CM Punk Meltdown: The 15 Most Outrageous On-Mic Rants in Wrestling History

Tonight at Money in the Bank, we will likely see the final match for CM Punk in WWE. More tragically, we may see the final CM Punk promo in WWE.

Punk has always been electric on the microphone but has been especially great in the past few weeks, even making headlines in outlets that normally never embrace WWE storylines.

For a truly outrageous promo, it has to be something that is talked about that night, a month later and is found online to watch later and reminisce about. Keep in mind that an outrageous promo can either be a really great one or an awesomely bad one.

Either way, it gets the fans talking and usually laughing. It often can be a defining moment for that person's career and, if it is negative, they can never truly live it down.

Here are 15 moments with microphones that are hard to ever forget happened in professional wrestling, with the hope that tonight will bring us yet another unforgettable microphone moment.

WCW Begins To Die in Public

It was 2000's Bash at the Beach pay-per-view.

Hulk Hogan was challenging Jeff Jarrett, who was the current WCW Champion. Jarrett was accompanied by Vince Russo, who was the head writer for WCW at the time. After Hogan came out for the match, the bell would ring, and Russo told Jarrett to lay down for Hogan. Russo threw the title belt into the ring for Hogan, and Hogan begrudgingly pinned Jarrett with his foot to win the world title.

Prior to the pin attempt, Hogan grabbed a mic and said "Is this your idea, Russo...? That's why this company is in the damn shape it's in, because of bullshit like this." The story is still very confusing, but it has been said that Hogan had creative control for his character and used it in this instance, refusing to lose to Jarrett.

Russo did not like that and told Jarrett to lay down because of it. It has been speculated in the 11 years since that it may have been an angle all along with Hogan scripted to win the title in that way. What wasn't expected, however, was Russo firing Hogan live on television the following night on Nitro.

Booker T Is Coming for You, Hulk

Hulk Hogan had a bull's-eye on his back in his WCW days, especially since he constantly surrounded the world title.

Booker T, who was still a member of Harlem Heat at the time, had championship aspirations as well. In Booker's Hall of Fame-esque career, his one main weakness has been his mic skills (which makes it perfect that he is a commentator now in WWE). Unfortunately for Booker, it is this one backstage promo that he is most known for.

In his anger and hatred for the sake of the promo, Booker T proceeded to say that he was coming for Hogan and used the "N-word" alongside of Hogan's name. Immediately, Gene Okerlund shifts the attention away from Booker, who immediately puts his hands in the air out of shock for what he said. Thankfully for Booker T, it did not change his career too much. It still lives on, however, as one of the most unexpected moments in WCW history.

Jim Ross Goes Heel

I love Jim Ross, whether he is a heel or a face.

In 1996, Ross was a heel and spouted off a pretty real promo about his treatment in WWE. He mentioned his illness with Bell's Palsy, the stupid idea of togas at a WrestleMania and spoke about how great he was back then. Even 15 years later, it has been difficult to find a commentator as good as JR.

Ross would follow up a strong promo with the mention of angering management by bringing out Razor Ramon. Scott Hall, the original Razor Ramon, had just been released from WWE and an imposter Ramon came out. WWE retained the rights to the gimmicks of Razor Ramon and Diesel, giving them to different wrestlers.

The man who dressed as Diesel was Glen Jacobs, a man that would one day become Kane.

Welcome to RAW Is Jericho

The countdown clock to the "Millennium" began at 671 hours, nine minutes and 58 seconds.

The clock finally ran out on August 9, 1999 in Chicago, Illinois to reveal "Y2J" Chris Jericho debuting in WWE, interrupting The Rock. It was then that Jericho welcomed us all to "RAW Is Jericho" and said he was our savior from the boring WWE, including The Rock.

The Rock would end up getting the last word, but little did we know that Jericho was in store for one hell of a WWE career.

His "Y2J" promos all but sounded the same, but they were always entertaining, and this one helped to begin the raising of the bar for the other superstars. Chris Jericho was and still is one of the greats that we have seen in the last two decades and moments like his debut are still remembered to this day.

Alex Riley Makes Me Believe

I still look back on season two of NXT as the most memorable season of the show yet.

While there was a lot of talent from the original rookies, season two brought in eight rookies that had gimmicks you could latch on to. Their charisma was a lot better in the second season, and Alex Riley was one of those rookies to latch onto. Nobody was quite sure what a Varsity Villain was supposed to be, but Riley impressed me for a guy that I knew nothing about before the season began.

Riley was eliminated in the finale as a part of the final three, alongside Kaval and Michael McGillicutty. When asked about his feelings of being eliminated. Riley was not very upset as he said that he stood there that night as "the best kid in this contest."

Riley did not have the gene legacy that McGillicutty did and didn't have the Internet cult following of Kaval, so Riley really had built it up well for himself. Riley would go on to attach to The Miz before his recent move to going solo.

Tonight, Riley goes into his first Money in the Bank ladder match and hopes to earn the biggest victory of his career.

CM Punk Wants Ice Cream

This past Monday's "contract negotiations" on RAW showed off CM Punk's microphone skills, as well as showing off Vince's ability to think on his feet as well.

Likely, Punk's last great promo on television included demands such as CM Punk's own movie, his own private jet and the return of WWE ice cream bars. The last demand received one of the biggest pops of the night, is still talked about by fans and prompted a recap video from WWE.com. If they don't bring the ice cream bars back, they are only hurting themselves.

Punk would then name drop, putting Luke Gallows on WWE programming for the first time since he was released from his contract. Punk quickly got the crowd behind him as he attacks Vince for his selfish decisions. Punk literally was the voice for the people for 10 minutes this past Monday until John Cena came to the ring and literally ruined one of the first pure moments in WWE programming in quite some time.

Hulk Hogan Will Dogpaddle Donald Trump

This was one of the best Hulkamania promos.

In an era where The Ultimate Warrior was about as crazy and ridiculous as they come, and Randy Savage was wiping the floor with everyone else in promos, Hulk Hogan was still the man in the World Wrestling Federation.

At WrestleMania IV, one year after Hogan slammed Andre the Giant, Hogan stood at the event without his WWF title. After losing to Andre in a screwjob-esque finish, Andre tried to sell the championship to Ted DiBiase. It was then that the championship was held up and a 14-man tournament at WrestleMania began with Hogan and Andre facing one another in the quarterfinals.

Hogan was coherent and classic Hulkster backstage with Gene Okerlund. In the Trump Plaza, Hogan then began spouting off about how Donald Trump would fall into the hole he made with his atomic leg drop on Andre. Hogan nearly began to crack up as he said that Trump would grab his wife and kids and dogpaddle to the shore.

It was ridiculous, but it was classic Hogan.

Joey Styles Shoots WWE, Quits

Joey Styles was a great commentator for ECW and became a WWE commentator in 2005 for ECW's One Night Stand pay-per-view.

He then became the play-by-play guy on RAW beginning with Taboo Tuesday in November 2005. Exactly six months after his appearance at Taboo Tuesday, Joey Styles cut a worked shoot promo on WWE and sports entertainment as a whole. Styles may have had a shoot that was scripted and approved by Vince and the rest of the brass in the back, but his words were heartfelt about the wrestlers and the holds that they work hard on.

Styles quit RAW that night, only to go back to ECW as it became a brand a short time after.

Styles is now working for WWE.com but is still revered by wrestling fans as a commentator that really understood what the fans were thinking.

Austin Being Austin

Do I really need to preface this? Most of Austin's promos are fantastic.

On an episode of RAW in 1997, all hell was breaking loose. Bret Hart was quitting, Psycho Sid had a concussion and Austin was pissed off at everyone, including Gorilla Monsoon, the commissioner at the time. To make matters worse, Austin's original microphone didn't even work.

Austin handled it all in stride in a way that would be a textbook example of how to be a tweener and cut a great promo.

Michael McGillicutty Speaks about His Genesis

At the end of the second season of NXT, Michael McGillicutty saw his impressive body of work not be enough to take the crown and a title shot on pay-per-view from Kaval.

In the first 30 seconds after Matt Striker asked him what he thought, all that McGillicutty said was "I don't know what to say." If he had left it at that, McGillicutty would have stopped himself from making what is still the most popular thing he has done in WWE.

At 2:07 in this video, McGillicutty makes the first mention of "this moment." I feel bad because the guy could not understand what he had to say at that time on live television. It only lasted 20 seconds, but that one sentence has been joked on by people to have lasted for minutes.

Poor Michael.

Bret Hart Rips Everyone in WCW

Bret Hart was never as badass as he was in WCW during this promo in his home country of Canada.

Hart came down wearing not just one, but two hockey jerseys. He spoke about WCW's management, ratings, superstars and just about anything else. He even had time to recite the lyrics of "Oh, Canada" and even mention "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and beating him.

As Hart called out Goldberg, the two were alone in the ring when Goldberg speared Hart. The two would lie motionless for a minute before Hart would get up and show a metal chestplate that he was wearing.

Goldberg laid in the ring and Hart said that he quit WCW.

Eli Cottonwood Likes Mustches

A lack of microphone ability has undone many young prospects.

Season 2 of NXT also put Eli Cottonwood on that list. Cottonwood was not very impressive in the ring, but he was tall and could grow into his body. His gimmick of being an unstable headcase meant that his mic skills could make up for that and make him a heavy hitter in his season of NXT.

During the "Talk the Talk Challenge", Cottonwood's random topic to speak on was "mustache". Eli proceeded to speak.

It was confusing, but I'm pretty sure that Eli Cottonwood said that he doesn't have a mustache, even though he does and that nobody else had one (Percy Watson and Michael McGillicutty do). If any of them did have one, his would be the best because he is a real man. Cottonwood then asked us to give him a few days, and he would have a nice mustache.

Fans couldn't wait, however, as Cottonwood was soon sent packing.

Hulk Hogan and the New World Order of Wrestling

Talk about a promo to change wrestling history. Look no further than Hulk Hogan at Bash at the Beach 1996.

We all know what happened with Hulk Hogan coming out, turning on the fans and Randy Savage and joining The Outsiders. Hogan named the group the New World Order of professional wrestling. The NWO would help WCW's ratings and be one of the most talked about factions in wrestling history.

While it would go out of control eventually, Hogan, Hall and Nash were changing WCW forever that night.

CM Says Hi to Colt Cabana

There's a pretty simple list that can be made of all the things CM Punk said a few weeks ago that were outrageous or taboo in the current TV-PG world of WWE.

He used the word "wrestler", he called HHH a "doofus," he told off John Laurinitus and he even mentioned Brock Lesnar, Colt Cabana and Paul Heyman.

What seemed to throw CM Punk over the top was his mention of Vince McMahon dying. He had his microphone cut off before mentioning a "personal story about Vince McMahon."

We all know about it by now, and tonight will be a night chocked full of emotions.

Paul Heyman Tells It Like It Is

It's hard to not love this promo from Paul Heyman. You can tell that they told him to go out there and say whatever he wanted to about people.

If they cut his microphone, there would have been a legitimate riot happening. If Heyman held back, the fans would have called him out on it.

It seems like WWE got their revenge, however, by destroying Heyman's ECW from this night on.