10 Greatest Rivalries in The History of WWE SmackDown

#7 CM Punk vs. Jeff Hardy

Rockstar life vs. Straight edge life

CM Punk was a tremendous heel in Ring of Honor, but having been a face in WWE, and a really popular one at that for the past 3 years, many fans and those within the company who were unfamiliar with Punk's heel work in ROH, were not convinced that Punk had what it took to be a great heel. Thanks to this feud with Jeff Hardy in 2009, he proved everyone wrong.

Jeff Hardy was WWE's most popular star at the time and fans were dying for him to have a proper main event run as a Heavyweight Champion, as his WWE Champion reign earlier in the year was cut short at just a month. Jeff finally won the World Heavyweight Championship, defeating Edge in a grueling Ladder match at Extreme Rules. CM Punk, who was Mr. Money in The Bank, decided to rain on Jeff Hardy's parade by cashing in a claiming the World title.

Punk was instantly heavily booed for the next few weeks, despite never actually turning heel. The two met at The Bash event for the Championship, which ended in a seemingly accidental DQ. They next fought at Night of Champions where Jeff pulled the surprise win and became Champion. Punk confronted Jeff the following week, appearing to congratulate him before viciously attacking him, officially turning heel.

Over the next few weeks, Punk would make mention of Jeff's past drug use and talked himself up as being better than everyone for being straight edge. The two collided in a fantastic TLC at SummerSlam, where Punk regained the Championship. The feud came to a close the following week on SmackDown when Punk defeated Hardy in a Title vs. Career Steel Cage match.