3 Most underutilized championship reigns of the decade

#3 CM Punk's 434-day title reign

Not main-eventing PPV's hurt his reign!

This long reign came across as a surprise to many fans. In an era where championships were given the hot potato treatment, CM Punk became the 7th person to hold the top title for more than a year.

Fans had wanted Punk to be the WWE Champion ever since he cut the infamous Pipe-bomb promo. While he did win the championship at Money in the Bank, a returning Kevin Nash and MITB winner Alberto Del Rio limited his reign to 28 days. Punk then feuded with Triple H and John Laurinaitis, before defeating Del Rio at Survivor Series to win the belt. Punk would then hold on to the title until Royal Rumble 2013, where he would lose to The Rock.

Through all this, there was one glaring issue. CM Punk despite being top dog, only main-evented pay-per-views when he wrestled The Rock or John Cena.

Among the 14 pay-per-views that followed Survivor Series 2011, Punk couldn’t compete at one event, and main evented just 5 out of the remaining 13. Of these 5 main events, he won only one match without shenanigans that favored his win/resulted in his loss.

Regardless, Punk made the most out of his reign and profited from having the fans on his side. Once he was forced to turn heel, he needed Heyman and all the cheap heat he could incite, in order to maintain his momentum.

Many fans were disappointed with the heel turn because it meant that either John Cena or The Rock was going to become the next WWE champion. Essentially, the portion of his championship run while being a face wasn’t memorable. At best, it was remembered for this little nugget.

His matches with Daniel Bryan were great, but the endings were always murky. One match saw him tap out just microseconds after he pinned the Yes! Man, another match saw Punk pinning his other opponent, Kane after AJ Lee showed up and the last match ended with a suplex through a table. Not the sign of a fighting champion who comes out on top against all the odds.

I personally feel this reign would have been much better if he was allowed to headline pay-per-views and his character was still the anti-hero, instead of a clean face or a dirty heel. This reign could also have benefited from the main event at WrestleMania 29, pitting him against either Brock Lesnar or John Cena for the WWE Championship.