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#8 Squandering young CM Punk
Watch some early episodes of TNA and you’ll see the forgotten run of CM Punk there, primarily playing a sidekick for Raven. Punk accomplished nothing of note with the promotion, before leaving under a wave of controversy. Various reports attribute the falling out to Punk having an altercation with Teddy Hart, to management feeling Punk wasn’t getting over, and to contractual disputes about Punk’s ability to work with ROH concurrently.
When you look at what Punk would become for both ROH and WWE as a legit, breakout, main event star, it’s wild to think that TNA had a real chance to have done the same and blew it. The misuse of the "Straight Edge Superstar" supports the popular theory that TNA never really knew how to grow its own talent, and was too dependent on imports from other big companies (mostly WWE and WCW). To be fair, Punk has a reputation for being difficult to work with, but you have to wonder what might have been, had TNA decided to give Punk a real push, back in 2003.
