WWE: CM Punk Really Is the Best All-Around Wrestler in the World

I'm not a huge fan of CM Punk taking the whole "Best in the World" gimmick from one of my all-time favorites, Chris Jericho, but the WWE champion truly is the best the industry has to offer right now.

You could make the argument that guys like Triple H, Undertaker and even Kurt Angle over at that other company are a shade above the Second City Saint.

My rebuttal to those fans is the fact that Angle, The Game and 'Taker are all great, but they represent a generation of wrestling that is coming to a close; meanwhile, Punk is spearheading the future of the industry.

Since his epically worked "sound off" speech that ended the June 27th edition of Monday Night Raw, Vince McMahon has strapped a rocket to Punk and finally received the push that took him from upper mid-card wrestler to one of the three faces of the company.

The Chicago-born wrestler can captivate audiences with his mic skills and his in-ring ability, both of which are the best in the WWE today.

Just last week on Raw, Punk received arguably the most airtime of any wrestler during that broadcast, wrestling a gauntlet match as well as cutting a rather long opening segment with General Manager John Laurinaitis.

There are only two other competitors on the entire WWE roster who could make that excel and carry a show with that much airtime in a single show, Randy Orton and John Cena. The two former WWE champions are considered to be the face of the company, but while both have shown the ability to carry a show, neither do it as entertaining as the current champ.

Whenever Cena's music hits, half the crowd cheers him and the other half can't wait until he leaves the ring. And while that's always fun to watch, it's much more entertaining to hear Punk sound off than the typical Cena chants from the crowd.

Not to mention the fact that the former Nexus leader has more than five wrestling moves to utilize during a match.

It took McMahon and the creative team awhile, but they finally figured out the perfect gimmick for Orton as "The Viper" and he's thrived in his new role. The third-generation wrestler is wildly entertaining and one of the few reasons to watch Smackdown these days, but his act has grown predictable.

With Orton now reportedly sidelined with an injury, Punk will be forced to carry a bit more of the company weight and will have ample time to convince fans that he is the more captivating of the two on the microphone and puts on the better match.

WWE Hall of Famer Bret "The Hitman" Hart was recently interview on the "Rise and Grind Morning Show" out of Providence, Rhode Island, where he explained that many of the wrestlers "all look cookie-cutter and look the same" in WWE right now, and perhaps McMahon has come to the same realization.

Back in the mid-1990s, Hart was the wrestler the WWE Chairman chose to close the curtain on the cartoony, steroid-ridden years of the 1980s and early '90s due to his excellent in-ring talent and his non-body-builder-type physique.

I point all of this out because I believe that McMahon has realized that while it's great to have Mark Henrys and John Cenas and Mason Ryans on the roster, his audience wants another Bret Hart-like champion to carry the product.

Punk seems to be filling the same role that Hart did for Vince's company just a few decades ago. The Straight-Edge superstar is almost if not as talented as Hart was in the ring and has the mic talent of a Jericho or Shawn Michaels.

When Punk has a microphone in his hands arenas go quiet because they don't want to miss a word of what he might have to say, when he wrestles, his match is usually one of the highlights of the night.

Take last week on Raw for example. Gauntlet matches are always a hit or miss type of thing because it can feel unrealistic that one guy could go through multiple opponents in a timely fashion, but Punk was able to work matches with Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger that didn't feel too rushed and had a level of believability to them. I can't say I saw the same during a Cena gauntlet that comes to mind.

Punk has all the skills you could ask for from someone in this business. He gives the audience a great match regardless of it's a house show or pay-per-view. His mic skills give so much creative leeway with storylines and can carry a feud when necessary. He's a hit with audiences everywhere because they realize all these things are true.

It's been a long journey for Punk. From his days pre-WWE to ECW, he now finds himself at the top of the ladder alongside Orton and Cena. Both former champions have had their big push and will still be big draws for years to come, but Punk has the ability to truly carry the company and be the true face of the company.