CM Punk was locked in as one of the top heels in WWE from the summer of 2009 when he did his brilliant heel turn on Jeff Hardy to the summer of 2011, which has become known as the Summer of Punk. When Punk delivered his infamous "shoot" promo in Las Vegas in June of 2011 he started to gain a lot of momentum. People were shocked by some of the things he said, but they weren't totally behind him. You could tell he was really gaining crowd support, though. Once his famous "Pipebomb" speech aired, he wasn't winning over just the online fans. Everybody in the arena was thinking he was on fire and was ready to become the next breakout star in wrestling. At Money in the Bank 2011 he received a hero's welcome from his hometown crowd in Chicago. Punk went on to win the WWE Title and left to an even bigger ovation when he looked like he was leaving the company. When he came back, he was cheered everywhere, not just Chicago. A lot of the time when somebody goes from heel to face the goal is to make that person a bigger star as a face than they were as a heel. In Punk's case that's exactly what happened. It worked perfectly. It was the right thing at the right time for him.
John wrote at WhatCulture from December 2013 to December 2015. It was fun, but it's over for now. Follow him on Twitter @johnreport. You can also send an email to mrjohncanton@gmail.com with any questions or comments as well.
