WWE SummerSlam: Ranking every main event in history

6. SummerSlam 2011: John Cena vs. CM Punk

It’s unfortunate that the aftermath of the main-event match of SummerSlam 2011 went down the way it did but the main focus here is the actual match between John Cena and CM Punk to determine the real WWE Champion.

The summer of 2011 was a great time in WWE. CM Punk had delivered his classic “pipe bomb” promo on Monday Night RAW as his contract was legitimately coming to an end in July, which led to a WWE Championship match with John Cena at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view. It was a great match that saw Punk win the title in his hometown of Chicago and walk out of the building before Alberto Del Rio had a chance to cash in his newly-won briefcase at the orders of Vince McMahon. The following Monday night, an eight-man tournament to crown a new champion was held. Rey Mysterio defeated The Miz to win his first and only WWE Championship, only to have his reign be the second-shortest in history as Cena would dethrone him later that night. One week later (should have been way longer to build some suspense), Punk returned with his own belt and declared himself the “real” champion and the fight was on for SummerSlam.

It’s hard to really know what the relationship between Cena and Punk was in real life but their chemistry in the ring together was superb. They knew how to draw the crowd in each and every time and you just couldn’t look away, even for a minute. With Triple H as the special guest referee, the two went back and forth for nearly 25 minutes and you were on the edge of your seat the entire time, perhaps expecting some sort of interference from either Triple H or someone else. Only that didn’t happen — well, not right away. A fantastic finishing sequence saw Punk hit the GTS and get the three count with Cena’s foot still on the rope. But that didn’t matter and Punk was declared the winner. And then the monstrosity happened.

Kevin Nash (WHAT?) hit the ring and attacked Punk, which allowed Alberto Del Rio to come down and cash in his MITB briefcase, thus once again stealing a nice moment from CM Punk. I’m sure glad that all played out like they wanted it to.