Original subtitles

Those things, there's never going to be another undertaker.

He was the heartbeat.

There'll never be another person like that.

That's the legacy.

CM Punk, one of sports entertainment's biggest lightning rods.

I'm here to make friends, I'm here to make money.

Make the pledge to stand on my side, one nation, under Punk.

The brash, unapologetic, and unpredictable voice of the voiceless.

BITW best in the world.

Today we celebrate the very best from the best in the world.

What's my name?

It's WWE's greatest moments, and it comes to you right now.

Acknowledge me.

Welcome, everyone, to WWE's Greatest Moments. I'm Michael Cole.

And on this edition, we showcase the defining moments in the career of

professional wrestling's rebel with a cause, CM Punk.

Since his WWE debut in 2006, Chicago's favorite son has proven time and again

that he will do whatever it takes to prove that he truly is, as he self

-proclaims, the best in the world.

Never has that been more tested than his recent battle rivalry with the Scottish

warrior Drew McIntyre.

Hung suffered a torn right tricep.

I prayed for this and it happened.

I did not come here to make a mortal enemy, but that's exactly what I have

Our first moment brings us to the PLE aptly named Bad Blood, where these two

would wage war inside the demonic structure known as Hell in a Cell.

When I was growing up, that was the match.

There were two people truly hate each other and get into that cell.

Light out everything and legally beat them up.

This will not be a five -star wrestling classic.

It is going to be mutually assured destruction.

It wasn't about winning or losing.

It was about showing the other person that, hey, I'm better than you. And I

think that reminded a lot of people of what wrestling can really be. It can be

brutal.

Drew McIntyre landed very nasty on the steel steps, and it looked like he broke

his back, and it all comes down to that moment.

Punk's got a chain!

Go to sleep!

To the chain!

Tonight in the Devil's Playground, there's only room for one voice.

CM Punk!

They say you never forget your first, and we certainly haven't forgotten the

time that CM Punk burst out of the scene in the ECW revival.

Our next moment goes all the way back to 2007 when CM Punk went up against ECW

champion John Morrison in an attempt to capture his first world title.

A very focused, a very driven athlete is the challenge at CM Punk.

John Morrison in the ECW title to this day, I think it's one of my best matches

ever.

For whatever reason, me and him just clicked that night.

It was one of those things where we just went out there and during the match, I

was feeling it like we got something here.

He wanted

to be the top guy in the top company in the world.

He wasn't going to stop no matter how many people told him he didn't have the

look, he didn't have the size, he couldn't do this, couldn't do that.

somebody like CM Punk as champion, it really kind of gives you that infectious

motivation.

You're witnessing a brand new star.

In 2013, CM Punk was looking to conquer The Undertaker's unprecedented

WrestleMania undefeated streak.

20 men had tried, 20 men had failed.

CM Punk needed to go to depth he had never been before.

And after the passing of Paul Bearer, The Undertaker's longtime manager, CM

knew what he had to do to rattle the unshakable dead man.

This means everything to The Undertaker, and it doesn't mean a damn thing to me.

CM Punk and his manager, Paul Heyman, spent weeks taunting The Undertaker with

the urn that supposedly held Bearer's ashes.

Things came to a dramatic head. Just one week.

Before the show of shows.

CM Punk, the disrespect that you've shown Paul Bearer will cause

you to pay the ultimate price.

When you're a villain, you've got to embrace being a villain. You've got to

able to go all the way.

What is this?

I didn't necessarily want to get sheared. I wanted to be a bad guy.

Initially, I felt like it was too disrespectful.

But then I was like, Paul would love this.

He would love that his character is still relevant at this point.

Oh, look out.

That's Punk.

He was disgusted to ruin him pushing Undertaker.

This guy is the legend that I get to wrestle.

There's no half measures here.

Oh, my God.

You want to dance with the devil?

How do I gain an edge?

I'm going to dump ashes out of the urn onto The Undertaker.

This guy is sick.

It gave me the extra bite to really just go over the line and go overboard.

This is disrespectful.

Still to come.

Did Punk do it? Now he's all choked up.

CM Punk is champion.

One of the most intriguing wild cards in WWE is the coveted Money in the Bank

briefcase. It grants its holder the ability to cash in and make a sanctioned

world championship match any place, any time.

But there's only one way to gain possession of that valuable briefcase,

that's to climb the ladder and retrieve it high above the ring.

At WrestleMania 24, CM Punk would get his opportunity to compete against six

other superstars for the chance to be known.

as Mr.

Money in the Bank.

This next album is the Money in the Bank Ladder Match!

I always had a chip on my shoulder because I felt early in my career, I was

maybe told that I didn't belong. I was maybe told that I wasn't going to make

it. And I have to prove why I belong.

Oh!

You have to capture the imagination of the audience consistently, and that's

I say one of the overall just greatest ladder matches of all time would be that

of Money in the Bank at WrestleMania 24.

GTS! Go to sleep, Gold Sanders!

No, Breaker!

With the help of a ladder, and I think that's eliminated Punk!

Jericho on a position to win it!

But Punk says no! Oh, no!

Jericho hung up in the tree of wool! And here goes Punk!

Everything seemed bigger that day. I just knew I had a lot to prove, and I

lot of eyes looking at me to produce.

Can Punk win it? He did it! CM Punk has done it!

He was not the poster WWE guy.

In order for him to achieve that, that almost started a new generation for the

entire company.

Seven men looking all on the line for this night. It's all about CM Punk.

With the Money in the Bank contract fully in his grasp, CM Punk awaited the

right moment to cash it in. And that opportunity would come in June 2008 when

enraged Batista took some frustrations out on the world heavyweight champion

edge, leaving him ripe for the picking.

A raging Batista.

Hey, wait a minute.

CM Punk is doing it. Here was a good guy cashing in on a bad guy that everybody

hated. He's Savage.

That's what Savages do. They cash in.

He's cashing in Money in the Bank.

Edge.

The GTS.

They're going to sleep.

The cover.

What's that?

What's the champion?

What's the champion?

And now he is a bonafide WWE superstar.

We now have.

We have ammo to go out there and wrestle with anybody, and it's legit.

CM Punk has done it.

Mr. Money in the Bank has become Mr.

World Champion.

I was over the moon with the whole thing. I was like, this is it.

Ball at my fist and swing at the world, and here we go. CM Punk's on top.

I'm going to show people what I can do.

Still to come. At midnight tonight, CM Punk is leaving this company.

This will not be pretty. This will be a fight.

As we'll see a bit later on in the program, CM Punk returned to WWE in 2023

after a 10 -year absence.

CM Punk is home.

But one superstar in particular didn't accept him with open arms, Seth freaking

Rollins. When you abandoned this place, I put it on my back. I made it stronger

than it's ever been.

I left because I had to, and I came back because they chanted my name.

A decade of pent -up anger would lead these two rivals into the main event of

the historic Raw premiere on Netflix.

He left the WWE for his own reasons.

To be someone that had stayed and been a part of the company felt very personal.

This rivalry between CM Punk and Seth Freakin' Rollins that is over 10 years

the making, how could that not be the main event?

On his shoulders, looking for the goal to sleep!

He connects with Punk's fantasy move!

With all the trash that's been talked between Seth Rollins and CM Punk, to see

Seth Rollins throw Punk up for a GTS was just incredibly gratifying.

Rollins with another GTS!

Boom! But, of course, it doesn't last long.

Oh, it stopped!

Now using Rollins' finishing move!

I really felt that whoever won that main event was basically going to be the

face of Raw on Netflix.

Punk! GTS!

Into the cover!

CM Punk wins!

I was extremely happy with how that turned out.

I have a special TV there.

B -I -T -W, Beth!

In the world.

In 2013, CM Punk was reveling in his incredible 400 -plus days as WWE

proving night after night that he was the best in the world, not only in the

ring, but on the mic. I am the WWE Champion, and I will cement my legacy

with the focus and the spotlight on me.

But his true test would come with the most electrifying man in sports

entertainment return, CM Punk.

We have this opportunity to test his verbal skills and finally get his chance

go one -on -one with the great one.

The Brahma Bowl is back!

What made me rock interesting was young kid on a world stage in front of the

rock, maybe not proven. If people tuned in and were like, who's this guy?

I always want to get to that next level.

You know, the Rock knows, they know.

In 20 days,

time's up.

I want to step up to that plate.

I want to see those 99 -mile -an -hour pitches that Rock's going to be throwing

because I can hit it out of the park. Whenever you decide to grace us with

presence, I'm going to kick your ass because I'm the best in the world.

Is there a doctor in the house because a man who claims that he's straight edge

is running around here looking exactly like Popeye on crack?

You can sing songs and you can rhyme and you can do your tired, lame -ass

shtick. I just want you to know that come Royal Rumble, you can't leave a

on the champ's face.

Your arms are just too short to box with God.

So not a lot of people from our generation get a chance to go one -on

The Rock.

That validated his status as being in the upper echelon all time.

The best in the world is a self -imposed moniker that is hard to argue with.

But if there was a superstar that could truly test CM Punk's boastful claim, it

would be the GOAT, John Cena.

Controversy would surround their WWE Championship match at Money in the Bank

2011. July 17th is the day my contract with World Wrestling Entertainment comes

to an end.

And trust me when I tell you I am leaving with the WWE Championship.

CM Punk's contract expiring that night.

What would the future hold for the richest prize in the game?

It is a night where the entire landscape of WWE can be changed.

There probably wasn't any more high stakes of a wrestling match you can have

than CM Punk working without a contract, also the number one contender,

also wrestling in his hometown of Chicago.

I think that was definitely the most high -pressure situation I've ever been

in my life, not just my career.

Everything I've ever done led me up to that point.

At midnight tonight, CM Punk is leaving this company, and he may be doing it

with the WWE title.

I was really leaving.

This is as real as it gets.

To have these certain moments when you're in that ring, you can step

enjoy it as a fan.

And there were moments in that match.

That I could just be like, man, they're going to be talking about this one for a

long time to come.

He and John Cena went out there, and man, they tore the house down.

Attitude adjustment!

No! What?

Whoa.

And CM Punk, GTS connecting!

GTS connecting!

Oh, my God!

Oh, hey, my time's up, but I'm championing. That's crazy!

CM Punk is going to leave Chicago with the WWE Championship.

I think he just kissed the WWE goodbye.

Punk wins the WWE title and then hops over the guardrail and takes off into

crowd. It's just one of the most incredible scenes.

And I jumped right in a car and I drove home.

Up next is our final two moments in the countdown.

What will take the number one spot?

Oops, I'm breaking the fourth wall.

CM Punk shockingly walked out of Chicago that night as WWE champion.

And while he ultimately remained in the company, it was actually a few weeks

earlier where he vented some frustrations to the WWE universe.

In one of the most memorable segments in WWE history, he let them know in a

candidly explosive moment, simply known as the pipe bomb.

I have...

A lot of things I want to get off my chest.

They call CM Punk's promo the pipe bomb because instead of doing a traditional

wrestling promo,

CM Punk starts saying all this stuff that you don't say on television.

Oops, I'm breaking the fourth wall.

It's the only time in my adult life that anybody's called me on the phone and

been like, hey, I just was watching Raw.

You should look at this.

I am the best wrestler in the world.

That promo is an entire WWE career of frustration being just let out. I've

the best ever since day one when I walked into this company and I've been

vilified and hated since that day because Paul Heyman saw something in me

nobody else wanted to admit.

That's right, I'm a Paul Heyman guy. It blurred the lines of reality.

For almost six years, I have proved to everybody in the world that I am the

on this microphone, in that ring, even at commentary.

Nobody can touch me.

He doesn't really care about what he says.

The short -term blowback will be worth the long -term goal that he has.

I'm not on your lovely little collector cups. I'm not on the cover of the

program. I'm barely promoted.

I don't get to be in movies. I'm certainly not on any crappy show on the

Network. We still talk about it as one of the greatest promos of all time.

Let me tell you a personal story, all right?

Do we do this whole bully camp?

He felt like he had some more to say. They cut his mic off, right?

You want to extinguish this voice?

I'm the best thing you've got.

I think everybody who's ever worked here on any level has felt the frustration.

And, you know, it was almost the start of a revolution.

I'm the best in the world.

So we're now down to the end.

Number one on the countdown.

As CM Punk continued climbing up the ranks of WWE greats, the grind would

eventually catch up with him and would walk away from the professional

industry in 2014.

But the fans never forgot.

For nearly 10 years, the WWE Universe continued to chant CM Punk.

And as the men's war game match came to an end in Survivor Series 2023, CM Punk

would give the WWE Universe the moment they've waited a decade for.

And Cody Rhodes leaving. his team to victory at war games

crowd's happy the zoom out goes out on the war games and he's like okay this is

it even the credits start rolling and like time freezes

I don't really have the words to explain, like, how that moment makes me

and there's a big part of me that's still there.

No one knew that Punk was coming back, and I speak on that from a backstage

perspective.

Everybody watching jumped out of their seats.

It felt...

So unbelievable.

It was like, is punk crashing the show?

I had a couple of big moments where I think in my head, it's not going to get

any bigger than this.

And much to my shock and amazement, it keeps getting bigger.

I have the fans to thank for that.

CM Punk made some pretty big waves cementing the unbreakable special bond

he shares with the audience.

That'll do it for this edition of WWE's Greatest Moments. We hope you enjoyed

this look back at the very best of the best in the world, CM Punk.

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