The Complete History of the WWE Championship - Part 16

CM Punk (July 17, 2011 - August 14, 2011)

CM Punk: Won the WWE Championship on his final night in the company

CM Punk's five year WWE deal came up for renewal in the summer of 2011 and he was in no rush to sign it. In fact he had made it known publicly that he was likely to depart WWE when his contract expired as he had become increasingly unhappy with the way he had been booked during his tenure.

Despite reigning as ECW Champion and World Heavyweight Champion on three occasions, he had never been embraced as top guy by the promotion. In fact at Unforgiven 2008, he lost his World title without even participating in the title match after Randy Orton punted him in the head backstage. No superstar babyface like Hulk Hogan or Stone Cold Steve Austin would have failed to turn up for a title defense no matter how incapacitated they were. That Chris Jericho, who had been decimated by Shawn Michaels earlier in the card was the one who left that event World Heavyweight Champion added to the humiliation for Punk.

However, in a moment of booking ingenuity, with Punk set to leave WWE, the company elected to make his impending departure part of the storyline, with his WWE Championship bout with John Cena supposedly taking place on the final night of his contract.

Cue a storyline wherein WWE owner Vince McMahon frantically tried to re-sign Punk to a fresh deal only to be denied.

In one of the greatest WWE Championship matches in history, Punk pinned Cena to become the new champion. McMahon sent out Money in the Bank briefcase holder Alberto Del Rio in a last ditch attempt to steal the belt from Punk. "The Straight Edge Superstar" smashed the Mexican in the head with a well timed kick and subsequently exited the arena with the gold as McMahon chased after him in despair.

Punk left WWE with the belt, only to make a surprising return eight days later to confront Cena again, immediately after Cena had defeated Rey Mysterio to win the replacement WWE Championship on the July 25, 2011 Raw.

At SummerSlam, Punk successfully unified the WWE titles, only to be assaulted post-match by Kevin Nash. Del Rio, then cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase to end Punk's reign after just four weeks.