00:00 Satisfaction is the death of desire.
00:05 - The recently returning CM Punk announced his entry
00:08 into the 2024 Men's Royal Rumble match,
00:11 and it's gonna be his seventh appearance
00:12 in the big multi-man affair,
00:14 and his ninth overall on the show.
00:16 He is always someone who many felt should have won
00:20 the Rumble in the past at different points in his career,
00:22 but it's an accolade that has eluded him,
00:25 along with his goal of headlining WrestleMania.
00:28 That could all change in 2024,
00:31 given that he is now one of the favorites
00:33 to win the big match, but have you ever wondered
00:36 what the history of CM Punk's performances
00:39 in the Royal Rumble are?
00:40 Let's go back 17 years to 2007,
00:44 when Punk was a young upstart in WWE.
00:47 By January of that year, he was a few months
00:49 into his first WWE run, and he was making a big impact.
00:53 Punk was always seen as the classic indie darling
00:57 before the term ever became a thing.
00:59 He came into WWE with a lot of heat and hype.
01:02 He was a standout in Ring of Honor
01:04 and other promotions outside of WWE
01:06 before he signed with them.
01:08 There was some reported internal resentment
01:10 of Punk's momentum that he made outside of the company
01:13 and then brought into it, but plenty of fans
01:16 on the growing internet wrestling community
01:18 saw him as a sign of WWE breaking from the expected line
01:22 of new talents that they brought in.
01:24 His first six months under the bright lights of WWE
01:27 were a huge success.
01:28 That's why when Punk entered the Rumble in 2007
01:31 in the number 11 spot, it was surprising
01:34 that he lasted for a whole 27 minutes and 16 seconds
01:39 before being eliminated by the Great Khali.
01:42 Representing ECW, the third tier brand for WWE at the time,
01:47 he had only an elimination to his name in the match,
01:49 which was a combined effort by him and eight other superstars
01:52 to take out the Big Viscera, yeah, Big Daddy V.
01:57 The next year, with Punk still fighting his way
01:59 out of the ECW ranks, he defeated Chavo Guerrero
02:02 to qualify for the big match.
02:04 He entered in the number 12 spot in the 2008 Rumble
02:07 and lasted a respectable 23 minutes and 50 seconds
02:11 to once again only get one elimination.
02:14 This time, though, he could take full credit for tossing
02:16 that man over the rope with both feet hitting the floor,
02:19 and those feet were the feet of Chuck Palumbo.
02:22 Incidentally, Chavo Guerrero, the man he beat to qualify
02:25 for the Rumble match, is the one
02:27 who would end up eliminating him.
02:29 By the 2009 Royal Rumble, Punk was way higher up
02:32 on the card in WWE.
02:34 He moved over from ECW to Raw,
02:36 captured the Money in the Bank briefcase,
02:38 and briefly had a respectable, once again respectable,
02:41 run as World Heavyweight Champion.
02:43 He entered the entire fray at number 18,
02:47 the latest entry spot he's ever had
02:49 in the big Rumble match so far.
02:52 Once again, crossing the 20 minute mark
02:54 and lasting 22 minutes and 29 seconds,
02:57 and yet again, having a single elimination,
03:00 taking William Regal out of the Rumble this time
03:03 before being eliminated by The Big Show.
03:06 2010 saw CM Punk have the shortest time
03:09 of any of his Royal Rumble matches
03:11 up to that point in his career.
03:12 Entering at number three, he lasted only 10 minutes
03:15 and four seconds, but had five impactful eliminations,
03:20 and he did some pretty ridiculous stuff.
03:23 Punk got Dolph Ziggler, Evan Bourne, JTD of Crying Time,
03:26 Beth Phoenix, and Zack Ryder out of the match.
03:29 Despite not being the winner of the whole thing,
03:31 Punk ate up his minutes in this all-star game of WWE.
03:35 Since this was overzealous,
03:36 straight-edge society cult leader Punk,
03:39 he used the pauses in action to chastise the audience
03:42 on the microphone.
03:43 He even tried to convince the gigantic Great Khali
03:46 to convert to his straight-edge way of life.
03:49 It was something that truly showed
03:51 he could get his character over in any situation.
03:54 Punk ended up having the second most eliminations
03:57 of that Rumble match, just behind Shawn Michaels,
04:00 who eliminated six men.
04:01 It was Michael's old pal, Triple H,
04:04 who took CM Punk out of the Rumble that year.
04:07 In the first and only 40-man Royal Rumble match ever in 2011,
04:12 CM Punk entered at number one
04:13 for the first time in his career.
04:15 It also ended up being the longest appearance for him
04:18 in the Rumble up to that point,
04:20 as he eliminated seven men thanks to The Nexus,
04:23 yes, the faction he was leading at the time.
04:25 In terms of his performance that year,
04:27 he was tied with John Cena at seven eliminations apiece,
04:31 and technically lasted a minute longer than The Goat,
04:34 with 35 minutes and 21 seconds to be that year's Iron Man.
04:39 Yeah, we know all the numbers here.
04:41 But it was Cena who eliminated him that year.
04:43 ♪ Bum, bum, bum, bum ♪
04:45 That kicked off 2011 for CM Punk,
04:47 which may have been one of the biggest years
04:48 of his career up to that date.
04:50 He would eventually shed the whole Nexus thing,
04:52 go off on WWE, break through the fourth wall
04:55 with the infamous Pipe Bomb promo
04:57 that led to the title match against Cena in Chicago
05:01 at Money in the Bank,
05:03 one of the best WWE matches of the last 20 years.
05:07 I was there.
05:07 We can thumb wrestle over it at some point.
05:10 Turning into wrestling's hottest babyface fan fader
05:13 at the time, he entered 2012 as the WWE Champion,
05:17 and defended the title at the Royal Rumble
05:19 against the show-off Dolph Ziggler
05:21 with John Laurinaitis as the special guest referee.
05:24 He ended up defending the title successfully
05:26 and holding it throughout 2012,
05:28 and even having a big match against Chris Jericho
05:31 at WrestleMania that year.
05:32 Punk may have had the championship around his waist
05:34 going into Mania that year,
05:35 but he had a big chip on his shoulder
05:37 because, yeah, he didn't give a headline at WrestleMania.
05:39 This guy named The Rock came back,
05:42 and he got to close out the show with John Cena.
05:45 By 2013, the Royal Rumble came along,
05:48 and CM Punk was a very, very different character
05:51 with the WWE Championship around his waist
05:53 at this point for 434 days,
05:57 making him the longest reigning world champion
05:59 in the company since the 1980s.
06:02 But that was all going to come crashing down
06:04 because if you smell-a-la-la-la what The Rock was cooking up,
06:08 it's another main event.
06:09 And as you probably know,
06:10 The Rock defeated Punk in a very strong match,
06:13 while John Cena won the Royal Rumble match
06:16 to set up a twice-in-a-lifetime match at WrestleMania 29
06:20 that we all saw coming 100 miles away.
06:23 The 2014 Royal Rumble was a very interesting situation,
06:26 but not for the right reasons for CM Punk.
06:29 Coming into the match, out of the ring,
06:31 he was dealing with multiple injuries,
06:33 a reported infection issue,
06:36 and on top of that, he was deeply frustrated
06:38 with his status on the card
06:40 going into the prime WrestleMania season.
06:42 He was still determined to achieve the one goal
06:45 he had never achieved in WWE, headlining WrestleMania.
06:50 In his mind, he felt that if he had put up
06:53 a good enough performance at the Rumble,
06:55 WWE would be forced to put him in a big main event at Mania.
07:00 Fortunately, it didn't turn out that way at all.
07:03 For one, Daniel Bryan had the rising tide
07:06 of fan support coming into the big match,
07:08 and Batista, who was primed to have a big run
07:11 in Hollywood with Marvel movies,
07:13 was gonna make a return run to WWE,
07:15 and it looked like they were gonna go with him instead.
07:18 As for Punk, though, he came into the match
07:20 in the daunting position of number one again.
07:23 He lasted an impressive 49 minutes and 12 seconds,
07:28 his best performance in terms of time in the Rumble match.
07:31 He had three eliminations in total
07:33 and ended up being taken out by Kane,
07:35 a man he had already eliminated.
07:37 But the scene that played out in the match was a nasty one,
07:41 as Punk suffered a concussion during the match
07:44 and was dealing with WWE's medical staff
07:46 to try and solve the situation or get him out of the match.
07:50 He felt the care was not being taken to him in proper time.
07:54 Kane would end up chokeslamming Punk
07:56 through a table at ringside,
07:57 in a moment that Punk realized
07:59 that once he had taken that blow,
08:02 that maybe he was done with WWE and wrestling in general.
08:05 The following night, Punk would not appear
08:07 on Monday Night Raw and actually walk out of the company.
08:11 After this, he was pretty much done with wrestling
08:13 and was suspended by the company
08:15 and even had his termination letter sent to him
08:18 on his wedding day with fellow WWE superstar AJ Lee.
08:22 If you're looking back at the history of Punk
08:24 that we just covered here,
08:25 you can see that there really wasn't the perfect time
08:28 for WWE to have Punk win this pivotal match,
08:31 specifically in 2014,
08:33 when it really felt like it was Daniel Bryan's year.
08:35 Timing has always been the biggest factor
08:38 in CM Punk not winning the Rumble
08:40 and even during his peak in 2011, 2012, into 2013,
08:45 he was busy defending the WWE Championship,
08:48 which is not bad, by the way.
08:50 2024 is a completely different circumstance.
08:53 He's received a hero's welcome from everyone,
08:56 hey, almost everyone,
08:57 and has a lot of momentum on his side.
09:00 Look up the numbers.
09:02 CM Punk is a bankable guy to have win the match this year.
09:06 And to add to that, there's a rumor match between him
09:08 and his despised rival,
09:10 who has said both in character and out of it
09:12 that he hates CM Punk.
09:14 We're talking about Seth Rollins,
09:15 which is the best option to main event
09:17 one of the nights of WrestleMania 40.
09:20 You can see CM Punk has a history
09:22 of incredible showings in the Rumble match.
09:24 You don't need to win the whole thing
09:26 to win over a lot of fan support coming out of it.
09:29 If you want to get down to the numbers,
09:31 he spent 168 minutes, 12 seconds,
09:35 across six Rumble matches,
09:36 averaging a little over than 28 minutes per appearance.
09:40 WWE simply doesn't give superstars
09:43 a long period in the Rumble match without any reason.
09:46 And depending on where he enters,
09:48 he could be in for another Iron Man performance.
09:51 On one hand, you can't count down those other names
09:54 that are out there that could come in
09:56 and take this whole thing.
09:58 Like Cody Rhodes, who would be the first man
10:00 to win back-to-back Rumbles this century.
10:02 While on the other hand, you have a superstar
10:04 who may just be the greatest performer
10:06 in Royal Rumble history for not winning the entire thing.
10:10 Overall, we would say that the best chance
10:13 that CM Punk has in his entire career to win the Rumble,
10:17 combining all the factors and timing of it,
10:19 the potential for a WrestleMania main event
10:21 that he wants and deserves,
10:24 the red hot momentum is right now.
10:27 But if you want to go in depth
10:29 over whether or not it should be Punk or Cody,
10:31 who wins the Royal Rumble in 2024,
10:34 watch our detailed analysis video of it right here.
10:38 Thank you for watching.
10:39 Get into the comments below.
10:40 Let us know who you want to see win the Royal Rumble.
10:43 (dramatic music)
10:46 (choral music)
10:49 (dramatic music)
10:51 (choral music)
10:54 [MUSIC]
Comments