Royal Rumble was not just day No. 434 of CM Punk’s historic WWE Title reign. It was also the end of his self-described “life’s work.” (VIEW PHOTOS)

With his mother, Ata Johnson, in attendance, The Rock fulfilled his promise of dethroning The Straight Edge Savior in Phoenix and reclaiming the championship he last held August 2002. But thanks to an alleged attack that transpired under the veil of darkness and seemingly had The Shield’s fingerprints all over it, The Great One’s eighth WWE Championship victory very nearly didn’t come to fruition.

Nearly 20 minutes into highly physical championship contest, which saw the tide swing repeatedly and both competitors target each others’ well-documented injuries, The Rock signaled for his patented People’s Elbow. As The Brahma Bull sprang off the ropes, however, the lights of US Airways Center went out and moments later, the familiar sound of a body crashing through the commentators’ desk echoed throughout the arena. Continue reading »

After WWE Champion CM Punk called out The Shield, The Rock responded

A letter from WWE Chairman Mr. McMahon has made it official that if The Shield interfere in the WWE Championship Match at Royal Rumble — the way they did when they attacked The Rock four days ago on Raw.

(WATCH | PHOTOS) — CM Punk will be striped of the WWE Title. In response, CM Punk and Paul Heyman journeyed to SmackDown, the final stop before the biggest battle of his life.

The Straight Edge Champion admitted he was scared, but only of his own potential. Because he knew The Shield could now get in the way, Punk called out the dangerous faction. The Shield emerged from the crowd and surrounded the WWE Champion. Punk claimed he never asked for or wanted their help and told them that if they believed in justice, they would stay out of his way. In response, The Shield opted to leave without incident.

But when Punk began to talk again about his WWE Title Match against The Rock, The Great One stepped onto “his” show. A very focused People’s Champion called Punk a liar for saying he was never working with The Shield. But more importantly, Rock said it won’t matter this Sunday when he becomes the WWE Champion for the eighth time!

WWE Champion CM Punk addressed the WWE Universe

 
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WWE Champion CM Punk def. Brodus Clay

PHOTOS | VIDEO

Call your mommas and lock up the fine china, Brodus Clay and CM Punk have beef. Taking The Straight Edge Superstar’s snide remarks the previous week to heart, The Funkasaurus stepped into the ring against the reigning WWE Champion to see if Punk could back up the tough talk of his “pipe bombs.” The champion obliged Clay and then some, earning a gritty victory over a raging Brodus in the Toyota Center on Raw’s 20th anniversary. The big man came out swinging with a vicious array of power moves that left Punk reeling, but The Straight Edge Superstar proved his mettle by toughing it out through the big man’s attacks and felling Brodus with several neckbreakers and a flying elbow. With The Funky One down, Punk quickly wrenched his foe into the Anaconda Vise, forcing Clay to tap out.

The Rock performed a “Rock Concert” and brawled with CM Punk

PHOTOS  | VIDEO

It’s time for The Rock to sooth his soul, WWE Universe. As Raw turned 20, The People’s Champion strolled to the ring, guitar in hand, to perform his signature sing-along for the WWE Universe. And The Great One had an audience of two in mind for his latest ditties: Paul Heyman (in absentia) and Vickie Guerrero (in person). The Brahma Bull eviscerated them in song, spinning vicious tunes that left the WWE Universe rolling in the aisles to the tune of his dulcet strumming.

But Rock changed his tune just as he finished it, calling out CM Punk when the concert reached its end. The champion who The Rock snidely dubbed “Cookie Puss” last week obliged and The Great One let loose with a little “pipe bomb” of his own.

“You said that facing you would be like boxing with God. Well you ain’t God. But God as my witness, in 13 days I will beat you for the WWE Title at the Royal Rumble.”

That was enough for Punk to drop all pretense of civility, sending the champion sprinting down the ramp. He swarmed The Great One, instigating an all-out brawl between the two that only stopped after scores of referees and WWE officials stormed the ring to separate the warring Superstars. So Raw turns 20 with a knock-down, drag-out fight. In the end, could it really ever have happened any other way?

WWE Champion CM Punk delivered a message to The Rock

(WATCH)

Just days after their epic confrontation Monday night on Raw that ended with WWE Champion CM Punk on the wrong end of a Rock Bottom, Punk and Paul Heyman delivered a pair of pointed messages to The Rock. Emanating from Sun Life Stadium in Miami, Punk made it clear to his Royal Rumble challenger that The Rock’s glory is in the past. He claimed that “This is my house now. This is CM Punk’s WWE. We live in the CM Punk era.”

WWE Champion CM Punk def. Ryback in a Tables, Ladders & Chairs Match

It was a long time coming, but WWE Champion CM Punk finally faced feeding time in the Tampa Bay Times Forum, battling Ryback one-on-one in a Tables, Ladders & Chairs Match for Punk’s WWE Title that was originally slated to go down at WWE TLC in December. Punk’s unexpected trip under the knife delayed the contest for a full month, but with The Straight Edge Superstar cleared by WWE medical officials, the champion’s brief reprieve from his ravenous challenger was finally at an end.

And make no mistake, Ryback was nothing if not very, very hungry when he finally stepped into the ring against Punk. Ryback literally came out swinging against the champion, tenderizing Punk with body shots and vicious blows from the steel steps, but Punk took advantage of the unique stipulation to fortify his counterattacks. Punk battered Ryback with chair strikes to soften him up for his signature kicks, but Ryback had a similar strategy. He matched Punk shot-for-shot with his own chair and, at one point, delivered a bone-crunching suplex to Punk that drove the champion, back-first, onto a prone ladder.

Punk rallied from the brutal assault to set up a ladder in the center of the ring, but Ryback seemed to irrevocably take control of the bout when he slammed Punk atop the ladder and then dropped him through a table, leaving the champion incapacitated and the title within reach. But right when the beast scaled the ladder, the arena lights cut out. When the lights returned, they revealed The Shield, who stormed the ring. The trio unleashed a beating on Ryback, executing the triple powerbomb and allowing Punk to scale the ladder unscathed. Against all odds, the WWE Champion survives, extending his historic reign by yet another day. Next stop: the Royal Rumble.

The Rock confronted WWE Champion CM Punk

Finally, it’s come down to this: WWE Champion CM Punk and The Rock, in the ring one-on-one. And while the first 2013 encounter between the two (and their first faceoff since Raw 1,000 back in July) was only a verbal one, the atmosphere was still pulsating with electricity and animosity as their WWE Title bout at the Royal Rumble drew ever nearer.

Before The Rock could address the people, however, CM Punk took the opportunity to drop another “pipe bomb.” In his own words, the term has been misinterpreted since that fateful 2011 night in Las Vegas. “Pipe bomb” has taken on the meaning of a tell-all missive, but to the champion, it is simply the truth. And the truth is, despite his efforts, Punk found that life in WWE had not changed much, and claimed that talented Superstars such as himself were still subject to the whims of an audience he believed to be fickle and ill-informed. In that vein, Punk snarled that he did not succeed because of “the people” who suddenly rallied to his side: He succeeded despite the “system” that had been established to keep him and his ilk down, and the fans who supported it in the first place.

“I have beaten you,” Punk said to the Universe, the establishment, to anyone and everyone his words could reach. “I have stomped you out under my oppressive boot and I’m gonna do the same to The Rock because I don’t care if he’s back. You do not get to win.”

At that point, The Rock had enough. The Brahma Bull’s music hit and for the first time since July, The Great One stalked down to the ring and wasted little time in addressing the champion’s comments. “Twenty days,” The Rock said, addressing the number of days Punk has until the fateful WWE Title Match between the two at the Royal Rumble. “Twenty days. Time’s up.”

What followed was a proverbial clash of the titans on the microphone, as Punk’s bilious rhetoric clashed with Rock’s patented braggadocio. After a tense back-and-forth, The Rock laid his own personal truth bare. His own “pipe bomb,” if you will. “The Rock is back to entertain them, The Rock is back to stop you, and after 10 long years, The Rock is back to win that,” he said.

Punk countered with a response that had no shortage of malice, but The Great One would not be deterred. “Twenty days,” Rock warned again. “Time’s up.” And before Punk could reply, The Brahma Bull struck with a Rock Bottom, leaving the WWE Champion in a heap on the canvas and sending an unmistakable message to The Straight Edge Superstar.

Welcome to 2013, WWE Universe. It’s gonna be quite the year. Twenty days.

Mr. McMahon addressed CM Punk’s WWE Title Match with Ryback
 

PHOTOS | VIDEO

If CM Punk’s 2013 resolution is to hang on to his WWE Title for a little while longer, the odds of The Voice of the Voiceless retaining his mantle just got a little bit slimmer. Sitting pretty — but injured — at 407 days as champion, The Straight Edge Superstar descended upon our nation’s capital to refute his doubters. This time, though, Punk brought his personal physician along to illustrate the severity of his injury. Despite the champion’s assertion he would be ready to compete against Ryback, the doctor would have none of it. Upon further review, he declared The Voice of the Voiceless would be unable to defend his title on the Jan. 7 Raw. And while the champion was visibly irked by this development, there was one individual who took even greater issue with the doctor’s decision: Mr. McMahon.

With 2012’s final hours ticking away, The Chairman gave his last decree of the calendar year: The champion would undergo a final evaluation by WWE officials to determine whether he was ready to compete. And if Punk was truly unable to go, Ryback’s replacement opponent would be … Paul Heyman. Happy (?) New Year, CM Punk.

Ryback informed WWE Champion CM Punk that they will battle for the WWE Title on the first Raw of 2013

The always outspoken CM Punk journeyed to SuperSmackDown LIVE to chastise the WWE Universe for voting for John Cena as the Slammy’s Superstar of the Year instead of him.

After mocking them relentlessly, he also criticized Cena for presenting “his” Slammy to WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair. Punk claimed Flair’s 16 World Championships over a span of a “95-year” career was simply not as impressive as holding the WWE Title and not losing it for nearly 400 days.

The crowd exploded as the irate WWE Champion was interrupted by Ryback. As Paul Heyman urgently insisted Punk was not medically cleared to compete, Ryback informed them both that when Punk is medically cleared on the first Raw of the New Year on Jan. 7, he will become WWE Champion!

Ric Flair returned, presented Superstar of the Year to John Cena and fought WWE Champion CM Punk

Seriously, who else could it have been? Who else could have awarded the supreme Slammy for a tumultuous 2012 than the limousine-ridin’, jet-flyin’, kiss-stealin’, wheelin’, dealin’ son of a gun himself, Ric Flair? Flair returned to WWE after a lengthy hiatus and looked like he never missed a beat. And like everything he’s ever done, “The Nature Boy’s” return to WWE did not come to pass without a maelstrom of controversy after the two-time WWE Hall of Famer was awarded the Slammy by its voted recipient, John Cena. But before Flair could take the trophy in his perfectly manicured hands, WWE Champion CM Punk hobbled out to the stage to drop a “pipe bomb” on Flair, unleashing a tirade against “Naitch” and insistinghe, not Flair or Cena, was the true Superstar of the Year.

So how does Ric Flair respond to such a thing? Why, he challenged Punk to a fight. The Second City Saint obliged, too, shattering one of his crutches over Flair’s back before The Dirtiest Player in the Game countered by poking Punk in the eye and wrenching Paul Heyman into the Figure-Four Leglock. With Punk and Heyman dispatched, Flair took to the mic to address the Philadelphia crowd … until the crackling static of The Shield’s theme spelled doom for Flair. “Come on down, boys,” he said, clearly ready for more.

WWE Champion CM Punk addressed his knee injury

386 days and counting, and WWE Champion CM Punk is still all about realness.

Specifically, the realness of his knee injury and subsequent surgery, which Punk and his pal Paul Heyman addressed onstage at the Prudential Center. “This injury is 100 percent real,” The Second City Saint insisted, bemused at the idea he would fake an injury to avoid giving Ryback another title opportunity. Punk wasn’t ready to concede anything of the sort to Ryback, instead insisting the injury was the result of the heavy workload that came along with defending the WWE Title for 386 days and, despite the setback, he would be at WWE TLC.

Paul Heyman echoed his champion’s statement, slamming the authenticity of other, lesser champions who would refuse to defend his title as often as Punk did. He also had particularly venomous words for The Rock, who he claimed lost his edge and would instead summon a stunt double (“some poor schmuck” as Heyman so loquaciously put it) to go through the table in his stead. The injury was a testament to Punk’s fortitude and his continued status as the WWE Champion and The Best in the World.

As for the “vocal minority” who insisted Punk should be stripped of the title, The Voice of the Voiceless cried foul on that, too. Rattling off a laundry list of his vanquished foes as evidence, Punk claimed he earned the right to keep his title and would continue to do so, should he end up facing The Rock at the Royal Rumble. “He will fail,” the champion vowed before taking his leave, Heyman in tow and his title safe, at least until day 387.