How CM Punk Won His First Title (Part 2/3)

Chris Benoit
CM Punk stood face to face with Chris Benoit on ECW just days before their ECW Title Match at Vengeance Night of Champions.  June of 2007 was to be the launching of a new era in ECW and the next step in the evolution of CM Punk.  The match never happened.

If you flashed back to a year earlier, ECW was meant to be on the same level of Raw and Smackdown.  Stars like RVD, Kurt Angle, Big Show were brought in to compliment the returning ECW stars like Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, Sabu.   On the day of the WWE Draft in June of 2007, RVD, Angle and Big Show were all gone from WWE/ECW and the ECW Originals were being phased out.  This draft was meant to was meant to shape the new “New” ECW.  But we all remember what the MOST important thing to happen the night of the WWE Draft 2007; Vince McMahon Appreciation Night and his limo going boom. This angle was to kick off a long storyline about who did it and a power struggle over who controlled WWE.

With so much time and attention being put into the McMahon story, ECW was once again pushed down the ladder of importance.  By this point, some weeks the ECW Team would be lucky to get five to ten minutes to pitch our show to Vince.  We would wait all day for a meeting and then be told, “Just email Vince”.  My marching orders were to get one thing approved.  That way we could provide something Kevin Dunn’s TV crew could edit a commercial for Raw.  We knew “our place” in the WWE Creative food chain.  We had to be fine with it because we knew it wasn’t going to change.  Our goal for ECW was to focus on young talent and give them a platform to develop.  The key to this plan was centered around Chris Benoit coming to ECW.

Night Of Champions
Chris Benoit was to be the veteran leader for the ECW locker room.  He was excited to be coming and helping groom the up and coming talents like Miz, John Morrison, Marcus Cor Von, Kevin Thorn, Elijah Burke and especially CM Punk.   Benoit was fresh off working with MVP in their feud over the United States Title.  The finals of the ECW Title tournament was to feature CM Punk vs. Chris Benoit at Night of Champions.   On that night, Chris Benoit was scheduled to win the title and enter into long term story with CM Punk; Punk attempting to beat the veteran to win his first title.

When Chris Benoit did not appear that day in Houston, a decision was made to replace him in the match with Johnny Nitro (making his ECW debut).  We had no information on Benoit at the time beyond the phone calls that his family was sick.  The decision was made to have Nitro win the title and leave options that if/when Benoit came back – he could challenge Nitro for the title.   

When news broke over the Benoit Family Tragedy, wrestling storylines weren’t important.  I remember hearing Vickie Guerrero scream in shock when we all heard the news.  That sound will always stick with me.  Those are emotions I don’t think any of us ever want to live through again. The McMahon story was dropped and everything planned was put on hold.

John Morrison
When we finally got back to work, ECW’s Champion was John Morrison (changing his name and persona from Johnny Nitro) and Punk was the number one contender.   The name change gave Morrison a fresh canvas to paint on and create a whole new persona.  It was Morrison who came up with his entrance (including the slow motion and the fans).  He would come up with his promos and the crazy catch phrase.  Punk, being himself, was the perfect opponent for Morrison.

They had 3 PPV matches against each other (Night of Champions, The Great American Bash, and Summerslam).  Morrison won all three.  We wanted Punk to win at Summerslam but Vince didn’t want to make the switch.  I could tell the frustration with Punk of “well, what now?”  I could never pin down the issue with putting the title on Punk in any of those three matches.  

Morrison was improving as a heel but WWE had always been a babyface territory – a hero who would defend and fight off the oncoming challenges.

The Boogeyman Eating Worms
We were instructed to come up with a new opponent to face Morrison for the title.  The babyface roster was pretty thin on ECW but we picked Boogeyman.  I can see eyes rolling across the world on the choice of Boogeyman because the match wouldn’t be a five star classic.  But I liked the Boogeyman; he was a great character and figured it would be a good victory for our champion.  

We scheduled a four way match to determine the new #1 contender with CM Punk vs. Boogeyman vs. Big Daddy V vs. The Miz. The show aired live on 8/28/07.  I remember sitting in the Gorilla Position (where wrestlers walk out / where the agents and Vince sit) and noticing that Vince wasn’t there.  The main event had gone in the ring before Vince walked in and sat down at the monitor.  After a moment, he waved over Fit Finlay (the agent of the match).  A quick but quiet discussion was had.  Finlay went over to the microphone hooked up to the ref and fed something to the ref.  None of us knew what was going on until we looked at the monitor.  Punk hit his flying clothesline and then the GTS on The Miz. 1…2…3.  CM Punk won the match and was announced as the number one contender.  Vince walked out of gorilla and didn’t tell us anything.
 
ECW Champion
Over the next few days, the world found out about this news story breaking in Sports Illustrated.  John Morrison (along with a large number of other talents) were suspended for 30 days for wellness violations.  Punk vs. Morrison for the ECW Title was scheduled for that Sunday at an ECW taping.  It was called “CM Punk’s Last Chance” to win the title.   And the crowd reaction that night in Cincinnati spoke to the hard work of CM Punk over the previous year.  CM Punk was finally their conquering hero.

WWE had gone through some of its worst publicity ever in a three-month span with the Benoit tragedy and the Sports Illustrated article.  The media were having a field day with these stories and attacking the company.  Vince McMahon made the choice to go with the straight edge superstar CM Punk to represent his company.  

In the late summer of 2007, Punk, being exactly who he was when he walked into WWE, won his first title in the WWE.  And in 2011, it was CM Punk being himself that has brought him more notoriety than anyone in the WWE had ever thought was possible.

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