Phillip Jack Brooks[4] (born October 26, 1978), better known by the ring name CM Punk, is an American mixed martial artist, comic book writer, and retired professional wrestler. He is currently signed to both the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he competes in the welterweight division, and to Cage Fury Fighting Championships (CFFC), where he works as a commentator. He is perhaps best known for his time in WWE, where his 434-day WWE Championship reign stands as the longest of the 2010s, as well as the sixth longest in history.
Brooks began his professional wrestling career on the American independent circuit, primarily with Ring of Honor (ROH) until 2005, when he signed with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). During his 15-year career, Brooks won the WWE Championship twice, WWE's World Heavyweight Championship three times, and the ECW and ROH World Championships once each. By winning WWE's World Tag Team Championship (with Kofi Kingston) and Intercontinental Championship, he became WWE's 19th Triple Crown Champion and the fastest to achieve this feat, in 203 days. He was voted WWE Superstar of the Year at the 2011 Slammy Awards, and Wrestler of the Year in 2011 and 2012 by readers of Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Brooks retired from in-ring competition in 2014, but returned to WWE via Fox Sports in 2019, where he is an analyst on the FS1 series WWE Backstage.
Brooks used the CM Punk moniker his entire career, and consistently portrayed the character of an outspoken, sharp-tongued, anti-establishment, straight edge iconoclast. Most of the straight edge principles he portrayed, such as not drinking alcohol or not taking recreational drugs, are his real life views.[5] Depending on his alignment as a hero or villain, he emphasized different aspects of the straight edge culture to garner the desired audience reaction.[5]
After becoming disgruntled in WWE, Punk retired from professional wrestling in 2014. He pursued a career in mixed martial arts and was signed by the UFC in December of that year. His first professional fight took place on September 10, 2016, at UFC 203 against Mickey Gall, where he was defeated via submission in the first round. He lost his second bout to Mike Jackson via unanimous decision on June 9, 2018, at UFC 225. Later that year, he began commentating for CFFC, appearing at CFFC 71 on December 14.
Early life
Brooks was born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in nearby Lockport, Illinois.[6] He is one of five children—his father was an engineer, while his mother was a homemaker.[7] Brooks' father struggled with alcoholism which inspired him to become straight edge from an early age, while his mother struggled with bipolar disorder, causing him to become estranged from her.[8] He attended Lockport Township High School.[7][9]
Professional wrestling career
Early career and IWA Mid-South (1999–2005)
Brooks' first venture into wrestling was a stint in a backyard wrestling federation called the Lunatic Wrestling Federation with his friends and brother Mike Brooks in the mid-late 1990s. Brooks first started using the ring name CM Punk when he was put into a tag team named The Chick Magnets with CM Venom after another performer skipped out on the card.[5][10][11] Unlike his friends, Punk genuinely wanted to be a wrestler and saw it as more than simple fun.[5] When the promotion started taking off, doing shows out of a warehouse in Mokena, Illinois, Punk found out that his brother Mike had embezzled thousands of dollars from the small company, causing them to become estranged and not have spoken since.[12]
Brooks soon left the federation and enrolled as a student at the Steel Dominion wrestling school in Chicago, where he was trained by Ace Steel,[13] Danny Dominion and Kevin Quinn to become a professional wrestler. As part of the training, he wrestled at Steel Domain Wrestling in St. Paul, Minnesota.[2][5] It was in the Steel Domain that he met Scott Colton,[14][15] who soon adopted the stage name Colt Cabana. Punk and Cabana became best friends and spent most of their early career together working in the same independent promotions, as both opponents and tag team partners.[14] In the independents, along with fellow Steel Domain graduates Colt Cabana, Chucke E. Smooth, Adam Pearce and manager Dave Prazak, Punk formed an alliance named the Gold Bond Mafia.[5]
Punk's home promotion for his early career was considered to be the Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South (IWA Mid-South).[5] During Punk's time in IWA Mid-South, he had high-profile feuds with Colt Cabana and Chris Hero while also rising to the top of the roster winning the IWA Mid-South Light Heavyweight Championship twice and the IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Championship on five separate occasions, beating wrestlers like A.J. Styles, Cabana and Eddie Guerrero in matches for the heavyweight championship. Punk's feud with Hero included a 55-minute Tables, Ladders and Chairs (TLC) match,[5] a 93-minute two out of three falls match[2] and several 60-minute time limit draws.[15] From July 2003 until May 2004, Punk refused to wrestle for IWA Mid-South, explaining this as a protest to Ian Rotten's mistreatment of Chris Hero in the company.[5] However, Hero has stated he believes there were other reasons and Rotten's treatment of him was just an excuse by Punk to stop working for the company.[16] Punk eventually returned to IWA Mid-South and continued to perform as a wrestler and commentator for them until July 2005.[17]
Ring of Honor
Feud with Raven and rise to prominence (2002–2004)
Punk's matches with Colt Cabana led him to being hired by the Ring of Honor (ROH) promotion.[2] Initially, Punk joined ROH as a face,[5] but quickly turned heel in a feud with Raven that featured numerous variants of no disqualification matches.[18] Their rivalry was rooted in Punk's straight-edge lifestyle, with him likening Raven to his alcoholic father; it lasted most of 2003 and was considered one of ROH's top feuds of the year.[19][20] Their rivalry was settled at The Conclusion in November 2003, where Punk defeated Raven in a steel cage match.[18]
Punk started climbing the ranks of ROH, including coming in second at the Second Anniversary Show during the tournament to crown the first ROH Pure Champion, losing to A.J. Styles in the finals[18] and winning the ROH Tag Team Championship twice with Colt Cabana as The Second City Saints (Punk and Cabana defeated the Briscoe Brothers to win the championship both times).[21] Circa October 2003, Punk was hired as the first head trainer of the Ring of Honor wrestling school,[5][22] having previously been a trainer for the Steel Domain[5] and Primetime Wrestling.[23]
ROH World Champion (2004–2006)
In 2004, Punk faced off against ROH World Champion Samoa Joe for the championship in a three-match series. On June 12 at World Title Classic, the first match resulted in a 60-minute time limit draw when neither Punk nor Joe could pin or cause the other to submit in the 60 minutes. On October 16 at Joe vs. Punk II, they wrestled to a second 60-minute draw.[18] In addition to Joe vs. Punk II becoming Ring of Honor's best-selling DVD at the time, the match received a five-star rating by Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter. It was the first match in North America to receive a five-star rating in seven years, the last one being the Hell in a Cell match between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker at Badd Blood: In Your House in 1997.[15] Joe ended the series by defeating Punk in the third and final match on December 4 at All-Star Extravaganza 2 in which there was a no-time-limit stipulation
After a try-out match on May 9, 2005 which aired May 15,[24] where he lost to Val Venis on the Sunday Night Heat show, Punk accepted a deal offered by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in June. Though he had accepted the deal, Punk defeated Austin Aries to win the ROH World Championship on June 18 at Death Before Dishonor III.[21] Immediately after the match, Punk proceeded to become a villain and started a storyline where he threatened to bring the ROH World Championship to WWE with him. For weeks, Punk teased the ROH locker room and the ROH fans as well as mocking the championship he possessed, going so far as to sign his WWE contract on it. During the storyline, referred to by ROH as the "Summer of Punk",[25] Mick Foley made several ROH appearances, attempting to convince Punk to do the right thing and defend the title on his way out. On August 12, Punk lost the ROH World Championship to James Gibson in a four corner elimination match which also involved Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels.[21] Punk's final scheduled match in ROH took place at Punk: The Final Chapter on August 13, against long-time friend Colt Cabana in a two out of three falls match, which he lost.[18]
Punk made a special appearance at the ROH show Unscripted II on February 11, 2006, when the original card had to be scrapped due to Low Ki leaving ROH the week prior.[18] In addition, most of the ROH roster contracted to TNA were pulled from the show because of a snowstorm that TNA officials thought might prevent performers from reaching the TNA's Against All Odds event scheduled the next day.[26][27] In the main event, Punk teamed with Bryan Danielson to defeat Adam Pearce and Jimmy Rave in a tag team match.[27]
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2003–2004)
While wrestling for Ring of Honor, Punk joined the wrestling promotion NWA:Total Nonstop Action, later known as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), in which he was paired with Julio Dinero as members of Raven's TNA alliance The Gathering.[5]
Shortly before a TNA show on February 25, 2004, Punk had a physical scuffle with Teddy Hart outside of a restaurant that was broken up by Sabu. The scuffle reportedly stemmed from an ROH show in which Hart performed three unplanned spots putting several other wrestlers in danger of injury.[28][29] Around the time of the scuffle, Punk and Dinero stopped appearing on TNA shows, leading to speculation he was fired for the incident.[30] However, Punk said the scuffle had no bearing on his TNA career.[30] Brooks said the reason he and Dinero stopped appearing on TNA's pay-per-view events was that TNA officials believed that he and Dinero had not connected with the fans as villains, having turned against the popular Raven and instead formed a villainous tag team managed by James Mitchell.[30] The officials decided that since the team was not working as villains, the storyline would be put on hold indefinitely, and thus had no work for Punk or Dinero.[30] Punk officially quit TNA in March 2004 during the Rob Feinstein controversy after having a dispute with the TNA offices over his ability to compete in ROH following a TNA order that their contracted wrestlers were to no longer wrestle in ROH.[3]
World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
Ohio Valley Wrestling (2005–2006)
In September 2005, Punk was assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling, a WWE developmental territory. He made his debut as a heel on September 8 in a dark match, where he, Nigel McGuinness and Paul Burchill were defeated by Deuce Shade, Elijah Burke and Seth Skyfire.[31] On September 26 in his OVW television debut, Punk suffered a ruptured eardrum and broken nose after Danny Inferno hit him with an overly stiff right hand. Despite the injury, Punk finished the match and quickly recovered.[32] [33]
On November 9, Punk became the OVW Television Champion after defeating Ken Doane,[32] which immediately led to a feud between Punk and Brent Albright, who had previously been feuding with Doane for the Television Championship and had lost his chance to wrestle Doane after Punk hit him with a chair so he himself could wrestle Doane. They wrestled in series of matches, including one that ended in overtime with Albright having Punk submit to Albright's finisher, the Crowbar, but Punk was able to keep the championship as he had not agreed to the extra time.[32] On January 4, 2006, Punk lost the OVW Television Championship during a three-way dance among himself, Albright and Doane. Doane was injured halfway through the match and was replaced by Aaron "The Idol" Stevens. Punk submitted to Albright's Crowbar and was eliminated, but he returned later in the match to distract Albright, allowing Stevens to pin Albright and become the new OVW Television Champion.[34] Albright and Punk then briefly teamed, but they became opponents again after Punk denied Albright the respect he demanded and proceeded to continually "punk him out". This feud continued for weeks with Punk always coming out on top until a double turn occurred on February 1, when Albright turned heel during a tag team match, allowing the Spirit Squad to attack Punk, turning him face.[34][unreliable source?] After Matt Cappotelli vacated the OVW Heavyweight Championship because of a brain tumor in February, a tournament was held to crown a new champion and Punk lost to Albright in the finals.[34][unreliable source?] Punk and Albright continued their feud, with Albright becoming more unstable and paranoid about maintaining his championship after several close call matches against Punk, resulting in acts such as threatening Maria. On May 3, Punk defeated Albright in a strap match to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship.[34][unreliable source?] As champion, Punk retained the title in matches against opponents such as Shad Gaspard,[34][unreliable source?] Ken Kennedy,[34][unreliable source?] Johnny Jeter[34][unreliable source?] and Mike "The Miz" Mizanin.[35]
On July 28, Punk and Seth Skyfire defeated Shad Gaspard and the Neighborhoodie to win the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship at a house show.[36] They lost the tag team championship on August 2 to Deuce Shade and "Domino" Cliff Compton after an injured Skyfire tagged in an already injured Punk.[34][unreliable source?] This altercation led to a feud between Punk and Skyfire after a rematch for the tag team championship on August 7 in which a healthy Punk purposefully tagged in an injured Skyfire to be beaten by Shade and Compton.[34] On August 30, a match was scheduled to take place between Punk and Skyfire for the OVW Heavyweight Championship. However, prior to the match Skyfire was attacked by Charles "The Hammer" Evans, with whom Skyfire had also been feuding and was replaced in the match by Chet Jablonski who pinned Punk to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship.[34][unreliable source?] As Punk no longer possessed the championship, OVW no longer required him and he was removed from the roster and brought up to the WWE roster full-time. Punk continued to make sporadic appearances for OVW such as on their 400th TV episode[34][unreliable source?] until WWE and OVW ended their developmental partnership on February 7, 2008.[37]
ECW Champion (2006–2008)
On June 24, 2006, Punk made his ECW debut during a house show at the former ECW Arena, defeating Stevie Richards.[38] He made his TV debut on the July 4 ECW on Sci Fi, cutting a brief pre-taped promo about his straight edge lifestyle emphasizing the disciplinary aspects of being drug and alcohol free.[39] Although he had retained the straight edge gimmick, he now had a Muay Thai training background. Punk made his TV wrestling debut on August 1 at the Hammerstein Ballroom, defeating Justin Credible.[40] Punk established himself in ECW by going undefeated, defeating opponents such as Christopher W. Anderson,[41] Stevie Richards[42] and Shannon Moore.[43]
Soon after, Punk began feuding with Mike Knox after Knox's girlfriend Kelly Kelly was seen to have feelings for Punk.[43] Punk defeated Knox in their first singles match[44] as well as the rematch, after which Kelly Kelly celebrated Punk's victory over her boyfriend.[45] Punk then teamed with D-Generation X and the Hardy Boyz in their Survivor Series match against Rated-RKO, Knox, Johnny Nitro and Gregory Helms, a match in which all the participants on DX's side survived elimination.[46] On December 3 at December to Dismember, Punk participated in the Elimination Chamber match for the ECW World Championship, but he was the first person eliminated by Rob Van Dam
Brooks began his professional wrestling career on the American independent circuit, primarily with Ring of Honor (ROH) until 2005, when he signed with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). During his 15-year career, Brooks won the WWE Championship twice, WWE's World Heavyweight Championship three times, and the ECW and ROH World Championships once each. By winning WWE's World Tag Team Championship (with Kofi Kingston) and Intercontinental Championship, he became WWE's 19th Triple Crown Champion and the fastest to achieve this feat, in 203 days. He was voted WWE Superstar of the Year at the 2011 Slammy Awards, and Wrestler of the Year in 2011 and 2012 by readers of Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Brooks retired from in-ring competition in 2014, but returned to WWE via Fox Sports in 2019, where he is an analyst on the FS1 series WWE Backstage.
Brooks used the CM Punk moniker his entire career, and consistently portrayed the character of an outspoken, sharp-tongued, anti-establishment, straight edge iconoclast. Most of the straight edge principles he portrayed, such as not drinking alcohol or not taking recreational drugs, are his real life views.[5] Depending on his alignment as a hero or villain, he emphasized different aspects of the straight edge culture to garner the desired audience reaction.[5]
After becoming disgruntled in WWE, Punk retired from professional wrestling in 2014. He pursued a career in mixed martial arts and was signed by the UFC in December of that year. His first professional fight took place on September 10, 2016, at UFC 203 against Mickey Gall, where he was defeated via submission in the first round. He lost his second bout to Mike Jackson via unanimous decision on June 9, 2018, at UFC 225. Later that year, he began commentating for CFFC, appearing at CFFC 71 on December 14.
Early life
Brooks was born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in nearby Lockport, Illinois.[6] He is one of five children—his father was an engineer, while his mother was a homemaker.[7] Brooks' father struggled with alcoholism which inspired him to become straight edge from an early age, while his mother struggled with bipolar disorder, causing him to become estranged from her.[8] He attended Lockport Township High School.[7][9]
Professional wrestling career
Early career and IWA Mid-South (1999–2005)
Brooks' first venture into wrestling was a stint in a backyard wrestling federation called the Lunatic Wrestling Federation with his friends and brother Mike Brooks in the mid-late 1990s. Brooks first started using the ring name CM Punk when he was put into a tag team named The Chick Magnets with CM Venom after another performer skipped out on the card.[5][10][11] Unlike his friends, Punk genuinely wanted to be a wrestler and saw it as more than simple fun.[5] When the promotion started taking off, doing shows out of a warehouse in Mokena, Illinois, Punk found out that his brother Mike had embezzled thousands of dollars from the small company, causing them to become estranged and not have spoken since.[12]
Brooks soon left the federation and enrolled as a student at the Steel Dominion wrestling school in Chicago, where he was trained by Ace Steel,[13] Danny Dominion and Kevin Quinn to become a professional wrestler. As part of the training, he wrestled at Steel Domain Wrestling in St. Paul, Minnesota.[2][5] It was in the Steel Domain that he met Scott Colton,[14][15] who soon adopted the stage name Colt Cabana. Punk and Cabana became best friends and spent most of their early career together working in the same independent promotions, as both opponents and tag team partners.[14] In the independents, along with fellow Steel Domain graduates Colt Cabana, Chucke E. Smooth, Adam Pearce and manager Dave Prazak, Punk formed an alliance named the Gold Bond Mafia.[5]
Punk's home promotion for his early career was considered to be the Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South (IWA Mid-South).[5] During Punk's time in IWA Mid-South, he had high-profile feuds with Colt Cabana and Chris Hero while also rising to the top of the roster winning the IWA Mid-South Light Heavyweight Championship twice and the IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Championship on five separate occasions, beating wrestlers like A.J. Styles, Cabana and Eddie Guerrero in matches for the heavyweight championship. Punk's feud with Hero included a 55-minute Tables, Ladders and Chairs (TLC) match,[5] a 93-minute two out of three falls match[2] and several 60-minute time limit draws.[15] From July 2003 until May 2004, Punk refused to wrestle for IWA Mid-South, explaining this as a protest to Ian Rotten's mistreatment of Chris Hero in the company.[5] However, Hero has stated he believes there were other reasons and Rotten's treatment of him was just an excuse by Punk to stop working for the company.[16] Punk eventually returned to IWA Mid-South and continued to perform as a wrestler and commentator for them until July 2005.[17]
Ring of Honor
Feud with Raven and rise to prominence (2002–2004)
Punk's matches with Colt Cabana led him to being hired by the Ring of Honor (ROH) promotion.[2] Initially, Punk joined ROH as a face,[5] but quickly turned heel in a feud with Raven that featured numerous variants of no disqualification matches.[18] Their rivalry was rooted in Punk's straight-edge lifestyle, with him likening Raven to his alcoholic father; it lasted most of 2003 and was considered one of ROH's top feuds of the year.[19][20] Their rivalry was settled at The Conclusion in November 2003, where Punk defeated Raven in a steel cage match.[18]
Punk started climbing the ranks of ROH, including coming in second at the Second Anniversary Show during the tournament to crown the first ROH Pure Champion, losing to A.J. Styles in the finals[18] and winning the ROH Tag Team Championship twice with Colt Cabana as The Second City Saints (Punk and Cabana defeated the Briscoe Brothers to win the championship both times).[21] Circa October 2003, Punk was hired as the first head trainer of the Ring of Honor wrestling school,[5][22] having previously been a trainer for the Steel Domain[5] and Primetime Wrestling.[23]
ROH World Champion (2004–2006)
In 2004, Punk faced off against ROH World Champion Samoa Joe for the championship in a three-match series. On June 12 at World Title Classic, the first match resulted in a 60-minute time limit draw when neither Punk nor Joe could pin or cause the other to submit in the 60 minutes. On October 16 at Joe vs. Punk II, they wrestled to a second 60-minute draw.[18] In addition to Joe vs. Punk II becoming Ring of Honor's best-selling DVD at the time, the match received a five-star rating by Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter. It was the first match in North America to receive a five-star rating in seven years, the last one being the Hell in a Cell match between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker at Badd Blood: In Your House in 1997.[15] Joe ended the series by defeating Punk in the third and final match on December 4 at All-Star Extravaganza 2 in which there was a no-time-limit stipulation
After a try-out match on May 9, 2005 which aired May 15,[24] where he lost to Val Venis on the Sunday Night Heat show, Punk accepted a deal offered by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in June. Though he had accepted the deal, Punk defeated Austin Aries to win the ROH World Championship on June 18 at Death Before Dishonor III.[21] Immediately after the match, Punk proceeded to become a villain and started a storyline where he threatened to bring the ROH World Championship to WWE with him. For weeks, Punk teased the ROH locker room and the ROH fans as well as mocking the championship he possessed, going so far as to sign his WWE contract on it. During the storyline, referred to by ROH as the "Summer of Punk",[25] Mick Foley made several ROH appearances, attempting to convince Punk to do the right thing and defend the title on his way out. On August 12, Punk lost the ROH World Championship to James Gibson in a four corner elimination match which also involved Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels.[21] Punk's final scheduled match in ROH took place at Punk: The Final Chapter on August 13, against long-time friend Colt Cabana in a two out of three falls match, which he lost.[18]
Punk made a special appearance at the ROH show Unscripted II on February 11, 2006, when the original card had to be scrapped due to Low Ki leaving ROH the week prior.[18] In addition, most of the ROH roster contracted to TNA were pulled from the show because of a snowstorm that TNA officials thought might prevent performers from reaching the TNA's Against All Odds event scheduled the next day.[26][27] In the main event, Punk teamed with Bryan Danielson to defeat Adam Pearce and Jimmy Rave in a tag team match.[27]
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2003–2004)
While wrestling for Ring of Honor, Punk joined the wrestling promotion NWA:Total Nonstop Action, later known as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), in which he was paired with Julio Dinero as members of Raven's TNA alliance The Gathering.[5]
Shortly before a TNA show on February 25, 2004, Punk had a physical scuffle with Teddy Hart outside of a restaurant that was broken up by Sabu. The scuffle reportedly stemmed from an ROH show in which Hart performed three unplanned spots putting several other wrestlers in danger of injury.[28][29] Around the time of the scuffle, Punk and Dinero stopped appearing on TNA shows, leading to speculation he was fired for the incident.[30] However, Punk said the scuffle had no bearing on his TNA career.[30] Brooks said the reason he and Dinero stopped appearing on TNA's pay-per-view events was that TNA officials believed that he and Dinero had not connected with the fans as villains, having turned against the popular Raven and instead formed a villainous tag team managed by James Mitchell.[30] The officials decided that since the team was not working as villains, the storyline would be put on hold indefinitely, and thus had no work for Punk or Dinero.[30] Punk officially quit TNA in March 2004 during the Rob Feinstein controversy after having a dispute with the TNA offices over his ability to compete in ROH following a TNA order that their contracted wrestlers were to no longer wrestle in ROH.[3]
World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
Ohio Valley Wrestling (2005–2006)
In September 2005, Punk was assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling, a WWE developmental territory. He made his debut as a heel on September 8 in a dark match, where he, Nigel McGuinness and Paul Burchill were defeated by Deuce Shade, Elijah Burke and Seth Skyfire.[31] On September 26 in his OVW television debut, Punk suffered a ruptured eardrum and broken nose after Danny Inferno hit him with an overly stiff right hand. Despite the injury, Punk finished the match and quickly recovered.[32] [33]
On November 9, Punk became the OVW Television Champion after defeating Ken Doane,[32] which immediately led to a feud between Punk and Brent Albright, who had previously been feuding with Doane for the Television Championship and had lost his chance to wrestle Doane after Punk hit him with a chair so he himself could wrestle Doane. They wrestled in series of matches, including one that ended in overtime with Albright having Punk submit to Albright's finisher, the Crowbar, but Punk was able to keep the championship as he had not agreed to the extra time.[32] On January 4, 2006, Punk lost the OVW Television Championship during a three-way dance among himself, Albright and Doane. Doane was injured halfway through the match and was replaced by Aaron "The Idol" Stevens. Punk submitted to Albright's Crowbar and was eliminated, but he returned later in the match to distract Albright, allowing Stevens to pin Albright and become the new OVW Television Champion.[34] Albright and Punk then briefly teamed, but they became opponents again after Punk denied Albright the respect he demanded and proceeded to continually "punk him out". This feud continued for weeks with Punk always coming out on top until a double turn occurred on February 1, when Albright turned heel during a tag team match, allowing the Spirit Squad to attack Punk, turning him face.[34][unreliable source?] After Matt Cappotelli vacated the OVW Heavyweight Championship because of a brain tumor in February, a tournament was held to crown a new champion and Punk lost to Albright in the finals.[34][unreliable source?] Punk and Albright continued their feud, with Albright becoming more unstable and paranoid about maintaining his championship after several close call matches against Punk, resulting in acts such as threatening Maria. On May 3, Punk defeated Albright in a strap match to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship.[34][unreliable source?] As champion, Punk retained the title in matches against opponents such as Shad Gaspard,[34][unreliable source?] Ken Kennedy,[34][unreliable source?] Johnny Jeter[34][unreliable source?] and Mike "The Miz" Mizanin.[35]
On July 28, Punk and Seth Skyfire defeated Shad Gaspard and the Neighborhoodie to win the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship at a house show.[36] They lost the tag team championship on August 2 to Deuce Shade and "Domino" Cliff Compton after an injured Skyfire tagged in an already injured Punk.[34][unreliable source?] This altercation led to a feud between Punk and Skyfire after a rematch for the tag team championship on August 7 in which a healthy Punk purposefully tagged in an injured Skyfire to be beaten by Shade and Compton.[34] On August 30, a match was scheduled to take place between Punk and Skyfire for the OVW Heavyweight Championship. However, prior to the match Skyfire was attacked by Charles "The Hammer" Evans, with whom Skyfire had also been feuding and was replaced in the match by Chet Jablonski who pinned Punk to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship.[34][unreliable source?] As Punk no longer possessed the championship, OVW no longer required him and he was removed from the roster and brought up to the WWE roster full-time. Punk continued to make sporadic appearances for OVW such as on their 400th TV episode[34][unreliable source?] until WWE and OVW ended their developmental partnership on February 7, 2008.[37]
ECW Champion (2006–2008)
On June 24, 2006, Punk made his ECW debut during a house show at the former ECW Arena, defeating Stevie Richards.[38] He made his TV debut on the July 4 ECW on Sci Fi, cutting a brief pre-taped promo about his straight edge lifestyle emphasizing the disciplinary aspects of being drug and alcohol free.[39] Although he had retained the straight edge gimmick, he now had a Muay Thai training background. Punk made his TV wrestling debut on August 1 at the Hammerstein Ballroom, defeating Justin Credible.[40] Punk established himself in ECW by going undefeated, defeating opponents such as Christopher W. Anderson,[41] Stevie Richards[42] and Shannon Moore.[43]
Soon after, Punk began feuding with Mike Knox after Knox's girlfriend Kelly Kelly was seen to have feelings for Punk.[43] Punk defeated Knox in their first singles match[44] as well as the rematch, after which Kelly Kelly celebrated Punk's victory over her boyfriend.[45] Punk then teamed with D-Generation X and the Hardy Boyz in their Survivor Series match against Rated-RKO, Knox, Johnny Nitro and Gregory Helms, a match in which all the participants on DX's side survived elimination.[46] On December 3 at December to Dismember, Punk participated in the Elimination Chamber match for the ECW World Championship, but he was the first person eliminated by Rob Van Dam
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