Best in the World (part one)
The unthinkable had happened on July 17, 2011. CM Punk, with his contract set to expire at midnight, defeated John Cena in a barnburner to take home the WWE Championship, and ran out of Allstate Arena stealing the biggest prize in professional wrestling. Just a few hours before that match, CM Punk convinced Vince McMahon to allow him to go to any promotion to defend the title, with Punk saying: "I want to come back at Survivor Series".
Therefore; the CM Punk world tour began. He began with TNA.
"What in the hell is CM Punk doing in the Impact Zone? And he has the WWE title with him!"
- Mike Tenay, on an episode of
IMPACT
Punk interrupted IMPACT and had another pipebomb-esque promo, claiming that TNA messed up when they had Punk the first time. The next week, he interrupted a segment between TNA World Champion Sting and Kurt Angle, saying, "I'm sure both of you want this more than you want that lump of crap around Sting's waist".
It was official - there would be no TNA World Championship match, instead it would be a WWE Championship match closing out a TNA pay-per-view.
Hardcore Justice (Total Nonstop Action Wrestling)
After scurrying out of the Impact Zone after a title match that got more eyes on the TNA product, he waited until the next pay-pew-view held by the company, No Surrender, to re-appear, declaring an open challenge to open the show.
And who came out? None other than the Phenomenal One himself.
No Surrender (Total Nonstop Action Wrestling)
The match was compared by many to be on par, with some even saying that it was better, than the Punk v. Cena encounter at Money in the Bank. Dave Meltzer thought so too - he rated it 5 stars, the first TNA match to get that coveted rating since Styles/Joe/Daniels at Unbreakable in 2005.
After Punk won it with a Styles Clash of his own...Punk thought it was save to trash-talk TNA some more...instead, Samoa Joe came out to level Punk with a Musclebuster. Punk was going to have one more match in TNA before he got out of Dixieland for good.
Until then, he managed to catch a flight to New York to a homecoming of sorts for Punk - his first appearance on a Ring of Honor card since leaving the company to head for WWE in 2005. The original Summer of Punk happened in ROH - now the Second Summer was going to make a stop by the promotion that first drew eyes on CM Punk.
"I'm glad to be back here, I really am...now give me who I am going to face in the main event tonight!"
- CM Punk at Death Before Dishonor IX
Lo and behold, it was the former ROH World Champion, Eddie Edwards. After some bickering, Edwards said:
"I am not only going to prove myself, I am going to make myself the WWE Champion tonight. I am going to prove that you can last 60 minutes in the ring with me."
Therefore, it was an Iron Man match for the WWE Championship.
After a grueling match that harked back to Punk's most iconic matches in ROH with Raven and Samoa Joe, CM Punk hit the GTS with 15 seconds left to break the tie and walk away the WWE Champion once more.
Next up on
Best in the World...Who is the "true" WWE Champion in Stamford?