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CM Punk Sends a Heartfelt Message to John Cena

Published 07/19/2020, 5:41 AM EDT

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CM Punk celebrated the 9th anniversary of him defeating John Cena at Money in the Bank in 2011. He went onto become the WWE champion following this victory.

The match was one of the most iconic ones in the history of the championship. Furthermore, it received five stars from legendary wrestling critic Dave Meltzer.

During his tribute to the match, CM Punk acknowledged that this would not have been possible without John Cena and Scott Armstrong.

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“I did a thing nine years ago. Couldn’t have done it without @JohnCena. @WWEArmstrong and most importantly the fans. That crowd, that atmosphere is something I’ll never forget. Thank you all. #MITB”

The energetic Chicago crowd was one of the most important aspects of the match. They contnued to cheer the hometown hero.

Upon winning the match, he ended up being the face of WWE and kick-started the “Summer of Punk” era. His exceptional talents in the ring led him to becoming the longest reigning champion of the modern era at 434 days.

During this iconic run, he faced the likes of Chris Jericho, The Rock, Daniel Bryan, and others.

The match was quite interesting. Initially John Cena had the upper-hand. However, CM Punk punched his ribs causing him to fall outside the ring.

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Immediately after Punk rolled Cena back inside the ring, Vince McMahon emerged to distract him.

Cena realized McMahon was signalling the referee to give him the win and denied that. He wanted to win fairly. CM Punk delivered the final blow and Cena went down.

However, McMahon did not like the outcome. Out came Del Rio to attack CM Punk, but even Rio went down with a roundhouse kick from CM Punk. He took his well-deserved WWEChampionship and celebrated with his fans, blew a kiss to McMahon, and went off his own way.

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Vince McMahon was left looking stunned, angry, and exceptionally unhappy. Punk would leave the company in kayfabe and return to kickstart one of the best rivalries in WWE history with John Cena.

One can even say that the WWE was never the same after the end of this rivalry.

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Written by:

Shuvangi Sen Chaudhury

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Shuvangi is a senior WWE and AEW author at EssentiallySports. She has over 1000 published WWE articles and also has experience in content operations with Forbes. Having completed her undergraduation from Royal Holloway, University of London, Shuvangi is closely aligned to the fitness industry, having amateur skills levels in tennis and basketball while rowing at a regatta level.
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