Top 10 CM Punk Matches

This was the last great rivalry in Rey Mysterio's career. He took on Punk while he was a part of his Straight Edge Society gimmick, which was some of his best work on the mic. This match had many close calls. The end was full of reversals and it was a clean win by a heel, which seemed impossible during this time.

In my opinion, this was the second best MITB match, next to the first one. It showed the first time someone went through a ladder. It had the best mid-card the company has seen since the Attitude Era, and it was on full display. MVP, Carlito, Kennedy, Chris Jericho, Shelton Benjamin and John Morrison pulled out all the stops. They were innovative and made us wish everything on the card was just as good. This was the first sign that Punk was going to be a star.

The shortest match on this list, Punk got everything possible out of a one-legged Randy Orton at WM 27. Playing the perfect heel role, he used perfect ring psychology to focus on Orton's injured knee. It was a great mix of old school tactics and new school ring technique. The fact that Punk pulled this off is a demonstration of how good he really was.

When your rivalry with John Cena is so good he looks to something that isn't the Five Moves of Doom, that means you must be special. We saw Punk hit Cena with a powerbomb and Cena attempted to pull off a hurricanrana. The best part is despite everyone knowing what the outcome would be, it was still an amazing match. When you are on the edge of your seat despite knowing the ending, something very good is happening in the ring.

Punk versus Daniel Bryan is an indie fan's dream. It became all wrestling fans' dream once the match was over. Two of the best technical wrestlers in the business had a match that saw everything. They used the outside, had high flying moves off the top rope, awesome reversals, submissions and some straight up brawling. This match had everything and ended with Punk reversing the YES Lock into a pin.

The streak lives for one more year, but Punk put on one of the best matches in WWE history. With the seriously personal build-up surrounding the death of Paul Bearer, this match had more surrounding it than most streak matches. Despite the age of Taker, he was able to tell an awesome story in the ring with Punk.

Ignore one of the most awesome switch-a-roos in wrestling history when the Undertaker appeared, this may have been Jeff Hardy's best one-on-one match ever. These two looked like they were made of rubber with some of the spots they took. Two of the big pops came after a superplex on the ladder and a swanton bomb off a ladder onto the announce table.

In what may have been the most intense rivalry of Punk's career, Jericho took him to the limit at Extreme Rules. After their match at WM was not given its due, they were given ample time to put on a show in front of Punk's home Chicago crowd. They fought in one of the better street fights you will see. Instead of a bar room brawl mentality, this match told an amazing story. It also had about 10 great spots throughout.

No matter how hard the WWE tries to put CM Punk down as a heel, he will be revered in Chicago. At Money in the Bank 2011, something amazing happened. Only weeks after the famous pipe bomb, the world though Punk's last match would be for the WWE title at MITB. These two put on an absolute clinic, despite the involvement of Vince and John Laurinaitis. There was no chance Punk would win, but somehow he did. And it was the best.

There was just something about this match that stood out to me. Every match on this list could have been number one under certain circumstances, but the match at last year's Summerslam was something that cannot be explained. It was robbed of "match of the year" status. It had two technically sound superstars in what may be the best match we will see for years to come. If this is Punk's legacy, then that's fine, but I think he is the only one who could top this match.