5 CM Punk matches outside WWE you might not have seen

Modified Jan 26, 2018 12:21 GMT

Four years since has CM Punk wrestled — Four years since has passed since CM Punk last wrestled

#3 CM Punk vs Samoa Joe - ROH

CM Punk had great matches with Samoa Joe

Dave Meltzer is the most respected pro-wrestling journalist of all time and for a match to be awarded a 5-star rating by Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter, is supposed to be a huge deal. There hadn't been a single 5-star rated match in the US after the Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels Hell in a Cell match in 1997.

That all changed in 2005. CM Punk had made his way to Ring of Honour where Samoa Joe was the top dog. In the midst of a record-breaking 645-day reign as ROH Champion, Joe narrowly escaped defeat at the hands of Punk in a 60 minute time limit match the first time they met.

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The buzz generated from that match was so great that ROH created a show named Joe vs Punk II with their rematch headlining the card. The rematch surpassed the first match with the duo once again wrestling to a time-limit draw with Joe seconds away from pinning Punk following a top rope muscle buster.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter called it 'the best match to ever take place on American soil'.

Edited by Nikhil Bhaskar