WWE Wellness Policy - 6 Wrestlers Badly Derailed (And 4 That Prevailed)
8. Prevailed - CM Punk
If there was one superstar who presumably remained completely unfazed by the prospect of brand new drug testing in 2006, it was CM Punk.
As probably one of the more world-famous advocates of a Straight Edge lifestyle, Punk was a safe bet in times when the company desperately needed one.
Having survived a myriad of political bear-traps in a tumultuous and humbling sophomore year, he thrived in the wake of post-Benoit policy upheavals, winning Money in the Bank in 2008 after Jeff Hardy was booted out of the match due to a Wellness failure. He'd again revel in Hardy's misfortune with a heel-turning cash-in on the 'Charismatic Enigma' in 2009, shortly before Jeff's humiliating home drug bust in September of the same year.
Punk would lambaste Hardy on television for his transgressions, leaning on Straight Edge as a device to tweak his character into that of a sociopathic cult leader, converting Luke Gallows, Serena, and Joey Mercury into members of his 'Straight Edge Society' heel crew.
He later admitted he was intentionally portraying himself as the Anti-Christ during this time, confident he would get away with it because nobody important in the company was watching Smackdown. In times where the 'Pipe-Bomb' was merely a pipe dream, this would mark CM Punk's creative and commercial peak.