Original Artwork The Xavierite
2024 has been a successful year across the board for the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). However, one superstar who has had the most eventful year was CM Punk.
On Nov. 30, Punk competed at the annual “Survivor Series” premium live event (PLE). This marked a full year since his return to WWE at the same event last year, making it the perfect time to look back upon his roller-coaster ride of a year back with the company.
Punk made his shocking return to WWE on Nov. 25, 2023, at “Survivor Series: War Games.” This brought an end to his seven year-long hiatus from the company, which he left on bad terms in 2014. Though his last run with the company ended on a sour note, Punk came back with one goal in mind, to finally achieve his dream of main eventing a “WrestleMania.”
Upon his return, Punk wasted no time and hit the ground running.
Royal Rumble 2024
The first step in achieving his goal was participating in the 2024 Men’s “Royal Rumble Match” to earn a Championship match at Mania. This was no easy task, as to win you must outlast all 29 other participants.
Unfortunately, Punk ran into an obstacle on his road to WrestleMania 40, suffering a torn tricep during the Rumble match, which shut down any chance of him competing at the event.
Though Punk finished the match as one of the final two remaining wrestlers in the match, he was eliminated by Cody Rhodes, who won the match and went on to main event WrestleMania against Roman Reigns. Punk announced his injury the next night on “RAW”, saying, “In the course of the Rumble, I tore my right tricep.”
He added, “As much as I tried and asked that maybe I could just tape it and go to Elimination Chamber and try to win that and get my main event at WrestleMania, it’s just not in the cards.”
As a longtime fan of Punk, this was a huge blow. After enduring two injuries and dealing with backstage drama during his time in All Elite Wrestling (AEW), fans wanted things to finally go right for Punk. However, it seemed that this string of bad luck had followed him back to the WWE.
Luckily, although the injury forced Punk to sit on the sidelines at Mania, it didn’t stop him from being involved in the buildup. Punk would become involved in the storyline with Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre.
Rivalry with Drew McIntyre
After having his announcement interrupted by Mcintyre, who mocked his injury saying “I prayed for this and it happened”, Punk entered a potential feud of the year contender with the “Scottish Psychopath”.
Punk appeared at Mania as a guest commentator for the World Heavyweight Championship match between Rollins and McIntyre. Throughout the match, both competitors became distracted with the presence of Punk at ringside. Ultimately, Mcintyre took the victory.
Instead of celebrating his win though, McIntyre made the mistake of gloating his win in Punk’s face. Punk had enough and fought back, opening the door for Damien Priest to cash-in his Money in the Bank briefcase and take the newly won Heavyweight championship from McIntyre.
This ignited one of the most intense feuds of the year in all of professional wrestling. The two faced off in a series of three matches, each more brutal than the last.
McIntyre won their first encounter at the “SummerSlam” PLE after an altercation between Punk and the special-guest referee, Rollins caused a distraction. However, Punk was victorious at both the “Bash in Berlin” and “Bad Blood” PLE’s. The series ended with Punk taking two victories, while McIntyre only obtained one.
Joining forces with the “OG Bloodline” at WarGames
After the battles with McIntyre, Punk was recruited by his former manager, Paul Heyman, to fight alongside the “OG Bloodline” in the 5-on-5 “WarGames match”.
Punk joined the winning team of Jimmy & Jey Uso, Sami Zayn, and Reigns at the 2024 “Survivor Series: WarGames” to combat the “new Bloodline” of Solo Sikoa, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Jacob Fatu. and Bronson Reed. Though he and Reigns have personal animosity towards each other stemming from Punk’s previous WWE run, Punk agreed to help under the condition that Heyman would owe him “a favor” in the future.
What this favor is remains unclear, this is a prime example of why Punk remains one of the most compelling superstars in WWE. In the past year, the WWE has improved dramatically simply by having Punk around, as any storyline involving the “Best in the World” is guaranteed to have the audience in the palm of his hands.