The Incredible History of CM Punk in the WWE Royal Rumble Match
Explore the captivating journey of CM Punk's Royal Rumble career in this video. From his early appearances to unforgettable moments, delve into the incredible history that shaped Punk's legacy in the iconic WWE event. Witness the highs, lows, and unexpected twists that make Punk's Royal Rumble story a fascinating chapter in wrestling history. Strap in for a nostalgic ride through the annals of the Royal Rumble, accompanied by insights, anecdotes, and the electrifying charisma that defines CM Punk's impact on the grandest stage of them all.
You can also visit our site: https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe
#CMPunk #RoyalRumble #WWE #Wrestling #Sportskeeda
You can also visit our site: https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe
#CMPunk #RoyalRumble #WWE #Wrestling #Sportskeeda
Transcript
00:00 Satisfaction is the death of desire.
00:05 - The recently returning CM Punk announced his entry
00:08 into the 2024 Men's Royal Rumble match,
00:11 and it's gonna be his seventh appearance
00:12 in the big multi-man affair,
00:14 and his ninth overall on the show.
00:16 He is always someone who many felt should have won
00:20 the Rumble in the past at different points in his career,
00:22 but it's an accolade that has eluded him,
00:25 along with his goal of headlining WrestleMania.
00:28 That could all change in 2024,
00:31 given that he is now one of the favorites
00:33 to win the big match, but have you ever wondered
00:36 what the history of CM Punk's performances
00:39 in the Royal Rumble are?
00:40 Let's go back 17 years to 2007,
00:44 when Punk was a young upstart in WWE.
00:47 By January of that year, he was a few months
00:49 into his first WWE run, and he was making a big impact.
00:53 Punk was always seen as the classic indie darling
00:57 before the term ever became a thing.
00:59 He came into WWE with a lot of heat and hype.
01:02 He was a standout in Ring of Honor
01:04 and other promotions outside of WWE
01:06 before he signed with them.
01:08 There was some reported internal resentment
01:10 of Punk's momentum that he made outside of the company
01:13 and then brought into it, but plenty of fans
01:16 on the growing internet wrestling community
01:18 saw him as a sign of WWE breaking from the expected line
01:22 of new talents that they brought in.
01:24 His first six months under the bright lights of WWE
01:27 were a huge success.
01:28 That's why when Punk entered the Rumble in 2007
01:31 in the number 11 spot, it was surprising
01:34 that he lasted for a whole 27 minutes and 16 seconds
01:39 before being eliminated by the Great Khali.
01:42 Representing ECW, the third tier brand for WWE at the time,
01:47 he had only an elimination to his name in the match,
01:49 which was a combined effort by him and eight other superstars
01:52 to take out the Big Viscera, yeah, Big Daddy V.
01:57 The next year, with Punk still fighting his way
01:59 out of the ECW ranks, he defeated Chavo Guerrero
02:02 to qualify for the big match.
02:04 He entered in the number 12 spot in the 2008 Rumble
02:07 and lasted a respectable 23 minutes and 50 seconds
02:11 to once again only get one elimination.
02:14 This time, though, he could take full credit for tossing
02:16 that man over the rope with both feet hitting the floor,
02:19 and those feet were the feet of Chuck Palumbo.
02:22 Incidentally, Chavo Guerrero, the man he beat to qualify
02:25 for the Rumble match, is the one
02:27 who would end up eliminating him.
02:29 By the 2009 Royal Rumble, Punk was way higher up
02:32 on the card in WWE.
02:34 He moved over from ECW to Raw,
02:36 captured the Money in the Bank briefcase,
02:38 and briefly had a respectable, once again respectable,
02:41 run as World Heavyweight Champion.
02:43 He entered the entire fray at number 18,
02:47 the latest entry spot he's ever had
02:49 in the big Rumble match so far.
02:52 Once again, crossing the 20 minute mark
02:54 and lasting 22 minutes and 29 seconds,
02:57 and yet again, having a single elimination,
03:00 taking William Regal out of the Rumble this time
03:03 before being eliminated by The Big Show.
03:06 2010 saw CM Punk have the shortest time
03:09 of any of his Royal Rumble matches
03:11 up to that point in his career.
03:12 Entering at number three, he lasted only 10 minutes
03:15 and four seconds, but had five impactful eliminations,
03:20 and he did some pretty ridiculous stuff.
03:23 Punk got Dolph Ziggler, Evan Bourne, JTD of Crying Time,
03:26 Beth Phoenix, and Zack Ryder out of the match.
03:29 Despite not being the winner of the whole thing,
03:31 Punk ate up his minutes in this all-star game of WWE.
03:35 Since this was overzealous,
03:36 straight-edge society cult leader Punk,
03:39 he used the pauses in action to chastise the audience
03:42 on the microphone.
03:43 He even tried to convince the gigantic Great Khali
03:46 to convert to his straight-edge way of life.
03:49 It was something that truly showed
03:51 he could get his character over in any situation.
03:54 Punk ended up having the second most eliminations
03:57 of that Rumble match, just behind Shawn Michaels,
04:00 who eliminated six men.
04:01 It was Michael's old pal, Triple H,
04:04 who took CM Punk out of the Rumble that year.
04:07 In the first and only 40-man Royal Rumble match ever in 2011,
04:12 CM Punk entered at number one
04:13 for the first time in his career.
04:15 It also ended up being the longest appearance for him
04:18 in the Rumble up to that point,
04:20 as he eliminated seven men thanks to The Nexus,
04:23 yes, the faction he was leading at the time.
04:25 In terms of his performance that year,
04:27 he was tied with John Cena at seven eliminations apiece,
04:31 and technically lasted a minute longer than The Goat,
04:34 with 35 minutes and 21 seconds to be that year's Iron Man.
04:39 Yeah, we know all the numbers here.
04:41 But it was Cena who eliminated him that year.
04:43 ♪ Bum, bum, bum, bum ♪
04:45 That kicked off 2011 for CM Punk,
04:47 which may have been one of the biggest years
04:48 of his career up to that date.
04:50 He would eventually shed the whole Nexus thing,
04:52 go off on WWE, break through the fourth wall
04:55 with the infamous Pipe Bomb promo
04:57 that led to the title match against Cena in Chicago
05:01 at Money in the Bank,
05:03 one of the best WWE matches of the last 20 years.
05:07 I was there.
05:07 We can thumb wrestle over it at some point.
05:10 Turning into wrestling's hottest babyface fan fader
05:13 at the time, he entered 2012 as the WWE Champion,
05:17 and defended the title at the Royal Rumble
05:19 against the show-off Dolph Ziggler
05:21 with John Laurinaitis as the special guest referee.
05:24 He ended up defending the title successfully
05:26 and holding it throughout 2012,
05:28 and even having a big match against Chris Jericho
05:31 at WrestleMania that year.
05:32 Punk may have had the championship around his waist
05:34 going into Mania that year,
05:35 but he had a big chip on his shoulder
05:37 because, yeah, he didn't give a headline at WrestleMania.
05:39 This guy named The Rock came back,
05:42 and he got to close out the show with John Cena.
05:45 By 2013, the Royal Rumble came along,
05:48 and CM Punk was a very, very different character
05:51 with the WWE Championship around his waist
05:53 at this point for 434 days,
05:57 making him the longest reigning world champion
05:59 in the company since the 1980s.
06:02 But that was all going to come crashing down
06:04 because if you smell-a-la-la-la what The Rock was cooking up,
06:08 it's another main event.
06:09 And as you probably know,
06:10 The Rock defeated Punk in a very strong match,
06:13 while John Cena won the Royal Rumble match
06:16 to set up a twice-in-a-lifetime match at WrestleMania 29
06:20 that we all saw coming 100 miles away.
06:23 The 2014 Royal Rumble was a very interesting situation,
06:26 but not for the right reasons for CM Punk.
06:29 Coming into the match, out of the ring,
06:31 he was dealing with multiple injuries,
06:33 a reported infection issue,
06:36 and on top of that, he was deeply frustrated
06:38 with his status on the card
06:40 going into the prime WrestleMania season.
06:42 He was still determined to achieve the one goal
06:45 he had never achieved in WWE, headlining WrestleMania.
06:50 In his mind, he felt that if he had put up
06:53 a good enough performance at the Rumble,
06:55 WWE would be forced to put him in a big main event at Mania.
07:00 Fortunately, it didn't turn out that way at all.
07:03 For one, Daniel Bryan had the rising tide
07:06 of fan support coming into the big match,
07:08 and Batista, who was primed to have a big run
07:11 in Hollywood with Marvel movies,
07:13 was gonna make a return run to WWE,
07:15 and it looked like they were gonna go with him instead.
07:18 As for Punk, though, he came into the match
07:20 in the daunting position of number one again.
07:23 He lasted an impressive 49 minutes and 12 seconds,
07:28 his best performance in terms of time in the Rumble match.
07:31 He had three eliminations in total
07:33 and ended up being taken out by Kane,
07:35 a man he had already eliminated.
07:37 But the scene that played out in the match was a nasty one,
07:41 as Punk suffered a concussion during the match
07:44 and was dealing with WWE's medical staff
07:46 to try and solve the situation or get him out of the match.
07:50 He felt the care was not being taken to him in proper time.
07:54 Kane would end up chokeslamming Punk
07:56 through a table at ringside,
07:57 in a moment that Punk realized
07:59 that once he had taken that blow,
08:02 that maybe he was done with WWE and wrestling in general.
08:05 The following night, Punk would not appear
08:07 on Monday Night Raw and actually walk out of the company.
08:11 After this, he was pretty much done with wrestling
08:13 and was suspended by the company
08:15 and even had his termination letter sent to him
08:18 on his wedding day with fellow WWE superstar AJ Lee.
08:22 If you're looking back at the history of Punk
08:24 that we just covered here,
08:25 you can see that there really wasn't the perfect time
08:28 for WWE to have Punk win this pivotal match,
08:31 specifically in 2014,
08:33 when it really felt like it was Daniel Bryan's year.
08:35 Timing has always been the biggest factor
08:38 in CM Punk not winning the Rumble
08:40 and even during his peak in 2011, 2012, into 2013,
08:45 he was busy defending the WWE Championship,
08:48 which is not bad, by the way.
08:50 2024 is a completely different circumstance.
08:53 He's received a hero's welcome from everyone,
08:56 hey, almost everyone,
08:57 and has a lot of momentum on his side.
09:00 Look up the numbers.
09:02 CM Punk is a bankable guy to have win the match this year.
09:06 And to add to that, there's a rumor match between him
09:08 and his despised rival,
09:10 who has said both in character and out of it
09:12 that he hates CM Punk.
09:14 We're talking about Seth Rollins,
09:15 which is the best option to main event
09:17 one of the nights of WrestleMania 40.
09:20 You can see CM Punk has a history
09:22 of incredible showings in the Rumble match.
09:24 You don't need to win the whole thing
09:26 to win over a lot of fan support coming out of it.
09:29 If you want to get down to the numbers,
09:31 he spent 168 minutes, 12 seconds,
09:35 across six Rumble matches,
09:36 averaging a little over than 28 minutes per appearance.
09:40 WWE simply doesn't give superstars
09:43 a long period in the Rumble match without any reason.
09:46 And depending on where he enters,
09:48 he could be in for another Iron Man performance.
09:51 On one hand, you can't count down those other names
09:54 that are out there that could come in
09:56 and take this whole thing.
09:58 Like Cody Rhodes, who would be the first man
10:00 to win back-to-back Rumbles this century.
10:02 While on the other hand, you have a superstar
10:04 who may just be the greatest performer
10:06 in Royal Rumble history for not winning the entire thing.
10:10 Overall, we would say that the best chance
10:13 that CM Punk has in his entire career to win the Rumble,
10:17 combining all the factors and timing of it,
10:19 the potential for a WrestleMania main event
10:21 that he wants and deserves,
10:24 the red hot momentum is right now.
10:27 But if you want to go in depth
10:29 over whether or not it should be Punk or Cody,
10:31 who wins the Royal Rumble in 2024,
10:34 watch our detailed analysis video of it right here.
10:38 Thank you for watching.
10:39 Get into the comments below.
10:40 Let us know who you want to see win the Royal Rumble.
10:43 (dramatic music)
10:46 (choral music)
10:49 (dramatic music)
10:51 (choral music)
10:54 [MUSIC]