Top 20 worst world title changes in wrestling history
By Luke Norris
10. The Rock def. CM Punk: Royal Rumble 2013
The Rock and John Cena put on a decent match at their “Once in a Lifetime” showdown at WrestleMania XXVIII but I suppose creative felt something was missing from the bout and decided to go with the bout a second time the following year at WrestleMania 29. Only this time, the match would be for the WWE Championship and I’ve got a couple of problems with that. First of all, I’ve got a big problem with part-timers being in the main event at WrestleMania. I understand why WWE does it but that doesn’t make it right. And maybe we should look at CM Punk as the longest transitional world champion in history.
For 434 days, CM Punk held the WWE Championship and held it well. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a Punk apologist and I don’t agree with anyone walking out on a company but it’s things like this that make it a little easier to understand. Punk is one of the best wrestlers the world has ever seen who really did deserve to be in the main event at WrestleMania 29 and he probably should have been facing John Cena. But when The Rock wants to come in and play, The Rock gets to come in and play and at the 2013 Royal Rumble, he faced off with Punk for the title and to nobody’s surprise, he walked out with the WWE Championship, ending the 434-day reign of Punk, the longest in modern history.
In my opinion, Punk should have walked into WrestleMania 29 as the champion against John Cena and walked out the same way. The Rock didn’t need to be around (besides to give Cena his revenge and another title reign) and CM Punk never saw a world title again. The only saving grace from this is that we got the Punk vs. Undertaker match, which was easily better than Cena vs. Rock II.