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2011: The Summer Of Punk
CM Punk's pipebomb promo took the wrestling world by storm and forced everybody to pay attention to him. The storyline of Punk winning the WWE Championship on the same night he was leaving the company was extremely gripping and at Money in the Bank, he did so by defeating John Cena in a five-star classic. CM Punk's hometown crowd of Chicago went mental for the entire segment and off he went, into the night as WWE Champion. At the time, it seemed like he would be gone for a really long time.
Punk did claim that he would defend the title in different promotions, but he ended up returning to WWE in just eight days, as the company just couldn't help themselves. Following that, Punk defeated Cena again only for a returning Kevin Nash(?!) to attack him, before Alberto Del Rio cashed in his Money in the Bank to win the title. Following that defeat, CM Punk got pinned at three straight pay-per-views before finally regaining the WWE Championship at Survivor Series, well into the fall.
While the Voice of the Voiceless came good and went on a 434-day long WWE Title reign, the Summer of Punk does seem like a missed opportunity. He was never as hot as he was from the end of June till mid-August in 2011. It all seemed a bit wasted and CM Punk could have been a much bigger star than he already is. Well, at least we all have Money in the Bank 2011. The peak of the Summer of Punk and possibly, the greatest moment of Punk's illustrious career.
