clear that crowds worldwide wanted to receive Punk as a hero, and when it was announced that he was going to be returning at the Payback PPV in June of that year, a hero's welcome was assured.
The fact that the show was taking place in Chicago certainly didn't hurt. Punk was indeed received as a babyface, and his initial steps back on the main roster were somewhat confusing as a result. Paul Heyman was still around, and despite Punk telling Heyman to stay out of his way there, was still a decent amount of ambiguity there. Well, there was until Brock Lesnar showed up and F5'd all of it away.
Punk's feud with Paul Heyman over the summer of 2013 may have been somewhat dragged down by Ryback and Curtis Axel, but it still gave us some fantastic babyface promos from the Straight Edge Superstar. It had been a while since he was truly fighting from underneath, and this run showed that Punk could be as fiery as any babyface you care to mention.